Chapter 29: Chapter Twenty Nine
I was trembling holding my knees.
I was in my room in the main area sitting on my bed, trying to assimilate what I had witnessed.
"Did they kill Flora?"
After I run as fast as I could to leave the northwest area after seeing Flora's dead body, all I could think was that Klaus fulfilled his threat and killed Flora, since she was the only one there.
'...But, maybe, it wasn't what actually happened.' I realized, after thinking clearly.
While I was in Elizabeth's room I didn't hear anything.
'If Klaus suddenly appeared there and assaulted her, at least wouldn't she scream or something?' I asked myself.
Neither Klaus nor the guards were stained with blood.
If one of them did kill her, seeing how much blood there was on the floor around her body, there is no way that they wouldn't get smeared with her blood after killing her.
'Also a recently murdered corpse wouldn't smell like that… Would it?'
I thought, after remembering the horrible scent that came from that room where Flora's corpse was.
"But if it wasn't them, then how did she die?" I asked myself.
I was silent for a moment, trying to put my thoughts in order.
'What if someone had killed Flora in her room while she was alone?' I asked myself, trying to find an answer.
I sighed.
'If I hadn't cowardly run away after seeing Flora's dead body, then I would know now what actually happened to her.' I thought, frustrated with myself.
I was silent for some time, staring at the darkness of my room, trying to understand what happened to Flora.
'Who would kill her and why?' I asked myself.
"The only people that could have done that, would be the guards… or Flora herself."
Besides me, there are not many people that can freely enter the northwest area.
Then, if the guards weren't ordered by Klaus, or even maybe by the King, no one else would be able to kill Flora besides Flora herself.
"So… She killed herself?"
No matter how much I tried, I just couldn't sleep.
Whenever I closed my eyes all I could see was Flora's bloody lifeless body lying on the floor.
And even when I managed to fall asleep for some time, I had a horrible nightmare where all I could hear was Flora shouting her last words to me.
'I won't go with you! If I have to die I will not gonna die because of a bastard like you!'
That was all I could hear.
"...Did she die because of me?"
It was my first words after I had awakened from that awful nightmare.
I couldn't stop thinking that it was all my fault.
Even though Flora was a horrible person, and I hated her, still, seeing her dead body was too much for me. Even worse, knowing that it was probably my fault.
Flora and the others wouldn't be locked there if it wasn't for me.
"But it was the King that forced them to live there with me. It is not my fault… is it?" I asked myself, trying to take the blame from me.
But, I couldn't stop thinking that it was indeed my fault.
Sometimes I ask myself if that time when that angelic lady gave me a chance to choose where I wanted to reincarnate, I just ended up messing with this world.
And that maybe my egoistic choice caused all of it.
'Hm… I want to go to a world where magic exists! If it's possible, I want to be really good at magic, having a good affinity, or something like that.'
'I want that money is not a problem to me in this life. And I want to be born in a safe environment as well.'
"When I asked her those things, was it when I messed up everything?"
I was born as a light mage, the most powerful magic in this world. My father is the King of Arhan, probably the richest person in this whole world.
And also, I grew up in the royal palace, in the northwest area, where there are trained guards everywhere, technically protecting me from any outside danger, besides just prohibiting me from leaving there.
"The angelic lady fulfilled all my wishes, though it wasn't exactly how I wanted." I realized.
If I had chosen differently, more wisely, everything would be different.
I wouldn't be the King's bastard, I wouldn't live locked in the northwest area, Lena and the others wouldn't be locked there with me as well.
And Flora wouldn't be dead.
"It is all my fault."
***
Since I couldn't sleep, and it was still dark outside, I just decided to go to the royal library.
'How long has it been since the last time I was here?' I asked myself after I entered the royal library.
I was even feeling a bit nostalgic. I've been in the royal library almost all the time in the last few years, and now, since I became Noah's servant, I barely have time for myself.
"I wish I could just stay here and read a romance…" I thought out loud.
'But I'm not here for this.' I thought, serious.
There is something that I may find here related to what my great-grandmother wrote to me in that letter.
Once I read a book where there was registered every royal member ever born, even the bastards that were acknowledged were registered there as well.
