Chapter 24

Chapter 24

“You don’t usually carry a bag with you... What’s inside?”

“A gift!”

“‘A gift’?”

“Yes! For the prince!”

The second-born prince was a prince too, so I wasn’t lying.

I had brought the melcon elixir for the second-born Prince Perez. The empress began poisoning Perez around the same time that his mother fell ill and eventually died.

Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly which poison was used.

In my previous life, when he had become the crown prince and the Lombardi family was under attack, I sought help from an information guild. I spent several months’ worth of savings to buy an informational packet, but even that hadn’t specified which poison the empress had used.

Perez himself never even found out exactly which poison was used, and he had only managed to cure the severe insomnia caused by the poisoning. However, it had been clear that a small amount of the poison had been used continuously over a long period of time, making it difficult to detect.

The emperor in that timeline, with little interest in a child born from a one-night stand with a maid, had left Perez to the empress’s care. Naturally, the empress promised to take good care of him before moving carefully out of the emperor’s sight.

Somehow, Perez had survived the poison. Three years from now, if things played out the same, the emperor would realize the empress’s lies. Unfortunately, this would not significantly change Perez’s life.

The emperor had used the empress’s mistake to keep the now-powerful Angenas family in check. However, he still hadn’t shown any affection for the second-born prince. This was partly because the emperor had begun taking concubines from various noble families, and new heirs from those relationships were being conceived.

As I was lost in thoughts of Perez, I heard my father’s weak voice.

“Right. She’s at that age now.”

But my father’s reaction was odd.

“I knew this day would come, but...”

“No! That’s not it at all—”

He seemed quite hurt, but I couldn’t tell him the truth. In a short while, I planned to take the opportunity to get “lost” while exploring the palace with my father.

Of course, my goal would be to find the second-born prince.

Fortunately, I know the approximate location of the other palace, where the second-born prince lives with his mother.

The empress had always wanted the pair within her sight, so she gave them a small annex in the western forest of the empress’s palace. Perez lived there until he went to the academy.

I wondered what he would look like at eleven years old, the same age as the twins.

“What is it?”

“Um, well... The royal guards are demanding we stop the carriage for an inspection.”

An inspection on a Lombardi family carriage?

Before I could even react, someone opened the carriage door from the outside, and I saw two royal guards.

“Are your orders from the empress?” my father asked in a tone colder than I’d ever heard before.

The guards did not respond. After a brief exchange, my father gave me a reassuring glance before stepping out of the carriage.

I was not worried about the situation itself, but I was rather shocked by my father’s unfamiliar demeanor. It was obvious what was happening.

It would never have happened if my grandfather were in the carriage, but it was happening to us. For someone as high-ranking as the empress, the power play was petty and disgraceful.

I sighed and looked absent-mindedly out the opposite window when something caught my eye.

“The second -born prince?”

Through the trees in the distance, I saw what looked like the back of a boy with black hair.

“Is that really him?”

This must be a stroke of luck from the heavens.

My knowledge of the prince’s palace annex was only a rough location, and I had been worried about how to find him once I arrived.

But to spot him like this by chance!

It was an opportunity I could not pass up.

After confirming that my father was still engaged in a standoff with the guards, I carefully opened the opposite carriage door. Fortunately, it opened silently and smoothly.

I clutched my bag tightly in one hand and jumped into the bushes in front of me. Looking back, I saw my father and the guards, still oblivious to what was happening.

I felt a bit guilty thinking about alarming my father, but there was no other choice. I had no way to meet the second-born prince without the empress knowing. I had to give Prince Perez the medicine and return as quickly as possible.

I ran as hard as I could in the direction where the second-born prince had disappeared, ducking behind bushes and making sure to stay out of my father’s or the guards’ line of sight.

“Oh dear!”

After a few minutes, I seemed to have put enough distance between myself and the carriage squabble, but there was a problem.

“Where am I?”

Not only was there no sign of the second-born prince, who had definitely run this way, but I had also lost my sense of direction in the forest. Planning to pretend I was lost had ended up getting me truly lost.

Should I give up on finding him and return to my father?

Just then I heard a rustle. When I turned my head, I saw the bushes rustling not far from where I was standing.

I swallowed hard and approached cautiously.

*Thump, thump*

Even though my footsteps were audible, there was no reaction from the bushes. I tried to make my footsteps even quieter.

Finally, a small figure began to emerge. The first thing that caught my eye was the black hair grown just long enough to cover his neck. He wore no name tag, but I was certain nonetheless.

It was Prince Perez. It had to be him.

