Chapter 53

Chapter 53

The sound of running footsteps stumbled once. Jiwoo shouted again as she stood up.

“You’re here to find me. These people are not part of this!”

Even as the Crown Prince looked toward Jiwoo, he was not in the mood to let go of Tevon’s head or remove his sword.

Jiwoo almost crawled toward the Crown Prince, barely raising her body. There, all Jiwoo could do was speak while shaking.

Behind them, the tree in the center of the village that imitated Elandos was burnt to black. Ashes scattered over the beautiful green-gold village.

The village, which used to smell of sweet honey, flowers, and fresh grass, now smelled of burnt acrid odors. It wasn’t long ago that they danced round and round this tree, and they all loved eating and drinking together.

Let’s go together to El Ragneil.

When she said she would cure Elandos, they rejoiced over it like blooming flowers, but were now miserably on their knees.

However, it was different from the kind of miserable feelings Jiwoo felt.

The children of Elandos looked more frustrated at the fact that Seo Jiwoo had come here rather than the fact that they might die.

She didn’t expect to disappoint them. She couldn’t make eye contact with them. Jiwoo looked directly at the Crown Prince. Her pale face was drenched with tears.

“You just need to take me anyway. Your Highness, all this is unnecessary.”

“…….”

“Stop it now, please.”

Even though he found what he wanted, the Crown Prince still didn’t look delighted. Rather, Jiwoo’s attitude just now seemed to bother him even more.

“…There’s no reason to stop. Akarna, I don’t think you don’t know.”

There was no one here who could stop the Crown Prince. Jiwoo didn’t even have that much power.

There will be many excuses.

Since he had already said he would give Jiwoo the position of Crown Princess, these were words he could not take back. Since Jiwoo had disappeared in the meantime, it was enough justification for him to accuse these men of kidnapping and detaining the Crown Princess.

What would the other race, who did not believe in God, do by taking Akarna?

True or not, if he wanted to execute them, there were too many justifications he could lay on them. Even if that wasn’t the case, the Crown Prince had already considered the other race as a thorn in his eyes from long before.

Although he moderately said that the other race were to be reformed, the Crown Prince was a man with great ambition.

A person with an ambition that, if given the opportunity, would push away the forest where the other race reside and expand the empire’s territory with the Akarna.

However, in the meantime, the forest was not of great value, and he had to spend money and manpower to clear it.

If there was a justification, he could do anything. And no one will blame him. Rather, it would elevate his position.

The Crown Prince, who went to rescue his beloved Akarna, the Crown Princess, and cast a judgment at the other race. This will be a land that will make the life of the imperial people a little more prosperous, and one more line will be added to his achievements.

He never thought it was a terrible thing. He knew only after he had been hit by the blade, albeit indirectly.

The work of a person called the Crown Prince was something that modern people found it difficult to accept.

But what can he do?

This was a world where this was natural and where this was honor. As the Akarna, she could not even say that she never engaged in anything like this with the Crown Prince.

He clenched his fists tightly and trembled.

“Don’t make me think you’re… worse than this.”

Those words were close to a struggle. She didn’t expect anything to work. It was no different from the screams of a person driven into a corner.

“…Huu.”

However, the Crown Prince let out a deep sigh and suppressed the murderous energy that seemed like he would never take back.

The Crown Prince lowered his sword to the ground. And he reached out his hand towards Jiwoo.

“Akarna, let us go back to the capital. Come here.”

“Yes… I’ll go back.”

Jiwoo didn’t bother to look at the children of Elandos, who were on their knees, and headed towards the Crown Prince.

Their eyes seemed to be asking why she came here.

They seemed to accuse her of changing her mind when she said she would heal Elandos. In fact, Elandos must be more important than life to them.

Even Jiwoo didn’t want to leave this place. The reason why she didn’t want to stay by the Crown Prince’s side has become unimportant now.

There was a time when she wanted the Crown Princess’s position, where she could stand proudly by his side.

Her feet didn’t move easily.

