* * *
The skin of Joel’s body, revealed beneath the shirt, was mottled with bruises and lash marks.
Even a brief glance showed a mixture of healing scars and wounds that looked like they had been inflicted recently.
This was clear evidence of abuse, and the Crown Prince felt an immediate, gut-wrenching realization that the investigation had been flawed from the very first step.
The realization hit him like a bucket of ice water. Now, the only person left to clear Joel’s name and resolve his grievances was the Crown Prince himself.
He felt suffocated by the crushing weight of guilt and regret, but he knew he did not yet have the right to mourn Joel’s death.
Barely regaining his composure, the Crown Prince ordered the soldiers who followed him to preserve the scene and brought Joel back to the capital.
Returning to the Crown Prince’s Palace, he carefully laid Joel down on the bed.
Once he wiped the dried blood from the forehead and closed the half-open eyes, Joel looked as if he were simply in a deep sleep.
Until just a few days ago, seeing Joel sleeping soundly on this bed had been a familiar sight.
For a fleeting second, the Crown Prince fell into the illusion that he had returned to those perfectly happy moments of the past.
Then, an indescribable sense of loss choked him.
He had to exert a tremendous amount of effort to suppress his grief.
Meanwhile, Lord Bennett, who was staying in the capital, rushed to the Imperial Palace the moment he heard the news of Joel’s death.
However, because he did not have the authority to enter the palace grounds, he was driven away by the Imperial guards.
Lord Bennett had been staying in the capital ever since Joel was interrogated for deceiving the Imperial family, struggling to meet his son.
But he never got a chance to speak to him—he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of his son’s face from a distance.
It had been the same when Joel was kicked out of the palace and placed under house arrest at Count Lucas’s mansion.
Lord Bennett had visited the Lucas estate, only to be chased away by the Count’s shouting: “Do you not know what house arrest means? How can you be so reckless as to risk inviting His Majesty’s wrath by causing such a scene? Good heavens, like father, like son!”
In truth, the Count had only accepted Benjamin’s visits because Benjamin was the eldest son of the prestigious Duke Melfis and secretly offered a lump of gold each time he came.
There was no reason to accept the visit of the penniless Lord Bennett.
He couldn’t even offer a single word of comfort while his son was suffering through all sorts of trials, and now, even after hearing the horrific news that his son had died in a carriage accident, he couldn’t even verify with his own eyes if it was true.
In despair, Lord Bennett slumped onto the street and wailed like a child. Fortunately, however, the Crown Prince heard the news and rushed out to meet him.
“Your Highness, is it true… is my son really… that poor child…”
As he followed the Crown Prince, Lord Bennett stopped several times to mutter those words.
But he could never finish the question, for he was deathly afraid of attaching the word “death” to his son’s well-being.
Because his bear-like frame was trembling so violently that he couldn’t steady himself, the surrounding soldiers had to support him.
When he finally entered the bedroom of the Crown Prince’s Palace and saw his son’s body lying peacefully on the bed, Lord Bennett fainted on the spot.
When he woke up a short while later, Lord Bennett knelt before the Crown Prince and pleaded.
“My son may be foolish, but he is not a wicked child at heart. He doesn’t have the guts to tell such a massive lie about being pregnant with an Imperial heir, nor is he meticulous enough to deceive Your Highness and His Majesty. My son was surely tricked by someone.”
The Crown Prince also now saw clearly that Joel was in a position of terrible injustice.
He had personally tended to Joel’s body and seen the lash marks covering that small frame with his own eyes; he felt a deep, gnawing guilt for remaining a bystander while his lover was left in such agony.
The Crown Prince repeatedly promised the sobbing Lord Bennett that he would restore Joel’s honor and find the true culprit who framed him to ensure they were severely punished.
For the next week, the Crown Prince holed himself up in his office, focusing entirely on uncovering the full story behind the pregnancy fraud and the truth of the carriage accident.
Even when he received urgent news that the Emperor had collapsed and coughed up blood during a state council meeting, he only visited his father’s bedroom once to check his condition before returning immediately to his work.
He barely slept for a week, and every time he had a spare moment, he went down to the basement where Joel’s body was kept to promise him revenge.
Strangely, although nearly a week had passed since Joel died, the body showed no signs of decay.
