They Say an Age Gap Like This Doesn’t Even Need Matching - Chapter 49

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

Iserna squeezed his eyes shut and muttered under his breath.
“…Wow, we’re doomed.”
Seeing this, Elhart knew this was no time to laugh, yet he couldn’t help himself.
“What time is it?”
At Iserna’s question, Elhart paused to think.
How long had it been since dawn broke?
As he gazed at Iserna, time slipped away rapidly, and the dim surroundings had already transformed into brilliant daylight.
“It must be morning.”
“I know that much.”
Iserna sighed and pushed herself up from the bed.
The blanket slipped away.
Elhart reflexively turned his head.
But her beautiful bare form had already burned itself into his retinas.
The crimson marks scattered across her pale skin were all from him throughout the night.
‘Did I really… with her….’
Even knowing this was no time for it, his face flushed rapidly.
When he turned his head again, Iserna had already descended from the bed.
She picked up the clothes scattered on the floor with an unbothered expression, then glanced back at him.
“Get up already. Why is your face red again?”
But moments later, as he got out of bed, her face turned bright crimson as well.
Though he’d pulled on his lower garments to hide his body’s relentless response to her, it seemed futile.
“Here… your clothes….”
Like Elhart, she kept her gaze averted while extending her arm to hand him his clothes.
She was so adorable and endearing that Elhart had no choice but to bite his lip firmly.
If he didn’t, he feared he’d pounce on her like a beast regardless of who waited outside.
“Commander?”
As they bustled about inside, Kei called out to her once more.
“Should I come in now that you’re awake?”
Elhart hastily tied his waist sash and quickly scanned the room.
They’d spent the night in such chaos that the usual tidiness was nowhere to be found.
At least they’d bathed and rested—a small mercy given the state of disarray.
Click—
Before he could even respond, the sound of the doorknob turning reached his ears.
Kei opened the door and stepped inside, then froze in place.
His gaze slowly swept across the room.
It lingered on the disheveled bed, the hastily tidied floor, and finally settled on the two figures standing side by side beside the table.
“….”
The silence that followed felt unnaturally prolonged.
Iserna plopped down into a chair with an unbothered expression.
“What.”
She spoke with her arms crossed.
“Why are you standing there like that instead of sitting?”
Kei glanced at Elhart before taking a seat across from her, saying, “I came to report something, but it seems I’ve interrupted.”
“Interrupted? Not at all.”
Iserna pulled out the chair beside her and tapped it lightly.
Elhart made an effort to conceal his tension as he sat down next to her.
“So, what is it?”
Kei got straight to the point.
“Commander, regarding the Crown Prince… I believe I know who he is.”
Iserna’s eyes narrowed.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, I’m certain of it.”
Last night, while Elhart and Iserna searched the Tower of Repentance, Kei had been tasked with monitoring the Crown Prince in the Banquet Hall.
It appeared he had come early this morning to share what he had discovered in that process.
Kei continued slowly.
“His appearance certainly resembles Mikhail. But his behavior does not.”
Iserna rested her chin in her hand without responding.
“His manner toward people, the habit of turning his back without hesitation when he loses interest, and… that gaze.”
A low voice cut through the heavy air of the room.
“Kailyb. Am I correct?”
Elhart’s eyes wavered.
Kailyb—could it be referring to Bardia’s second king?
Unlike the startled Elhart, Iserna showed no change in expression.
As if she had expected this, Kei asked, “As I thought, you already knew. When did you become certain?”
“Just from talking with him a few times. Regardless of what he may think, only a few years have passed for us.”
‘Only a few years’ was hardly a short span of time, yet it was not long enough to forget the habits and mannerisms of those one had spent time with.
“You saw the Crown Prince for the first time at last night’s banquet, didn’t you? You figured it out quickly.”
“He dropped the act. He only seemed careful for a moment in front of the Pope.”
“Right, he was probably planning to reveal himself soon anyway.”
At Iserna’s words, Elhart recalled the Crown Prince he had spoken with beside the castle wall.
Given that the Crown Prince had even asked first whether he was curious about his identity, Iserna’s conjecture seemed correct.
“Ser. Is the Crown Prince’s true identity Kailyb, Bardia’s second king?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“How is such a thing possible…?”
Kailyb, who had received the throne from Founder King Mikhail, had triggered a bloody purge that plunged the nation into chaos, and disappeared seven years after becoming king.
Since then, neither Mikhail nor Kailyb had been sighted by anyone, and their ultimate fates remained unknown.
Yet now, in this very era when the Expedition Team had returned, Kailyb wearing Mikhail’s face had appeared.
“Then the Founder King must also be somewhere…?”
But right in this era when the expedition returned, Caleb in Mikhail’s appearance reveals himself.
“Then King Founder must be somewhere too…”
“No, I’d say that’s virtually impossible.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the Crown Prince’s body that Kailyb is currently using belongs to Mikhail.”
“…What?”
Elhart stood frozen, staring at her in shock.
“Then you’re saying Kailyb stole the Founding King’s body?”
“Yes. At first, I thought he was just someone who looked similar, but when I saw him up close, it was unmistakably the same body. Even the moles I remember were identical. The only difference was that he appeared older.”
Elhart couldn’t shake off the shock.
Mikhail, the Founding King of Bardia.
That name was far more than a mere historical figure.
He was the founder of Bardia itself, a figure whom countless royal houses and knights still revered like a myth.
He was the greatest of heroes—the one who ended the Dark Age and ushered in the age of humanity.
And Kailyb’s name carried an entirely different kind of fame.
Kailyb was the Grand Mage who founded the Mage Tower, a hero no less celebrated than Mikhail in the early days of the kingdom’s founding.
But after ascending to the throne, he suddenly changed and unleashed a bloody purge, earning him a place in history as a tyrant.
Kailyb’s disappearance triggering the decline of magic was recorded as one of the greatest events in the historical records of every nation.
Countless possibilities raced through Elhart’s mind.
Yet none of them felt easy to accept.
After all, his magical knowledge was constrained by the common sense of this era.
Kei spoke, dragging his hand roughly across his face.
“The problem is how this was even possible. No matter how powerful Kailyb is, Mikhail wasn’t someone who could be easily overcome, was he?”
Iserna, her expression darkened in thought for a moment, let out a short sigh.
“There are ways it could have happened.”
“For example?”
At Kei’s question, Iserna’s eyes narrowed as she spoke.
“He could have waited for Mikhail to die and then seized the body, or he could have obtained the rights to the body through a contract.”
“A contract… you say?”
Both Elhart and Kei turned to look at her simultaneously.
“Is that even possible?”
Iserna shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s possible. We’re talking about Kailyb, after all.”
Her tone was calm, but beneath it lay a faint undercurrent of emotion.
Elhart recognized it immediately.
Anger.
And betrayal.
The shocking treachery of someone she had trusted had clearly left a deep wound in her as well.
“Regardless.”
Iserna spoke.
“What matters now isn’t that.”
Kei lifted his head.
“Then, what matters?”
“Why did Kailyb appear now of all times?”
Iserna’s eyes narrowed.
“And.”
She continued.
“How could the timing of our return align so perfectly?”

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