The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 28

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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 28

Meanwhile, the moment Julius stepped outside Emerald Hall, his golden eyes flickered with cold intelligence as he shed the mask of a benevolent grandfather.
“A younger brother, you say…… I wonder if Leopold would rejoice even if I had a twin just like myself. How fares our forsaken grandson?”
“He remains alive, Your Majesty.”
“Hmm, managing quite well on his own at such a tender age, it seems.”
“It appears the Emperor sends supplies once a month.”
“Unexpectedly merciful. Though he disposed of his other brothers without hesitation.”
Julius chuckled—a childlike, innocent laugh that didn’t match his face.
But the laughter ceased abruptly, and his expression hardened into an emotionless mask.
“It’s vexing that someone deceived my eyes and kept the twin alive…… but now that it’s come to this, I’ll make good use of him.”
In any case, sending him to that Mansion was nearly the same as leaving him to die, so what did it matter how he employed the boy?
“Once he’s ripe, I’ll set things in motion.”
Julius smiled meaningfully, then swept down the corridor with his attendant priests in tow.

* * *

A week had passed since Lucian’s birthday. In that time, the three of them had returned to their ordinary routine, with nothing particularly remarkable to mark the days.
Lucian finished his daily tasks and, with an awkward stretch of time before bed, kicked his legs about on the sofa while hugging a cushion.
“Is there any fun game we could play?”
When Lucian stared at Caesar with bright, eager eyes, Caesar’s face darkened noticeably.
The moment the sound of “play” began, he looked ready to bolt.
“Brother.”
“No. Absolutely not. I’m not doing it.”
“But I haven’t even asked yet.”
“I don’t care what it is. I’ve already played with you quite enough today.”
Lucian pouted.
“Then tell me a fun story instead.”
“A fun story?”
“Yeah. That dragon story you told before was interesting. Don’t you have another one?”
“Hmm, a story……”
“By the way, how did you come to know Lia? You said you’ve known her for a long time.”
At Lucian’s question, Lia and Caesar exchanged glances.
“We’ve known each other for quite a while. Nearly 250 years, I’d say?”
[I saw you back when you were a runny-nosed brat.]
“A runny-nosed brat? There’s no limit to what you’ll say to a dragon!”
[It’s true, isn’t it? You were about fifty years old then, weren’t you?]
“Well, yes. It wasn’t long after I first successfully learned Polymorph that I came here.”
That little snotty-nosed creature would soon be an Adult Dragon. Lia felt freshly aware of how swiftly time passed.
“Before I tell you how I met Lia, I suppose I should explain how I ended up here.”
As Caesar began his story, Lucian’s eyes shone bright and he clutched the cushion tightly to his chest.
“I mentioned it before, didn’t I? The time I went exploring the human world after learning Polymorph for the first time.”
Dragons typically can learn Polymorph around a hundred years old. By that standard, Caesar had picked it up rather quickly.
My parents were overjoyed and took me to explore the human world.
And this place—the Odrian Empire—was where I first arrived.
“I’d only heard about humans before then, and I was shocked at how many there were—like ants swarming everywhere, compared to us dragons who are so few.”
I remember my parents bought me Jewels and all sorts of things to celebrate my first successful Polymorph.
“After that, I used Polymorph a few more times, and by the time I turned fifty, I could do it with my eyes closed.”
So with my parents’ permission, I ventured into the human world alone. Of course, I was only given a single day, and they set things up so they’d receive a signal immediately if anything went wrong.
“You see, when a dragon becomes an Adult Dragon, they create their own Lair. I have one my parents prepared for me, but I’m not an Adult Dragon yet, so I needed my own villa.”
Even with my Subspace, I wanted somewhere to display the treasures I’d been collecting, and I needed a place to retreat to when my parents and I fought.
“At first I thought about buying a human Mansion, but that seemed like too much trouble, so I gave up. Then I discovered this place.”
It was a grand, two-story antique Mansion, somewhat removed from the town and clearly uninhabited.
It was the only place that met every condition I wanted.
“It looked like nobody had lived here for ages, so I immediately claimed it as mine.”
[Ah, I remember. How absurd it was. Some little brat walking around claiming the Mansion was his.]

‘Hahahaha! From this moment on, this Mansion belongs to none other than Caesar!’

“Back then, I didn’t know you were here.”
Caesar chuckled as he reminisced.
“But this isn’t really your villa, is it?”
“No, it isn’t. There was a rather fierce ghost living here, you see.”
“What happened?”
“What happened? About an hour after I entered the Mansion, strange things started happening all throughout the place.”
Objects fell in hallways where not a breath of wind stirred, lights went out suddenly, and the Armor on display even moved its neck.
At the suddenly horror-movie turn the story had taken, Lucian burrowed deeper into Lia’s arms.
“A g-ghost……?”
“Yes, every bit of it was that mischievous ghost’s doing.”
Caesar pointed at Lia, and Lucian was left stunned. In that instant, Lia felt wronged that he was afraid of her.
[Don’t look at me with those eyes. Some brat showed up claiming my house was his—what was I supposed to do, just let him?]
“And that’s not all. You suddenly set my backside on fire.”
[Suddenly? Listen to yourself. Do you think I did that for no reason? Don’t you remember damaging part of the Mansion trying to catch me? Do you know how much trouble I went through fixing that?]
“W-well, I was just a kid back then! Can you blame me for panicking?”
In truth, Caesar had been so startled by the Armor that his Polymorph suddenly broke. He ended up fleeing in dragon form, which is how the windows and walls got damaged.
Furious, Lia used the fireplace to drive him out of the Mansion.
The fire that caught his backside was simply collateral damage in that process.
“Lucian, imagine it—not only was the Armor moving, but floating fire was chasing me around! If I’d been human, I would’ve died of fright?”
And that wasn’t all. When I finally got outside, the door suddenly slammed shut with a bang.
As if warning me never to enter the Mansion again.
“I was crying so hard that my parents got worried and summoned me back.”
When they saw my singed tail, they threw a fit wanting to know who’d done it.
“My parents told me never to go near that Mansion again.”
[Yet somehow you managed to come back.]
“Of course I did. I absolutely can’t let myself be the loser in any situation.”
[Lucian, that’s the kind of guy he is. Most would never come back after getting thoroughly beaten. But this one? He showed up again a week later.]
And in grand dragon form, no less. She remembered finding a little dragon flapping its wings absolutely ridiculous.
“No matter how I think about it, it’s unfair. Running away from a ghost I couldn’t even prove existed. I couldn’t possibly allow such a thing in my dragon life.”
When Caesar returned, he’d come fully prepared—like a soldier marching off to war.
“I studied ghost-hunting methods in my own way.”
He’d gathered all the tools commonly known for exorcism—salt, Garlic, Holy Water, and the like.
“But none of it worked. When I sprinkled Holy Water, black smoke rose up, but it didn’t actually exorcise Lia. Did that have any effect at all?”
[Well, I wasn’t bothered by it, but it did work on other ghosts. I had a couple trying to cling to my Mansion, and thanks to you, I got rid of them.]
“Tch, I just helped someone else.”
[But that’s how we ended up sitting together like this and talking, isn’t it?]
“Ha, that’s all because I, Caesar, wasn’t afraid of you, wouldn’t you say?”
[Hmm……?]
Lia smiled meaningfully, and Caesar gave Lucian a look warning him to keep quiet.
It was during Caesar’s fourth attempt, perhaps. There was a time when he’d transformed into a small child form and cried tears and snot.

‘Waaah! Let me tell you something! I am Caesar, the great Red Dragon! You wretched evil spirit! Get out of my Mansion right now, and I mean it!!!!!’

