亚洲欧美中文日韩Aⅴ

I could survive even if I die. But these people could not. This was a contradiction I had been dealing with all this time. I didn’t want them to get hurt which was why I would get hurt in their stead.

But what if I could not manage to save them even if I were to die in their place?

“If I die and come back to life, the you from this reality will disappear. Brother, then what reality am I actually living in? If you’re not here in this reality too brother, I think I’ll just die. How could I live without you in my future?”

The pieces that made up my life. Losing him would destroy my day-to-day life.

“Why won’t you be able to live?”

Fleon pinched my cheek without holding back.

“Listen to me. People should be living. No matter what. They should live even after suffering loss. They should live though they’re miserable. And you will live without me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Let me ask you a question. If you’ve been risking your life for me this whole time, then you’ve done nothing but waste your time. You fool. Ugly. You ugly chick. You’ve always made me feel guilty. You know? Because in all the realities only you’ve been aware of, you were the only one hurting…”

Fleon widened his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I’ve always wanted to apologise. The first time we met, I had hurt your feelings with my harsh words.”

“I wasn’t hurt.”

“I had always worried that you might have been hurt because I wasn’t able to understand your feelings back then. I knew what I had done but I couldn’t fix my habits.”

He felt for my hand and held it gently once he found it.

“You’re not some damned chick.”

A trail of water swept down his sculpted cheek before dripping onto the back of his hand.

“I’m the damned one.”

His arrogant gaze that made him look haughty. I liked it whenever he wore that gaze. I had always loved his confident smile.

“So, let me go. Ashley. Let me meet my own end..”

My brother. My family. The arrogance that had supported me in the past was now hurting me.

“If you say it like that,”

Brother, you’re too cruel to me.

“I can’t help but to listen to you.”

I covered my face with my hand. I could feel him pulling me into his arms.

“You’re so mean. So mean… For leaving me alone.”

“Are you finally acting like my younger sister after all this time?”

“And I’ll continue to do so for the rest of my life so please live. Please live, Fleon…”

He wrapped his arms around my head.

“Dane and that guy, be happy with them. Make sure that you’re all happy.”

The embrace I was feeling for the first and last time felt so warm I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

Please live.

But Fleon never answered my final pleas.

***

“We will now commence the execution!”

The cheers were thundering. Fleon. When I turned my head around, I could tell that the stand was packed with people. Just like back when I performed the [Primo Salvatio]. He was the main character.

But the difference was that this was his first and last time on stage and I would never get to see him again after this.

“Kill him!”

“Dastardly traitor!”

The emperor had pinned all the crimes of the 2nd Prince and his mother onto him. I had come to realise something after regressing so many times. The emperor did not wish to kill the 2nd Prince. That was why he had pinned all the crimes on him.

Something flashed across my eyes.

[His lips remained stubbornly closed. His wilful spirit would rather break than bend. He was like a hawk. And like a drop of dew at the tip of a leaf, the hawk fell from flight in the dungeon.]

In the ‘novel’ I read, that was what had been written about him. I thought that excerpt had described him well.

This world was not a novel so perhaps in one of the realities , that was how he died. There was no reason behind how he could face death head-on with such determination.

It was because he had no strength, because he had nothing, he died.

“Brother, how did you get swept up in the coup? You could have stopped her. Since she is your mother.”

Fleon raised his head and stared at the sky.

“Honestly, to some extent, I think so too. This Empire revolved around templars. And I’m sick of it.”

But in his final moments, he had been briefly marred by regret.

“As a non-templar, I couldn’t do anything my entire life. And I’m tired of the ridicule. If change could come… I didn’t think change would be so bad.”

He had told me.

‘Be happy.’

Looking relieved, he then smiled one last time.

“The mastermind behind the treacherous coup and the Heir to the Wolves.”

Flutter. The wind flapped the hem of the sinner’s clothes.

“The 6th Prince, Fleon Clache Kaltanias will now be executed!”

The immense roars died down. As soon as the gusts of wind paused, I could hear a dizzying sound.

Woah–

A red flag propped up.

