The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 79

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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 Ghost Bride — Episode 79

Lucian, Kaiser, and Aige each surrounded a Jewel and drew up all their Mana.
“If we fall behind even slightly, it fails. Keep your wits sharp.”
At Aige’s words, both of them tensed.
Currently, the most critical tasks are releasing the Seal within the Jewel and dissolving the Barrier that surrounds the entire Basement.
The moment Aige entered the Basement, he sensed the subtly layered Barrier.
This Barrier exerts no physical force, but it is constructed so that creatures with only souls—like Lia—cannot approach it at all.
Because of this, Lia could not descend into the Basement, and she had not yet realized that she had a body of her own.
Spirits naturally tend to return to their own bodies, so releasing just these two Seals and this Barrier would allow Lia to reclaim her original form.
But the problem lay in this: other spirits might covet Lia’s body.
Since Lia is an Earthbound Spirit of this place, there are few ordinary spirits nearby, but once they sensed the aura of a body without a spirit, countless souls would rush in all at once.
To prevent this calamity, they had to release both Barriers simultaneously so that Lia could hurry into her body.
Under Aige’s direction, the Seal Release began.
Though Kaiser had been warned beforehand, witnessing such an intricate, difficulty-beyond-measure magical formula, he went momentarily blank.
“Kaiser! Snap out of it!”
At Aige’s rebuke, Kaiser jolted back to attention and refocused.
“Everyone, now!”
In sync with Aige’s signal, they simultaneously broke the Seal.
Fine cracks spiderwebbed across the Jewel, and the Mansion shook violently. A tremor severe enough to bring the structure down.
Yet none of the three wavered.
Rather, they displayed remarkable focus, concentrating entirely on releasing the Seal.
Crack—crack—shatter!
At last, the Jewel that had enveloped Lia shattered, and brilliant light burst forth.
—……Finally, I can rest easy.
Then a strange voice reached the ears of Lucian and Kaiser.
‘That voice……’
Both Lucian and Kaiser knew it well.
For Lucian, it was the voice he heard when he first opened that door.
For Kaiser, it was the voice of the Specter who once occupied his body.
It was a familiar voice, certainly, but not a comforting one. Yet somehow tears fell from both their eyes.
—Please take good care of her…….
The voice gradually receded, and the light slowly faded.
Soon after, Lia’s eyes, which had been closed so long, fluttered open, revealing bright violet irises.

* * *

One minute before the Seal was released.
Lia had barely made it to the Basement door and waited for Kaiser to bring Lucian.
Then, as if an earthquake had struck, the Mansion trembled.
[What—what is this……!]
For a moment she wondered if the two men were clashing, but then a sharp pain surged through her entire body.
Her body, which had faded away to her shoulders, returned to its original form. But she had no time to revel in reclaiming it.
[Ahhhhh! Screeeeeech!]
It hurt. It hurt so much. Far too much.
Why could she feel pain? She was a spirit—she shouldn’t be able to feel suffering.
It was nearly a hundredfold worse than the pain she felt when forcibly trying to leave the Mansion.
From her toes to her crown, it was as if someone were splitting apart every molecule of her being and piercing her with a hot poker.
[Kyaaaaaaagh!]
As Lia screamed, glass and ceramics nearby shattered, and the surrounding space began to collapse inward.
Lia felt her eyes flutter and her vision slowly dimming before her.

.
.

The intense pain that had overwhelmed her was suddenly gone, and she found herself in a White Space, as if everything had been a dream.
Lia realized the agony had vanished and her body was intact, so she looked around uncertainly.
—……Lia.
Then a deep male voice came from behind her.
She turned to see a man with long red hair standing motionless.
[Who are you……?]
—……It took far too long. Didn’t it?
Before she could ask again who he was, her chest wrenched and her vision began to blur with tears.
[What? Why am I crying……?]
And looking down, her hands were not transparent. As if she had a real body, she could feel her own cheeks, and tears flowed freely.
[Who…… who exactly are you?]
The man across from her gave a faint smile.
—One who loves you. One who wishes for your happiness. And also…… one who has left an indelible wound upon you.
His words were heavy with meaning. But somehow, hearing that answer felt like receiving something she had longed for all along, and a corner of her heart found peace.
—……It is not yet finished. As long as that creature remains in the world, our fight is not over.
[A fight? What do you mean……?]
—This once. Just once more, at the very end, I will be your strength. So will you forgive me, please?
His apology, desperately earnest, struck deep into her heart.
She did not know why someone whose face she could not even see was apologizing to her, but she had an answer for him.
[……I have never hated you.]
The man’s eyes widened, and then he broke into a gentle smile.
—I will protect you until the very end. So…….
You can wake up now.
[Wait—please, just a moment……!]
Brilliant light poured forth from behind the man. Lia felt herself drawn into that radiance and vanished.

.
.

