The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 22

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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 Forsaken Prince’s Spirit Bride — Episode 22

[What about the things I asked you to buy?]
“Here.”
Kaiser opened a subspace, and all manner of goods tumbled out in a great cascade.
The quantity was far greater than expected. If it was all things he’d been asked to purchase, then what accounted for these countless luxurious boxes?
[Didn’t you say you spent all 1 gold on snacks? You bought all this within 4 gold?]
As Lia rummaged through the items with an incredulous expression, Kaiser swept his long hair back with a humorless laugh.
“Praise me.”
Curses rose to her throat, but she bit them back.
“Everything for Lucian—clothes and shoes—I bought with my own money.”
At words beyond imagination, Lia’s eyes widened. Kaiser then let out a great laughing “Khahahaha!” and leaned back dramatically.
“Honestly, what you gave me wouldn’t buy anything but rags. I couldn’t dress a face like his in such things, could I?”
[Well, yes, but I was planning to buy cheaper things since he’s still young and will grow quickly.]
“Tsk, tsk. When they grow, you simply buy new ones.”
[Not everyone is as wealthy as you.]
Still… it wasn’t terrible. Though she couldn’t feel the texture, the clothes seemed to be in good condition overall.
No, more than good—they were beautiful.
“The shoes will take time to make, so we’ll have to go back later to collect them. Lucian has memorized the whole route now, so he should be able to go on his own next time. Of course, if you’re worried, I can—”
[Thank you, Kaiser.]
Kaiser stopped mid-word, looking down at Lia with his arms still crossed. Lia smiled gently at him.
[Thanks to you, Lucian was able to reach the village safely, and now he can wear such lovely clothes. I’m truly grateful.]
After a moment of silence, Kaiser’s face ignited in a blaze.
Pop!
With the sound of something bursting, a plume of smoke scattered into the air.
“Lia! Brother! I put the candy and jelly in glass jars! I did well… huh?”
Lucian came dashing out of the kitchen but stopped short at the sight of an unfamiliar creature.
“…Kaiser?”
The gazes of Lucian and Lia fixed on the place where Kaiser had been standing.
As the smoke cleared, a small dragon with crimson scales appeared.
Kaiser blinked his pale green eyes and fluttered his wings. As his wingbeats grew more vigorous, he circled the ceiling.
“Wow! Wow! Is that really you, brother? You’re incredibly cool!”
[He seems a bit smaller than last time.]
“H-hush! I told you, if I return to my true form, the mansion will collapse!”
Kaiser had collected himself somewhat and let out a shriek. He huffed indignantly, turned his head, and slowly descended. Lucian rushed toward him.
“You really are a dragon!”
“Of course I am. What else would I be?”
“You’re so amazing! More than in fairy tale books! So much more! A hundred million times more amazing!”
“Naturally! Where else would you see such noble majesty? …Say more!”
Still vulnerable to praise, Kaiser willingly walked into the prison of Lucian’s compliments.
Moments ago, she’d thought he’d grown up, but apparently that had all been a mistake.
“Ugh, still cramped though. Better than Polymorph, though.”
His size was roughly comparable to Lucian’s.
According to what Kaiser had said before, this form was similar in size to a newborn Hatchling.
Since Adult Dragons in their true form are supposedly as large as mansions, there was truth to it. Most dragons don’t roam about in their true forms; they either use Polymorph to change their appearance or, like Kaiser now, simply reduce their size. Otherwise they’d be far too conspicuous.
[How large is your original form? When I saw it before, it seemed a bit bigger than this mansion.]
“Probably bigger than the mansion now? My mother says my growth is faster than others’. A magic prodigy, beautiful, intelligent, and enormous besides! Heh heh, at this rate, won’t female dragons come lining up for me?”
[…That one really can’t keep his mouth shut for even a moment.]
At least she needn’t worry about females coming around. The moment he opened his mouth, they’d flee.
“Brother, I want to see your original form too. Right now you’re so adorable.”
Before long, Lucian, who had clambered onto Kaiser’s back like a child on a parent’s shoulders, chirped that he was cute. Kaiser’s eyes twitched.
“Cute? Did you just say… c-u-t-e?”
“Huh?”
Lucian’s feet lifted off the ground. Kaiser had taken flight with Lucian still clinging to his back.
“How dare you insult me with such a word! Once you see my true noble form, you’ll never dare speak like that again!”
Unable to fathom what he was angry about, he huffed and declared he’d show his true form, sweeping Lucian toward the Backyard.
Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, Lia stood stunned for a moment, then hurried after them both.
[Wait! What if someone sees you!]
The moment Lia stepped outside the mansion, she placed a Barrier around the entire structure. Fortunately, by the time she’d completed the spell, Kaiser had shifted back to his true form.
The small dragon’s shape began to grow larger and larger.
His scales, his teeth, his claws, and his wings—all of them immense. His claws alone were larger than an adult human.
“Kraaaaaagh…! Can you call me cute now?”
Kaiser laughed grandly. Though it sounded like his usual laugh, his enlarged body caused his voice to reverberate thunderously within the Barrier Lia had erected.
Meanwhile, Lucian, who had been dangling from Kaiser’s back, was still clinging to him as he transformed to his true form.
Now, instead of clinging to his back, he seemed tiny and solitary against the massive bulk.
In an instant, Lucian found himself higher than the mansion’s second floor, his cheeks stung by the frigid wind rushing past.
At that moment, he turned and locked eyes with Kaiser. Pale green eyes—larger than his own entire body.
Eyes as strange and serpentine as a snake, but to Lucian, they were absolutely terrifying. In the end.
“S-scary! Sc-scary!”
He burst into tears.
The majestic red dragon, caught off guard, tried desperately to soothe Lucian, who clung to him crying. But Lucian only wept, insisting he was frightened.
At the absurd spectacle, Lia burst into laughter.
“Don’t just laugh—help comfort him!”
Poor Kaiser looked utterly mortified.

