The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 173

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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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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 173

“…It was all just a futile dream.”

Radis’s blood-soaked lips trembled violently.

“I shouldn’t have lived for my parents, for my siblings, for my family, for the house. I should have lived for myself…!”

Her eyelashes trembled finely as they fell.

From inside her closed eyelids, brilliant multicolored light descended and enveloped her.

On a bright winter day in Imperial Year 502.

Radis met her death alone and miserably like that.

Yael was climbing the Abandoned Tower in the Imperial Capital.

The darkness of the tower where the Empire’s worst traitor was confined was damp, and its silence was malicious.

The Abandoned Tower, which no one had visited originally because of rumors that the ghost of a deposed empress wandered there, making it perfect for evil groups to plot secret conspiracies, had now become a traitor’s place of exile.

This tower had no guards.

The people who had imprisoned the traitor in this tower were not worried about him escaping.

Because he had an immobile body and nowhere to flee to.

Standing before the door of the room where the traitor was confined, Yael took a deep breath.

It was to erase the deep sadness and despair within her that hadn’t been properly contained, and might therefore show on her expression.

Having erased all expression and emotion from her face, Yael knocked on the door and slowly entered the room.

Her figure was revealed in the light of the beeswax candles illuminating the room.

She who had once worked as Olivier, the 3rd Prince’s right hand alongside Joel like they were one body, now wore the shabby clothes of the lowest-ranking maids.

Her face was haggard with fatigue, and her fingertips were cracked from unfamiliar harsh work.

Only her voice remained unchanged.

Yael approached the edge of the bed and called to the traitor—no, her master—in a quiet voice.

“Your Highness Olivier.”

At her voice, Olivier, who had been lying straight on the bed, slowly opened his eyes.

His face was pale as porcelain, and no vitality could be felt anywhere.

His appearance lying on the cold bed looked like a beautiful corpse placed in a coffin.

Watching him like that, Yael felt a stabbing pain at the pit of her stomach.

However, she could not dare show her suffering before Olivier.

Yael set down the medicinal soup she had brought and said.

“I brought medicine today.”

At her words, Olivier closed his eyes.

Yael could understand what he wanted to say without hearing it.

‘Such medicine cannot cure me. And there’s no need for it either.’

However, Yael could not abandon her master.

Continuing meaningless efforts—that was all she could do.

“…It’s medicine that’s supposed to relieve paralysis symptoms. It will definitely be effective.”

Yael carefully helped Olivier sit up.

His withered body was as light as a bundle of straw.

With a bit of exaggeration, it seemed like he would blow away if the wind blew.

While Olivier slowly swallowed the bitter medicine, Yael quietly stayed by his side.

She looked at the small candle flame flickering precariously as if it would go out at any moment and thought.

‘Why… did it come to this?’

Her lord’s ruin was due to ‘that incident’ that occurred two years ago, in Imperial Year 500.

Two years ago, a grand banquet of unprecedented scale was held in the Imperial Capital to commemorate Imperial Year 500.

Empress Adrianne, who had been waiting for a long time, presented the Emperor with the worst weapon, the ‘Black Flame,’ to make her son, 1st Prince Charle Arpend, the Crown Prince.

It was the moment Olivier had been waiting for.

The ‘Black Flame’ was the power of the demon realm, and what the black mages who created it desired was the Empire’s destruction.

Having known this all along, Olivier submitted a perfect accusation against Empress Adrianne to the Emperor to bring about her downfall.

The Emperor who received Olivier’s accusation showed an utterly disappointed expression, and Olivier was certain of victory.

However, what came to him that night was not the goddess of victory, but the knights of Reveloa and Empress Adrianne.

The Empress poured poison into Olivier’s mouth while his limbs were restrained and said this.

‘To think that the dog I cherished so much was aiming for my throat.’

Glaring at Olivier who was coughing up blood, the Empress continued.

‘You won’t die. Your father, His Majesty the Emperor, who loves you terribly, doesn’t wish for you to die peacefully.’

Thus Olivier became a cripple and lost everything.

The people of the Pelletier Family, his maternal relatives, all disappeared as dew on the execution ground for the crime of opposing the Empress.

Joel, Yael’s twin and Olivier’s most favored aide, was also executed.

Only Yael, who had always lived hiding behind Joel, survived and was secretly caring for him like this.

Taking the empty medicine bowl, Yael whispered in a low voice.

“Your Highness, it seems Hestia’s rampage is not far off.”

It was information she had obtained with difficulty.

However, Olivier showed no particular reaction.

