79. The Limit of the Ability

2023.12.18.

Yuan Pelliese watched Bollonico groaning in pain inside the carriage as they left the White Forest.

It was only a slight discomfort.

Her own nausea might have mixed with Clade Euphris’s suffering—perhaps just a speck.

Yet this doll-like prince endured until he vomited everything out in convulsive fits, then insisted on abandoning the golden carriage and securing a patient’s carriage.

Just before nightfall, boarding the newly acquired carriage, Yuan accepted Bollonico’s request to take his pain away.

Originally, the pain wasn’t even worth absorbing.

It was merely motion sickness, something anyone who rides a carriage for too long would naturally experience.

The initial pain Bollonico had felt had peaked the moment it transferred and faded long ago.

Which meant Bollonico was now exaggerating his condition severely.

Yuan gazed at Bollonico’s disheveled blond hair as he lay buried beneath a soft cotton blanket, moaning incoherently.

Naturally, Clade Euphris came to mind.

“I don’t like this carriage.”

“My father, grievously injured, was brought here in this very carriage and suffered until he passed away.”

His pale face, calmly uttering painful words, floated into her thoughts. His quiet voice seemed to pass through her head and trace down to her ears.

Eventually, the memory shifted to the night he had breathed hot, ragged breaths toward her.

Yuan quickly shook her head.

“Take more of Bollonico’s pain, sister-in-law.”

“I already took it.”

“No, Bollonico is still suffering. Why don’t you take it completely?”

“…This ability works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t. If it were something I could use freely like blowing my nose anywhere, it wouldn’t be special.”

“How useless!”

Bollonico’s face turned bright red. Lying down, he glared at Yuan with wide, furious eyes, as if betrayed by someone close.

“You think you can deceive Bollonico and remain unscathed?”

“Then cast me out.”

Yuan straightened her crouched posture and sat upright on the seat opposite him, back perfectly straight.

She was certain Bollonico couldn’t discard her right now, no matter how he viewed her role.

After all, he had rushed all the way to Roxenhardt by carriage just to entrust her with the task that Louise Pelliese had failed.

Indeed, Bollonico could not retort and simply trembled in silent frustration before abruptly turning his head away.

Yuan ignored his tantrum and slightly drew back the curtain.

Towering fir trees swayed in the wind, watching over the procession from great heights.

Each time they passed beneath those trees, massive shadows swiftly swept across her face.

“I wonder what Clade Euphris is doing now.”

Bollonico, who had been lying with his arm over his forehead, groaning, suddenly spoke to Yuan.

“Is he transforming into that terrible monster again, screaming? Or is he resenting Bollonico, the one who stole his bride twice?”

“….”

“When you spoke of betrayal, what was Clade Euphris’s expression like?”

“….”

“Hmm?”

In the dark carriage, Bollonico opened his eyes.

“…It was the expression you imagined.”

“Describe it.”

It was a persistent question.

What had Clade Euphris been like?

When Yuan asked if he loved her, he replied that he didn’t do love.

He asked why she was leaving, but that was all.

He was cold, indifferent—just as when they first met—briefly showing a flicker of emotion, yet never reaching out to stop her until the end.

Yuan swallowed a bitter smile.

“He looked tormented. Especially when I said I’d fallen for Prince Bollonico First—he looked utterly defeated, devastated.”

“Really?”

Yuan boldly told a lie.

“That’s what you’re saying?”

Bollonico, as if he’d never been groaning, suddenly sat upright and covered his face with both hands, shoulders shaking.

He was laughing.

Like a child thrilled because someone else got punished for the mischief they’d caused.

Yuan found his smile unbearably irritating.

She had taken all of Clade’s pain and ability, and had confirmed she could now use them.

Even now, that pain occasionally kicked inside her body as if asking if she’d forgotten it.

Yuan’s dark gaze turned once more toward the window. The forest, which should have been pitch-black darkness where not even an inch ahead could be seen, was clearly visible and bright.

Bollonico’s procession moved swiftly eastward toward the capital, Ceilo, torches blazing so brightly they turned night into day.

Perhaps this forest might be the last she would ever see.

Yuan clenched her fist tightly, as if grasping the raging pain, and abruptly stood up, watching Bollonico’s now relaxed face.

“It’s getting late. Rest comfortably. I’ll wake you when we reach a village where you can stay.”

Bollonico, laughing innocently like a well-fed child, entrusted his body to her arm. Her arm, supporting the sturdy man’s back, trembled slightly.

Yuan’s eyes hardened further.

This time, she intended to transfer half of Clade’s pain directly to Bollonico.

