“Oh my. I’m sorry I’m not Artia.”

Klaus…

His golden hair was gently swaying, tinged by the dim dawn light, and his blue eyes seemed to hold a hint of amusement.

Unable to tear my eyes away from this unbelievable reality, he smiled, apparently finding my expression entertaining.

“You look like you’re wondering why I’m here.”

Saying that, he briefly moved to the side. Behind him stood Artia along with some soldiers.

The sudden situation was overwhelming, but I knew one thing I had to do immediately.

Run away.

I quickly turned to find the bag I had hidden in the bushes, trying to escape from Klaus.

“Ugh…”

However, my body wouldn’t listen, feeling bound by ropes. Klaus must have done something.

“Still, we can’t let our guard down. Is this what you’re looking for?”

In Klaus’s hand was the bag I had brought.

“Not a bad strategy. If I hadn’t known, I might not have noticed the bomb set up here, fooled by the fireworks.”

His tone suggested someone had informed him about the plan…

I looked at Artia standing behind him.

She was looking at me with neither a surprised nor frightened expression. She just stared at me, who had been caught, with calm and emotionless eyes.

In the audience chamber, led there by the soldiers’ hands, I blankly stared at the pattern on the carpet.

The embroidered pattern was hard to tell where it began and ended. And like those patterns, Artia’s intentions were also difficult to gauge.

Why did she betray me? Was there a reason for it? No matter how much I tried to recall the original story, I couldn’t understand why she would have reported me to the Emperor. Questions tangled in my mind, one after another.

“Attempting to help a prisoner escape… Even with leniency, it’s a capital offense.”

“……”

In the original story, Ravenne was eventually executed. And it seems I too have come full circle to reach the original ending.

I didn’t really believe in the force of the novel’s plot, but at this point, I wonder if such a thing might actually exist.

Is that why nothing has gone as I wanted all this time?

“Do you have anything to say?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

How could I? What he said was correct. I tried to help a prisoner escape, and I failed. That was all.

“You’re giving up faster than I expected. I thought you’d struggle a bit more.”

“……”

After a while without a response, Klaus muttered to himself that it was boring.

“Is the Duke of Celestine involved in this as well?”

“No, he isn’t.”

I hastily shook my head at the mention of Ilion.

“The Duke has nothing to do with this. This was all my doing alone.”

Klaus, who had been quietly observing me, smiled, curling up the corners of his mouth.

“I see. Normally, immediate execution would be appropriate, but since I’ve received help from you before, I’m thinking of giving you one more chance.”

Help? From me?

Just listening to him speak, he seemed like an incredibly benevolent emperor. However, his eyes were still gleaming with amusement.

“As it happens, the position of Empress is vacant. What do you think?”

The guards standing around flinched and glanced at him before quickly correcting their posture.

“…What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that previous offer is still valid.”

Is he referring to what he said to me at the banquet?

I didn’t believe it then, and now that the situation has come to this, I found his words even less credible.

“…I’m overwhelmed by Your Majesty’s favor.”

“It’s rare to find someone bold enough to deceive me. Twice, at that. In that sense, I quite like you.”

He’s certainly not saying this because he genuinely likes me. Why wouldn’t I understand the intentions hidden behind that cursed smile?

He’s probably thinking of getting back at me, Ilion, and Artia all at once. That’s your preferred method, isn’t it?

“But you see, Your Majesty isn’t my type.”

At my response, the soldiers once again held their breath. I must look like a madwoman to them.

But I wasn’t foolish enough to take Klaus’s words at face value. If I were to eagerly bite the bait thrown to me, I’d end up swallowing the poison inside.

But even knowing this, there was nothing I could do. In the end, my current behavior was, at best, bravado, and at worst, a pointless struggle.

Klaus, seeming to know this fact as well, treated my words as insignificant nonsense.

“Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped. As it happens, we were short on prisoners for the harvest festival event. It would be great if you could participate and make it shine.”

There was no need to ask what that meant. I’ll be seeing some familiar faces after a long time.

Julia, or Sergio perhaps. The words ‘just behead me instead’ lingered on the tip of my tongue before dissipating.

Klaus, who was about to stand up as if he had finished speaking, turned his head back towards me as if he had forgotten something.

“Ah yes, I’ll contact the Duke in advance. To tell him to come and see your performance, that is.”

Klaus, you truly have a mouth that makes one suddenly want to find a puppy.

