The Prince Seduces Me with His Body – Chapter 143

Author: alyalia

“Damn it, I knew he was a b*stard!”

Bang!

Lombard, seething with anger, slammed his fist against the ceiling. His strike, powered by a spirit’s strength, was enough to shatter large boulders, but the ceiling only vibrated momentarily before settling again.

“Lombard, it’s not that I doubt your instincts, but Niota has been by my side since we were young. He’s a friend and a comrade who fought to protect humans alongside you. Please don’t hate him too much.”

“Daisy… How many times have I told you to improve your judgment of people?” Lombard muttered in a deflated tone as he slumped to the floor. Exhausted from his many failed attempts to break through the ceiling, he sat against the wall.

Amrien’s voice echoed gloomily. <Daisy was never particularly perceptive. You should’ve known that.>

“…I did. I knew. But I tried to trust her because she’s someone I love. Plus, that b*stard was a master of acting innocent.” Lombard gritted his teeth, recalling Niota’s face.

Having grown up among monsters, Lombard had sharp instincts. He felt an immediate sense of unease when he first met Niota. But Niota’s angelic smile had made it easy to dismiss that feeling. Since Daisy trusted him, Lombard had made an effort to ignore his misgivings and get along with Niota.

“I know you’ve never really liked me.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t want to get along with someone who dislikes me either, but my congratulations were sincere.”

“Take good care of Daisy, Lombard Dihanis.”

So last night, when Niota handed him a drink to celebrate the upcoming wedding, Lombard accepted it without a second thought. But as soon as he finished the drink, his stomach churned violently, and he collapsed, coughing up blood. When he woke, he found himself confined to a pitch-black cell.

“What kind of trick did he pull?” Lombard frowned, looking down at his hands. He seemed to have expelled the poison, but his body still felt unusually heavy. Every time he tried to channel his spirit’s power, it drained his stamina twice as fast as usual.

“Useless Spirit King.”

<…Your attitude is always so consistent.> Amrien sighed, lamenting Lombard’s ungratefulness.

Lombard, ignoring Amrien’s muttering, groped around in the darkness, hoping Niota might’ve left some clue to help him escape. But Niota, in his frustrating cleverness, had left only candle holders without matches and notebooks with useless pens—nothing that could aid an escape.

Lombard considered tearing the notebook apart in anger but stopped himself. He had to escape and kill Niota, and he needed every resource. So, under Lombard’s insistent demands, Amrien lit a candle, and Lombard opened the notebook.

The first page read:

[Daisy Bluebell. You clueless woman. I hate you.]

* * *

Even as Lombard scribbled down the events leading to his imprisonment and cursed Niota profusely in the notebook, he refused to give up or despair.

Whether it was Niota’s last shred of conscience or just more deceit, Lombard wasn’t sure. There were no tools, but a considerable amount of water and food had been left in the cell. Lombard rationed it carefully while devising his escape. He fully intended to tell Niota, ‘I escaped thanks to the provisions you left.’

The Founding Day was approaching, the day of his and Daisy’s wedding. Lombard was determined to return to her side by any means necessary. He relentlessly attacked the one spot in the cell that seemed least reinforced, chipping away at it like water wearing down stone, bit by bit, without giving up.

Bang! Finally, after about a year, Lombard managed to break through part of the cell floor. He quickly dug through the earth beneath, creating a tunnel. The moment he escaped the cell, he felt as light as air. He then found and destroyed the magical devices buried outside the cell, hoping to infuriate Niota.

“Now then, let’s go. It’ll be more satisfying to make a dramatic entrance.”

Lombard snickered and made himself invisible. To his surprise, the moment he emerged from the forest, the imperial palace stood prominently before him.

Was this his plan along? Hiding right under their noses. What a sneaky b*stard. Clicking his tongue in disgust, Lombard sped up. Since he’d come back from the dead, he planned to make a grand entrance from atop the palace walls.

Whoosh—

“Ah…”

As he reached the top of the wall, sunlight and wind rushed over him. Squinting against the brightness, Lombard raised his hand to shield his eyes. It was then that the scene before the palace came into full view. A long red velvet carpet stretched from the palace gates to the square, leading to a white altar for the wedding.

What? Did Daisy not cancel the wedding? Lombard blinked in confusion. It had been a year since he disappeared without a word. Had Daisy waited, refusing to believe he was gone? His heart swelled with emotion. But it was premature.

Just then, a loud trumpet sounded from below, and someone announced in a booming voice: “Here comes the bride and groom!”

Lombard instinctively looked down. From the palace gates emerged a man and woman, arm in arm, dressed in white ceremonial attire. His heart plummeted with a loud thud. The sunlight caught the bride’s golden hair.

“…Daisy?”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The crowd’s cheers faded into the distance, replaced by the ominous pounding of his own heart.

Was this a dream? Had everything from his escape been nothing but a dream? But that brilliant golden hair shimmering in the sunlight… That silhouette… It was unmistakably Daisy. Yet, here he was. So, who was she marrying?

Lombard watched in bewilderment as the bride and groom walked further down the carpet. Then the groom turned to smile at the bride with a meltingly tender expression.

Ah.

It was Niota Findlay.

At that moment, Lombard felt an overwhelming urge to leap from the wall and strangle Niota. He even braced his legs to do so. But then, Daisy smiled back at Niota. Her face was full of love, unmistakably smitten.

<….Lombard.> Amrien called out his contractor’s name in a pained whisper. It wanted to say ‘Are you okay?’ or ‘Get a grip,’ but the words wouldn’t come. The situation was just too devastating.

Lombard stared blankly at Daisy, who laughed and blushed at something Niota whispered. She looked genuinely happy.

A year… Only now did Lombard realize how long he’d been gone from Daisy’s side. In some ways, it wasn’t a long time. But it had been long enough for Niota to comfort Daisy through her grief and win her heart.

“…”

Lombard stood silently, watching as Daisy and Niota exchanged vows, rings, and a kiss in front of the crowd.

The imperial couple was born, and the people cheered. The altar and carpet were cleared away, and a festival to celebrate the founding of the nation began. People laughed, sang, danced, and toasted to the happiness for the imperial couple and the long-lasting peace of the nation. It was a perfectly crafted scene, as if to say there was no place for Lombard in this world anymore.

<…Are you not going to confront them?>

Finally, Amrien broke the silence, bracing itself for Lombard to snap. But instead, Lombard, who had stood motionless until sunset, let out a dry laugh.

“Daisy is happy.”

<….>

“If I appear before her again, she’ll learn that the man she loves tried to kill her ex-fiancé out of jealousy. The founding day of the nation she worked so hard to build will be ruined.”

<So what, are you planning to just die?!> Amrien shouted in frustration.

Lombard shook his head and took a step forward. “No. I’ll leave.”

He didn’t want to ruin Daisy’s happiness. For Lombard, who had spent his life in darkness, Daisy had been his one ray of light. And it was his duty to protect that light from being consumed by the darkness.

Amrien urged Lombard to get angry, to fight, but it couldn’t sway him.

Lombard quietly returned to the forest, buried the diary he had used as evidence in a secret room, and came back out. He wouldn’t need it anymore.

After leaving the imperial palace, Lombard wandered aimlessly from place to place. Eventually, in an unknown village, he quietly took his last breath.

That had been nearly a thousand years ago.