The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 153

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Ghost Bride of the Forsaken Prince
Side Story 3. Dragon Law (3)

“Aaahhh! How much longer do I have to put up with this?!”
A wail echoed from somewhere distant. Age clicked his tongue disapprovingly at the sight of Kaiser being dragged in by Ruber with his ear caught in the dragon’s grip.
“You brought this on yourself. Who told you to go revealing yourself to humans without so much as a consultation?”
“Ugh! But if I didn’t do something, those human bastards would keep running their mouths about Lucian, and you want me to just sit back and watch?!”
At the mention of his own name, Lucian shifted uncomfortably.
“I know what I did wrong, so please stop dragging me around by my ear!”
“Quiet, you fool! The mess you’ve created isn’t something that can be cleaned up in a day.”
Currently, Kaiser found himself in the position of explaining the circumstances of the incident to the elders every single day, listening to their reproaches, and waiting for the Dragon Council’s judgment.
The most important of Dragon Law.
It was not to reveal the existence of dragons to humans.
“Let go of me……!”
Kaiser wrenched himself free from Ruber’s grip and fled to Lucian’s side.
“My ear’s going to get torn off at this rate. Lucian, look at this. It’s really red, isn’t it?”
Watching the whimpering Kaiser, Lucian offered a bitter smile. He gently touched the ear that had swollen bright red.
“I’m sorry, Kaiser. Because of me…….”
“Why is it your fault? I did it because I wanted to.”
“But you violated Dragon Law. They say you could even be expelled from the Clan if things go wrong…….”
“Heh. Let them try if they’re bold enough.”
Though Kaiser had heard from Age how serious this situation was, the party at fault himself showed no sense of crisis whatsoever.
Lucian grew downcast with unwarranted guilt, and Kaiser spoke to him.
“Little one.”
“Is there really such a thing as a fully grown little one?”
“In my eyes, you’re still a little one, you fool.”
The words ‘Yet you yourself act younger than me’ rose to the tip of Lucian’s tongue, but he held them back.
“You have no reason to feel guilty. This was entirely my choice.”
“…….”
“Lia was the one who first proposed it, but in the end, I was the one who carried it out. And it was the surest way to silence rumors about you.”
“I could just ignore the gossip.”
“I can’t stand watching it. With everything you’ve done, how could I just sit back while ungrateful wretches mock and tear you apart?”
“…….”
“And it’s not as though I did this recklessly just for your sake anyway.”
“Then what for?”
“Because dragons can’t hide forever.”
At the sight of those suddenly serious green eyes, Lucian flinched. For a moment, the commanding presence of Karcerin overlapped with the figure before him.
“People talk about how humans will become obsessed with hunting us, how it’ll be harder to conceal our true nature now that we’ve been revealed—all of it is just an excuse.”
After all, dragons are magical geniuses who transcend humans.
Isn’t it commonly said that the heights humans and dragons can reach are of entirely different caliber?
If we were going to be found out, it would have happened long ago. Dragons amuse themselves shifting into animals, monsters, and humans all the time with Polymorph.
“And I’m not about to walk around the world in my True Form every day—I’m just going to imprint this moment in human minds like a scene from mythology. In a few decades, this incident will be written into the kingdom’s legends, you’ll see?”
“That’s……true.”
“The reason we dragons kept our identities hidden was never out of a lack of caution.”
Just three hundred years ago, back when Karcerin was still alive, dragons would roam in their True Form even outside their Lairs.
That was how Karcerin had come to be wounded by humans.
Recklessly wandering the forest in True Form, she became a target for humans.
‘She had pointless illusions about humans and fell for their tricks too easily.’
After that came the familiar tale of falling into traps, having spears driven through her body, and suffering countless attacks. Of course, all the humans who attacked her that day were turned to ash.
“From the moment Karcerin vanished without a trace from this world, dragons became vigilant. Now we know just how cunning and dangerous humans are.”
“……Doesn’t that make us need to be even more careful then?”
“Of course we need to be careful. Now that everyone understands we can’t carelessly reveal our True Forms, they’ll all naturally protect themselves. But that doesn’t mean we should erase our existence from this world. If more time passes, it’ll only become harder to reveal ourselves. That much is certain.”
“So you weren’t acting thoughtlessly?”
“Of course not. Did you think I was some idiot who just creates problems on a whim?”
“……Yes.”
“What?”
Kaiser threw his arm around Lucian’s neck and teased him, and Lucian giggled.
Watching the two of them fool around like brothers, Ruber let out a sigh.
“You shouldn’t be so carefree about this though.”
“How are the elders taking it?”
At Age’s question, Ruber grimaced.
“How do you think? Of course they’re in an uproar. Kaiser was being considered as the next leader, and now they’re demanding they strip him of that position and expel him from the Clan.”
“……The opposition is fierce.”
“They’re elders. It’s different from our time, and even more so from Kaiser’s generation. Besides, the elder generation had their children hunted by humans.”
The generation that suffered the most damage from humans was none other than dragons of Karcerin’s, Ruber’s, and Age’s generation.
As they were a generation above those dragons, the elders despised and abhorred the humans who hunted their children, and they raged fiercely at Kaiser for acting so recklessly.
“I wish Father would step in and defend him, but he’s so preoccupied with that witch and my brother that he does nothing but continue their conversation.”
Ruber stared at Ador and Lia from a distance, her expression deeply disapproving.
It was certain that if the Grand Elder Ador spoke up, the matter would be resolved. But he was so absorbed in the specter of Karcerin that he didn’t even notice his own grandson was in danger.
Ruber grieved for Karcerin and mourned his death just as much as Lucian did. But now was not the time for that.
“Kaiser did make a mistake, but I agree with his position.”
“Age.”
“As you know, I spent two hundred years playing the role of an aristocrat searching for Karcerin. There are certainly humans who are wicked and cunning. But there are also humans who are good.”
The true power behind the Northern Duchy of the Odrian Empire.
Unable to lead an ancient noble house alone, he had taken a human dying on the roadside and made them his proxy.
Though at first he had taken the human out of necessity, after two hundred years spent together, those humans had become special to Age.
“Life doesn’t only end in physical death. If we fade from this world and are forgotten, we face another kind of death. If we go into hiding and live in obscurity, dragons will cease to exist in this world altogether.”
“……Sigh, I wish you’d say that in front of the Council. The biggest hurdle right now is getting through the Council judgment safely.”
Age nodded. As Ruber, whose head was spinning, ruffled his hair, he found his gaze drifting back to his son laughing and giggling with Lucian without a care, and fury surged within him.
Smack—!
“Ow! Mom, why’d you hit me!”
“Quiet, you fool! You’re going to give your mother an early grave!”
“Ow! Ouch! Lucian! Help me!”
“P-please calm down, ma’am.”
“Who’s your ma’am! How dare a mere human……!”
“This human defeated Uncle’s enemy! You heard the whole story yourself……!”
As Ruber and Kaiser pursued each other with Lucian caught between them, Age clicked his tongue.
“The human seems the most mature here.”
To his eyes, Ruber and Kaiser were equally childish.

