ALL NOVEL Chapter 146
Lark sensed that something was amiss with Rubette’s condition.
“Why are you here? What’s going on?”
“Ah, uh…” Rubette, partially relieved and partially too excited to calm down, finally managed to open her mouth, “You’re alive…?”
“…”
It was an incomprehensible, strange question.
But Lark instinctively understood why she suddenly came to him and asked such a thing.
“Yeah, I’m alive. Nothing happened.”
“Thank goodness. Really. Whew. I’m so relieved…”
Lark carried the unsteady Rubette to his bed, sat her down, and knelt before her, gently arranging her disheveled hair. Rubette was only wearing indoor clothes and just threw on an overcoat, not even bothering to change her slippers at home.
‘Why?’Perhaps she wanted to confirm his life or death with her own eyes.
“Did you dream of me dying?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“It wasn’t a dream.”
“…I see.”
Lark bit his lip. With that answer, he realized for sure what he had vaguely suspected. “Things have taken a turn, haven’t they?”
“Your Highness, I… I don’t have any wishes left now.” Rubette, choking back tears, embraced Lark. “So you absolutely must not die this time. Never…”
***
Spirits that manipulate time can instinctively sense disruptions in the natural flow of time. They feel discomfort in the passage of time as if someone had cut a line and spliced another one in between.
“Hmm.”
Pose, one of the three Spirits of Time, suddenly felt this discomfort.
He had experienced a similar sensation 30 years ago.
Perhaps it was caused by the power of the ‘king.’
“We don’t have much time left. Just thinking about that foolish Lark’s oblivious expression makes my blood boil.”
January 13th.
It was a misty dawn outside.
Nathan, who hadn’t slept a wink, was trembling with excitement, and Pose had been trying to restrain him until just a while ago.
Pose’s eyes cautiously settled on the vial of poison in front of Nathan.
‘It seemed like a trap…’
Pose picked up the powdered poison, leaving Nathan bewildered.
“What’s going on? Give it to me.”
Because Pose had been suspiciously discouraging him from taking this opportunity, Nathan became fearful of his sudden actions.
“Wait, Nathan. Let’s think for a moment.”
“Oh, sure. Who’s stopping you? Just give me that first, and you can think all you want.”
Ignoring Nathan, Pose floated away into the distance.
“Hey!”
Although a half-day seemed to have been awkwardly cut off from their timeline, Pose had no memory of the missing time.
‘Someone rewound time.’
If it were the ability of an intermediate spirit like Gestern, it wouldn’t apply to Pose, who was of the highest grade. So if there were supposed to be memories, and yet there were none…
‘It must be the king.’
The king’s contractee had rewound time.
‘Why would she urgently rewind just one day when she could have one more wish left?’
Today, Nathan would poison the emperor’s teacup. Despite repeatedly urging him to think carefully, Nathan’s eyes were resolute and filled with madness.
Perhaps, most likely… Nathan had indeed poisoned it. Pose was sure of it.
‘So, did the king’s contractee rewind time to save the emperor who died from the poison?’
No…
Pose chuckled bitterly.
It would be foolish to waste a wish like that.
If she regretted the emperor’s death, she would have rewound a slightly longer period. She would have gone back to a time when she could have completely denied Lark’s plan.
Yet she only rewound a single day.
‘This was a trap, and Nathan used the poison. But then, something unexpected must have happened. She had no choice but to rewind time.’
Without hesitation, Pose scattered the poison he was holding into the air. The white powder scattered aimlessly into the void.
“This, this crazy bastard!!” Nathan shouted in surprise.
Pose instantly moved closer to him and grabbed him by the collar.
Nathan was shocked. Unlike his usual playful demeanor, Pose’s gaze was cold and imposing, something that couldn’t be resisted.
“Nathan.”
“Wh-what the hell, what are you doing, you crazy son of a…”
“I want to live.”
“What?”
“If you want to live, then do as I say from now on.”
***
Lark was pacing with a desperate expression.
“The 2nd Prince had tea time with the emperor as planned. However, His Majesty did not collapse, and 2nd Prince killed you as soon as the tea time was finished.”
This meant that the emperor had become a variable. If the emperor, who couldn’t bring himself to kill his son, had a change of heart in the end…
It was entirely possible.
In that case, Nathan must have realized he had fallen into a trap, and while he managed to save his life, he might have realized that everything was over.
Cutting Lark’s throat meant he had resolved to die together.
