Chapter 14

Southeast of the central region. Land shouldering the Great Mountains, where a tributary of the Yangtze River meanders. A backwater where barley and wheat are the territory’s only source of income.

Moden was exactly as Joozoo remembered.

Even though the current Emperor had spent his days as a prince there. Far from developing, not even a monument had been erected. The town was as small as ever, and most of the territory was farmland.

It wasn’t solely because the viscount family who had served here for generations had been exterminated.

Albert had been ashamed of his past, having grown up stuck in the countryside. The other Four Heroes, his former comrades, were in a similar predicament. Moden was too small and pathetic to contain their ambitions, a land they simply wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Charlotte had also wanted to leave.

However, she didn’t have grand dreams or ambitions; she simply wanted to leave home.

She believed she would be happier away from her family. So, she blindly followed Albert, using him as her guiding star.

How much time had passed since then?

“Five years… plus how many more? Three? Four?”

Joozoo cautiously lowered her toes from the carriage.

The smell of burning straw filled the air. It was a familiar scent, tiresomely so.

Ruslan, who had dismounted earlier to escort her, offered his brief first impression.

“A pastoral place.”

“You can call it a hick town. There’s nothing to do except for the temple festival.”

Joozoo walked along the farm road.

It was quiet, as it was the time of year when winter transitioned into spring. There were few attendants waiting nearby. Most were left in the town, with only Semyon and one or two others brought along.

Originally, the Moden viscount’s manor stood tall beyond this farmland.

It was grand only by countryside standards; in reality, it was just an ordinary noble residence. Its only merit was its slight history, giving it an antique feel, and the topaz ornament on the fireplace was its only boastable heirloom.

They had put effort into managing the garden, so the flowering trees were beautiful. It was where young Charlotte always went to play. She would surreptitiously digest her swallowed breakfast, whirling around and using a wooden sword as a toy to dance…

“…You’re always thorough with your work, Albert.”

The place was already completely empty.

Bricks from the demolished house lay scattered on the ground. All the garden trees had been uprooted, leaving no trace. Weeds grew sparsely, pricking her knees.

She had no idea where the remains had been discarded. When a family was exterminated, they couldn’t be enshrined at the temple. The house site was barren, without even a tombstone.

Joozoo walked further inside. The locals, knowing it was the land of a disgraced family, didn’t even approach, and there was no sign of anyone having passed through.

“Wait a moment. You’ll get poison ivy.”

Ruslan, who had followed behind, stepped slightly ahead. He twisted his cane and drew the hidden rapier. He then cut down the tall grass in front of Joozoo.

Joozoo’s throat was tight, making it difficult to speak properly. Still, she tried to remain composed and asked, “How does the Northern Count know about things like poison ivy?”

“When my birth mother was still alive, she lived hidden in the Duke’s villa. It was even deeper in the mountains than here.”

An unexpected past. She remembered him riding directly to the deep mountain prison. She realized that it was possible because he had experience.

Ruslan nudged a piece of brick with his cane.

“A typical imperial method of extermination. They demolished the Ipenia royal palace in a similar way. This place is small, so it was completely razed.”

Joozoo nodded. She didn’t particularly listen closely. It was just a reflexive reaction.

She had thought of visiting this place once more before going to the capital.

But actually witnessing it was more devastating than she had anticipated. It was difficult to control her emotions.

She had wanted to leave home as soon as possible. Still, she hadn’t severed ties with her family. They weren’t a loving family, but they weren’t one that hit or cursed, either. They had even allowed her to go to the capital with Albert.

After leaving her hometown, she had exchanged a few letters with her half-brother. They all contained news that everyone was healthy and curious about Lotte’s well-being. She had given a wry smile, as they seemed to have become more affectionate after being separated.

Those letters were used as a pretext to exterminate the viscount family.

They must have been afraid that the viscount family would protest the disposal.

They must have been wary that she would expose how he publicly associated with them when he was a prince.

Albert had to marry Princess Bathild at all costs.

“…You look tired. There’s no need to force yourself to dwell on the dead.”

Ruslan said, as if reading her mind.

“If you try to carry the ghosts on your shoulders, you won’t be able to move forward.”

“Is that the Count’s life philosophy?”

“It’s what my birth mother told me.”

Ruslan’s voice had also lowered as he said that. Had old memories resurfaced?

Joozoo walked to the location where the central staircase of the mansion once stood. She placed her hand on the end of a barely surviving banister.

She recalled the woman who had once only glanced at her from above.

“Count Kaitel. Do you know that I was a true bastard?”

“While investigating your life, I learned a little.”

“It’s convenient that I can skip the details. Yes, my mother and I were never on good terms. Since she had reason to hate me, I didn’t try to love her either. Sometimes, I even considered calling her ‘Madam’ instead of ‘Mother’…”

But Angela had left her with one last word.

“Even so, at the end, she said she was sorry.”

For the past five years, she had endlessly pondered and reflected in the prison. She had even wondered if Angela had misheard.

“Why? Why did she say she was sorry? You’re smart, Count. Do you think you know why?”

“…”

“Shouldn’t she have cursed me for bringing in a concubine’s child and making things this way? That Charlotte, that damn bitch, obsessed with a man and with a rotten mind, why did she have to drag us all down with her instead of dying alone…!”

At that moment, Ruslan grabbed her arm. Joozoo twisted it away.

Ruslan’s hand stopped in mid-air. Joozoo didn’t turn to look at him. In truth, she couldn’t show her face.

She pulled her body off the railing and walked aimlessly. Beyond the wide space, she saw only the endless forest. If she went out the back and through the forest path, there was a small moat and an old castle.

