Chapter 39

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 39

Chapter Title: Star Festival and the Ashen Wolf (11)

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Floyd held Roxiana's hand as they walked.

With her free right hand, Roxiana pressed down firmly on her hat, which threatened to fly away in the wind, while glancing around. The narrow alley they traversed was rarely used by people, dim and shadowy without the glittering magic stones that lit the main streets.

Roxiana worried that an assassin might leap out from the darkness between the buildings. Yet Floyd, who had just been targeted by one such blade, showed no sign of wariness.

'Is he that confident? Or has he always been this fearless?'

Either way, his demeanor astonished her—it was utterly unlike that of someone who had nearly fallen victim to a sneak attack moments ago.

They emerged from the alley onto the seaside. Not the harbor, but a wide expanse of sandy beach. At the far end of the broad shore stood a sheer cliff.

Roxiana stared at the night sea, momentarily entranced.

The moon illuminated the pitch-black darkness, casting a long path of light across the water. The shimmering trail swayed gently with the rolling waves, creating a fantastical sight.

Shaaaah—

The rhythmic sound was refreshing. The sea breeze carried a stronger scent than what she'd smelled at the Lily Palace, stirring an inexplicable nostalgia. Though it was her first time truly seeing the ocean like this, it felt as if she'd been here long ago.

She didn't even notice when her hat flew off in the strong wind.

Only after Floyd picked it up and placed it back on her head did Roxiana tear her gaze from the dark sea and look up at him.

"It's beautiful."

"Isn't it? It's one of my favorite places."

He took off his coat, spread it wide on the sand, and sat beside it, patting it lightly.

"Sit here."

"Thank you."

Roxiana sat carefully on the coat, hugging her knees with both arms. Side by side, they sat in silence for a while, gazing at the sea.

Roxiana spoke first.

"Does that sort of thing happen often?"

"Once every few months. Sometimes three or four times in a single month."

"That frequently..."

No one had ever dared attempt assassination against the Franche royal family, so it was shocking to learn that a nation's ruler faced such threats so regularly.

"There are plenty who boil with rage because a young upstart like me won't bow his head despite his special abilities. Or those who want to kill me and take Torkan for themselves. For example."

Floyd turned to look at Roxiana.

"The Crown Prince of Gania."

At first, Roxiana didn't immediately grasp who he meant by "Gania's Crown Prince." But as she felt his gaze, turned to meet his eyes, she realized he was referring to the man she had nearly married.

"Crown Prince Pellur...?"

"Yes, that son of a... Excuse me. That bastard."

She knew Lucas disliked Floyd. He often cursed Floyd as an "arrogant ingrate who doesn't know his place, seizing a country with his own power after leaving Gania."

But she never dreamed he'd actually send assassins to kill him. No matter how much he despised him, they shared the same father as brothers.

Misinterpreting her silence, Floyd said,

"I didn't mean to speak ill of Your Highness's former fiancé. I'm sorry."

Former fiancé.

Yes, they had been engaged once.

For the first time in ages, Roxiana vividly recalled Lucas's face.

His radiant golden hair, slender elongated eyes with their piercing blue irises, refined jawline and pale skin, straight nose, and red lips.

A neat, handsome visage that could stir any woman's heart, even without his title as crown prince.

And then.

—"I can't stand that side of you. It makes my skin crawl."

—"Open it and show her. The princess should know what happened to her family."

Memories of their final meeting flooded back—his voice, expression, gaze, and movements—all sharp and clear. Her heart clenched as a barely healed wound tore open, spilling fresh blood.

Floyd didn't notice Roxiana holding her breath to stifle her sobs.

"But Your Highness needs to know the truth. He's always been that kind of person. He just did what trash like him does. That's what happened in Kanta."

"..."

"It's not Your Highness's fault, nor anyone else's in the Franche family. He's just scum."

Roxiana lowered her gaze.

It was hard to look straight at Floyd while wrestling her pain back into place.

