The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 31

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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 Phantom Bride — Episode 31

Meanwhile, Kaizar’s vision would not focus on Lucian properly.
Five years hence he might become an Adult Dragon, but a Hatchling remained a Hatchling. He was still a young dragon who needed the care and protection of his parents and elders.
A Hatchling learned patience from adults to keep from succumbing to madness as an Adult Dragon, and learned to master his own strength.
But now, Kaizar had awakened the power of an Adult Dragon far too soon.
With his immature sense of self, he could not restrain his strength, and stood on the very precipice of becoming an Insane Dragon.
In Kaizar’s vision, every image split into two, drenched in red, making friend and foe indistinguishable.
Beyond that, a ceaseless torrent of phantoms flooded his mind.
The golden eyes of the figure who had betrayed him so terribly in those phantoms overlapped with the trembling golden eyes of the small Lucian.
Kill him—!
For the first time, phantom and reality aligned. Kaizar lunged at Lucian without hesitation.
And as he seized Lucian’s throat and raised his claws to claim his heart—
“Ach, ah…… B-brother…….”
A fragile voice reached him.
That voice, striking deep into his mind, forced his body to halt.
Kaizar’s eyes snapped wide as he stared at Lucian. His vision, which had shown only golden, gradually widened.
“Brother…… please don’t…… I’m…… I’m Lucian…….”
Lucian trembled with fear at Kaizar’s terrible transformation, tears streaming down his cheeks in silent sobs.
The strength in Kaizar’s grip loosened, gradually, then completely.
“Kaizar, brother!”
Sob! Wail!
At last Lucian’s tears broke free, crying out for Kaizar again and again. Kaizar reacted far more violently than before, shuddering.
The madness slowly receded. The phantoms that had filled his skull to bursting point scattered like mist, and reality began to seep back into focus.
“……Lucian?”
“H-hic! B-brother!”
Kaizar was stunned. And when he realized what posture he was in, his face went ashen.
“What…… what have I done…….”
Somewhere along the way, his Polymorph had dissolved, and a firestorm of flames was raging around him and Lucian.
It was only a matter of time before the Basement collapsed.
Kaizar quickly withdrew his power and felt his heart pounding in his pale chest.
Clear handprints remained on Lucian’s neck where he had gripped him moments before.
The pulse he had felt through his palms still lived vividly in his hands.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
‘I was trying to kill Lucian…….’
If he had actually died at Kaizar’s hands…….
Throb—!
“Ugh!”
His head was throbbing again. The phantom he thought he’d just driven away began anew.
Somehow, the culprit seemed to be…… this Basement itself.
Kaizar glanced around the Basement, seized by an indefinable dread, then turned his gaze forward.
“……I have to get out of here.”
Lucian was still crying. Kaizar could not leave him in this place and moved toward him.
“Lucian…….”
“Ahhh!”
As Kaizar reached out, Lucian looked at him with eyes wide with terror.
That gaze cut through his chest. Pain unlike anything he had ever felt bloomed in his heart, but this was not the moment to indulge in such sensation.
Throb—throb—throb—!
His head continued to ache, and a grim premonition whispered that what had happened before might occur again.
Kaizar held Lucian despite his fear, and when the boy pushed against him weakly with trembling hands, Kaizar gritted his teeth.
“Just hold on a moment.”
Kaizar spread his wings and in an instant soared up the stairs.
Lia stood on the landing, pacing anxiously.
[……You! What happened down there?!]
For a moment, his throat closed. He had no idea what to tell her.
“……I’ll explain later. Just look after Lucian for now.”
Having cleared the stairs entirely, Kaizar transferred Lucian into Lia’s arms.
Lia was bewildered, but at the sight of Lucian trembling violently and in disarray, she gasped in alarm.
[What is it. Why is Lucian like this? Gasp! His neck……!]
When Lia saw the clear handprints on his neck and turned her gaze back to Kaizar, he bit his lip hard.
Throb! Throb! Throb!
“Argh…….”
[What did you do to Lucian.]
Even in the face of Lia’s icy tone, Kaizar had to wrestle with the phantom that continued to make its presence known in his mind.
Lia, who had been about to rebuke him, paused as she realized something was wrong with Kaizar’s condition.
[Kaizar, you…….]
“I’m…… not in my right mind right now…… I need to clear my head, so Lucian…….”
Lucian looked at him with eyes full of fear, yet always the same warmth he’d shown before. The sight stole Kaizar’s breath, and he clamped his mouth shut.
In the end, he scowled and fled from the Mansion like a man pursued.
Lia, cradling Lucian, hurried after him, but Kaizar had already vanished into the forest.

* * *

Huff, huff, huff, gasp—!
Kaizar, who had fled far from the Mansion until he could scarcely breathe, gripped his chest and struck his head with his fist against a headache that would not fade.

Traitor
You killed him with your own hands
Kill him, the one before your eyes, kill him
Why do you hesitate?
He betrayed you first
You must kill him

