Using every last ounce of strength, they reached the entrance where the sign had fallen. Suddenly, flames burst up from inside the store.

“Erich!”

When Melissa called his name while looking back at the entrance, a voice rang out from inside.

“Get away first! I’ll manage on my own!”

She tried to hoist Rael up again, groaning as she attempted to move her further from the entrance.

That’s when it happened.

“You said we’d meet in the room later.”

A massive shadow engulfed the two of them.

“Is this the room?”

Melissa’s eyes slowly moved upward. Following the long legs up, a face as beautiful as a painting glowed brightly in the firelight.

That’s when she realized for the first time.

That those blue eyes could look like flames.

* * *

Horrux rushed up in his pajamas when a maid called about an emergency patient at dawn. Seeing the blood splattered on the floor, he let out a sigh that sounded like a lament.

“Oh, dear God.”

Reizen, who had brought the two women to the hotel, had planned to send Erich to fetch Emerson since she was nearby.

But Melissa refused, saying there wasn’t time for that when it was so urgent.

She called for Horrux without hesitation.

And Reizen witnessed with his own eyes that bastard running up without even changing his clothes at Melissa’s call. It was an unbelievable sight even seeing it right in front of him.

Melissa wept on the blood-stained bed.

“Doctor!”

She greeted him as if he were a beacon of hope the moment she saw Horrux. If someone were to ask since when they had been so close, they absolutely weren’t.

Melissa had been uncomfortable with Horrux from their first meeting until now. But when needed, she would plead with him so desperately while shedding tears.

“Doctor, she’s my sister. Please, please save her……”

In a way, Horrux was an enemy.

Since they were all confined in the hotel with outside communication cut off, the chances of him receiving new orders were almost none.

Still, Reizen found it hard to understand how Melissa could beg so trustingly to someone who had been an enemy.

“Blood, there’s too much blood! Bring lots of boiled clean water! Bring up my medical box.”

Horrux handled it quite like a proper doctor.

He went to Melissa’s side and seriously examined Rael’s condition.

Though his touch didn’t particularly seem gentle with patients, his dirty appearance belied the unexpectedly serious look in his eyes.

Melissa quietly held her breath beside him, completely entrusting her sister to Horrux. Watching this scene, Reizen’s expression grew increasingly rigid.

Melissa Grey was right.

People like Erich, Whilton, Sion, David, Florence, and others were friends and colleagues from his military academy days.

When he had no position and couldn’t even afford meals, they all went to work on the railroad tracks together.

They got caught roasting potatoes over a campfire when hungry from work, got beaten up by seniors and chased away. These were people who had gone through such unsightly young days together and overcome difficulties.

So perhaps Reizen had trusted them too much and let his guard down. He never could have imagined in his dreams that his colleagues would betray his wishes.

But lately, his trust was crumbling piece by piece.

“Hold tight there!”

The doctor treated Rael as she convulsed. Whatever the outcome, Reizen couldn’t stand to watch Melissa pacing anxiously in front of them anymore.

Clenching his fists, he followed the bloodstains outside.

The garden was an open straight line. Centered around the massive hotel building, the surroundings were all grass made to look like a croquet field, but the real purpose was to secure visibility of the vicinity.

Not a single tree was planted where someone could hide. Though there was a forest in the distance, it was farther than it looked, quite a walk away.

Even if someone came through the forest, they would be spotted the moment they crossed the garden on horseback.

Benches were placed here and there for resting, and even at dawn the street lamps remained lit, brightly illuminating the area.

Reizen sat on a bench with his legs crossed. With no obstacles around, the wind hit straight on.

His blonde hair was completely disheveled. Reizen put a cigar in his mouth and lit it. The pale smoke scattered in all directions with the wind.

“I’m sorry.”

Erich said. He smelled of burnt fabric.

“I know it will sound like an excuse. But I never expected the lady would go beyond the set boundaries.”

“……”

“I didn’t know she could ride a horse so passionately either… Hah.”

