You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 99

The commander’s party arrived at Ethel Castle.

Rhys, who had been guarding the scene until the commander’s arrival, hurried towards him.

The commander dismounted his horse and strode toward the site, asking.

“What are the details?”

The situation had been assessed and documented in a report long ago. Rhys handed it to the commander.

The commander quickly scanned it with a rigid expression, then approached the spot where the Prince’s body had been.

“Was the Prince trying to steal the body?”

Indeed, Prince Asel’s body was discovered at the entrance of the Ethel family’s cemetery.

The body of Merwen Ethel, which should have been inside that cemetery, was missing.

“I believe so, or at least he was connected to the culprit who stole the body.”

Rhys pointed to a shabbily dressed middle-aged man who had been dragged out to the scene upon the commander’s arrival. More than half of the man’s face was covered with burns that hadn’t fully healed yet.

“The Prince’s attendant was also captured near the castle.”

The deep blue gaze shifted to the Prince’s attendant, who was trembling with fear. Rhys continued.

“The interrogation is already complete. He claims he doesn’t know much and was simply attending to the Prince, who survived the burning, while staying near Ethel Castle.”

“Two people who should have died were walking around.”

The tone was frigid.

Rhys bit his inner lip. Since he was the one who oversaw the cleanup after the execution by burning, the existence of survivors was also his mistake.

Sometimes, when mass executions by burning were carried out, there were people who survived by getting wedged into the gaps beneath the firewood.

It was a truly rare occurrence, and it was generally not assumed to be possible, but since it had already happened, debating the possibility was pointless.

“From now on, ensure the area beneath the firewood is properly checked after the execution is carried out.”

Rhys bowed his head.

“Yes.”

The questions continued afterward.

“Who took the body?”

“We are still investigating.”

“Have you caught the Prince’s killer?”

“We are still tracking him, as well.”

Nothing had been resolved.

Sioden looked around. The entire view of the unmanaged castle came into his sight. It was evidence that most of the servants had neglected their duties after the lord of the castle died.

Indeed, Rhys had written in his report that there were no witnesses. This meant that by that time, the castle was empty of people except for one or two resident servants.

He said that since the lord who paid their wages had died, everyone had returned to their own homes.

With no typical evidence, no one to offer clues, and no witnesses to the scene, the report was also very empty.

Perhaps feeling ashamed of the gaps, Rhys had meticulously recorded everything that could be collected within the provided scene. Even Prince Asel’s personal information…

Sioden frowned, mentally reviewing what he had read.

He opened the report he had received from Rhys again. One name written inside looked familiar.

Having confirmed the name of the Prince’s younger blood relative, Sioden ordered Rhys, who was waiting nearby.

“Find the Ethel County family’s lineage book.”

Before long, the knight returned with a pedigree book that clearly looked like it had been neglected for a long time.

Sioden twisted the corner of his mouth as he confirmed the name of the last Countess written within it.

“Ha…”

He closed the lineage book and wiped his face. Even though the cold leather swept across his skin, the heat caused by his rage did not dissipate.

This was due to resentment that had accumulated over many years.

The Princess of Kaulm, who was much younger than the Prince, and the Countess Ethel were recorded with the same name.

It meant that the Princess who sought safety and asylum before the country’s collapse and the wife of Hesen Ethel, whom Lerox took, were the same person.

Lerox Raslet must have truly been insane.

Apple calmly explained to me how she came to know the Kaulm people and what she heard from them.

“Outside the outer walls of Raslet, there’s a village where a military unit is stationed, and people of Kaulm origin live together there.”

This was news to me, but I had never ventured outside the outer walls during my time in Raslet.

Except for the one time I went with Sioden to the villa, which was situated where the outer wall ended, and traveled from there to the harbor.

“Unlike the other refugees, they were people who sought asylum before the country was destroyed, so I heard they were settled separately for security reasons.”

I understood the context.

Those who left for an enemy country before their nation’s downfall would have looked like traitors in the eyes of the Kaulm people who remained after the destruction.

And since Raslet received them without any coercion, they would have needed to guarantee their safety.

Apple paused for a moment and looked into my eyes.

“Are you okay?”

She seemed concerned since the one who took me prisoner was the Prince of Kaulm.

