The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 124

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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 124

 

But those were despicable words.

 

Present in this place were the Queen Mother, Valdina’s high officials, and the Guard Captain.

 

If the Regent truly wanted to cover up his niece’s mistake, he should not have revealed it here at the very least.

 

‘Hoakin, are these words this child speaks truly sincere?’

 

The Queen Mother suspected the Regent’s intentions, but she could not deny them otherwise.

 

“We searched the entire palace, but could not find Princess Medeia. My apologies, Your Majesty.”

 

Moreover, the Queen Mother’s knights who arrived shortly after supported the Regent’s testimony.

 

They handed the Queen Mother a purple fan, claiming they had found it in the Princess’s quarters.

 

“This is… something I gifted to Medeia…”

 

The Queen Mother, recognizing the fan, staggered.

 

‘Medeia, you foolish child. If you were so afraid, you should have come to me! No matter what happened, this grandmother would have protected you. But why—’

 

Then she realized. She had never once been a complete shield for that child.

 

So Medeia had fled alone.

 

“Ah…”

 

“Your Majesty!”

 

The Queen Mother’s legs buckled under the heart-wrenching regret and guilt. Lady Pinatelli quickly supported her.

 

The Queen Mother did not see the Regent and her knights exchanging glances.

 

The Regent stepped forward as if to say his words were correct.

 

“I will protect this country in place of His Majesty the King who is ‘absent’ and Princess Medeia who has ‘fled.'”

 

“How dare you! All you have shown me until now is your pathetic concern only for your own safety. Are you not trying to frame Medeia again this time?”

 

Rather, the Regent firmly spoke while grasping the Queen Mother’s hand as she suspected him.

 

“Mother, do you remember long ago when Father and my brother left for the south to solve the drought, and Kazen invaded Valdina? I held them off despite not even being of age. I nearly had my throat cut by Kazen’s sword.”

 

Though they now spoke of friendship and exchanged diplomacy on the surface, Kazen decades ago had been Valdina’s clear enemy.

 

The Regent pulled down his clothes, revealing a faint scar remaining on his shoulder.

 

“…”

 

“I was the same age then as Medeia is now. But I did not flee.”

 

The sturdy knights of the Prince’s estate stood proudly behind him as if supporting his words.

 

“Valdina’s royal blood flows in me as well. So I will set this shaking kingdom right.”

 

The Regent struck his chest.

 

The eyes of those who looked at him like a savior with admiration made him feel even more elated.

 

People’s reactions to the Regent’s words were mixed.

 

While some like the Queen Mother and Count Montega could not dispel their suspicions, others were fooled by his lies and praised and cheered the Regent, saying royal blood was indeed different.

 

The emboldened Regent shouted loudly toward the rebels.

 

“You wicked traitors! As long as this Claudio is here, you will never be able to covet this Royal Palace! What are you doing! Quickly raise Claudio’s flag!”

 

“Yes, Your Grace!”

 

His resounding command made him appear as an unprecedented hero.

 

People felt a strange sensation.

 

The Princess who had been the kingdom’s hero until just recently had fled, while the Regent who had been cursed as a beast was staying to protect the country.

 

This was why they said you could see a person’s true nature in times of crisis.

 

When national calamity struck, the Regent’s bold and brazenly aggressive demeanor appeared as an unparalleled virtue in people’s eyes.

 

Well, compared to the Princess who had fled in terror with her tail between her legs.

 

People were swept up in the atmosphere and completely forgot Medeia’s image of standing against the Kazen Empire.

 

“Mother, I will gather the noble ladies to manage the wounded. It’s makeshift, but it will be better than having no help.”

 

Catherine Claudio, the Regent’s wife, calmly suggested ways to support the soldiers from behind.

 

“Grandmother, please allow me to go out front and fight.”

 

His son, Young Duke Samon, bravely requested to go outside the castle walls despite his body not being fully recovered from his flogging.

 

The Claudio family’s appearance was worthy of being everyone’s model.

