The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 71

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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 71
The night stretched endlessly—dizzying in its length.
Rotar Eisenrit was obsessed with leaving his marks upon me more intensely than usual. Starting from my chest, across my ribs and below my navel, along the inner curve of my thighs, and down to my ankles—he pressed his lips against every inch, deliberately etching his presence into my skin.
Yet receiving him was a joy. The warmth I’d missed for so long, the contact with his damp, firm skin.
Throughout my ragged breathing, Rotar Eisenrit spared no tender confessions of love.
‘I am grateful to be your husband.’
I adored Rotar Eisenrit. I never wanted to be parted from him, not for a single moment.
Even as my body trembled at the sharp pleasure, I wished time would freeze like this. I wanted to live in his embrace forever, free from all worry and care.
My mind only cleared when someone knocked upon the door.
‘Rotar, wait… ah!’
‘Elise, just a moment longer.’
Even at the signal that dinner had arrived, Rotar Eisenrit didn’t stop moving. It was likely Clara or Hilda standing outside.
I had been the one to provoke him with bold words first. But I had no desire to let the maidservants I saw daily hear my wet moans.
‘Ah, please, stop…’
‘Don’t bite your lip.’
Did Rotar Eisenrit truly have no concept of shame?
He forcibly parted my clenched lips and pressed himself against me. When I gasped to suppress the moans spilling involuntarily, he only quickened his pace as if determined to draw them out.
‘Ah, ah, ahhh!’
When I couldn’t hold back my cries, Rotar Eisenrit, holding me tightly against him, whispered against my ear.
‘Don’t worry. They’ve already left.’
Wicked man.
I couldn’t remember if I’d cursed him aloud or swallowed the words—the relentless stimulation gave me no chance to think.
Only after darkness had completely fallen did Rotar Eisenrit put on his robe and retrieve the now-cold food.
‘Shall I have it reheated?’
‘…No…’
I barely managed a response to his gentle question.
My body was too heavy to move even a step. As I lay face-down on the bed catching my breath, Rotar Eisenrit approached and lifted me effortlessly.
‘Here—the butternut squash soup you enjoy.’
He settled me upon his lap and picked up a spoon.
He gently wiped my tear-stained cheeks before bringing the cooled soup to my lips. The old saying about giving poison and then the cure came to mind.
‘You must eat to regain your strength.’
‘…I want to sleep after eating.’
‘Yes, understood.’
He said he understood, yet—
I managed only a few spoonfuls before glaring at him. I felt an unmistakable movement beneath me.
‘What?’
‘You’re opening your mouth so wantonly, Elise.’
‘What nonsense are you spouting?’
‘If it’s too difficult, I’ll handle it myself.’
‘…’
A con artist’s bastard child. If I said that, would you agree or disagree?
The memories after that grew hazy. I seemed to have clung to Rotar Eisenrit’s neck, weeping that I needed sleep now.
“Mmm….”
When I opened my eyes, the room remained shrouded in darkness.
Lifting my head, I saw the curtains I had drawn back last night were now closed again. It appeared Rotar Eisenrit had drawn them for me.
I turned my body with a creak and glanced to the side. The spot where Rotar Eisenrit had lain was already empty.
‘As always.’
The man was frighteningly diligent. Even in Graupels, I had never seen him wake later than I did.
Where could Rotar Eisenrit be? In the bathroom? Had he stepped out of the bedroom for a moment?
I rose with a long yawn, rotating my stiff neck, when—
“…Huh?”
I discovered it belatedly.
The table where Rotar Eisenrit and I had shared that meal last night.
A single sheet of paper lay upon it.
“….”
It was no small note. Something was written densely across it.
“…Rotar Eisenrit.”
The feeling was not good.
I hurried from the bed toward the table.
A body washed clean. A gown someone had dressed me in.
With each step I took, I felt the touch of hands that had passed over my body while I slept as though unconscious.
Yet no smile came to my lips. My heart began to race.
I picked up the paper from the table. And I read the letter written in familiar handwriting.
「To Elise.」
A concise address. It was as though I could hear someone’s voice.
「I have deceived you.」
“…No.”
「I promise you.」
「I will end the war and return without fail.」
Rotar Eisenrit departed for the Southern Region, leaving me behind.
He had never believed my lies from the beginning.
***
To Elise.
Have you ever contemplated what happiness truly means?
For me, happiness was something akin to the remnants of a festival.
A festival where everyone, intoxicated by joy, embraced one another, clinked their glasses, and proclaimed eternity.
Only after that festival ended did my duty fall to wandering the periphery, gazing upon the sordid traces left behind.
Surely someone had experienced happiness. And yet there lay cold food and half-filled goblets scattered across the ground.
I was a stranger, uninvited to that magnificent and resplendent celebration.
That is what I believed until I met you.
I possess no eloquence with which to speak. In truth, I scarcely know which words to commit to this page.
You, with your keen intellect, have already discerned everything from the moment you held this letter. Everything.
So I shall not delay what must be said.
I deceived you.
I knew that you had not abandoned Zaikas’s protection. No matter how flawlessly you constructed your falsehood, it could never have deceived my eyes.
Had I been in your position, I too would not have relinquished Zaikas’s protection.
A chance to save those dear to you and rescue the world itself, merely by surrendering one life among those you could live again.
I would not have forsaken such an opportunity either. Not even if you were the sole person remaining in this world.
Perhaps, then, I have no right to resent your deception.
So, Elise, I ask that you forgive me as well.
I did not reveal the truth of Lumeknia to His Majesty.
Instead, I exposed the contract between Maximilian and Naksura—the truth that he coveted the Demon Lord’s power and sought to offer His Majesty’s body and the Empire’s lifeblood as a living sacrifice.
His Majesty was profoundly shaken, yet he did not lose faith in me.
He had already noticed that Maximilian had changed, that people around him were dying with increasing frequency.
And so we struck a bargain. Upon my return from ending the Southern War, I shall be formally invested as the Empire’s legitimate Crown Prince.
An official heir is granted both formidable power and justification.
As Crown Prince, I shall unite the Empire’s military might. And I shall bring judgment upon Maximilian, who walks alongside the Demon Lord, unable to fully unleash Naksura’s power.
With the sacred protection of the Pelmira Order and the blades of the Knight Order at our side, even Maximilian, bound to a Demon Lord, shall reveal his vulnerabilities.
….
Elise, I understand this path is reckless, as though walking the edge of a precipice. You may condemn me for wagering the Empire on such meager odds of success.
Yet it is far better than watching you crumble to dust in this world.
Do you love me?
Then live for me.
Not for the Rotar Eisenrit of some future life, but for the singular being standing before your eyes in this moment.
I make you this promise.
I shall end this war and return to you without fail.
I love you.
Your Rotar Eisenrit.
***
Now I understood why he had driven me so relentlessly last night, leaving no room for conversation.
He had to leave me behind, sleeping as though dead.
A sigh escaped me.
After burning the letter, I pulled the bell cord. Clara and Hilda appeared as if they had been waiting, positioning themselves before me.
I gazed quietly up at Clara’s face.
“Shall I bring you something to wear, Your Highness?”
Clara asked in her composed voice.
I wore only a thin chemise over my body, which still bore the unmistakable traces of Rotar Eisenrit. Yet I ignored her offer and turned my gaze away.
Hilda’s expression, unlike Clara’s, had hardened rigidly—like a child caught committing some misdeed.

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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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