She was clearly walking, but Jiwoo, who reached the Crown Prince with a slow, crawling step, held his hand.

The Crown Prince grabbed her hand tightly and pulled her. Jiwoo was carried by him without a second to refuse.

It smelled like a human man, not the smell of grass and flowers from the children of Elandos.

To think that the body scent of the man that she thought she liked because she fell in love with him one day felt so strange.

The Crown Prince raised Jiwoo as it was. It seemed that her limping leg from jumping down from the tree in a hurry was annoying him.

As the Crown Prince moved to the other side of the village, his soldiers also moved little by little.

It was then that a small voice came.

[ …I’ll go find you soon. So wait. ]

Jiwoo was taken aback when she heard that. Tevon said without looking this way.

“What are you talking about! Pointed ears!”

One of the soldiers who brought them to their knees kicked Tevon in the stomach.

The Crown Prince stopped walking and looked back, as if he was paying attention to the language spoken by the other race.

Rather, he might have been more concerned about Jiwoo’s startled reaction to those words.

Akarna was the only one who could understand the language of the other race here. However, it seemed that she shouldn’t show that she understood.

Jiwoo squeezed the Crown Prince’s robe.

“Your Highness, just… let’s go. He’s of the other race, isn’t he? You’re not someone who cares about insults like that.”

The Tevon with a good ear would have heard it.

[ I’ll go find you soon, so wait! ]

Tevon raised his voice and repeated what he had already said. Those who did not know their language would think that he was cursing.¹

Jiwoo tightened her grip on his clothes. She was afraid. The Crown Prince was a quick-witted person, and she was someone who didn’t leave even the slightest chance of anything against him.

The tears that started flowing earlier didn’t stop. As Jiwoo’s shoulders started to shake, the Crown Prince sighed again.

“…Release them.”

Was he releasing them? Truly?

The Crown Prince sheathed his sword as if he didn’t care about them.

He put Jiwoo on top of the horse he had dragged to the forest, and he climbed on top of it and hugged her so he wouldn’t fall.

After a while, a soldier in the distance shouted at the Crown Prince.

“They ran away! They’re not coming back!”

The Crown Prince laughed with a low voice. It was the first laugh she had heard since they met again.

“They acted as if they would risk their life to take you, but then they went away.”

Jiwoo looked up at him in surprise. He had a somewhat satisfied look on his face.

However, as the Crown Prince representing the empire, he was not in the mood to pass insults easily. He shouldn’t do it either.

The Crown Prince, who was staring indifferently at the village that had already been burnt down with red eyes like fire, turned his horse.

“Burn the forest.”

Bristle, bristle. Then there was a clamor of the whole forest burning.

It was embers that could quickly die down if the children of Elandos did it wholeheartedly, but Jiwoo, who didn’t know how far they had scattered, had no way of knowing.

The soldiers seemed excited as they followed the Crown Prince, and each one said a word.

“The other race is no big deal!”

“As expected of His Highness!”

On the horse that was moving away from the forest, Jiwoo stared endlessly in that direction. Feeling that Jiwoo’s eyes were always on it , the Crown Prince did not question Jiwoo further.

He just put a little more strength into the arm holding Jiwoo.

More than that, Jiwoo was more concerned about Tevon’s words than the Crown Prince who was holding her tight.

—I’ll go find you soon, so wait!

Was he coming to find her? To wait?

How do people who live in outer walls or forests for the rest of their lives come to know about Akarn, which is supposed to be in the middle of the capital?

The Crown Prince covered Jiwoo’s eyes while slowly driving his horse with one hand, finding it annoying that she kept glancing anxiously toward the forest

“Sleep now. We’ll return to the capital.”

The Crown Prince’s hands smelled of Tevon’s blood. Upon smelling it, her heart, which had been beating anxiously ever since she was held by the Crown Prince, strangely calmed down.

Even though that wasn’t the case, the smell of blood without a hint of metallic smell seemed to somehow reassure her.

A small light flashed from the hand that covered her eyes. She lost consciousness.

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