The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 80

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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 Abandoned Prince — Episode 80

“I still don’t like it. He’s lost that adorable charm from childhood, and now he’s completely shameless.”
Kaiser, whose anger toward Lucian had yet to cool, muttered this while boring holes through the basement stairs with his glare.
But soon enough, he dropped the look and examined the secret chamber he hadn’t fully inspected at first.
“……I never knew a place like this existed.”
No matter how carefully he searched, he couldn’t find any trace of magic.
“If Lucian could undo the spell, then I could’ve broken it too.”
If that were true, wouldn’t Lia have been able to live as a human long ago?
A small pang of regret stirred in him.
“Speaking of which, Aige…….”
Kaiser quickly snapped out of his reverie, remembering that he had business with the scheming white dragon as well.
“You! Why were you with Lucian! You said you had business in the Basement, but……!”
“Do I owe you an explanation of my every move?”
“That’s not it, but you could’ve at least given me a heads-up! It’s obvious you know full well that Lucian and I are acquainted!”
Aige, who had been examining the jewel, stopped and turned around.
When Aige fixed him with a narrowed gaze, Kaiser flinched involuntarily.
“Now that we’re on the subject, this works out perfectly. Tell me—have you been running your mouth about me to that human?”
Gulp.
Among all the races, humans were the ones you could trust the least.
That’s why dragons, no matter how close they might be with a human, never reveal their true identity.
Yet Kaiser hadn’t just revealed his own identity—he’d exposed Aige’s as well…….
“W-Wait! I didn’t say your actual name!”
“But you did mention that the Northern Duke House is connected to me.”
“Th-That is…….”
“Kaiser, you know I could beat you senseless right now without any excuse, don’t you? I could gather all the dragons on the spot and issue you a formal reprimand.”
“…….”
Aware of his guilt, Kaiser pressed his lips shut and could only roll his eyes nervously.
“I only kept quiet because working with Lucian benefited me too…… but you stab me in the back and then ask why I didn’t tell you? Would you have said anything if you were in my position, you reckless fool!”
“Ow! Ow! Ow! It hurts! I-I’m sorry!”
Kaiser, his ear seized by Aige, made a pitiful face and begged forgiveness.
Aige, seething with rage, took a deep breath to collect himself.
“Since you seem to understand your transgression, shut that mouth of yours.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seeing that he’d finally become obedient, Aige released Kaiser’s ear.
Kaiser rubbed his ear while gauging Aige’s expression.
Aige had finished his inspection of the jewel and was placing it into his Subspace. His expression was rather grave, which made Kaiser glance around nervously.
“By the way…… you said this was important for a dragon. What exactly is it?”
When Aige shot him a piercing look, Kaiser began edging away from him.
“W-Why……! Can’t I just ask! It’s probably just a Seal Stone or something……!”
“Sigh. It’s not your fault you don’t know, but how is a so-called Lord Candidate so utterly ignorant?”
“Hey, don’t sneak in insults like that.”
Aige’s expression shifted from disdain to concern as he picked up the shattered jewel fragments.
“……This is a Dragon Heart.”
Kaiser’s eyes went wide. In an instant, a worthless Seal Stone transformed into something noble and priceless.
“Th-Th-Th-This is a Dragon Heart?! Lia was inside it! I’ve never even heard of a Dragon Heart being used as a Seal Stone!”
A Dragon Heart.
Among the many precious things a dragon leaves behind upon death, it is unquestionably the most precious—containing the dragon’s life essence and pure mana, its value cannot be measured.
Because of this, many humans covet Dragon Hearts, and rumors have spread among them claiming absurdly that whoever possesses one can rule the world.
But a Dragon Heart is undoubtedly the possession of a dragon alone—a legacy left behind at death.
