30 minutes ago, inside Reizen’s office.

“His Majesty is anxious.”

Montes, a senior secretary, adjusted his glasses and took a sip of tea. Holding the steaming cup, he spoke elegantly.

“The Nobles’ prestige is plummeting by the day, and the Imperial family is on shaky ground. Outside, people are constantly scheming to overthrow both the Nobles and the Imperial family. Shouldn’t we take appropriate measures to defend ourselves?”

Reizen, arms crossed, watched Montes’ actions attentively, as if telling him to continue speaking.

Perhaps finding Reizen’s sharp gaze encouraging, Montes smiled faintly and continued.

“Even though Miss Grey has been stripped of her title and wealth, Noble blood still flows in her veins. If we treat a woman like her the same as a Commoner, what will happen to the prestige of the Nobles?”

In the end, Montes’ argument boiled down to defending a murderer out of concern for the Nobles’ status. Even in ruin, she was still considered a Noble simply because of her bloodline.

“So, there are Nobles without titles or wealth. Fascinating.”

Reizen scoffed, pulling one corner of his lips upward. His voice was dripping with mockery.

“Since when were Nobles in this country acknowledged solely by their bloodline? When did the law change to accommodate that?”

“Your Highness.”

Reizen, seated on the sofa, leisurely crossed his legs and continued speaking.

“Secretary Montes. If such a law truly existed, then why was I branded a bastard and forced to live my life in hiding? By all accounts, I am the Emperor’s son. Why wasn’t I acknowledged purely by my bloodline? Explain that to me.”

“…Your Highness Reizen, that’s…”

“If the law’s standards are only bent to suit the Nobles’ convenience, then why do we have judges, and why do we have juries? They might as well gather among themselves and decide everything by majority vote. Don’t you think, Secretary?”

The hand holding Montes’ teacup trembled slightly. Soon, he forced a smile back onto his face, adjusted his glasses, and nodded.

“Your Highness, I deeply sympathize with Lord Moore’s tragedy. It’s understandable that you would harbor personal grievances. I apologize for speaking without considering the victim…”

“It wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t my friend but your Commoner mistress who died. What I’m saying now isn’t about personal matters. I’m saying that the laws of this country are unjust.”

For a moment, Montes’ face turned bright red. The secretary, who had come to pressure and control Reizen on behalf of the Emperor, trembled with frustration.

It was clear he couldn’t afford for the existence of his Commoner mistress to be exposed. His darting eyes betrayed his nervousness as he looked around to ensure no one overheard.

Reizen didn’t miss a single change in Montes’ expression as he smirked crookedly and said, “If the law won’t bring down the hammer, then I will.”

Montes’ gaze grew more conflicted. Sent by the Emperor to persuade Reizen, he spoke in a trembling voice.

“But Your Highness… If you try to kill another woman, His Majesty will be furious.”

“He’ll merely be furious. Emotions don’t last long, only results remain.”

If the woman died, the radical rebels outside the palace would lose their justification, and innocent lives wouldn’t be sacrificed to the revolution. The Imperial family and Nobles would be able to prolong their peace for a little while longer.

‘At least, until I make my move.’

The flames of public outrage could be extinguished with the death of just one woman. So why shouldn’t she die?

“Your Highness, the criminal has arrived.”

At that moment, a servant knocked on the door and announced Melissa Grey’s arrival at the Imperial Palace.

The timing was impeccable.

Reizen rose from his seat and drew his sword. Then, with a cold smile, he looked down at Montes.

“This will make a fine headline for tomorrow’s morning paper. ‘A member of the Imperial family delivers justice on behalf of the wronged Commoners.’ That should improve the Imperial family’s popularity, don’t you think?”

The justification was perfect.

A murderer who had killed a loyal subordinate and friend.

An unjust individual who had been pardoned simply because of the Noble blood flowing in her veins.

And a woman of unfortunate beauty, destined to live the life of a stud horse like himself.

‘Anyone else could become that, but not her.’

She would not become the stud horse the Emperor wanted.

In the past, Reizen had witnessed countless times how his blood-related siblings were culled and killed.

The mothers who had been forcibly brought to the palace spent their nights trying to appease the Emperor, aligning their wombs to his whims. Once they had fulfilled their roles, they met a miserable end by throwing themselves off the castle walls.

The Nobles were complicit. They mocked and violated the discarded mothers behind the scenes.

Most of the victims they treated so cruelly were powerless Commoner women from Gerion.

Such tragedies had nothing to do with women born into nobility.

