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Chapter 11
Yet, as though fate had no intention of letting her die just yet, Walter—who happened to be staying in Pomnos for a conference—came to the prison and cleared up the misunderstanding.
Of all the soldiers in the kingdom, they had to bring Walter Heiberg of all people.
Whether it was a terrible coincidence or some strange twist of fate, Lucy could never tell.
Remembering it now only made her feel embarrassed all over again, and she lowered her head slightly. Watching her reaction, Walter opened his mouth with an expression that was somewhere between amusement and indifference.
“I see you’re still helping the lycans these days.”
“Well… somehow, that’s how things turned out. But I swear I’m not doing it intentionally. The lycans who have nowhere else to go just keep coming to me and asking for help, so I suppose you could say I’ve simply shown them a little kindness.”
“You said the exact same thing when you were detained before. Do you remember?”
There was no way to refute that.
Lucy’s lips twitched downward as she fell silent, looking thoroughly displeased.
It was almost laughable how her resolution to live a flawless life had amounted to nothing whenever Walter was around. She had been the same during their first meeting, and when they met again in Pomnos, she had once more shown herself to him at her most foolish.
Why did it always have to be him?
Of all the people she wanted to make a good impression on, she kept showing him her most embarrassing side. It was difficult to put into words just how mortifying that was.
Lucy tilted the warm cup in her hands and forced a calm expression onto her face.
“Let’s stop talking about such trivial things. How are things in the royal palace? This place is so far out of the way that it takes nearly half a year for rumors to reach us. Has anything happened?”
“Who knows… I wonder.”
“I heard Dophain and Antevasilla are preparing for war. I’m worried the flames might spread to Parnas for no reason.”
“Are you worried about your homeland?”
Lucy scratched her cheek and gave a faint nod.
“I may be staying in Pomnos against my will… but I was born and raised in Parnas. Of course I’m worried.”
At present, Lucy was essentially a traitor who had fled the kingdom with the king’s favored concubine.
She had no way of returning, which was why she was living in Pomnos. But not for a single moment had she forgotten her homeland.
Perhaps her sincerity had moved him somehow.
Walter stared at her with an inscrutable expression.
When Lucy raised her head under his piercing gaze, he gave a low hum as though nothing had happened and smoothly changed the subject.
“It seems the princess has been doing well. And how is Lady Ansilla? I heard she was born and raised in the west, so I was worried about whether she had managed to adapt to the cold.”
“My mother is doing even better than I am. She goes to the nursery every day to look after the Lapi children. Thanks to that, we’ve somehow managed not to be thrown out.”
“Do you have no intention of returning to Parnas?”
The sudden question left Lucy speechless.
Trying to determine what he meant, she stared at him questioningly.
Walter gazed at the tapestry hanging on the wall and spoke in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
“His Majesty passed away ten days ago.”
Crash!
The sound of pottery striking the floor rang through the room, and pale goat’s milk quickly spread across the carpet.
Lucy was too stunned to even think about picking up the broken cup. Her lips trembled as she searched for something to say.
After moving her lips several times, she finally managed to moisten her dry mouth and force out a few words.
“Is that… really true? I remember him being perfectly healthy. How could he have died so suddenly…?”
“About six months ago, a strange illness began spreading among the upper classes. His Majesty also succumbed to the unknown plague.”
“And then? Did the First Prince ascend the throne?”
“Unfortunately, the First Prince passed away as well, closing his eyes almost immediately after His Majesty’s death. The others passed away around the same time.”
Walter paused.
“Fortunately, the Third and Fifth Princes survived. However, neither of them is in a condition to move about normally.”
All the princes were incapacitated…
Lucy repeated the words under her breath, her expression growing grave.
“Then the throne… Who will become the next king of Parnas?”
“That, in fact, is the reason I came to see you today, Princess.”
Walter continued staring at the pattern on the tapestry before slowly turning his head toward Lucy.
Within his pitch-black eyes, devoid of any readable emotion, the reflection of a lady dressed in a white anorak appeared in its entirety.
“Arsinoe Thea Neoparnas. If you permit me, I would like to have you crowned as the nineteenth king of Parnas.”
The sound of rattling woke her.
Lucy stared blankly at the ceiling, blinking slowly as she pulled the blanket back around herself. She felt as though she had only just fallen asleep after spending the entire night wrestling with her thoughts, yet a pale bluish light was already filtering into the room.
