The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 86

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Forsaken Prince’s Ghost Bride: Chapter 86

“Your Majesty, the former Emperor and the Empress Dowager have arrived.”
An attendant from outside announced the arrival of Lucian’s parents.
“W-what do we do?”
Harry’s pale face earned only a snort from Lucian.
“What’s there to do? I haven’t done anything wrong. Whether they come early or late, we’d have to face them eventually. Lia, you don’t need to be nervous. No matter what they say, just let it go in one ear and out the other, understood?”
Essentially, he was telling Harry to open the door.
Harry was already half-dazed with worry, and while Dio was settling the slouching Kaiser onto the sofa, James calmly walked to the entrance and opened the door.
“I’ve heard some rather strange rumors, and I wanted to see if they were true…….”
A middle-aged man who looked like what Lucian would become as he aged frowned and entered, then stopped short at the sight of the cluttered office and two unfamiliar faces.
“Oh my!”
Beside him stood a beautiful middle-aged woman.
Lia instinctively recognized that these two were Lucian’s parents.
The two of them froze at the sight of Lia and could not tear their gaze away from her.
Lia, who had met their eyes at first, soon grew uncomfortable and rolled her eyes away.
‘Should I stand and greet them first?’
Looking around, everyone was standing. Well, everyone except Kaiser.
Just as Lia was about to seek another’s opinion on what to do, Rubert opened his mouth.
“You’ve truly lost your mind!”
He rebuked Lucian with an expression of fury. Dain, who had followed Rubert, had long since closed the door, so the sound did not escape outside.
“How could you bring an unrelated woman into this place!”
‘Is he angry because I’ve been brought into the office, or is he upset that I’m here in the Imperial Palace at all?’
“Have you forgotten your position? There are already unsavory rumors about you and Lirith circulating among the people, and yet you drag a woman into this situation!”
“……Lirith?”
The name was unfamiliar, yet an inexplicable displeasure washed over her.
Lia forgot to manage her expression and turned to Lucian with eyes demanding an explanation. Lucian, whose face had been twisted with irritation as he looked at Rubert, caught her gaze and relaxed his features.
Lucian pressed his forehead and hesitated before his eyes flashed, and he shot a look at Rubert.
“That woman is the Emperor’s betrothed, but she is not my betrothed.”
“Leopold!”
“I’ve been in this position so long that I’ve forgotten—I am merely a stand-in. You’ve had me do everything you desired. Must I even obtain permission to keep the person I love at my side? Be reasonable. You have no right to demand this of me.”
“How could you say such a thing……!”
As Serena looked shocked and glanced toward Lia and Kaiser, Harry whispered softly.
“These two also know about Your Majesty’s secret. They are those who have been with you since long ago.”
Once the two learned of Lucian’s connection to them before coming here, they hesitated.
Lia was reluctant, but it seemed the moment to greet them had come, so she rose from her seat.
“It is an honor to meet you, former Emperor, Empress Dowager. I am Lia. I have known Lucian since he was eight years old. This is Kaiser. He is likewise an old friend of Lucian’s, just as I am.”
“…….”
“I hadn’t heard from him in so long and wondered how he was getting on, but we reunited recently. I never expected him to become Emperor. He’s changed so much from before that I was quite taken aback.”
In other words: *why the fuss now, when you abandoned him then?*
At first, Lia had thought she should observe at least some courtesy, given that these two were Lucian’s parents.
But watching Lucian’s attitude, she found no reason to do so.
Or rather, it was more accurate to say that anger surged at the parents who had abandoned him.
Rubert stiffened, and color drained from Serena’s face.
Having no intention to take it further, Lia decided to stop there. After all, as parents, these two were still important members of the Imperial Family.
As Lia stepped back and gently took Lucian’s arm, he felt as though he had gained ten thousand allies.
Rubert noticed Lucian’s slight smile.
It was a smile he had not once seen during the five years they had spent together.
“This office is rather cluttered. Shall we go elsewhere and speak? There are matters we should discuss regarding what comes next.”
The two had no choice but to follow Lucian to a different location.
Just before Serena left, she glanced at Lia, but Lia did nothing but lower her head.
“Well done, Lia.”
“I thought I’d aged ten years! No matter that Lucian is Emperor now, we shouldn’t make enemies of the former Emperor and Empress!”
Dio and Harry’s reactions diverged sharply.
Dio was exhilarated, able to ease even a little of the accumulated grievance he harbored toward the former imperial couple.
Harry, meanwhile, was concerned with practical matters.
“That’s the extent of it. If I’d been my true self, I’d have never let them hold their heads up before Lucian.”
“When Lia gets angry, it’s truly terrifying.”
Kaiser chuckled supportively from beside her, and Harry’s face paled at the fear that something might actually go wrong.
But Lia was not the sort to let her thoughts run that far.
“Wait—did those two come back to the Imperial Palace because of me?”
“That’s what it seems like, yes.”
“Setting aside their anger at my being brought in, but who is this Lirith? Who is she?”
Dio and Harry flinched and exchanged wary glances.
“Lirith…… Lirith…… now that I think about it, it’s a name I’ve heard often from the Imperial Palace. What was it again? They said she was Lucian’s betrothed?”
As Kaiser spoke idly, Lia’s eyebrows twitched.
“……He has a betrothed?”
“Lia! It’s a misunderstanding! It’s absolutely not what you’re thinking!”
“S-she is the Emperor’s betrothed, not Lucian’s betrothed!”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Right, it was nonsense. A betrothed who wasn’t a betrothed—what kind of absurdity was that?
But as the explanation continued, Lia realized she had misunderstood.
“……So you mean she was originally Leopold’s long-betrothed?”
“Yes, but now that Lucian is taking Leopold’s place as stand-in and has become Emperor, no one except us knows the truth. We can’t dissolve the betrothal when everyone believes Leopold is Emperor.”
“Besides, Leopold genuinely loves Lirith.”
“……The situation is complicated.”
Dio relaxed when he saw Lia’s agitation settle.
“Is the misunderstanding cleared up now?”
“Yes, well, if that’s the situation, then I see why my position would be difficult. I can understand why they were angry with me.”
No matter that Lucian is acting as Leopold’s stand-in, at a point where everyone believes him to be Leopold, it wasn’t right to treat a long-betrothed woman poorly.
Moreover, it’s said that when he ascended as Emperor, he refused the suggestion to hold a wedding ceremony.
‘There’s certainly justification…….’
But could other people truly accept that?
Lia, lost in thought as she turned things over in her mind, suddenly remembered something.
“Wait—what exactly is my position in all this?”
If Lucian brought her to the Imperial Palace himself and cares for her, staying even in his private quarters, then wasn’t she being seen as his beloved?
But with a betrothed waiting, wasn’t Lucian becoming an Emperor infatuated with another woman?
“Then I’m…… a mistress?”
In that instant, Lia’s head spun and words failed her.