What became of them? I faintly heard that they were executed in the most horrible way.

Sioden didn’t tell me such stories, and it was a difficult subject to ask about, so I just picked up bits and pieces from others’ chatter.

In any case, it wasn’t strongly related to my current situation.

I shook my head at Apple.

“I’m fine.”

If the wounds I sustained as a prisoner had taken a long time to heal, the pain would have caused those memories to surface constantly.

However, the wound on my back had already healed when I next opened my eyes.

That was because Sioden had cut the Glasyr. .

Why did he cut the heirloom?

The question, which I had set aside because I couldn’t find an answer no matter how many times I pondered it, came back up.

Suddenly, I remembered the words the man had spoken.

‘I love you.’

It hadn’t resonated that much at the time, but recalling it now, it felt like the answer to the question of why he had given up the tree.

But immediately after, Sioden seemed to regret what he’d said.

‘I apologize for saying something you didn’t want to hear.’

One could say that apology was appropriate for the situation.

In fact, Sioden’s declaration of love was not welcome to my ears in the slightest.

‘I thought I would be happy to hear you say you love me…’

What was Sioden’s expression like then?

Trying to recall the memory, all I could remember was the fact that he and I hadn’t been facing each other at the time.

I had only turned to look at him just before leaving the room that day.

At that moment, Sioden’s face was already as white as a corpse.

He had looked at me with that expression several times after that.

With a look that couldn’t be explained by the characteristic paleness of Northern people alone, as if I had ripped a piece of flesh from his chest.

I learned through him that a person who hadn’t lost a single drop of blood could still look that way.

But thinking about Sioden is as useless as thinking about Prince Asel.

I swept the useless thoughts from my mind and continued the conversation.

“Why did those people apply for asylum first?”

“It seems they had trouble within their own country that escalated to threats against the Princess’s safety. I heard that the Kaulm Royal Sorcerer brought the Princess and headed south.”

“There was a sorcerer?”

Magic had vanished from the continent several generations ago.

All magic originated from the Fairies, and their bloodline had been completely severed.

The magic remaining on the continent now could be considered mere remnants of the past.

But Apple nodded at my question.

“I checked multiple times because I couldn’t believe it either, but it was certain that there was a sorcerer. They said they were the last remaining one of a line that was mostly broken.”

The first question that came to mind was whether my father knew this fact.

The father I knew was incredibly obsessed with magic.

Therefore, if a trace of magic remained somewhere in the world, the probability that he would try to track it down was extremely high.

I recalled the words I heard from Beatrice the day I met her at the Imperial Palace.

‘A man who already had two children to set up as heirs took a new wife. And he wasn’t even a man known for chasing after women.’

The Emperor suggested there must have been a reason my father married my mother.

And the only thing my father was obsessed with, dedicating his life to it, was magic.

“Did you meet the Princess or that sorcerer?”

The Princess wouldn’t have been old.

Since she was unmarried at the time, she would have been my age or younger.

If the Princess had been married, she would have gone to her husband’s land, not Raslet.

Since royalty practices hochzeit (marriage between equals), she would have married a man with royal blood.

And those belonging to the royal family had their own fiefdoms.

However, the Princess came to Raslet.

This meant there was no alliance formed by marriage.

If she was my age before Kaulm was destroyed, she would be around my parents’ age now.

She would be alive if nothing untoward had happened.

It was then that Apple shook her head.

“They said the Princess never returned after the former Duke of Raslet took her.”

“…And the sorcerer?”

I knew this was an absurd idea, but one hypothesis wouldn’t leave my mind.

The sorcerer who sought asylum with the Princess, and the mother whom my father—who was only obsessed with magic—took as his second wife.

I felt that there might be some strong connection between the two.

But my mother was already dead.

She entered her coffin only a few years after I was born.

Wait, where is my mother’s grave?

Isn’t the owner’s name written on the tombstone?

Wouldn’t checking that be faster than talking to Isuven?

While my mind was running wild with all sorts of thoughts, Apple’s words continued.

“The sorcerer committed a great sin and left her homeland as punishment for it.”

“… ”

“Some of the villagers seemed to be waiting for her return… but I heard she never reappeared after that.”