The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 43

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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 43
Rage and betrayal surged through me in an instant.
After all I’d done for Shisha—that wretched creature—even risking my relationship with Rotar Eisenrit and saving her life, and this is how she repays me?
But my resentment toward Shisha was short-lived. Pulling her from the water was already more than enough. I’d even slapped her awake.
‘I didn’t hit her because I wanted to… probably.’
For someone treated as a prisoner the entire time we traveled together, it was the greatest consideration she could offer.
I decided not to blame Shisha for leaving. Instead.
“…Damn it, I’m going to freeze to death at this rate.”
I had to survive. In this Snowy Mountain Cave where anything could appear.
***
As Rotar Eisenrit opened his eyes, he gazed at the cave ceiling where a thin layer of ice glimmered with a pale blue light and contemplated his situation.
‘I survived. Stubborn as a cockroach.’
Even as he plummeted into pitch darkness while cradling the unconscious Elise, he’d entertained a sliver of possibility. After all, there had been more than one occasion when he’d survived situations he thought would be his end.
At first, he’d been grateful for all of it—a blessing earned through his Staufen bloodline. But after it happened repeatedly, he began to wonder if this ability was a curse instead. Ever since that moment when he alone had opened his eyes amid the corpses of his fallen comrades.
He was called the Empire’s sword, but in truth, he was merely a tool wielded for the Emperor’s purposes.
‘A disposable item that can be recycled countless times until death. That’s what you are, isn’t it?’
Yes, he had never been anything more than that.
At some point, Rotar Eisenrit had stopped fearing death on the battlefield. Not because he wouldn’t die. It was because he’d come to believe it didn’t matter if he did.
But this time, he was afraid.
‘Elise, Elise, Elise.’
Because she had fallen with him.
Rotar Eisenrit had cradled her in his arms, hoping she would sustain less injury. He’d wished for her to live even if he shattered into pieces, though he later admitted that too was a somewhat tragic ending.
He had never wished for an ending where Elise would leave him behind, dead. If anything, he wanted to live. With her.
…So where was Elise?
‘Elise.’
His wandering thoughts snapped back to focus. Rotar Eisenrit rose immediately.
“Damn, you scared me!”
And he found himself staring directly into violet eyes.
It was Elise, alive and well. Upon seeing Rotar Eisenrit awaken without warning, she trembled visibly, genuinely startled.
‘Thank goodness.’
That was Rotar Eisenrit’s first thought as he looked at her.
I didn’t survive alone. When she leaves this place and moves on to the next life, I won’t be left behind, abandoned and withering like refuse.
But that profound relief was fleeting.
“…”
Rotar Eisenrit blinked, trying to comprehend what lay before him.
Elise was completely naked, not a single piece of undergarment on her body.
Wait, if that’s the case…
‘Ah.’
Rotar Eisenrit belatedly looked down at his own body. He too was completely bare. And moreover.
“…”
Just after waking, my body responded with vitality—as if celebrating the mere fact of being alive.
No, it was merely a physiological reaction. I steadied the expression crossing my face and lifted my head again. My gaze soon turned toward the campfire burning beside Elise and myself.
“You’ve built a fire.”
My voice emerged rough and grating to my own ears. Elise nodded quickly.
“Yeah, I found flint in your clothes and got it going. The cave entrance is just a short walk away, and there were some dry branches scattered about.”
“…You did well.”
Despite being unclothed, my body temperature hadn’t improved much. It meant Elise had regained consciousness several minutes before I did.
‘How pathetic.’
I should have awakened first and warmed her body.
I reproached myself and quickly surveyed my surroundings.
A spacious cave. A flowing stream. Our clothes laid neatly across the rocks to dry.
It wasn’t difficult to grasp the situation—including the fact that Elise and I were both naked.
‘…Even so.’
It had been a long time since I’d seen her pale, delicate skin.
Elise approached me with an oblivious expression, wedging herself between my legs before grasping my shoulders and pulling herself upright.
“…!”
Her pristine skin filled my vision.
I knew her skin was smooth and soft. I knew how lovely the rosy flush that bloomed across it when warmth rose was.