However, I found myself unable to call out his name or approach him to speak. After several attempts at uttering some words, I was finally able to make a sound.

“Wh-what are you up to…?”

The prince was squatting in front of the bushes and deftly plucking a type of pointed leaf.

He did not stop there.

The roughly plucked leaves were immediately placed in his mouth, even though his small mouth was already filled with greens.

Over and over.

Even as the green juice trickled down his lips, he wiped it nonchalantly with his sleeve and continued to chew on the leaves in front of him. His actions were so mechanical and desperate that they made my heart sink just watching.

I managed to move my frozen body a few steps closer.

“Stop it,” I cried.

My urgent words finally halted the prince’s frantic movements. The boy, who I had only seen in profile, turned to look at me.

He had bright red eyes tinged with dark brown. He was definitely the second-born prince.

“What on earth are you doing?! Why are you eating leaves?!”

I was yelling without even realizing it.

The young Perez looked at me with eyes that seemed devoid of emotion.

“Because my stomach hurts,” he answered.

“What?”

“My stomach has been hurting for no reason lately. The book said that eating this herb would make it better.”

“Oh...”

I was speechless. It felt as if I had been struck on the back of my head, leaving me in a daze.

The reason for his recurring stomach pain was obvious. It was a symptom of the poison slowly accumulating in his body. His pale complexion finally came into focus.

This is how the second-born prince survived.

He had been roaming the forest like a wild animal, searching for herbs that might help. Prince Perez looked at me briefly before turning away again.

He was three years older than me, making him eleven this year—the same age as the twins.

Perez’s frame was too small for an eleven-year-old. He barely looked ten.

His appearance was also far too shabby for a prince. The clothes he wore seemed to be made of high-quality material, but they were wrinkled and dirty. He had likely been wearing the same clothes for days.

He must not have attendants to care for him.

A chilling premonition crossed my mind.

Perez reached for another leaf to eat, and I grabbed his hand in horror.

“Don’t eat this. If you’re sick, you need medicine!”

“But when my mother was sick, the physician never came.”

“Well, that’s...”

“I looked this up in a book. It looks like a useless weed, but it might help.”

I sat beside him at eye-level and felt his wrist in my hand. It was so thin. Startled by the frailty, I dropped his wrist.

I remembered that Empress Lavini had ensured that no physician could enter the palace when Prince Perez’s mother was dying of her illness.

When Prince Perez later became crown prince and took over full authority in place of the emperor, the first thing he had done was send first-born Prince Astana to the battlefield. The fighting had been in the northern front, renowned for its high casualties and fierce battles.

And when Astana’s mother, the empress, had fallen sick, Prince Perez had made sure that not a single physician or medicinal herb could enter her palace either.

When I heard that story, I had briefly thought that his response was a bit too harsh.

What a cruel person he is, I had thought.

But now, I couldn’t think that way for even a moment. A boy who couldn’t even grow properly for his age had endured by chewing on grass. He struggled fiercely to survive on his own.

I brushed the remaining grass from Perez’s hand and opened my bag.

“I have an elixir with me, so you don't have to resort to this.”

The prince tilted his head and asked, “Who are you?”

That took you a while.

I let out a small sigh.

“My name is Firentia… Firentia Lombardi.”

“I’m Perez,” said the prince, looking longingly at the fallen herbs on the ground.

Then he lifted his chin to look at me. His eyes, the color of deep blood, seemed empty, almost hollow.

“Why are you crying?” the second-born prince asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re crying,” he repeated.

“That’s ridiculous...”

I let out a faint laugh and brought my hand to my eyes. Then I flinched. There really were tears in my eyes.

“Oh. This… this is...”

Why am I crying?

As I fumbled and stammered, unable to give a proper explanation, the prince continued.

“Are you taking pity on me?”

Oh no. How is a child capable of saying such things?

Embarrassed by the idea, I raised my voice even more.

“No! It’s not that at all!”

“That’s okay. My mom and nanny said the same thing, that I was pitiful and they felt sorry for me.”

I kept losing my words in front of him. Perez shrugged as if not quite understanding the meaning of the word “pitiful.”

“They’re both gone now,” he added.

“Your nanny? She’s not here?”

I knew that the prince’s mother had died recently, but I imagined someone would still be by his side.

Perez shook his head.

“They took her away recently. She didn’t want to go, but the soldiers dragged her out.”

How cruel the empress was, leaving an eleven-year-old child completely alone.

Of course, someone capable of slowly poisoning him to death would have to be devoid of pity. I ground my teeth while picturing the empress.

Then the second-born prince warned, “So you’d better not help me. You might end up dead too.”