I Refuse This Life, Your Highness! - Chapter 93

The carriage swayed steadily, and only silence filled the air. Leia kept her eyes down, her mouth tightly shut, and I, too, had no intention of starting a conversation with her.

The ride to Ceres’ estate would take a full day and a half on a fast carriage. I planned to secretly disembark before we reached, but the thought of staying in this awkward silence made me uneasy already. Just as I was about to turn my head and read the book I had brought with me, Leia suddenly spoke.

“Your Grace.”

“…Hmm?”

Leia, who had been sitting like a statue, suddenly called my name.

It was so unexpected that I let out an odd sound—neither a response nor a question—before I realized it. But Leia continued without hesitation.

“I heard that Baron Ceres also supported this war.”

“Oh, really… I’ve heard about that.”

I had been informed before we left for the estate. It didn’t seem like Leia was saying this because I didn’t know about it.

“It gives me a reason.”

“A reason?”

“After the war ends, I’ll have the justification to take my rightful place as the head of the family and kill the Baron and his wife.”

“……”

Leia’s eyes sparkled. It was the first time I’d seen something resembling vitality on his face, usually so gloomy. In that moment, I felt a strange kinship with him. Surely, when I decided to kill Erma, I must have had a similar look on my face.

What’s lost never returns. The past can never be changed. That’s why there’s revenge. Some might say revenge is meaningless, but it isn’t. Erma crumbled, suffering terribly, and eventually died.

Honestly, I had been worried. I wondered if, when I finally dealt with Erma, I would feel emptiness instead of satisfaction. It hadn’t been like that at all. Every time I felt the reality of Erma’s death, the thought that she had paid for the crimes she committed helped clear away the humidity and darkness of my past. Now, only the Emperor remained.

I wondered if Leia, too, thought the same way as I did when it came to the Baron and his wife. I watched him for a moment before asking.

“How did you feel when Millen Isle died?”

“…Ha, are you serious?”

He chuckled bitterly.

“Before I fell asleep, the thought that he was no longer in this world made me tremble with joy. And the fact that he died from poison similar to your blood… How painful it must have been for him.”

The joy in his face felt genuine. He clearly shared the same thoughts as I did. After all, unless you’re a saint, isn’t that how all humans feel?

Looking at Millen’s behavior, I could imagine how Leia had been treated in the Baron’s household. I also knew that the Baroness, Millen’s mother, had a necklace that proved Leia’s status as the heir to the family. She must have hidden or disposed of it somewhere.

The Baroness surely hadn’t been kind to Leia. If anything, she likely encouraged Millen’s behavior and treated Leia terribly. The Baron, on the other hand, had no interest in his family, preferring to spend his time outside.

“The Baroness would often lock me up, saying she couldn’t stand the sight of me. It was in a dark underground storeroom where rats would come out. After being locked in there for about three days, Millen would bring me food… and if I kissed his feet, he’d promise to let me out and give me food.”

I frowned. What a vile person. His actions resembled the Emperor’s in a way. Was it that all those born with such disgusting natures end up like this?

“Of course, I never did what he wanted.”

“…How often were you locked up? How long?”

“Countless times.”

“There was no way to escape, no way out… it must have felt hopeless.”

Leia glanced up at me for a moment.

“You speak as though you’ve been locked up before. Is it because of the recent kidnapping?”

I shook my head. I had been locked up many times myself, in caves leading into mountains, in the mansion’s basement, in the attic where no one had cleaned for years.

Each time, one of my brothers would come to get me. They would list all my wrongdoings and tell me to apologize to our parents, bearing the burden of those mistakes as if they were entirely mine.

How foolish.

As I spoke about it, Leia quietly listened and then smiled faintly.

“In that sense, we’re comrades.”

“Oh, if you put it that way, it’s definitely true that we’re comrades.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Although we had exchanged heavy words, the mood lightened. As we talked occasionally, took breaks when there was a place to rest, and slept in the carriage, a day passed.

“It should be coming soon.”

The place where I had to get off was approaching. Not even 10 minutes had passed after I said that when the carriage suddenly stopped with a loud thud. Outside, I could hear the sound of the knights drawing their swords at once. It was an ambush, but one that had been prepared in advance.

