The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 54

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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 Forsaken Prince — Episode 54

Wheeeee—
A proud eagle wheeled across the vast sky.
When Lucian brought a whistle to his lips, the eagle descended in a glide and settled gently upon his arm.
As he stroked its feathers, the eagle cried out as if pleased.
“It took me forever to train Aither, and you’re doing it far too easily, aren’t you?”
Leopold, watching from beside him, wore a sullen expression.
At that, Aither flew over and perched on Leopold’s shoulder. When the eagle nuzzled his head, Leopold’s expression softened a little.
“Back then, he wasn’t properly trained yet. He learns quickly now because he’s been taught well.”
“It’s not a matter of training. Aither follows you without any hesitation.”
“Why would that be?”
“Eagles typically follow only their master. So when Aither came to me already somewhat trained, it took a considerable time before he would follow me. Yet you—you’ve only known him for less than a week, and he’s already following you well.”
“Hmm, is that so.”
I’ve never sensed him being on his guard.
Could Aither possibly know that we’re brothers?
Lucian stared at the eagle’s yellow eyes for a moment, then looked away.
Whenever his connection to Leopold surfaced like this, his mood would sink.
‘Get a grip. It’s nothing.’
Lucian took a quiet breath and recalled a conversation he’d had with Lia two weeks ago.
Over the past two weeks, there had been several crises. All this time, Leopold—who had never mentioned the Imperial Family before—began speaking of them one by one, starting with their last outing.
Hearing those stories, he couldn’t help but picture Leopold growing up loved and cherished in the Imperial Family, while he himself felt wretched.
Even though he too had been blessed with much love from Lia and Kaiser, he found himself comparing, growing smaller and smaller.
Especially when talk turned to the Emperor and Empress, the sting of inadequacy cut deeper still.
Each time a crisis arrived, Lia would grip his hand tightly and shield his ears, allowing him to endure. Yet without knowing it, emotions had been quietly accumulating in his chest.
“Lucian, there are only ten days until my birthday, right?”
Just as he’d managed to settle his mind, Leopold’s words began to grate on him again.
His birthday meant Lucian’s birthday too.
“I was abroad studying, remember? I had to spend nearly two years celebrating my birthday in another country. So Father and Mother said they’d make this one grand. They’re even inviting envoys from foreign nations.”
“…Is that so?”
“Everything I love will be there! Food, music, gifts—all of it! And especially the fireworks at night are supposed to be magnificent!”
With each of Leopold’s words, memories from his time in the Imperial Palace surfaced.
Those days when he received no one’s love, foolishly hoping his family would come find him.
In those dreary years, the day he looked forward to most was his birthday. He could eat more delicious food than any other day, and end the day with brilliant fireworks.
But hearing Leopold speak now, he realized that he had only ever received the scraps of what his brother enjoyed.
Foolishly thinking that day was the happiest of all.
“That’s why I wanted to invite you and Dio. I’ll arrange things with Harry beforehand, so just dress up as an aristocrat when you come. You can’t wear a mask, but don’t worry. This birthday will be a Masquerade Ball, so no one will notice that our faces are the same.”
The accumulated mass of emotion began to make itself known.
Realizing he couldn’t control it, Lucian rushed to find Lia, but Leopold spoke first.
“Especially, I really want to introduce you to Father and Mother. You’re my closest friend, after all!”
In that moment, something inside his mind snapped with a sharp crack.
“Friend?”
Lucian cast aside all of Lia’s advice and abandoned all reason, staring daggers at Leopold.
“Yes, friend! But… why do you look like that?”
Only then did Leopold notice something was wrong and tilted his head curiously.
“You want to introduce me to the Emperor and Empress? Just how exactly do you plan to do that?”
At the malice-laden sneer, Leopold’s expression hardened.
“‘I have a doppelgänger who looks exactly like me. Even the same age, the same birthday. Isn’t that fascinating?’ Is that what you’re going to say?”
“What do you mean… wait, the same birthday?”
“Do you really think it’s mere coincidence that we look identical? There’s a limit to how much people can resemble each other. This is like looking in a mirror. Don’t you think?”
Leopold tried to counter Lucian’s irritation but felt something was wrong.
“Lucian, what’s gotten into you? Why are you suddenly so angry…?”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve felt this way since I first saw you. I was abandoned at birth, never once saw my parents’ faces, and grew up alone. Then when I was eight years old, I was brought here, disguised as an orphan, to be a sacrifice to settle the spirit of this place.”
At this information presented without preamble or context, Leopold’s expression became bewildered.
“For two weeks after I arrived here, no one cared for me or prepared food for me. In the end, I had to fill my belly with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots. If not for Lia, I would have died long ago. Or perhaps that was the intention all along—to leave me here to die.”
“….”
“Curious why I’m telling you this?”
Lucian smiled bitterly and removed the necklace he wore. As his hair and eyes slowly changed color, Leopold’s eyes widened in shock.
“So? Do I look like a doppelgänger now?”
“Th-this is…!”
As Leopold staggered backward, his face turning pale, Lucian’s heart throbbed. Yet against his will, his lips twisted into a cruel smile.
“Hello, brother. Here’s the little brother you so desperately wanted.”
Leopold’s face filled with shock.
He’d said he wanted a little brother so badly—what was that expression?
Didn’t he want a twin brother after all?
Or did his very existence feel ominous to him?
‘I don’t care anymore.’
He was exhausted. Every time he looked at Leopold, who had grown happy and loved unlike himself, he felt diminished and miserable in a way he couldn’t bear.
“So you… are my little brother? Does that mean twins…?”
“Yes, cursed twins. You know what twins mean in the Empire, don’t you?”
“You’re lying! That’s impossible! If I had a little brother, Father and Mother would have…!”
Leopold’s cries caught in his throat when he saw the wounded expression on Lucian’s face.
It was only for a moment. Lucian’s face had gone blank, his gaze now frighteningly vacant.
“Twins themselves are an ill omen, so one of us had to be erased. While you lived happily, basking in your parents’ love and everyone’s welcome, I grew up as someone who didn’t exist in the world. You said your parents are kind? What kind parent abandons their child and goes on living without a care?”
“….”
Watching Leopold freeze in silence, Lucian felt what little hope remained evaporate entirely.
“I resent you. I despise you and our parents and all my blood relations. If they were going to do this, why not just kill me? Then I wouldn’t have to suffer like this.”
A single tear rolled down Lucian’s cheek. At the same moment, Leopold’s face twisted.
He couldn’t tell if it was scorn, fury, or sorrow.
Lucian activated his Mana Circle. Another circle manifested, and he became the holder of four circles.
“Never show your face before me again.”
As ominous mana rose around Lucian, Leopold suddenly came to his senses.
“W-wait…! Lucian…!”
But before Leopold could finish speaking, Lucian used magic to cast him far away toward the Imperial Palace.
“…It was nice meeting you, brother.”
It was a hollow word spoken to no one.
Leopold, now knowing the truth, would never return to this place again.
He’d been a fool to ever think they could be friends.
“It was always going to end this way…”
The time spent with him felt like a mirage.
[Lucian!]
In the distance, Lia’s urgent voice rang out. She must have heard the commotion.
Lia rushed toward him but stopped short when she saw Lucian’s face streaked with tears.
“Lia, it’s all over now.”
His vision blurred white. His cheeks kept growing damp. He couldn’t understand why.
The truth was revealed; he’d purged all the resentment from his chest. So why did his heart feel like it was tearing apart?
[Lucian, it’s all right. I’m here, it’s all right.]
Before long, Lia embraced him tightly. Without resistance, Lucian leaned his head against her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her slender waist.
An uncanny sensation of touching wind rather than feeling warmth. Yet this felt more familiar than touching another person.
That familiarity itself seemed to starkly illuminate his plight—unloved by people—and filled him with sorrow.

