A Captive Prince Awaiting Execution Falls In Love With A Young Lady - Episode 12

The next day.

Sirius, who was sketching on the canvas with charcoal, noticed the footsteps.

It should be about the time Judith arrives.

However.

The footsteps climbing the stairs are not just one.

I thought Ms. Sanders was accompanying us, but it wasn’t her footsteps. Rather, Ms. Sanders hardly ever makes any noise when she walks.

Sirius threw the charcoal onto the table and wiped his dirty hands on his leather apron.

When I stood up and moved to the center of the room, beyond the canvas.

The door opened without a knock.

“Hello. … Uh, Jones”

Judith appeared with her usual smile. However, what she said was not “Sirius.”

Jones. It’s a pseudonym for Sirius.

“Hello, Mr. Jones. You seem to be feeling much better now.”

“Good day, Mr. Jones. This is a delightful matter, isn’t it?”

Standing behind Judith are two men dressed in black cloaks and monk robes.

One is young, and the other is in their 60s.

A few days ago, they poisoned Sirius and then shamelessly came to treat him—my brother-in-law and his subordinates.

“The monk came for a follow-up visit. I told him that Jones is fine and there’s no need to worry. Sorry for the trouble.”

Judith deeply bows her head to the two of them, and although I feel bitter about it, I can’t say anything.

I don’t want to involve her.

If you don’t know anything, you can’t lie.

If I don’t lie.

She will not be charged with a crime.

“Then, miss, please wait in the other room.”

“We will call you again once the examination is over.”

The monk said, and Judith modestly bowed.

In the moment she was leaving the room, she gave Sirius a small wave. “Later.” She mouthed the words without making a sound and exited.

“You’re quite the seven-month-old, aren’t you?”

The door closed with a thud, and after the footsteps faded away, I removed my hood, and my brother-in-law Patrick let out a muffled laugh.

Was this the kind of face I had?

Sirius looked intently at the young man under the bright daylight.

The jet-black hair resembled the color of a raven’s wet feathers, and the eyes, framed by long, thick eyelashes, were like jade. The straight nose and thin lips gave an impression of stubbornness.

More than a brother-in-law in my memories.

It’s extremely vague, but I felt that this appearance was very similar to that of my father.

He must have felt someone’s gaze.

Patrick also shoots me a determined look.

I was stared at rudely.

I didn’t inherit my father’s looks like this brother did.

I’ve heard that both the golden hair and the blue eyes all belong to my mother.

Thanks to his rigorous training with the Nalan sect, Patrick has a solid physique that is evident even through his clothes, but I have been confined in the tower for several years. I only have the bare minimum of muscle.

“It seems like a woman.”

As expected, I was spat out.

“Well, that’s fine. Thanks to that appearance of yours, even that girl named Judith probably doesn’t suspect anything.”

I cast a contemptuous glance at the door.

“Even you seem easy enough to take advantage of. Have you already been taken?”

It’s ridiculous to even answer. Sirius deliberately remains silent.

“Make your move now and get her pregnant. That way, the Duke of the Imperial Court won’t be able to escape.”

Patrick moved in front of Sirius and looked down at him with a glare.

“I want to win over the Minister of the Imperial Household. Don’t let go of that girl.”

“As I mentioned the other day,”

I tried to stay calm, but my voice trembled slightly with anger.

“Please stop such reckless actions, dear brother-in-law. The throne has already been passed down. The Sainelia dynasty has come to an end, and it is now the era of the LeBlanc dynasty…”

Without even finishing the sentence, I was struck hard on the chest with both hands.

Unable to defend or even escape, Sirius took the full brunt of the attack and was sent crashing to the floor.

“Please stop! How would you explain it if you got hurt?”

He probably tried to hit him again. It seems that an older man is hurriedly trying to stop him.

Sirius cautiously stood up, fully on guard against Patrick. His lower back throbbed painfully from the hard blow. Suddenly, he started coughing and bent over, choking, as if he had been hit with a palm strike.

“You spineless coward! Are you even a man? Even a dog remembers the kindness of its owner!”

Finally catching his breath and wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Sirius was pointed at and accused by Patrick.

“My father, my grandfather! This country that our ancestors fought to protect…! Do you still think it’s acceptable?!”

“If you, brother-in-law, oppose the current regime like that and cause a civil war, it might just give other countries the opportunity to invade. That would be completely counterproductive.”

This time, Sirius replied while keeping a sufficient distance.

If caught off guard, even Sirius has a fair amount of confidence in hand-to-hand combat. After all, he has been dealing with that Judith.

“Please stop having dreams that are convenient for you like this…”

“Can’t you hear the anguished cries of the people?”

Sirius shook his head silently.

I can’t hear you.

Isn’t that only audible to Patrick?

“If you absolutely refuse to help, then die here and now.”

Patrick brushed aside the hem of his cloak, drew the dagger tucked into his belt, and hurled it towards Sirius.

It bounces once on the floor, then slides and stops at Sirius’s toes.

Sirius bends down and picks it up carelessly.

The one who was startled was the elderly man.

It might attack Patrick.

It’s funny because you’re making that face.

You were the one who said “die,” though.

Sirius gripped it with his right hand and poked the tip with his left index finger. After a small sting, a drop of bl00d resembling a ruby swelled up. The sharpness seemed to be good.

Sirius readjusted the dagger with both hands and slowly brought it to his neck.

There’s no choice but to die.

I met with my brother-in-law a few days ago, and since he hinted at a rebellion, I’ve been thinking about various things.

As a conclusion, this is the only option.

