Princess, Please Fall in Love with Me-Chapter 62 : Chapter 62

Chapter 62 : Curtain Call, The Sole Protagonist of the Night
"Search faster, don’t miss a single corner!"
Several black-clad figures scoured the palace garden.
In a concealed corner, Loka watched them approach, gripping her silver sword but not daring to act rashly.
When she had jumped down earlier, she twisted her leg.
Even if she managed to ambush one in the shadows, her limited mobility would make it easy for the others to react, leaving her no time to retreat.
As a black-clad figure prepared to pull apart the haystack, he suddenly collapsed in front of Loka.
Kyle, carrying some unknown powder, vaulted over the palace wall.
Though he should have arrived earlier, he was late.
"Miss Loka, are you alright?"
Under Kyle’s interference, the surrounding black-clad figures grew dazed, letting their guard down.
Some, caught in a hallucination, mistook their comrades for targets and began fighting each other.
Kyle quickly bandaged Loka’s leg and applied an unknown ointment. Loka tested her leg, and the effect was surprisingly good—the stinging pain and mobility issues vanished.
"This is emergency medicine. You’re fine for now, but overexerting it will cause worse damage. Stay hidden here."
Loka, skeptical, tried moving her leg again, and a numbing sensation returned.
Reluctantly, she sat down.
After dealing with the surrounding black-clad figures, Kyle hid Loka in the bushes and prepared to venture deeper into the palace.
On his way to the palace, he had suddenly been targeted by another group of masked figures.
From their accents and movements, they included not only locals but also people from the Saito’s Empire.
According to Saito’s intelligence network, the Duke’s influence shouldn’t have reached into other nations’ armies, yet their movements were unmistakably Saito’s Empire fighting techniques.
With no choice, he released a smoke screen and escaped the fight, reaching the palace only to find Loka being hunted by black-clad figures.
"Wait..."
Loka handed the silver sword to Kyle.
With her limited combat ability, giving the weapon to someone who could use it was the wisest choice, but Kyle glanced at it and returned it.
"This is what that kid asked me to give you. Keep it safe."
With that, Kyle concealed the bushes, donned the clothes of a knocked-out black-clad figure, and blended into the palace.
Loka finished off the stripped figure, then hugged the silver sword, lying quietly in the corner.
With him around, the others should be fine, right?
But Lycan’s side?
At the Duke’s Mansion, Orfeo was slammed to the ground by a fierce punch but still smirked sinisterly at Lycan, who gripped his throat.
"Just kill me. I won’t tell you anything."
"Kid, let me handle this."
Hearing the voice, Lycan pinned Orfeo down with his leg to prevent escape.
Kafu, stone-faced, tossed a small, ominous pill into Orfeo’s mouth.
Before this, Lycan and Orfeo had been locked in a stalemate.
Despite Lycan’s innate strength and trained skills, Orfeo, altered by countless modifications, was no pushover.
At the critical moment, Kafu descended, striking Orfeo’s weak point in a moment of distraction.
Though not fatal, it dealt a significant blow.
Lycan seized the chance to overpower him completely.
"Since you love experiments, let’s see you experience your so-called refinement again."
As the pill took effect, Orfeo’s smug expression turned uneasy.
Cold sweat poured out, his face paled, and his body trembled, descending into madness.
"Young Master Kyle’s pill will make you feel tenfold, a hundredfold the pain, showing you your deepest fears, then making you willingly spill what we want."
After over a decade, Kafu couldn’t help but marvel.
The boy who once hid behind his elder sister had become the empire’s unparalleled genius apothecary.
This pill’s effect was pure torture for interrogation.
"No... kill me! You’re test subjects, don’t come near me!"
"Tell me, what’s the Duke’s plan?"
The drug induced extreme fear, using psychological suggestion to force answers, but each answer brought more pain.
Yet the suggestion told him only answering would bring relief.
"The Duke? The Duke! The Duke wants to be the new Emperor. None of you can escape; you’ll all become my test subjects! The Emperor? The Emperor’s just a puppet on a shelf. The Duke will be the true Emperor!"
In Orfeo’s hallucinations, he, who once treated countless lives as experimental tools, became the tool for the vengeful spirits he’d killed, subjected to multiplied torment—cruel modifications, cutting, unbearable pain.
Once reveling in cruel methods, he couldn’t muster a smile when subjected to them himself.
This endless torture replayed in his mind after each death, until his brain truly died.
He could never attain true death.
Seeing Orfeo fully lost to the drug’s madness, Kafu sighed helplessly, hoisted Lycan, and the two jumped from the terrace to the courtyard to rest briefly.
My lord, you must be careful.
That Duke might not be as simple as you think.
Meanwhile, in the palace, the Saito’s Grand Duke stayed close to the Emperor’s side.
Seasoned in battle and politics, he had seen through the Duke’s intentions, now pondering how to escape with the Emperor.
The Emperor seemed to grasp the Duke’s motives too, but with the Grand Duke by his side, he followed along without much worry, though the Duke’s smile gave him an eerie feeling.
"You two, I seem to have found another assassin who snuck into the palace. Do you recognize him?"
The assassin leader dragged a man forward, kicking him to the ground before them.
The Grand Duke looked in disbelief—it was Kyle, battered and bruised, with a blade held to his throat.
"Oh? It seems the Grand Duke knows this man. If needed, I can let you handle this yourself, but since you’re busy, I’ll take care of it for you."
"Stop. He’s my son."
As the Duke’s right hand began to lower, the Grand Duke spoke.
With a guilty and helpless look at the Emperor, he stepped away from Miles under the Duke’s triumphant smile.