Chapter 26
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Translator: Knife
Editor: Sachyan
Proofreader: AngeAngela
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Her clouded consciousness returned.
Blinking, Liarte looked around.
There were a lot of people.
‘Aaron Birce?’
Someone was holding her hand, and Aaron was lying down on the bed beside hers.
He was not trying to bite off the back of her neck with a mad face.
“Liarte, did you wake up?”
“Michael.”
She didn’t know what was going on, so she looked around quietly.
“You’re in a medical room. Merlin is outside. She was worried until the end saying that you fainted because you were rained on, Lili.”
Carmen was standing next to a man in a white doctor’s gown.
When she heard the name Lili, she remembered what had happened a while ago.
Emotions soared.
Aaron came after her and apologized. He said “please stay here”.
“Am I dreaming?”
Liarte said in a low voice. Michael’s warm hands enveloped hers.
“This isn’t a dream, Liarte. This is reality. We were all worried when you fainted.”
“About me?”
Liarte asked quietly.
Previously, no one cared if Liarte was sick or dead.
“Don’t stand up yet, you have a fever.”
Michael’s friendly words lifted her spirits.
“Please lie down and listen to me. I won’t ask you to forgive my grandfather, but please don’t say you’ll leave by yourself again.”
The moment Aaron rejected her, she remembered that it felt very painful.
Even if there were countless calluses on her old scars, this new wound hurt.
She knew then that she was still hoping for human warmth.
Elheim’s bloodline was nothing more than flesh and blood.
Meeting Michael opened the world for her. She met a lot of people and found a place she wanted to belong to.
“If you’re hurt by that old man, I’ll expel him under the authority of the family. Live in Birce, Lili.”
Carmen smiled grimly.
It was a rude remark, but Aaron, who was feeling guilty, was listening with his mouth shut.
“But Aaron is Birce’s family member.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to choose between you two. Father will live outside of Birce, and you live in Birce.”
It was a different answer from the Duke of Elheim, who had to choose between either Lian or Liarte.
Carmen, who spoke, added playfully.
“Of course, if you tell me to choose, I’ll abandon my father right away.”
“You can’t do that.”
Liarte shook her head gently.
Aaron apologized.
She could see a huge old man begging in the rain.
He was afraid that she might catch a cold.
“You’re right, I don’t have to choose.”
It wasn’t just one person to choose from.
Liarte saw Aaron lying in a mess.
The old man’s feet were a little wrinkled, but he had a lot of vitality.
When Liarte fainted, Aaron could be seen running aimlessly with her in hir arms.
“Your feet must hurt.”
“I’m fine, my savior. This isn’t much compared to what I did.”
Aaron was in tears.
“You apologized. Actually, it still hurts a little. But I’ll choose for you to stay. Emotions will pass over time.”
“I’ll repay you for your kindness and for my sins forever, savior.”
Aaron wiped his tears away.
“Did you not catch a cold?”
It was rather heartbreaking for a smaller person than his grandson to worry about him.
“I am fine.”
Aaron was a tearful man.
“I’m glad you’re not sick.”
Only the doctor, John, endured and tolerated the desire to intervene in this cringe-fest (the original says ‘eternal fire’, but I think this fits better).
He saw Liarte showing signs of life as soon as he put her on the bed.
Furthermore, Aaron Birce was a stronghold in the empire that only appeared once in a thousand years.
His muscles and bones were almost entirely intact even though he was tied up for more than a year.
The average person would have a rehabilitation period after recovering from madness, but he recovered by lying down for half a day.
In other words, he was a monster.
“Let me take your temperature, Young Lady.”
Most of the water awakeners had a significantly lower body temperature than the general population.
Liarte’s temperature was the same as anyone else’s, which meant a high fever for her.
Fortunately, her fever was going down.
‘Is it because of the God of Light?’
However, when the urgent matter was resolved, his desire to go to the temple or to keep up the prayer of living properly disappeared.
“Her fever is dropping down. Take some fever reducers and painkillers and you’ll feel a little better.”
Liarte calmly drank the medicine and water.
And told Aaron.
“I’ll stay in Birce, Aaron. I am not leaving.”
To make the trembling old man feel safe.
It was strange and joyful to be like this to someone.
“By the way, did you say Merlin was outside?”
That was what Carmen said when she first woke up.
“I did. And now I’ll let her in, Lili.”
Carmen called Merlin to come in.
