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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Now, say ah.”
I stared blankly at Miragen, who brought a spoonful of soup to my mouth.
As if telling me to open my mouth quickly, she furrowed her brows, and when I slightly parted my lips, the spoon entered my mouth and poured out the soup.
Anyone seeing this would think I had become disabled.
It’s just that I had a lot of bandages wrapped around my body, but there was nowhere I couldn’t move.
“I can eat by myself.”
“Your arm is injured. And… I feel sorry. Because you got hurt because of me.”
“I’ve never thought I got hurt because of Your Highness. Didn’t I say I would block them in the first place?”
When I picked up the spoon in Miragen’s hand, Miragen, who had been making a slightly sullen expression, stared at me intently.
Still, I couldn’t accept being fed one by one.
It wasn’t a serious injury, and it was just that I had bled a lot.
Enough to pass out for about three days.
Miragen and Adele were quite surprised by that.
I didn’t expect to pass out either, but perhaps my stamina was quite lacking.
I was receiving treatment from a priest dispatched from the church, and my physical condition was gradually recovering.
They said I could move freely in two days, so from then on, I thought I should officially increase my stamina.
“But I’m not sure if it’s okay for you to stay here. I heard someone is coming from the imperial palace.”
“It will take them quite a while to come here. The distance between the North and the capital is quite far. The Grand Duchess is still engaged in the subjugation, so I should stay here.”
“…What does the Grand Duchess’s subjugation have to do with Your Highness staying-”
“Then will I leave a sick person behind? If I seemed like such a heartless person, I would like to let you know that you saw me wrong.”
I awkwardly laughed at her sulking and grumbling appearance.
When I woke up, her eyes were swollen.
I think she probably cried.
Since my injury would have bothered her quite a bit with her personality, she must have been very concerned when she saw me pass out.
Did I lose consciousness right after seeing Miragen arrive?
Today was the first time I was in a clear state of mind since then.
Perhaps because of that, it felt quite strange to see Miragen talking in front of me.
Miragen was safe without a single wound, she was alive.
Along with the impression that I had changed something, her voice that had been echoing in my ears began to blur.
In fact, it was no different from an auditory hallucination.
Hearing a voice I had heard more than 100 years ago again, wouldn’t it be considered a mental illness?
It was because it was a memory that remained in my mind so vividly.
It was a memory I always regretted and firmly resolved not to repeat if such a situation came again.
Did I succeed this time?
I smiled slightly at the question that suddenly came to mind.
Didn’t I succeed splendidly?
Both Miragen and I were still alive.
Although I was quite injured, having a few more scars was nothing to me now.
“Ah, I have something to say. Can I say it?”
– Oh, I had something I wanted to say.
I guess I should say it now.
I turned my head at the voices that I heard simultaneously.
One was clear, coming from right next to me, but the other voice was gradually becoming blurry and slowly dispersing.
It was a memory of the past.
Something that couldn’t be heard, that no longer existed.
What the Miragen of the thirty-fifth regression had said.
Blood was no longer flowing from Miragen’s chest where the sword had been buried.
Wasn’t she just a hesitating woman now?
When I blinked my eyes once, the illusion covering my eyes disappeared completely.
Only Miragen was visible.
Seeing her constantly moving her lips, hesitating about what to say to me, I smiled slightly.
“You can speak.”
There was no need to beg her to live anymore.
If I said such a thing to her, who was already fine without a single wound, I would rather be treated strangely.
I felt strangely happy.
The suffocating feeling that had been blooming in a corner of my heart disappeared, and it seemed to be filled with something refreshing.
“I thought I should repay you for saving me. Next time. I’m thinking of inviting you, Robert, to… um.”
– Can I… love you, Robert?
Their overlapping voices were endlessly miniscule.
Since only Miragen’s voice was clearly heard, the buried voice soon disappeared with the blowing wind.
Many things were different.
Even if their words were similar, the content she was asking, what she wanted from me, even the situation in which I heard these words were different.
Looking at Miragen, who was waiting for my answer, I finally nodded and answered.
What I couldn’t answer in the thirty-fifth regression, so I finally opened my mouth after living the hundredth.
That answer was something I had always kept in my heart.
It had formed a lump along with regret, an answer I had kept for decades.
Even then, wouldn’t I have conveyed such an answer?
“That’s fine.”
When we first met, we ended without any relationship.
When we met for the thirty-fifth time, I let you go without becoming lovers.
In the fifty-fifth regression, I lived for you and died by your hand. And in the hundredth regression. Looking at you alive like this, I finally put the answer I couldn’t give into words.
Isn’t it enough?
It was enough to prove that my life wasn’t in vain.
Just the fact that you are still alive…
I can be content with that.
Robert, who looked at Miragen smiling brightly, smiled slightly.
Her voice that had been echoing in his ear was no longer heard.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be heard in the future either.
His regret and lingering attachment had already disappeared with the north wind, and only the cool breeze tickled his cheek like that.
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The subjugation of the tribes was expected to take a month, but after Robert directly killed Temuzin, it could be said to have ended quite blandly.
One week, that was the time it took for Adele, who had fiercely driven the soldiers, to complete the subjugation.
The tribes that had lost their great chief Temuzin collapsed too easily, so Lothos showed a bitter expression upon seeing this achievement completed in this short period.
“If it was going to be like this, we should have kidnapped and brought the young master.”
“I would have been fine alone. I just got injured unnecessarily.”