The lord’s castle, where the viscount family served.

Once, it had been the place where Seventh Prince Albert had resided.

Her pace quickened like crazy. Her long hair hit her cheeks as it caught the wind. The grass kept tickling her calves, causing her skin to swell.

The fact that her legs had sensation suddenly felt foreign. Charlotte, born in the Moden viscount’s family, would have had her knees broken and been unable to walk.

The body from that house was no longer there. It had been abandoned in the snowy mountains of the north.

Joozoo finally stopped. She felt like her head would explode if she held it in any longer, and she opened her mouth.

“Aaaaaaaaaah!!”

Tears, which she hadn’t shed even when beaten by the guards, suddenly poured out.

“Aah!! Aaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

After screaming for a while, her throat filled with moisture. It sounded like a croaking goose, which she hated to hear. She tried to suppress the sound somehow, but she took a wrong breath.

It felt like the passages in her nose and throat were blocked. Her head turned black, and she felt dizzy.

“Breathe. One, two.”

The man who had followed her supported her back. A handkerchief covered her nose and mouth.

Joozoo tried to push him away, but she couldn’t do as she wanted, like a powerless girl.

Ruslan wrapped his arms tightly around Joozoo. Joozoo thought, “Was the man’s arm strength always this strong?”

“Don’t force yourself to inhale; breathe in order. It’s okay. It’s not underwater. You won’t suffocate.”

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

Breathing in time with the man’s words, she gradually calmed down. Her struggling arms drooped.

The man’s hand wrapped around her head, which she had dropped without being able to hold it up properly. It was a firm, large hand.

“There, you’re doing well, being good. Better than my sister.”

His voice sounded gentle.

The handkerchief wiped away the tears that soaked her cheeks.

Joozoo couldn’t say anything. Her breathing had barely become comfortable, but the pace was still unstable. Haah, haah, she made panting sounds a few times.

Ruslan quietly looked down at the girl. He pondered what expression he should wear to make her feel better, and ended up with a slightly frowning smile.

He was remembering the day he had first witnessed the abandoned palace. The woman had barely managed to find her old home again and was wailing, and he didn’t know what to do by her side. At that time, he couldn’t share the woman’s memories, so he couldn’t think of any proper consolation.

But time had passed, and Ruslan was no longer a boy.

The surrounding air had already been slightly distorted with magic. He figured this woman would hate for her crying to leak out, given her personality.

So, he could return to being a prince of Ipenia a little more here.

Ruslan raised his hand and sensed the air. The aura, adjusted with high-level calculations, greatly distorted the light reflection around him.

“You’re using magic?”

Joozoo wiped her eyes with her wrist.

It wasn’t the diffraction created by tears. The surroundings suddenly distorted and changed altogether. The wind and smell touching her cheeks were those of Moden, but only the scenery visible to the eye was beautiful.

It seemed to be in some mountain. A giant Milky Way and nebula poured down. Fireflies fluttered their wings, orbiting around Joozoo as if they were revolving around her. The stardust-like light was pretty.

Ruslan was fixed in the center like the moon.

The black color he always wore had disappeared. Clean silver hair flowed down his eyebrows and ears. The glazed, reflective eyes were staring calmly down at Joozoo.

“It’s magic. Just an illusion, though. It’s that thing I said was useful for escaping.”

“The Count’s color has changed, too.”

“I’m putting all my energy into comforting you right now.”

He said that the magic on his body had also been stripped off in the process.

Joozoo barely put strength into her legs. She had been leaning her weight on Ruslan’s arms all along. Standing up straight and looking up, his blue eyes contained Joozoo with a depth that seemed as if she would fall right in.

His eyes were like enameled glass of any color. A transparent enamel blue.

Joozoo barely remembered the real reason she had visited her hometown. She hadn’t come to cry out for him to return what she had lost due to her mistake.

Escaping into a beautiful illusion was even more unacceptable.

“…It’s okay now. Magic was beautiful.”

Then Ruslan snapped his fingers. The star-filled scenery melted away, and the original ruins returned. The silver hair and blue eyes that had briefly appeared also disappeared.

Joozoo turned around to look at the ruins that stretched out behind her.

She clearly remembered who the culprit was who had made this.

“Count, do you think that it was wrong for Charlotte to have killed the royals?”

Ruslan lowered his eyes.

“It would be rare to find a crown throughout history that hasn’t drunk blood.”

“Yeah. Charlotte believed that and killed them. If she hadn’t killed them, they would have killed her, so she prays for their souls, but she doesn’t regret it.”

But there was no way she could forget the cursing voices. There were also people who she thought it would be a waste to kill.

However, clumsy sympathy was an insult to the deceased. In reality, there were people who had shouted, “Don’t pity them, just kill them quickly!”

Charlotte had refused the peerage after everything was over. She also swallowed the words that she wanted to wear a pearl diadem.

“I do regret that the person I put on the throne wasn’t a proper emperor.”

The corruption of the East and the refugee children who lost their homes, even the memories of the body’s owner being rescued by the late Duke Licht, rushed in all at once.

“Since it’s the emperor I put on the throne, it would be right for me to take him down with my own hands. And I won’t just make him pay the price for breaking my knees.”

She felt that it was a courtesy not only to the girl who had given her this body, but also to the people Charlotte had killed.

“What will you do after that? I hear Albert still doesn’t have an heir, and Charlotte killed all the royals who could threaten his position.”

Ruslan’s eyes widened slightly, as if he had anticipated an unsettling topic.

“What are you going to do with that vacancy? Prince of Ipenia. I want to settle this issue for sure before I reach the capital.”

Joozoo spoke, putting strength into each word.