Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 264: Engagement - Visitation

Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 264: Engagement - Visitation

263. Engagement - Visitation
Days passed with Leo locked away, unable to do anything.
It felt like two months had gone by since he was first imprisoned, though in reality, it had been less than two weeks, with the bald priest visiting him only twice more since then.
Leo was haggard.
At first, he had tried to keep up with some exercise, but even that had ceased. Now, he just watched the growing mold encroach upon his tiny cell.
In his mind, he had already broken through the wooden door and escaped countless times. He imagined beating the arrogant guards to death, using his abilities in {Leadership}, {Dignity}, {Noble Society}, {Tactics}, and {Royal Blood}, along with his minor achievements, to seize control of the city.
The Kingdom of Astin would be startled and retreat. But what they would find was an enraged Swordmaster, the very one they had imprisoned. The army would be annihilated, with the stockpiled supplies in this city, Langzra, being a significant factor.
Langzra would become the capital of the kingdom he would establish. Lena Ainar would be queen, and Leo would be king. Just like King Maunin and Queen Reti had done in the past, he would raise an army and overturn the nation, but...
Malpas.
His fantasies always halted before Malpas, the ancient Ashin, the Red Crow, and half of Malhas. A symbol of victory, in contrast to Halpas, who symbolized defeat. Leo couldn’t continue his daydreams, hindered by his knowledge of {Ashin’s History}.
He couldn’t escape, yet doing nothing left him anxious and tormented. Was Lena doing well? She must be worried, but what if she does something reckless?
Would he survive this? Should he beg the prince for mercy even now? Whatever the outcome, he couldn’t die like this. Should he take Lena and flee? But what about his father in Avril Castle? What would his father think if he knew Leo was imprisoned? The thought of his execution would break his father’s heart.
And Minseo… what would he think of him?
In his solitary confinement, less than two pyeong in size, Leo gnawed at himself. Even the rough guard who brought his meals no longer irritated him, and he began to look forward to the bald priest’s rambling visits. Then, someone else came to see him.
It was Jensen Byley.
Because the Knight Commander himself was visiting, Leo was brought to the guardroom rather than meeting him in his cell. After scanning Leo from head to toe, Jensen interrogated the guard.
“You haven’t even allowed him to wash. Hey, aren’t you treating this prisoner a bit too harshly?”
“I—I’m sorry, sir. But I was told he insulted the prince…”
“Guard.”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you presume to execute sentences? And you dare speak like that in front of me? You’ve got some nerve.”
“No, no, sir. I’m sorry!”
The guard immediately dropped to his knees, rubbing his hands together in a gesture that resembled a pleading fly. Jensen Byley glared at him coldly before speaking.
“Take this prisoner to wash and change his clothes. Then bring tea and refreshments. I have things to discuss with him.”
Of course, there was no pantry in the prison, and the guard would have to pay out of pocket to get tea and refreshments. But he repeatedly bowed his head and said, “Yes, sir,” before leading Leo out.
For the first time since his imprisonment, Leo was able to wash thoroughly with warm water and change into fresh clothes. When he returned to the guardroom, there was a teapot and some small pastries on the table, though it was unclear where they had come from.
Jensen didn’t touch the tea or the pastries. Instead, he was smoking a thick cigarette.
“Do you smoke?”
“No… I didn’t know the commander did.”
“I rarely do. I only smoke occasionally now, but I used to be a heavy smoker.”
“...”
“That was before I met your father. It was also when I was still a squire. Help yourself. I don’t care for sweets.”
—Sizzle.
Jensen Byley stubbed his cigarette into the teacup.
It was hard to believe this was the same man who was always so composed. Leo thought this might be Jensen’s true nature. He was the kind of man who became a completely different person once he gripped his sword.
Crunch.
As Leo nibbled on a few of the cookies, Jensen lit another thick cigarette. He took a deep drag and looked at Leo before speaking.
“Your father is not only a senior to me but also my benefactor. I wouldn’t have become a knight of the kingdom without him.”
Jensen Byley took another deep drag. He wasn’t here just to reminisce. Through the hazy smoke, he reflected on the past.
“When I was a squire, I had a terrible senior. It was a time when squires weren’t even treated as people, unlike now… I suffered a lot. Things must be better now. My peers and I didn’t tolerate anyone who mistreated squires.”
“...”
“Anyway, I was running errands for my senior, questioning what I was doing here and wondering if I should just return to my family, when I met your father. An extraordinary man. He wasn’t from a noble family, and he was about my age, but he became a knight in no time. He was the youngest knight ever, I believe. I think his record still stands.”