He cried so pitifully that Lia had forgotten all about driving him out and just stared at him in bewilderment.
In the end, she sent him away only after he’d stopped crying.
Though Lia wanted to keep his secret, since Caesar wanted Lucian to see only his impressive side.
“But how did you two become close?”
“I’d say after I came here about twenty times.”
[I thought you’d come demanding I give up the Mansion, but that time you looked depressed for some reason.]
The little brat who usually stormed in weekly or monthly shouting “I challenge you to a duel!” wore a noticeably gloomy expression that day.
“What happened?”
“There’s this dragon who’s fifty years older than me. I fought him and lost. It was my first defeat, and my pride took a serious hit.”
[Come to think of it, you lost to me too, didn’t you? You got thrown out of the Mansion every time.]
“That’s different! You’re an invisible, mysterious being—that was just a fair match with someone else! Besides, he started it first!”
Caesar puffed out his cheeks and stomped his feet. Lia raised both hands in a peaceful gesture, saying nothing.
Caesar pointed two fingers back and forth between his own eyes and Lia’s, as if warning her to watch what she says.
“What a terrible dragon you are!”
“Right? He’s got an absolutely awful personality. If you ever run into Black Dragon, just avoid him. He’s someone you should never associate with.”
[What are you talking about? I thought you started a fight and got beaten to a pulp.]
“Did you not hear what I said? He called me a loser who couldn’t even claim a single Mansion!”
At his vehement response, she flinched.
‘Did I tease him too much? Though I do remember him crying sadly and being furious back then.’
[……So that’s when we first talked. And I taught you how to win against him too.]
She couldn’t bring herself to drive out the young dragon who looked uncharacteristically depressed.
After all, Caesar had been the one to bring her something new, just as Lucian was now.
She still remembered him calling out to empty air with a face full of grievance.
‘Hey, evil spirit. Why are you being quiet today? Come out right now! If you’re ignoring me without permission, I’ll never forgive you! I’m not weak—you’re just ridiculously strong, right?!’
Though she’d been taken aback by his sudden outburst, she was at a loss when he started crying pitifully.
In the end, that was when Lia first brought a Stone Slate from the Mansion and spoke to him.
-What’s wrong?
“‘What’s wrong?’ That was the first thing Lia ever said to me. I was so surprised my tears dried right up.”
Caesar laughed at the memory, as if recalling it now was amusing.
[Right, because I said a few more words and you started crying hard again.]
“Ahem! I have no memory of that!”
[……Fine, I’ll let you have that.]
Caesar shot Lia a look, then continued with a snort.
“I thought she was just a strong ghost, but then I realized I could actually talk to her. It was amazing. So that’s when we first started having conversations. We talked about all sorts of things.”
[You asked me whether I was a malevolent spirit, why I was in the Mansion, why I kept trying to drive you out—all kinds of things.]
“I never imagined you couldn’t leave the Mansion.”
As Caesar and Lia recalled those days with soft laughter, Lucian’s eyes sparkled. He seemed enchanted by the old stories.
“What was that about teaching him how to win? Did you fight with Black Dragon again?”
[Oh, that? This guy suddenly asked how he could become as strong as me. So I told him to make his opponent let their guard down first. And I taught him a few spells.]
“At that point, I was just a Hatchling who could barely use Polymorph and a couple of fire spells. In hindsight, it made sense that I lost. The other guy was at least twice my age.”
There was no way a fifty-year-old Hatchling could defeat a dragon over a hundred years old.
“Lucian, you said you’d learn magic later, right?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“Then study hard. Honestly, I’ve never seen any human wield magic as freely as Lia does.”
[Why are you suddenly praising me?]
“Because it’s the truth. I always thought no one could match a dragon when it came to magic. But you proved me wrong.”
Lia felt awkward at Caesar’s sincere words and scratched her cheek.
“Lia is that good at magic?”
“Yes. Second only to dragons.”
“Wait, didn’t you say Lia is better than dragons?”
Caesar’s ambiguous wording seemed to have confused him.
[That’s only by Hatchling standards. An Adult Dragon would be on a different level.]
“Still, when it comes to magical talent, I genuinely think Lia has the edge. Look at her—she has no body, yet she draws and uses Natural Mana. I didn’t even know that was possible.”
The light in Lucian’s eyes when he looked at Lia had changed. Those sparkling eyes were almost overwhelming.
“Honestly, dragons tend to be lazy—we solve everything with Dragon Word and don’t bother exploring magic further, though we do understand it naturally. But after meeting her, I felt I couldn’t afford to be careless about studying.”
Dragons certainly prided themselves above all other creatures. Yet Caesar had set aside his pride and learned magic from Lia.
“So that’s how I managed to break that jerk’s pride. I lost to Black Dragon, and less than a month later, I won a complete victory, which even became a topic of discussion among the elders.”
Caesar beamed with pride, looking thoroughly satisfied.

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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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