The absurd tragedies that unfolded in the Imperial Palace were seen as comedies by the Noblewomen, who laughed at them.

And among them, there was always a girl who walked among the flowers with a beautiful smile.

‘Melissa Grey.’

The woman now sobbing bitterly inside the prison carriage.

Reizen remembered her vividly.

Her original black hair had shimmered and curled like a gentle stream.

As she walked among the flowers, brushing her glossy hair, her serene face resembled that of a fairy. If one could condense the concept of peace into a person, it would look like her.

A girl who seemed to lack even an ounce of aggression.

Her delicate arched eyebrows and wine-colored eyes beneath them.

She didn’t belong in the desolate Imperial Palace. She shone so distinctly, as if she were separated from the rest of that space.

When she opened her small, red lips for the first time and extended her hand to him as he fell, how had the heart of the boy, still unformed, felt?

“……”

Reizen remembers it vividly.

He had been terrified.

Being near her made him feel as though he might make some grave mistake. Grasping her hand and taking a deep breath felt suffocating, as if he were trying to breathe through gills.

His hands would sweat profusely from nervousness, and his heart pounded so hard that he once held his breath and hid behind a wall. It was all just memories from his childhood, after all.

Now, the situation was completely different.

The woman was a criminal, the enemy of his friend, and a remnant of an era that granted privileges through blood.

And yet, why was he reacting to the sound of her sorrowful sobs coming from inside the carriage?

“Haahk.”

The woman, who used to speak with a voice as graceful as an oriole whenever she opened her mouth, was now letting out hoarse, beast-like cries as she writhed in pain.

“Haah… haahk… kill… me… just kill me, please.”

The ankle that peeked out from under the covering was thin, filthy, and pitiful, like the remains of a deer carcass picked clean by hyenas.

Between her ankles were mercilessly thick shackles, and the wounds they caused had festered and begun to rot.

A large vulture, drawn by the smell, landed atop the carriage before flying off again. Watching it, Reizen’s heart churned.

There was a time when he had fervently wished for her and her family to fall.

Even on the way here, he had merely thought it unjust that a woman who was nothing more than a murderer could still enjoy privileges because of her beauty and Noble blood.

And yet, and yet, why—

Reizen abruptly threw back the cloth covering the carriage.

The woman, who had been sobbing sorrowfully in the shadow of the castle, lifted her head.

Squinting against the light, she bit her cracked lips and looked up, her red eyes meeting his directly.

‘I must kill her.’

Reizen knew instinctively that if he didn’t do it now, there would be no next opportunity.

No one else could do it either. There weren’t many in the Imperial Palace who could survive the Emperor’s wrath after doing such a thing.

His grip on the sword tightened. His hand clenched the hilt so hard that blue veins bulged from his arm as he raised it, and white light gathered at the tip of the blade.

In that moment, just as he was about to strike her neck—

“……”

A vulture circling nearby let out a piercing cry as it descended.

Come to think of it, this was a woman who had almost been devoured by a mere bird. Could such a woman have truly killed a trained knight?

‘How?’

Reizen’s thoughts became muddled with impurities. Perhaps because of his wavering heart, the sword in his hand faltered.

All he had to do was deliver punishment on behalf of the enraged Commoners, just as he had arrogantly proclaimed. And yet, why? Why now, of all times, was he beginning to think that this woman might not be the culprit?

“Kill me, please, I beg you… hngh, hngh.”

At first, she had denied committing the crime, but later, she had changed her statement. Since then, she had repeatedly confessed to the murder. And now… she kept saying she wanted to die.

Could it be that she lied because she wanted to die?

Would it truly be the right thing to kill her as she was now?

‘I’m not certain.’

If he acted rashly and made the wrong judgment, he would lose all legitimacy.

If she really was the murderer who killed his friend, then she deserved to pay for her crime. But if she wasn’t…

Reizen’s sword slowly lowered toward the ground.

Perhaps this was the wrong decision. Perhaps he would regret it someday.

However.

In his glassy blue eyes, she was reflected.

“Melissa Grey.”

He took slow, deliberate steps toward the front of the carriage, speaking in a low voice under the gentle spring sunlight.

“I will give you a new punishment.”

Seeing her torn clothes, he removed his jacket and draped it over her with an impassive expression.

The thick, warm fabric, still carrying the heat of his body, weighed heavily on Melissa’s shoulders.

The woman, her face streaked with pale tear tracks, looked up at him. Then, a firm command fell heavily beside her.

“Live. That is what you must do from now on.”