The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 278

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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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Part 2, Chapter 125

Under the lamplight, each sharp and straight shadow fell upon the wall.

However, those shadows never overlapped.

Like two people standing on parallel lines.

“You are truly magnanimous, Your Highness, to overlook this fool’s insolence with such generosity. The rumors I’ve heard, the truths I believed I knew… not a single one was correct.”

“Sisear.”

“To think the position of a nation’s chancellor could be so wretched. Your Highness was right. How amusing those who are weak from being unable to be evil must have seemed.”

“Stop it, I know what you want to say-“

“You played me for a fool!”

In that moment, the exploding Sisear grabbed Chezare by the collar and slammed him against the wall.

“Was it fun? Both you and Garo, deceiving me for so long?”

Within the suppressed anger, wounded betrayal rippled.

“Sisear, look at this. This is the head of the Evil Dragon that our Princess and 1st Prince cut off. Haha, isn’t it magnificent?”

“My word, these Holy Kingdom folks who were just standing there with their mouths agape, when did they prepare this taxidermy?”

“Are you listening? What is there to see in a severed head that you stare at it so intently?”

The cut marks remaining on the Evil Dragon’s neck. It was a sword technique used only in the Tower of the White Night.

“This… the 1st Prince cut this off?”

“Of course, you should have seen it. The black aura stretching out and wrapping around that tough neck!”

Sisear stared coldly at Chezare.

The man he had once trusted more deeply than anyone, whom he had trusted enough to ask for help during his homeland’s crisis.

“Akaress. Tower of the White Night. Garo. Continental war. Ha, truly…”

Contempt that he had no intention of suppressing flowed clearly between Sisear’s gaze and expression.

“Among all the words you spoke, all the actions you took, was there even a single thing that could be called truth?”

Chezare remained silent.

Without any protest or tremor in his expression, he quietly accepted that condemnation.

He knew that even if he explained, he wouldn’t be understood.

Especially by someone like Sisear who had walked the righteous path while maintaining his principles.

“…”

From the moment he opened his eyes, it had been a life threatened by death.

Whether that environment shaped his nature or he was originally this kind of person, he didn’t know.

However, even if he returned to that moment again,

he wouldn’t reveal his identity for the sake of one friend named Sisear and hand his weakness to his enemies.

“Damn it, Akaress. At least make an excuse!”

That quiet composure only fanned Sisear’s anger further.

Had it been so meaningless?

Had he torn down his walls and invested his heart in such a shallow relationship that could be overturned in an instant?

The land called his homeland that supported his feet was still safe, but beyond that, at an invisible arm’s length,

he seemed to hear the sound of a levee he had always leaned his heart against crumbling irreversibly with a crack.

Sisear let out a bitter laugh.

“You always told me to leave Valdina and come to your side. Now I see there were reasons for everything.”

The 1st Prince of Kazen.

Overcoming the weakness of an unfortunate birth, he had solidly built his own power through skillful political maneuvering, walking a precarious tightrope even with the Emperor.

He too had almost fallen for that cunning 1st Prince’s schemes.

“I’m just pathetic for thinking of you as a friend. And now you’ll probably toy with Princess as well.”

Suddenly, fire flashed in Chezare’s eyes.

“Did you deceive Her Highness the same way? Hiding your real target of Valdina while packaging fake sincerity so well. Was there anything in your calculations that wasn’t fake?”

With a sharp sound that tore through the silence, Chezare roughly knocked away Sisear’s hand.

“Condemn me all you want. You’re neither the first nor will you be the last anyway.”

The composure that hadn’t wavered no matter how much Sisear had struck finally shattered.

“Friend? Companion? Ahaha. Sisear, do you know who the first human I killed was?”

Chezare sneered viciously.

“It was the wet nurse who raised me. Next was the guard who grew up like my brother, and then all the retainers who became my parents in place of the Late Emperor.”

“…What?”

“Everyone who loved me eventually tried to kill me. Do you think I can’t swallow your anger?”

But.

“Not Dea.”

His languid voice lowered. The softer it became, the sharper the blade within.

“I can accept whatever you say to me. But I won’t forgive even you for daring to doubt my pure love for Dea.”

Golden eyes gleamed beneath the darkness. Like a beast drawing an instinctive line.

“Akaress, you-“

Elegant fingers smoothed Sisear’s disheveled collar.

He hesitated for a moment.

But soon, he pulled up his twisted lips.