Regarding this bizarre omen hanging over the Imperial family, the people of the palace whispered secretly that Joel’s vengeful spirit had cast a curse, making the Emperor ill and driving the Crown Prince mad.
According to the report from the investigator who examined the scene, the carriage accident that led to Joel’s death was no simple coincidence.
Even though the carriage was shattered, clear traces remained that someone had intentionally sabotaged the wheels.
Joel’s death was a clear, premeditated murder. The Crown Prince’s first suspicion fell upon Count Lucas.
Had the Count not ignored the order to wait for the snow to melt and kicked Joel out immediately?
And had he not intentionally stalled for time when the Crown Prince visited, trying to hide that he had sent Joel away?
The Crown Prince brought in the servant from the Lucas household who always accompanied Joel and interrogated him personally.
He learned that the abuse Joel suffered at the hands of his stepfather was not a recent occurrence.
Count Lucas’s abuse had begun the very moment Joel set foot in the mansion.
He went beyond simply starving and beating Joel; he isolated him from the outside world and drove a wedge between him and his biological father so that Joel would have no one to lean on.
The purpose of such abuse, naturally, was to break Joel and tame him to the Count’s liking.
Only now did the Crown Prince understand why Joel had looked at the meat in the center of the table with such hungry eyes at every banquet. Joel had literally been starving.
When he recalled the past days when he, unaware of this, had looked at Joel with the same contemptuous eyes as the other nobles, it felt as if his heart were being sliced with a knife.
The truth that caused the Crown Prince the most pain was the reality of the pregnancy fraud.
After Joel had barely returned to the estate with his broken body, Count Lucas had tormented him, refusing him food and sleep, to force him to go along with the fraud.
Joel, who hadn’t even been able to recover his health, had finally succumbed to his stepfather’s cunning tongue after being harassed for more than three days.
Carlyle had believed that at least the Count’s statement—that Joel had suggested the idea first—was true, but even that was a lie.
Even the aphrodisiacs that Joel had “admitted” to secretly giving the Crown Prince in the letters were found in a drawer, the count of pills completely unchanged.
The investigator who found the bottle suggested the Count might have miscounted, but the Crown Prince was certain that Joel had never fed him such dirty medicine.
The greatest proof was that he had never experienced a physical state consistent with taking an aphrodisiac.
When he re-read the secret letters between Joel and the Count after knowing the whole truth, the fear Joel felt toward his stepfather was transmitted clearly through the pages.
Joel was nothing more than the innocent boy the Crown Prince had originally known.
There was no hidden wickedness in Joel, as the investigator had claimed or as the Crown Prince himself had suspected.
Carlyle regretted his actions far too late, recalling the night he had gone down to the dungeon to see Joel.
“My father hopes to have your head cut off and hung on the city walls, but I think differently. It isn’t right to place all the blame on your foolish self. Are you not an idiot who doesn’t even realize the weight of the sins you’ve committed? Therefore, the responsibility for this matter should be shared by your biological father, who raised you as a spoiled brat, and your stepfather, who treated you too softly.”
He had been unbearably angry at Joel’s attitude—neither admitting fault, nor begging for forgiveness, nor even pleading for his life.
So, he had thrown insults and mockery at that small back without hesitation.
At the time, he thought Joel was acting out of pride, but in reality, Joel had given up everything and was simply waiting for death.
That poor child already knew that no one—not even the Crown Prince, who was once his lover—was on his side.
Ultimately, since it was the Crown Prince who had made Joel leave for Duke Julian’s estate, he himself was essentially the one who killed that poor child.
Having learned all the facts, the Crown Prince felt so much guilt that he could hardly breathe.
On the other hand, he felt a spark of resentment toward Joel for not putting up any defense.
But even if Joel had pleaded his innocence at that time, would anyone have believed him?
Perhaps even the Crown Prince himself would have dismissed it as Joel spinning more lies to escape the crisis. It was far too cruel to ask Joel, exhausted from long-term abuse, why he hadn’t acted more “rationally.”
Consumed by fury, the Crown Prince stormed out of his office. He intended to immediately arrest Count Lucas, who had fled to his own estate, reveal his crimes clearly, and hand down the punishment he deserved.
* * *
Joel:((