That’s why it is customary for a Dragon Heart to pass to the dragon’s family.
“You rarely get the chance to see a Dragon Heart. You can only witness one if the owner shows it directly or when a fellow dragon dies. So it’s no wonder you don’t know.”
“……My goodness.”
He was not only dumbfounded but felt as though his head had been struck.
“A Dragon Heart contains the unique power of that particular dragon. It will be hard to sense now, but you’ll come to understand it in time.”
“I see…… Wait, then do you know whose Dragon Heart this is?”
Aige closed his mouth. Judging from his expression, he clearly knew the identity.
“……I’ll tell you when I’m certain.”
“What else is there to figure out?”
“I have a feeling you’re overlooking something very important. Until I can ascertain that, I won’t be able to return this Dragon Heart to his family.”
Seeing the troubled expression on his face, Kaiser stopped pressing him further.
Shortly after, he helped Aige finish placing the Dragon Heart into his Subspace, then headed up the stairs.
“Since Lucian took Lia, what should I do now?”
He’d rushed here without a second thought, even brushing off the elders, just in case he couldn’t see Lia.
Lucian hadn’t come, Lia hadn’t come back to life as a human, Aige appeared here—
So much had happened in less than an hour.
He was grateful that Lia hadn’t left him forever…….
Yet an inexplicable loneliness settled over him.
“……I should head home.”
Kaiser emerged from the Basement and was surveying the Mansion when Aige caught hold of him, his shoulders sagging slightly.
“Where are you going.”
“Home.”
“Weren’t you supposed to come with us?”
“……? Come where?”
“The Imperial Palace, obviously. Lucian was definitely going to take you with him.”
Kaiser suddenly grasped the source of his loneliness.
He’d wanted Lucian to care about him. Or perhaps more accurately, he felt lonely watching Lucian and Lia leave his side all at once.
Kaiser’s lips quivered, then he turned his head away with a snort.
“Ha! As if that brat would bother taking me along. Didn’t you see just now? I threatened him—said I wouldn’t forgive him if he took Lia!”
“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?”
“I don’t care! Besides, he probably forgot all about me the moment he took Lia back to the Imperial Court anyway.”
Huff.
Aige’s eyes narrowed. To him, Kaiser was nothing but a pouting child.
“Fine, quit your whining and come on.”
“Let go!”
Aige grabbed Kaiser by the scruff of his neck and dragged him along.
Kaiser struggled, but not hard enough to break free from Aige’s grip.
Seeing Kaiser deliberately go limp, Aige let out a quiet laugh.
Sure enough, beyond the gate stood Lucian, waiting with his knights.
“Why did you take so long? We need to get back to the Imperial Palace.”
“……Were you waiting for me?”
Kaiser pointed at himself uncertainly, and Lucian tilted his head.
“For you, obviously. Who else? Now come on. We need to check on Lia’s condition.”
His tone made it sound like traveling together was the most natural thing in the world.
Kaiser’s nose stung at the realization that Lucian hadn’t forgotten him after all.
Aige, disgusted by Kaiser’s glistening eyes, put distance between them. That’s when something caught his attention.
Using Magic, Aige retrieved what he had discovered.
“I’m the one who’ll look after Lia!”
“Don’t wake her unnecessarily. Just sit still.”
“How dare you give orders to someone barely twenty-three years old?”
“Fine, fine.”
“Your Highness, Kaiser.”
The two of them, who had been bickering as they boarded the carriage, stopped at Aige’s call and turned to him. In front of the others, Aige observed the proper etiquette between a sovereign and his subject.
“These appear to be letters intended for both of you.”
Aige distributed a letter to each of them.
What he had discovered was Lia’s final letter—a farewell and a kind of will that she had prepared after sensing her own end.
During the carriage ride back to the Imperial Palace, they carefully read over the letter Lia had written to them.
Kaiser grumbled while touching Lia’s hair, asking why she would leave such a pointless letter, but Lucian couldn’t bring himself to do the same.

