The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 87

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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, Chapter 87

“Ah.”
Just before stepping outside, Lucian stopped short and turned his head.
“I’m warning you—don’t even think of approaching Lia. If you do, I won’t forgive you.”
“……So that woman means that much to you.”
Lucian went rigid at Ruber’s words. His grip tightened around the door handle.
“She’s the one who made me who I am now. Of course she means more to me than my own life.”
Click.
After Lucian left, a heavy sigh hung in the room where Ruber and Serena remained.
“They say there’s no parent whose child turns out as expected. We’re the perfect example, aren’t we?”
“An unfilial son. Threatening his own parents without a shred of shame.”
Yet despite such words, Ruber’s face bore less anger than bitter resignation.
“It seems he has no intention of breaking the betrothal. What should we do? Shouldn’t we at least give Duke Sebanus some word? We can’t have him misunderstanding.”
Duke Sebanus was one of the few who knew that Lucian was now Emperor. Surely if they explained the circumstances, he would understand.
“……I’m not sure he’ll understand and let it go.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
Half a year ago, when the matter of marriage came up alongside the succession, Lucian had flatly rejected it—and Sebanus’s reaction had been decidedly odd.
Later, when Leopold reclaimed the throne, Sebanus had added that they should hold the wedding immediately, but……
‘Something felt off about his reaction.’
A subtle response—as if he welcomed the proposal yet felt anxious about it at the same time.
The uneasy smile of an old friend suddenly came to mind.