“What time is it?”
She sat up and rested her head against the wall beside the bed.
The moment she left the warmth of the blankets, the bitter northern cold seeped through every opening in her clothes. She pulled the blanket up to her neck and gazed absentmindedly at the dawn light slipping through the window.
Her mind felt as hazy as watered-down porridge, but the conversation she had shared with Walter the previous day remained painfully clear, ringing in her ears.
—“I would like to have you crowned as the nineteenth king of Parnas.”
Crowned king?
It was an utterly unexpected proposal.
No—it was even more shocking because she had never imagined she would hear such words at this point in time.
“How did he die so soon?”
Lucy had expected the king to die eventually.
Walter had called it an unknown plague, but thanks to her experiences in her previous life, Lucy knew where the disease had originated. She also knew what could be done to make its symptoms grow worse.
But this was far too soon.
She had expected him to live for at least another two years, even under the worst circumstances.
And the news that the entire royal family had been wiped out was equally unexpected.
She had taken measures to ensure the disease would worsen…
But she had never imagined that every single one of them would end up like this.
Her pang of guilt lasted only a moment.
Soon, Lucy let out a bitter laugh, thinking that the royal family’s deaths were nothing more than the consequences of their own actions.
They had regarded her and her mother as thorns in their sides for as long as she could remember.
Ansilla, the king’s favored concubine, had been little more than an enemy to the queen and her relatives, and Ansilla had constantly lived under the threat of assassination.
There was no chance that people blinded by jealousy would ever treat Lucy kindly, either.
—“Be careful. If you get too full of yourself just because of that pretty face, you’ll end up like your mother.”
It hadn’t taken long for the hostility that began with threats to evolve into outright beatings.
Even one of the reasons Lucy had chosen the military academy in this life was because, at least in part, she wanted to escape from them.
Surely, one of them had been responsible for killing her mother in her previous life.
Was she simply numb to death now?
Or had her emotions grown dull because she had wanted revenge for so long?
Lucy closed her eyes and listened to the wind howling outside.
“A king…”
She couldn’t deny that she had some desire for the throne.
She simply hadn’t thought the timing was right.
If time proceeded according to the future she remembered, Parnas would become embroiled in a three-way war three years from now, leaving the authority of the throne severely weakened.
Her original plan had been to use her connections to persuade the lords and commanders of the frontier territories, win Walter over, and then claim the throne.
But the irregularity of the disease had thrown everything into chaos.
“No.”
Still, it seemed she had managed to bring Walter Heiberg over to her side.
“Should I be happy about this or not?”
Muttering to herself as she pressed her fingers against the space between her brows, Lucy suddenly rose from her seat.
Amid the familiar sound of the wind, she heard something strange.
What was that sound?
Her hesitation lasted only a moment.
Lucy hurriedly put on her outer clothes, then gathered her long, flowing hair and wrapped it several times around her neck.
It was autumn, so the weather was relatively mild, but the temperature before dawn was hardly any different from the dead of winter.
Worried she might catch a cold, Lucy pulled on her gloves, slipped her feet into her boots, and finally pulled a hat over her head before slowly stepping out of the cabin.
“Brr… It’s cold.”
A faint white glow was beginning to emerge along the horizon, and the darkness covering the sky was gradually being pushed away by the approaching light.
She waved away the white mist of her breath with one hand and headed toward the source of the sound.
The closer she got, the louder it became.
Along with a dull thudding sound, as though something were being struck, came the intermittent whoosh of air being violently sliced apart.
What on earth was making that noise?
Lucy clasped both hands tightly together and carefully changed direction.
It was only when she reached the western side of the house, in front of the woodshed where firewood was stacked, that she finally discovered the source.
Walter Heiberg was swinging a sword in front of the pile of firewood.
“Grand General. What are you doing here at this hour?”
Lucy stared at him in disbelief, struggling to get the words out.
Walter lowered the sword he had been holding high and cast her a sidelong glance.
“You are awake, Princess.”
The casual twist of his wrist as he spun the sword was anything but ordinary.
With an indifferent glance at the blade, Walter drove the sword straight into the ground.
For a moment, Lucy nearly found herself admiring the smooth, flawless movement.
“I noticed there wasn’t much firewood left, so I was splitting some.”
Lucy was left speechless.
She simply stared at him in bewilderment.