“You should also try to sleep. If you don’t conserve your strength, you won’t be able to tour the entire Bollonico Palace. You can look forward to it.”

Bollonico’s calm voice drifted toward Yuan, who was breaking into a cold sweat.

“Sister-in-law?”

Yuan’s face turned deathly pale.

The moment she attempted to send a massive amount of pain to Bollonico, a sharp, tearing pain shot through her heart. Blood seemed to rush backward from the back of her head, and her eyes and nose stung.

“Sister-in-law!”

With a choking sound, Yuan covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

Bollonico, eyes wide open, panicked for a moment, then quickly covered his nose and mouth with his arm, recoiling against the carriage wall and shouting.

“What in the world?! What’s happening?!”

The procession came to an abrupt halt at Bollonico’s scream.

A servant hastily flung open the door, saw the red blood on the carriage floor, and rushed off in alarm to summon a court physician.

Yuan was forced out of the carriage like a fugitive.

Fearing contagion, Bollonico roughly slammed the carriage door shut and shouted through the tiniest crack toward her.

“You’d better travel separately until you’re diagnosed as not having an infectious disease!”

Being able to avoid riding in the same carriage as that man was a blessing to Yuan.

But she hugged her icy arms and shivered.

While riding in another carriage and waiting to be examined by the court physician—who eventually confirmed she had no physical abnormalities—Yuan struggled to organize her stunned thoughts.

She had extracted the core of pain from Clade.

She had already completed the experiment of transferring pain to Bollonico.

The key point Yuan needed to focus on from the recent incident was the level and volume of pain.

The pain that had first made Bollonico writhe was very minor and temporary.

It transferred quickly and naturally, like a stream flowing into a river.

But when she just now tried to pour an enormous amount of pain into him, her body strained as if attempting to push a giant watermelon through a straw—completely blocked and overwhelming.

‘Is this the limit of my ability?’

When Yuan first manifested her ability as a child,

she had started by taking her uncle’s pain from a sprained ankle.

Even without mastery, absorbing pain only left residual traces on its original owner; Yuan never vomited blood or suffered severe backlash.

Frowning, Yuan recalled the days she had developed her ability alongside her uncle. Perhaps this new ability also required going through similar stages.

She compulsively rubbed her lips, remembering the kiss she had endured to gain Bollonico’s trust.

Her dark eyes turned toward the maid dozing off from exhaustion after nursing her.

Her trembling hand reached out toward the maid, then paused briefly. She soon shook her head.

‘My practice partner should be Bollonico or one of his close attendants.’

She couldn’t torment an innocent person just because she was impatient.

Thus, the carriage alternated between resting and traveling, finally reaching the capital after a full three days.

***

Just before entering the capital, Yuan was summoned to Bollonico’s golden carriage, which had been trailing behind the procession.

The groaning Bollonico from the patient’s carriage was nowhere to be seen.

He was dressed more splendidly than ever, his skin glowing white—clearly showing signs of having received meticulous bathing services every time they stopped at a village to rest.

Sitting like a finely crafted doll, the moment Yuan opened the carriage door, he reflexively covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief.

When the court physician accompanying Yuan reported she had no significant physical issues and likely coughed blood due to stress and overexertion, Bollonico narrowed his eyes, then, as if granting a great act of mercy, allowed her to sit across from him.

Yuan carefully observed every passing landscape outside the window, determined not to miss a single detail.

Not because she was curious about the capital, but because she didn’t particularly wish to meet Bollonico’s gaze.

As the carriage passed through the plaza and crossed the commercial district, Bollonico wouldn’t stop talking.

“Is this your first time in the capital since your debut?”

Pretending to be important, Bollonico boasted that he was the one who had driven the development of the commercial district.

He claimed that while the emperor went off hunting, it was he who had developed the capital to this extent.

Moreover, he proudly stated that the white stone road running straight from the central plaza to the imperial palace in the northern part of the capital was built entirely under his direction.

Beyond that, parks, schools, botanical gardens, and high-end shopping districts—listening to him, it seemed there wasn’t a single place in the capital untouched by his hands.

“Amazing.”

Yuan expressed her opinion flatly, without any emotional inflection.

Bollonico straightened his back, crossed his long legs, folded his arms, and lifted his chin.

“If Bollonico lets go, this nation wouldn’t function properly.”

“I see.”

Yuan gave a brief laugh and turned her gaze back out the window.

Bollonico’s pale face was reflected in the spotless glass window.

Apparently dissatisfied with Yuan’s reaction, he glared sourly at the back of her head.