“No, that’s not me…….”
Even away from the Basement, the phantom’s afterimage lingered. This time, it felt like someone’s stray thoughts from within the phantom were consuming his mind.
He kept whispering for Kaizar to kill.
Who? Who was he ordering him to kill?
Once shattered, his mind showed no signs of recovery.
And the shock was all the greater because he had nearly killed Lucian with his own hands.
Kaizar eventually stopped flying and plummeted, crashing to the ground.
Bang! Tumble—crash!
Mere bruises could not erase the phantom lodged in his mind.
He felt as though he were going mad.
His sense of self kept colliding with someone else’s consciousness from the phantom. At this rate, he really would slaughter everything in sight without mercy.
Kaizar pressed his pupils—which dilated and contracted like a lizard’s—and with his last shred of reason, erected a Barrier of tremendous power around himself.
One so strong it would not shatter easily no matter how violently he thrashed, and one that no one could enter.
The moment the Barrier solidified, Kaizar let go of his reason.
Boom! Roar!
Kaizar returned to his true form and unleashed his Breath in wild torrents.
The Red Dragon was a species among dragonkind especially attuned to flame. Even as merely a Hatchling, he was releasing such tremendous heat that all plant and animal life around him melted away.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
Kaizar was locked in constant battle with himself.
He had to subdue the phantom trying to consume his sense of self.
After perhaps an hour of wrestling within himself—
The Barrier Kaizar had erected was on the verge of shattering. And the space within it had become a hell where everything had turned to black ash scattered on the wind.
Kaizar himself was not in much better condition. His own Breath had burned him, scales scattered in places, and claw marks from his self-inflicted wounds stood vivid across his body.
At last he succeeded in separating the phantom from his sense of self.
No longer sharing the phantom’s vision, he could now perceive the form of what had reduced him to this state.
But even calling it a form, he could not see it clearly—like black dye dispersed in water.
Only eyes, green like his own, a dragon’s distinctive feature, flashed in the darkness.
Kaizar understood at once, by pure instinct. This thing was a Specter’s Consciousness.
“Damn it, if you’re a phantom, just ascend properly. How dare you try to seize my body…….”
Though strength drained from him and his eyes were about to roll back, the light in his eyes was as sinister as it came.
Kaizar swayed and shifted into human form with Polymorph.
Thus, his height aligned roughly with the black shadow’s.
“If you try to seize my body again, next time I’ll tear your soul to shreds. You think I can’t?”
—……I am you.
“Fuck.”
Kaizar flashed an elegant middle finger, but the black shadow spoke again.
—I am you.
“Still spouting that garbage.”
As Kaizar bared his teeth and prepared to release another Breath, the black shadow moved. It pointed at him.
—This is a memory fragment you must not forget.
Before he could curse further, Kaizar felt something amiss and stopped.
—All conditions are satisfied.
—Do not repeat the same error.
—That creature has not yet been dealt with.
—That creature will never abandon ─.
“What? What are you after?”
He hadn’t heard the crucial part. But the shadow said no more. Or rather, it could not say more.
—In this life…… sever the Karmic Enmity. Another self of mine…….
The black shadow’s form began to crumble. His voice, too, grew garbled and barely audible.
—……del…… not do…… last…… responsibility…….
Only after he had completely faded did the headache finally cease. Relieved that he had kept his sense of self intact, the tension suddenly drained from him.
His legs trembled and Kaizar collapsed where he stood.
As he fell, ash swirled into the sky. Darkness had long since settled over the world.
“……I’m exhausted.”
With his eyes closed, Kaizar pressed his head repeatedly, feeling what seemed like lingering throbs.
Brother…….
Then, suddenly, Lucian’s plaintive phantom call reached him. Kaizar recalled everything he had done to Lucian.
Merely human. A fragile being who could die at any moment and no one would be surprised—yet somewhere along the way, he had found his way into Kaizar’s heart and become someone precious.
He could not deny that he loved Lucian dearly, even if he tried to pretend otherwise. Kaizar’s face crumpled as he pressed his eyes shut.
“Mother…… what do I do……?”
His voice trembled, thick with unshed tears.
Kaizar had no idea how he could ever face Lucian again.

* * *

Despite the chaos that had erupted, Lia devoted herself entirely to treating Lucian.
Thanks to the Barrier Lia had woven around him beforehand, he appeared to have suffered no burns, but the distinct handprints on his slender neck were darkening to purple.
Lia felt distressed watching it, yet conflicting emotions—that Kaizar was not the sort to do such a thing—flooded her mind.
“Lia…… where is brother Kaizar……?”
Lucian asked in a disheartened voice.
[……He went into the forest.]
“Is brother never coming back?”
Lucian’s lips trembled, tears threatening to spill. He was clearly trying hard to hold them back.
Lia embraced him and patted his back.
[I don’t know either, I’m sorry.]
“Brother was suffering. Something possessed him and made him attack me. Brother isn’t at fault.”
[That’s right, that’s right.]
“Lia can’t hate brother Kaizar. Promise me. Pinky promise.”
[……You don’t hate Kaizar?]
“I…… I’m scared, but…… he’s still my brother…….”
Lucian kept urgently insisting that Lia promise not to hate Kaizar, making her pinky swear with him.
It seemed he was terrified that she might come to hate Kaizar because of this.
Lia had watched Kaizar far longer than she had Lucian—would she hate him for nothing?
He wasn’t the sort to act without reason, and anyone could see something had gone terribly wrong.
Still, she needed to hear the full story.
Creak—
A presence was felt from the first floor. Lia’s eyes snapped open as she gazed toward the door.
“Lia?”
[……Kaizar’s back.]
At Lia’s words, Lucian scrambled from her embrace and descended from the bed. He rushed to the door and reached for the handle, but hesitated.
His body trembled. Even though his mind knew Kaizar was not at fault, his body instinctively reacted to the fear that had been burned into him.
Lia placed a hand on Lucian’s shoulder.
Lucian pressed his lips together and tried to steel himself against the fear.
‘Lucian is trying this hard—I can’t let him down.’
Lia matched her pace to Lucian’s and descended to the first floor.
At the Mansion’s main entrance stood Kaizar, shifted into an adult male form via Polymorph.
Lia flinched at the sight, and Lucian’s eyes went wide.
“B-brother…….”
[What happened in the forest…….]
Neither Lia nor Lucian could find words.
Kaizar was in worse condition than they had ever seen him.
Vicious claw marks covered his neck and limbs, blood dripping steadily, his clothes charred in places with gaping holes revealing angry, burned skin beneath.

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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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