The long night passed and day broke.

When Cail didn’t appear at the time he was supposed to report for work, people from the imperial palace came looking for him, but despite knocking several times, they returned empty-handed due to Cail’s lack of response.

Eventually, Jella came to find him herself.

“Cail Aleret, I’m coming in now.”

Opening the unlocked door, Jella momentarily paused at the sight inside the room. Yuria’s hair and faint bloodstains on the carpet caught her eye.

She stared at them blankly for a moment before moving further inside. Then she was startled to discover Cail sitting on the floor.

His pale complexion and trembling body looked like those of someone seriously ill to anyone who saw him.

“Cail!”

At her voice, Cail raised his head dazedly.

“Your Majesty…?”

He blinked slowly. Gradually, he realized that it was truly her standing before him.

“Are you sick? I’ll call a doctor right away…!”

Just as Jella was about to stand up and call outside.

“No, Your Majesty.”

Cail grabbed the hem of Jella’s clothes and shook his head.

“I’m not sick, Your Majesty. I’m not sick, I just…”

He couldn’t continue speaking and bowed his head deeply.

How could he possibly say that he had been awake all night, suffering from fear of being abandoned by her?

So Cail just trembled while clutching the hem of her clothes.

After watching him for a moment, Jella let out a deep sigh, then called servants to clean the room.

Cail, unable to look her directly in the face, mumbled.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Just… for causing Your Majesty concern…”

“So you know that’s wrong?”

Jella said with a slight smile.

“Don’t be sick, Cail Aleret.”

“I’m really not sick…”

He froze. Cail, who was about to protest that he wasn’t sick, became still. Her hand was gently stroking his hair.

“When you’re sick, I worry. If you don’t intend to cause me concern again, don’t be sick.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Cail nodded obediently under her gentle touch as she ran her fingers through his hair.

As time passed, his reason gradually returned. Reflecting on the events of that day, Cail arrived at a certain hypothesis.

Could it be that Her Majesty’s fiancé requesting to break off the engagement and Her Majesty’s friend turning his back while protecting that woman were all because of that strange impulse felt the moment their eyes met?

As soon as that thought occurred to him, Cail’s expression sank coldly.

Since that woman appeared, the number of people cursing Her Majesty had increased significantly. Because of this, Her Majesty had to swallow her loneliness alone.

It was all because of that woman.

With the determination to finally gouge out that woman’s eyes, Cail went looking for Yuria.

He discovered Niel and Yuria having a secretive conversation in the deserted backyard of the imperial palace.

It was as he was approaching them silently.

A voice so quiet that ordinary people couldn’t hear it stopped his steps.

“This is terrible, Niel. It seems it will be difficult to persuade Sir Cail.”

“Wasn’t it said that only Sir Cail could kill her?”

“Yes, the deity said that only Sir Cail, the heir of the Hersha clan, could kill the Emperor and the evil dragon…”

“…”

“Sir Cail is a being arranged to kill Jella Shunaibel.”

Eavesdropping on their conversation, Cail’s expression became as if he had been struck by something.

Cail stood in the same spot for a long time, blankly staring at Niel and Yuria. Even after they finished their suspicious conversation and disappeared, he couldn’t move.

The small dragon he had found in her heart. That must be the evil dragon that woman was talking about.

Cail didn’t know what Hersha was or what an heir meant.

But he had been proud that he could alleviate her magical energy because he was the heir of Hersha.

However, at the same time, Yuria’s words that he was a being who could kill her because he was the heir of Hersha made him feel like many things he had believed until now were breaking.

Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

‘Is it really a coincidence that I, the only being who can kill her, am by her side?’

The moment that thought occurred to him, a chilling fear consumed him.

‘No. That can’t be. Her Majesty… Her Majesty told me to become a knight who protects her.’

Cail ran toward Jella’s office with a pale face.

“Cail?”

Jella, who happened to be reviewing state affairs alone, looked puzzled at his appearance.

“I have something to ask.”

Cail approached her and asked abruptly.

“Why was it me?”

“…?”

“Why did you specifically bring me to your side?”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

Jella asked in confusion, but Cail persisted and asked again.

“Please tell me. Of all the many people you could have chosen, why did you specifically place me, the most unsightly and inadequate, by your side?”

To this, Jella frowned and said.

“Who says you’re unsightly and inadequate? Have those foolish nobles been giving you trouble again?”

“I’m just stating the facts…”

“You are the most precious and strongest person among those I could have by my side. So don’t belittle yourself with such words. If anyone speaks carelessly about the person I’ve chosen, even if it’s you, I won’t forgive them.”

“…”

“You asked why I kept you by my side? It’s because it’s you. Because you are the most brilliant among those I could have beside me.”

“…”

To Cail, who was staring at her blankly, Jella grinned and asked.

“Well, does that answer your question?”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Cail nodded and withdrew.

He should not have believed those words.

Even after that day, he often remembered Yuria’s voice.

“Sir Cail is a being arranged to kill Jella Shunaibel.”

I am a being arranged for her death? No, that can’t be. Because I…

“Become a knight who protects me.”

…Yes, I am a knight who protects Her Majesty.

The idea that I am a being arranged for Her Majesty’s death is nonsensical.

Even if, as that crazy woman said, I truly am the only one who can kill her because I am the heir of Hersha, it doesn’t matter.

If I am truly the only one who can kill Her Majesty, then as long as I protect her, she will never die.

Yes, so perhaps this is… a noble mission to protect Her Majesty.

I am the only being who can protect Her Majesty.

Thus, Cail denied what he had heard and believed so.

Even when she presented the holy sword she claimed to have stolen from the Holy Country.

Even on the day she revealed the existence of the evil dragon and placed the shackles of the oath.

He insisted that he was never a being meant for her death, but a being solely for her protection.

Though he denied it to the end, it ultimately became the truth.

The moment his sword pierced her heart, Cail finally had to acknowledge.

The fact that she had brought him for her own death.

‘So I was never a knight meant to protect her from the beginning. I was a being arranged to kill her.’

Cail wept with regret before her coldly cooling body.

The belief that he could protect her was all his own greed and arrogance.

On the day he learned he was a being arranged for her death, he should have taken his own life with these hands.

If he had done so, she would not have died.

Thus, Cail resented her for lying when she told him to become a knight who protects her, but at the same time, he cursed himself for killing her.

“You brought me to kill you.”

So this unceasing resentment was, in fact, sharp remorse aimed not at her but at the pathetic Cail Aleret who failed to protect her.

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

Before this abundant sorrow, regret, and resentment, Jella’s eyes shook violently.