The Forgotten Princess Wants to Live in Peace

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***

The floor was cool and damp.
Khazar slowly lifted his eyelids.
The dim vision was blurred.
It was barely enough to see the outlines of things.
At this rate, he will soon lose his sight.

'What is this place…
?'

It's dark.

It's been a long time seeing through the darkness.
He tried to blink his eyes one more time, but the darkness was still there.
In this endless void, death seemed to be waiting for Khazar with its mouth wide open.
How long before he's completely eaten?

'Hawk.'

Khazar recalled the face of a man who poisoned him and sold him to a slave merchant.

He was the one person with whom Khazar spent the most time in his life.
The only person he completely trusted.
He even told Khazar, who had just lost his sight, 'The poison you just drank is the Redfire.'

He believed him.
Khazar chuckled looking at the state he was in.

Khazar, who was appointed as a Genius appraiser by Orr, did not even think of moving, and his senses became dull as they could be, so he couldn't feel anything without concentrating.
Above all, his heart was beating very slowly.
As if it was going to slow down and then suddenly stop.

Redfire was a poison that dulls the nerves, steals all senses, including sight, and takes life at the end.
Unlike normal poison that reacts immediately, symptoms progress for more than 15 days.

Has it been about a day since he drank the poison?

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Khazar was barely able to focus with blurry eyes.
It was still dark inside the prison.
Though he thought it was strange, Khazar did not move.
In order to slow the spread of poison, he was waiting for the prison door to reopen with minimal movement.

During the transfer, he was planning to launch an escape that he couldn't attempt because he was shackled.
Of course, even if you're lucky enough to get out of here, it might be just another betrayal and death awaiting Khazar.

At that time, a youthful and gentle voice came from beyond the darkness.

“Hey, are you dead?”

Khazar, terribly surprised, breathed in vain.

'Who's there?'

As he looked up, he saw eyes reminiscent of greeneries through the iron bars of the prison on the other side.
The first Emperor, Cantio, came to mind as soon as he saw the golden hair that stretched to the waist.
The other person was a girl who might have been around 14 or 15 years of age.
There was also a pink-haired child next to her.

He didn't even know who was there at first because his senses were dulled.
Anyway, why are children in a horrible place such as a prison?

Of course, it was better than being alone.
You can get some helpful information.
Khazar was planning to ask a few questions when it was already answered by the girl.

“You're not even from Aden, so why are you here in this prison?”

Aden? If it was Aden, it was the last town near the western border.
Suddenly, a sense of crisis struck him.

Khazar was being transported somewhere.
He heard that the reason for feeding the slow-paced Redfire is to take him to someone who wants to buy him.

'Are they trying to transport me across the border?'

Khazar lifted himself off the floor and opened his mouth.

“I was kidnapped.
How did you know that I wasn't an Adenian?”

The girl, Eluana, replied and gave him a look as if he was asking the obvious.

“Aden has less than four hundred residents counting all households.
I knew all.
Even I knew that there are only six people my age.”

As Eluana spoke, she remembered Mary's head hanging over the gates.

“… I suppose there are only five now.
Anyway, you're an outsider.”

Khazar also knew that Aden has the smallest population in the empire.
Did she say that the population is less than four hundred people? As he was recalling the information about Aden, Eluana asked a question.

“How did you get dragged in here?”

Khazar smiled bitterly.

“Because I was stabbed in the back by an escort.
I'm wrong to trust a person.”

“Hmm.”

Eluana sat on the floor in a comfortable position and gazed at him in pity.
The boy seemed to be fragile enough to be stabbed in the back by an escort who should have protected his master.

“How are you wrong to trust a person? The wrong one is the guy who stabbed you in the back.
If you find him, you should break his leg and throw him away.”

Khazar smiled lightly as if he had heard an interesting story.
The smile melted calmly into the darkness.

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“Will it end like that?”

“If it's known that you had hit even the back of your escort's head, his reputation will fall to the ground, and he'll lose his source of livelihood.”

Thinking that it would be the head and not the reputation that would fall, Khazar looked closely at Eluana.
He got used to the darkness, but he had to focus his attention on the pain where his vision was blurred.

'It's unnoticeable but.'

The clothes she was wearing were of high quality, but her way of speaking and acting was far from that of a noble lady.
Besides, the sitting posture was somewhat unnatural. 

His shoulders had gained their full strength, and he was supporting his weight with his hands on the floor.

'What happened to you?'

Khazar, who was observing Eluana, said his name first.

“I am Khazar.
You?”

“Eluana Vita.”

Louie, who was grasping the hem of Elluana's sleeve with both hands next to her, also introduced himself.

“I'm Louie Vita.”

If it's Vita then…

“Ron Vita, the creator of 'Brilliant Endless Nights and Silence of the Black Sun'?”

“Uhh.
It's Dad.”

Eluana said a lie and sighed not to show off.
After all, it seems that the sword has become too famous.

This time Khazar asked first.

“I heard the Vita family is an aristocrat, but why are you inside this prison?”

“Even if you're a noble, you still have a neck to chop off.
He's interrogating me about the whereabouts of our dad.”

“Who?”

“That crazy first—”

Eluana, who almost said a treacherous word, hurriedly corrected herself.

“I, I mean His Highness, the First Prince.”

She felt bad that she had to give him the title of 'His Highness' just because he was a prince.

'Dad, can you make a monster appear in front of him or send him a bolt of lightning?'

When she made a small wish again, she saw Khazar's eyes went wide as saucers.

“… Who is in Aden Castle?”