The Forgotten Field - Chapter 55

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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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Chapter 55
Drifting through the remnants of memory like a cloud suspended in air, I gradually returned to reality.
As I lifted my heavy eyelids, flickering candlelight entered my vision.
While I stared blankly at it, my dulled senses grew progressively sharper.
Wrapped in a peculiar emptiness, I slowly raised my upper body.
For a time, I could not comprehend where I was.
Only after several seconds did I realize I was lying on an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar chamber.
As I surveyed the lavishly appointed bedroom with vacant eyes, I suddenly felt something amiss and lowered my gaze.
Beneath short undergarments, both my legs were fully exposed.
No. They were not my legs.
Such hideous things could not possibly be attached to my body.
With trembling hands, I touched my knees, which were as bumpy and uneven as hardened candle wax.
The shape of my legs was wrong somehow.
The shin and kneecap were subtly twisted, and across my pale skin spread wide scars, rough and rigid as tree bark.
As I traced the long wound that ran from my calf through my knee to my thigh like cracks in shattered porcelain, I soon began to claw at it with my fingertips.
If I could only peel away this bumpy discoloration covering my skin, surely my original complexion—luminous as a pearl—would be revealed.
Ignoring the burning pain, I persistently picked at the dark red marks swollen with inflammation. Blood began to trickle down.
As I stared down at it in a daze, a creaking sound came from somewhere.
I jerked my head up and my eyes widened upon discovering Senevir reclining diagonally across a velvet-cushioned chair.
The Empress, whose blue eyes gleamed clearly even in the darkness, parted her lips—crimson as if stained with blood—and exhaled a honeyed voice.
“Must you really reopen wounds I’ve worked so hard to heal? It’s tedious to summon the healer again.”
She set down a small book she had been holding onto the table, her delicate brows furrowing.
I stared at her without blinking, my parched lips trembling.
“What have you done to my body?”
At my incredulous question, the Empress’s eyes widened slightly before curving into crescents.
Senevir laughed softly as if she had heard an amusing jest, shaking her head gently as she spoke.
“That’s hardly something to say to your mother, who even summoned the Eternal Clan to treat you.”
“….”
“Don’t look at me with those eyes. I know you distrust me, but this time I did everything I could for you. The fact that this is all the result has disappointed even me.”
Her serpentine gaze slowly crawled down my body, lingering over the scars beaded with blood.
I hastily pulled the blanket to cover my legs. My fingertips trembled at the look in her eyes, as if she were observing something repulsive.
She exhaled a small sigh and continued.
“I considered demanding answers from them, but it seems they did their best in their own way. Even with damage not just to bone but to muscle and nerves as well, they spoke passionately about how miraculous this recovery is.”
Toward her daughter on the verge of collapse from shock, the Empress continued speaking with an eerily serene tone.
“They could do nothing about the scars either. They incised the wound area multiple times and reapplied magic, but those ugly marks regenerated as they were. It’s likely due to prolonged neglect causing tissue degeneration.”
A faint sigh escaped her lips.
“It’s difficult to blame the Imperial Palace’s healers either. Had they sealed the wound immediately, your skin might be cleaner now, but your legs would have been permanently useless. At least now you can walk, or so they say—you should find some consolation in that.”
Her words fell like skewers, piercing through my stomach relentlessly.
Toward me, frozen in despair, Senevir drove the final wedge.
“I truly regret it.”
Talia slowly lowered her head.
Senevir, who had been watching her with contemplative eyes, rose from her chair and approached her. Delicate fingers, fragrant with flowers, came to rest upon her cheek.
“Talia. Do you remember what I told you before—that beautiful, weak things become targets for plunder?”
Talia struggled to meet her gaze through eyes clouded with tears.
Her face, sculpted with the precision of pearls, gold, and sapphires, crumbled beneath the weight of her weeping.
She continued speaking with tenderness, as though recounting an old tale.
“Then what becomes of something weak and hideous?”
“….”
“The hideous become objects of ridicule and contempt. Such things are not even worthy of plunder. They are merely trampled upon meaninglessly, mocked, and cast aside. You see, people possess an insatiable hunger to despise and scorn something in order to prove their own superiority. A flaw becomes appetizing prey for such creatures.”
Though I fought desperately against tears, rough sobs tore through my throat regardless.
Her words cut deeper than the bleeding in my legs.
Senevir gazed down at her daughter’s tear-stricken face and clicked her tongue with pity.
“But you need not worry. I have no intention of allowing my daughter to fall into such circumstances.”
Insect-like cold fingers swept the tangled hair from her cheek.
Her narrow eyes curved into slits.
It was a smile that seemed to promise something far more terrible.
* * *
Within the vast Temple located inside the Imperial Palace, thirty-four coffins lay arranged in orderly rows.
As priests circled them, pouring holy water and chanting prayers, mourners approached one by one to place flowers upon the caskets.
Astros, seated in the mourner’s section, observed the long and tedious ceremony while his eyes darted about, surveying his half-siblings.
His elder brother sat in the place of honor with his customary arrogant expression, while Aila Roem Guerta mourned the deceased with the elegant grace befitting her reputation as the “Perfect Princess.”
It was a scene no different from any other day. Yet he sensed something subtly amiss.
As Astros pondered the reason, he soon realized that his half-sister was in a state of considerable anger.
Though she had arranged her expression into one of convincing sorrow, her eyes had grown cold as ice, and her lips were noticeably rigid.
‘What could she possibly be so angry about?’
Unlike his elder brother, who expressed every emotion openly, she was someone who always concealed herself behind a serene smile.
The fact that his sister, who never revealed any weakness before anyone, was displaying her emotions so openly before so many people was rather intriguing.
‘Could the postponement of the wedding have upset her so greatly?’
Astros’s gaze naturally turned toward her betrothed.
Barcas Laedgo Sierkan stood beside the altar with his back perfectly straight, quietly observing the funeral rites. He resembled a statue erected in a cathedral rather than a living person.
Intrigued by his excessive stillness, Astros examined him carefully from head to toe.
The future Grand Duke Sierkan wore a doublet tailored with clean, sharp lines from shoulder to waist, breeches that clung to his body like armor, and a long navy cape draped across his left shoulder.
Though his attire was somewhat austere, it appeared far more impressive to Astros than the elaborate dress of the nobility around him. He could almost understand his half-sister’s disappointment at the wedding’s postponement.
‘…With such an incident having occurred, I suppose the pilgrimage cannot resume until next year.’
Did that mean Aila Roem Guerta’s wedding to the future Grand Duke Sierkan would also be postponed until next year?
Upon reaching this thought, Astros suddenly frowned with displeasure.
His chest grew tight.
He wished his half-sister, who always regarded him with such disdain, would depart for the Grand Duchy as soon as possible.
‘Perhaps they will break with Imperial tradition and proceed with the wedding as planned.’
He gazed at Grand Duke Sierkan with fervent hope.
Please, take Aila Roem Guerta to the Eastern Territories.
In that instant, as though he had heard her own ridiculous prayer, the man turned his head.
Astros flinched, lowering his gaze in embarrassment.
Her heart sank at the penetrating gaze that seemed to peer directly into the depths of her mind.

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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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