Chapter 31

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 31

Chapter Title: Chapter 31

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 28

Chapter Title: The Golden Lion's Treasure and the Polluted Water

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It felt like an eternity since she'd last had to receive guests. Back when she lived in Eder Palace, noble ladies and young misses had come to visit Roxiana in droves.

Roxiana had preferred watching the knights train in the drill hall or tending to the flowers in the garden, so she'd never exactly welcomed their visits.

Sitting there sipping tea, listening with a smile to the subtle power plays among the women or the gossip about people who weren't present—it made her want to scream.

'If you dislike them so much, just grab them by the hair!'

But as royalty, Roxiana had been trained in etiquette and the endurance to hide her emotions, so she managed to get through those dull, exhausting times with grace.

Looking back now, it had all been the whining of a spoiled princess.

Those visitors had come to her despite having no real reason to curry favor with Roxiana, who would one day leave Kanta to become Gania's queen. They must have held genuine affection for her.

Their faces—one by one—flashed vividly in her mind, faces she hadn't welcomed back then.

Were they safe? Were they suffering persecution just for serving the Franche royal family?

As Roxiana brushed her hair in front of the mirror, she noticed her face contorted horribly and quickly schooled her expression.

When she entered the drawing room, Percy, Dennis, and Jewelry shot up from the sofa.

"A pleasure to see you, Princess."

The children, who had started to rush toward Roxiana, hesitated at their mother's formal greeting and bowed their heads after her.

"A pleasure to see you, Princess."

"A pleasure to see you, Princess."

Roxiana was relieved to see Jewelry looking so healthy and said to Percy,

"I'm no longer a princess. Please, just call me Roxiana."

"I heard my husband swore his knight's oath to you, Princess. So to my family, you are the Princess."

"You're the Princess."

The children chimed in to back their mother.

Roxiana had learned that the people of Torkan Grand Duchy were incredibly stubborn, so she didn't press them to call her casually anymore. She couldn't even count how many times they'd had this exchange during greetings.

As Roxiana sat on the sofa, Percy and the children sat across from her. Percy opened the lid of the basket on the table and said,

"I baked some meat pies."

The savory aroma that had filled the drawing room must have been from the meat pies.

"Mom's meat pies are the best in the world."

"I can eat two of them!"

The meat pies Percy took from the basket were perfectly baked to a golden sheen, glistening as if dripping with juices.

Seeing them, Roxiana recalled the meat pies her mother used to bake long ago. After playing in the garden with her brothers, the taste of Mother's meat pies had been out of this world.

Thinking back now, they were probably just ordinary meat pies—maybe even less tasty than what the palace chefs made—but back then, she'd thought nothing in the world could be more delicious.

"My mother used to bake meat pies like this sometimes. My brothers and I thought they were the best thing in the world."

Percy widened her eyes at the words Roxiana murmured without realizing, lost in nostalgia.

"Her Majesty the Queen baked meat pies herself?"

"Yes. Mother loved cooking and tending the garden. In winter, she'd knit us scarves herself. There were sometimes snags in the yarn, but they were warm."

"They must have been."

The conversation lapsed for a moment. Percy sliced the meat pies on a plate into bite-sized pieces and said,

"Your heart must ache terribly."

"I'm not even sure anymore."

I'm fine. It doesn't hurt at all.

She'd always said that, taught that she had to. She'd been taught never to bare her true feelings to anyone outside the family.

And yet, she'd revealed her inner thoughts without realizing it—probably because this space felt as warm as being with family. The drawing room filled with the smell of meat pies, the sound of slicing the perfectly baked crust, the children's eyes sparkling with eagerness to eat.

Roxiana felt like she was back in Eder Palace's drawing room.

"I'm here in body, but it feels like my soul is floating somewhere above, looking down. My chest feels like it's tearing apart, yet sometimes that pain doesn't even feel like mine. So foolishly, I still sometimes think this can't be reality."

"It's not foolish, Princess. Not at all."

Percy said firmly.

"My brother died fighting a magical beast three years ago. That's when my family and I learned what it feels like to have your living flesh torn and blood flowing. Of course, my grief can't compare to yours, Princess."