Flash—
Lia’s eyes snapped open reflexively. But only for a moment; the bright light caused her eyes to ache terribly.
“Agh……! It hurts……!”
Lia instinctively covered her eyes with both hands and pressed hard. But then another pain seized her.
“Gasp…… gasp…… gasp……!”
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t draw air.
Foreign sensations flooded her body all at once, and it was unbearable.
Worst of all was the inability to breathe, which brought a suffocating terror that she would die on the spot.
Having lived as a spirit for over three hundred years, Lia did not know how to breathe. As a spirit, she had never needed to.
“Gasp! Gugh! ……Argh!”
No matter how frantically she inhaled, the air would not reach her lungs; she only gasped.
Lia gripped her throat and thrashed with a deathly pale face.
Through her blurred vision and the brilliant light, she could make out three figures moving urgently.
“Please…… please, someone……!”
Lia reached out desperately, as if grasping for a lifeline. Someone took her hand and helped her up from where she lay.
Then warmth touched the nape of her neck, and a soft sensation pressed against her lips.
It seemed he was trying to help her breathe. After several breaths shared this way, breathing became easier.
Her blurred vision cleared considerably, and her mind returned somewhat.
The man who had kissed her was Lucian.
“Lia, breathe slowly with me. Exhale—inhale—”
“Exhale—inhale—”
Following Lucian’s rhythm, she could now breathe steadily.
Still, the onset had been so sudden that her chest ached.
“Lia…….”
As she pressed her hand to her chest and breathed shallowly, her eyes met Lucian’s, which gazed at her with concern.
Lia reached out instinctively to touch his face.
Without wrapping herself in Mana, she could feel Lucian. And that was not all.
“……Is this what warmth feels like?”
An unfamiliar sensation registered through her fingertips. Not just warmth, but touch, smell, sight, hearing, and more.
As a spirit, she had been unable to perceive so many things. Now they came alive and vivid.
“Lia, are you all right?”
This time Kaiser approached from the right.
Lia took the hands of both Lucian and Kaiser and brought them to her cheeks.
“It’s so warm……!”
Lucian and Kaiser clenched their lower lips and held back tears with effort.
How pitiable that she found such wonder in mere body heat.
Then Lia’s eyes began to flutter.
“Huh…… why am I doing this……?”
“Lia? What’s wrong? What’s happening……!”
“My eyes…… they won’t stay open……!”
Her eyelids grew heavy and her mind would not focus properly. And the voices of the two men seemed to recede further and further away.
‘Am I……dying like this……?’
She wanted to say something, but her lips would not obey.
Lia’s grip weakened, and her hand fell limply.
In that moment, both Lucian and Kaiser felt their hearts plummet into an abyss.
“Lia! Snap out of it!”
“Damn it! This can’t be happening! Lia……!”
As the two men descended into panic, shaking Lia’s body, Aige, who had been watching, stepped forward.
“Leave her be. You’ll wake her up.”
“……She’s asleep?”
“Yes. Her heart is beating fine, and she’s breathing—shallow, but definitely breathing.”
Only then did Lucian and Kaiser realize that Lia had fallen asleep.
Likely, Sleep Drowsiness had overtaken her for the first time, and Lia herself did not realize she was drowsy.
“Ha, really…… scaring the dragon like that.”
The tension dissolved from Kaiser’s shoulders, and he sank where he stood. Lucian let out a breath of relief as well.
In the quiet, her heartbeat could be heard softly but clearly.
“Soft…… and warm……!”
Lucian squeezed his eyes shut and held Lia closer to his chest.
How long had he longed for this?
Afraid that the Seal Release might fail. Afraid that Lia’s spirit might not return properly. Afraid that he might lose her forever…….
All the anxieties he had buried in his heart melted away at the mere warmth of her body.
“Mm……!”
Lia murmured and burrowed deeper into Lucian’s embrace. Finding it unbearably dear, Lucian pressed a brief kiss to her forehead.
“……What do you plan to do with Lia?”
Kaiser’s voice pulled Lucian back to awareness. The hostility in his eyes had faded somewhat since before, but his gaze remained coldly lowered.
“If you knew how Lia waited for you, you could never show your face to her.”
“……I know.”
“You know? Ha. Yet you didn’t send a letter for over a year? Lia will forgive you quickly because she is weak to you, but I won’t.”
He seemed ready to take Lia for himself. But Lucian thought his anger was, to some degree, justified.
“Lia…… I will take her to the Imperial Palace. And there, I will give her everything she has given me, and more.”
“You are taking her to repay your debt?”
“Of course, repayment is not my only intent. Kaiser, did you forget? Lia is my Bride.”
He knew how much Kaiser cherished and loved both himself and Lia.
“Do you have an objection to me taking my own Bride?”
Yet separate from that, if Kaiser tried to steal Lia from him, he would not stand for it quietly.
Seeing those eyes gleam with gold, Kaiser felt not so much anger as exasperation.
“You are something, truly. Lia must think you’ve already taken a human female as your mate.”
“I never wrote in my letters that I was courting a woman. I have never courted anyone, in fact.”
Lucian’s expression showed genuine confusion as to why Kaiser harbored such a misunderstanding, leaving Kaiser at a loss.
“Why else? You sent vague, half-hearted letters and didn’t search for Lia for over a year, so she thought you were moving on and starting fresh, forgetting someone like her.”
Lucian’s words caught in his throat, and he looked down at the peacefully sleeping Lia.
“I have not forgotten her for a single moment.”
“Save your words.”
There was no point in protesting. For now, he had no way to prove his sincerity.
“I need to check Lia’s condition, so I’ll head back up.”
Lucian lifted Lia effortlessly into his arms and left the Basement. Kaiser watched his retreating figure and for a moment was taken aback.
“When did that one grow so much?”
For a dragon, five years was but a single nap passing in an instant, but he suddenly grasped anew that human time flowed differently.

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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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