‘What a reckless guy.’
Knowing that he didn’t value his own life, Lark couldn’t help but feel anxious.
“It would be best to persuade the emperor once again and make sure he doesn’t change his mind, but it seems like what has already happened will remain that way. Even if he’s persuaded, he might change his mind again after seeing the 2nd Prince…”
Lark agreed with this assessment. So, he intended to go straight to the emperor and inform him of the changed plan.
However…
“Princess!”
Rubette, dressed neatly in contrast to the early morning, was waiting outside the study.
Lark, who had brought her along, spoke immediately.
“Something’s odd.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Nathan canceled the request for tea time. Is it really true that the two of them had tea time?”
Rubette’s eyes widened. “He canceled it?”
“If what you said was true, then at eleven, Nathan would have requested tea time from Father, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“But Father seemed flustered. He said Nathan canceled the tea time early in the morning.”
“That can’t be!” Rubette was so shocked that she clutched her chest and trembled.
‘Why did the future change? The 2nd Prince shouldn’t know anything right now.’
Out of fear that even a small action could alter the future, she had deliberately set the timeline back only by the minimum necessary time.
But to think that he canceled the meeting with the emperor as if he had anticipated a trap…
“Don’t worry too much. Father just issued an urgent escort order.”
“To capture the 2nd Prince?”
“Yeah. We don’t know what he might do with his spirit’s abilities, so we need to move him to the Tower of Silence for containment. For now, Nathan won’t know anything, so he’ll play along even if he pretends to be falsely accused.”
If they locked Nathan in the Tower of Silence, a place designed to control the abilities of spirits, they could breathe a little easier for the time being.
“Let’s not panic for no reason. If the 2nd Prince wasn’t mad to start with, this plan would’ve been pointless from the beginning…”
Rubette pressed her throbbing head.
From the beginning, the game was stacked against them, as they tried to defeat the 2nd Prince within the bounds of the law. If he were an ordinary citizen, he could’ve been sentenced to death already with the current evidence of illegal activity.
‘All the evidence we painstakingly gathered will be of use only to lock him in the Tower of Silence.’
Even if they imprison Nathan, was there any guarantee that a disaster wouldn’t occur until he aged and died? That was the worry that had led to the plan to send him to the gallows…
“Marriage laws are one thing, but that bizarre legal system that favors the nobility also seems to need change.”
“I agree. And about the wish you mentioned this morning…”
“Ah, yes.”
“I suspected that your spirit abilities were somewhat restricted.” Lark added with a worried sigh, “Now, the fact that you have no wishes left sounds very dangerous to me.”
“Yes.”
Lark weakly smiled and gently stroked Rubette’s cheek. “So, then…”
At that moment, Lark’s eyes widened.
She was there one moment.
Gone the next, as if by magic.
“Ah.”
There was no trace of the warmth that had been in his palm.
There was nothing to think about.
It was Nathan’s doing.
“Rubette!!!”
Lark’s scream as he burst out of the study door shook the mansion.
***
“Ah…”
I simply closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I was bound, hands and feet, in a place I couldn’t identify.
‘This is bad.’
I could easily guess who had transported me from Lark’s study to this place.
‘There’s only one person who could do something like this, the 2nd Prince.’
But I couldn’t understand why the 2nd Prince was acting like a madman already. To openly kidnap a noblewoman and use the abilities of a spirit, right from the palace…
‘Why is he going so far?’
Killing Lark before she rewound time was because he thought there was no longer any hope for himself.
But now?
“Hmm.”
As I was contemplating, I suddenly felt the cold touch of a blade against my throat.
“Hello. Don’t be too surprised.”
Fortunately, the small knife quickly moved away from my neck.
Sitting on a chair in front of me, leaning on the backrest, was none other than 2nd Prince Nathan.
“Your Highness, why did you suddenly…”
“I have a question. Can you answer it?”
“Yes.”
Nathan abruptly pulled the chair closer, and with the tip of the knife he was holding, he lightly touched my waist.
I was tied up.
“Just answer what you see. It’s not difficult.”
“Yes…”
“Shall I untie this rope now, or shall I not?”
At that question, I froze.
‘It’s f****** over.’
I knew the meaning of this question.
“Do not untie it, please.”
The question was whether I could see the future.
“Oh, right. Vista’s contractee is different, but what’s different? Now, the next question.”
“Ugh.”
Nathan pressed the knife against my throat again. “Should I harm your neck right now, or should I not?”