141. Are you saying she’s dead?

2024.02.18.

Clade Euphris came to an abrupt stop and asked in a low voice.

“What do you mean by that?”

“According to Tasha, they didn’t return all night, so we were thinking of going to look for them… and then…”

Noel continued, unable to bring himself to look up at Clade’s icy, rigid face.

“we thought… the couple was reuniting after so long, releasing old emotions… so we just waited…”

Noel answered, his face turning bright red.

Clade, whose presence alone radiated overwhelming pressure, felt unfamiliar, but Noel straightened his hunched shoulders and barely managed to look up at his cousin.

The face remained stiff and unyielding.

Eyes resembling his own stared directly down at him.

His lips, opening hastily as if to scold, quickly snapped shut.

Clade’s gaze immediately shifted toward the medical tent he had just passed.

After staring at it for a long while, Clade tightened his jaw and looked back down at Noel.

“Why don’t you go search the ships? Who knows—maybe she finally decided she wants to leave this island.”

“What?”

Clade turned abruptly, his expression slightly irritated, glancing past both the stunned Noel, mouth agape, and Federico, whose face was filled with worry.

“Find the missing person yourselves. I won’t be coming down from this mountain until I bring back Carso’s head.”

And with that, he walked away without looking back, heading once more toward the mountain.

Noel stood frozen, shocked by the cold response.

This was the first time since stumbling over his words that he’d properly spoken to his cousin.

The back he had always seen as towering and awe-inspiring since childhood was still the same.

But it was the first time the brilliant golden hair and beautiful eyes—once a source of pride because they resembled his own—seemed so cold and cruel.

“Are you saying Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess has disappeared? Oh no! In this situation, how could this—”

Federico, too, was stunned by the sudden news of Yuan’s disappearance.

He exhaled sharply after silently listening, then began pacing anxiously.

Noel stood biting his lip until Clade completely vanished from sight, then clenched his fists as if reaching a decision.

“I… I must find Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess.”

Turning his back on the direction Clade had disappeared, Noel quickened his pace.

***

By now, Clade had already reached the middle of the mountain. Though his breath was rising to his throat, unlike the soldiers chasing behind him, his expression remained remarkably calm.

Yet in his mind, it wasn’t Carso’s face—the man he wanted to kill—that kept appearing, but another.

“Can’t that face just stop showing up before my eyes?”

The pale, fragile face, struggling not to break with every word she spoke.

“Graaaaah!”

A pirate who leapt from the bushes rolled lifelessly across the ground, felled instantly by Clade’s sword.

As his comrade, gritting his teeth, fled upward in panic at the sudden event, Clade lunged forward like a flash and plunged his blade into the man’s back.

The sharp tip of the sword burst from the pirate’s abdomen, then ripped out with a scream.

“You should’ve turned your ship around the moment you saw me.”

“You should’ve sent a boat to return, even if alone.”

“No matter what anyone said, you should’ve stayed hidden in a corner and thought only of leaving at first light.”

He slaughtered every pirate that appeared before him, as if cutting and stabbing away the memory of his conversation with Yuan the previous evening.

The soldiers, startled by his even more brutal demeanor than yesterday, followed behind in a daze, tending to the wounded pirates, binding them, or gathering the corpses.

“If you understand, get the hell out of here at first light tomorrow.”

A savage voice spilled from Clade’s lips as he climbed the lush green mountain at an astonishing speed, without blinking an eye.

“Got it.”

Black hair, disheveled and hanging down to his waist.

Unlike him, who stood with his back to the light, her black eyes, fully bathed in crimson twilight, held the sun within them as they looked up at him.

That tiny nose, barely seeming able to breathe; those bloodless lips.

Her slender body, fragile as if the sea breeze might carry her away at any moment.

And again, he recalled her eyes.

Those endless, abyss-like eyes that had stared at him, twisted in agony.

Those eyes.

His blood-splattered face suddenly contorted.

“She’s got nothing to do with me anymore.”

Ruthless sword aura scattered in all directions.

The pirate stronghold, shrouded in thick gray mist.

Among the soldiers who roared triumphantly as they defeated the pirates,

Clade cut through, pierced, kicked, trampled, and crushed the chaos—as if it were all unfolding inside his own mind.

And finally, Carso, the pirate captain fleeing with stolen treasure, faced a man approaching him like a monster.

Under the dense canopy where not a sliver of sunlight could reach, a proud, beautiful face—golden hair hastily swept back, soaked in pirate blood.

