Chapter 29

We had another meaningless and useless conversation.

About 10 minutes later, it was so stuffy that I wanted to open the window.

I couldn’t see where the maids, who were here a little while ago, were heading to.

I was surprised, but I didn’t know what to do in the living room. Soon, I got up and headed out the room.

There were times when other people disappeared like this, making it much more comfortable to be alone.……I thought it was enough for the two of us to head to our old room again, so we left the audience chamber.

We didn’t go to the emperor’s room.

We went to our old room where there were only two regular soldiers dozing off, unlike the emperor’s room where knights in golden armor always kept guard. They were surprised to see us and quickly opened the door.

After a long time, I entered a room neatly arranged in the same pink and blue colors as before.

******

We entered the room and looked around again, Argen laid on the bed and I took something out of my pocket and put it on the table.

“It Isn’t that bad, is it?”

“Huh?”

I broke the macaroon in my handkerchief in half and handed it over to Argen. I savored the remaining half before turning my head to look at him.

Argen laid down the dolls on my pink bed and opened a book with a sapphire that added a shining gloss to the cover.

Argen chewed the fresh lemon-scented macaron.

“I mean living here.”

My body has grown to the extent of the children of my age. The scars wer gone.

The emperor didn’t get angry, irritated, or raise his hand at our words which were disobedient and refuting.

Even though half-siblings suddenly took a seat in the Imperial Palace, the princes didn’t protest. It may seem like pretense, but they tried to treat us as well as they could.

……….Is that why you’re saying this now, Argen?

“….….”

I lost my words and met Argen’s red eyes. Although it was cut to a similar length as before, Argen had slightly longer hair than before. The hair slightly covering his nape fluttered in the wind from an open terrace window.

“It’s not right, They didn’t even hear our cries.”

While laying on his stomach, Argen flipped the book over without looking at me.

“We don’t have to strenuously watch out for Lulahel. It’s better to please the disgusting and abominable royal family than to please Lulahel.”

It was all true.

But…..But there’s a reason why we’re doing this, a reason why we can’t accept their kindness as goodwill.

Argen slowly turned his head. It was a serious and honest look, but he couldn’t look at me.

Argen slowly sighed without looking.

“Don’t you see why I’m saying this?”

“……..”

No, I know.

“You don’t really want to leave the Imperial palace either.”

Argen was the only one on my side in this world. The world was just me and him. Because we were born and raised like that. Because we were alone, It was just the two of us in this world.

“If you were by yourself, you’d try to leave someday.”

Argen always bought out what I couldn’t say.

If I could really do it, I wouldn’t have had to step into a disgusting place like the imperial palace.

“But you’re not alone. If you were alone and left this place in such a poor body, you’d have to beg in the mud…….”

Argen’s voice began to shake.

“I would have lived like that. Even if I I had to crawl down the street, I would try to leave this damn palace.”

His voice rose before I knew it. he clenched his fist

Argen said so in such a desperate voice without looking at me to the end.

“I don’t have any lingering feelings about this place, so I would try get out of here soon……. I’m sure I would have said so confidently….”

“…….Argen, stop.”

“But can you see me starve? Can you let me starve for leaving such a dirty place, or can you leave me naked in a world I don’t even know?”

“……..”

If I had been alone, I would have had enough.

“We don’t have the power or the ability to do that right now.”

“Realistically speaking, if you try to steal money or jewelry from here, do you know how to go outside and use it? Do you think we can do that by reflecting on the surface of the knowledge created for the nobles from the perspective of the nobles?” (t/n: He’s basically saying if it’s even possible to use what they learned from the nobles in the outside world, Since it’s from the nobles’ point of view. it would be different from how commoners live, making it useless.).

I knew too well why Argen was so desperate to talk to me like that.

Like I said countless times.

Argen was the only one in the world who could understand and accept me unconditionally, and I was the only one in this world who could understand and accept Argen without condition.

“This isn’t a movie or cartoon. If you steal jewelry without thinking and run outside, what are you going to do with it?”

Argen was also not confident.

Whether it’s 5 years old now or in the future after adulthood.

Will we be able to go out and silently endure hunger, pain, and misery? Is it possible to tell the other person to endure such a life?

Argen cut off my train of thought and wet his lips.

“……If we were going to be reincarnated, I’d want to be born in a really good place. While being loved a lot, we would have been able to innocently live well with ease as a 5-year-old child.”

Why do we have to be anxious while eating delicious food, get scared every time we have a conversation, and live by reading people’s faces day after day?