Yael continued speaking.

“But please don’t worry. His Majesty the Emperor has dispatched investigation teams to all places related to Berard Russel to find Chronos. His Majesty will soon find Chronos and solve the problem.”

At her words, Olivier raised his head.

The moment their eyes met, Yael felt dizzy.

Olivier’s beautiful violet eyes were completely empty.

They were the eyes of someone already dead.

They were the eyes of a condemned prisoner who had lost everything and was lying on the scaffold, waiting for a blade that could fall at any unknown moment.

With those eyes, Olivier weakly muttered something.

Yael carefully brought her ear to his lips.

He was saying this.

“…Everyone, fall to hell.”

To him who had never seen spring, every season was winter.

He could find no meaning in his life other than revenge, and from the moment that became impossible, he could no longer find any meaning in his remaining life.

“Cough, cough!”

Olivier began coughing.

Yael embraced his shoulders and wept without being able to shed tears.

Heron Rodrick, the eldest son of the Rodrick Family, spoke in a cunning voice.

“There’s no way Chronos would be in the Monster Forest. The only things in that forest are monsters. Besides, a forbidden zone? Such a terrible place is not suitable for noble personages to visit.”

Gerion, the leader of the investigation team dispatched to investigate the Monster Forest, also agreed with Heron’s words.

Gerion spoke in a skeptical voice.

“Lord Heron’s words are correct. I felt that digging into the Russel Manor rather than the forbidden zone should be our priority. Isn’t the Russel Manor the house of Berard Russel? It seems more likely that Eve Russel, that suspicious man, is hiding Chronos with evil purposes.”

Upon hearing Gerion’s words, a smile full of ecstasy appeared on Heron’s face.

‘I’ll catch two rabbits!’

Those two rabbits meant his personal nemesis, his half-brother Robert Rodrick, and the Rodrick Family’s eternal rival, the Russel Manor.

Even if the Russel Family was just a lucky catch, he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

Because Heron hated his half-brother Robert to death.

‘That leech-like bastard…!’

His half-brother, born of lowly origins, had irritated him at every turn since childhood.

He didn’t die in the extermination corps he was sent to die in, but survived and grew his power, then seized the opportunity to covet even the demon swordsman’s seal.

“…There are also rumors that he’s hiding ‘Yarek.'”

At the mention of Yarek, Heron nearly spat out the wine he was drinking.

“Cough, cough! Cough, what?”

At that unsightly appearance, Gerion, who was about to bring his wine glass to his lips, put it down and said.

“I mean the weapon of Lord Berard Russel, the founding contributor. I heard rumors that the Russel Manor might be hiding it.”

“Ah, oh. There, there are such rumors too. But, why is that…?”

“If he’s hiding Yarek, then he could certainly hide Chronos too. It’s worth investigating.”

“Cough, cough!”

Heron, who had choked, pounded his chest and buried his head under the table.

He was being so cautious because he too possessed a treasured sword presumed to be the ‘Sword of Fire.’

Several years ago, his father Brantz Rodrick, head of the Rodrick Family, had acquired a treasured sword presumed to be the ‘Sword of Fire’ from the Night Market for the enormous sum of 253 million rupens.

Of course, whether it was genuine or not was unknown to both Brantz who purchased it and Heron who gazed at the treasured sword daily while speaking to it.

However, recently Heron had been suspecting that in such turbulent times, Yarek would surely awaken, and if so, perhaps this was nothing more than a worthless fake.

But whether it was genuine or fake, it seemed nothing good would come of catching Gerion’s attention.

Heron thought to himself.

‘I should tell them to lock the weapon storehouse securely.’

Heron raised his head from under the table and changed the subject.

“By the way, the Imperial Monster Hunting Corps is truly useless. Even if the probability of Chronos being in the Forbidden Zone is slim, to refuse the request of an investigation team that came such a long way.”

Gerion said while sipping his wine.

“Exactly. Even if the captain is away, the opponent is merely a monster, yet they’re so frightened they refuse to provide escort – it’s utterly pathetic. I definitely plan to report this matter to His Majesty the Emperor.”

Heron’s mouth fell open.

‘I heard that people from the Capital are so spoiled by peace that when they think of monsters, they can only imagine goblins or orcs at most – I guess that’s true.’

Even the humans dispatched as an investigation team were in this state.

They clearly neither knew nor wanted to know about the South’s internal struggles, where they suffered just from exterminating the weakest monsters that were pushed to the forest edges each winter after losing territorial battles.

However, Heron chimed in with agreement.

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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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