 

At this point when everyone was just watching and stepping back, they were the only ones stepping forward without hesitation against the rebels.

 

Meanwhile, the Prince’s knights efficiently raised the Prince’s flag next to Valdina’s national flag.

 

The blue-green flag fluttering in the wind clearly revealed itself.

 

“This Claudio will resolve Valdina’s national crisis in its time of danger. Mother, entrust me with command of the Royal Palace forces—!”

 

Then, clatter, clatter, the sound of hoofbeats rang out.

 

A soldier on a white horse climbed up to the castle walls in one breath. The skill of controlling the horse while ascending the steep stairs was expert level.

 

“Uncle, what exactly are you saying?”

 

Then, a clear voice rang out.

 

The small soldier threw off their helmet. With a clang as the helmet rolled across the ground, silver hair rippled.

 

“Princess?”

 

Didn’t they say she had fled?

 

How did this happen?

 

People’s eyes widened.

 

However, no matter how you compared, nothing could match the Regent’s family’s shock.

 

The Regent nearly gasped.

 

“Me, Medeia, how are you…”

 

How? Why here?

 

“You should be by now…”

 

Far from the Royal Palace, captured by the rebels over there?

 

His eyes, wide as lanterns, showed no sign of shrinking.

 

Catherine and Samon, who were with him, also looked incredulous. They seemed to have no idea where or what had gone wrong.

 

Samon hesitated.

 

“Samon, I can’t go that fast. The memory of falling from a horse is terrible, so I can barely hold the reins.”

 

He recalled Medeia crying at the hunting grounds once.

 

But now, she jumping down from the horse showed no fear at all.

 

No, rather her handling of armor and horse appeared so natural. As if she were a general who had spent her entire life on battlefields.

 

‘Could it be…’

 

While thinking it absolutely couldn’t be, a strange intuition pierced through Samon.

 

“Forgive me, Uncle.”

 

Medeia, dismounting from her horse, approached the Regent first.

 

“Though Uncle prepared a safe escape route for me to avoid the rebels, I simply could not follow it.”

 

Escape route? People’s ears perked up.

 

What did this mean? Wasn’t this different from what the Regent had said earlier?

 

“Am I not Valdina’s Princess? No matter what hardships and disasters befall us, I have a duty to protect this place until the very end when this country falls.”

 

Medeia raised her chin and slowly looked over the inside and outside of the Royal Palace one by one.

 

Her gaze toward the inside of the Royal Palace where the soldiers were was gentle, and when looking outside where the rebels were, it was sharp like a well-honed blade.

 

“Hoakin said you fled in terror.”

 

At the Queen Mother’s question, she tilted her head.

 

“Fled? Uncle came directly to my palace to show me the secret passage and even provided knights from the Prince’s estate. There must have been some misunderstanding.”

 

As if to say ‘isn’t that right,’ Medeia looked at the Regent.

 

“You, you…!”

 

Like his mind that had gone blank, Regent Claudio’s face turned pale.

 

That was when it happened.

 

“You greedy royal dogs! Behold! The true nature of the royal family you were protecting!”

 

A resounding roar came from the rebels beyond the castle walls.

 

[When the Prince’s flag flies on the castle walls, display the kidnapped Princess for all to see.]

 

It was a signal the Regent had conveyed in advance as an order, anticipating that conversation would become difficult once the rebels entered the Royal Palace.

 

“Chief, Claudio’s flag has been raised.”

 

“Good. The signal has come. Now! Bring the sacrifice!”

 

Chief Horolls, unaware of the unexpected situation on the castle walls where Medeia had appeared, remembered that tacit signal and stepped onto the promised stage.

 

‘No!’

 

The Regent screamed inwardly.

 

Even without knowing the detailed circumstances of why Medeia was here, it was clear that his plan had gone completely awry.

 

He hurriedly signaled to the knight to lower the flag.

 

“We’ve captured the Princess of Valdina!”

 

However, Horolls’s shout from the distance was faster than that.

 

A frail girl with a sack over her head was dragged out, her hands bound and being pulled along.

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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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