* * *

The day’s work had ended. It was midnight, the dark hour of night.
Lucian, finally finished, rubbed his weary eyes as he made his way to his bedchamber.
When Ruber and Serena had visited that afternoon, Lia had immediately left the office.
Though Harry had explained things well, Lucian feared Lia might be even slightly disappointed in him.
“……She should be asleep by now.”
Spending half each day in sleep, she was surely resting.
Lucian glanced cautiously toward the adjoining room where Lia stayed before heading into his own chamber.
As he exhaled a tired sigh and began unfastening the buttons of his stiff shirt, a voice reached his ears—one that shouldn’t have.
“You’re late.”
Lucian froze mid-motion.
Lia was sitting languidly on the sofa in his room.
“Lia, how did you……”
“There’s a door in the wall. Your room is right through it.”
She pointed to the small door in the wall. Certainly, the rooms were connected, but……
He would sometimes cross through to see her, but this was the first time she had come over to his side.
“Did you just finish work? Or did you come late on purpose because you didn’t want to face me?”
“I… I just finished……”
“……Well, I’ll believe you.”
He nearly asked what she would do if she didn’t believe him, but Lucian pressed his lips firmly shut instead.
He approached her with the guilty shuffle of a criminal.
Lia spoke without turning to look at him.
“Harry told me. You have a fiancée, I hear?”
“She’s not my fiancée! She’s Leopold’s!”
“I know. He told me. Now sit here and explain.”
Lia tapped the spot beside her. Faced with her expressionless face and somewhat cold demeanor, Lucian studied her carefully.
“……Are you angry, Lia?”
“Why would I be?”
Lucian blinked at this unexpectedly sharp answer.
“You’re maintaining the betrothal because of the substitute arrangement, isn’t that right? Or perhaps not unavoidable—in any case, as long as the two of you aren’t close, that’s fine.”
“That would be a relief, but……”
Why did his mood feel so sour? If Lia was angry, that would be frightening in its own way, but her lack of jealousy left him oddly dissatisfied.
“What were you thinking when you brought me here, anyway?”
“Hm?”
Lucian looked up from his quiet brooding at her next words.
“My position right now is terribly ambiguous. You’re aware you’ve made me out to be your mistress?”
“Lia…!”
“Isn’t that the truth? Everyone knows you have a longtime fiancée, and then you suddenly bring some woman out of nowhere and keep her at your side. According to Harry, my existence has been kept secret until now, but that’s no longer the case, is it?”
He wanted to deny it, but every word she spoke was true, leaving him unable to say anything at all.
“And now I’m living in the room next to yours.”
The room Lia currently occupied was no mere guest chamber—it was the Imperial Consort’s quarters.
As such, it sat separated from the Emperor’s chamber by only one door. Though no Empress had been appointed, leaving it vacant, for a mere guest like Lia to occupy it was far more than her due.
“I’m grateful you made me human, but did you really have to bring me to the Imperial Palace? I could’ve stayed at the Mansion while you came and went. Now that I think about it…there are quite a few things that feel unnecessary.”
“……”
“Say something.”
As Lucian sat mute as a statue, Lia caught a glimpse of him—and what she saw was clear distress etched across his face.
The unexpected reaction made her eyes widen.
“I simply don’t want to be apart from you anymore… Have I been the only one feeling this way all along?”
He had met Lia when she was eight. They had lived together for ten years, and then spent five years apart.
One might say he had spent half as long separated from her as he had spent with her, but those long years had felt like walking through an endless tunnel with no light ahead.
“I’ve never forgotten you. Not even once. Every single day, I think of you, I miss you, I feel lonely. So when I was able to make you human, when I finally had the chance to never be parted from you again, I brought you here… Is that such a terrible thing?”
His voice—laden with dejection that bordered on despair—left Lia flustered.
“No, that’s not……”
“Did you not want to see me? Is being close like this annoying? Do you find it burdensome?”
Lucian’s golden eyes had begun to shimmer. There was a moment when it seemed tears might spill over, and Lia hastily waved her hands.
“I… I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Then why ask why I brought you here? I can’t visit the Mansion every single day.”
He felt wounded—by her lack of jealousy at mention of the fiancée, by the question of why he’d brought her, by her casual suggestion that seeing each other occasionally would suffice.
Every word she spoke seemed to suggest that living apart would be more convenient, and that wounded him deeply.
“I just wanted to spend everyday life with you. I wanted you always within reach, no matter when or where. Is it so wrong that I wanted that?”
“……Lucian.”
“Or perhaps you’ve grown up now and find me a nuisance?”
“That’s not it at all. I was just worried I’d become a burden to you.”
“Why would you think that.”
“Because… anyone would see that I’m nothing but an obstacle to you.”
The moment she learned of his fiancée, and truly faced the reality of his position, she felt diminished.
No matter how long she had raised Lucian from childhood, now that she had become human, there was nothing she could offer.
She had no wealth, no family standing, no connections.
She was here only because Lucian loved her—and that terrified her. What if others saw her that way too? What if, standing beside Lucian, she appeared pitiful?
Or rather, she was afraid of appearing insignificant in his presence.
“……Lia.”
Lia noticed Lucian’s tone had shifted to something lower, sharper.
Looking at him, she saw his eyes burning with a fierce light, reddened from tears.
“What kind of bastard would say something like that.”
“……What?”
“Who told you that you have nothing and still stand by my side?”
