AWWEWNR Chapter 21

Then she heard the sound of hooves in the distance. 

 

Horses were not allowed in the forest where the hunt was being held. With a strange feeling, she quickly ducked behind a tree.

 

‘Prince Lionel…?!’ 

 

It passed by in a flash, but it was definitely Lionel on horseback. 

 

Although she didn’t have a good sense of hearing, she had a strange feeling. 

 

The fact that he was riding a horse to a hunting festival where horses weren’t allowed, and the fact that he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, as if he had committed a crime.

 

Suddenly, for some reason, I remembered Lloyd, whom I had met briefly at the hunting festival. 

 

They hadn’t been able to talk, as there were separate areas for the royalty and the nobility, but she couldn’t get the image of Lloyd’s face, the way he’d grinned at her like a fool, out of mind. 

 

Hanaella began to run quickly back the way she had come. She looked around to see if anyone was there.

 

Seeing the blood on the ground, she stopped running, caught her breath, and examined it. 

 

There were small pools of blood connecting around the soaked floor. 

 

It was clear that the owner of the blood had defecated here, dragging his wounded body. But the trail led downhill, a steep slope.

 

Gulping down dry saliva, Hanaella began to cautiously follow the trail. 

 

After a while, there was no more blood, and instead, she looked up and saw a small cave entrance that was not easy to find. 

 

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the cave and saw the small trail of blood that had disappeared. 

 

Convinced that this was where the injured man was, Hanayela pulled a light sphere from her pocket and shone it into the cave.

 

In an instant, Hanaella’s eyes widened, “Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”

 

It was Lloyd, crouching with an arrow in his back.

 

“Your Majesty!”

 

Hanaella rushed to him and checked his condition. His white robes were stained red with blood, and his face was pale and blue from the loss of so much blood.

 

“Your Majesty, wake up!”

 

Hanaella called out to him, but he had already lost so much blood that he was on the verge of losing his breath.

 

‘No! He can’t die…! What should I do?! What should I do…!’ 

 

As she panicked at the sight of Lloyd, Hanaella’s mind flashed back to the Ariel family’s secret book she had read in the library not long ago. 

 

How Ariel’s master could heal an ordinary person, not a Knights’ Legion Leader. 

 

She had already proven that she had the power to heal, as she had healed the amputated arm of the next Legionnaire.

 

Hanaella thought for a moment. 

 

She hadn’t wavered in her desire to save Lloyd, but the method of healing, and the fact that it was Ariel’s secret, was a problem. 

 

To heal Lloyd now would mean that he would discover the power that had healed him, and if he did, it was only natural that the Imperial Family would know.

 

The power to heal not only Knights, but normal people, was not something the Imperials would keep quiet about. They would use it somehow. 

 

Besides, the cure would cause a lot of issues later on.

 

But there was no other choice. The Crown Prince would die if left untreated. 

 

Saving him now doesn’t guarantee that it won’t happen again, but it certainly hasn’t happened in the past, when the Crown Prince was attacked at the Hunting Festival.

 

This could be due to her regression and her relationship with the Crown Prince, which had changed things a bit from the past. 

 

If she didn’t save him here, the situation could change, with the Crown Prince dying at the Hunting Festival instead of in the Northern Conquest.

 

Saving him now would not prevent it from happening again later, and she was not sure if it was her fault that it had happened. B

 

but she’d already seen him dying, and there was no reason not to save him while she could.

 

Squeezing her eyes shut tightly with determination, she gripped the arrow in his back and pulled hard, crimson blood gushing out as the arrow slipped out of his back. 

 

Lloyd, who had already lost a lot of blood and was unconscious, didn’t move when the arrow was removed from his back. 

 

Remembering the contents of the secret book, Hanaella cut her finger with the blade.

 

“Hmph.”

 

Groaning at the sharp pain, Hanaella quickly lapped up the blood dripping from her fingers and into Lloyd’s mouth. 

 

The Book of Secrets said that in order to heal an injured normal person, one must connect their genitals and transfer their energy. 

 

However, if the injured person was a man, the act would be difficult if they were unconscious, so the first step was to make them drink blood to bring them back to consciousness.

 

As Hanaella’s blood flowed into his lips, Lloyd instinctively gulped it down, and after a few moments, he slowly opened his eyes, just as the Book of Secrets had written. 

 

Lloyd, who seemed to have no qualms about dying, opened his eyes, a look of wonder on his face and a reminder that the contents of the Book of Secrets were real.

 

“…Lady…Hana…ella…?”

 

“Are you awake?”

 

“…You…how…”

 

Lloyd rolled his eyes and looked around as if trying to make sense of what was happening. 

 

He must have been hit by someone’s arrow, and had he stayed where he was, the next arrow would have gone straight through his heart, so he summoned all the strength he could muster and ducked into the cave.

 

He was never sure who had shot the arrows at him, but he had his suspicions. 

 

There was someone in the imperial court who wanted him dead. 

 

Although his life had been threatened occasionally since he was a child, the number of times had increased since he had come of age.

 

“By any chance, Hanaella, how did Lady… Huh…?”

 

Lloyd’s eyes widened in embarrassment as she casually removed his pants.

 

“What…?”

 

Lloyd called out to Hanaella in confusion, and Hanaella reached down and grabbed his shrinking member.

 

“Hold it upright, Your Highness.”

 

💫

 

Abandoning his horse halfway back to the base, Lionel pressed his trembling hands together and stepped inside the canopy. 

 

He flopped down on one of the sofas arranged there, covering his eyes with his hands, and sighed deeply. 

 

‘I shouldn’t have targeted Lloyd in the first place.’ 

 

He’d spotted the monkey beast and was aiming for it, but Lloyd had appeared out of nowhere and captured it. 

 

He was pulling his bow toward his target, but as soon as he saw Lloyd, he panicked and let go of the bowstring.

 

The arrow lodged in Lloyd’s back, and before Lionel could do anything, Lloyd instinctively ducked, if he stayed down, he would be hanged for the Crown Prince’s murder. 

 

Lionel quickly mounted his horse and rode away. 

 

It was a good thing the Empress had bothered to send him along on an illegal horse.

 

‘Dead…? Is he dead…?’ 

 

Though he’d never had the best relationship with his brother, he had not hated him enough to want to kill him with his own hands. 

 

He was no stranger to the Empress plotting to harm him because his presence meant he could not be Emperor.

 

‘I did not try to prevent it…’ 

 

Even though he didn’t particularly want to be Emperor, he knew that if his brother didn’t die, as the Empress said, he would eventually kill him because he was a threat to his position. 

 

But that didn’t mean he really intended to kill him.

 

Maybe he hadn’t felt it because it was not an openly hostile attack. 

 

But even so, I wondered what was wrong with him that he could not dodge a single arrow, and he had no bodyguard lurking in the shadows.

 

‘What’s going to happen now? What am I going to do…’

 

Anxiously, Lionel clutches his trembling hand tightly. 

 

But as soon as the Empress appeared, he returned to his usual cold stare. 

 

Oh yes, there was always a mother for him. 

 

“Are you taking a break from demon hunting, Lionel?”

 

Her Majesty, who treated him like a Crown Prince.

 

“I’ve been feeling a little under the weather, Mother, but I would have come to see you otherwise.”

 

“Me, what is the matter?”

 

Sourly, Lionel grinned. It was a very frosty, eerie smile.