A thick plume of smoke rose.
Jensen exhaled deeply towards the ceiling of the guardroom and continued.
“By some stroke of luck, my senior was replaced by your father. He didn’t make me run errands; instead, he honed my swordsmanship. I nearly quit smoking then… Those were good times. We were both young. I even pestered him to come out and meet women, only to get scolded. Haha. But then he suddenly married a lady who had participated in the Maunin-Reti Tournament. That lady was your mother, Ibera Ainar.”
...What is he trying to say?
The hope Leo briefly felt upon seeing Jensen was now dampened and fading away.
It felt like he was avoiding delivering bad news, rambling on instead. Leo’s heart was hardening with resolve.
“Your mother was quite a remarkable woman. Cheerful and dignified… It’s a shame she passed.”
“...How did you know? I didn’t mention it because I thought you didn’t know.”
“I read a letter your father sent to Baron Albacete. Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t want to read it either. It was part of the investigation into your alleged treason.”
Leo’s anger surged as he snapped back. He wasn’t entirely innocent, but he couldn’t stand the frustration anymore.
“Do you also believe I plotted treason, Commander? I did my best to protect the prince. I won’t say I’m blameless, but the truth is that I acted out of anger when I blocked the Aura Blade. Perhaps if I had been split in two with my sword, none of this would have happened! If I had died along with the prince...”
“Don’t be arrogant!”
Jensen shouted.
“You speak as if you’re something special. Fine, I’ll acknowledge that you’re exceptionally skilled for your age and possess a mysterious sword. But so what? Do you think the prince would’ve died if you hadn’t been there? A mage would’ve stopped the attack. And even if they didn’t, the prince would have been captured by Count Forte. You don’t even know what’s happening outside. The General of the Bellita Kingdom has declared total war. There’s no more talk of peace. This isn’t just a land-grab; it’s a war for the survival of both kingdoms. And you made it happen!”
Jensen’s voice echoed through the guardroom. He stood abruptly, but then he sat down again, saying, “I apologize. I got carried away.” After taking a moment to catch his breath, he continued in a low voice.
“I don’t think you conspired to commit treason or did anything wrong. It would have been ridiculous to let the enemy roam freely in our camp. And with the count attacking you, you couldn’t just let him live. By that logic, I’m at fault too. After all, it was me who killed the count.”
“...”
“But the prince didn’t want this war. You don’t know, but the prince was humiliated in the Bellita Kingdom. It was absurd. We had a righteous cause for this war. The king ordered us to prepare for war, and I was out inspecting the border with the General. My family, the Byley Barony, is near the border. We were mapping out the terrain and planning logistics when the prince returned from the Bellita Kingdom.”
Jensen, feeling parched, reached for the teacup but put it down when he remembered it held the cigarette butt.
“I thought the prince would be furious, but he wasn’t. Instead, he suggested that the General and I return to the capital to convince the king. However, with the king’s orders in place, there was nothing we could do. The prince returned to the capital… and eventually, war broke out.”
Jensen exhaled deeply, as if trying to soothe his parched throat.
“I heard everything. They say Count Herman Forte proposed peace at the time? And all he wanted in return was a lock of the prince’s hair. Is that true?”
“...Yes, it was.”
“Do you understand what you’ve done?”
...Crunch.
Leo picked up another piece of the cookie and ate it. He didn’t know what to say. As silence stretched on, Jensen Byley spoke again.
“As I mentioned before, I owe your father a great debt. And your mother as well. During the Nine Days’ War, I was a knight serving with Senior Knight Noel Dexter. He was the only person I could trust.”
Jensen took out another cigarette from a small wooden case, toying with it as he continued.
“It was a dreadful war. Trust was scarce because it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The knight orders officially declared neutrality and ordered their knights to remain on standby, but behind the scenes, it was nothing but bloodshed. Even the knight commanders got swept up in the civil war. From then on, knights who had been confined to their homes began acting independently. Your father and I were no different. Thankfully, Senior Knight Noel seemed to share my thoughts. Though he never said a word.”
Leo chose to listen silently.
The Nine Days’ War, sparked by the mysterious death of the young king, had split the Kingdom of Aslan into the Kingdoms of Astin and Aster. Hundreds of thousands died, and the war left the two northern kingdoms impoverished, centralized under strict rule, and brought forth two Swordmasters.
Chaos and war.