My eyes became blurry. It meant that I had given up halfway.

“But Argen, I can’t stay here.”

“………”

“I don’t think I can.”

The sight of Derolina castle made my heart ache. I know how difficult it was for us there.

Like a fairy tale, we waited for our father, the emperor, to come someday. However, in the end, he never came.

In fact, when I was about four years old, Argen was terribly beaten by Lulahel and almost died.

I waited so desperately back then.

Because I have no power.

We had to cling onto the shallow attention they now gave to us after turning a blind eye and making us so miserable.

I’m talking like that, but we don’t intend to live here and continue to get hurt every day.

That’s the truth.

“…… I just hate everything.”

Argen loosened his fist and put down the blanket he firmly held. His red pupil trembled violently.

“What things?”

At that moment I heard the voice of an uninvited guest.

Since the royal family members were the only one who would usually visit us, we naturally shut our mouths and turned our heads. However, the side where we heard the voice was quite different from usual.

“………!”

“Arien!”

There was a man dressed in black, whose face wasn’t visible, standing over the terrace window. Argen rushed towards me and reached out to me in a hurry.

But Argen wasn’t the only one who came towards me. The man also reached out to me and quickly cover my mouth and lifted me up.

He easily snatched me from the terrace because I wasn’t so far from where he was.

In addition, there was Argen who was running towards me. Worried that Argen might scream, the man covered his mouth.

‘Are you okay?’

‘…….’

‘…….’

He gagged Argen’s mouth and put him on his shoulder like a sack while squeezing me roughly to his side.

“I was wondering if there were other nobles who would hire a first-class assassin to kill illegitimate children.”

Sharp eyes pointed at us through the black mask. It was murderous. A clear murderous look.

“I know that you’re the bastards of the Imperial family.”

And at the same time, it was as if he was looking at something dirty.

“First of all, I was told to bring you alive…. Well, you’re not dead yet, so don’t be so scared.”

There was no one who remained calm knowing they were going to die.

There was no room to talk to Argen. Looking at us like that, the man grinned and slowly approached the terrace.

“Well……Being illegitimate children is already terrible, but you’re actually illegitimate children of the royal family.”

I could hear laughter, then Argen’s voice rang out in my head.

‘Don’t listen to that. It’s nothing.’

‘……You too.’

I hated people who hurt my heart and body.

There seemed to be no place to rest comfortably, without any worries.

******

I knew it was a kidnapping situation.

without us realising it, our vigilance had faded as we had felt safe in the imperial palace, so this kind of thing came as a sudden surprise.

I stayed quiet when the emperor said he would reduce the knights because I was originally supposed to go to the emperor’s room as usual or waited for the missing maids to come. I shuddered with fear.

The man stood close to the railing on the terrace. The man looked down on the floor from above, then looked alternately between the two of us and quickly jumped off without hesitation.

Suddenly, there was the scent of blood and I felt fear. I would have shed tears if I could.

When I saw the man moving closer to me, I tried to move my body further back and Argen clenched his teeth.

And the moment he got a little closer, the world turned black.

*******

When I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t move my body. I blinked a couple of times and could see a dark ceiling. My mouth was gagged. I could feel the white blanket and soft texture behind my back as if I was lying in bed.

‘Argen, are you okay?’

‘…..Are you?’

As soon as I opened my eyes, I spoke to Argen and heard a reply. Fortunately, he seemed to be close by. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so happy that I was able to talk to him inside when he was close enough to be seen.

But the relief was also brief. My body was still stiff and even after time went by I couldn’t feel any presence.

It was so cold that my body gradually turned white.

While my fingers were trembling in the cold, I heard the sound of the door clicking open from somewhere and the footsteps of an adult man.

Tension, fear, and adrenaline struck me at once like a flight or fight response.

“I think they’re both awake.”

“It only took half a day.”

“They were in a frenzy.

“I thought they’d thank us for getting rid of illegitimate children. Tsk”

There was more than one presence next to him. I couldn’t turn my body and could only stare intently at the ceiling. Soon, a man pushed his face over me and blocked the ceiling. I almost screamed, but I managed to keep my mouth shut. I was gagged, so every time I opened my mouth, I felt sore.

Someone clicked his tongue beside the man.

“These young things were born from the emperor but don’t resemble him.”

“They’re bastards, but with blond hair. They’ve certainly inherited more of the emperor’s blood.”

“These things would have been nice to kill when they were born, but they’re kept alive, so know we have to use our own hands.”

Argen tried to calm me down who was trembling. Unlike me, he was breathing calmly.