Saliva pooled in my mouth. As Elise carefully parted my hair to examine it, she suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
“That’s strange. Your head was badly wounded just moments ago, but it’s completely healed.”
“…”
So that’s what she was checking.
I barely managed to calm my turbulent thoughts.
Fortunately, as Elise lowered herself, the skin that had filled my vision disappeared. Instead, what captured my eyes was my wife’s bright, radiant face.
“Are you hurt anywhere? You nearly died back there.”
Elise reached out and touched my cheek as she asked.
Hurt anywhere. I rotated the joints attached to my body and inspected myself.
“No. Not at all.”
As I answered, my eyes drifted back to Elise’s body.
It wasn’t for any sinister purpose. Simply…
“…”
I hoped she was uninjured like myself.
Though I’d held her precious form close as we fell, it seemed she’d been thrown clear in the end.
Her forearms, sides, thighs, and ankles—Elise’s body was marred everywhere with severe bruises and wounds.
My expression couldn’t help but harden. When Elise noticed and glanced at her own body, she laughed softly.
“It’s nothing for me. I’m not from Staufen, after all.”
“…I apologize.”
“For what?”
For not being able to suffer in your stead.
Instead of finishing my thought, I grasped Elise’s waist and examined whether there were any severe wounds on her front and back. Fortunately, nothing appeared to be seriously broken or dislocated.
Still, I asked just to be sure.
“Please be honest with me. Are you having difficulty moving?”
“No. It’s just that my joints ache a bit and throb here and there? I suppose this is what a seventy-year-old’s body feels like. It’s nothing serious, right?”
“…Yes. I’m relieved.”
Rotar Eisenrit nodded lightly. Yet he made no move to release me from his embrace.
“….”
“…”
A peculiar silence descended between us.
The delicate curve of my slender waist lay directly beneath his fingertips.
It had been such a long time since we held each other this close without any pretense or urgency.
And both of us were completely bare.
“….”
It was I who first pressed our bodies together across that narrow distance, so close that my soft flesh flattened against him.
“El, ise.”
Rotar Eisenrit swallowed hard as if he hadn’t anticipated this. I could see the flush creeping up to the tips of his ears.
Now our faces were so near that we needed only to lower our heads for our lips to touch.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and met his gaze as I spoke.
“Rotar, don’t be angry. Just listen.”
“…Yes.”
“It was Shisha who saved us. Though she’s fled now.”
“….”
Shisha. Rotar Eisenrit had heard that name in passing as well.
It was about that Belgrum who had tried to kill me.
‘What expression am I wearing right now.’
Rotar Eisenrit thought unconsciously. He didn’t want to let his face grow rigid with suppressed anger or show his displeasure.
He quickly glanced around before responding.
“That’s fortunate. Then we need not concern ourselves further.”
For him, this was the best answer he could manage.
From the beginning, that existence had displeased me. No—this was far too gentle a description. It felt as though I would have no choice but to slit her throat or pierce her heart to end her breathing.
It was a desire separate from the revulsion born of her unfamiliar appearance. She was the one who had tried to kill me, who had tried to take me from him—all for the sake of stealing some food.
Yet it didn’t matter. I hadn’t died, and I remained at his side. So all that was needed was to remove the impurity.
‘For now, let her live.’
How could such words even leave my lips?
And yet, day after day, I went to see her, engaging in conversation under the guise of questioning. It was difficult not to notice. That I was treating that Belgrum specially.
And I would never know.
“She likely won’t return. There’s nothing left for her to gain from us.”
The desire that only I should become Elise’s ‘something’.
That childlike obsession had never left me throughout the entire time the Belgrum was present.
Yet Rotar Eisenrit was skilled at concealing his desires.
“Is that why you’re sad?”
So I merely wanted to test it—what Elise’s true feelings were.
Elise stared up at my face intently before responding.
“More than that, I’m furious.”
“…About what?”
“That the man who is absolutely essential to me was actually prepared to die alone.”
As she spoke, her hand traced across my firm abdomen, and my brow furrowed.

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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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