The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 56
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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 56
Of course, a leash was still a leash, and confinement was still confinement. Wolfgang was right—there was something pathological about Rotar’s behavior.
‘Still, I was the one who committed the abduction marriage in the first place. It feels unfair to curse only Rotar as a madman.’
In any case, I had no desire to engage in a prolonged argument with Wolfgang over this matter. Let people whisper behind our backs that we were both lunatics—what did it matter?
So I changed the subject as I passed by his side.
“What would you do in this situation?”
Wolfgang immediately turned and fell into step beside me. Walking side by side felt as natural as flowing water—as if it had always been this way.
Yet it was distinctly different from usual.
‘He used to follow behind me before.’
It was a small difference, but it registered. Especially after our conversation in the Snowy Mountains.
‘Have you ever considered that path?’
‘What path?’
‘Marriage to the Holy Knights Commander.’
Thinking back on it, that was a conversation Rotar absolutely should not have heard. He might have driven a blade through Wolfgang’s back the moment he heard it.
Wolfgang matched my pace and glanced around before speaking.
“As sorrowful as it is, I said I would respect the Saint’s decision.”
“…?”
“Until a great war breaks out, let us live together without regret and in happiness, I meant to say.”
Wait. What?
Just hearing those words seemed to unravel the knot that had been tightening in my chest.
Yes, this was what I wanted to hear from Rotar. I had hoped he would accept the decision I had agonized over for so long. Even if it was my own selfishness.
A strange feeling washed over me, and I looked up at him blankly. Wolfgang, who had been staring ahead, slowly turned his head to meet my eyes.
He spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice.
“You didn’t notice, did you? That was a complete lie.”
…What?
“After lying like that, what do you think I would do?”
“…”
Unable to produce any response, Wolfgang’s lips curved upward with satisfaction.
“As husband and wife, shouldn’t we make the most of our remaining time together?”
Wait.
“From sunrise to sunset, I should whisper sweet nothings without pause. Ah, of course, in a manner quite different from confinement…”
“Wolfgang.”
I finally stopped dead in my tracks and glared at him.
“Don’t cross the line.”
Wolfgang stopped as well and shrugged his shoulders, his expression infuriatingly innocent.
“But it was the Saint who asked what I would do.”
Should I actually shoot him?
I genuinely considered it for a moment.
Well, even if I couldn’t kill him, I could always send him back to serve the Archbishop. If he got cocky one more time, I’d make sure he spent his days attending to the old man.
Let’s see how far he’ll push this. I suppressed my rising irritation and resumed the conversation.
“So, what happens next?”
“Ah.”
Wolfgang immediately wiped away his repugnant expression. Then he replied with his usual leisurely demeanor.
“I wasn’t lying. The moment the Saint dies, I will follow her in death.”
…What?
“Isn’t it fitting? A married couple facing death together.”
“….”
A strange silence descended between him and me.
I slowly turned over Wolfgang’s bombshell statement in my mind.
A lie, and that he would die together with me.
There was scarcely any of his characteristic playfulness in Wolfgang’s voice as he spoke.
So he had truly voiced the answer in his head. No matter how extreme a choice it was.
This wasn’t good. I felt as though the blood were draining from my body.
I swallowed and forced out a composed voice.
“Even if the Saint in your imagination were disappointed in you?”
Wolfgang’s lips curled upward as he replied.
“Yes. Even if I became a slave to the devil.”
And then, abruptly, he bent forward and closed the distance between us.
He leaned toward my ear and whispered.
“Isn’t that true for you as well, Saint? That’s why you reassured the Prince with a lie.”
“…!”
My spine went cold in an instant.
How did this bastard know that? I stared at Wolfgang with eyes wide in shock.
He continued speaking without hesitation, his gaze locked with mine.
“Given the Prince’s nature, he would never have simply let you go. And given your nature, you would never have bent your stubbornness. So the one who was confined must have lied.”
“….”
“How was my brilliant deduction?”
I didn’t answer Wolfgang. Instead, I walked toward the building, avoiding his face that had drawn far too close.
Honestly, I didn’t know what to say.
Rather than follow me, Wolfgang called out from behind.
“The order to return to the Cathedral didn’t come only to you, Saint. You understand that, don’t you?”
I don’t know. I don’t know.
My mind was far too tangled.
***
Time flowed faster than my heart desired.
During all this, Rotar Eisenrit and I had not spent a single day apart.
Not a single day, literally.
Was it the aftereffect of spending a week separated? Or the result of our dramatic reconciliation?
Even while Rotar Eisenrit was busy preparing for war, he shared most of his meals with me. And when the bell tolled midnight, he would return, opening the bedroom door.
By then, hot water was always prepared in the bathroom for the two of us alone. Without either of us needing to speak, we would kiss while unbuttoning our dust-covered clothes.
Even after barely escaping the bathroom before my head grew too dizzy to stand, I would not immediately retire to bed.
“Ah, Elise.”
“Yes, Rotar, oh…”
Lying in the same bed, holding our bodies still warm from the bath, a thick, sultry atmosphere would bloom between us in an instant.
In the darkness, our skin would touch, our lips would meet. Our tongues would intertwine until breath came ragged, and our robes would fall away.
Then, before I could gather my senses, I would find myself surrendering my entire body to him, drowning in ecstasy.
“Just a little more.”
Rotar Eisenrit seemed never to tire.
Despite having spent the entire day rushing about outside, he indulged in these moments of desire to a degree incomparable to the past.
Was this right? Could this truly be allowed? My mind felt like it was melting, consumed by raw, primal desire.
There was also a feeling of being chased by something. A deep, dark anxiety that if I did not savor this moment now, I would regret it forever.
So I could not push Rotar Eisenrit away.
‘Just a little more.’
Perhaps those were the words I wanted to say instead.
Even in the darkness with the lamps extinguished, moonlight seeped through. Every night, I found myself facing those green eyes that gleamed like a beast’s.
He would catch my retreating legs, pull me before him, and his tongue would lick the delicate bone of my ankle—hot and vivid. It seemed there was no part of my body he had not tasted.
I clung to Rotar Eisenrit, swallowing moans and gasping for breath until the outside grew dim with dawn light. After enduring and enduring until the fuse in my mind snapped and I lost consciousness, when I opened my eyes again, it was often already noon.
By then, the sheets beneath me had already been replaced with fresh, clean ones. My body too had been washed clean, save for the soreness in my limbs.
“You have awakened, Elise.”
And Rotar Eisenrit would always greet me in perfect attire, offering me a deeply brewed tea. He would be in this state having already finished his morning training and shower.
“…Good morning, Rotar Eisenrit.”
When I offered my greeting in a hoarse voice, a soft smile played across his sculptured face.
Someone who had just awakened could not possibly look so beautiful. Yet the way he gazed at me—peeking my head out from the blankets—as if he were mad with adoration sometimes seemed strange.
So I had asked him once.
‘Are you so blinded by love that you find even a lazy, bleary-eyed fool beautiful?’
Rotar Eisenrit would grasp my face and lavish kisses without restraint—on my forehead, my cheeks, the tip of my nose, and along my jawline.
Only when I shook my face, begging him to stop, would he whisper, ‘You understand nothing.’
‘I wish you would remain a tousled, lazy fool until death. Never taking responsibility for anything.’
When he spoke thus, I had no words to counter.
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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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