Chapter 68 Piercing
The pickpocket immediately coughed up blood. His clothes were stained with red blood.
Killion quickly covered Jediel’s eyes and ears. The sight was too much for the child to bear.
“I’ll take Jediel and get him away from here. Leave him with me.”
“Yes, please, Your Highness.”
Killion nodded at Princess Espin’s offer. Princess Espin scooped Jediel up in her arms and quickly broke away from the group.
Caspian, frantic with excitement, plunged his sword over and over into the already fallen pickpocket’s body. Everyone around him stood frozen in place as he struggled like a madman in a frenzy, watching the bloodied scene unfold.
It took considerable skill to subdue a glowing man with a sword.
Anyone who approached rashly could be seriously injured. And if the opponent was an imperial prince, one had to be even more careful. You couldn’t afford to wound the Noble Body.
That’s when Killion stepped forward.
“Your Highness, that’s enough. The sinner is already dead.”
“What?”
The sound of Killion’s voice jolted Caspian to his senses, and he lowered his sword. Caspian’s eyes were blank as he stared at Killion. He looked like a man who had lost his mind.
“Ah…”
Not missing an opportunity, Killion snatched the sword out of Caspian’s hand. Luckily, Caspian gave him his sword.
Killion spoke to Caspian in a soothing voice.
“The man who deserved to die has already died at your hands, so now you must preserve yiu body.”
“Ah…”
Caspian’s body sagged, weak from his mad rampage.
Killion scooped him up and handed him over to the imperial guards. He immediately turned to the scouts, his face and voice sombre, and barked orders.
“Collect the body.”
“Yes, Sir, as you command.”
At Killion’s command, the men moved swiftly. They wrapped the bodies in cloth, loaded them onto carts, and wiped the gruesome bloodstains from the pavement. The whole square seemed to smell of blood.
He heard murmurs here and there.
“He’s a sinner, but I don’t think it was necessary to kill him so gruesomely.”
“Yeah, and it didn’t look like… punishment for a crime, it looked like he was just venting.”
“Exactly. He just looked like a man on a rampage.”
“I’m afraid it’s in my dreams. Ugh…”
Everyone’s faces were grim as goosebumps broke out all over their bodies, some scratching the nape of their necks, others gently brushing their forearms.
“I thought the youngest prince would be as gentle as his fair face, but he was anything but. He was a cruel man.”
“Shhhh! Careful, we don’t want anyone to hear that.”
“…”
One by one, terrified people began to leave. There was so much they wanted to say, but they were afraid that if they spoke out, they would be caught and killed like rats and birds.
The fear they felt rubbed off on Killion.
‘This is how that foolish prince always is. He always loses his temper at the last minute and tries to settle things with violence.’
He curls his fists into tight fists, holding back the sigh that threatens to burst out. Caspian has been like this since he was a teenager.
His life has always been marked by violence, and whenever there’s been trouble, the imperial family has used its money and power to keep the rumors from getting out.
‘But how long can they stop it…’
Killion was skeptical about the future of the youngest prince, the imperial headache.
He had a premonition that one day he would do something that even the imperial family could not repair. Childhood habits often carried over into old age.
‘At least Veronia and Caspian didn’t come face to face today.’
They never should. But even as he thought this, he felt a rush of anxiety. He knew that people would be talking about Veronia’s actions in saving the dying child.
Prince Caspian and his imperial escort had witnessed it, as well as the common people. So did Princess Espin.
‘I hope this doesn’t reach the ears of the Emperor or Empress…’
A dark shadow fell over Killion’s face. He had to have a plan, just in case.
***
“How badly injured is she?”
As soon as the carriage began to move, Onyx pulled down the cloak covering Veronia’s head to check her wounds. As soon as he saw the look on Veronia’s face, he let out a grim sigh.
“Nia, did you… lose your piercing?”
“Oh no!”
Veronia then touched her ears. She could feel the piercing in one ear, but nothing in the one that had been cut by the knife.
“Hah…”
She sighed deeply, a mixture of worry and despair.
“Your hair is the same color, but the burn scars and tattoos are gone.”
“What if Killion saw it? What if he saw it?”
Thump, thump, thump, her heart was racing like crazy.
“Be still…”
Veronia tried to calm her pounding heart and thought carefully about the situation.
“As soon as Killion saw my wound, he took off his cloak and put it over my head, saying that Jediel would freak out at the sight of blood.”
“Does that mean… Killion, that he saw your face without the scar and pretended not to notice?”
“That’s… not certain, but…”
“But what?”
Onyx interrupted, frustrated with Veronia’s pausing. She looked as if she was about to cry, and then said the next words.
“He… said it was because of Jediel, but… it was kind of weird, actually, because I felt like he was holding my face so tightly.”
“…”
Onyx mused this time.
“I can’t be sure, Killion, but suppose he saw your scarless face.”
“…”
It was a horrible thought, but Veronia nodded anyway. Onyx continued.
“Then why didn’t he freak out or ask, and why did he cover your face like he didn’t see it? As if he was helping you to stay out of sight.”
“That’s because…”
Thump, thump, thump, Veronia’s heart raced again. Veronia and Onyx’s gazes tangled in the air.
There was so much she wanted to say. But it was a gaze that contained the words they dared not utter.
Onyx spoke first.
“Here’s what I think, Nia.”
“…”
Veronia’s emotions as she waited for Onyx’s next words were similar to those of someone awaiting a death sentence.
“Killion, he… The truth is, I’ve known all along.”
“What? You can’t…,”
“As soon as he saw you, he knew that you were Veronia, the princess who died five years ago.”
“…”
“But he pretended not to know. Because if he had, you would have left again.”
“Hahh…”
Everything Onyx said sounded true. She was terrified that he was telling the truth. She wanted to deny it.
She shook her head and opened her mouth to speak.
“But I used a magic stone to change my appearance. You can’t recognise me that easily, and besides, I’m a woman who’s been dead for five years.”
“…”
Onyx paused, staring at her quizzically. He looked troubled. Should he tell her this or not?
But the thought was short-lived. Given the circumstances, it seemed better to tell her than to keep it from her any longer.
“No. Killion didn’t… believe the princess was dead.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“A request came in to our Intelligence Guild shortly after the Princess memorial service.”
Onyx slowly explained what had happened.
Killion’s request was quite complicated. Capture the image and voice of a woman in her early twenties who suddenly appeared in every region of the Empire. To report monthly on the number of gemstones collected.
He had been doing this for the past five years.
“Hah…”
Veronia sighed in bewilderment and disbelief.
“How… Can that be, he saw the burnt corpse, he went through the whole funeral, how… can that be!”
No matter how hard she tried to make sense of it, Veronia could not understand it at all.
Onyx let out a shallow sigh and said.
“I don’t like to talk about it, either, but you know, when you feel something, you can’t explain why, but it just clicks.”
“…”
“Well… maybe it’s something like that? Besides, I bumped into you at the memorial service in… Square.”
“Oh, that time…”
It was only a brief glance. Besides, she already had silver hair and was wearing a hood.
“It was only a glance, but I can’t believe he hasn’t… forgotten it.”
Veronia rubbed her forehead. The pain in her ear from the sword cut was no longer there. The matter before her was too important.
“Then… Killion knew my true identity from the moment he first saw me.”
“…I’m saying that’s a possibility, but we can’t be sure yet.”
“…”
Finalmente
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