* * *

Time had passed, and it had now been a month since Lia and her companions arrived at Ruber’s Lair.
The Dragon Council—which they had all hoped would never arrive—had finally begun.
Of course, Kaiser had to attend as the dragon who had violated Dragon Law, and all the Grand Elders of the Clan except Ador were present at the meeting.
“Father! Are you really going to do this?!”
“……My dear.”
“That brother, brother, brother of mine……! You only care about Karcerin and have no regard for your own son, do you?!”
Ruber pounded on the transparent barrier Ador had erected, giving vent to her fury.
Ador remained silent, turned away as if he understood nothing, and only Lia, seated across from him and catching Ruber’s eye, was shifting nervously.
Lia gestured to Ador, but he merely glanced at Ruber and turned his gaze forward again.
Ruber bit her lip and brought her fist down on the barrier with a bang—!
“Fine! If Father won’t step in, I’ll sacrifice my own life to save my son!”
Ruber reverted to her True Form and began walking with heavy, deliberate steps.
Deihan looked back and forth between Ruber and Ador before ultimately following Ruber’s departing form.
“……Ador, if you change your mind, please come. We will be waiting.”
And so, as Deihan departed as well, a heavy silence fell.
Lia watched the receding silhouettes of the two red dragons and spoke carefully.
“Shouldn’t you go as well?”
“Continue your story.”
“……Very well.”
The past story that had continued for a month now. Having spoken without rest except for sleep and meals, they were now approaching the end.
Lia understood full well how important today’s council was for Kaiser, so she conveyed the final parts of the story as quickly and accurately as she could.
And the moment she spoke of Karcerin visiting the Mansion’s Basement to save her, Lia understood what Ador was thinking.
“……Was that answer sufficient?”
After about ten minutes, the long story had come to an end.
Ador, deep in thought for a moment, allowed his gentle green eyes to shine with light.
“What do you think of humans?”
“……Humans are cunning, cruel, and selfish beings who think only of their own benefit.”
Lia—human yet witch.
No living witch could be found in the current Odrian Empire. Leon had declared a witch hunt and exterminated the entire race.
That is why Lia could never forgive Leon, who had destroyed not only her own kind but innocent humans as well.
“And yet they are beings capable of boundless love, able to give everything to another.”
Words that contradicted what she had just said. Yet this was Lia’s honest assessment of humanity.
“Where there is light, there is shadow. Where there is good, there is evil. In some eras, evil becomes justice; in others, good does. The rightness changes with time.”
“And what of now?”
“……I cannot claim with certainty that this is good, but I can state with confidence that it is not evil.”
“I see.”
“Ador, not all humans are good, nor are they all evil. And this is not the nature of humans alone. Do you believe all dragons pursue good and justice?”
“No.”
“Humans are the same. Simply avoiding them teaches us nothing. Only by colliding with them directly, by experiencing them firsthand, can we truly understand and grasp the other.”
“…….”
Lost in thought, Ador blinked slowly and rose from his seat.
The barrier surrounding the space dissolved, and he swiftly left the room.
“Lia.”
“Lucian.”
Lia, who had been watching Ador’s departing figure, turned with a smile at Lucian’s call.
“Your throat—look at it.”
As Lucian wrapped his warm hands around her throat, Lia coughed softly.
“Of course it’s hoarse—I’ve been talking all day. It should be fine once I rest a bit.”
“Are you finished talking with Ador?”
“Yes.”
“The judgment is supposed to come down today. What if things go badly? What if Kaiser is expelled from the dragon world because of me…….”
Realizing that Lucian was consumed by guilt, Lia embraced him and patted his back gently.
“It’ll be all right. Ador went to help.”
“Ador is going to help Kaiser?”
“He didn’t say so explicitly, but I have a feeling that’s what he intends. And if things really go wrong and Kaiser is expelled, then we’ll take responsibility for it.”
“……We will?”
“Of course. We’re family, aren’t we?”
Lucian’s eyes widened, then slowly broke into a smile and he nodded.
“That’s right, we’re family. Sigh, with Kaiser to look after, it feels like I’ve gained a younger sibling.”
“What? Didn’t you call him your older brother before? If Kaiser heard that, he’d throw a fit.”
“Lia, honestly—don’t I seem more like the older brother than Kaiser right now?”
“I’ll grant you that.”
The two of them giggled softly and gazed toward the direction the red dragons had departed.
Let nothing befall Kaiser.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————