Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 15
The chapters are split like this so that the TL can update more consistently over time (✿ ＞◡❛)
Étienne shouted, panicked.
“Where the hell did all the knights go?”
But shouting wouldn’t suddenly make the missing knights reappear. Ezekiel, instead of replying, wiped the rain pouring down his face.
It was a storm.
It had started out as nothing—just a light drizzle, and Felicia’s carriage had begun to lag behind.
Étienne, amused, had deliberately spurred his horse ahead, widening the distance between them, enjoying how flustered Ducal Lady Arbois looked.
Of course, he had also calculated that as the soon-to-be Crown Prince, Ducal Lady Arbois wouldn’t dare raise her voice at him.
The knights, flustered, had split into two groups—one to guard Ducal Lady Arbois’s carriage, and the other to follow the two princes.
The trouble began when the rain started to fall harder.
“Wahoo!”
Under normal circumstances, they would’ve stopped and sought shelter.
But Étienne was overly excited. The plains of the Arbois Duchy were vast, and it felt like he could ride forever.
He even outran the knights, galloping ahead at full speed.
The horse Étienne rode was one of the finest military horses owned by the imperial family, with the best lineage. Naturally, he quickly left the knights behind.
“Your Highness!”
Seeing the knights’ faces, on the verge of collapse, Ezekiel couldn’t just stand by.
With a sigh, he spurred his horse forward.
The horse Ezekiel rode was a sibling to Étienne’s, so catching up wasn’t impossible—though it wasn’t easy either.
After riding hard for quite some time, Ezekiel finally caught up to Étienne, who had stopped in a sparsely wooded area and was looking around in fear.
When he saw Ezekiel, his face lit up.
“Ez!”
“Brother!”
“Where are we?”
And right then, they both realized—they were lost. Étienne’s arms slumped weakly.
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine. If you had fun for the first time in a while, then that’s enough.”
Given how overworked Étienne was back in the capital, his overexcitement had perhaps been inevitable.
Ezekiel’s horse huffed and foamed at the mouth. Even in the rain, the two horses were steaming from how hard they had run.
Ezekiel thought the priority now was to rest the horses.
“The knights will find us soon. Let’s try to find the nearby road.”
While chasing after Étienne, Ezekiel had thrown markers along the way—his headband, decorative items—anything the knights could recognize.
With the storm, most were probably washed away, but surely some could still be found.
Ezekiel asked Étienne for the map. But as Étienne searched his clothes, his face turned pale.
“It’s gone.”
He must have dropped it somewhere during the wild ride.
Ezekiel barely managed to suppress a sigh.
“Then let’s follow the nearby river. If I remember correctly, there are villages along the major river in this area.”
Though they couldn’t see the sky due to the storm, Ezekiel had caught glimpses of the map earlier beside Étienne and memorized it.
According to his memory, if they headed northwest, there should be a small domain.
“Quilluxia, I believe it was called.”
“Oh, I’ve heard that name somewhere. Ah.”
Étienne recalled it from the back of his mind.
Originally, it hadn’t even been on the list for inspection. There was no need to visit it. But Étienne had deliberately added it.
“I came across an audacious letter while handling court affairs in the capital.”
“What was it?”
“Baron Quilluxia is sick, and due to flooding, he hasn’t been able to collect rents, so he asked if this year’s taxes could be waived…”
It wasn’t unusual for lords to plead for tax reductions.
But to request a full exemption—now that was brazen. Étienne chuckled, clearly amused, as though he’d forgotten they were stranded.
“But the name sounded familiar, so I looked into it, and it turns out it’s a title bound to the imperial family.”
That was rather unusual.
“Do you know how the title was granted?”
“What was it?”
“Well…”
With no one around to hear, Étienne leaned in and whispered.
“Apparently, back when His Majesty was secretly courting our mother, someone from Quilluxia caught him when he accidentally fell off a terrace.”
