The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 62

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

Episode 62

Rain fell that evening.
I thought the monsoon season was finally beginning, but it was only a brief early-summer shower passing through.
I was working through the backlog of tasks while organizing the bookshelves when Kaius, who had stepped away for a moment, returned.
He offered me a warm cup of lemon tea.
“Wow, impressive. You can make this yourself?”
“You think I’m some idle aristocrat who won’t lift a finger?”
Isn’t that what you think?
You’re Royal Family, after all.
The Royal Family doesn’t do this sort of thing.
Kaius’s face flickered with disillusionment as he interpreted my silence as agreement.
“It seems my goodwill means nothing to you, so I’ll take this back.”
“Thank you. I’ll treasure every sip.”
What kind of game is this—give it, take it back?
A heavy silence settled over the office. Each time raindrops struck the window, they made a sound like acorns tumbling down.
“The Lord of Seldwick was arrested this afternoon, or so I heard.”
“That’s good news.”
“But it seems the Lord hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about who was behind the slave market.”
“Of course not. If he talked, he’d truly die.”
For people like them, the Raven is far more terrifying than the Emperor. The Emperor can only execute, but the Raven offers something far worse than death.
“So the Imperial Family intends to launch an investigation targeting Black Mages. They seem to think the fire at the auction house and the building’s collapse were the result of territorial disputes among Black Mages themselves.”
“I see.”
I hadn’t anticipated an investigation targeting Black Mages.
So things aren’t flowing along the original plot after all?
Then again, it would’ve been strange if events unfolded exactly as in the original story despite all the chaos I’d caused.
I paused to think, then asked.
“By any chance, am I among the targets of this investigation?”
“I can’t say you’re completely exempt. You’re almost the only Black Mage with a clearly established place of residence, aren’t you? And Lucifenia happens to be close to Seldwick.”
Ah, so that’s why he’d been hedging. That was the reason.
“It’s fine. They won’t be able to track me anyway. My actions all ended up credited to Leoni in the first place. To prove I was at the scene, they’d first have to admit everything Leoni did was a lie—and the Count’s House will never allow that.”
A Prospective Crown Princess who saved dozens of civilians. There’s no way the Count’s House would abandon such a perfect title.
Whether Leoni went home and told my story or not, the Count’s House will stake their lives on concealing the fact that I was there. Not for my sake, but for Leoni’s reputation.
“Besides, I have Your Highness the Grand Duke, don’t I?”
I flashed Kaius a deliberately bright smile.
“If the blame ever comes my way, surely Your Highness will shield me.”
He studied me for a moment, then asked.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course. You said you trust me, didn’t you?”
I answered while recalling our recent conversation in Seldwick.
“Besides, didn’t you say it just now? That I’m your person.”
I deliberately widened my eyes and put on an air of innocence.
“I’ve told you many times—I’m not going to the Mage Tower. I have no intention of leaving Lucifenia for at least another year. You admit it yourself, don’t you? That the domain can barely function without me? I’m a capable, conscientious Mage.”
Look at my loyalty.
And trust me.
If I’m cornered, only you can save me.
Kaius stared at me in disbelief for a moment, then let out a soft laugh.
“You’re right. Your words ring true.”
He’s been laughing more often lately.
Did flattery actually work on him?
I seized the moment and spoke with calculated cunning.
“So I hope you’ll treasure me a little more. For instance, what if you completely separated my office from Your Highness’s?”
The smile vanished from Kaius’s face instantly.
“Denied. Now, get back to work.”
That didn’t work.
***

A few weeks earlier, in Seldwick, one night.

“I don’t want His Highness to be put in danger because of me.”

Kaius regarded his own arm with a detached gaze. Charlotte’s luminous blue magic seeped steadily across the wound.
The gash that had carved so deep the bone showed through began to close at an impossible pace, leaving not even a scar in its wake.
It was a power that surpassed healing priests and white mages alike.
Yet Charlotte showed no sign of relief. If anything, she grew more restless, examining his arm over and over with trembling fingers.

“It must have hurt…”

What exactly was she worried about?
Kaius found it bewildering.
In truth, an injury like this meant nothing to him.
In years of facing black mages, he’d endured far worse.
Torn flesh, shattered bones, his body hanging in tatters—he’d grown accustomed to such things, and there had even been a time when black mages descended on his lands that he’d teetered on death’s edge for over a week.
Yet Kaius had never called it “pain.” He simply didn’t know when he was supposed to use that word.
There had been no one to hear it, no one to understand. For him, it was a word without purpose.
And so, somewhere along the way, suffering itself had dulled.
But Charlotte was different.
With hands so delicate they looked as if they might snap at a touch, she rubbed his skin again and again, and more than that—she scolded him with a solemn face, insisting he didn’t need to protect her, that he should be careful, that black mages were dangerous.
Watching her face crumple into tears, Kaius found himself laughing without warning.
A witch, they called her.
Nonsense.
He was certain—absolutely certain—that the Royal Family, the nobles of the capital, and even his former self were all fools of the highest order.
How could a woman who broke iron bars with her own bleeding hands to free a slave she’d never met be anything but good?
He had once found Charlotte difficult to understand, but he did no longer.
She was more compassionate, more tender-hearted than anyone he’d ever known.
Perhaps that was why.

“Miss Charlotte, wouldn’t you consider coming to the Mage Tower?”
“It’s far too dangerous for you here, in many respects.”

When an uninvited guest—the Mage Tower’s master—had come and spoken such words of persuasion to Charlotte, Kaius could not bring himself to step forward.
Elion Hyacinth’s words held no lie.
As he said, the Mage Tower was the safest place for any mage. If Charlotte went with Elion, she could be truly free. Neither the Royal Family nor the Count’s House—nor even he himself—could ever touch her again.
Kaius acknowledged this truth readily, and yet felt a hollow, aching emptiness spread through him at the same time.
An impulse seized him—the urge to throw open the door and drag her away.
Did he actually wish to hold her back?
Charlotte Schmidt?
He was confused, yet simultaneously, he grasped the truth with perfect clarity.
At some point, he had grown accustomed to her presence. And beyond mere familiarity, she had become necessary to him.
Charlotte had shown him kindness, promised to stand beside him when he was lonely, and wept for wounds he didn’t even know he carried.
For eight years since that day, Kaius had walked through tempests, and she fell upon him like an unforeseen spring—warm and radiant.
Quiet and gentle, he hadn’t even noticed how she seeped into him.
A single ray of light cast into the ash-grey of his life, and yet Charlotte Schmidt herself did not know how to tend to her own wounds.
That was why she said she didn’t even want revenge against the family that used and abandoned her.

“And besides, I have the Grand Duke with me, don’t I?”
“If danger does come my way, surely the Grand Duke will shield me.”

Watching Charlotte smile at him so foolishly, Kaius finally understood what it was he wished to do.
He would protect Charlotte Schmidt.
From every threat that surrounded her—the Royal Family, the Count’s House, the black mages, all of it.
So that her life would be neither more wretched nor more perilous than anyone else’s.
With that resolve, a smile spread across his lips.
He hadn’t even realized he was smiling.
He simply thought of Charlotte, again and again.

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