Leia and I exchanged glances, keeping an eye on the outside. I had already changed into a new set of clothes. I was wearing plain clothes that wouldn’t look out of place among ordinary people, topped with a long robe.

The sound of swords clashing echoed frantically. Someone shook the carriage violently. The carriage rattled and tilted to the right, and the door opened. It was a signal to come out. I quickly slipped through the gap in the door and looked at Leia. He slightly lowered his head.

We were just before entering the Baron Ceres’ territory, in a forest. The plan was for Leia’s carriage to be ambushed by bandits, and for Leia to be reported as missing, then return to the Duke’s estate.

And from here, I would take only Sir Leon and head to the First Prince’s tomb alone.

Initially, I had planned to go alone. It was supposed to be a relatively safe route, even if I was by myself. However, when the Duke became furious—something I had never seen before—Sir Leon ended up accompanying me.

Sir Leon was an essential person at the Duke’s estate right now, but I had to nod in agreement when he persuaded me that retrieving the remains safely was the most important thing to minimize casualties in this war.

Of course, it was assumed from the beginning that Leia was alone in the carriage, and Sir Leon, the highest-ranking knight, did not participate in the escort. As for where we would meet, I quickly slipped between the knights who didn’t recognize me and the ambush party and entered the forest.

After walking for about five minutes through the underbrush, we came upon a spot where the sunlight poured through the trees. Sir Leon was waiting there.

In the form of a cat.

“…….”

A beam of sunlight fell upon the cat, making it look almost sacred, like an animal sent to deliver divine messages in a religious painting. I hesitated for a moment. If I could draw, I would have left that image to show the Duke.

“Sir Leon, why are you standing there of all places?”

“Cats like warm places.”

……The moment Sir Leon’s deep voice came from the striped cat, the discomfort was hard to describe.

“We don’t have much time. Shall we go?”

“Let’s go.”

Sir Leon took the lead. Although I had heard the location of the tomb from Riol, finding my way alone through the forest was no easy task. Especially since it was a tomb that had been deliberately hidden.

However, Sir Leon moved as if he had been here before, walking confidently.

“Sir, you seem to know the way well.”

“If you’re a knight, this is basic.”

When he spoke as a cat, it almost seemed like he was shrugging, which was oddly cute. Following the cat through the forest, with a gentle breeze and sunlight, it felt like I had stepped into a fairy tale.

After walking briskly for several hours, occasionally taking short breaks, Sir Leon stopped and looked around.

“I believe it’s around here, Your Highness.”

I stopped too and scanned the area. However, nothing that looked like a tomb stood out. After wandering around the area for a while, I suddenly felt something pulling my attention.

It was a small flower. A wildflower that bloomed somehow even in the dead of winter. Several pale blue flowers were blooming on the cold ground. They were ordinary, common flowers I had seen many times while walking the forest path. But for some reason, they caught my attention. I approached the flowers.

The area around was just flat land. There were no gravestones, no decorations. There was no sign that it was a tomb. However, the few wildflowers that were blooming strangely drew my attention.

“I think… this might be the place.”

As I spoke while kneeling on the ground, Sir Leon returned to his human form.

“Let’s dig, just in case.”

I was about to ask, “With what?” but Sir Leon had already begun digging into the cold, damp earth with the hilt of his sword. It was winter, so the ground was frozen, but he was digging effortlessly, as if moving sand. After digging for a while, the hilt of his sword hit something.

Sir Leon sat down on the ground and began to dig through the dirt with gloved hands. After a while, a wooden box, old and dirty from being buried, appeared.

“Well, this looks like just the right size for a human remains urn.”

Sir Leon said as he held the box in one hand. “Shall we open it?” His eyes seemed to ask.

I nodded, and he quickly unlocked the complicated lock on the wooden box with his hands. As expected… they say the best tool in the world is a fist.

When the box was opened, Sir Leon quietly extended it toward me.

Inside, there was a smooth ceramic urn.

Except for the fact that both the lid and body were white ceramic, there was nothing special about it. Like there was no gravestone, there were no markings or adornments. But who would bury an urn inside a box in the dirt unless they wanted to hide it? It couldn’t be without intent.

“I think this is it, don’t you?”

“I think so too.”

I took a deep breath and opened the lid of the urn.

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