The Slave Is Too Handsome - Chapter 97

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A slave who’s too good-looking!
097.
“……You say he was just murdered?”
Lucian met Sedric’s furious gaze without flinching.
At the word “murdered,” the hall erupted into chaos. Sedric’s pupils darkened to an empty, lightless black.
“I was the intended target. Felix was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time—he became collateral. The same goes for the two guards who were protecting me.”
Someone seized Lucian’s shoulder and turned him around. The Emperor. His expression gleamed with murderous intent.
“Someone dared strike at an imperial prince? Who was it? Have you found out?”
Lucian nodded calmly, and the Emperor’s grip tightened on his shoulder.
“Speak. I will leave none of them alive.”
Then Lucian’s gaze, which had been fixed on the Emperor, slowly shifted elsewhere. The Emperor turned to follow it.
“This cannot be…….”
Someone watching the scene gasped aloud without meaning to.
At the end of both their gazes stood Camilo, arms crossed, tilting back with a smirk.
“……It’s a false accusation, Your Majesty.”
Camilo replied curtly, and Lucian picked up the thread.
“Camilo—or rather, this man hired assassins from outside to have me killed.”
“You know well enough how hard I’ve worked to find our brother, who may or may not be alive.”
“He deliberately released a Gray Wolf—a rare beast—into the hunting grounds to lure the other nobles far away. Once he had isolated me, he tried to kill me, but his plan failed.”
At the mention of the Gray Wolf, Sedric, who had also been out hunting, muttered to himself.
“That was strange—there really was a Gray Wolf in the hunting grounds…….”
Lucian’s words were gaining momentum.
A sharp, blade-like glare pierced from Camilo’s eyes as if trying to kill Lucian. The first to lose his composure, Camilo pointed at his own head with a mocking laugh.
“Ridiculous. You fell off a cliff and hit your head—is something wrong with your mind? Your Majesty! Father, please punish this wretch who insults me!”
Camilo huffed indignantly. Watching him, Lucian burst into laughter.
“Right. I was chased by the assassins, cornered at the cliff’s edge, and lost my footing. I fell down the ravine. Fortunately, I didn’t drown in the river below, so I kept my life. But…….”
……
“Did I mention I had a misstep at the cliff?”
The question came back like a dagger thrust, and Camilo’s lips trembled.
***
Meanwhile, Eloïse was making her way to Princess Danae’s Palace, escorted by a knight Lucian had assigned to her.
As the princess’s palace came into view in the distance, Eloïse’s pace quickened.
“Miss, you’ll stumble.”
Frederick tried to match her stride and cautioned her, but his words merely brushed past Eloïse’s ears.
The moment Eloïse reached the entrance, servants opened the doors for her as she caught her breath.
“Her Highness is in her bedroom.”
Eloïse immediately climbed to the second floor, to Danae’s bedroom.
The first person she encountered was not Princess Danae, but Mary.
“……Mary.”
Eloïse’s face stiffened naturally. The last thing between them had been when she knocked Mary unconscious, over her stubbornness.
The maid’s eyes watching her mistress grew moist at once.
“I’m back.”
……
“I’m sorry, Mary. For leaving like that.”
As the apology fell from her lips, thick tears spilled down Mary’s cheeks. Eloïse pulled the maid into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry. Really.”
“Miss, why are you apologizing? Please don’t.”
At the commotion, Danae appeared belatedly.
“What on earth——. Eloïse!”
Recognizing Eloïse, Danae embraced both women at once.
“Thank goodness. I knew you’d come back safe.”
The three women stood embracing one another like sisters for a long time.
“The person you asked me to bring is in the guest room now.”
Eloïse followed Danae toward the guest room.
“But how did you come to know that person?”
Danae adjusted her glasses and asked.
“It’s a long story, but on the way back to the Capital with Valensio, we happened to stay at her home by chance.”
“Did you recognize her at first sight?”
Danae’s expression showed genuine amazement, and Eloïse chose her words carefully.
“I was just lucky, I suppose.”
That was truly all it was. There was no other way to explain it. Perhaps even the gods were helping me.