And you had died.

***

Three days had passed.

Not even a funeral was held for the rebel. Fleon had died as a traitor, not a prince, so even his corpse was taken away.

“If the prince had been a templar, he would have been sacrificed to the crystal. To reabsorb his divinity.”

For my brother who didn’t even have a funeral held for his death, I questioned his death. Why did he have to die? Why did he have to die for a sin he did not even commit? Why did anything I wish for disappear as if they were not meant to come true?

“Mistress.”

Rebecca lowered her head. With glazed eyes, I stared at her.

I didn’t sleep. No, I couldn’t sleep. I could hear his voice at night. But when I woke up, he was nowhere to be seen. Whenever I tried to visit him, Fleon’s palace was always empty.

I slowly looked away from the diary I had been hugging to my chest. I hadn’t opened it for the past three days.

I didn’t know who else I was going to lose. I was afraid. As though misfortune wouldn’t come for me if I didn’t read the diary, I avoided it.

Rebecca looked as beautiful as ever. I was not the only one who couldn’t sleep and not the only one who was sad. Rebecca looked no different from yesterday and the day before.

Rebecca continued to carry the male ring hanging from her chest.

“What’s the matter?”

Rebecca remained quiet for a while. She lowered her gaze slowly.

“We have discovered the 7th Prince’s whereabouts.”

“Where is he?”

Rebecca hesitated to speak, which was rare. At the sight of her darkened expression, I closed my eyes before opening them again.

“Hurry.”

I quickly made a face.

“… He’s currently in the dungeon under the Central Palace.”

Our surroundings were dark. The sky looked to be of a colour between indigo and a highly saturated blue. The air around us smelled like dawn.

“The dungeon? Why is he there? Dane had nothing to do with the coup!”

I sat up with a start. Rebecca maintained her serious tone.

“It was said that he had disobeyed an imperial command.”

“… An imperial command?”

Rebecca nodded.

“He was accused and had been detained for a while now. The accuser was Deros. The new chief of the Wheel of Rome.”

Dane and Lord Ray had arrived at the Empire one step before me. But once I arrived, they had disappeared completely.

“I didn’t have much time so I couldn’t find out any more details”

They didn’t even bother to contact me when something came up.

“Where is he? Lead me there.”

I got up with a jolt. Fortunately, I didn’t have to change since I had been recently sleeping in the same clothes I wore during the day.

I called for a Templar of Feathers. He might not be as good as Penne but this allowed me to travel more easily.

“Princess, Soricks and I will be escorting you.”

But it wasn’t just a Templar of Feathers who came running. Fellow patrolmen Soricks and Meta also arrived.

“The palace has become too dangerous these days.”

Ceres patrolmen had been mobilised into the palace that had been devastated by the failed coup due to the lack of manpower. But they insisted that escorting me would not pose a problem. After all, I was with them when I first started as well.

“E-endless glory to the flower of the Empire, the noble 8th Branch! I-I humbly greet the princess. I am the one in charge of the general management of the dungeon.”

After a while, I had arrived at the dungeon under Rebecca’s lead. Unlike the cell Fleon was locked up in, this was where real criminals were detained. Out of the three buildings the dungeons were in, Dane had been detained in one along with the most heinous criminals. Perhaps that was why this place carried a much different atmosphere from the palace that Fleon was locked in. Not a single embellishment was in sight and countless dark red stains could be seen here and there.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze. I stared at the man lying face-down.

“W-what brings you to this shabby place…”

“I never allowed you to ask questions, did I?”

The manager inhaled sharply before lowering his head once more. It seemed like Castor was behind his current attitude. Since I was rumoured to be his beloved princess.

“M-My apologies.”

It was currently very early in the morning. This was not the time for a princess to appear in a dungeon for no reason. Moreover, this visit could be easily misunderstood.

Hence, I will be once again doing what I had been doing for a long time.

“You’re the one in-charge?”

At the end of my question, I flashed a slow smile. Fleon had just died and it was still hard to smile but I forgot about it for a moment.

“Does my brother come here often?”