Ch.330Chapter 330 – The Princess’s Shadow (2)

Beatrice.

The moment he heard that name, the king narrowed his eyes.

“…There was someone with that name among the shadows back then. I believe I heard she had quite useful abilities.”

The king spoke while pointing his sword.

“I see. So she died in place of one of the princesses, and you survived as her.”

Beatrice didn’t answer his words and quietly lit another cigarette.

Then, she looked at the king and asked.

“Before you pay the price, I have something to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Why did you betray Father?”

The king remained silent for a moment.

And Beatrice, while smoking her cigarette, quietly said.

“If my memory serves me right, Father never treated you unfairly. Rather, he intended to give you an important position.”

“So you’re curious about why I betrayed my brother, is that it?”

Beatrice didn’t answer.

And the king snickered and quietly said.

“It’s simple. Very simple. Because my brother betrayed me first.”

“What betrayal are you talking about?”

“He broke his promise to give that woman to me.”

“That woman? Who?”

At Beatrice’s question, the king nodded.

“I’m talking about your and Ella’s mother.”

Beatrice remained quiet.

And the king, though no one had asked, spoke with trembling shoulders.

“I gave up many things and supported him from behind so that my brother could ascend to the throne. Because he made me one promise.”

“What promise was that?”

“Your mother. He promised to unite her and me.”

The king spoke quietly.

“When I was young, as a prince, I knew her. I even attended her first ball. I continued to interact with her, and at some point, I developed feelings for her.”

A woman worthy of becoming queen would most likely be from high nobility.

Beatrice quietly thought that it wasn’t strange for her to have interacted with a prince since childhood.

“But her father was a supporter of my brother. Soon, he started meddling to distance her from me.”

“Meddling, you say.”

“I was furious and confronted him directly. I told him that she and I were close, so why was he arbitrarily interfering? And he said this to me.”

The king spoke with a mocking expression.

“He said he didn’t want to send her to anyone other than a king, and if I really wanted her back, I should become king—a clear provocation.”

Was it quite a humiliating memory?

The king spoke through gritted teeth.

“So I gathered forces. To become king, I didn’t hesitate to commit even the most despicable acts. And finally, I rose to second in the line of succession.”

Thus, he entered a position where he could compete with Beatrice’s father.

It was just as the political strife between the two was about to begin.

“Your father told me that if my goal was to be with her, he would arrange it. He asked me to yield the throne to him on that condition.”

“And you accepted such an offer?”

“Yes. Foolishly.”

The king laughed self-deprecatingly.

“I declared that I would give up the throne, and I sent those who followed me to my brother. And so my brother was designated as the next king… and she and I were able to meet again.”

“It doesn’t seem like Father broke his promise.”

“You think so?”

The king laughed darkly.

“At that time, I didn’t notice that her gaze had changed when we met again.”

“Her gaze changed?”

“Yes. It wasn’t just warm eyes like before.”

Beatrice didn’t say anything.

And the king, seemingly overcome with emotion, spoke through clenched teeth.

“At the time, I just thought it was strange. But she increasingly tried to avoid meeting with me. However, thinking it was simply because we had been apart for so long, I continued to meet with her… and proposed.”

Beatrice gradually saw the conclusion of the story.

Her very existence was evidence of how it had ended.

The king, also knowing this fact, wore a sneering expression.

“Yes. You can guess.”

“Did Mother reject you?”

“She said she couldn’t take a powerless man as her husband.”

The king spoke with a gloomy smile.

“She rejected my proposal, saying her father would never approve of her marriage to a powerless man like me.”

“……”

“After that, she refused to meet me privately. A few years later, under her father’s officiating, she became my brother’s wife.”

The king bit his lip.

Blood was flowing.

“I didn’t even attend her wedding. And a few days later, when we briefly passed by each other, she said this to me.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me to forget about a woman like her and find happiness. That I would surely meet a woman better than her. She said it with a hypocrite’s face, pretending to be concerned.”

“A hypocrite.”

Beatrice narrowed her eyes.

And the king quietly said.

“I felt something break inside me. And after quite some time had passed, you and your sisters were born between her and the king. She looked happy.”

The king spoke with bloodshot eyes.

“Even then, I think I sincerely thought that as long as she was happy, it was enough. Seeing children who looked just like her, I felt my heart soften a bit.”

“Then why did you do such terrible things and imprison Ella?”

Beatrice spoke quietly.

And the king, smiling, said.

“You must know about your father’s attempt to expel the Emiris Order.”

It was an incident Beatrice knew well.

Soon the king spoke again.

“Your father, whose political power was beginning to wane, asked me for help, and even your mother came to beg me to lend my strength to my brother. I accepted. And so, as I was helping with the expulsion of the Emiris Order, it happened one day.”

The king spoke coldly.

“That man came to me.”

“That man?”

“A man who introduced himself as Somnus. He said he represented the Order.”

“So it was him after all.”

The king’s eyes narrowed as if recalling that time.

And Beatrice immediately asked.

“What did Somnus say to you?”

“He recited all of my past. And then he said this: that I must be heartbroken for having lost the one I loved.”

With still narrowed eyes, the king said.

“At that time, I was about to draw my sword, asking if he was joking. But then that man said to me.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I lost her because I lacked power. And because I had unnecessary familial affection.”

And then, he quietly said.

“Then he told me this: since the queen is the king’s woman, if I became king, I could take her.”

“Do you think it would be that easy?”

“Life isn’t that simple. I replied that she wasn’t the type of woman who would change husbands just because the king changed. Then Somnus said this.”

The king spoke with an almost ecstatic expression at the cold words.

“Then take a substitute, he said.”

“A substitute?”

“He asked if she didn’t have seven daughters.”

