The Wastrel Prince Becomes Ruthless Chapter 93
It was none other than Hastings’s voice! Yuwon immediately grasped the situation and released his tight hold on Gillian’s arm at once.
“Good grief… you should have said so from the start. Why go out of your way to cause a misunderstanding….”
Yuwon had gripped so hard that the imprint of his palm was clearly stamped on Gillian’s forearm.
Gillian rubbed his aching arm and smiled awkwardly.
“Please, go ahead. Your Highness. I cannot disturb the reunion between you two, so I will introduce myself a little later.”
“My apologies. I have gone through unsettling affairs lately, so I reacted too sharply.”
“N-no, Your Highness. It was I who failed to reveal my identity first. My thoughts were shallow and my actions foolish, which caused this situation. It is my mistake, so Your Highness should not be concerned.”
Thus clearing the misunderstanding with Gillian, Yuwon immediately headed toward the library lobby where Hastings’s voice had been heard.
For some reason, a subtle tension lingered in Yuwon’s steps.
Step, step, step―
And then.
“Your Highness…!”
A familiar face, a familiar voice.
And a familiar scene.
The very place where Yuwon and Hastings had first met.
Hastings stood on the second floor of the library lobby.
“Viscount….”
Their gazes met.
Having confirmed each other’s faces, the two said nothing.
As if nailed to the spot, they simply stood there in silence, taking each other in.
“…”
Sensing the two needed time, Gillian quietly withdrew without making a sound.
Only after Gillian stepped away did Yuwon break the silence.
“You said you needed more time, yet it seems you are ready now.”
“…Yes, I have finally returned to my place.”
“When we briefly missed each other in the South last time, Terrien told me news of you. It is a relief to see you well, just as I heard.”
“It was thanks to Your Highness’s concern.”
Yuwon faintly smiled.
“I have no face to show you. I cannot imagine what you must have gone through, but it must not have been easy. You truly endured much, Viscount. Now go back to your post and rest well.”
Yuwon wished for Hastings to never be entangled in matters like this again.
In that short remark telling him to return and rest, Yuwon’s hope—that Hastings would sever ties with him and resume life as an ordinary librarian—was contained.
Hastings understood it immediately.
“Your Highness. Do you remember what you told me before?”
“…?”
“You said I must decide whether I would remain a Gray Figure like my ancestors who served as librarians of the Imperial Library for generations.”
Indeed, he had said that.
Yuwon remembered that moment vividly and answered with a small smile.
“Yes, I did. And you said you needed more time.”
“Yes, that is right. After a long time, I wish to give you my answer today.”
Fwoosh―
Right after those words, Hastings vanished like a gust of wind.
He had clearly been standing on the second-floor lobby, yet the next moment he appeared directly before Yuwon.
In the blink of an eye, he knelt on one knee before him.
‘…He has grown this much stronger in such a short time.’
Yuwon knew well that nothing in the world was gained for free.
Yuwon could vividly imagine how Hastings must have spent the past few months.
“Your Highness.”
“…”
Sensing Hastings’s firm resolve, Yuwon quietly waited for his next words and actions.
Kneeling before him, Hastings reached carefully into his robes and pulled out a short dagger.
“This is the reason I had no choice but to remain absent for so long—and my answer.”
“…A Raven, I see.”
A dagger with both hilt and sheath as black as pitch.
Even at a glance, it was clearly a fine blade.
On the short pommel, a raven was engraved in relief.
Only then did Yuwon understand why Gillian had mentioned the Owl of the Aphahiel Imperial Family.
And Hastings lowered his head to the floor and performed a full bow.
Thud―!
“Both I and the Raven belong wholly to Your Highness. Please, accept us.”
A past connection unknown to both Yuwon and Yurion in life.
That tie had passed through Hastings and reached Yuwon.
A raven had flown into the library.
Afterward, Yuwon and Hastings sat by the sunny library window, enjoying tea.
For some reason, even though Hastings brewed the same leaves, the tea he made after months of absence carried a far deeper fragrance than when Yuwon brewed it himself.
Thus the two sat face-to-face for the first time in a very long while.
Hastings told Yuwon all that had happened without Yuwon knowing, and Gillian—who joined them before they realized—filled in the parts lacking as Hastings’s senior.
The teacups before them were emptied and refilled several times like wine cups.
Time passed.
“…And thus, we have come to find Your Highness. What I have to report ends here.”
With that, Gillian and Hastings finished their story.
“…I see. So that is what happened.”
Hearing the end of their account, Yuwon mulled over everything he had heard.
‘A Raven….’
The group Gillian and Hastings belonged to—the “Shadow Raven.” Their identity was a secret organization that served Yurion’s maternal family from the shadows.
And the reason those who should have served the maternal line appeared before Yuwon was due to the severed bloodline of that family.
The illustrious House of Reqil, which had existed even since the founding of the Empire.
From the beginning, the Reqil family had always been small in number, and as though cursed, their line dwindled further with time.
In the end, Yurion’s mother—born an only daughter—died young, and the Reqil lineage was cut off entirely.
‘They must have been desperate to come to me. I am not Reqil—I am Aphahiel….’
As an Aphahiel fighting for the throne, Yuwon had never spared a thought for his maternal family.
