TPOP 97

Chapter 97

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"Hold on, Diana."

Diana wasn't even looking at him. Her unfocused eyes stared down at the cliff below. Damn it, Felix cursed through clenched teeth, braced one arm against the rock and pulled Diana up with the other.

But rainwater seeped through his fingers. The friction diminished, and his hands began to slip. A fierce wind lashed the cliff. The hem of her coat fluttered in the air like a sheet of paper. Felix shouted.

"Diana, please!"

He needed both hands to pull the woman who showed no will to climb up. Lightning struck somewhere. A scream erupted from the knights rushing toward them. Felix couldn't turn back, stretching his other hand, which gripped the ground, downward. He intended to. If Diana hadn't murmured something softly.

"—I want to go to the spring."

It was the moment that tiny voice pierced the rain and struck his eardrum. An invisible force lashed out, violently snapping the two hands that were slowly slipping.

"……!"

Crack. Something thick twisted.

It wasn't the countless hallucinations he'd heard before, nor the ominous noises from beneath the earth. It was the sound coming from Felix's wrist.

In that instant, pain so intense it made his vision flicker struck him. It happened in a flash. In less than a second, the grip loosened. What he had clutched so desperately slipped away. Felix snapped back to his senses and desperately tightened his hand, but only the tip of one finger barely touched it.

"No."

Felix muttered blankly. The sight of the woman swaying with the sheer cliff below her feet was utterly surreal. The moment he realized it was irreversible, her wheat-colored hair, whipped by the wind, brushed against his palm, and Diana's knuckles slipped completely from his grasp.

The horrifying sensation of grasping empty air overwhelmed his entire body. The woman he had let go fell over the cliff. Down, further down. The scene, unfolding in an instant, felt deceptively slow.

"...!"

"Your Highness, danger—!"

Her figure shrank rapidly, then vanished from sight. Felix stared blankly down at the abyss below, where nothing could be seen.

Was he dreaming?

The valley was impossibly deep and narrow. Thick undergrowth along the cliff edges obscured the gorge floor. Moreover, thick mist shrouded the area, making the fallen woman impossible to locate anywhere.

“…Diana?”

The sensation of hair slipping through his fingers felt like a lie.

Hugo and his soldiers, arriving belatedly, pulled Felix backward. The ground, weakened by the direct lightning strike, cracked in countless places. The very earth where he had knelt moments before collapsed with a rumble. It was a landslide.

"Your Highness, pull yourself together! Your hand, your hand—!"

Hugo barked orders at the knights, who were at a loss.

"Send men down into the gorge! Every last man we have available right now!"

At the Duke's command, the knights scattered in a rush. The quickest route down to the gorge was via a side path winding around the side. The slope was steep, but it was better than the sheer cliff face.

"There's a river flowing at the bottom of the gorge. The depth... isn't great, but if she got caught in the undergrowth, she might still be alive. We'll search immediately."

"Do not worry. First, the storm is fierce; we must hurry back to the Imperial Palace...."

"Is your wrist all right? We must have a physician stand by immediately—."

His jacket fluttered wildly, and his wet hair whipped about in all directions. Yet, gradually, the rain was weakening. Little by little, slowly.

Felix looked down at his hand. Merely lifting it brought excruciating pain. It was his right hand. The bones in his knuckles were visibly twisted. The crack of breaking bone overlapped with a relentless, haunting echo.

"......"

Felix lifted his gaze from his motionless hand. No one stood at the cliff's edge. The woman who had been crying there just minutes ago was nowhere to be seen, even after rubbing his eyes. Not even a shadow remained.

Boom!!! A series of thunderous booms pounded his eardrums.

His already fractured inner self shattered into pieces, just like the bones in his right hand and wrist. The very structure that had formed the man named Felix was crumbling. After thirteen years, it was happening again.

Felix pushed himself up with his uninjured hand, bracing against the ground. He roughly shoved away the knight who tried to support him and headed toward the cliff's edge, now only half intact.

The storm, which had seemed to roar at the entire world, gradually subsided. But the mist rising from below the cliff only grew thicker and hazier. The valley flowed far below. It was incomparably larger and deeper than any river flowing through a hunting ground. Even so, falling from this height... then…

"...Diana?"

'Yes, master,' should have been the expected reply, but all was silent. Felix slowly, very slowly, realized he wasn't dreaming, that his woman had fallen down below.

Felix hadn't seen her final expression. Diana's gaze—no, she hadn't had a gaze. Her head had been turned downward the entire time.

Had her face been filled with joy? Or had she been crying?

"You've been hiding something from me, haven’t you?"

What did she know?

Indistinguishable voices echoed incessantly nearby. The guard who had come to find the Crown Prince and the knights at the cliff's edge cried out desperately.

"Your Highness, a bloody incident has occurred at the North Gate of the Imperial Palace!"

"What are you talking about? I was told it was already dealt with hours ago!"

"Another attack has occurred. This time, the military force is formidable. Their numbers are overwhelming; we must redeploy some of the Western Gate's personnel to the North Gate. Your Highness must issue the order...!"

Without needing to assess the situation, it was the private army of Count Montagne and his followers. Prince Eisen had rebelled. The timing was impeccable, as if they had been waiting for this very moment.

If things continued like this, it would be impossible to send a large number of troops down the cliff. Hugo, letting out a heart-wrenching groan, looked back at his nephew standing at the cliff's edge—the man who was now the Emperor of this nation.

"Your Highness."

"Is she dead?"

"You must return to the Imperial Palace. Prince Eisen has rebelled."

"No matter what—even if—"

"Are you going to hand the throne over to the prince like this?"

"Falling from this height... No, no. They said a river flows below. She wouldn't have jumped to die. That can't be—"

"Felix!"

The Duke's roar struck his ears harder than thunder. Felix, who had been staring blankly into the void, suddenly snapped to life.

“I will take responsibility for finding that child. If I cannot bring her back whole, I will bring back at least a part of her. So return to the imperial palace. Taking Prince Eisen’s head is what Your Majesty must do now!”

“…Eisen?”

Felix repeated his half-brother’s name. Yes, Eisen. That name was the very spark that ignited this entire crisis. He might know. Why Diana did this, why she fled, why…

Why she had let go of his hand.

Felix’s face contorted in utter agony.

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10. The Unfinished Portrait

The imperial palace was teeming with spies. They were not only Prince Eisen's eyes and ears, but also diverse in origin—from agents planted by the Crown Prince's supporters to spies from foreign nations. This was proof that the entire continent was paying close attention to the movements of the Karman Imperial House.

Yet even such individuals could not penetrate the inner palace, the heart of the imperial household. The imperial family's control was not so lax that mere spies could slip through undetected.

But gaps inevitably appear, anywhere, anytime. For the past thirteen years, Eisen had sought out the slightest cracks in the inner palace, aided by Count Montagne. To date, only one person had infiltrated the main palace and remained undetected, still active as a liaison: a servant who regularly turned the bedridden, ailing Emperor to prevent bedsores.

That single individual was sufficient to monitor the palace's movements in real time.

Even so, it goes without saying that coups never guarantee success.

A 100% chance of success simply did not exist.

Yet Eisen had undertaken this absurd operation not merely because, with the Emperor dead, their fate had become as fragile as a candle in the wind. The operation was flawless, and the odds were at least fifty-fifty.

Above all, he possessed an elite force, trained in secret, hidden from the imperial court's eyes.