“Call it contradictory, call it cowardly. I don’t have the luxury to show mercy anyway.”

Chezare stepped back.

“…”

His steps moving into the darkness, leaving Sisear alone, held neither lingering attachment nor anger.

As if he had no expectations from the beginning.

* * *

How much time had passed?

It was when pitch-black night had arrived, and even those who couldn’t sleep late due to worry and anxiety were dropping their weary heads.

Chezare entered the bedroom where Medeia was.

She lay quietly with her eyes closed, so still that even her breathing couldn’t be felt.

Looking down at her long eyelashes closed without trembling and her pale cheeks, Chezare exhaled.

For a fleeting moment, ten years of time passed by, from the first meeting of three young boys in the Tower of the White Night.

It was absurd that despite experiencing it countless times, the sensation of loss always left new wounds.

“Everyone who loved me eventually tried to kill me.”

Though he had said it himself, it felt like a curse.

“I hope you won’t be like that, Medeia.”

At least not you.

He swallowed quietly at the bleakness seeping into his chest.

“I want to know you better.”

More deeply, without hiding anything.

So that I can protect you, so that you won’t leave in the end.

So that at least you can remain by my side.

Chezare slowly bent his waist. He carefully pressed his head against Medeia’s small forehead.

It was an awkward sight, like a large black dog crouching beside its master, but neither the dog nor the master cared.

The sweet fragrance faintly brushing his nose was both unfamiliar and familiar.

Even though she was beside him, somehow her presence felt distant.

“Wake up, Medeia.”

Contrary to his words, Chezare closed his eyes.

Then, white light seeping from somewhere enveloped the two of them.

* * *

A little while ago, when Medeia encountered Jason after leaving the Hall of Judgment, she had lost consciousness because something enormous had struck her.

‘Again… like that time…’

What was shining white turned out to be a massive mirror. Broken into large fragments.

Rachel’s face was reflected on the first fragment.

She wore not cream-colored saint robes, but a splendid golden empress dress.

“Before eliminating Medeia, I must kill that brother of hers first.”

Rachel muttered to herself while carving a small piece of wood on the table.

“It would have been nice if I could have stolen that bitch’s family too, but that king doesn’t seem like he’d ever allow that… Ha, what’s there to regret about some measly king of a small kingdom anyway.”

Rachel grumbled sharply. Her delicate hands snapped off branches from the potted plant with sharp tugs.

The young tree had all its branches broken except for one remaining branch.

“There’s not much left now. Just a little more and…”

With Rachel’s face filled with longing as the final image, the scene shifted to the second fragment.

“Your Majesty! Are you listening?”

Unlike Rachel’s voice, the person reflected in the fragment was Jason.

The vitality of his youth had disappeared, and his face showed the heavy wear of time.

However, the sinister desire reflected in his eyes was no different from before.

“Haa, the King of Valdina is still continuously demanding that we send that woman Medeia back to Valdina, so it’s really a headache. Moreover, if Medeia goes back…”

Jason agreed with Rachel’s subtle complaint.

“They’ll try to raise a sword against Zim. That woman and her brother don’t know the meaning of giving up. They’ll try to rise up again anytime to threaten Zim. To Zim, and to this Empire… it’s too dangerous.”

“But Your Majesty is the hero who defeated the Evil Dragon and seized the Imperial Throne. You should be able to easily handle the likes of them.”

Rachel wrapped her arms around Jason’s neck and whispered sweetly. However, Jason’s expression still didn’t relax.

Medeia knew the reason. The reason Jason could never feel at ease.

‘Because none of it was something you accomplished yourself.’

So he was constantly anxious about losing it to Medeia again, and ultimately decided to destroy her instead.

To thoroughly crush her so she wouldn’t even dare to raise a sword against him.

Rachel didn’t know the truth that the expedition members had buried, but anyway, regarding the opinion that the Medeia siblings needed to be eliminated, the two were in agreement.

“I’ll send this to Valdina now. I’m not sure if it’ll be effective though.”

Jason nodded at Rachel’s words.

“He’s someone who cherishes his younger sister terribly even though his country has become like this, so it won’t be without effect.”

Jason casually turned his gaze to the parchment in Rachel’s hand.

When the parchment was reflected on the mirror fragment, Medeia froze.

“I… I never wrote that.”

On the parchment was a sentence written in Medeia’s handwriting.

[Peleus, help me. I’m going to leave Kazen. Come rescue me at the Valdina Border.]

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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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