For three hundred years, I repeated the same routine each day in this colorless place where no one acknowledged me. Then I found you—my hope.
The ten years I spent with you shine brighter in my memory than the three hundred years I lived before. Those ten years were the happiest moments of my life.

This passage revealed just how much Lia cherished and loved him.
On the other hand, it was also a statement of how she never once resented the endless waiting, never blamed him for not coming to find her.
His throat tightened, and he could find no words.
What must have been her state of mind when she wrote this?
Lucian watched Lia sitting next to Kaiser across from him, then closed his eyes tightly.

* * *

“Mm—”
Lia’s hazy eyes opened.
“Where is……?”
Before her eyes lay cool cerulean fabric. More precisely, a canopy draped over the bed.
Looking around further, she saw an unfamiliar yet impossibly luxurious room.
Disoriented by the unfamiliar space, Lia sat up from the bed.
“Ugh…… My back…….”
A subtle ache emanated from her waist. Moreover, her mouth felt parched, her lips sticking together uncomfortably.
It was only briefly that she held her lower back before Lia realized something new.
“Why am I feeling all this?”
She had never experienced pain before, let alone such trivial sensations or discomforts.
Only then did Lia notice that her hands were no longer translucent, that objects didn’t pass through them, and that she possessed substance.
“……Huh?”
She could feel skin. The soft texture of the bedding registered. And most importantly—she could touch her own face!
“What is happening……! …Oh.”
The scream died in her throat as she suddenly recalled what had occurred before she fell asleep.
Engulfed in tremendous agony that she thought would kill her, she had awakened in Lucian’s embrace with a new body.
“Does this mean I’ve truly become human?”
Shiver—
Goosebumps rose all over her body. Fear surged through her far more than elation or joy.
“So Lucian really did……!”
Creak—!
She had barely started to pull at her hair when someone suddenly threw the door wide open. Her eyes met the figure’s who had entered.
“Mmpfh! Mm! Ub-ub-ub!”
“……Kaiser?”
Kaiser, his mouth full of skewers, managed to jab a finger in Lia’s direction without even swallowing. He quickly gulped down what he was eating and rushed toward her.
“Liaaaa! You’re awake!”
“Whoa!”
Unable to withstand the sudden weight crashing down upon her, Lia was forcibly pinned to the bed.
“Y-You! Why are you so heavy……!”
“Huh? Oh right. You’re human now, aren’t you? I forgot.”
Kaiser laughed playfully, delighted by his own mistake. Lia now realized she could actually feel Kaiser’s touch.
Kaiser watched as Lia stared at his head with wonder, fingers tracing it. Then her hand moved from his hair to his face—
“Aaaaaahhh!”
“You bastard! I told you to stop Lucian, but look what you two did!”
“Owwww! It hurts! It hurts!”
She pinched Kaiser’s cheeks with all her strength.
She’d sent him to the Basement specifically to stop Lucian, but the two of them had conspired to turn her into a human instead! What was she supposed to do?
“Do you understand what you’ve done?! You killed someone! You think if I become human, I’ll just say ‘Oh, thank you so much’? You fool!”
“Gaaah! That’s not it! Pl-Please listen to me!”
“What do you mean ‘not it’! You’re both dying today! Lucian too! And I’m dying with you! How dare you treat human lives like that!”
“That’s not true!”
With his hair being torn at as well, Kaiser hastily pulled a mirror from his Subspace and thrust it in front of Lia’s face.
“Look at the mirror! Look at it! Do you think this will calm me down?!”
“Just look carefully! It’s your face!”
“What do you mean my face! Where did you get some kind of potion…… Huh?”
The flames of her anger flickered briefly as Lia’s pupils widened.
The face reflected in the mirror was one she had sketched again and again and again, countless times.
The face she had barely been able to complete with feedback from Lucian and Kaiser.
Yet the face now reflected in the mirror was far more elegant and beautiful than anything she had sketched.
The hand gripping Kaiser’s hair went slack.
“……So it’s really me?”
Her violet eyes, reflected in the mirror, trembled uncertainly.

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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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