* * *

“…I’m never shifting back to my true form again.”
After the commotion subsided, Lucian cried for a long time before finally falling asleep in Lia’s arms.
Kaiser, back in his small dragon form, flopped down beside the sleeping Lucian with a thoroughly ragged appearance.
[Who told you to transform? You only heard him say you were cute.]
“Cute is what you call small, delicate things. It’s absolutely inappropriate for a massive, grand dragon! Understand that clearly! For a dragon, being called cute is an insult!”
Judging by his huff, it didn’t seem to be mere bluster. It was hard to imagine that being called cute warranted such indignation—yet she could picture it.
‘Heh! He’s small and cute.’
Yes, that would sound unpleasant.
Kaiser’s grumbling faded with a soft sigh, and he collapsed back onto the bed.
A creature who normally squealed about everything and cared only for himself had gone to extraordinary lengths to soothe an eight-year-old child. It must be exhausting.
“Who on earth is he, that your husband should be him?”
Lia, who had been quietly stroking Lucian’s hair, stilled.
Kaiser watched the sleeping Lucian with an indifferent expression, his breathing gradually steadying.
“Looking at the way he acts, he’s like a newborn babe experiencing everything for the first time. Crowded places for the first time, villages for the first time, snacks for the first time, shopping for the first time. In all my life, I’ve never met anyone quite like him.”
[…Was Lucian like that?]
“Yes. It reminded me of when I first visited the human world.”
The memory surfaced of when he’d first succeeded at Polymorph, and his parents had taken him to the human village as a celebration, buying him this and that.
That had been when he was forty-two years old, a few years before discovering this mansion.
[Lucian is of royal blood.]
Kaiser’s eyes, which had been closed, suddenly snapped open. He floated up above the bed, his mouth hanging open as he pointed at Lucian.
“What? This little brat—no, he is?”
Kaiser began to examine Lucian closely. Pristine white hair, pale skin, a beauty unmatched among his peers. When Kaiser lifted his closed eyelids, he revealed clear golden eyes.
“Mm…!”
Lucian shifted. Lia quickly pulled him away.
[What are you doing to a sleeping child?]
“…Wow. Those are real golden eyes. Why didn’t I notice before?”
In truth, all humans looked much the same to Kaiser’s eyes. Lucian stood out only slightly, lingering just a bit more in his memory. Beyond that, there was nothing worth remembering.
“Why in the world would royal blood be here!”
“Mmgh…”
The child was asleep beside him, yet Kaiser couldn’t suppress his excitement.
Typical of a dragon who cared only for himself.
Lia shot him a glare and led him out of the room. She closed the door and sighed.
[I don’t know the full details either. About three months ago, someone came from the Imperial Family, and they had us marry, Lucian and me.]
“?? Did they even see you?”
[See me? Like they would. The marriage was just a pretext. Do you know how I’m perceived? A terrifying maiden ghost haunting this mansion! They say all life force is drained if you enter this mansion, that you’ll die a violent death—all that nonsense.]
“So what you’re saying is, these humans forced you and Lucian to marry without even knowing if you existed?”
[Yes. A Spirit Marriage Ceremony, they called it. They said this mansion would calm down if I married him. Does that sound reasonable to you?]
“Wow… I’ve only heard that humans are lunatics, but the reality far exceeds imagination. Even our dragons don’t do this!”
[My sentiments exactly. But the real problem is different. Officially, Lucian is an Orphan, dressed up like royalty and presented here as an Offering. In other words, no one knows Lucian is actually of royal blood.]
Words failed Kaiser, and he froze with a bewildered expression.
“That’s utter nonsense.”
[Ah… yes, it’s absurdity through and through.]
Without knowing the circumstances, Kaiser’s reaction was understandable. Lia slowly explained to him all that had transpired.
Having learned the full situation, he asked with a grave expression, arms folded.