But after hearing this story, a bitter taste lingered unpleasantly in his mouth.
‘Yurion’s maternal grandfather, the current head of Reqil, lay barely clinging to life with even his mind no longer intact… in truth, the bloodline was no different from severed.’
Because the two men were before him, Yuwon did not let his thoughts grow long.
“First, both of you should unpack your belongings in my quarters and rest. We will speak again another time.”
“Yes, then. I will await Your Highness’s order.”
“Yes.”
After sending the two away, Yuwon’s eyes quietly sharpened.
What Yuwon worried about was this:
‘Could a long-cherished vow that continued for hundreds of years truly remain intact and pure until now? Hard to say….’
He could trust Hastings, but Gillian and the other members of the Raven—whom he had yet to meet—were different.
An uncertain ally was worse than a clear enemy.
Especially when one stood at a crucial moment, as Yuwon did now.
‘Right now, they’re ambiguous allies to me. I trust them, but I must not let them come too close.’
Judging by the power Hastings had subtly shown and the momentum Gillian and Hastings had restrained, gaining the group called Raven was undoubtedly advantageous.
‘The question is whether the inside is rotten… I’ll watch a bit longer.’
Yuwon stopped thinking and cast stray thoughts from his mind.
He had done perfectly fine without the Raven until now; there was no need to shoulder risk and use them at this stage—so Yuwon judged.
At the same time in the Crown Prince’s Palace.
A visitor came to the Crown Prince.
“Brother, I heard what happened. You must be deeply troubled.”
“…Leave. Mariel. I do not wish to see anyone right now.”
Paying heavily for crossing Yuwon, the Crown Prince found Mariel’s visit far from welcome.
But the Fourth Prince did not simply come and go.
“Sigh… What did I tell you? If you intended to provoke that bastard, you should have done it with the resolve to kill him.”
“…Right. You would know well after suffering at his hands multiple times.”
Crown Prince Yulia.
Gone was the former image of a lion proudly showing off its golden mane among cubs.
From the wounded lion pushed into a corner, neither the previous dignity nor leisure could be felt.
“Do not be too harsh on yourself. I am not the only one who came today. There is another face outside the door that you will be glad to see.”
“…What?”
Bang―!
As if answering the Crown Prince’s question, someone kicked open the firmly closed door and entered.
“Hey, been well?”
The Second Prince Arencar’s entrance.
At this unexpected appearance, the Crown Prince frowned.
“Arencar, why are you here…?”
“What else, really. Do I need another reason?”
The answer came instead from Mariel, standing beside him.
“We are not here to chat over tea and laughs… There’s only one reason for us to gather like this. To drag that Yurion brat down from his place.”
But that explanation was insufficient.
“So I’m asking why that brat is here.”
At the Crown Prince’s cold reaction, the Second Prince personally responded.
“Seems you got hit hard enough for your senses to go dull. Look, Yulia. I don’t know what Father is thinking, staying silent like this, but if things continue, the next heir to the throne is obvious. It’ll go to Yurion. Already over thirty percent of the entire Aphahiel nobility has fallen into that brat’s hands.”
“…Impossible. Even gathering the South and the neutral faction to the last scrap wouldn’t make more than twenty-five percent.”
“That’s because you, me, Mariel, and even Bernid kept doing idiotic things one after another.”
It was true.
Day by day, the Crown Prince’s faction was losing members.
“The Fifth Prince’s faction already caught the tailwind. At this rate, forty percent will come soon. When that happens, even Father will not be able to put off making a decision.”
The Crown Prince’s expression darkened.
“Damn it… when did it already….”
“As soon as rumors spread about your failure in this incident, Arencar came to find me personally. He said we should join forces.”
With Fourth Prince Mariel’s explanation, the Crown Prince glared at Arencar.
“…Weren’t you allied with Yurion?”
The Second Prince answered casually, as if it were no big deal.
“Yesterday’s ally becomes today’s enemy, and today’s enemy becomes tomorrow’s ally. That’s how things go.”
“…You’re not doing this because you have another plan, are you?”
The Crown Prince still suspected the Second Prince, but the Second Prince reaffirmed without hesitation that he had betrayed Yuwon completely.
“Would I be insane enough to keep that alliance with Yurion? If things continue, he’s guaranteed to become Emperor. We must do whatever we can right now. This is that.”
“Hrm… but trusting you is still…”
“Sigh….”
Unable to bear the Crown Prince’s lukewarm reaction, the Second Prince exploded in crude exasperation.
“Hey, you idiot. Think properly. You got hit so hard your brain’s not working, huh? Right now we’re wolves and he’s a tiger. If wolves want to face a tiger at night, at least three need to gather. Choose—do we drag him down and the three of us compete, or do we sit sucking our fingers until that Yurion bastard becomes Emperor?”
Though the Second Prince swore vulgarly, the Crown Prince simply remained silent for a moment.
Deep in thought, he soon spoke again.
“…Fine. Let’s do it. Put everything else aside—the Yurion brat first.”
“Now we’re speaking the same language.”
“You have chosen well, brothers.”
Driven to the edge by Yuwon’s overwhelming rise, the three brothers joined hands.