Chapter 38

“Wh, what do I do.”

Ellen dragged her trembling legs and turned her gaze toward where Leonid had thrown himself. Only a steep cliff was visible, nothing else.

“Why on earth.”

Did you throw yourself there? You endured so well even with your whole body carved apart.

Ellen’s strength gave out and she sank to the ground.

“Don’t joke like this. This isn’t funny.”

She muttered in a daze even knowing Leonid wasn’t someone who would play a joke like this.

“Leonid! Answer me!”

This simply couldn’t be real. Ellen couldn’t bear the fire rising in her chest and cried out desperately.

“Who told you to call a prince by his name like that.”

“Your Highness!”

She hadn’t sensed any presence, and yet where had he come from.

Ellen leapt to her feet and moved toward Leonid.

“Where did you go. No, why on earth did you jump down there?”

Ellen’s fingertip pointed toward the treacherous cliff. Leonid’s gaze followed it.

“I never jumped down there.”

“No. I clearly saw you.”

“Then it was a success.”

“Pardon?”

“If it’s a place you can’t find even after seeing it clearly in front of you, that means it was a success.”

“What do you mean…… Your Highness!”

“I knew this was more comfortable.”

Leonid scooped Ellen up and leapt off the mountain slope.

“Ngh.”

“You’re more timid than I thought.”

He had clearly thrown himself toward the cliff and yet nothing had happened. Ellen carefully opened her tightly shut eyes.

“This is……”

“My secret space.”

“Your Highness’s secret space?”

Did Leonid have such a place.

Ellen’s gaze swept every corner. A vast room that seemed entirely out of place on a mountain slope came into view. Ellen looked around the room with curious eyes.

A bed more than large enough for two, a sofa and large table that could seat several people, and even a fireplace. All of it uniformly luxurious. Above all, the enormous doors on every wall created an air of mystery.

Ellen was wondering what might be beyond the doors when a voice from beside her drew her gaze.

“To be precise, this was once the residence of His Majesty the holy Emperor.”

“His Majesty the holy Emperor!”

Atun Run Raphae, the founding Emperor of the Cavern Empire. As the title holy Emperor implied, was he not the master of sacred power.

Ellen made the sign of the cross with a reverent heart. Leonid gave a subtle smile watching that. She looked charming, holding the first Emperor in such reverence.

There seemed to be no need to tell her the truth.

“How did you find this place?”

“Because I’m from the imperial family.”

“Ah.”

That wasn’t wrong. A barrier set by the holy Emperor was in place here.

Only the imperial family could undo it and enter. More precisely, an imperial family member who could wield magical power.

Leonid had been searching for a place where he could use his magical power freely away from everyone’s eyes and had found Mount Tir. He had climbed a slope that no one would ever go up.

There he had swung his magical power like a madman and been launched up the hill by his own force. Certain he was about to die, he had opened his eyes to find himself here.

In this place where every trace of Atun Run Raphae’s living days remained.

That was how Leonid had come to know that the historical records of the holy Emperor had been falsified, and the truth of the holy Emperor’s power.

“Keeping these here will be safe.”

Leonid set Ellen’s jewelry box on the table as he spoke.

“Or were you thinking of disposing of them?”

“No. I don’t have an immediate need for them. More than that……”

“Those are eyes with many questions.”

“That’s right. The one I’m most curious about, you still haven’t told me.”

“What are you most curious about.”

“The reason Your Highness was so terribly hurt. You still haven’t told me.”

“Ah, that.”

Leonid’s eyes gleamed with interest. Receiving this woman’s attention was always welcome.

No, that alone wasn’t enough. What about taking over that small head of hers entirely.

Think of and look only at me.

The gaze that had been devouring Ellen’s face slowly turned in the other direction.

“It’s over there.”

“Over there?”

“The storage room of this place.”

With Leonid’s answer, Ellen’s body moved toward where his fingertip pointed. Toward the enormous door at the end of the room.

At that moment he grabbed Ellen’s arm.

“You’d be better off not looking.”

“No. I need to see what made Your Highness so badly hurt.”

