The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 19

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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 Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride — Episode 19

Lia and Lucian started in alarm.
“What, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“A handkerchief! A handkerchief!”
Kaizar burst out laughing at the sight of the flustered Lia and Lucian.
When Lucian tried to wipe away Kaizar’s tears with a handkerchief he’d found somewhere, Kaizar stopped him and pulled a small bottle from thin air.
He carefully collected his own tears into the bottle.
“Wow. In all my years, I’ve never shed tears like this. You know that? This is my first tear ever?”
Of course, when he was younger, he’d cried every day, but once he’d developed a measure of reason and his mind had grown, he’d stopped.
In the first place, there was nothing to cry about. Besides, Dragons as a species were duller of emotion compared to other races and didn’t react much to ordinary events.
Which made a Dragon’s tears precious. Even though they were merely tears, they could be used as material for Spirit Medicine.
Particularly, the tears of an aged Dragon shot up in value exponentially.
Kaizar, who had been crying moments before, now bounced around excitedly with the bottle containing his tears, as if the tears had never happened at all.
“But seriously, why could you suddenly see me? Does that mean you can see other spirits now too?”
At Lia’s question, Kaizar stopped dead and tilted his head.
“I don’t know, honestly.”
Question marks seemed to float above Lia and Lucian’s heads.
“I just… seeing your face made me incredibly sad all of a sudden.”
Lia, struck by the weight in his words, swallowed the retort she’d been about to make.
“And I’ve missed you so much! I thought you’d be in worse shape, though. That’s kind of surprising.”
‘In worse shape’ — what does that mean?”
“Well, you’re a spirit, so I figured you wouldn’t exactly look respectable. I thought maybe you’d be missing an eye, or one arm would be tattered and hanging off, or your whole body would be rotting away?”
For all the cheerful tone, the content was far from it. Lucian’s face went pale as he imagined exactly what Kaizar described.
“You’re beautiful.”
“…How come both you and Lucian keep saying I’m beautiful?”
It was embarrassing.
“Right! Lia is incredibly beautiful! But Lia doesn’t believe it, so…”
“Huh? If you look in a mirror, you can tell if you’re beautiful or not. Sure, you don’t measure up to my beauty, but for a human, you’re pretty stunning yourself?”
“That makes no sense. Have you ever seen a spirit reflected in a mirror?”
“Ah, you can’t?”
“Of course not. And it doesn’t matter if I can’t see it anyway.”
Kaizar and Lucian both lamented that they’d give anything to see her face fully, prattling on about how much they wished they could.
“Oh! Kaizar, can you draw? If you’re good at painting, you could just draw Lia!”
“Hah, Lucian. I, being who I am, do not engage in such menial work. A Dragon doesn’t do such things himself — we are the sort to make other races do our bidding.”
“You just said you can’t draw, in a very roundabout way.”
Hit by Lia’s comment, Kaizar’s shoulders twitched. Soon enough, he puffed out his cheeks and began to quiver.
“That was totally mean! Mean! You said you liked me! Why do you say such cruel things! I’m telling Mother!”
“Good grief. Mama’s boy.”
“Ugh. Hey! Is this what you’ve been saying to me all this time?”
As Lia avoided her eyes, Kaizar froze.
He flopped down on the floor again and threw a fit about how unfair it was. Lucian, seeing such behavior for the first time, paused to reflect on himself.
“…I’m sorry, Lia. I won’t throw fits anymore.”
It seemed he had finally realized just how ugly his tantrums looked. Through no deliberate intention, Lucian had been given a chance to mature.

