“A stalker?”
“Yes, they say it’s His Majesty’s stalker! Apparently, they pounced on His Majesty?”
“From what I heard, they slapped His Majesty’s cheek to get his attention?”
“Come on, no way. Who would dare to lay a hand on His Majesty’s cheek… Such a bold person…”
At that moment, a flash of light gleamed in Cail’s eyes.
‘It’s her!’
Cail, who instinctively realized that the stalker in people’s conversations was her, immediately prepared to leave.
As he flung open the door and came out, his adjutant passing by in the corridor asked in surprise.
“Lord Cail? Where are you going…”
“The hunting ground.”
Cail passed by his adjutant, leaving only this brief word.
“Huh? But you said you weren’t going?”
The adjutant tilted his head and asked, but he had already disappeared swiftly like the wind.
[I’m coming too!]
Helasio flapped his wings and chased after him.
And when he arrived at the forest.
As he caught his breath, he saw her in the distance.
‘Ah…!’
His face brightened up and then immediately stiffened again.
He had spotted the man aligning his horse’s head next to hers.
‘….’
Cail felt something sink in a corner of his heart.
He had felt this way for a very long time, whenever he saw her with that man.
Niel Alpenhayer.
The man who had been his master’s fiancé, who was like the epitome of nobility.
Unlike him, a lowly slave who rolled in the mud, this man was just lofty and elegant.
The man who had the dignity that suited best to be beside his master, who had the whole world at her feet.
The man who knew how to pity even the unsightly slave hovering around his fiancée, and thus made him feel even more miserable.
At this moment, that man turned his head. Their gazes met.
The elegant and neat smile that had always been on that man’s face disappeared abruptly.
“……”
“……”
In a brief silence, the raw gazes of the two men intertwined.
But soon the man turned his head and drew a picture-perfect smile on his lips.
Watching the man’s smug profile as he ostentatiously conversed with Jella, Cail clenched his fist tightly.
It was the same that day.
Yuria. The day he discovered that woman in this forest.
On that day too, he had to steal glances from afar at her and her fiancé having an intimate conversation like this.
On that particular day, she had been especially reluctant to keep him by her side, and so he had no choice but to be left alone.
‘Your place is always far away, and my place is always here.’
Cail slowly closed and opened his eyes.
‘This is the unchanging truth, even after you died and my world was turned upside down.’
He didn’t know before.
Why his heart feel like it was sinking and grating whenever she was with that man.
But now he knows.
It was a feeling he would have preferred not to know.
***
“By the way, Your Majesty, aren’t you going to hunt?”
Niel, who had been silently riding his horse, turned to the side at that question.
“Does Miss Jella like hunting?”
“No, not really.”
Jella tilted her head curiously.
“I heard it was a hunting festival, but this just feels like we’re taking a horse ride.”
Niel smiled gently at her words.
“Isn’t it not bad to stroll down a quiet forest path? The imperial palace is always noisy.”
“Yes, well, that’s true.”
She was about to say something more but stopped. Her tightly pursed lips, as if dissatisfied, were cute.
Niel felt like he knew what she wanted to say even without her speaking further.
She probably wanted to ask why he had called her for guard duty if this was all they were going to do.
A silent laugh escaped through his teeth.
At this moment, he suddenly felt a gaze from behind.
It was a gaze filled with emotion that couldn’t be hidden even with a perfectly concealed presence.
Niel turned around.
And he found him. Cail Aleret, staring intently at him and her.
In an instant, the expression disappeared from Niel’s face.
‘Cail Aleret, do you no longer even try to hide your emotions?’
He hardened his eyes as he saw the raw emotions displayed on Cail’s face.
The reason why meeting that man’s gaze was this unpleasant was probably because of the memory of that day.
It was in this forest then too.
The day that man brought Saint Yuria.
The day that was also her eighteenth birthday.
It was also the last day he could enjoy this quiet peace with her.
Niel remembers the moments he fell in love with her. He remembers every single moment without exception.
The young princess expressed with her whole body ‘I don’t want to be friends with you’ from their first meeting.
To Niel, who had been taught from a young age not to show emotions carelessly, Jella was a very strange existence.
She was always unrestrained… and, lovely.
“The first child of Duke Alpenhayer?”
When he first saw her, he blushed at her doll-like, splendid, and delicate features.
“Stupid noble bastards. I beat them up a few times because they acted like they were something.”
“……”
“What? Do you want to get hit a few times like them too?”
“N-No, I don’t.”
The second time he met her, he blushed at her unrestrained way of speaking and actions.
And the third time he met her……
“Ouch!”
“Your Highness, are you alright……”
He was just trying to check her wound when she fell.
“You…! Don’t touch me carelessly!”
But perhaps startled by the unfamiliar contact, she shouted that with her whole face turning bright red.
“And don’t act so kindly to a lady you don’t even like! Especially someone who looks like you!”
“I-I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
At her unexpected reaction, he ended up blushing bright red up to his nape too.
Not knowing what she meant by ‘someone who looks like you’, he stupidly just touched his own face and apologized.
But after that day, as Niel mulled over her words, he gradually realized that the expression ‘a lady you don’t even like’ was incorrect.
With each meeting with her, he repeatedly fell for her and naturally came to love her.
Niel, as her fiancé, was one of the few people who could spend time closest to her.
Although they didn’t exchange many conversations, he was quite proud of that fact.
Above all, keenly noticing that she felt comfortable during the time she spent with him, he strived to become the most comfortable presence for her.
But she never truly gave her side to him.
“I like you, Your Highness.”
“Suddenly?”
“I want to live as Your Highness’s companion for a long time, assisting Your Highness by your side.”
She burst into a small laugh and asked.
“What’s this? Did Duke Alpenhayer tell you to say this?”
“……”
She didn’t give any particular answer to his confession, but he could tell that his feelings didn’t reach her at all.
Was it because he was still too young?
If he grew a bit more… if he became more handsome and more manly than now, would she understand his feelings a little?
Maybe, because she was always someone who maintained a certain distance from others. Maybe that’s why.
Niel always had to be on edge to respect her wishes and not invade her private space.
So that she wouldn’t feel burdened by him, so that she would only feel comfort and peace by his side.
For nearly a year since meeting her, he thought she was someone who didn’t give her side to anyone like this.
But in the year he turned eleven and she turned nine.
Seeing the pink-haired priest of her age who came from the Holy Kingdom, and seeing her chattering and laughing with that young priest, Niel felt what he had believed all along crumbling.
Yupheon Arne was a pretty doll-like boy with light colors, pale skin, lush eyelashes, and delicate features.
‘Does Her Highness like those who look like that.’
Yupheon Arne was a man with a terrible personality. Even though he was only nine years old at the time, he was already like that.
“Hello, are you Jella’s fiancé? My dream is to marry Jella too. Let’s be friends.”
Yupheon smiled softly and held out his hand.
It was a greeting that didn’t follow etiquette at all, but instead of pointing that out, Niel gracefully took that hand with a flawless movement.
Then, in an instant, the corners of Yupheon’s mouth curled up.
“But this is a problem. Jella doesn’t like those who look like you.”
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midori
thanks! COME ON CAIL! you don’t have to feel inferior anymore! he isn’t her fiance anymore! i’m sure him being emperor doesn’t mean anything to you, what’s most important is that she doesn’t have the burden of being a ruler anymore! GO CAIL GO!
yesss finally we get to see more of the guys’ perspective! i’ve been waitiiiing