“…Anyway, now that we’ve cleared almost everything except the undeveloped areas, there will be no need to waste resources in the name of subjugation for the time being.”
When Robert’s name was mentioned, Adele’s eyes instantly sharpened, and Lothos’ body trembled as he made eye contact with her.
It had been like that since Robert passed out.
In fact, he should have told her a few days ago that he had woken up, but he deliberately hid it because the subjugation wasn’t finished.
If he told her now?
Lothos wiped his strangely chilling neck.
Still, there was no deputy who had been with her as long as him, so she wouldn’t cut him down, right?
If there was one thing he had recently become certain of, it was that even if Robert wasn’t Adele’s lover, she definitely cherished him.
Lothos, who recalled Adele’s attitude when Robert passed out, smiled slightly.
– …Contact the church.
– I will request the dispatch of a priest.
– Call the Saint. Don’t forget to tell them that if they are even a little late, I will turn everything upside down.
He didn’t know if she really meant it, but the murderous atmosphere she exuded all day long only calmed down after Robert’s condition stabilized.
The feeling he had felt before didn’t seem to be just a misunderstanding.
Robert Taylor… no matter what he had said to the Grand Duchess, wouldn’t he become the one to change the dynamics of the North in the future?
Lothos’ specialty was lining up, so he had already sent various communications to Robert.
He had slightly mixed in information about Adele as well.
After looking at Adele, who was advancing while holding the reins of the wolf, Lothos, who had made up his mind, slowly approached her and opened his mouth.
“A letter arrived from the main castle a few days ago.”
“A letter?”
“It says the young master has woken up. They say Her Highness the Princess is taking care of him now.”
Thud.
Adele, who had stopped like that, examined the letter Lothos handed her.
Her eyes narrowed, and her furrowed brows were visible.
It meant that her mood was gradually worsening.
It only took him a moment to distance himself in case sparks flew, and Adele, who had crumpled the letter into her bosom, muttered softly.
“…He woke up.”
There was a clear relief mixed in those words.
She was surprised to feel relieved even after saying it herself, but it was true that she felt relieved to hear that Robert had woken up.
Because she had been more flustered than ever when he passed out.
To think he would pass out not just for a day, but for several days, wasn’t it truly infuriating?
“Increase the speed a bit.”
“Understood.”
However, contrary to her thoughts, a faint smile was drawn on her lips.
There wasn’t much distance left to the main castle now.
As Adele grasped the reins again and spurred, the other deputies also began to go faster together.
What she thought when Robert first collapsed was simple.
She was flustered, unable to understand the situation, and that fluster turned into anger, causing her to vent it in strange places.
Now that she thought about it, it was true that she couldn’t judge the situation calmly.
If she had thought a little more calmly, she would have known it was just exhaustion.
She couldn’t remain composed in the face of an emotion she had felt for the first time in her life.
The anxiety that had bloomed in her mind must have been the cause.
…She always felt like he would disappear.
The strange feeling and anxiety she felt whenever she saw Robert, not anyone else, didn’t disappear even as time passed.
Rather, it only amplified, so wouldn’t she be caught up in these emotions?
Feeling anxious when they were not together, feeling irritated by the fact that he was with someone other than herself.
These incomprehensible emotions.
Adele, who arrived at the main castle, headed straight to where Robert was.
The other deputies followed Lothos with puzzlement.
Since Adele always moved as she pleased after the subjugation was over, most of them didn’t have any doubts.
Would he be with the princess now?
Even though she had made up her mind not to care, Adele slightly furrowed her brows because of Robert’s words that kept lingering in her mind.
It bothered her that he had said he would throw his life away to repay a favor the princess didn’t even know about.
So she was in a bad mood.
She was angry, and it would be fine to speak with him a little crudely.
Knock knock, when she knocked on the door, the voice coming from inside was cut off.
“It’s me, Robert.”
When a moment of silence passed, Robert’s face appeared beyond the door that had swung open.
His face was still pale with a nose as sharp as a blade, and gray hair similar to ash.
However, the difference was that there was a glimmer in those eyes.
What was the emotion dwelling in those eyes that had been empty?
“I heard the subjugation was over, but you came quickly.”
Smiling slightly at the silly thought, she reached out her hand towards Robert’s face like that.
The sensation felt on her palm was still soft.
Alive.
Not dead, not vanished.
He was alive like this in front of her.
Why did that alone make her smile?
She thought about touching his cheek like last time, but then lowered her hand and shrugged her shoulders.
There was no need to be swayed by this nameless emotion.
It wouldn’t be unnatural if she didn’t act the way she usually did.
As Robert stared at that movement, Adele, who laughed slightly, opened her mouth.
“You woke up so quickly. I didn’t know you had the talent to make people worry.”
“…I’m sorry. I didn’t know I had pushed myself that hard either.”
Adele, who felt the presence of the princess inside, then stared at Robert intently and moved her lips.
She didn’t really like the two of them being together.
He had woken up anyway, and besides, didn’t he have things to do in the future?
She needed a way to separate the two.
Adele, who thought of that, added.
“Change your clothes and come to the banquet hall. I’ll hold a banquet in a bit.”
“Isn’t today a day of rest? What is the schedule…”
A day of rest.
Of course it was, but there would be no one to object to this decision.
This might not be the case in the capital, but the North was Adele Igrit’s land, a territory ruled solely by the Grand Duchess.
Adele, who smiled slightly, then continued looking at Robert.
“I decided that way.”
At least in the North, even the princess was no different.
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