Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 57
“Alveira, my sister, by now you should have arrived at Leyting. Shortly after you left, Darius returned to the capital. Unfortunately, due to some mishaps along the way, the assassin, Mourner, and Lagrange, whom he had captured, escaped. (Do you remember Lagrange? The bodyguard who often argued with Darius.) Darius has requested to be confined for reflection, so we won’t be seeing him for a long time. But there’s good news too. That annoying Gilbert Gauss has been relieved of his duties.
“Alveira, my sister, you are my greatest concern right now. The thought of you going to Leyting with Winnet fills me with deep unease. I’m really worried that the Duke might harm you… If only Darius could go with you. I’m sorry. It’s my incompetence. I don’t expect your forgiveness, only that you return safely. Wherever you go, take your attendants and bodyguards, and never act alone!”
Snap!
Alveira closed the communication terminal with her brows tightly knitted. Annot had just sent her a message, and she thought it was something important, but it turned out to be the same old warnings—did he think she didn’t already know this? Instead of wasting time on such talk, he should be thinking about how to deal with that old fox Winnet!
She gripped the terminal so tightly that her knuckles turned white. If it weren’t for the terminal’s sturdy material, it might have shattered.
The hard edges dug into her palm, and Alveira sighed, releasing her grip. She opened the terminal again, reread her brother’s message, and replied with a simple, “Got it.” Feeling that two words were too curt, she added, “Take care of yourself too.”
Just after she sent the message, the door to her cabin opened slowly. Her maid and bodyguard, Rose, stood outside, bowing. “Your Highness, the ship has docked.”
“And the Old Fox?”
“The Duke is waiting for you on the bridge.”
“I understand.” Alveira tapped the terminal, transforming it into a wristwatch. The strap was adorned with silver tassels, resembling a bracelet from afar. She put on the watch, adjusted her collar and skirt, took a deep breath, and the slight anger on her face was replaced with an innocent, harmless expression.
Rose’s mouth twitched. If she hadn’t known the princess well and witnessed her skills in disguise, she would have thought the person wearing this expression was a very naive and innocent girl.
This innocent face had fooled not only the people of the Empire but also Duke Winnet. Who would have guessed that the sweet girl calling him “Uncle Winnet” had just moments before disdainfully referred to him as “the old fox”?
Wearing a sweet smile, Alveira walked toward the bridge, while beneath the smiling mask, her heart churned like a raging river. Old Fox, let’s see what tricks you have up your sleeve this time, she thought. It’s just an inspection of the Leyting armory, yet the Old Fox insisted on accompanying her, which surely meant there was some scheme at play! Either he planned to create an “accident” and kill her, as he did with Leia, or he was using the “accompaniment” as a cover for some secret plot in Leyting. Whether it was the former, the latter, or both, Alveira wouldn’t let it happen smoothly. She wasn’t as weak as Annot nor as naive as Leia. If they couldn’t avenge themselves, then she would take up the sword of vengeance!
She boarded the bridge and was greeted by the sight of Leyting’s sky. The captain had apparently made the ship’s walls transparent, offering a panoramic view of the surroundings. Alveira felt as if she were in the vast, boundless space, or perhaps under the dancing flames.
This was Leyting, a small planet ninety light-years from the capital. It was the second planet in its star system, too close to the sun for human habitation except in the polar regions. Its axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, so there were no changing seasons. The largest city was at the pole, where the sun always hovered near the horizon, tracing a perfect circle each day. Half of its sky was bathed in twilight, while the other half was a deep, starry night, with vibrant auroras dancing below, like paint splashed on a half-black, half-white canvas, or a veil covering the planet.
Alveira held her breath. In the face of such divine craftsmanship, humanity seemed small. She melancholically thought that this planet had floated quietly in the galaxy for billions of years, and humans had only discovered its beauty in the last century. Emperor Nassar I arrived at the Unfallen Star only fourteen hundred years ago, and human civilization was less than ten thousand years old. Compared to planets, galaxies, and the universe, this was too brief. Yet, humans could destroy things faster than anything. A star might take ten million years to go from birth to death; humans could destroy a planet in a day; and a person could destroy themselves in less than a second.
On the observation deck at the rear of the “Dream of a Cold Night”, Alois and Joshua stood side by side. Leonard had considerately made the walls transparent, and Leyting hung overhead, its edges glowing like a crystal ball rising from a golden sea.
“The captain and Duke Winnet agreed to meet here?” Alois asked.
Joshua shrugged. “Seems like it.” He paused, noticing the young man beside him looked downcast. “Still thinking about the Duke?”
Alois nodded. “It’s hard not to.” He crossed his arms over his chest, as if contemplating or warding off an invisible chill. “Winnet sent people to assassinate Miss Leia, put me on trial, sent me to a prison planet, and ruined my future. On Hecate, I dreamed day and night of killing him. I planned thousands of ways to get revenge…” He smiled bitterly. “But none of them could be realized.”
Joshua didn’t know how to respond. He was never good at comforting others, especially about life-and-death matters. He understood the pain of losing freedom and living in fear and darkness. Besides killing, he didn’t know a better solution. The assassin looked at the approaching planet and said softly, “If you truly hate him, I can kill him for you.”
Alois looked at him in surprise. “I…” His eyes flickered. “I was just saying. Don’t really do it.”
“Do you think I can’t kill him?” Joshua asked.
“That’s not what I meant…”
The ship circled Leyting. The planet was now beneath them, its bright light filling the observation deck and making the metal railings shine.
“If you assassinate the Duke, how is that different from him sending people to assassinate Miss Leia?” Alois gripped the railing, the sun hurting his eyes. “To deal with someone like Winnet, everyone needs to know his crimes. Justice must be used to punish him, not bury him in darkness. That’s the best way to sanction him.”
“…Is that so?”
Joshua smiled, saying no more.
They stood together for a while, then Alois suddenly turned around. “Actually, sometimes I feel grateful to Winnet.”
“Why?”
“If I hadn’t been imprisoned, I wouldn’t have met you.”
Joshua reached out, ruffling his hair and hugging him. “Then I have to be grateful to him too.”
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