The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 164

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Ghost Bride of the Abandoned Prince
Side Story 14. Kaiser’s Ties (6)

“This was the most delicious restaurant I’ve ever visited.”
“The sunset from here is quite spectacular. There’s even a legend that if lovers share their first kiss here, their love will last forever.”
“Ah, this is one of those things you absolutely have to buy when you visit the Keyes Kingdom. Even if it’s humble, it’s worth picking up as a souvenir, don’t you think?”
Beatrice was earning her ten thousand Gold worth of value.
Whether it was from years of living a life of leisure or from having spent time lately only in this kingdom, she possessed knowledge that ordinary travelers would never know.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah, I’m listening~”
What was the point of being a diligent guide when Kaiser’s responses were so tepid?
Honestly, his current demeanor was more familiar to Beatrice anyway.
The Kaiser she’d seen at the Dragon Gathering always seemed utterly indifferent to worldly matters.
“Tell me if you’re not having fun, Kaiser.”
His emotionless green eyes gazed down at her with cool detachment—completely different from how he’d been with her companions yesterday.
‘So I’m worse than those people, is that it?’
“No, it’s fascinating enough, in its own way.”
“In its own way? You haven’t smiled even once since we started walking around this morning.”
“Ah… is that so?”
Look at that—total indifference.
That attitude struck a nerve in Beatrice.
In the end, she kicked him hard in the shin.
Crack!
“Ow! Why did you hit me?”
“Because you’re irritating! What’s your problem? You said you were bored! You said I should earn my ten thousand Gold! So I’m trying my best to make you happy, and that’s the attitude you give me? If that’s how you’re going to be, go wander around by yourself!”
Kaiser, clutching his shin and groaning, looked up at Beatrice as she vented her frustration.
Seeing her flushed face, Kaiser finally realized his mistake.
As he fell silent and his expression grew subtly uncomfortable, Beatrice sighed.
“Yesterday you were chattering away just fine with those people. What’s different today?”
“…I don’t know either.”
Whenever Kaiser was apart from Lia and Lucian, something strange happened—what he might call his will to live, or his capacity for joy, would drain away in an instant. The vibrant colors that made the world vivid would fade to grayscale.
It was a problem even Kaiser himself couldn’t understand.
Beatrice sat down beside him after a moment of contemplation.
“You clearly aren’t interested in sightseeing anyway. Tell me about yourself.”
“…About me?”
“Yeah. How did you end up becoming close with those people? This is the first time I’ve seen you get along with anyone. You were never really compatible with the Dragons our age either.”
It was true—Kaiser didn’t have many close companions. Besides Lia and Lucian, there were only Age and his family.
“I’ve got time anyway. I’ll listen to your story.”
“And what will you do with my story?”
“Nothing in particular.”
At her blunt answer, Kaiser tilted his head in confusion.
“Have you ever told another Dragon your story?”
“To my family, I have…”
“Any other Dragon besides your family?”
“…”
No. Even what he’d said at the assembly was just an explanation to clear up a misunderstanding at the time.
“Maybe the fact that you’re struggling to enjoy my company right now is connected to that?”
“It’s not that I don’t enjoy it… I’m sorry.”
Under her piercing gaze, Kaiser quickly backed down. Seeing his slightly deflated expression, Beatrice opened her mouth.
“I think I understand why you’re like this now.”
“…You do?”
“Yeah. So let’s start with your story. How did you become close with those people, and why are you traveling around with them like this?”
“You want me to explain?”
“Not explain—just talk. Your honest impressions and the feelings you experienced back then.”
Not sure what the difference was, Kaiser hesitated before finally speaking.
“Before I turned fifty, I accidentally discovered a mansion in the forest. There, I…”
Kaiser began awkwardly with the story of when he first met Lia.
The days when he couldn’t see her and called her a ghost.
Starting out clumsy, Kaiser soon grew animated, pouring out his story with enthusiasm.
Beatrice listened calmly, a faint smile playing at her lips.
In the evening, before bed in their room, the next morning when there was still more to tell, on the walking path—
For three straight days, Kaiser continued his long tale.
“…So now I’m tagging along on their honeymoon and going around with them.”
“A special connection indeed.”
“Right?!”
“And the fact that you’re a reincarnation of that Karcerin is astounding. I always wondered how someone only fifty years younger than me could be so strong.”
“…You won’t tell the other Dragons about that, right? No one knows except Age.”
“I won’t. Do I look like the kind of Dragon to spread rumors?”
“I suppose not.”
Beatrice laughed softly at Kaiser’s pouty expression.
Did he realize it? That over these three days of talking, the walls around his heart had crumbled considerably.
Kaiser no longer treated Beatrice with coldness.
Instead, he became playful with her as he did with his family and with Lia and Lucian, showing his more childlike side.
Beatrice now understood that this was Kaiser’s true nature.
