Surely, no one was here. It had to be that way.
One entrance was blocked, and the opposite entrance could only be accessed by Valerie and me. But suddenly, I spotted a shadowy figure behind me and gasped in shock.
“H-How are you here?”
With blond hair and blue eyes, the figure before me was none other than Franz. He had vanished without a trace, making him the subject of an intense search by the royal investigation unit for months.
While I hoped to find him, I also wished I would never see him again. Yet here he was in front of me.
His gaze bore down on me threateningly, making the situation feel surreal.
Could this be a dream? I thought of how I woke up this morning, walked through the garden with the royal investigation unit, and entered the cave holding Valerie. Was I actually experiencing this in a dream?
“It’s been a while.”
He too appeared somewhat surprised. But soon, he returned to his usual contemptuous expression, sneering at me.
The voice I heard and the face I saw felt too vivid to be a dream.
But it wasn’t a dream. If so, how was Franz here?
Was it because he had been hiding here all along, preventing people from finding him and his companions? Did he intentionally collapse the cave entrance starting from the grand duke’s area?
My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and doubts. In contrast to my confusion, Franz approached me casually.
“Your face shows you’re curious about how I ended up here.”
“How are you here? Have you been hiding here for months?”
“Do I need to answer that?”
“I don’t care if you give me an answer. Now that I know you’re here, the royal investigation unit will soon arrest you.”
“Haha, foolish and dull Selly. Do you really think the royal investigation unit could capture me so easily?”
Though it was a situation where laughter seemed impossible, Franz laughed loudly as if my words amused him. Previously, I would have felt panic and fear at his demeanor, but now he seemed neither frightening nor puzzling.
Thinking of it as a desperate struggle of one on the brink of ruin, his nonchalant gestures and exaggerated laughter felt more pitiful.
“Before your downfall, you were lost in the delusion of becoming the emperor. Just like you believe the royal investigation can’t catch you now.”
Franz’s face cracked as soon as he let go of my words, as he did mine.
“You’ve lost your fear, Celly.”
“You’re the one who’s lost your fear. You’re a felon about to be executed, aren’t you?”
The accusatory words slipped from his mouth. The thought of Franz’s past misdeeds naturally stirred up feelings of disgust.
How could he take so many lives for his own selfish ends, and I felt a surge of anger that made me want to condemn him with my own hands if I could.
“You don’t realize how many people you’re hurting right now just to keep that one little life alive, do you?”
“If ……you’re trying to make me lose my temper so I’ll lose my composure, glory to you, Celly.”
A shade crossed Franz’s face. Just as I was beginning to realize that something was different about the man who was so quick to anger at the mere utterance of a few words, Franz stepped forward and took a step toward Valerie.
“There’s an imperial squad outside, yes. You can call them all you want. No one can get in through that entrance anyway, so what are you going to call them?”
A step, and then another. Franz was now close enough to touch if he lifted his head.
“Right now, you’re just a weak little girl who can’t do anything. Face it.”
A shadow as black as his great height was cast. I glanced over my shoulder to see what was behind Franz’s back. Mountains of magic stones. There was nothing else in sight.
I could see a couple of passageways behind him, probably the ones he’d come through, but it would probably be useless to run for it.
I couldn’t possibly move faster than Franz. Especially with Valerie in his arms.
If I can’t beat him with physical strength, I’ll have to borrow another. His gaze shifted from the crypt to the pile of magic stones.
“What do you think you’re doing here, when your minions have done all the hard, difficult work for you? What do you think you, the incompetent, pretentious Archduke, who can’t do anything for yourself, can do for yourself?”
It was an obvious provocation. I wondered if Franz would fall for such a simple provocation, but he was down to his last ditch effort.
“There’s no use in trying to disturb my composure, Celly,” Franz would normally have said, but his face quickly became angry.
“I could break your slender neck with my own two hands, and that would be nothing.”
Franz’s snarl reveals a raw, withering anger.
“You think I can’t do anything on my own? You’re the one who can’t do anything, Celly. I flew all the way here from Urentum, all by myself, with my own hands, all by myself.”
“Urentum?” An unexpected place name slipped from Franz’s mouth.
“I could have fled to any other country. But I came here alone to destroy you, you who used to be mine. Can I really be called a mere figurehead prince when I can’t do anything myself?”
“So you mean… you were heading to Urentum to escape to another country, but you made it here to LaHart in an instant? No way, using a magic stone?”
“Right. Noble ladies like you, raised like flowers, could never do that.”
Was it just my imagination that Franz’s eyes glinted red when he pronounced ‘noble lady’? It was hard to understand why he reacted to phrases like ‘highborn’ and ‘noble lineage’ despite being the emperor’s son. Was it due to the inferiority complex instilled by his mother’s status?
My mind was in turmoil but quickly organized itself. Franz, who had vanished without a trace, seemed to have aimed for Urentum, whatever the circumstances or method.
Then he arrived at Urentum and attempted to escape to another country. He probably didn’t mean to officially seek asylum, but rather to teleport using magic.
Yet, on the brink of that final escape, he flew to LaHart using a magic stone. Why? Simply to harm Celeste, the object of his passion and torment?
“You flew from Urentum… It seems you had a magic stone hidden there?”
Magic that transcends time and space demands an enormous cost. The distance from Urentum to LaHart would take days even by train.
If he moved that distance using magic, it implies he used an extraordinary amount of magic stones.
It was hard to believe there could be such an amount in that underdeveloped rural town. Did Franz hide it away? In case of such an emergency?
“Indeed. A tremendous amount was stored in Urentum, which the foolish frogs of the royal family could never even dream of seeing. My mother had prepared it long ago. She was far more brilliant, no, incomparable to those in the royal family who foolishly consider themselves noble simply due to their birth!”
Franz, spilling his escape details and future plans as if to honor his mother’s disgraceful death, seemed to be comforting her.
Yet, Marina was probably already suffering, burning in hellfire.
What good is such praise now, after turning his back on his mother just to survive? I almost scoffed at Franz’s foolish, selfish attitude.
“If it weren’t for that Karl…!”
Franz’s anger, lamenting his fate while defending his mother, took an unexpected turn. It’s a common trait among the selfish and greedy.
When one’s misguided desires return empty, blaming others for the reasons and responsibilities, venting anger in the wrong places.
It was the very next moment that Franz, seemingly unable to contain his rage, lunged at me.
“Ugh…”
Franz’s large hand wrapped around my neck. Holding Valerie made it impossible to push his hand away, and I began to choke.
“If I’m unhappy, you must be unhappy too, Selly.”
“Ugh…”
“Even if I’m happy, you must act according to my wishes.”
His grip tightened, making it hard to breathe.
“Waaah, Mommy!”
In the sudden chaos, Valerie began to squirm in my arms and cry.
“That arrogant Karl. He must have climbed the throne with that shameless face. He stole the place that should have been mine!”
“Ugh, gah.”
As my breath was taken away, fear overwhelmed me.
