Chapter 21
The moment she left the interrogation room, Prina headed straight for Daisy Hall without even a chance to catch her breath.
Is this really the end of it?
No way.
There was no way Declan would let go of his suspicions this easily. The longer his suspicion dragged on, the worse the situation would become.
And if Declan, exhausted from all of it, decided it would simply be easier to kill her instead?
“Prina! What happened?”
“C-Could I leave early today?”
“Y-Yes, of course. Prina, go home and rest. You can even take tomorrow off…”
Prina’s face had gone deathly pale, and her voice trembled with urgency.
More than anyone, the people of Daisy Hall keenly understood how grotesquely twisted the current situation had become. So they silently let her go.
Once I got entangled with Declan, escaping safely was never going to happen.
From the very beginning, he had already approached her once before.
She didn’t know why he had lost his memories, but someday, they might return.
And if they do… would he really leave me alone?
She was terrified.
But—
Prina remembered the hand she had seen in the interrogation room. His black-gloved fingers had been bare.
…Maybe there was still a way out of this situation.
Bursting into her home, Prina yanked open the bedside drawer and seized the ring.
For the entire year she had possessed it, there was one thing she had never once tried.
As she exhaled shakily, dazzling white divine power shimmered from her trembling fingertips like heat haze.
If… if this really is a Caesar family heirloom…
Woooong—!
Suddenly, the crimson ruby embedded in the ring pulsed grotesquely like a living heart, vomiting out a blood-red glow.
It really is a holy relic.
The ring Hugo—no, Declan—had given her was no ordinary ring.
Why did he give something like this to me?
Now there was only one thing left to do.
It was an ability Prina had never willingly used before.
Relic Resonance.
I really didn’t want to use this ability…
The stronger the relic, the more horrific the pain resonance inflicted. But she had to do it.
Stay calm. I have to stay calm.
Prina squeezed her eyes shut and poured all her senses into the ring.
In an instant, a nauseating sensation of weightlessness swept over her, as though the world beneath her feet had collapsed away. Her consciousness plunged into a vast abyss of darkness.
Fragments of immeasurably vast and ancient ages flooded into her mind like a tidal wave—far too immense for a human brain to endure.
Her skull felt as though it were boiling, her organs twisting violently inside her body. She had to endure it somehow.
Then, at last, the relic’s memory flowed into her.
Even if the sun falls and a thousand years shatter into dust, remember, my brother—
you who are the sole true bloodline of Caesar, proven by blood.
To you, I grant the throne of God.
Rule.
Rule over all life and death upon this land.
And make all creation kneel beneath your feet.
“Cough—!”
Dark blood spilled from her mouth. Her entire body felt as though it had been beaten to pieces.
Prina collapsed unconscious.
When she awoke, an eternity seemed to have passed.
The metallic taste of blood still lingered in her mouth.
Opening her eyes, Prina let out a hollow laugh.
How could she not?
…It really was a Caesar heirloom.
The object Declan treasured more than his own life was now in her hands.
There had been one part of the novel that had chilled Prina to the bone when she read it.
Which regression had it been? The twentieth, probably.
It was the moment when all of Habel’s plans were exposed to Declan.
Running until his lungs felt torn apart, stumbling and rolling across the ground, Habel barely managed to hide himself in a remote territory that silently welcomed fugitives.
The people there were astonishingly kind to the stranger on the run.
They pressed warm soup into his frozen hands, gently patted the stiff back tense with wariness, and smiled at him with quiet warmth.
At last, Habel believed he had escaped Declan’s grasp and found a safe refuge.
But then he realized the truth.
The entire territory was under Declan’s control.
Every word its people spoke, every action they took—it was all nothing more than mercy granted by Declan.
But by the time Habel understood, it was already too late. Captured by the territory’s residents while trying to flee, he met a brutal death.
Even remembering it now sent chills down her spine.
So the ring that made all of that possible… is in my possession?
Her abdomen still throbbed with terrible pain, but fear and disbelief overwhelmed even that.
Declan probably doesn’t even remember giving this to me…
How could a man with amnesia possibly remember handing her the ring?
The realization made every hair on her body stand on end.
What happens if he finds out I have this?
There was no way he would let her live.
Even amid the terror, resentment welled up inside her.
…You’re the one who gave it to me! I told you I didn’t want it!
“C-Calm down, Prina.”
She could just throw the stupid ring away, couldn’t she?
It was the very object that had brought disaster in the original story—and now it threatened her life as well.
There’s a river near the house.
She would throw it in there.
Hurriedly pulling on her coat, Prina rushed toward the riverbank.
A short while later—
She stopped at the water’s edge.
Without hesitation, Prina raised her hand to throw the ring away.
To cast this horrifying thing as far from her sight as possible.
But then—
The tracking orb auction.
The words flashed through her mind, and the hand she had been about to swing froze midair.
…Right after the banquet ended, Declan had suddenly shown interest in the tracking orb auction.
Could it be…
Prina stared down at the thorn-like ring resting in her palm.
Was this what he’d been trying to find?
And if Declan safely retrieves this ring… what happens next?
The horrific events of the original story would repeat themselves.
And maybe…
What if I—and my siblings too—end up suffering the same fate without even being able to resist?
The thought sent icy coldness through her entire body.
She couldn’t convince herself otherwise. She couldn’t even cling to hopeful possibilities anymore. Perhaps things had already gone far too far for optimism.
Maybe Declan had approached Prina because he knew she was Orbanon’s illegitimate child. In the original story, he had wanted to annihilate the Ten Great Houses.
Perhaps he had judged her to be a useful pawn.
But in the end, Orbanon had survived without falling into Declan’s schemes.
Prina, however, was different.
…N-No.
She absolutely could not throw it away.
Allowing this dangerous ring to return to Declan’s hands might be the same as personally placing an unimaginably sharp blade into his grasp.
And maybe—
Maybe this was actually an opportunity.
A chance to escape from Declan.
Clutching the ring tightly in her hand as though hiding it away, Prina curled her fingers into a fist.
Declan losing his memories… is the greatest stroke of luck I could have hoped for.