* * *

“You’ve come earlier than expected. I’m sure I told you to rest for at least a year.”
“Is that what you say to parents you haven’t seen in ages?”
After moving to an empty nearby room, Lucian faced Rubert and Serena with an air of displeasure.
Rubert was far from pleased with his son’s demeanor.
‘When was he ever warm toward us?’
He only played at warmth during official gatherings when many people were present. In private moments like these, he bared his fangs like a wildcat.
“So the reason you returned to the Imperial Palace so soon is because of Lia.”
“That woman’s name is Lia.”
“Don’t call her ‘that woman.’ She’s not someone who should hear such language from you two.”
“……Sigh, what could possibly be wrong? We haven’t said anything we shouldn’t have.”
“Right, Lucian. Do you have any idea how shocked we were to hear that you’d brought a woman to the Imperial Palace? If we’ve heard of it, the Severus Family must have known about it long ago.”
At Serena’s words, Lucian crossed his arms and avoided her gaze.
He had indeed heard whispers this morning that the Duke of Severus was looking for him.
“I understand the woman is precious to you, but now is not the time. Send her back to where she came from at once.”
“I told you when I became Emperor—I have no intention of listening to the two of you anymore.”
“Lucian!”
Rubert bellowed, but Lucian didn’t even blink.
“Yes, I am Lucian. Not Leopold.”
Instead, his eyes sharpened dangerously as he glared at the two of them.
“I am merely a stand-in for my brother. This position was never mine to begin with. How could I ever take his woman as my consort?”
“But the others don’t see it that way. It’s been over thirteen years since the betrothal. Both of them are well past the age for marriage! We cannot keep postponing this indefinitely.”
“Then we have no choice but to wait for my brother to awaken.”
Rubert sighed in exasperation and pressed his forehead.
“……To be honest, you know as well as I do that Leopold’s chances are hopeless.”
Lucian’s eyebrows twitched.
“It’s been five years since Leopold collapsed. We still don’t know when, or even if, he’ll wake. He might never recover.”
The physicians, mages, and priests all gave the same diagnosis each time they examined him.
No one could say when he would awaken.
For the first three years, there was still hope. But as five years passed, the thread of hope grew thin.
“You may be merely a stand-in, but you’ve handled everything brilliantly so far. You have the qualities of a just ruler, beyond that of a mere replacement. We must prepare for the possibility that Leopold never wakes.”
“Ha……!”
Lucian’s mouth twisted, and he fixed Rubert with a look of contempt. He rubbed his aching jaw.
“……You two give up so easily.”
Rubert and Serena flinched. Now, as Lucian’s gaze fell upon them, it was laden with scorn.
“You erased me from the world to hide the fact that we were born as twins. And now you abandon your brother so easily when he falls into an accident and becomes comatose. They say a parent would hold a child dear, yet for you two, children seem to be things easily discarded.”
“Lucian, that’s not……!”
“I’ll grant you might do so to me!”
Serena tried to speak in a panic, but Lucian cut her off.
“But not to my brother! He was raised by you from childhood—you should do whatever it takes to find a way to wake him……! And you call yourselves parents?”
Rubert’s eyes widened and he approached Lucian with a stride, but could only glare with bloodshot eyes; he could do nothing else.
It had always been this way.
Even as Lucian crossed the line and scraped at his heart, Rubert never raised a hand against him.
Why was that? Could it be that some small scrap of conscience remained?
‘It doesn’t matter.’
What mattered was that they were trying to give up on Leopold.
If they knew the weight of his heart during these five years of serving as a stand-in, they would never dare speak such folly before him.
“I will never give up on my brother. This position was always his, never mine. You should understand that, and stop this nonsense about Lirith, about marriage, about everything.”
“……Then what do you intend to do about the woman called Lia? Did you bring her to the Imperial Palace intending to marry her?”
“If I had my way, I’d do it this very moment. But if I marry, I will do so as Lucian, not as Emperor. So you needn’t worry about any scandal I might cause.”
With that, Lucian walked past the two of them.
As always, the conversation ended the same way, and Rubert pressed his forehead. Whenever he tried to have a discussion, it would break down; they would trade heated words and anger, and then it would end.
One might be less frustrated arguing with a brick wall.
Perhaps it was unavoidable, given how wrong things had gone from the start, but over these five years, Rubert felt a pang at how Lucian had never once opened his heart to them.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————