Soon the two of them arrived at the guest room door. The maid raised her voice.
“Her Highness Danae has arrived.”
As the maid opened the door, Eloïse’s eyes met an old woman standing rigidly. It was the same old woman who had sheltered Lucian and Eloïse for one night in that isolated island house beneath the mountain.
Recognizing Eloïse, the old woman flinched slightly, then bowed her back before Princess Danae.
“I am honored to meet the jewel of the great empire.”
“You’ve traveled far and worked hard. I am Danae, called Bey Florine.”
At Danae’s words, the old woman straightened and looked at both women in turn.
“Your Highness the Princess, forgive me—but who is this lady?”
“She is my dear friend, Eloïse, a lady of the La Croix Ducal House.”
The old woman’s eyes widened. Her expression suggested she had been deceived.
When they first met, she hadn’t seemed like a simple country girl, but now, seeing her again, the woman before her bore the refined bearing of a noble lady.
“We meet again. Thank you for answering my summons.”
The old woman’s eyes sharpened as she looked at Eloïse. According to what she’d heard, the old woman had refused Eloïse’s request to come to the Imperial Palace several times before finally relenting.
“At that time, I had no choice but to tell lies. I was urgent to bring Valensio to the Imperial Palace, you see.”
Eloïse added, but the old woman did not soften her expression. The conversation seemed as though it would grow longer.
Danae sent Eloïse, who appeared anxious, a reassuring look.
The three women moved to the sofa. The old woman spoke first.
“Then, is that elder brother perhaps…….”
“The lost First Prince of the Empire—Valensio, Your Highness.”
Contrary to Eloïse’s expectation that the old woman would be astonished, she merely flinched slightly before replying with an expression that said she had always suspected as much.
“Why have you brought this old woman all the way to the Imperial Palace?”
“Then tell me first. You were his nursemaid, weren’t you?”
……
Unwilling to discuss trifles, the old woman bit her thin lips. The increasingly urgent Eloïse pressed on.
“You recognized him at first glance—that he is Valensio. He needs help now.”
While Eloïse grew more desperate, Danae surveyed the old woman with a cool, analytical gaze.
She clearly knew something. Despite her rigid expression, the old woman’s hands, clasped on her own lap, trembled.
“He’s in a difficult position because of people spreading false accusations, calling him a fraud. I’m not asking for anything difficult. Just a testimony that he is truly His Highness——.”
“Does the lady think this old woman’s words carry great weight?”
The old woman, looking directly at Eloïse, let out a laugh as if at something absurd. She looked at Eloïse as one might at an ignorant child, and Eloïse’s face hardened.
It was not wrong. Even the Empress herself, his own mother, viewed Lucian with disdain—what power could a nursemaid’s words possibly hold?
Yet Eloïse was desperate enough to grasp at straws, if it meant any help at all.
As Eloïse’s momentum seemed to break, the old woman pressed her attack in earnest.
“What do you hope to gain? What is your true intention in helping Valensio so far?”
Her reproachful tone carried an implication: was it political ambition, or did she seek to win a prince’s favor?
Danae, observing the two women like an analyst, became curious about Eloïse’s answer.
After a brief silence, Eloïse spoke calmly.
“I simply wish to restore his name to him. When he was young, he lost everything without warning or cause—his comfortable home, his family, his name, his very identity.”
Eloïse’s voice trembled slightly. She was remembering Lucian confessing his recovered memories in that cave, his expression bitter.
The way he had pretended to be composed only made her heart heavier.
“Of course, His Highness has a naturally good character—he walked the right path even in hardship. But at the same time, he has lived his whole life yearning to know who he was, whether he had a family, lonely and abandoned. I simply wish to restore his rightful place to him—nothing more.”
The old woman’s face showed no change. This was not the answer she sought. Having finished speaking, Eloïse’s expression went blank.
‘There’s nothing more I can do.’
She could not force someone who refused, nor could she make them speak by brute will.
Just as Eloïse rose halfway to her feet, the old woman asked in a slightly softer tone.
“Do you have the strength to bear the truth?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————