Chapter 69
The doctor let out a short laugh.
“You think it’s that simple?”
In the end, they had no choice but to halt all movement until Marie’s fever settled somewhat.
Meanwhile, in the capital, things were unraveling in a direction far different from what they imagined.
* * *
Russell thrashed in a blaze of fever. His outstretched hand felt far too small and unfamiliar.
He was a young boy.
Yes, he had just witnessed the deaths of his mother and fiancée. The shock triggered the manifestation of his secondary traits in an extremely unstable manner.
Because of the unstable awakening, the young Alpha was being consumed by his own pheromones and was dying. He could hear the choking, gasping sounds ringing in his ears. If he closed his eyes now, everything would surely end.
But he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to die like this. He had to avenge the two of them. There were still so many things he had to do.
He struggled.
No. I don’t want to die. Someone… please help me.
And then, it happened. A small white hand reached into his blurred vision. A very small hand.
‘Do you need help?’
What followed was a soft, delicate child’s voice. Who was that? His head felt like it was about to split open. He barely managed to lift his eyelids, and when he saw the face of the one who had approached.
The young girl’s face…
‘…Marie?’
She looked so much like Marie.
And slowly, he had grasped that hand.
After that…
“What… happened?”
It was clearly one of the lost memories from his secondary manifestation. But why had young Marie been there? Could it be that Marie…
‘That day… she saved me in the palace?’
“Your Highness! Your Highness, are you awake?”
At that moment, he saw the pale face of the captain of the knights, shouting in panic. Gripping his temple against a splitting headache, he tried to piece his memories back together.
Marie.
And then he opened his eyes wide.
Marie was gone.
The joy of realizing Marie had been in his childhood memory quickly turned to muddy despair.
Marie was gone. Russell clutched his chest. The pain and emptiness were vivid, like something inside him had been hollowed out.
Marie had left.
A hollow laugh escaped his lips.
“Y-Your Highness? What’s wrong? You wouldn’t regain consciousness and now…”
“I imprinted on Marie. She must’ve been the young Omega who saved me back then.”
“…Pardon? I—I don’t understand…”
“Where is Marie?”
The knight captain pressed his lips together, hesitated as if afraid of being scolded, then quickly answered.
“That is… Your Highness, we’ve searched the palace thoroughly, but we haven’t been able to trace her movements at all! We hurried to your side as soon as we heard, but you weren’t waking…”
“How long?”
“…It’s been half a day.”
She couldn’t have gone far.
Russell quietly closed his eyes, then opened them.
The words he had meant to deliver so carefully had missed their moment, twisting into a blade.
Someone had fed Marie a distorted truth.
And without doubt, it had to be that woman.
To have driven Marie to flee the palace — she must’ve gone so far as to plant someone to follow her.
“Arwena von Dietrich. Bring me that woman.”
He was through showing that woman mercy.
* * *
Even kneeling on the floor, the captured Arwena wore a face full of spite. She laughed mockingly as she jeered at the Crown Prince.
“So that wench ran away, didn’t she? How incompetent of you, Your Highness! To let some lowly courtesan escape the palace! And now you drag an innocent woman like me here? Is this your idea of vengeance?”
“Innocent? You?”
“Yes! You threw me away for her, that pathetic wench!”
“You harmed my mother. You killed my fiancée. And now you claim innocence?”
“If there’s something I want and someone gets in the way, isn’t it natural to remove them? I did nothing wrong!”
Those who had gathered to hear the truth of the incident all murmured in disbelief. That elegant, beautiful noblewoman — how could she have committed such vile acts? How could she be so monstrous?
“And do you really have the time to waste on me?” Arwena sneered. “If you don’t go after that wench now, things might get quite… troublesome.”
“Why? Did you send someone after her?”
“That’s right. I sent someone to kill her. And not just that. The d**g I gave her? Absolutely marvelous. I told her things, and thanks to the d**g, my words became absolute truth to her.”
As she watched his face remain unmoved, Arwena bit her lip in frustration. Then she screamed, her voice rising to a shrill pitch, full of venom and desperation.
“She’ll never trust you! Never! She believes that if you catch her, both she and that child in her belly will die! But is that really all my fault? You know it’s not, Russell! She ran away because of you!”
Gasps filled the hall.
What did she just say? Child? A child?
Everyone involved in the case turned to the Crown Prince with shocked expressions and found themselves facing a sovereign whose face had turned to stone.
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