The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 107

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107

“Princess, there’s something I need to obtain from you.”

Chezare answered obediently.

“What is it?”

“….”

He looked down at his silver hair that seemed to be dyed crimson in the campfire’s light.

“My dream. My ambition. The things I promised to the world.”

In the pitch-black darkness, this space that alone held light seemed to break down even his defenses.

Judging by how he was starting to babble nonsense.

“I don’t have such things.”

“You’ll find them soon.”

“Valdina’s Golden Star will save… your destiny.”

Though there was no certainty, his mixed instincts and reason told him so.

To place his remaining handful of hope on this girl before his eyes. That even if it wasn’t so, he wouldn’t regret it.

“….”

Silence settled again. But it wasn’t awkward.

“Still, it’s not… bad.”

She rested her head against her knees. The approaching drowsiness softened her guard.

The campfire’s warmth was cozy, and the mercenary sitting beside her was skilled enough that she didn’t need to worry about beast attacks.

A feeling of safety. Was this what it felt like to be protected after so long?

‘I don’t know.’

The years of only protecting others had been too long, she had forgotten. What such moments when one could let their guard down were usually called.

“….”

Medeia muttered blankly.

“Akaress, it would have been nice if you had been there back then.”

Chezare turned his head. The Princess’s eyes were half-closed.

Her voice was so faint it couldn’t be heard without straining one’s ears.

“If so, it would have been a little more comfortable. I wouldn’t have had to stay awake all night in fear of when Jared might attack me.”

Even if you had just sat beside me like now, occasionally poking at the firewood and tending the fire.

“It would have been a little less lonely.”

A transparent drop formed between her closed eyelashes and rolled down.

The hand poking at the kindling paused for a moment.

‘Jared? But this should have been the Princess’s first meeting with that man?’

A cold energy flashed through his golden eyes.

“….”

The Princess seemed to have fallen asleep and said nothing more.

As if to hide her layered secrets, darkness settled thickly.

Chezare quietly draped his outer coat over her shoulders.

* * *

The next day, Medeia emerged from the forest together with Chezare.

Having sent a messenger at some point, the man who got out of Facade’s carriage that had come to meet them said he was a mage from the Mage Tower.

“So you’re the famous Princess of Valdina.”

The brown-haired, slender young man looked extremely tired and sensitive. He reminded her of Sisear buried in state affairs.

“Please call me Terrence.”

The mage added briefly.

Medeia felt that the eyes behind his glasses were carefully observing her.

“I heard the general situation from Aka… ress. Should I help Your Highness return in my capacity as Matap Master?”

“Matap Master?”

The young man before her was far too young to be a tower master.

She had heard that aging stopped when one reached a realm beyond human limits, but…

“Ah, that’s my master. I act as his representative, traveling across the continent and handling transport to the Mage Tower.”

Terrence showed the tower master’s seal.

Medeia glanced at Chezare who was leaning against the carriage with his eyes closed.

‘A disciple of the Matap Master.’

The extent of connections that Facade’s leader possessed was surprising.

‘So that’s why Jason regretted so much when Facade quietly disappeared without a trace in my past life.’

“Then in return, what does the Mage Tower want?”

Medeia asked back.

Through the expedition in her past life, she knew that mages valued equivalent exchange more than their lives.

Terrence paused briefly at the quite reasonable question from a princess, unlike the Kazen royals who always made demands of the Mage Tower.

“There is something I’m looking for personally…”

Medeia moved her green eyes as if telling him to speak.

Terrence inwardly suppressed a bitter laugh.

The noble aura that contrasted with her peaceful face was indeed fitting for the protagonist who had cornered the Kazen Delegation and the Regent.

“Your Highness, have you perhaps heard of the Dawn’s Tears?”

At that moment, Chezare, who had his eyes closed, snapped them open.

‘What, do you think you have the luxury to be picky about this and that right now?’

When his golden eyes stared at Terrence warningly, Terrence answered with his eyes.

“Dawn’s Tears? Is that the name of a magic stone?”

Medeia asked back as if hearing it for the first time.

Unable to read any change in her green eyes, Terrence shook his head slightly and continued.

“It’s a legendary medicine said to wash away all the filth from the beginning of time. Your Highness must have heard that Kazen’s First Prince is living on borrowed time.”

“Terrence.”

As if telling him to stop there, Chezare warned, but Terrence didn’t stop.

“The Mage Tower believes Dawn’s Tears is the solution to cure his illness.”

“Get out.”

His long, straight legs kicked the carriage door with a bang, chasing Terrence away.

‘So Dawn’s Tears was what Facade was looking for.’

Medeia could read the answer from their reactions.

The Mage Tower seeking a cure for the First Prince.

‘That Akaress is now with that Matap Master’s disciple means…’

“My dream. My ambition. The things I promised to the world.”

His words that had faintly remained in her ears from last night.

Medeia suddenly asked.

“Is Facade trying to interfere in the Empire’s succession struggle?”

Chezare, who had been glaring at Terrence, paused.

“What?”

“The First Prince wouldn’t be a bad choice.”

Damn Terrence. Hanging around with Garo had made him chatty. Chezare swallowed his curse toward his friend and asked.

“Princess, why do you think so?”

“Kazen’s Emperor despises the incompetent and is wary of the capable. The First Prince was the only one unshaken by that eccentricity.”

Chezare didn’t notice that Medeia was speaking in past tense.

“Princess, have you met the First Prince?”

The air grew sharply tense.

“No. But I know him.”

“How?”

“Wouldn’t it be harder to find someone on the continent who doesn’t know him?”

Medeia shrugged.

“Even so, he’s living on borrowed time with death at his doorstep. What’s so great about that?”

At the harsh words, Medeia watched for his reaction.

‘Has Facade not made a decision yet?’

Well, since he’s such a big shot capable of shaking the political landscape, any royals with imperial ambitions would want Facade for themselves.

“If he were the type to fall to mere illness, he would have died long ago. The fact that he’s still clinging to life shows a tenacity that no one else can match. If that’s the case, isn’t he worth betting one’s fate on?”

Jason, including him.

“If it were me, I’d take the First Prince’s hand. Rather than someone like Duke Castulo.”

“….”

At Medeia’s words, the mercenary fell silent for a moment, as if speechless.

“Akaress?”

“Using Castulo as the comparison… I wonder if that’s praise or mockery. The First Prince would cough up blood if he heard that.”

The mercenary threw out a cold joke, then crossed his arms, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

And he swallowed his soundless emotions.

Ever since being struck by the primordial curse, Chezare had moved forward relentlessly amidst the despair and sorrow of countless people around him.

But even for him, standing against something from the distant primordial era couldn’t have been easy.

Every time seizures occurred, every time the curse devoured his body, Chezare repeated to himself without a shred of certainty.

I will definitely survive. I will absolutely never give up.

Almost like brainwashing, ceaselessly like that.

And now, the Princess before his eyes had said:

“The fact that he’s still clinging to life shows a tenacity that no one else can match. If that’s the case, isn’t he worth betting one’s fate on?”

That his desperate efforts had not been wrong.

The recognition and understanding from another that he thought he had never wanted came flooding in all at once, and even Chezare, who prided himself on cold rationality, couldn’t collect himself.

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