Lucian was angry. Lia was momentarily stunned.
“No! No one said anything like that!”
“Then why in the world would you think such nonsense.”
“Because it’s the truth……”
“Lia, listen carefully. The one who made me who I am now is you.”
His words rippled through Lia’s anxious heart like a stone through water.
“Without you, I would not exist as I am now. I am only complete when you’re by my side. You have nothing? No. That’s my line. Without you, I am nothing.”
As Lucian swept away the self-doubt she had harbored, Lia felt her nose prick without warning.
“So don’t diminish yourself. You are perfect, exactly as you are.”
“Ha, haha… I never thought I’d be comforted by you. Aren’t you overestimating me just a bit?”
“It’s the truth. From where I stand, you’re the most perfect person of all.”
Lucian even muttered his bewilderment at her having such thoughts. And with that, all the resentment and negative feelings she had harbored dissolved away.
Watching Lia break into laughter, Lucian found himself smiling softly in return.
He quietly edged closer to her and rested his head on her shoulder.
Under ordinary circumstances, Lia would have pulled away.
‘Well, I’ll allow it just this once.’
Instead, her ears flushed a fresh pink as she let him lean against her.
“Still, I want you to arrange a different room for me starting tomorrow.”
“Why……?”
Lucian’s expression looked as though the world were collapsing.
“I bet some gossiping fool put ideas in your head……”
“That’s not it. It’s just that I’m concerned. They say this is the Empress’s quarters. In a place as vast as the Imperial Palace, there’s surely a proper guest chamber. I can’t use this one. I’m not your concubine, after all.”
“……Lia!”
At the word concubine, Lucian flinched as though struck. It was a negative term, after all.
“Harry said he opposed my being here as well. Why would you place me in the Empress’s chambers of all places?”
“It’s because this palace has no separate guest quarters.”
“What? That can’t be right.”
“It’s true. Why would I lie about this?”
Lucian seemed genuinely aggrieved as he explained.
Though the Imperial Palace was indeed vast and had guest quarters scattered throughout, the Emperor’s own residence contained not a single guest chamber besides the Emperor’s and Empress’s quarters.
There was good reason for it. He was the Emperor, after all. His residence couldn’t possibly include rooms for common visitors.
“Other palaces may differ, but this one comprises only my people. That makes it easier for me to look after things and keep secrets. Besides, the room is right next door—so convenient for checking on you.”
“That’s… certainly true.”
It wasn’t a bad point. But why did it feel as though something crucial were missing from the explanation?
“What about Kaiser? Where does Kaiser stay?”
Lucian flinched. He rolled his eyes before answering, his response coming half a beat late.
“Kaiser… I did arrange a room for him in the Adjacent Palace, but apparently he doesn’t use it much. Says it’s inconvenient or something……”
Lia’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Under her pointed gaze, Lucian broke into a cold sweat.
“You could certainly find him a different room.”
“B-But Kaiser and you are different!”
“Different how? You’re both guests! Arrange a different room for me tomorrow. Otherwise, I’m going straight back to the Mansion.”
“Lia…!”
Even when Lucian pressed his case with a near-tearful expression, Lia remained resolute.
“That look won’t work. My answer is final.”
Tsk.
Lucian clicked his tongue in frustration.
‘This guy…’
It was his own fault for feigning ignorance of her scheming intent.
“More importantly, I don’t like getting caught up in misunderstandings. Regardless of the truth, you’re currently betrothed. It matters.”
“……Damn this substitute nonsense.”
“Watch your language in front of me.”
Lucian quickly pressed his lips shut at her sharp glare.
“Besides, it’s only fair to your fiancée. She believes you’re Leopold, doesn’t she? At the very least, until you return her to him, you shouldn’t give her any reason for misunderstanding.”
“No, that’s fine.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
Surely the fiancée—some noble lady or other—doesn’t know his true identity, or so Harry had said.
“No matter how obsessed with you I am, I’m not so blind as to miss that fact. There’s a reason for all of this.”
At his next words, Lia’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why I hate that woman. She’s utterly revolting.”
Lucian’s face twisted in disgust, his gaze cold with contempt.
“So don’t worry about misunderstandings. I won’t let you two ever meet, and if anyone tries to give you trouble over idle gossip they’ve heard, I’ll deal with them myself.”
“Well… if that’s what you say, I’ll trust you on it.”
“Yes, I’ll handle everything.”
“……Just don’t go needlessly tormenting people because of it.”
Lucian laughed, but Lia felt uneasy for some reason.
“By the way, I’ve never actually seen Leopold once. Could I see him sometime?”
“Hmm……”
Lucian seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded.
“Sure, let’s go see him tomorrow together. Aige mentioned he should wake up soon, though I’m not sure when exactly.”
Murmuring his hope that Leopold would wake soon, Lucian wrapped his arms around Lia. She fell silent in thought at his words.
‘Is there no way for me to heal Leopold myself?’
She had recovered enough of her strength to use Magic.
Typically, one drew only upon the Mana within one’s own body, but when she was a spirit, lacking a physical form, she had drawn Mana from the world around her instead.
Even now that she had regained her body, it wasn’t so different from her days as a spirit. In fact, since she could now access the Mana within her own body as well, using Magic had become far easier.
Could there perhaps be a way to awaken Leopold using her Magic?
Lia earnestly hoped her Magic might be effective.

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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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