“Well, that’s the end of my story. I said you’d understand why I seemed bored if you heard it, didn’t I? So go ahead—tell me what you think.”
“The reason is simple. Lia and Lucian have become far too precious to you.”
“What? Why are both of them in this?”
“If you look back, the two of them have always been by your side whenever you grew. Lucian is still in his twenties, so we can’t say he’s been with you that long, but isn’t the time you’ve spent with Lucian throughout your three hundred and ten years the most intense?”
“Well…”
“When you’re with them, you’re happy and joyful. That’s why you always want to share the same time with them. But the opposite happens when they’re not there—everything becomes tedious. That’s the phenomenon you’re experiencing now.”
“That’s it?”
“…Kaiser, I may have only lived fifty more years than you, but let me give you one piece of advice. Now you need to put some distance between yourself and those two.”
Kaiser’s eyes wavered.
“Humans live an average of only about sixty years. Even if they live long, they rarely reach a hundred. What will you do when those two die?”
Kaiser shot to his feet from his chair. The teacup on the table tipped, and coffee spilled across the floor.
Nearby humans whispered and stared, but Kaiser and Beatrice couldn’t tear their eyes from each other.
“Beatrice, even if it’s you, there are limits to what I’ll tolerate.”
“Look, Kaiser. I can barely stand even speaking of those humans’ deaths.”
Unlike the shaken Kaiser, Beatrice remained composed. More than composed—she was cold.
“I’ve been living a pleasure life for over sixty years now. The first human I met during my first pleasure life died ten years ago.”
“…”
“Beyond that, countless people I passed by have aged, had children, and eventually left my side by ending their lives.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“Do you know why I deliberately let humans capture me while living my pleasure life?”
Her black eyes had gone cold and sharp, and a faint glint of bloodlust flickered within them.
“Because a human I cared for went through the same thing I did and died young. She was never supposed to die that way.”
The cup Beatrice held began to crack, then shattered under the force of her grip.
Her delicate hands became stained with blood as a result.
“I wanted to punish the human bastards who drove that poor child to such a state. No—it wasn’t just that. I started this ridiculous game of pleasure life so that no more cases like hers would occur.”
Beneath Beatrice’s laughing mask as she watched dying humans in the auction house lay a hidden truth. This was not mere leisure—it was her own form of vengeance.
“At first, I completely destroyed five Human Auction Houses. But not long after, more humans gathered and started doing the same things again. No matter how much I judged them, I realized I could never fully eradicate this cycle of evil. So now I’m content with just making the most greedy human bastards unable to ever recover.”
“…That must have been difficult.”
“I suppose so. It seemed hard at first, but now I’m not sure. Sixty years is both a short and a long time.”
Especially from repeating similar actions over and over, she’d become numb to it all.
Seeing the loneliness and sorrow in her downturned face, Kaiser sat back down. Looking at her hand stained with blood and coffee, he pulled out a handkerchief.
“…Then what should I do from now on?”
Kaiser cleaned her wound with the handkerchief and healed it with magic.
Seeing her hand restored, Beatrice smiled sadly.
“Remember that those precious humans can leave your side at any moment. And find things beyond those two that you find precious and joyful.”
“…”
“Right now, those two mean the most to you, so the loss you’d feel if you lost them would be unspeakable. And you’ve already experienced that loss once in your past life.”
When Kaiser was Karcerin and learned that Leon had killed Odel, he thought he was losing his mind. But he endured because Aria remained.
And now Lucian and Lia were far more precious than they had been back then.
Just thinking of the two of them dying…
“I don’t know.”
Even just imagining it, his mind rejected their deaths.
Seeing him struggling far more than expected, Beatrice rose from her seat and extended her hand to him.
Kaiser, who had been cradling his head, looked up.
“I’ll show you how to overcome it.”
“…How?”
“You’ll have to find that out from now on. And we still have two more days left, don’t we? Even if you’re like this, you’re still a Dragon with a sense of honor, right?”
The two Dragons had promised a week. Two days remained.
‘It wouldn’t hurt to at least try and find something.’
Kaiser willingly took her hand.
And as they walked around again like that first day, landscapes and people and feelings he hadn’t noticed before began to emerge fresh and alive.
It was as joyful as when Lucian and Lia were there.
Was it because he’d recognized his own flaw? Or because he was ready to accept something new? Or perhaps something else.
“How about this? Not so bad, right?”
Kaiser gazed quietly at Beatrice as she handed him a candy.

‘I hope you experience love.’

Why did Lia’s words suddenly come to mind?
Love? He still didn’t really understand what that was. But if simply being together like this was joyful and comforting…
“…Well, this is pretty nice in its own way.”
A smile finally bloomed on Kaiser’s face.

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