To protect Judith without involving the court noble.

The best thing to do is to commit suicide before my brother-in-law starts a rebellion.

Taking a breath, and trying to pull as is.

“Please stop!”

I was tackled by the older man, and we both fell to the floor again.

My wrist is twisted upwards, and the dagger is wrenched from my hand.

“Please stop provoking the Crown Prince!”

The older man quickly hid the dagger in his bosom and scolded Patrick. However, Patrick glared back at him.

“Don’t do anything unnecessary. You were finally trying to take care of things yourself.”

“This prince will be useful someday!”

Patrick scoffed at the old man’s complaint.

“Indeed, it might be good for seducing women.”

“That’s not it. I’ve mentioned it before, haven’t I? Why Prince Robert died and Prince Sirius survived.”

Sirius, who had been sitting on the floor, reflexively looked up upon hearing the name of his brother-in-law, Robert.

Robert, who was beaten to death while being transported from the royal capital’s prison to the palace with Sirius.

I can’t remember Robert’s face when he was alive.

The face at the moment of death still vividly comes to mind.

“Because he was the legitimate second prince who inherited the bl00d of the rightful king, he was killed!”

The elderly man firmly shook his head at Patrick’s words.

“No. As I mentioned before, we couldn’t kill Prince Sirius.”

“…Couldn’t… kill?”

It was Sirius who murmured.

The assailants also targeted Sirius’s carriage.

Sirius was also attacked.

The same goes for the knight who was the guard.

Wielding a sword to avoid being killed was the same as my younger brother.

Even so.

“Why can’t I kill this guy?”

In response to Patrick’s question, the elderly man speaks slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

“To begin with, why did His Majesty treat the illegitimate child born to a mere maid as a ‘prince’?”

More than anyone else, even more than Patrick.

Sirius was captivated by the words of the eldest man.

That’s right.

It was something I felt even at that young age.

Sirius does not know his biological mother.

I heard she died of puerperal fever right after giving birth.

I heard she was originally the daughter of a low-ranking noble and served as a lady-in-waiting to the former queen, coming and going to the palace to learn proper manners.

Even if she were to become pregnant, she would be in a position to reject it by saying, “It’s not my child,” and she could have arranged a marriage with a suitable nobleman and raised the child as their own.

In fact, the high-ranking nobles have done just that.

The king who stands at the pinnacle of the high-ranking nobility.

That king.

Why did he acknowledge the child as his own, even going so far as to consider the feelings of his legitimate wife, and decide to raise him within the palace, granting him the title of “prince” despite being a child born out of wedlock?

“And although he is confined, he is not being tortured or abused. He lives healthily, and even the daughter of the person in charge, the Marquis of the Imperial Court, comes and goes freely like this.”

That’s right.

At the beginning of the king’s reign.

Robert and I were thrown into the dungeon and treated completely differently than just yesterday.

A meal like leftover scraps. The cold, frigid cell was unsanitary, with excrement flowing freely, and the guards laughed at the spectacle.

However.

This frontier city.

I have never been treated like that within this tower.

Rather.

Even though I am confined, I am forced to train my body and even given hobbies.

“This prince has something. By keeping him alive and close at hand, we will gain something.”

With passion, the elderly man says.

Those words enter Sirius’s body through his ears.

I suddenly felt the cold.

At this rate.

I am being used.

I quickly shifted my gaze.

A painting knife for oil painting.

If that’s the case.

You can choke to death.

“If you die here, I’ll spread the word that it was the Marquess of the Imperial Court’s fault.”

Patrick spoke as if to control the movement.

“I will rise up with the enraged citizens of the country, spreading the word that they imprisoned the late king’s heir in a tower for years, repeatedly abused them, and then killed them using a cruel execution method. I will light the beacon to change the nation. At that time, the first to be sacrificed will likely be the Grand Chamberlain and that girl.”

Patrick smirked with a wicked grin.

“There is nothing more unmanageable than a raging populace, especially when they believe they are in the right. Listen, if you were to take your own life, I would make sure to blame the Marquess and his daughter for your death. If that girl were to die, it would be because you took your own life and the populace’s violence led to her death.”

Sirius clenched his molars. His chest, just hit, ached. He felt a heat. He clenched his fist.

I thought it wasn’t a good idea.

Dying here and now is a bad move.

Life is only one.

I can’t afford to fail.

You can’t redo it.

If I’m going to die anyway.

Judith and the court noble are in a favorable situation.

And the situation in which Patrick falls from grace.

I have no choice but to die there.

“Shall we be leaving soon?”

The elderly man adjusted Patrick’s clothes and draped a robe over him while speaking quickly.

Even though he is wearing the hood deeply pulled down, the cruel eyes of his brother-in-law are glaring at him from within.

“Listen, I’m always watching you. Don’t forget it.”

A memory suddenly flashes through my mind.

That lady.

The lady who was temporarily hired because the caretaker aunt couldn’t come due to illness.

Was that also a kind of lookout?

The bakery said they changed it. So, did they decide to come meet me directly like this?

“I’ll come again.”

Patrick leaves the room, accompanied by the elderly man.

The distant footsteps stop midway, and then Judith’s voice can be heard.

They probably couldn’t wait.

It seems that I hurried out because I heard the sound of the monk’s footsteps.

After exchanging a few words, the sound of footsteps going up the stairs is heard again.

“Sirius!”

Judith burst into the room with a smile.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better!”

And then Judith hugs me.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Wrap my arms around her back and give her a gentle hug.

This child.

I absolutely must protect it.