* * *

Once the commotion had settled somewhat, Kaizar returned to his usual self. The three sat close together on the sofa and chatted quietly.
“But really, why can you suddenly see me now? Does that mean other spirits are visible too?”
Kaizar spoke while crunching on the Cookie he’d brought with him.
“I don’t think so. The last time, a few spirits passed by the Estate and Lucian couldn’t see them.”
Lucian, who had been cautiously eating a Cookie while watching Kaizar’s reaction, suddenly froze in shock.
“There… there are more spirits?”
“Yes. But you’re better off not seeing them. Spirits that look decent like me are hard to come by.”
“That means you can see spirits, then?”
“Well, I’m a spirit myself. Look — there’s one over there in the distance right now.”
When Lia pointed to a tree visible through the window, both Lucian and Kaizar visibly stiffened.
They scanned the area near the tree and then let out sighs of relief.
“Nah, I don’t see anything.”
“There really is one.”
There really was one there. A woman spirit with both arms hanging in tatters.
Since her own spiritual energy was quite strong, other spirits couldn’t usually make it all the way into the Estate. The spirit that had been lingering about soon moved on to somewhere else.
“So that means we can only see Lia? There must be a special reason for that, right?”
“Well, I know this much for certain: you both started seeing me after eating the food I made.”
“Now that you mention it…”
“Oh, you’re right. The moment I ate the Soup, I could hear your voice.”
They both nodded in agreement — it made sense.
“Maybe your cooking became the medium connecting us.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. And you — you can use Magic? I thought you were just a strong spirit lifting things around!”
Kaizar’s eyes lit up at the discovery that Lia was a spirit who could use Magic, treating her like a subject of study.
“So no one else saw Lia all this time, right?”
“That’s right.”
Had she known that feeding people her cooking would make her visible, she would have tried it long ago.
But what spirit would think of cooking?
It wasn’t mere coincidence — it happened because Lucian came and brought change into her everyday life.
Lia looked at Lucian and gently stroked his hair. Lucian, not understanding, simply smiled innocently.
Watching this, Kaizar thrust his head forward, asking her to pet him too. Lia roughly tousled his hair and pushed him away. Kaizar’s eyes turned into triangles.
“How about we run an experiment?”
“An experiment?”
“Yes. We can see if other people can see Lia when they eat her food.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. You didn’t do anything strange to the food, but we can see you — that doesn’t make sense. There must be some other condition that has to be met.”
“I don’t mind, but are you sure about this?”
“Sure about what?”
“What?”
“Who are you going to experiment on? There’s no one else here besides you two.”
Faced with the crucial problem, the two began to think hard.
“Oh! What about James?”
“The errand boy?”
“Who’s James?”
“There’s this man who comes once a month. We could give him food that Lia made, and then we’d be able to tell, right?”
“Well… that could work, actually.”
She’d rather liked this human James, yet here they were, casually nominating him as an experimental subject.
Lia watched as Lucian and Kaizar chimed in perfectly with each other and began to scheme.
They were already plotting what kind of experiment to run on James.
From the looks of it, the human seemed the nervous type — afraid of spirits and such things…
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
It wasn’t something she needed to worry about herself. And it wasn’t even certain he’d be able to see her.
All she could do was offer up a silent prayer for his soul as he became a guinea pig for their experiment.
Lia quietly offered her prayers to James.

At that very moment, James, who worked in the palace, shuddered unexpectedly from a strange chill.

