Chapter 30. Obsolescence

Translator: AdCaelum

Editor: meli

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I actually had trouble figuring out how I wanted to handle the chapter title. I think this one worked the best.

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“Huh? What’s going on? And Asher, what are you doing…?” Noah interjected.

Everyone present beside the bowing Asher turned in his direction. Noah should have been taken to one the rooms by Hugo, but he was currently rushing over to Asher, confused by the situation.

“Wait! Don’t go over there, Noah!”

Hugo tried to pull Noah back to him, but Noah was already out of reach. The young prince peered into Asher’s face in concern.

“Asher, why are you—” Noah caught sight of Asher’s moist eyes, tears threatening to fall. Just at that moment, Asher blinked and caused one to roll down his face. Noah’s eyes opened wide in shock. He immediately turned to Lillian and Ford standing in front of Asher. “What’s going on here?”

“Noah! It’s fine! Just come back here.” Hugo attempted once more. “They’ve got business with Asher—”

“Hugo, be quiet!” Noah had never spoken back to Hugo like that before. As such, Hugo looked terribly shocked and hurt by those words. Noah demanded, “Why is Asher crying?! Who made him cry?!”

Ford was so taken aback by Noah’s threatening look that he retreated to protect Lillian. Everyone knew that the fourth prince Noah stuck closely to the second prince Hugo. Likewise, that he was young and delicate. Yet the Noah before them had rage burning in those golden eyes.

“Noah… no, it’s not like that…” Asher quickly wiped his tears and grabbed Noah’s shoulders, but Noah kept Ford in his sights.

“Then, why are you crying?! Ward! Theodore! You two saw what happened, right? Arrest the one who had Asher cry!”

“Noah!” Asher hugged Noah from behind. “Thank you, but you can’t. These people did nothing wrong.”

“But!” Asher tried to calm Noah down, but Noah continued to glare at Ford.

Lillian scoffed at Noah. “Ahahaha! Of course! Spoken like true royalty! ‘Arrest them! Arrest and execute them!’”

“What did you say?!” Noah angrily responded.

“It’s that simple, no?! Any human who dares to oppose the royal family like me or all the powerless beastfolk are nothing more than trash to you, right?!”

Noah was ready to shout back when Asher gently covered Noah’s mouth.

Asher faced Lillian, who continued even now to glare at him. He told her, “That’s not true. I mean it. I will not arrest you. Besides, you have done nothing to deserve that.”

“Oh, are you sure? Wasn’t my attitude towards you princes disrespectful?”

Noah removed Asher’s hand and shouted, “Yeah! It was disrespectful! An offense!”

All the beastfolk and humans in the eatery went pale at Noah’s declaration. Ford also changed his attitude. His face twisted as he held Lillian back and looked over at Hugo. However, Hugo didn’t notice Ford’s gaze at all. He merely watched Noah with a conflicted expression on his face.

“They weren’t being disrespectful to the crown…” Asher gently explained, “Noah, I was the one who was mean to them first.”

“What…?”

“And the reason I was crying before was that I couldn’t believe what a terrible person I was… What I did in the past scares me… That’s why these people didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But…”

“Besides, Noah… we’re royalty. We can’t arrest someone just because we want to.”

“I… had a reason though…”

“I know. You said that because you were angry on my behalf. Thank you.” Asher tenderly patted Noah on the head and awkwardly smiled. “But I admit to my wrongdoings… That’s why I was apologizing.”

“But why do you have to apologize?! Nnngh! Fine. You’ve already apologized, so why is everyone looking at you with such mean faces?! Why haven’t they forgiven you yet?! You said you’re sorry, but they’re still bullying you!”

“He asks why we haven’t forgiven him?!” Lillian grew angrier and glared at Noah. Just as she was about to step forward Ford frantically stopped her.

“Lillian, stop it already!”

Lillian ignored him and continued to shout. “You make it sound like I’m wrong for not forgiving him! Is my life so worthless that a single apology is enough to tie everything up in a neat, little bow?!”

The crazed Lillian grew violent and tried to approach Noah. At that moment, Hugo, who had been silent on the sidelines, stepped in front of Noah and said to Lillian in a low voice and with cold eyes. “Noah’s not part of this. Don’t forget that… Noah, come here.”

“Hugo…? But Asher—”

“Noah, you’re being tricked. There’s no way that guy actually cried. You heard it, right? He’s the bad guy. That’s why I gathered everyone here today.”

Noah didn’t seem to agree with Hugo’s explanation. “What do you mean…? You’re saying you had these people bully Asher…?”

“No! That’s not it, Noah. This guy started—”

“I can’t believe you…” Noah trembled and glared at Hugo. He threw off Asher’s arms that had been holding him and loudly shouted, “I hate you, Hugo!!!”

“N-Noah?!”

Noah took off. He crawled between the legs of the bear beastfolk blocking the door and ran outside.

“Fuck!” Hugo cursed. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way! Hey, Ward! Go with the other soldiers outside and quickly find Noah!”

“R-right away!”

Ward was taken by surprise and paused for a moment to look at Asher, but he promptly left the eatery, slipping past the bear beastfolk and going after Noah.

Not hiding his irritation, Hugo violently kicked the chair in front of Asher. He roared, “What’s with that piss-poor acting?! ‘I’m the bad one.’ The fuck is that?! There’s no point in covering things up with that shitty act!”

“Hugo, please—” Asher begged.

“Stop talking so formally with me!!!” Hugo’s face twisted into a nasty snarl. He ignored Asher’s scared reaction and turned to Ford and sighed. “Ford, you clearly explained everything to that woman, right?”

“I deeply apologize…”

Hugo clicked his tongue at Ford’s apology and slowly approached Lillian. “Don’t you dare speak to Noah again.”

Lillian didn’t respond, but Hugo also said no more.

“Prince Hugo, why have you done such a thing?” At this time, Theodore stepped up from behind Asher and promptly asked Hugo. Asher had wanted to ask, but he was scared stiff ever since Hugo kicked the chair.

“That guy suddenly changed his personality and the number of people tricked by this farce increased… so I thought I would unmask him for who he is.”

“But did you need to do it in such a way during Prince Asher’s birthday festival of all days?”

“Why are you taking his side?”

“…”

“Oh, yeah. ‘Cause you’re his personal knight, right?!”

“Your Highness,” Theodore addressed Asher, “let us return to the castle. I only agreed we stay here as long as they intended to do no harm…but it appears that they have not upheld their promise.” Theodore threw a glance at Lillian before turning his attention to the bear beastfolk. The bear beastfolk flinched under Theodore’s gaze and slowly moved away from the door. “Let us be on our way.”

Theodore took Asher’s hand and walked the prince to the door. But before exiting, Asher turned around and looked right at Lillian. He next looked around the room with a pained expression. He appeared so fragile that he would break from a single light touch.

“I will not ask for forgiveness,” he declared. “That would be too egotistical of me… I simply wish to apologize… for all the terrible things I’ve done to you… to you all…”

Asher bowed deeply once more before he left the eatery. No one tried to stop him from leaving. Even Lillian felt her chest ache for a moment, but she quickly crushed the feeling with her fist.

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