novelraw Chapter 56 : Chapter 56
Chapter 56 : Chapter 56
Chapter 56 : Chaos, The Shameless Opportunist Exploiting the Turmoil
"Why should I care about you and your son’s lives? Did you care about me and my mother when she was sick back then? You didn’t!"
Seeing the Beautiful Woman’s terrified expression, Loka excitedly grabbed her collar, like pronouncing a verdict before execution, recounting every word of the persecution she and her deceased mother endured.
"Not only did you not care, you kicked us when we were down. Back then, when my mother was ill, I had begged the servants to get medicine, and you personally dumped it into the trash. I still remember that look of disgust on your face."
"You said lowly people didn’t deserve to live, better to die early and be done with it. Now, congratulations, you can join your son—die early and be done with it."
Loka never considered herself a good person.
On the contrary, for those who humiliated her, an eye for an eye suited her style better, especially this mother and son who had tormented her since her previous life.
"I don’t have time for your mother-son melodrama. While you still have the chance, let your son see his mother’s face more. After all, heaven doesn’t take in trash like you."
Loka ignored the despairing Beautiful Woman collapsed on the ground and turned toward the palace.
With a scream of anguished regret behind her, the Beautiful Woman broke down completely.
"No sinner deserves pity just for their repentance."
Loka murmured to herself before leaving, not out of sympathy, but more like the last shred of mercy for the condemned, watching them head to hell.
On the other side, under Saito's Grand Duke’s imposing presence, the Duke, holding the Emperor hostage, maintained a tense standoff, but the situation for others in the palace was far less favorable.
Assassins mercilessly pursued the guests with sharp blades.
Though palace guards tried to intervene, some were still cornered.
With a loud explosion, they even set the palace ablaze in their madness!
"Hurry, this way!"
Yiwen pulled Yileta, with assassins hot on their heels.
To evade them, the two darted through the palace’s attic, hiding and moving.
Several masked men trailed their footsteps like bloodhounds, searching the attic relentlessly.
As they were about to open the cabinet hiding Yileta, Yiwen leaped from behind, slicing one’s throat with a single stroke.
"Where’s your cowardly brother?"
Facing Yiwen’s question, Yileta lowered her head in silence, her eyes filled with loss and disappointment.
The truth she didn’t want to believe had come to pass—her brother would always abandon her for his own gain.
Originally, she and her brother were by their mother’s side.
When the assassins struck, the Second Prince unhesitatingly pushed her out to draw attention.
Even her closest mother only glanced back at her with regret before leaving with her son.
"Yiwen, am I really just a pawn? Does my existence only serve to boost my brother’s fame and prestige...?"
Yileta’s eyes were filled with confusion, her hands limply resting on the ground.
From childhood, her mother had brainwashed her, teaching her to vie for more of their father’s attention for her brother.
If her brother was valued, she would be too.
So she tried to learn the etiquette of a lady, just to dance an extra dance at her brother’s birthday, studied social graces just to avoid embarrassing her brother and mother.
Except when alone, she would sneak barefoot to the palace’s back garden, playing by the pond like other girls.
But after just one afternoon, she had to return to being the proper Third Princess.
"What are you thinking? Your brother being a scumbag has nothing to do with you."
Perhaps influenced by a certain someone, Yiwen’s way of comforting others now included these optional jabs and sarcasm.
"If you think they want to use you as a tool or pawn, why not try fighting back?
That guy, let alone being used, would be kind not to crush Balesha."
Hearing Yiwen’s vivid metaphor, a glimmer finally sparked in Yileta’s eyes.
Tears welled as she looked at the serious Yiwen, suddenly bursting into laughter.
"I don’t know why, but your words always have a sickly-sweet taste. Too many pastries?"
"What—what does that mean! I don’t understand your nonsense!"
Yiwen’s face flushed red, and she quickly changed the subject, but sudden footsteps made both fall silent, warily watching the surroundings as the sound grew closer to the room.
"Where did that damned girl go? Hey, aren’t you the assassin my mother sent me? Why haven’t you found that damned Yiwen yet?"
Yiwen covered Yileta’s mouth, and the two cautiously hid in the cabinet.
The First Prince, leading a silent assassin, leisurely entered the room.
The First Prince? Wasn’t the Empress already taken away? Why was he still causing trouble in this chaos? Did the Empress’s people have a backup plan to take them all out?
"Listen, Mother’s been taken by Father’s men, but she left me a plan. If we kill the other princes and princesses, Father will have no choice but me as his son."
As the two neared the cabinet, the door was suddenly kicked open.
Yiwen sent the First Prince flying with a kick, grabbed Yileta, and ran outside.
The assassin ignored the fallen First Prince and chased after them.
"Don’t let them escape! Kill them all for this prince!"
Despite obstacles like vases and chairs placed in their path, how could two girls outrun a specially trained assassin?
The assassin quickly caught up, his blade aimed at Yiwen’s back, about to pierce her in the next second.
"Damn it!"
The assassin used lethal force. Even if he didn’t kill Yiwen, he’d at least leave a deep gash on her back.
But at that moment, Yiwen tripped over an obstacle, unable to dodge the attack.
At the critical moment, Yileta, who had been pulled along, suddenly turned and pushed the assassin with her body.
The assassin, not seeing Yileta as a threat, was knocked off balance, his blade veering off but slicing across Yileta’s face.
Seizing the assassin’s moment of shock, Yiwen drew her dagger and stabbed through his right arm.
As she prepared to finish him, more footsteps echoed from below.
Yiwen landed another stab on the assassin, then hurriedly fled with Yileta in another direction.
"Your face..."
"What, seeing my face uglier than yours doesn’t make you happy? I’m the only girl in the royal family prettier than you—you don’t have a magic mirror to see me, do you?"
Though Yileta could still joke nonchalantly, Yiwen saw the worry behind her forced smile.
Her ability to live among the royals and others, her beauty as a princess, had been cruelly destroyed by that cut.
Without a powerful maternal family like Yiwen’s to support her, or Loka’s ability to outwit foes alone.
In the eyes of her so-called family, her value as a beautiful princess was lost.
Harsh as it was, it was likely that, having lost her value, she’d gradually be abandoned by her “family,” eventually used as a “defective” piece in a political marriage for the sake of royal lineage.
"This scar on my face—doesn’t it mean someone owes me a life?"
"Yes."
"Hey, why’d you agree so quickly?"
Seeing Yiwen nod without hesitation, Yileta was taken aback, but Yiwen knew clearly.
If Yileta hadn’t pushed her, even if she hadn’t died, she wouldn’t have escaped far with severe injuries.
"I promise, at least in the future, I’ll give you a vow to ensure you get what you want."