* * *

“What?! You want me to run errands for you?”
When Lia asked him to run an errand, Kaizar made a face of utter disgust.
“You have nothing else to do anyway. Besides, you said you were bored. Go with Lucian to the Village and buy some things. I’ll give you money.”
“Hmph! I have my own money, thank you very much! And why should I do what you ask! If you’re going to make someone do it, make him do it!”
His whining in child form was slightly better than when he was in his adult form, but somehow managed to be even more irritating.
Every time she made a request, all that came out was “I don’t want to” — she wanted to smack that mouth right across.
“W-what’s with that hand! If you can hit me, try it!”
Oh my, my hand went up without me realizing it.
The sight of him sticking his rear out and trembling was pitiful enough to make her laugh.
Lia shook her head side to side and pointed to Lucian.
“Lucian’s never been down to the Village before. I’m worried about sending him alone. And you’re that magnificent Dragon, aren’t you?”
Kaizar, who had been showing absolute refusal with his arms crossed, perked up his ears at those words.
“The world is so dangerous these days. You could run into a pack of wild dogs, or kidnappers could appear, or someone could try to scam you. But with you there, there’s no way anything bad could happen.”
“Hm, because I’m magnificent…?”
“Right. Who in this world could possibly stand up to a magnificent Dragon? If you go with him just this once, from next time Lucian will be able to come and go on his own.”
Kaizar suppressed the corners of his mouth from rising and glanced at Lucian. Lucian, in turn, chimed in as if on cue.
“Come with me, brother! I want to see what the Village is like!”
At the word “brother,” Kaizar’s mouth corners twitched upward again. Perhaps because their mental ages were similar, the two had bonded somewhere along the way with the address of brothers.
He, who had no siblings, had grown particularly fond of Lucian calling him brother.
No matter how much he tried to keep himself in check, the fact that his mouth corners kept rising showed it was only a matter of time before he gave in to her words.
“…What do you need?”
Good.
Lia and Lucian clenched their fists hard and smiled coaxingly at Kaizar.
“I should buy the best quality of everything, right?”
She’d almost made a huge mistake sending him off without instruction. For a moment, she’d forgotten about Dragons’ complete lack of financial sense.
“No need for the best quality. Just go to an ordinary shop and buy what you need. I’ll give the money to Lucian. After you’ve bought everything you need, use whatever’s left for snacks for yourselves.”
When she handed five Gold to Lucian, Kaizar’s eyes narrowed.
“What am I supposed to do with that pittance?”
“Humans don’t spend money like Dragons do. Besides, when you grow into an Adult Dragon, you’ll be living a life of leisure — wouldn’t it be good for you to understand human society from now?”
“…Fine, I get it.”
Kaizar grumbled for only a moment before bouncing in place and transforming back into his adult form. Lucian, watching this, tilted his head.
“Why did you change your appearance?”
“If I’m in child form, people tend to look down on me. And my beauty is so outstanding anyway — if I’m both young and beautiful, all sorts of flies tend to swarm around…”
Kaizar trailed off mid-sentence and looked at Lucian.
Lucian blinked his round golden eyes and gazed at him adorably.
Skin white as jade, hair as white and pure as fresh snow, and eyes beautiful and golden.
With just his features and eye color, Lucian stood out — he had a notably beautiful appearance.
Being so young, if you put him in a dress, everyone would mistake him for a girl.
Kaizar, eyeing him narrowly, turned to Lia and spoke.
“I understand why you’re worried.”
“Right?”
“Why? What is it? Do I have something on my face?”
“Nothing. It’s just that you’d probably be in some danger if you went out looking like that. You’re quite eye-catching yourself, even if not quite as much as me.”
Kaizar snapped his fingers, and Mana swirled around Lucian, transforming his appearance.
His striking hair and eyes changed to an ordinary brown, and a Hat was placed on his head to hide his beauty as much as possible.
When Lia showed him a Mirror, Lucian’s eyes widened as he touched his hair and cheeks.
“My appearance changed! Did brother do this?”
“Yes.”
“That’s amazing! Brother is great at Magic too! I want to learn Magic quickly!”
As Lucian chirped about how impressive it was and asked how he could become like his brother, Kaizar’s mouth corners trembled again.
From this point on, there was no chance Kaizar would abandon Lucian.

* * *

“Well then, see you later.”
“We’ll tell you everything that happened when we get back!”
Lucian waved both hands at Lia, who stood in the doorway, then scurried after Kaizar who had gone ahead.
Since Kaizar had Polymorphed into his adult form, there was a significant difference in their strides.
Seeing Lucian eagerly rushing after him with quick steps, Kaizar slowed his pace a little.
“Lucian, you’ve got the Note and the money, right?”
“Yes! I put them in my inner pocket!”
“The Village isn’t far from here, but it’s still quite a distance, so remember the way well. From what I hear, you’ll be going back and forth on your own from now on.”
“I can do it by myself! I’m eight now.”
“…Humans really are too weak at that age.”
Kaizar tried to recall what he had been like at eight, but it was so long ago that he barely remembered anything.

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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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