No matter how much I suffered under Ilion, he was still not even worth the dirt under Ilion’s claws.

Leaving the audience chamber, I mindlessly followed the soldiers. As I walked aimlessly like that, the soldier walking ahead suddenly stopped.

“Saintess?”

At the soldier’s voice, I raised my head to look at the person blocking the way.

It was Artia.

The moment I saw her, an emotion difficult to define began to boil inside me.

I asked her the question I was most curious about.

“Saintess, didn’t you want to leave this place?”

A dry voice devoid of emotion came back.

“I never intended to from the start.”

Never intended to?

“Then, why…”

Why did you accept my offer? Why did you hand me over to Klaus? Just why?

There were many questions I wanted to ask her, but my mind couldn’t organize them easily. And as if understanding my state, Artia murmured.

“You seem confused.”

“…If it was going to be like this, you should have refused from the beginning.”

“I couldn’t do that.”

“Why on earth…”

“Because, just as you are not the Ravenne I knew, I am also not the Artia you knew.”

Artia, who had been speaking in riddles, passed by me after saying those words.

That…

“What does that mean?”

I turned around to grab her, but the soldier’s restraint was faster.

He pulled on the chains binding my hands, and my body was dragged forward.

The handcuffs around my wrists painfully tightened, but I was too confused to care about such things.

What does it mean that I’m not the Ravenne that Artia knew?

I turned my head to look at her receding figure, but no answer came back in the end.

***

Watching Ravenne being dragged away by the soldiers, Artia recalled the day she first met Klaus.

On the day Klaus led his soldiers to invade Bellion, the king of Bellion surrendered without putting up much of a fight.

Naturally, such an unremarkable surrender wouldn’t satisfy Klaus. What he wanted was war, not surrender.

It’s unknown how he toyed with the king of Bellion in his displeased state, but it seems he wasn’t very satisfied. Soon after, he led his soldiers to the temple.

The man who roughly opened the temple doors asked with a smiling face,

“I heard the famous Saintess is here.”

His slightly languid voice and brightly shining golden hair momentarily reminded one of an angel, but the soldiers accompanying him were quite threatening.

Among the priests frightened by the Emperor’s sudden appearance, one elderly priest stepped forward and bowed his head.

It was Evan, the person in charge of the temple.

“What brings the Sun of the Empire here?”

“Well, since I’ve come all this way, I thought I’d do some sightseeing.”

He muttered as if mocking the people of the country that had just surrendered. However, no one dared to object to his words.

Klaus’s eyes, which had been looking around the temple as if he really had come for sightseeing, stopped at one spot. Platinum blonde hair and golden eyes. It was the Saintess he had heard about in rumors.

His eyes, which had been playfully curving, became cold when they saw Artia.

Artia, who had been comforting a frightened child, slightly turned her body to avoid his gaze. Fearing the child might get scared and cry.

“I see. You’re as beautiful as the rumors say.”

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant compliment. It sounded more like an exclamation made while observing an animal in a cage.

Either way, it didn’t really matter. As long as he left quickly, being treated like a spectacle was fine.

“Well, now that I’ve seen the Saintess, shall we head back?”

Klaus, who had been quietly observing her, ordered the withdrawal. Had her wish come true?

Thinking she was lucky and about to breathe a sigh of relief, he stopped his steps as if he had forgotten something and looked back.

“Ah, I almost forgot the souvenir.”

The cruelly smiling face was directed at Artia.

“What do you mean…”

Evan, who was asking about Klaus’s intentions, realized what he was looking at and hurriedly bowed his head, kneeling down.

“S-Sun of the Empire. That child is our family. Please, I beg you to withdraw your words.”

“That’s a bit of a difficult request.”

Saying this, Klaus rubbed his nape as if he was in great contemplation.

Then he made a proposal to Evan.

“How about this? Instead of taking the Saintess, I’ll take your lives.”

At his words, the priests who were hiding held their breath.

“Well, since you say she’s a precious family member, you should be able to give up your lives, right?”

Klaus sat on the back of the kneeling priest.

The small, frail back was crushed under him, looking like it would collapse at any moment.

The other priests, unable to bear Evan’s humiliating situation, tried to resist, but under the threat of the surrounding soldiers, no one could move carelessly.

And in front of them, Klaus crossed his legs ostentatiously and looked around with a sardonic smile.

“Then, shall we accept the first 10 volunteers? I wonder who will be the first to sacrifice their life for the Saintess.”