* * *

Wheeeee—!
Blown into a forest near the Imperial Palace by Lucian’s magic, Leopold crashed into the undergrowth.
More than the dizziness from the magic, his mind ached from the overwhelming flood of information.
“…Lucian is my little brother?”
The moment his ordinary brown hair and eyes changed to a color identical to his own, his instincts screamed.
Lucian was not simply someone who looked exactly like him—he was a hidden sibling.
“Is someone mocking me right now?”
He tried to deny the reality of the surreal situation, but the more he did, the clearer the image of Lucian’s tearful face became.
And the days spent with Lucian flashed past like a panorama. His memory reached their first meeting.
“…Lucian knew who I was all along.”
Lucian’s strange behavior that he hadn’t understood at first.
If Lucian had known his identity, it became crystal clear why he’d acted that way.

‘What a fool I am for hoping…’

A casual word from Lucian pierced his heart.
His hands and feet trembled uncontrollably. He regretted having sung of wanting a little brother, only to fail to recognize his own blood sibling standing right before him.
An indescribable guilt and anguish squeezed his chest. Soon he recalled Lucian’s bitter words.
“…Abandoned. Left there alone at eight years old with no servants to tend to him.”
While Lucian was yearning for human warmth, starving from hunger, what had he been doing?
“Father and Mother knew about this…?”
The impulse to tell his most trusted person the truth came and went just as quickly when he realized who must have given the order to send Lucian to the ghost Mansion.
“…Father.”
The fact that his beloved parents had driven his own brother to despair made his skin crawl with horror.
The thought that they smiled and gave him love while turning away from Lucian made his parents seem like monsters.
Leopold clenched his trembling fists tightly.
What should he do now?
If he told anyone this truth, what would become of Lucian?
His mind felt so tangled it might burst. As Leopold ground his teeth and trampled the ground in frustration, his eyes suddenly gleamed with resolve.
“I’ll investigate whether this is true.”
He couldn’t carelessly tell anyone else.
Twins were nothing less than an ill omen.
Usually, the child born as the younger twin is killed to erase the fact of being twins. In severe cases, both are killed.
Perhaps Lucian being raised in secret, disguised as an orphan, and sent to that ghost Mansion—all of it was for that reason.
At least they hadn’t killed Lucian, though…
“But I can’t forgive this.”
What fault could Lucian possibly have? Being born as twins? Being born a few minutes later than himself?
If Lucian had been born in another country instead of here, he never would have been treated this way.
Leopold immediately headed for the Imperial Palace.
He had to uncover whether Lucian truly was his brother, and if so, why his parents hid this fact, and how the Empire came to hold such ominous superstitions about twins in the first place.

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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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