Back then, I just read it to know more about my father and my siblings, so I didn't pay much attention to anyone else. I was just impressed by how long they have been keeping registering their members.
'Well, Arhan is a millenary nation after all.' I remembered.
It took me a while to find that book. And when I found it I remembered why I never picked up that book again.
"I-It's so… heavy." I said while holding the book.
The book is so big that I can barely hold it in my arms, and it is so heavy that all I can do is to hold it long enough to quickly place it on the floor without making any loud noise.
Sitting on the floor with the book opened in front of me I started reading it, trying to find my great-grandmother and her children.
I easily fond her, since she was once a Queen, there was a few pages just for her.
She was born as a daughter of an earl, a distant relative of the main royal family. She was sent to live here in the palace when she was just six years old.
There is not much writing here about her childhood, just that in her teens she was known as one of the most skilled lightning mages of her generation.
'That's probably how she killed her husband so easily.' I realized, surprised.
In the book, about the late King assassination, all that is written is that Elizabeth killed her husband out of madness after four of her children died of a mysterious illness.
Her son, after ascending to the throne, was the one that sentenced Elizabeth to be imprisoned in the northwest area of the palace for the rest of her life, as a show of kindness and love for his mother, since she was supposed to be sentenced to death after what she had done.
'It might have been hard for him to have to sentence his own mother to be imprisoned, knowing that she had done that to avenge his siblings-' I thought, but then I realized.
"If he knew that his mother murdered his father because he was the one behind his siblings' death since they weren't born mages of the elements known as royal, then was him the one that stopped with this barbaric practice?" I asked myself.
I started to look through the book to know if it was true, but it wasn't.
After the date he ascended to the throne, just like his siblings, there were plenty of royal members registered with only a small sentence. Their names, the date of their birth, death, and the reason why they died, all from an unknown illness.
But for me, the most shocking thing was to know that Prince Hugo, my father's younger brother was registered in the same way.
"So he was also…" I realized, sad.
I remembered the day that I heard the maids saying that I was Prince Hugo's ghost.
'Prince Dylan said he saw a boy before the vase suddenly got broken. And, His Highness said that the boy had light blond hair and golden eyes, like a royal. It resembles the late Prince Hugo, right? He was so young…'
I felt like I would throw up.
'How could someone do such a thing to their own child?' I thought, mad.
"All royals are cruel like that? They simply kill all children that don't fit their perfect image of royalty?" I asked myself, trying to hold my tears of anger.
"...But Noah didn't have the same fate.' I realized.
Noah was the first royal member publicly known to be born as a fire mage, the first royal member born not being a light or lightning mage.
"Then my father is the only King that didn't follow his ancestors' way?" I asked myself, surprised.
But when I looked through the book I saw that after my father ascended to the throne, there were also a few children registered in the same way, they all died of an unknown illness.
'So he just wasn't able to do the same when he discovered that his own son, Prince Noah, was a fire mage?' I asked myself, confused.
I sighed.
"Thinking about it is just confusing me even more."
But, at least, now I know that Elizabeth was telling me the truth. An unknown fatal illness that only appears on royal members during childhood, the phase where a person discovers their elemental magic is pretty weird, to say the least.
Though I don't have a concrete clue that they were all poisoned as my great-grandmother wrote in the letter, still, it is indeed suspicious.
'The royal family of Arhan is one of the most influential and rich families in this world. If such mortal illness has been the reason for the death of so many members for centuries already, how there is at least no treatment or medicine?'
In the letter, Elizabeth told me that she financed academics, doctors, and alchemists to find a way to treat and cure the illness that killed her children. But, it seems that no one else did the same for all these years.
'Isn't that something pretty suspicious to not do coming from such a rich and powerful family?'
"Then, if what she said is true… Was that the reason why the King kept me alive for so long?" I asked myself.
If I was born like Noah, I would be killed and nobody would know that I ever existed. But, if I was born with the royal magic elements, then he would accept me as his child.
There are not many royal members alive anymore, so having one more with the "good genes" would be good for him.
'So, if neither of his legitimate children was born with lightning or light magic, he would still have me.'
Then, I realized. "I was just his backup plan."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone