Throughout the event that day, Cail watched her from a distance.

He watched her and the man beside her.

She sat at the place of honor with an indifferent expression, looking down with boredom, but occasionally she would listen to her fiancé’s whispers, nodding and smiling slightly.

Seeing the two of them match so perfectly made his heart sink strangely.

And that night, when Cail stood by her bedside as always to relieve the magical energy accumulated in her body.

Suddenly, the scene he had witnessed during the day flickered before his eyes.

That elegant hand gesture, holding her hand, and that aristocratic movement of lowering lips onto the back of her hand.

Recalling that motion which he had reimagined hundreds, thousands of times throughout the day, Cail slowly reached his hand toward her.

Was the tilt of the wrist like this? Was the angle of the bending fingers like that?

Her hair wrapped softly around his rough fingertips, calloused from years of work.

Just once for me.

Just once, like that man…

After crossing a line he had never crossed during countless nights of guarding her, he pressed his lips onto her beautiful hair as if entranced.

She touched his rough lips.

Cail was so enraptured by the fact that he was touching her that he remained frozen in the same position, unaware of how much time had passed, simply touching her.

He shouldn’t have done it.

A lowly slave daring to imitate her fiancé while she slept.

She woke up, their eyes met, and Cail fled.

What should I do? What should I do now?

The misery he had felt during the day turned into utter despair in an instant.

Hiding in the empty space of the princess’s palace, which she had not visited for a long time, Cail despaired.

Feeling as though she had discovered his most pathetic and terrible emotions, he wished he could simply turn to dust and disappear.

Tap tap, tap tap tap.

He could feel her approaching.

Cail could no longer run away and just looked down at the ground.

Her footsteps, which had always unknowingly made the corners of his mouth relax, now sounded as terrifying as the approach of death.

Finally, her shadow fell before him.

The sound of her catching her breath fell upon his head.

Cail couldn’t bring himself to look up and prostrated himself at her feet, apologizing.

I’m sorry, Your Majesty.

I’m sorry.

I… dared to commit an improper act.

I will accept punishment.

Please punish me.

Please, kill me…

He apologized endlessly, not even knowing what he was saying.

“Cail Aleret.”

She called him in a rigid voice. It was the sternest tone Cail had ever heard from her.

Ah, she really is very angry…

Tears welled up at that thought.

Grab.

She bent down and suddenly grabbed his face, lifting it up.

Their gazes met unexpectedly.

Cail stared at her blankly before startling and lowering his eyes.

“Why did you run away?”

“…Please kill me.”

Jella’s face contorted abruptly.

“What?”

“…”

“Say it again, properly.”

“I will accept punishment. So please kill me…”

“Is that all you have to say to me right now?”

Jella coldly cut him off. Cail squeezed his eyes shut and said:

“I… forgot my place and committed a grave crime. So please punish me.”

“A grave crime.”

She muttered in a flat voice.

“You mean touching my hair just now, is that what you’re talking about?”

“…”

At her direct question, Cail’s face crumpled.

Jella silently studied Cail’s face, which looked like he might burst into tears if asked why he had done it.

His throat dried up in that silence.

When the quiet stillness became unbearable, and he wished she would say something, anything.

She released Cail’s face, which she had been holding until then.

“Yes, touching the Emperor’s body without permission is indeed a grave crime.”

Jella said with a short sigh, brushing back her hair that had fallen over her forehead.

“But Cail Aleret, when you commit a grave crime, you don’t run away and hide out of fear. You should confess your crime before me and ask for forgiveness.”

She slowly crouched down in front of Cail to meet his eye level. Then she looked directly at him with the most frightening expression he had ever seen.

“Why would you run away and then immediately ask to be killed when caught? Why would you say such a thing carelessly? After all the trouble I went through to find you and bring you here, you ask me to kill you? Is your life that cheap to you?”

She was clearly angry, but there was a hint of hurt in her voice. It seemed like she was scolding him, but in reality, she was admonishing him.

Realizing this, Cail felt like crying for a different reason than before.

“I…”

Cail said in a roughly broken voice.

“I was wrong, Your Majesty. I will never again take lightly this life that you have given me. So…”

Even at a time like this, why was his voice so rough and not elegant like that man’s?

“So please forgive me. I was wrong, Your Majesty…”

As he swallowed his surging emotions and asked for forgiveness, her rigid expression softened a little.

“Yes, from now on, don’t run away but ask for forgiveness like this.”

She smiled slightly and reached her hand toward Cail’s hair.

Swish, swish.

At her stroking touch, Cail unconsciously drew in a breath.

“Good boy, Cail.”

“…”

Strangely, he didn’t dislike those words from this woman much smaller than himself, who whispered as if soothing a child.

The warmth she offered was so sweet that he had the absurd thought that if he could be immersed in this sweet warmth forever, he wouldn’t mind becoming a child.

After a while, her hand fell away.

Cail looked at her fingertips that had touched him with regretful eyes, then abruptly asked.

“Will you… not punish me?”

“Since you asked for forgiveness, I’ll specially forgive you.”

She answered with a pretense of benevolence, but her expression was extremely arrogant.

Such… a kind person.

She was kind.

She simply forgave him for his wrongdoing without asking anything.

But, Your Majesty.

Why don’t you ask for the reason?

Why don’t you ask what I was doing at your bedside, why I did such a thing?

Why don’t you ask anything of me who dared to touch you, who dared to imitate your fiancé and commit such a presumptuous act?

Cail wanted to ask.

Despite being a coward who ran away fearing she would ask for the reason, he felt this way.

“But I’m not done talking yet.”

Suddenly, she hardened the corners of her eyes.

“You dare run away when I call you?”

She snapped, making a crooked expression as if she was still angry thinking about it.

“I was wrong…”

As Cail tried to apologize immediately as he had just learned, she sharply cut off his words.

“I clearly told you before. Since I decided to keep you by my side, don’t harbor the vain hope that you can escape me.”

“Ah…”

A short exclamation burst from between Cail’s teeth.

“Until I give permission, you must remain firmly by my side.”

“…”

Cail stared at her with his lips parted blankly.

“You committed a grave crime? I understand you committed a grave crime. But you’ll have to pay for that crime by my side, Cail Aleret.”

“…”

Jella grinned at Cail, who couldn’t answer.

“No matter how many times you run away and hide, you’ll be caught by me again and return to my side.”

Jella said eerily, as if threatening him with a chilling expression.

“So don’t think about running away like you just did ever again.”

But strangely, Cail didn’t find her face and voice frightening.

Rather, it was… rapturous.

“You can’t go anywhere until I let you go.”

Those words, implying she would never let him go, felt like a sweet whisper promising she would never abandon him.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Cail felt a lump in his throat and squeezed his eyes shut.

Yes, Your Majesty.

I won’t go anywhere.

Even if a day comes when I commit an unforgivable sin against you.

I still won’t leave.

I’ll stay by your side, remain for a long, long time, even if a day comes when you say you dislike me, find me annoying, and tell me to go away.

I still won’t go anywhere.

I will never remove the collar you placed around my neck, not until the moment I enter my coffin.

So, please don’t abandon me either, Your Majesty.

Even if you call me a hopeless servant, there’s nothing else I can do now.

I want to be bound to you. I want to be tied to you.

Because you alone hold my leash, because I am yours.