Jensen and many others might believe they had played a part in that war, but the truth is, the Nine Days’ War was Malhas’s stage. For over three years, they sacrificed countless lives in the civil war.
Perhaps this was a truth only Leo knew. A truth that couldn’t be proven, unless one dared to put a sword to the king’s throat.
Jensen Byley, the king’s loyal knight, continued his story.
“Together with Senior Knight Noel, I assassinated nobles suspected of being enemies in Barnaul. The Klaus royal family’s faction had split into two, each vying to seize the capital, so there was no shortage of nobles to eliminate. But during that time, I made a grave mistake. There was a noble family called the ‘House of Pamphili,’ now extinct, that ran a crystal mine. I heard they were funding territorial wars across the kingdom and urged Senior Knight Noel to raid their mansion immediately.”
Jensen frowned. Rubbing the scars that marred his arms, hands, and face as if they ached, he continued.
“But Senior Knight Noel was cautious, as he always was. I didn’t realize that was what had kept him alive for so long and found it frustrating. Eventually, I argued with him and stormed off to raid the mansion on my own. You can guess how it ended… I nearly died.”
Leo nodded slightly. The deep scar running from Jensen’s right cheekbone across his nose was evidence enough that he had sustained a life-threatening injury.
“I managed to escape by the skin of my teeth. For some reason, they didn’t pursue me. But my identity had been exposed, so I couldn’t just sit at home pretending to remain neutral. I headed to Senior Knight Noel’s hiding place. But when I arrived, he wasn’t there—only you and your mother. You were so young at the time; you probably don’t remember. Thanks to your mother’s care, I survived… but I was too ashamed to face Senior Knight Noel again. I left before he returned, like a coward.”
Jensen finally lit the cigarette he had been fiddling with. The smoke curled mournfully in the air.
“In hindsight, I shouldn’t have done that. I should have sought his forgiveness… After the war ended, I found out that Senior Knight Noel had wiped out the entire Pamphili family. He was truly extraordinary. There were over twenty knights in that house… but he never said a word to me about it. He quietly retired after receiving his due honors.”
Jensen sighed deeply, then looked at Leo with a face full of lingering regrets before finally addressing the main issue.
“You’ve committed a grave crime. But I can’t just let you die. If you agree, I’ll show the prince the letter Senior Knight Noel Dexter wrote. There’s no mention of you in it, but the prince might be moved to forgive you, out of respect for Noel Dexter’s service. If not, I’ll do my best to persuade him. Your fiancée has been working hard on your behalf as well.”
With those words, Jensen left the guardroom, telling Leo to wait patiently.
Back in his solitary cell, Leo was engulfed in silence. He didn’t sit at the table but instead slumped to the floor, idly touching the mold that covered the cell like a blanket.
There was nothing in the world he feared.
With his strong body, his swordsmanship at its peak, clear-cut conditions for the true ending, a predictable and even cliché future, and a count like Herman Forte bound by his own circumstances...
He thought he knew everything, and that no one could stop him. He believed that if he simply taught Lena swordsmanship and moved towards the true ending, everything would be fine. He hadn’t bothered to look around him.
But there were still things he didn’t know. He had thought he needed no one’s help, yet now he was in a position where he had to rely on his father, Jensen, and Lena. Leo let out a hollow laugh.
How foolish I’ve been.
I didn’t get here on my own.
Visible or not, I’ve constantly received help from others. Even the abilities I’ve used without a second thought were originally Minseo’s.
Leo spent the next two days in silence. On the second day, the guard, unusually courteous, informed him of his release. Leo squinted against the bright sunlight as he stepped out of the prison. Lena was waiting for him.
“…You’ve really let yourself go. Here, eat this.”
“How… Did you get here?”
“How do you think? Because of you, I got demoted back to being a soldier. Now take this.”
She handed him a piece of white bread—something impossible to find on the battlefield. Leo sighed as he asked.
“Did the prince give this to you?”
“Yep. He said to make up for your mistakes by achieving great deeds. We’re being deployed to the front lines.”
“...I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
Lena slapped Leo’s shoulder with a cheerful grin.
“We’ll just do better next time! What’s the big deal? We’ve already been there once, can’t we do it again? Just trust me. I’ve been doing great lately! I can handle a few soldiers with a swift swish-swish-swish!”
Lena mimed punching the air as she made sound effects with her mouth. As Leo took playful blows from her fists, he bit into the white bread.
It was rich and delicious.

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Chapter 264: Engagement - Visitation