WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Prince of Rage ◈
Chapter 95
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It was a place that received plenty of sunlight. When the curtains were drawn back, white light streamed in. The fragrance of wood and paper was calming.
The one who said he had been born to the fate of a taxidermied god resembled the room. White light, and a calming fragrance.
Yet the sorrow lurking beyond them was far removed from such things.
“The father who raised me, Baron Grosner, was a very kind man. My mother had a beautiful smile. I grew up in their hands and arms, where the wind blew over the valley. It was a life with nothing to add and nothing to take away.”
Ivar lay in bed, gently holding the hand of his younger brother, who sat looking down at him.
“Were you raised as an illegitimate child?”
“Were you raised that way? I was not. Until that incident, not once did doubt enter my heart. I grew up as their son. I feel as though I incurred a debt I can never repay. And I feel as though I committed a sin. Being a prince itself is an original sin to me.”
“...”
Valerie had never thought deeply about it. He had assumed the other princes had naturally grown up as illegitimate children, but Ivar had not.
Could someone give pure love to a child who was not truly their son? Was that possible? What feelings had Baron Grosner held when he raised the Third Prince?
Still, he could not simply envy him. If complete happiness suddenly shattered one day, perhaps it was worse than being unhappy from the beginning.
“Did you grow up as siblings with the woman named Eldwin?”
Ivar nodded gently.
“From the time she started walking, she followed me everywhere. ‘I’m going to marry my brother. I’ll cure his illness too, and I’ll do everything for him.’ She said it so often that it became a habit. She used to annoy me, but now I only feel sorry. I sometimes think that I should have treated her better.”
“You can still treat her well now.”
“If I treated her well with half-hearted feelings, it would be no different from torture. Yet being unable to be cruel is one of my pathetic flaws.”
“...Then when and how did you learn that you were a prince?”
At Valerie’s question, Ivar turned his head. After thinking for a while, he answered. Their hands remained clasped.
“My eyes. It was because of my eyes. I liked reading until late at night. One night, after I had finished a book and put out my lantern to sleep, my younger sister came by. She wanted to sleep with me. It was a trivial thing. She stared at my eyes and said there were stars in them. I did not think much of it. But the next day, she told Mother, and Mother did not think much of it either. Then she began telling everyone proudly. ‘There are stars in my brother’s eyes.’ And two days later, he came.”
It was something he did not even want to remember. Ivar closed his eyes, but it only came back more vividly. Even the sounds.
Screams from far away at dawn, urgent cries, the crash and bang of things breaking, then flames and mutilated corpses.
‘Darling!’
‘Ivar! Take care of your sister!’
‘Darling, where are you going?’
‘I have no choice. I’m sorry. And I love you. I will love you even after death. Ivar was a prince.’
‘...’
At the single word prince, his mother had gone blank for a moment. His father, who had taken up a weapon and gone outside, probably had not held out for long.
Then the intruder entered. Ivar tightly held Eldwin in a corner. His mother looked back at him, and only then, as if she understood everything, she smiled.
‘I will love you too, even after death. Our Ivar...’
The intruder used a sword already dripping with blood to cut off his mother’s head. Then, looking at Ivar, he spoke bluntly.
‘My respects, Your Highness. Hand over the child.’
Ivar could not say anything. He only held Eldwin tightly, as though shielding her eyes from the entire tragedy.
Perhaps the man had no choice either. He looked silently at Ivar, then turned away.
“...Who was he? Do you know who he was?”
Perhaps remembering that day alone terrified him. Tremors passed through their clasped hands.
“...Halfdan. Halfdan the Black...”
Though he had already heard the name, Valerie remembered it once more.
“He was only an executioner, so I no longer resent him. In truth, the people around me now are the ones who bind me. They want something. They do not seek what they want from me, but what they can gain through me. The saddest thing is that everyone in the world is the same. Through princes, through us, they chase an illusion. It seems humans are animals who cannot live without even an illusion.”
Ivar confided feelings he had never shared with anyone before Valerie. That alone made his heart feel much lighter.
Valerie thought quietly for a moment, then met Ivar’s eyes as Ivar looked back at him.
“Will you come with me? I know somewhere you can rely on. You can be freed from your chains and live your own life. Even if people bring armies, even if they threaten you with swords and spears, I can drive them all back.”
He did not sound passionate, but he was resolute. At least, he understood the weight of his own words.
Ivar gazed at Valerie and asked,
“What did you eat growing up to become so strong? You killed a dragon? Leaving aside whether you fear death, how could you even think of doing something like that?”
Their directions and natures differed, but neither Ivar nor Valerie was ordinary. There was, at least, the thought that the other seemed rather strange.
“There was nothing special about what I ate and drank.”
“Now it is your turn. Tell me how you grew up. What I want now is not freedom from bondage, but your story.”
Valerie thought quietly, unable to decide where to begin. He wondered whether he should speak of his life before regression, but it was so shabby that he was ashamed to speak of it.
So he smiled awkwardly. Ivar saw the discomfort within that smile, as well as the sorrow and pain beyond it.
“You seem to have had quite a life too...”
“In my own way, mine was a long suicide as well. I don't know what workings of magic were involved, but after killing every prince and becoming king, I took my own life. And now I am here again.”
Valerie briefly told his story as it was.
