The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 223
Chapter 223
Translator: Yonnee
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In the autumn of the year 480, which was twelve years ago and when Yves Russell was just eight years old…
There was the ‘Visitation Ritual’.
This ritual, secretly passed down through the members of House Russell for hundreds of years, involved the head of the Russell family visiting the heart of Monsterwood—the forbidden region.
This was to check on the changes of ‘Kronos’, who sleeps beneath the Underworld Tree.
Of course, visiting the forbidden region was very dangerous in itself.
If not for the arrangements set by the family’s progenitor, Verad Russell, the Russell family might have faced extinction due to this ritual long ago.
Verad Russell left behind two measures for his descendants.
The first measure was a secret passage connected to the forbidden region.
In the past, this passage extended closer to the mansion, and various spells were placed along it.
However, a major earthquake centuries ago damaged it beyond repair, leaving only an underground passage remaining today.
The second measure was a spell inherited along the family line.
[ Should there be no change in ‘Kronos’, the guardians of the forbidden territory shall not be hostile to the progeny of Russell who possess golden irises. ]
It was unbelievable that such a powerful spell could be inherited through blood alone.
However, at least according to records, there had been no incidents of the Russell family being attacked by monsters during the Visitation Ritual, suggesting Verad Russell’s spell was still effective.
Since a person with golden eyes was essential for the Visitation Ritual, having golden eyes became a condition for becoming the head of the family, which was perhaps a natural development.
However, this also led to another problem.
Initially, the spell was undoubtedly created by Verad Russell to protect his descendants. But as the highly heritable trait of golden eyes became a condition for leadership, many things changed.
The amount of bloodshed within the Russell family over those golden eyes is known only to God.
There was such a case.
A case involving a brilliant but non-golden-eyed elder brother and a younger brother who was not suitable for leadership but had golden eyes.
It was the story of Gideon Russell and Noah Russell.
According to the family’s rules, the headship went to Noah Russell, but Gideon did not accept it.
He waited.
Until Yves, who had golden eyes, was born.
Then, Gideon executed Noah with his own hands and took the position of household head.
But the curse of the golden eyes did not spare Gideon. He ended up not having a child of his own with golden eyes.
Gideon’s wife, Hailey Russell, could not accept that Yves, not her son Ashton, would eventually take over as the head of the family.
“I can’t take this anymore!”
In the fog of the forbidden region that drives people mad, Yves’s aunt screamed.
“The Russell family belongs to Gideon, and the successor after Gideon is my son Ashton! Yves Russell, you! You should just disappear!”
His aunt pushed him, and he fell into the abyss.
In terrible fear, he had to make a choice.
Holding onto the iridescent Kronos, he desperately prayed.
‘I want to live…!’
* * *
Life always turns upside down because of such choices.
It is, after all, one’s own choice, and bearing the consequences is precisely the weight of life.
Yves Russell thought that weight was exactly what he had to bear, having returned alive from the forbidden region.
Perhaps Radis thought so, too.
And she was enduring her fate far more magnificently than he ever could.
Seeing him in despair, Radis turned to him with a calm face.
Her black eyes held the gaze of someone accustomed to the heavy weight of life, which they had no choice but to carry.
Radis sent him a faint smile before turning around and starting to descend the stairs leading to the archives.
Yves Russell could no longer bear it.
He stepped in front of the emperor.
“I cannot allow that. Let me take it instead. I will receive the Geas.”
His words stopped Emperor Claude in his tracks.
“Dear young Marquis. Do you understand what you are saying? You, a Marquis, would receive a Geas for the sake of a mere vassal?”
Yves Russell nodded.
“Yes.”
It was the most definite answer he had ever given in his life.
Since he brought her here, he couldn’t let her suffer more.
If this was the only thing he could do for her, he was willing to bear that burden for the rest of his life without regret.
The emperor asked.
“Why?”
Cruelly, it was in answering the emperor’s brutal question that Yves Russell finally realized his own heart.
‘It’s because, towards Radis I… I…’
Discovering his lips quivering, Emperor Claude burst into laughter in his face.
“Kuhahaha!”
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