As his explanation went on, Erich’s expression grew darker with self-reproach. Seeming frustrated, he took off the hood covering his head and held his forehead.

“I really thought we were just going for a walk. She said she felt stuffy, so I thought we’d just look around the front and come back. Since the grounds were so wide, I suggested horses… Ah. I’m sorry.”

“Right.”

Reizen took a long drag of his cigar and nodded helplessly.

“Nothing can be done about it now. It’s already passed.”

His words sounded self-mocking.

Perhaps it was his fault for trusting those around him too much, he thought. Reizen’s eyes narrowed.

“She’s cleverer than expected.”

Erich bit his lip without responding.

“I don’t know exactly what or how she does it, but… she just keeps making people move.”

A sigh of agreement came from beside him.

Reizen took a long pull on his cigar and exhaled the smoke. Watching him lost in thought without speaking, Erich asked with something like a sigh.

“Will you keep such a variable by your side?”

Reizen couldn’t answer that question right away.

When Whilton was acting displeased, he had blurted out that it wasn’t because of the woman but because of the brand, but today a strange doubt suddenly arose.

The brand’s effects should naturally fade over time. So the medication should decrease, but far from it, he still had to take large doses while enduring the side effects.

Moreover, even when he swallowed the medicine whole to control the urges, strangely his body would react as if it was drawn to her when she was nearby.

Was the brand’s effect working excessively on him in particular?

Since there was Melissa’s case where the brand manifested later, there could be exceptions to anything.

Reizen fiddled with the brand on his chest that tirelessly emitted a red light as he spoke.

“For now.”

“Even if the lady notices?”

At Erich’s follow-up question, Reizen’s brow furrowed slightly. She might have noticed long ago. She might be pretending not to know.

Reizen’s lips set in a hard line.

The man fixed his gaze on the ground for a moment, holding his cigar as if in thought, then calmly nodded.

“…Yes.”

It was all because of the brand.

It was because of the goddess’s brand that the Emperor forcibly imprinted that he was drawn to Melissa and came this far.

“You’ve been traveling together since the shooting incident, but this method might be more dangerous. Perhaps it would be better to leave her at the estate and move separately……”

Reizen shook his head no to that.

Melissa’s brand had only recently manifested, and unlike Reizen, she wasn’t strong enough physically to endure the drug’s side effects.

If they were separated for more than a month, she might destroy her arm again like last time.

Melissa must not be broken.

If that woman who resembled his mother were to break, Reizen felt he wouldn’t be able to bear it either.

The shooting incident was a prime example, wasn’t it? He couldn’t control himself either. It was fortunate enough that he didn’t blow Selheim’s head off right there.

Instead, he destroyed Marita Loge’s store, which was Selheim’s playground.

Hoping the gift would be as welcome as the flowers he had sent before.

“…Get some rest then.”

He parted from Erich and went up to the hotel lobby.

As he climbed the polished marble stairs, he habitually took out the medicine bottle from his chest. He paused as he was about to open the bottle with his thumb and pour it into his mouth.

“I’ll only tell half the truth too, just like Your Highness.”

He recalled her quite determined tone and those strong-looking eyes. He shouldn’t fall for that cleverness.

The woman knew exactly. She instinctively sensed who held what emotions toward her inside.

For example, in Whilton’s case, though he appeared harmful on the surface, he would never have aided in Melissa’s rebellion.

The same went for Sion. He was colder than anyone, so Melissa never got close to him or held his gaze for long.

But what about with Emerson?

She was surprisingly lenient with Emerson. Regardless of gender, she seemed to trust in her kindness.

Even bringing Erich along this time was probably because she knew his nature. Despite appearances, Erich was full of sympathy and soft-hearted.

And the result was clear.

Horrux of the Emperor’s faction had rushed out in his pajamas and was now sweating to help her sister, while Reizen’s colleague Erich had helped with her outing even to the point of making him feel betrayed.

They had all been properly manipulated by Melissa.