The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 139

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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 139
“Phew….”
Cedric had barely managed to escape the Underground Prison.
It was thanks to the key Aran had thrown to him.
He managed to move his fingers just enough to undo the restraints. The process took a bit longer, but once his hands were free, everything else came easily.
Having gained superhuman strength through the experiments, he bent the prison’s iron bars with ease and stepped outside.
“…How did this happen…. I can’t stay here anyway.”
He looked upward toward where Aran had vanished like the wind moments ago.
The path leading to the staircase was blocked by rubble, a complete mess.
But it seemed that was the only way out.
“Hmm….”
Turning around, he found the back passage sealed as well. He had managed to slip through before it collapsed completely.
“Are they all right?”
The researchers and other test subjects remained trapped inside….
It appeared only the entrance had caved in, while the interior remained intact. Listening carefully, he could hear the researchers shouting.
“Stay calm! We can survive here for a month!”
“Something must be happening outside, but don’t panic!”
“Keep the test subjects calm!”
For a moment, he wondered if he should rescue them all, but it didn’t seem like an urgent situation.
Rather, the real problem was that he himself was now trapped in an isolated space, cut off from both sides.
“I have no choice.”
There was no point deliberating between forward and backward. To escape, he had to go forward. That was likely Aran’s intention as well.
Cedric began slowly moving the rocks aside to clear a path.
“Heave….”
It was something he could never have imagined before, but the muscular Cedric who had undergone the experiments was no longer the frail, scrawny youth he once was.
“I wonder if I can get out this way. I need to meet Namia….”
From the beginning, he had only one dream.
Namia Loapi, his precious daughter. He had promised to meet her no matter what.
‘What’s happening? Why did they seal off the underground? Has the Headquarters been destroyed?’
The situation worried him, but he forced himself to push away the image of Aran’s face.
To be honest… Aran was exactly the same as when he first met her. She hadn’t grown at all.
‘Will Aran try to leave here too? But Aran shouldn’t meet Namia.’
Aran was Namia’s biological mother. But truthfully, she had no right to be called a mother.
No, setting aside the question of maternal qualification, Aran was….
‘…There’s no reason for them to meet. Aran isn’t the type to go out of her way to find Namia or show interest in her.’
His arm muscles began moving busily.
* * *
“Your Highness….”
“Don’t make such a sad face.”
Kiaros gazed at me with a gentle smile.
“I wasn’t saying that to seek comfort or sympathy.”
“Still….”
“I was just trying to coax Namia into accepting me, one way or another.”
Good heavens.
It was far too painful a story to treat so lightly.
But Kiaros chuckled smoothly and deftly steered the conversation elsewhere.
“So even though you thought the Crown Princess position was so grand, you still rejected me—Namia did.”
As if to dispel the oppressive atmosphere, his low voice carried a teasing edge.
“You preferred a worthless young New Intern living modestly in a crumbling house.”
I too managed an awkward laugh, my voice tinged with embarrassment.
“Well…. Father taught me from childhood that marriage should always be with someone you love.”
“Ah, so you’ve even considered marrying Kibon?”
He narrowed his eyes with mischievous intent as he asked.
“That’s why you emphasized earlier that you need to be the same species.”
His voice was playful, yet unmistakably charged with intensity.
Having laid bare his story solely to persuade me, his gaze—far from melancholic—burned with desire.
“It’s certainly an important matter.”
Our distance closed until our breaths mingled. In that moment, Kibon and Kiaros swirled together in my mind just as chaotically.
‘This capable man—he was aiming for this all along!’
He transforms into Kibon midway, lets me hear his true feelings, and narrows the emotional distance….
Then he transforms back into Kiaros, maintains that narrowed distance, and shares intimate secrets….
‘Ah, he’s truly cunning like a fox….’
It seemed he intended to merge the two through this repetitive conditioning.
But trying to equate two people I’d treated so differently—as heaven and earth—simply didn’t work.
My mind could accept that they were one person, yet something refused to synchronize completely.
“Namia.”
He swallowed slowly, then spoke with deliberate calm.
“Why not speak more casually? Think of it as dealing with Kibon Altes in a new shell.”
Honestly, there was too much to process—my head was spinning.
So Kiaros was saying he could abandon the Crown Prince position and everything else to leave with me anywhere….
‘So he means he’ll keep Kiaros’s exterior since that shell is superior, but live with Kibon’s inner self, right?’
That’s when it happened.
From far away came the sound of “Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Kibon in dog form seemed trapped as well, his path blocked.
“Ah…. Um.”
I snapped back to attention with a start.
“But shouldn’t we escape from here first?”
“…Yes.”
Kiaros seemed slightly disappointed by my formal speech, yet he answered unhurriedly without particular surprise. It appeared he hadn’t forgotten the surrounding situation.
He spoke with a faint smirk.
“If it weren’t for the Dark Period, I could have secured you somewhere safe and razed this place to the ground in an instant… But now I’m reduced to sneaking in like this.”
He gestured at the pitch-black Gaejo Faction robes with a faint smile.
“I see….”
His crimson eyes filled with me once more.
“Here I am, confessing something that wouldn’t feel satisfying even if I did it when I had everything prepared and at my strongest. Even I’d call this a failing confession.”
“…That’s not true.”
I shook my head slowly.
“Really… that’s not it at all.”
For one thing, the Crown Prince should never have had occasion to wear another person’s clothes—not in the past, not in the future.
Yet here he was, confined to this dark, damp basement solely because of me, dressed in the garments of some nameless villain’s lackey.
The most noble of men, reduced to such a pitiful state.
“If anything… the Dark Period makes it feel more sincere.”
“Then the Dark Period isn’t entirely a bad thing.”
Kiaros pressed his forehead gently against mine, his whisper tinged with laughter. His voice was husky, warm.
“Truth is, you’ve been present during both my Dark Periods, so they’ve never been entirely unpleasant.”
My heart thundered in my chest as Kibon and Kiaros seemed to gradually merge within me.
The warmth of his body against mine felt nothing but right.
The blonde hair tickling my forehead and the crimson eyes visible so close were no longer unfamiliar.
‘I thought I could never accept this at first….’
Yet both men shared something in common—they truly cared for me, loved me, cherished me.
“I’ll wait.”
Kiaros spoke with a gentle smile.
“Until your heart opens completely.”
According to his words, my heart was already as transparent as a detailed report.
Yet he didn’t push his own feelings upon me.
“I’ll try.”
Sweet words continued to flow.
“Until you command and direct me again without hesitation, whenever you please.”
…Wait, is this right?
“Until you bind me, constrain me, obsess over me, and suffocate me with your interference….”
…Is this actually right?
“It’s been so difficult, wanting to confess all of this to you.”
Wait.
Confession?
Those two words brought a memory flashing through my mind—something my Grandfather had said when he first met me, as he handed me a gift.
[It’s a gift. If a man ever confesses his feelings for you, use it then.]
I hadn’t possessed that scroll when Victor confessed to me.
But I have it now.

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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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