The Price of Saving A Wicked Beast
Translator: Rae
Bonus Chapter 1/2
Thank you Sigyun for the support!
***
“Someone like me doesn’t deserve to rest. I need to be beaten more.”
"What are you saying right now?”
"Your Highness the Crown Princess. I don't need treatment or anything like that.”
She must have overheard the conversation with the soldiers outside. Bonnet suddenly dropped to her knees before Adelaide, clasping her hands and begging desperately. Her face, now mottled with bruises darkening into purple, was a mess of tears.
“Your Highness. If you pity me at all, please just send me back to my lady.”
As she spoke, Bonnet began hitting her own head. Thud, thud, her fists pounded so hard it seemed bruises would form, and Adelaide hurriedly tried to stop her. But Bonnet stubbornly pushed Adelaide away.
“I don’t want to d*e like my sister. I don’t want to d*e.”
Sobbing that she could not die here while her father and mother were still alive, Bonnet finally broke down in loud, helpless wail.
As Adelaide stood frozen, unsure what to do, soldiers and the physician rushed in behind her. Overwhelmed by exhaustion and extreme tension, Bonnet caught sight of the soldiers and promptly fainted.
“Your Highness, please step outside for now.”
The physician pushed up his glasses as he spoke. Since the patient was frightened of Adelaide, it would be better for her to be absent, at least until Bonnet calmed down
Eventually, as Adelaide stood pacing the corridor, someone approached her. It was Killian.
Adelaide turned away from him.
“I don’t want to fight with you right now. We’ll talk in detail later.”
Adelaide was angry. In the conflict between the North and the Imperial family, countless people were being dragged in and sacrificed. The citizens at the western border, Marcella, and now even Bonnet.
She herself was no different from them, regardless of Killian’s true intentions.
Tears welled up. In Bonnet’s desperate cry that she could not die here for her parents’ sake, Adelaide saw her own former self. The days when she had been manipulated by Killian for the sake of her family.
She had thought she would bury the past and move on. Once she decided to forgive him for whatever he had done, she resolved not to look back. Yet after returning to the capital and finding her life unchanged, Adelaide was steadily losing confidence in that decision.
Adelaide brushed past Killian. In that instant, he grabbed her hand. Startled, she turned back.
"Don't go.”
Adelaide could not bring herself to shake his hand off. He looked utterly exhausted.
“Don’t go. I’m begging you, Adelaide.”
At the word begging, Adelaide let out a quiet sigh.
She relaxed the tension in the hand she had been trying to pull free. Killian gently drew her toward him.
"I'm sorry.”
Adelaide did not reply. Yet at his apology, her heart was already wavering before she could do anything about it.
She couldn't help it. For a long time, Killian had been nearly everything in her life. And Adelaide was weak to this unfamiliar side of him, apologetic, sorrowful, afraid.
“I heard the details from Dame Romeo… She was right. I wouldn’t have been able to prove the collusion between Serrem and the North on my own.”
Her green ring remained in Killian’s memory. Yet even seeing it with his own eyes, he had failed to grasp its significance.
Katarina’s boldness in flaunting the jewelry openly within the palace could also be called arrogance, treating everyone in the Imperial family as fools.
She must have known that hardly anyone would ever suspect a woman’s jewelry.
That was where Fabian had miscalculated, Killian thought. Like himself, Fabian had dismissed it as nothing more than a ring or necklace, and thus fell victim to Adelaide’s sudden move.
If Killian had planned the same situation, Fabian would never have allowed Katarina to display her ring or necklace so openly.
“I...”
Adelaide finally opened her mouth.
“I am not your possession.”
"I know.”
“I am your wife. I said that earlier too.”
"I know.”
“His Majesty said he wished for me to live a peaceful life within these palace walls. Back then, I thought it only meant enduring everything for your sake…”
She had taken the Emperor’s words as a threat binding her. Wanting to protect her family, she had lived bound at Killian’s side, constantly placating him.
But having lived through it once, she now understood. The Emperor had wished for her peace, yet that way would only end in making everyone unhappy.
“Your wife is not weak. She is not someone who must be protected by others.”
To be honest, she was still afraid.
The North, which had reached even toward the Emperor, might one day reach for her as well. As Killian said, hiding quietly in a dark bedroom might indeed be the safer path.
But Adelaide no longer wanted that.
"I don't want to lose you anymore, Killy.”
The nickname slipped from her lips. At the sound of it, Killian’s gaze wavered. Adelaide looked straight at him, unwavering.
She had given up once, believing there was no turning back, that she could never forgive Killian. If they were to be given a second chance, then this time, it had to be different.
“At this rate, I’ll end up hating you again. You say you hate it when I’m in danger, but neither do I. You don’t know how painful it is to do nothing and just watch someone you love suffer.”
That sense of self-loathing, that helplessness, eventually turns into resentment toward the other person. At Adelaide’s confession, Killian spoke quietly.
“I understand. Then… will you help me, Adelaide?”
As he said that, Killian gently pulled Adelaide into his arms.
“You’re right. To be honest, I’m exhausted. Just… stay like this for a moment.”
He buried his face in her shoulder. Leaning his weary body against Adelaide, he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
A moment later, he felt Adelaide’s gentle pats on his back. Like someone soothing a child, her touch drew a faint curve of a smile to Killian’s tired lips.
He did not agree with everything Adelaide was saying. Separate from understanding her sincere desire to help him, he was still afraid of losing her. As long as he could keep her by his side, being hated did not matter to him.
Yet seeing Adelaide turn away and leave filled him with a deeper anxiety than he had imagined. It was then he realized that he feared being hated by her just as much as losing her.
“I’ve already heard that the social circles are spreading rumors about you however they please. We can’t keep spending time like this. I know I can’t handle everything perfectly.”
Things he knew but did not want to admit spilled from his mouth.
“Katarina Brundell and the social scene are beyond my reach. We need to keep them in check.”
“Alright.”
"It's not a big deal. Just gathering people like today for a tea party is enough. But when something important like this comes up, I want you to tell me first. And never do anything dangerous.”
“Okay. I won’t. Anything else?”
“And when I look too exhausted, hold me like this. So I can find the strength again.”
“What is that? You sound like a child.”
Even as she said that, the hand patting his back moved up to ruffle his hair. Her fingertips stroked him in a way that felt comforting.
Killian tightened his embrace around his wife. It was true that he had been suffering from severe fatigue. After returning to the palace, resolving the attempted poisoning of his father, keeping Fabian in check, and protecting Adelaide all at once had been relentlessly pressing down on him.
‘It’ll be fine.’
Keeping her confined to the Crown Prince’s quarters would have been easier, but even expanding her range to the palace grounds should be fine. Rose was nearby, and Fabian would be kept from meeting Adelaide as before.
Warm, soft skin could be felt through the thin fabric. Listening to the sound of her heartbeat, he slowly calmed the anxiety that had been thrashing inside him.
It’s fine. He just needed to pay more attention to her than before.
He could do it. He could protect Adelaide.
Thinking that, Killian lifted his head. His gaze met Adelaide’s as she stroked his hair. Adelaide realized what he wanted. Slowly, her fluttering butterfly-like lashes lowered to veil her large eyes, and soon, their lips met in a kiss.
***
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