The Forgotten Princess Wants to Live in Peace

“Are you all right for today? Today will be the eighteenth.”

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Today will be the 18th, and it would be 18 turns.
Regis increased his beatings by one a day and each time she had to choose who would fill in and how many.

Until now, Eluana has said that she will be alright alone, and the answer has not changed today.
Eluana said with a feverish, reddened face.

“I'll be hit alone.”

Regis's bright red eyes glanced at Eluana.

It was a childish face, but the gaze stayed on.
His golden hair, reminiscent of the sun, was tangled up, even though his face had a dirty stain on it that had not been washed for a long time.
If he takes care of it well, he would look like Shavia, the flower of social circles.

It was Regis's pleasure for the past few days to see her pretty face distorted in pain.
She's hoping that she won't die and able to endure it for a long time, but today too, Eluana answered that she will be hit alone.

Eluana's back was already a mess.
If you get all eighteen today, you may die.
Then the fun would end, too, but that would be a shame.

“I'll make a generous offer.
If you are going to share the beatings with your younger brother, I'll gladly reduce it to nine.
How is it?”

“It's fine.”

Eluana did not compromise.
There was no hesitation. 

“I will be hit alone.”

Louie, who was lying in bed, kicked the blanket and rushed towards Eluana, grabbing the hem of her clothes.
Surprised by Louie's intrusion, Eluana shouted without knowing it.

“Be still!”

“I can be hit as well.”

Tears fell from Louie's eyes.
Louie's sobbing passed through Eluana's chest.
It was even surprising that the heart could hurt more than the festering painful wounds.

Eluana raised her voice a little more.

“Your sister is going to be angry.
Be still.”

“I don't want to.”

Regis burst into laughter as he watched the two squabbling.
Regis chortled and laughed for a long time before he sneered at the two.

“Enough.
So who will be hit?”

“It will be me.”

Eluana said, covering Louie's mouth with her hand.
Louie's tears falling on the back of her hand were so hot that she was almost scalded by it.

“It will be fun to watch how long close relationships last.”

Even today, Regis decided that if Eluana survives, she would get treated.
It will please them if you put your life on the line.

As Regis beckoned, his attendant hurriedly pushed the key into the prison door.

'Please.
Don't let it open.'

The iron door shook as it rattled.
It was rattling hard.
It could be due to the wind coming through the iron bars of the small window or the exaggerated movement of the attendant.

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So no one noticed.
That Eluana's desperate wind touched the iron bars.

“Huh? This, what's wrong with this door?” The attendant stuttered with an embarrassed face.

The prison door didn't even move.
He pushed the key back in, but nothing changed.
He grabbed the iron bars and shook it in a hurry, but it was useless.

“Can't you open it faster?”

Regis's annoyed glances caught on.

“But it won't open.”

He snatched the key in annoyance at the attendant's lame excuse and pushed it into the lock himself.
Again, the prison door wouldn't budge.
Regis felt a surge of anger and smacked the attendant's face with a world tree branch.

The attendant, who screamed after a sharp sound, grabbed one eye and fell on the ground.

“AHHH!”

At the subsequent screams of the servant, Eluana shuddered unknowingly.
After being beaten for a few days, she knew how painful the world tree branches were.
She even turned to look away.
Apart from the pain, it could have resulted in a loss of vision if it was hit incorrectly.

Regis muttered, looking down unperturbed at the servant struggling with pain as he rolled around in the hallway.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

The attendant scurried up with one eye grasped.
The blood leaked through his fingers and flowed through the wrist.

“My, my apologies.”

“Behave yourself.
I didn't want to kill you.
Then how bothersome would it be, is it not?”

“I will never do it again.”

“Put your hand down.
If someone sees you, they think you've been seriously injured.”

As the attendant lowered his hand, she saw the wound cut through his right eye.
Blood flowed out of the unopened eye.
Despite the suspicion of his blindness, Regis turned around indifferently.

“Leave it open until you get back from the woods.”

“Yes.”

The attendant hurriedly followed along with Regis.

Eluana removed her hand that was covering Louie's mouth only after the two had gone down the stairs and disappeared.

Louie's voice burst right after.

“My sister is a fool!”

“What did you say? You are more stupid.”

“I said I can be hit.”

Eluana put her hands on her waist.
'This idiot.'

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The fragile flesh of a child will break out even with a single beating.
Just imagining Louie spilling blood seemed to bleach her hair white.

“I'll tell you when your sister can't stand it.
It's bearable.”

Louis cried again.

“My sister is stupid.
Idiot.”

“Who is an idiot? You are an idiot.”

Eluana felt a crowd going up the stairs again when she tried to calm down Louie's crying.
Both Eluana and Louie held their breath in silent agreement.

Soon, strange men dragged the limp boy.
It was a face that was unfamiliar in Aden.
Imprisoned men were more eye-catching because their faces were carved with the word 'criminal'.

The men opened the prison door across their cell without even paying attention to Eluana and Louie.
They threw the boy inside and went back the way they came without a word.

The boy, thrown on the floor of the prison, didn't even move.
Eluana approached the bars and looked at the prisoner on the other side.

'Is he dead? I hate people dying in front of me.'

She looked at it with bated breath for a long time, but the boy didn't even move.

“Hey, are you dead?”

The boy's hazy gaze turned to Eluana.
The boy's blue eyes resembled the sea that she had only seen through paintings.
However, his soulless eyes were dimmed.

It looks like a dead fish.

That was Eluana's first impression of Khazar.

***

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?”