Her eyes were surprisingly puffy.
“Did you cry?”
“I’m sorry. I almost got you killed in the rain.”
John, the doctor who was listening next to them, wanted to say that it was just a fever but he held it back.
In this family, keeping your mouth shut was the key to a long life.
“It’s alright. It wasn’t because of you. Don’t cry. Aren’t you happy to meet Aaron?”
Those words brought tears back to Merlin’s eyes.
“How can I be happy when you fainted and fell? I’m glad the Great Master is back, but I was more worried about you.”
They were worried about Liarte.
‘Worry.’
Liarte wasn’t used to it, someone worrying about her.
Somehow, her frozen heart melted away.
“I love you. Michael, Carmen, Aaron and everyone, I love you.”
She wanted to use a more formal term for it, but that was all she could think of.
Eventually, Merlin burst into tears.
“I know. Everybody knows, Young Lady.”
“That’s a relief. I’ve always been happy to stay here.”
“I knew that too.”
Merlin hugged Liarte.
“My lovely lady.”
The lovely savior of Birce.
One day, the Lady who came with Michael slowly changed Birce.
Eventually, all the members of Birce were saved.
Liarte, in Merlin’s arms, hesitated to face Merlin.
She felt her temperature.
It was a warm, gentle, body temperature.
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In the hallway in front of the Crown Prince’s room.
No one knew that the present empress was the emperor’s cousin. (e/n o.0 ew)
“Get out of the way.”
Empress Tarentia walked lightly with her head raised with a face similar to the Crown Prince.
The court ladies were cautiously following the unhappy empress today.
Standing in front of the Crown Prince’s door, the empress glanced over at the ladies behind her.
“You ladies stay outside today.”
The lady who talked back last time was humiliatingly whipped and placed in prison.
Although a maid’s position was filled by the daughters of nobility, the empress was fearless.
Elheim was still firmly supporting the Imperial Family. Her daughter, Princess Ninian, was to be Duchess of Elheim.
Who dares to stand up to the Empress in the empire?
“Lucas, mother is here. Open the door.”
Soon the door opened and the Crown Prince appeared.
“Welcome, Mother.”
Some maids sighed enchantedly at the Crown Prince. The Empress, who was dissatisfied with them, entered the Crown Prince’s room and closed the door.
The only people left in the room were the Count Fedes, the Empress, and the Crown Prince.
When the door closed, the queen threw the cup with a distorted look on her face.
“Didn’t you say we’d hear of the death of Aaron Birce by today?”
The empress was from a powerful great house. There was the emperor, but the power of the empress was higher, so the de facto monarch was actually the empress.
The emperor, who is a proxy emperor, has always had a demotivated look on his face and only follows the empress’ instructions.
The Crown Prince bowed his head.
“My spy clearly told me. But somehow, I lost contact with him.”
“Birce’s cursed people must have noticed the existence of the spy!”
The empress murmured with an eerie expression. They were trying to establish an absolute Imperial Power with Birce and Elheim just below them.
The problem was Birce.
For many years after the beginning of the empire, Birce never bowed to the Imperial Family.
Rather, they often mocked the Imperial Family to think about what the empire would look like if they became independent.
“You don’t do anything right.”
Because of the power of the Grand Duchy, the empress’ family, even the Crown Prince has not dared to offend the empress carelessly.
Furthermore, all the plans that the Crown Prince devised over a long period of time were being shattered.
“It’s not my fault!”
Originally, Michael Birce was blind, and Aaron was supposed to die from madness.
He thought he had broken the Duke of Birce’s wings. What was going on?
The Crown Prince clenched his teeth.
‘Didn’t that unawakener manifest herself as an awakener?’
Then, the Crown Prince suddenly realized.
“This is all because of the Princess of Elheim.”
Every plan made by the Crown Prince had a weakness.
The eye curse and the Black Powder extracted from the Spirit King could be healed and removed by a strong water awakener.
‘So if she pushes herself too hard, we’ll send an assassin to Birce.’(t/n: ya’know. to take her out.)
As expected, Elheim never lent Birce a helping hand.
The variable was Liarte Elheim, the unawakener-no-more.
“The Princess became attached to Birce, and all the curses and fragments of the fallen Spirit King might have been lifted.”
It was a mistake to forget about Liarte.
The Crown Prince regretted it bitterly.
Liarte’s reply did not return even though he sent a letter with his regrets.
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