She didn't want to hate Lucas or Elise. Not out of forgiveness, but because she wanted to erase their very existence from her mind.

She wanted to focus solely on the grief of losing her family and the path to avenging them. She refused to be swayed by other thoughts or emotions.

—"Hating them means you lose, Lotty."

She must have been fifteen. Once, she'd been furious over some marquis's daughter. After fuming all night, her second brother Ian had grinned and said,

—"She's probably sound asleep without a thought of you. If you let it keep you up in anger, you're only hurting yourself. Just forget it. That's how you win."

That conversation with Ian became a cornerstone of Roxiana's life. She made an effort not to harbor hatred for anyone after arguments or quarrels.

Because that was winning. Because she believed it was victory.

'Is that true, brother? Even in this situation, is ignoring them how I win?'

Roxiana wanted to ask Ian.

'Even if Lucas and Elise killed my entire family and dumped them in a well—is living my life and forgetting them how I win? Is that my path to victory?'

Of course, Ian's answer never came.

Instead, Floyd's voice reached her.

"I sent people to Kanta, and I got word back."

Roxiana turned to look at him.

"A rift has opened. Magical beasts are pouring out, causing massive damage. They couldn't even reach the capital because of it."

"Magical beasts..."

Roxiana squeezed her eyes shut.

Her heart ached thinking of her people suffering from the beasts. Subduing them was no easy task, so Gania wouldn't send a full extermination force to help.

'And I... can't do a thing for them either. Even though I'm the one who survived.'

To the despairing Roxiana, Floyd said calmly,

"Gania won't just sit idly by. They've gone to great lengths to seize Kanta—they won't let it truly fall to ruin."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes. They did it for Kanta's resources. If they're all corrupted by magi, their efforts will have been for nothing. They'll request aid from the Empire and launch an extermination to prevent that."

"And the surviving knights of Kanta will be thrown into the extermination efforts. Those loyal to the Franche family will fight to the death defending Kanta, while the less devoted ones will hold back and survive."

Roxiana sighed.

"Gania will take in those survivors."

Floyd was slightly surprised by her foresight. He'd been thinking the same thing.

Absorbing loyal knights from a fallen nation wasn't easy—they could turn that loyalty into poison later.

But executing them all would be wasteful. Training a single knight required vast funds and time, so they'd surely salvage what they could and turn the useful ones into Gania's knights.

Floyd found Roxiana's quick grasp of this reality intriguing. If she could accept it so calmly, he judged it safe to share the truth.

"The reason Lucas was able to lead troops into Kanta was that very rift. He brought countless knights and soldiers into the capital under the pretext of helping subdue the beasts emerging from it."

"..."

"But get this? Our investigation shows the rift only opened about two months ago."

Roxiana's eyes widened, then narrowed. She froze, breath held, before finally speaking.

"Gania has a black mage. They controlled the magical beasts. That's why... that's why Father welcomed Lucas and his army without suspicion. And the sword he promised to wield against the beasts was turned on my family..."

With just a few words, Roxiana pieced together the exact truth. Though Floyd was inwardly impressed, she sank deep into thought, forgetting he was even there.

'Magical beasts...'

She pictured her father, rushed and desperate amid the sudden rift, hastily requesting aid from the Empire. He must have welcomed Lucas and his knights with open arms when they arrived offering help.

If Lucas had been anyone else, he might not have trusted them so completely. But Lucas was her fiancé. He had been for a very long time.

Neither her father, mother, nor any of her brothers had suspected the man who was soon to become family.

In that trust, Lucas and his knights drew their swords.

'It wasn't a fight. It must have been a one-sided massacre.'

She could vividly imagine her family dying without a chance to resist, cut down by those they trusted.

'And you, Elise—what role did you play?'

The crown prince Echion and his family, along with the youngest Lanian, had been at the palace. But her second brother Ian and third brother Naufride had long since left. To kill them all at once, despite being scattered, they must have been gathered at the palace.

'You must have been the one who called my family together.'