The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 74

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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 74
“So, you won’t help me?”
I grabbed Wolfgang’s hand as it traced my cheek and pulled it away.
Was he saying I didn’t need his touch and should just leave? I’d misunderstood for a moment, but that wasn’t it.
My hand stopped on Wolfgang’s abdomen as his shirt lifted. Dark bruises covered his muscles.
Wolfgang rubbed my palm against his stomach, lowering his head. His breath brushed against my ear.
“You remember the promise you made me, don’t you?”
“…Hey, what are you—”
“You promised to destroy the Lichtenbrun Family.”
My body stiffened at words spilling out so carelessly.
Without thinking, I turned my head to check our surroundings, nearly brushing my lips against Wolfgang’s cheek as he pressed his face close to mine.
Our eyes met.
Ah, this atmosphere right now…
“Damn it, talk from a distance!”
“Ugh.”
Without thinking, I clenched my fist and struck his stomach.
It barely hurt him at all, yet Wolfgang doubled over as if dealt a mortal blow and naturally stepped backward.
Then he lifted his pained face and spoke to me.
“You’ll finish applying the medicine, won’t you? My stomach feels like it has a hole in it.”
“Get out. Don’t you have hands? Don’t you have feet? Apply it yourself from now on!”
I threw the medicine at him with a sharp sound. Wolfgang drooped his eyebrows but caught the medicine with one hand.
‘That was really dangerous.’
Had it been a mistake to apply medicine for him, feeling sorry for how badly his father had beaten him?
Wolfgang, despite being the captain of the Holy Knights, had no sense of ethics and would cross the line whenever he saw an opening.
“I remember. Yes, I remember.”
I returned to the main topic while maintaining distance from him.
“We made a promise at the Grand Cathedral. I said I’d destroy the Marquis Lichtenbrun Family however you wanted.”
It was a conversation from over half a year ago. I’d sought out Wolfgang right after my regression and succeeded in making the deal.
Yes, Wolfgang wanted his own family to fall.
Why?
‘Do you know which family controls the largest human trafficking market in the Elheim Empire?’
The roots of the Marquis Lichtenbrun Family were buried in the Empire’s darkest shadows.
***
The first day of my return. The day I laid bare everything to Wolfgang and requested his cooperation.
After contemplating for a moment, Wolfgang broached the subject of the Lichtenbrun Family.
“Tens to hundreds of women and children vanish daily, kidnapped from somewhere within The Empire. They are consumed as sex slaves for filthy wealthy men, as fighters in illegal fighting pits, as entertainment for a single night’s gratification—and then they die.”
“…The owner of that human trafficking market is the Marquis Lichtenbrun?”
“Yes. The heirs of the Lichtenbrun Family inherit ownership of the market generation after generation. To this day, no one has ever dismantled the existing market or relinquished ownership.”
Wolfgang, revealing his family’s shame, wore an expression I had never seen across multiple lifetimes.
“The Lichtenbrun Family grasps the weaknesses of countless nobles and manipulates them, while simultaneously submitting to the Emperor’s absolute power. In this way, they received titles and territories and expanded their influence. They have fattened themselves by selling living human beings like livestock.”
“….”
“The bloodline of the Lichtenbrun, marinated in the logic of that market, cannot regard even the women closest to them as human beings. Not their mothers, not their sisters, not their wives, not their daughters—none of them.”
I heard the nauseating history of the Lichtenbrun Family that day with absolute clarity.
How they brought impoverished fallen noblewoman as if purchasing them, used them as breeding vessels, secured a bloodline of two or three, and then disposed of them.
How the women of the Lichtenbrun Family were conditioned from childhood like dolls meant to satisfy male desire, then conveniently exploited in transactions between families.
Even how those who could not endure exposing the sins of that filthy family or becoming part of it were disposed of in various ways.
“Don’t you think that among the souls of The Empire’s citizens that Maximilian sacrificed to obtain demonic power, a considerable portion would be the responsibility of the Lichtenbrun Family?”
Wolfgang had grown up wearing a mask among the men of that family.
He escaped his eldest brother’s vigilance by enjoying pleasures like a man of leisure without ambition, stirred up high society while feigning a love of women, and was sent to the Grand Cathedral along with his father’s warning to resolve his desires privately.
It was thanks to fortunate natural talent. He felt the power of Pelmira flowing through his body, yet possessed no faith.
“If a true god truly existed, he would have struck lightning upon the Marquis Lichtenbrun’s mansion.”
Then an opportunity came to Wolfgang.
“I will follow you, Holy Maiden. In exchange, promise me you will annihilate the House of Marquis Lichtenbrun.”
An opportunity to bring lightning down upon his own blood relatives with his own hands.
***
This was precisely why Marquis Lichtenbrun had sought out his son upon returning to the Imperial Capital and thrown that punch.
The Marquis was certain that Maximilian would become the next Emperor. Monsters recognize monsters, after all. So as a stalwart member of the First Prince Faction, he’d been consolidating power and elevating the family’s standing.
But then his second son, whom he’d thought lived without particular ambition, began to crack the foundation of the family’s future.
He defied the Archbishop’s will, aided the Saint’s abduction marriage, and became the tool of the Saint who became the Second Prince’s Consort—standing against the First Prince Faction.
By the Lichtenbrun Family’s standards, Wolfgang was unmistakably a ‘disposal target’.
‘The problem is that disposal isn’t easy.’
Commander of the Holy Knights of the Pelmira Order. A core force of the Second Prince’s Faction.
By now, far too many eyes were upon Wolfgang. Unless the Second Prince was toppled, removing Wolfgang would be equally difficult.
‘So the Marquis came and vented his frustrations.’
Wolfgang had accepted that brutality once more. As if subduing the Marquis with his own strength would be anything but trivial.
‘…In any case, stubborn in the strangest places.’
Or perhaps accepting the blows quietly was the wiser choice.
A lingering delusion that he could still control his son. Such delusions would serve us well.
In any case, what I wished to discuss remained unchanged from the beginning.
“Wolfgang. You understand, don’t you? Even for your own purposes, I must go to the Southern Region.”
I could not return to Graupels as Rotar wished. Yet remaining in the Imperial Palace would be equally foolish.
I needed to find a way to follow Rotar to the Southern Region. And the most certain method was Wolfgang’s cooperation.
“I must hide from the Emperor that I’m going south. He and Rotar have likely already discussed it. So let’s move as though I’m returning to Graupels, then change direction. I’ll suggest that the Holy Knights take on my escort instead of the Imperial Palace Knights.”
“Hmm.”
“I won’t even ask you to fight alongside me in the Southern War. Just getting me near there will fulfill our contract. Agreed?”
Wolfgang merely listened with an oddly lukewarm expression, offering no particular response.
As anxiety made me bite my lip, a long finger brushed against the corner of my mouth. Wolfgang’s hand.
“Saint.”
He called to me in a gentle voice.
Saint. From the beginning until now, it was a title only Wolfgang had ever used, never once changing.
He spoke.
“I do not wish to do this.”
“…!”
“I do not wish to drive you into peril with these hands of mine. Is that not why the Prince left you behind?”
Wolfgang lowered himself to meet my gaze. And in a voice more measured than ever, he continued.
“You would say it, wouldn’t you? That this way, your goal of annihilating the Lichtenbrun Family will also fail.”
“….”
“Perhaps it would. I understand. And yet.”
The finger that had touched the corner of his mouth traced gently across my lower lip and withdrew.
“I cannot aid in the suicide of a woman I have come to care for.”
“….”
It was the first time.
Wolfgang had laid bare his heart so completely, leaving no room for escape.

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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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