Unexpectedly, Ivar was not very surprised. He had the ability to cut away all the branches and see the essence at once. Yet that ability might have been a curse for him.
“Then was all of it one life, or two? Is the reason you don't kill me now a change of heart, or because you are a different person? Tell me. I want to hear it.”
Looking down at Ivar, Valerie calmly began his story. He spoke of growing up in House Winslow, of the times he had lived nervously as an illegitimate child, of betrayal, desperate survival, and rage.
There was no emotion in his telling. It was simply calm and composed, though the contents might have been terrible and cruel.
But after the dark stories came others that gradually brightened, as though dawn were coming.
An open heart, sincerity brought forth with difficulty, compassion and kinship for those who suffered, friends who embraced all of that, and elders like teachers who had lived their lives to the very end.
Ivar listened calmly to those stories, like a child listening to an old tale before sleep.
“Listening to you, it seems you are not becoming the king of the kingdom, but the king of yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can jealousy and rage, sorrow and pain, misfortune and tragedy be separated from a person’s life? If they are removed, it cannot be called a life. Will there be no pain in the life ahead of you? Whether you are swept away by such things or govern them is up to you. That is all a person can do. I chose a long suicide. You chose to struggle. That is the difference.”
“...What books must one read to gain such insight?”
At Valerie’s question, Ivar laughed aloud for the first time.
“Just as there was nothing special in what you ate and drank, I have not read any special books.”
After that, the two spoke at length. Much time had already passed in their conversation, yet even more remained.
Eldwin, waiting outside, was bewildered. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
She could not hear clearly, but quiet conversation continued beyond the door.
It was as though two affectionate brothers, separated long ago and reunited at last, were catching up.
They spoke for nearly ten hours without rest from morning onward, and Valerie returned around evening.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Eldwin entered the room. Ivar spoke with an uncharacteristically healthy expression.
“I feel like eating. And I feel like going out. Eldwin, how far will you follow me?”
“...To the end of the world. No, even to the end of hell.”
Ivar nodded.
“Then let us go. To the end of hell.”
Duke Hesmund and the other four members of the Antler Alliance were keeping a close watch in their own way. They did not know how the dragon-slayer would react after meeting the prince.
So they waited only for news from Eldwin, but there had been no contact for two days. Given how meticulous she usually was, it was strange.
“Did the meeting end badly?”
“Whether it was good or bad, if something had happened, she would have contacted us long ago. If there has been no contact, perhaps there is nothing of note.”
“I think the prince may have postponed the meeting. His health is poor in every respect.”
“...How weak...”
Someone muttered to themselves. Though they claimed loyalty outwardly, perhaps that was their true feeling.
“By the way, where is the dragon-slayer staying?”
“I heard he is staying at a villa near Woodpecker Forest.”
“Hm. They have handled things properly over there as well.”
The Duke thought they should not receive him too generously, but neither should they treat him too poorly.
“More importantly, did the Kingmakers not overstep their bounds this time? I believe we need to address this.”
They meant the trouble caused by sending three Einheri.
“What would we gain by doing that? There is no practical benefit. Rather, losing two Einheri is a painful loss for them as well. They must be furious, so it would be best not to provoke them needlessly right now. More importantly, how did the meeting with Count Buckmond go?”
“This time, Count Buckmond made an issue of the meeting place. We barely arranged the schedule, but seeing Count Buckmond complain about the location, I do not think Count Buckmond had any intention of meeting from the start.”
“Insolent...”
“Has Count Buckmond not already gone over to the Kingmakers?”
“No. The Kingmakers are Count Buckmond’s father’s enemies. Count Buckmond is not so spineless as to side with them. Count Buckmond is trying to raise the price.”
“I believe it is time to apply some pressure. How long must we coax and placate him? Lords are not merchants. They are people who submit to strength, not profit...”
“Preserving our forces is important as well. We have not suffered no losses ourselves, have we? While confronting the Kingmakers, if we come into conflict with the lords of Edelia, who would benefit?”
Listening to them, this person seemed right, and that person seemed right. The problem was that they could not reach a conclusion.
“It would be wonderful if the dragon-slayer became one of us... It would be too greedy to use him as a chess piece, would it not?”
“I understand the feeling, but it seems too fanciful.”
“Why do we not first decide how much we are willing to offer? We need to set a ceiling before we can negotiate.”
“Let us send someone first. Whether the meeting happened or not, we need to know what is going on.”
There could be no disagreement on that point. So the Five-Man Council sent someone to Eldwin.
Yet no news came for quite some time. Then, around afternoon, the person they had sent returned and said,
“I heard that the prince went out for the first time in a long while. I heard it from the servants of the manor. I checked his bedroom. He was not there.”
“He went out?”
“Yes.”
“Suddenly? When?”
“Early yesterday morning.”
“And the dragon-slayer?”
“I heard the two of them had a long conversation the day before yesterday.”
“A long conversation?”
“No, if that happened, why did Eldwin not tell us?”
“If the prince went out, was that not an important matter to report?”
For a moment, everyone was confused. It was understandable, since something unusual had happened.
But the worst part was that rather than take immediate action, they complacently assumed he would return.
They could not even imagine that the prince would leave them. Where could the prince possibly go now to rely on someone?
So they only realized that the unthinkable had truly happened two more days later.
A report came from those guarding the border that the prince had headed north with the dragon-slayer.
Huh?
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