“Is he an illegitimate child?”
[He’s not illegitimate. He was born of the Empress.]
“Then why—?”
[I don’t know myself. What’s even stranger is that Lucian has an older brother. He’s also born of the Empress, and everyone but Lucian is well provided for.]
Kaiser’s eyelids twitched.
[Because I’ve cared for him these three months, his body has filled out and he’s grown taller. At first he was so gaunt it looked like he’d collapse if touched. From what I’ve gathered, he wasn’t properly cared for even in the palace.]
“Hmm…”
Kaiser crossed his arms repeatedly, furrowing his brow. Trying to recall something, his hand kept moving to his head.
“You said Lucian is a prince, right?”
[Yes. Lucian told me himself.]
“That’s strange. As far as I know, there is no prince in this Empire.”
Hearing this for the first time, Lia went rigid. Since Kaiser was her only source of outside information, it was perhaps inevitable.
“I don’t know the details myself. There’s a dragon I know who plays aristocrat and occasionally tells me stories about the Empire. But try as I might to remember, I’ve never heard mention of a prince existing.”
[Then what about the older brother Lucian mentioned?]
“He must be the Crown Prince. There’s no prince, but the Crown Prince exists.”
If Kaiser’s words were true, then Lucian had been living in hiding, unrevealed to the outside world all this time?
[…Could that be why they disguised him as an Orphan?]
More than that—considering everything about Lucian thus far—he seemed like someone they’d deliberately kept alive, unable to kill him outright.
Words of how he should have died, deliberately withheld knowledge, and abandonment in this mansion under the guise of a Spirit Marriage Ceremony.
The gears began clicking into place one by one.
“What was that lout saying just before I came here…!”
Kaiser groaned and clutched his head.
Before arriving at the mansion, he’d been in the cold Northern Region. A place blanketed in snow for over two hundred of the year’s three hundred sixty-five days.
A dragon who’d built a Lair there and indulged in the peculiar hobby of playing the aristocrat.
While lounging in that dragon’s Lair, that lout had been grumbling about something.
‘Damn, must they hold another Birth Celebration Ceremony this year too?’
‘What’s that about?’
‘The Emperor’s brat demands my attendance.’
That lout had instantaneously frozen and shattered the letter bearing the Imperial seal.
‘Who asked you to play aristocrat? Why do you live so troublesomely?’
‘Thanks to me, you insignificant creatures get to live peacefully in this Empire. Honestly, where else would you find a dragon to manage bugs like you?’
The lout claimed it was thanks to him that dragons could cause chaos in the Empire without consequence.
Kaiser wanted to object, but the statement held some truth, so he’d held his silence.
‘Fine… just go and come back. While you’re at it, hunt some Orcs too.’
‘Hey. You’ve got five years left. Once you become an Adult Dragon, you won’t set foot in my Lair again.’
‘Fine, fine.’
The infuriating Kaiser had made the Lair’s master tremble with indignation.
He’d taken a deep breath and steeled himself.
‘Why does the Emperor celebrate his son’s birthday so grandly each time? The brat’s barely eight years old.’
Then the lout had said plainly:
A Birth Celebration Ceremony, the Emperor’s son, and eight years old.
The scattered puzzle pieces clicked together all at once.
After hearing Kaiser’s recollection, Lia met his eyes. After a moment of silence, both she and Kaiser’s eyes widened in shock.
“Eight years old?!”
[The same age as Lucian? Wait, hold on. Hold on a moment.]
What was this? So Lucian’s older brother—the one they said was from the same mother—wasn’t older but the same age? That would mean…
[They’re twins?]
“Since the Crown Prince is called his older brother, Lucian must be the younger twin.”
Both Lia and Kaiser twisted their faces in complete bewilderment and confusion.

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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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