"How can grief be compared? Everyone's sorrow feels like the greatest in the world."

Percy served a piece of meat pie onto a small plate and placed it in front of Roxiana. She portioned out plates for the children too, patted their bottoms, and told them to eat on the other sofa.

The quick-witted children realized this wasn't a conversation for them and obediently went to sit on the far sofa as their mother said.

Roxiana watched the children tucking into their meat pies with gusto using their forks and asked,

"Did your brother enter an Adelia casket?"

"Later."

Percy replied.

"Corpses of knights who fall fighting magical beasts aren't easy to recover. They're often near the beasts, and wounds inflicted directly by them get contaminated with demonic energy, turning them into undead right there on the spot in most cases."

"Then...?"

"Knights carry swords engraved with Adelia Flowers. Have you never seen one? About this long."

Percy spread her hands to show the length of her forearm.

"Weapons with Adelia Flowers engraved on the hilt and blade."

Roxiana shook her head.

Kanta's knights rarely dealt with magical beasts, so she'd never seen anyone carrying such a weapon. There might have been some, but the information never reached Princess Roxiana.

Percy explained that Adelia swords had to be engraved with the flower and blessed by a temple priest. That's why not just anyone could have one, and they were hard to obtain.

"They're made with silver mixed in, so not ideal as regular weapons. Knights carry them tucked away, and if a comrade turns undead, they slay them and stab the heart with this sword. The demonic energy inside dissipates, and the undead, powered by dark magic, reverts to a normal corpse. Then it's placed in an Adelia casket and cremated. Since it became undead once, they don't bury it."

It had only been yesterday that a tiny spark ignited in Roxiana's heart, filled solely with despair. That minuscule flame, too small to see, grew just a fraction larger.

"Even someone who's become undead once—can their soul find rest in God's embrace if stabbed with that sword?"

Percy tilted her head at the desperately earnest question, then caught Roxiana's pleading gaze and answered quickly.

"We can't confirm a soul's peace ourselves, Princess. We just have faith. Faith that God wouldn't coldly abandon the souls of poor humans who died fighting magical beasts for this world."

After that, their conversation turned ordinary.

Roxiana finished all the meat pie allotted to her, and the children returned to the sofa, chattering away about this and that. It was aimless talk with no real topic or purpose, but a joyful, peaceful time.

After Percy left, Roxiana pulled out the thought she'd harbored in her chest throughout the conversation.

'Adelia sword.'

As Percy said, God wouldn't abandon a human who'd become tainted by unwanted demonic energy. If He denied them rest for that alone, He'd be no god—but a devil.

So there must be a way to save them.

Roxiana was convinced her family had turned undead. She harbored no vain hope that some miracle had sent them to God's embrace despite being thrown into a well.

'But with an Adelia sword, my family can return to God's embrace. And if I do good deeds, God will welcome them all the more mercifully.'

Roxiana pictured her family discarded in one of Eder Palace's wells.

'Who sits on Eder Palace's throne now?'

It could be Lucas, but she doubted it.

'Lucas is Gania's crown prince, so he can't stay away from Gania long. Someone from the Pellur royal family will probably act as regent for Gania.'

Retrieving her family's corpses from Kanta—now under Gania's rule—and Eder Palace in their grasp would be no easy task. Roxiana couldn't do it alone. She needed help.

'Even just getting my family's bodies back, without reclaiming the throne, and I still can't do it alone.'

Floyd's words—that there was nothing a princess could do—stabbed at her anew.

'But the Grand Duke could.'

She needed his help. But after receiving so much already, she couldn't very well ask without offering anything in return. Besides, accessing Kanta's palace—under Gania's banner—to search wells wouldn't be easy for him either.

'It could even spark issues between Torkan and Gania, so I can't recklessly ask.'

She didn't want to burden others. To send her family to God's embrace, she couldn't put Torkan's people in danger.

So she had to do something. Something everyone would deem reasonable and worthy—only then would she earn the right to ask for help.

For the first time, a will to live sprouted in Roxiana's heart, once shrouded in utter despair and longing only for death.

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