That face was nearly angelic, as if it were something Carso might see upon dying and entering heaven—but the faint, dark smile lingering at the corner of the man’s otherwise expressionless mouth resembled a great demon foretelling that Carso would soon plummet into hell.

The moment their eyes met, Carso’s feet froze to the ground.

The pirate captain who had terrorized the southern region trembled uncontrollably in his legs, unable to resist, overwhelmed by the ominous aura emanating from the young man.

Because he already knew how many lives this man had taken on the island.

“P-please… s-spare me—”

Ssak-!

The last thing Carso saw was a sudden gust of wind, strands of crimson gold hair fluttering across a smooth forehead.

And beneath it, only those dark, damp eyes—like the hell he was about to fall into.

In Carso’s lifeless eyes, deprived of light, only cold ground and stone were reflected—no longer Clade’s pupils.

A firm military boot stopped right before him.

Just then, Eugene Kimfri approached with a hardened expression, having finished eliminating the pirates below and ascending from the opposite path.

Uncharacteristic of the man who had just severed the head of the pirate captain who had plagued the south for years.

Clade Euphris, the Crown Prince, still not looking the least bit relieved, slowly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and roughly wiped the blood from his body and face, then irritably swept back his disheveled golden hair.

Thud-!

The blood-soaked handkerchief struck Eugene Kimfri’s firm chest before dropping to the ground.

“Now take your family and get out.”

Clade, who had somehow already gripped Carso’s hair in his hand, lifted the gruesome head and faintly smiled.

“If anyone dares spread word outside that they saw me on this island, they’ll end up like this—so be careful.”

As the soldiers following Eugene hesitated at the chilling sight, Eugene Kimfri quietly spoke.

“There’s still an issue remaining.”

Clade lowered Carso’s head with disinterest, swept his hair back again, and raised one eyebrow.

“What is it?”

“A messenger pigeon arrived from below…”

The raised eyebrow twitched once.

Eugene continued grimly.

“They haven’t found any trace of Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess down below.”

For a moment, a brief silence swiftly cut through the space between them.

Eugene Kimfri doubted whether the Crown Prince had truly heard his words.

Because Clade hadn’t moved at all, merely staring fixedly at him.

“Did you hear? The Crown Princess—”

“What do you want to say?”

Clade asked, gripping Carso’s hair even tighter instead of Eugene’s collar.

“She’s disappeared?”

Eugene hesitated, startled by Clade’s indifferent use of “that woman” when referring to his own wife, then answered silently.

“They’re saying down below they’ll now search the sea instead of just around the tents and nearby forest. They sent word asking us to conduct a search on our way down. I thought I should relay it.”

“Search the sea?”

“They say a storm is coming soon. If Her Highness collapsed by the shore, she might be swept away by the waves. Or, if by any chance she was kidnapped by pirates last evening, she could have been attacked while waiting near the mountain pass…”

“Are you saying she’s going to die?”

“…What?”

“Or are you saying she’s already dead?”

Frankly, Eugene had expected the Crown Prince before him to momentarily break down, to show even a flicker of worry.

Even Eugene, who had only been with Yuan for a short time, felt his heart sink at the news.

Even if they were estranged, they were still husband and wife who had shared affection—wasn’t it natural to expect such concern?

But Clade kept relentlessly firing questions, as if refusing to believe the news Eugene had just delivered. His manner was fiercely aggressive.

“Say it clearly.”

“…I don’t know how to console you. The only thing we can do is find her as quickly as possible…”

“Don’t console me.”

Clade brushed past Eugene’s hasty reply.

His voice, sharpened like a blade scraping through space, struck Eugene’s ears as aggressively as the blazing blue fire in Clade’s eyes.

“Don’t console me, damn it.”

Still clutching the severed head of the enemy, dripping blood.

The golden-haired man glared around and snarled.

“What are you doing? Haven’t you heard the job isn’t done?”

At the grinding sound of his voice, the disciplined soldiers instantly formed ranks and began descending the mountain in search mode.

Eugene’s troops quickly joined the retreat as well.

“If I hear even one word of someone besides a pirate dying in my ear…”

Grrr-.

The groans of pirates, Clade’s menacing voice, and an uneasy sound like the sky weeping mixed within the pale mist.

The gentle breeze carried a faint scent of blood, sea air, and damp moisture.

An inexplicable emotion and unease regarding Yuan Pelliese swirled at Eugene’s feet.

Eugene looked up at the sky with a deep sigh, placing a hand over his rapidly beating heart.

The clear morning sky had been a lie.

Ominous dark clouds were rapidly closing in, covering the island.