Beatrice’s eyes widened.

“And he told me this: if I couldn’t have her, then I should destroy her with my own hands. Destroy my brother who took her from me and her who betrayed me. And take their daughters.”

“Sick bastard.”

Her brief words were filled with disgust.

In response to Beatrice’s words, the king quietly answered.

“At that time, I also thought it was crazy talk.”

But.

“But strangely, those words sounded so sweet to me.”

The king had already been broken by then, or rather, long before that.

“…That was when I lent my hand to Somnus’s plan.”

“I see.”

“Do you pity me?”

The king said jokingly.

And Beatrice flicked away her cigarette, dropping it to the ground, and said.

“I’m just disgusted.”

Beatrice said.

“What do you think people are, anyway?”

“I have many answers to such philosophical questions, but there’s one thing I learned after ascending to this position.”

The king said with a smile.

“Power gained by discarding unnecessary things made many things possible.”

“……”

“When I discarded things like familial affection and took up the sword, when I cut the throat of your mother who begged for mercy, when I made your kneeling father drink poison, when I got hold of Ella, that child who resembled her mother, and could drag her around as I pleased. That feeling at that time.”

The king spoke with an ecstatic expression.

“To be honest, it felt like something was being fulfilled.”

Beatrice sighed and said.

“Somnus, that man turned you into a monster.”

“He made me a king. Don’t misspeak.”

The king stated firmly.

“For someone who says that, you didn’t seem to like the Emiris Order much.”

“At first, I yielded because I had received something from them.”

But, the king quietly said.

“But that man, that order, they kept trying to interfere with me. They kept testing my patience. So…”

“You joined hands with the demons. Yes, I know.”

Beatrice said quietly.

And the king grinned and said.

“Anything else you’re curious about?”

“That’s enough. And I don’t want to know more.”

Beatrice twisted her hand and said.

“I’ve learned everything I wanted to know. Trash.”

Beatrice opened her hand.

A black sphere was floating above her hand.

“I thought there might be some reason for your actions… but I just learned that you were simply trash.”

Looking quietly at the king, Beatrice said.

“Trash needs to be taken out.”

“You think you’ve already won.”

The king said this while quickly taking something out from his pocket and injecting it into his arm.

While Beatrice narrowed her eyes at the sight.

The king’s body began to swell.

“Don’t underestimate me, child.”

The king said with bulging eyes.

“Since the day I learned that power makes everything possible, I’ve always been prepared for everything.”

The king, with swollen muscles, spoke quietly.

And Beatrice, looking at him, said.

“This time you’re relying on drugs.”

“This is power, youngster.”

The king said, veins bulging.

“I don’t care which one you are. Whether you’re the most capable firstborn or someone else. Coming to face me alone was your mistake.”

With those words, the king swung his sword.

Due to his body enhanced by drugs, the sword cut through the air with a terrifying sound.

Towards him, Beatrice threw the black sphere gathered in her hand.

The king cut through that sphere with his sword.

“Before my power, such things are useless…!”

The king shouted with a hearty laugh.

“Familial affection is useless. Power alone is justice. Pray to die in one blow, for if you survive, you’ll regret not having died!”

The sword approached Beatrice directly.

Perhaps it was faster than she expected, as Beatrice didn’t take a defensive stance.

And then.

-Thud!

With a dull sound, the king’s sword stopped.

“…What is this?”

A purple hexagonal object was blocking the sword.

The king was bewildered that his attack was blocked by such a small object.

And Beatrice, smiling fiercely, said.

“Dragon Scale.”

“…What?”

While the king paused in bewilderment at Beatrice’s words, she quietly continued.

“I have an overly kind acquaintance who handles dragon power. Thanks to him, I learned and mastered this technique.”

“What are you…”

“Thanks to him, I saw up close the armor that dragons wear.”

Beatrice smiled.

“I learned from him that if you compress magical power to its limit, you can make it like a hard hexagonal object. And such compressed magical power gains tremendous durability.”

Saying that’s why she named it Dragon Scale, Beatrice moved her hand behind her.

And an identical hexagonal object to the one that had blocked the king’s sword in mid-air covered her hand.

Beatrice swung her fist at the king.

-Thwack!!

With a sound like being struck by a blunt weapon, the king’s waist bent.

The king flew backward and crashed into the wall, soon beginning to groan in pain.

“What is this…”

Despite the drug dulling the pain, he still felt it.

Looking at the king frowning in pain, Beatrice slowly said.

“There’s something I’ve found quite amusing all along.”

Clenching and unclenching her fist, Beatrice quietly said.

“You sing about power, power, but it seems like the last time you properly built something with your own power was when you were young?”

Beatrice looked coldly at the king and said.

“When you wanted to win Mother, you relied on Father, when you wanted to usurp Father, you relied on the Emiris Order, and this time you relied on demons.”

In a quiet voice, Beatrice added.

“Isn’t your life not about borrowing power because you can’t do it with your own strength, but about depending on others’ power from the start?”

“…Are you mocking me?”

“Oh, sorry. The facts hurt quite a bit, didn’t they?”

Beatrice took a stance and quietly said.

“Being good at borrowing others’ power is also a remarkable talent… but facts are facts, right? You always try to achieve something with others’ power.”

Beatrice glared at the king and said.

“In contrast, I’ve trained and studied myself.”

“…You wench.”

“Well, the time for idle talk is over. Stand up with your own strength and fight.”

Beatrice said.

“I should warn you, I don’t think I’m going to lose.”

“You wench…!”

“I said let’s stop running our mouths, didn’t I?”

Beatrice clenched her fist and took a fighting stance.

“Come on.”

“Beatrice…!”

The king charged forward with his sword, roaring in anger.