Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 156
The dark figure was none other than Prince Sorey. He had been hiding in the nearby bushes, listening to the entire conversation, and at the critical moment, he lunged at the Queen, saving Darius!
The Prince looked down, his eyes filled with a mix of emotions as he gazed at his wife. The Queen’s ageless and immortal face showed a rare expression of surprise.
“You… Why are you here…?” The Queen’s violet eyes widened in shock. She had been so focused on the events in the universe that she had overlooked the threat right beside her!
The Prince opened his mouth, and a flood of blood poured out, like a red waterfall. He shakily raised his hand to touch the Queen’s face, gently, as if it were a precious piece of art, afraid that any rough movement might damage it.
“I’ve always… been watching you… Noya…” the Prince said hoarsely. “Since that accident… twenty years ago… you never let me near you again…” He coughed, and more blood gushed out. “You pushed me away… and I didn’t know why… I tried to get your attention by finding other women… many women… I thought you’d be jealous… that you’d look at me… but you treated me like I didn’t exist… It’s been twenty years, Noya… and this is the closest I’ve ever been to you…”
A tear slid down the Prince’s aging face, finally falling into the pool of water, now stained a deep red.
“You’re still so beautiful… I’m so glad…”
The Queen grunted, as if to pull out the blade, but the Prince raised his other hand and gripped it tightly. Somehow, with the strength of a dying man, he managed to prevent the Queen from withdrawing the blade!
“I sensed something was wrong with you… At first, I thought… someone was trying to harm you…” The Prince’s blood-stained lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I saw Darius… coming to meet you… and I thought he was… up to no good… I was planning to… save you…”
The Prince took a deep breath, the sound of his muscles scraping against the blade was sickening. He turned to Darius and, with all the strength he could muster, shouted, “Run, Darius! Run, child!”
Darius took off running! He sprinted towards the greenhouse exit as fast as he could, not daring to look back. He ran, and ran, and ran! His face felt wet—this was the first time he had cried since his parents’ deaths.
“Let go, Sorey,” the Queen ordered coldly. “You can still be saved. Don’t throw your life away over this foolish idea.”
“It’s not foolish, Noya…” the Prince’s voice grew weaker. “I… love you… so much…”
The hand that still had some strength left reached into his jacket pocket, gripping something.
“In the past…”
He held a miniature antimatter grenade. It was the most powerful weapon he could get his hands on. While it wasn’t much use on the battlefield, it could certainly level this greenhouse. He had originally planned to use it to threaten the “up to no good” Darius, but now it had found a different use.
“…and even now…”
He pulled the pin on the grenade, the faint vibration telling him the countdown had begun. He counted silently in his head: five, four, three…
“…and forever.”
Two, one, zero…
The Prince thought that if Alveira or Darius decided to erect a tombstone for him, the epitaph should read: Sorey loved Noya Chabais so much that he wanted her to always walk in the light.
Darius had barely escaped the greenhouse when an earth-shattering explosion echoed behind him. The blast’s shockwave threw him into a column. For a moment, he lost consciousness, and when he finally came to, he vaguely heard the chaotic sound of footsteps around him. Someone was calling his name softly, “Count? Count?” Another voice, panicked, shouted, “Get an ambulance! Call the fire brigade!” Someone tried to prop him up, sending waves of pain through his body.
He felt himself being carefully lifted onto a stretcher. Someone placed a breathing mask over his face and attached various wires to his chest to monitor his vital signs.
“Count? General? Can you hear me?”
The voice seemed to come from a great distance, unclear and muffled. Darius struggled to open his eyes, and his vision was blurry. He saw white figures moving around—probably doctors and nurses. He tried to speak, managing only a few garbled sounds, and immediately someone exclaimed, “He’s conscious!”
This brought Darius a little more clarity. He looked around and realized he had been put into an ambulance. It seemed he had miraculously survived the explosion.
“The… others?” he croaked.
A nearby doctor turned his head away in sorrow. “The greenhouse was completely destroyed by the explosion… I’m afraid Her Majesty…”
Darius thought, She’s dead. Unexpectedly, he felt a surge of happiness, followed by a deep, indescribable sadness.
“Where is the Princess?” he asked. “I need… to talk to her.”
“You’re injured, my lord,” the doctor replied. “You must go to the hospital for treatment. You can talk there…”
“I need to talk to her now!” Darius shouted with all the strength he could muster. The effort nearly caused him to pass out again. Intimidated by the usually imposing Count and General Bayes, the doctor reluctantly gave the order, “The Count has regained consciousness. He wants to speak to the Princess. Someone, go fetch her!” The doctor’s expression turned strange as he corrected himself mentally. Darius thought it was indeed odd—he had used the wrong title. She was no longer a princess.
The doctor left, and soon someone climbed into the ambulance and came to Darius’s side.
“Darius, are you alright?” It was Alveira’s anxious voice. “What happened? The explosion… My mother, was she in the greenhouse? Was she…”
Darius suddenly regretted being in such a hurry to see Alveira. He should have followed the doctor’s advice, gone to the hospital for treatment, and taken the time to figure out how to explain the explosion.
How could he tell Alveira? “Your mother was the Fifth Artificial Intelligence. She was a madwoman who wanted to rule the entire universe and put all of humanity’s brains in jars”? No. He could never say that. It would be too cruel. She had already lost her brother, and now both her parents were dead. How could he make her understand that her mother was such a cunning and insane megalomaniac?
Darius considered himself a straightforward and honest person. He had never lied to anyone and preferred to remain silent when necessary. But now, he had no choice but to fabricate a lie. He was the only one who knew what had happened in the greenhouse. As long as he didn’t speak, it would remain a secret forever. He would carry this secret to his grave, all the way to the end of time.
“Alveira.” Darius closed his eyes to avoid his gaze giving away the lie. “It was the Fifth Artificial Intelligence. It plotted to kill Her Majesty. Your father died protecting her, taking the AI down with him. He caused the explosion.”
He heard Alveira gasp in shock. “You… you mean…” Her voice was unusually shaken. “Father… He’s… He’s also…”
Darius felt something stuck in his throat. “He loved your mother very much, always… Forgive him, Alveira.”
What he had said was the truth. He reminded himself of that. That was the whole truth. Alveira didn’t need to know anything more. The rest… he would bear alone.
Darius took a moment to steady himself, then opened his eyes.
He saw Alveira’s stunned expression. She clearly hadn’t fully recovered from the initial shock. Her eyes were vacant, unfocused, with clear tears welling up, ready to spill over at any moment.
“Now you are the Queen,” Darius weakly said. “You must learn… to be brave.”
Alveira bit her lip and nodded. Darius expected her to cry, but she only tightened her grip on his hand—so tightly that it felt like she might crush his bones—then forced back her tears.
“Does your oath still stand?” she asked.
Darius felt a wave of dizziness, perhaps from blood loss or a mild concussion. His mind drifted back to that night in Annot’s room so many years ago, when he knelt before the young prince and made a solemn vow. Then he remembered the night before Annot’s funeral, standing before his coffin, making the same promise to his sister.
I swear to be the Empire’s sword, to clear all obstacles for the heir to the throne, to slay all enemies.
If you are the Empire’s sword, I will be its shield. I will protect the throne left by my ancestors and brother. I will become the Queen who rules the galaxy.
“It still stands, Your Majesty,” he said.
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