“…!”

Cail’s eyes widened.

It was her.

She was standing before him.

And with a very angry face.

‘How did she find this place…’

Cail stared blankly at Jella, unable to comprehend the situation for a moment.

At this point, Helasio in Cail’s palm spoke as if suddenly remembering something.

[Oh, right, Cail! Jella told me to tell you that you should be prepared when she catches you!]

“…”

Cail’s lips parted in confusion.

Thud.

As a result, Helasio, who had been in his hand, fell to the ground.

[Hey, Cail! You need to untie this necklace!]

Helasio complained from the floor, still tightly bound by the necklace, but unfortunately, his voice didn’t reach Cail’s ears.

There was no time to deeply consider how she had found the barrier.

Because she was angry right now. Very angry.

When she was truly angry, she would twist the corners of her lips upward like that and smile while coldly staring at the other person. Many people would become frightened by that expression and run away.

Cail had been prepared since the moment he made the contract with Helasio against her wishes, knowing that her cold anger might be directed at him someday when she learned the whole truth.

Nevertheless, seeing her truly angry, his heart painfully constricted much more than he had anticipated, tormenting him.

“I’m sure I told you. Don’t think about running away from me.”

As she approached saying those words, Cail instinctively tried to step back.

“Trying to run away again!”

But Jella instantly leaped and landed in front of Cail, grabbing his collar with both hands and yanking him.

Cail’s large body was caught without resisting her touch, bringing the two very close.

At a distance so close that their breaths could touch, her red eyes were staring directly at him.

“Didn’t I tell you not to disappear from me? After saying that, why do you keep running away?”

“…”

Cail’s Adam’s apple moved slightly under that burning gaze.

Once, there had been a similar day.

A day when the pathetic Cail Aleret, afraid that his presumptuous feelings toward her had been discovered, ran away from her and hid in the empty princess’s palace.

It was also the day he finally admitted to himself that he loved her.

That day too, she had eventually found him hiding. And that day too, she had…

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

“So don’t think about running away like you just did ever again. You can’t go anywhere until I let you go.”

She had told him. Don’t run away. Stay firmly by her side.

And that day, he had resolved at her feet to become her eternal servant.

But…

‘You were the one who abandoned me.’

I kept that day’s promise to never run away from you again.

So, even though I committed an unforgivable sin against you by saving the dragon you wanted to eliminate with your life.

Even though I thought you might hate me the moment you found out about this.

Nevertheless, I appeared before you, wanting to be your servant again.

‘Please don’t abandon me, Jella. My master.’

‘That’s right, my master…’

‘After abandoning me so cruelly, you won’t take me back?’

After meeting you again, even knowing you were pretending not to know me, I tried to place my leash, which you had let go, back into your hands.

“From today, I’ll be working here. Ah, should I call you sister here?”

“Take me with you, Jella. Let me be by your side.”

Even knowing you were trying to get rid of me somehow, I lingered around you, persistently clinging.

Because I promised.

Because I swore.

That I wouldn’t go anywhere without you.

But you…

“I-I’ll say this clearly, I am not the woman named Jella that you’re looking for.”

“Now that you’ve become a hero, wouldn’t it be good to go back to your homeland and live happily with your clan?”

You pretended not to know me and tried to send me far away. You kept pushing me away like that.

Don’t run away? Why do I keep running away?

But you were the one who let go of my leash first.

You were the one who pushed me away, telling me to leave, when I was trying not to run away and stay by your side.

Even to the point…

“Cail Aleret, fulfill the oath made in the name of the dragon Helasio.”

As his thoughts reached that final, most cruel moment of rejection from her, Cail felt something burst inside him, emotions he had been suppressing for a long time.

“…You were the one who abandoned me first.”

A chillingly low voice suddenly flowed through his teeth.

“You told me not to run away from you, but you were the one who abandoned me.”

“Cail…?”

Momentarily confused, Jella loosened her grip on him as she saw his cold, sunken eyes.

But her hands, which were slipping away, were immediately caught by two stronger hands.

Cail dared to look her straight in the eye.

Jella stared at him completely motionless, his cold eyes containing a fierce light.

Though she could have easily pushed away his hands that held her, she couldn’t shake them off.

Even Helasio, who had been struggling on the floor, closed his mouth and observed cautiously, rolling his eyes back and forth in the quiet tension flowing between the two.

“For the past 5 years since your death, I had to live in this world as the hero who killed you.”

“…”

“Why did you do it? Why did you abandon me in such a cruel way?”

If you were going to abandon me so cruelly, you should have never let me know.

You should have never let me know how warm and comforting your kindness was, how great the joy of belonging to you was.

“I hate you. I hate you. I hate you so much for making me kill you with my own hands.”

Once his long-suppressed resentment burst out, it flowed endlessly.

This isn’t right, I should stop now. If I upset her with these rude, wicked words, she might abandon me again.

“You told me to be a knight who protects you. But that wasn’t true.”

But d*mn it, his mouth wouldn’t stop.

“You brought me to kill you.”

In front of her wavering, agitated eyes, Cail drove the final nail into this resentment with a voice that sounded like sobbing.

“Why did you make me kill you with my own hands…”

***

Cail loved every moment he spent with Jella as much as he loved her.

But even for him, there were moments that remained as resentment.

That day was one of them.

“Promise me, Cail. On my twentieth birthday, you will grant me one wish.”

“I will.”

The moment he answered readily, a strange power enveloped him, and a black magic circle bloomed above his head.

“Your Majesty…?”

When Cail looked up with a confused face, Jella spoke in a deliberately intriguing voice.

“So you can feel this power.”

“This is…”

“The shackles of an oath.”

“…?”

Seeing Cail’s uncharacteristically bewildered expression, Jella burst into laughter.

“You know, there are rumors going around. That the witch of Shunaibel was born after eating her parents, cursed by an ancient dragon.”

“Who would dare use such disrespectful words about Your Majesty…!”

“That’s actually true.”

Jella cut off Cail’s indignant response with a grin.

“Because the first Emperor sealed a dragon in Shunaibel’s heart, right here.”

Jella kindly pointed to where her heart was located as she explained.

“An ancient dragon dwells in here. And I just used that dragon’s power to place on you the shackles of an oath that must keep whatever is spoken aloud.”

She was explaining so nonchalantly, as if it were someone else’s business, that there was a dragon parasitizing her body, when suddenly she noticed the expression on Cail’s face and paused.

“Why are you making that face?”

“It seems Your Majesty doesn’t trust me.”

“Huh?”

“Even without something like this, I would follow any of Your Majesty’s orders.”

Cail had never shown any sign of feeling hurt in front of Jella.

He had never dared to do so, even when she didn’t understand his feelings, even when she left him for her fiancé.

But at this moment, thinking he couldn’t fulfill his only usefulness, he expressed his hurt feelings almost like a child throwing a tantrum.

At this, Jella made a slightly awkward expression, then spoke in a soothing, kind voice.

“It’s not like that. It’s because I trust you too much, that’s why.”

“…?”

“So don’t make such a sad face, Cail Aleret.”

Cail couldn’t understand her words.

Only when his sword pierced her heart did he understand what she meant.

At the same time, it was the fact that Cail Aleret had been denying all along.

That from a very long time ago, she had planned her death and brought him into her service for this purpose.