“Monsters.”

“Pardon?”

“What’s in there are monster carcasses. And an enormous quantity of them.”

“Goodness.”

Monsters.

Ellen’s eyes shook at the completely unexpected answer.

“I ended up like that while hunting monsters on Mount Agton.”

“Why did you do something like that? Your Highness, at the time you were so terribly……”

Ellen recalled the horrifying sight that was difficult to even think back on and bit the soft flesh inside her mouth. Just recalling it gave her the illusion that pain was washing over her entire body.

“I was quite hurt. In truth, I nearly died.”

“Then why!”

Ellen, her emotions running high, tapped Leonid’s chest without hurting him. That Leonid himself had put himself in such danger. She was so furious she had no way to express it.

“I wanted to test something.”

“What kind of test is worth staking your life on. No, why do such a test at all.”

“Do you want to hear?”

“Of course.”

“Then you’ll have to be able to handle me.”

“What do you mean……”

“Because I’ll have to lay bare even the most secret things hidden deepest inside me.”

Leonid’s eyes changed in an instant. He pulled Ellen sharply toward him and made her receive his gaze fully.

“No, from the moment I brought you here, you were already unable to escape from me.”

“……”

“Because this is a place I’ve never brought anyone.”

Even Martin Joan, who had carried monsters to the entrance, had not been allowed to approach inside.

“It’s as good as showing you my innermost self. How could I possibly let you go.”

“Your Highness.”

Leonid’s atmosphere had changed. An irresistible desire showed in his gaze. The very same look she had experienced countless times in her past life.

Facing it was intensely hot, as though it would swallow everything she was.

“What is your reason for being in Princess Senne’s palace. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Because there’s something I absolutely must fix.”

“Are you talking about Senne’s skin condition? That’s an incurable disease.”

“No, it can be cured. I’m going to do it.”

If you’ve laid bare your inner self, then I will do the same.

Ellen continued with resolute eyes.

“I cure it and there’s something I absolutely must obtain.”

“What is it?”

“Prince Leonid. You yourself.”

“What?”

At her answer, the hand gripping Ellen’s arm tightened with force. Leonid pulled Ellen to him in one motion and took her cheek in one hand.

“What does that mean. Explain it so I can understand.”

“There’s something I absolutely must give you. I’m in Her Highness’s palace for that.”

“Something you absolutely must give me? What is it?”

“You’ll understand when you receive it.”

The place that was rightfully yours from the start. The next Emperor of the Cavern Empire, Leonid Del Raphae.

I’m going to give him that seat. So he could ascend to it proudly without shedding a single drop of blood.

“You think you can avoid my question with words like that?”

“No. I’m not avoiding it. I won’t do that this time.”

Because that’s why I came back.

Perhaps from the start, avoiding you was never possible. From the first moment we met at the birthday party of Kayul Del Raphae, your brother, perhaps that was our fate.

“If I receive it, what happens to you?”

Ellen changed the subject and avoided his question. It was strange, but what mattered most to Leonid was Ellen, so he asked what he most wanted to know.

“I……”

When that moment comes, I’ll no longer be needed by you. A woman as lowly as me would have no place beside an Emperor who has secured his legitimacy.

Preventing the ruin of the Empire and of you is where all my duty ends.

There will be no harem for him then, and I will no longer love him. There’s no reason for me to be by his side.

It’s obvious. I thought of it from the start……

Why does it hurt this much.

Ellen drew in a deep breath and let it out. The pain still didn’t ease. Perhaps it was because this was an enclosed space with not a single ray of sunlight reaching the ceiling.

Ellen pressed down on her heart and barely parted her lips.

“I haven’t thought about that yet.”

A lie.

“It’s still such a distant future.”

This too is a lie.

I still can’t be honest with Leonid.

“Is that so. Then let me ask differently.”

“What I can tell you ends here, Your Highness.”

Please stop. I can’t say any more truth than this.

If I told you everything, it would be cruel to both of us. No, could you even believe it to begin with.

Ellen’s eyes wavered with a pale trembling.