Unless she wanted him dead like the Emperor, why would she send him to such a place?

He turned his gaze from the letter to look at the purple flower placed on the desk. Naturally, memories of meeting the girl came to mind.

The first time he met her was not long after he arrived at the imperial palace.

‘I’ll let you meet your parents.’

He came to the palace after receiving what was essentially a death notice invitation from the Emperor, having lived his entire life in confinement.

Since coming to the palace, the Emperor had given him only one order.

‘Fulfill your usefulness for the first and last time.’

Live in this palace and root out those who gather with treasonous thoughts — in other words, act as bait.

He truly thought his life was garbage.

He had lost his parents around age three and lived alone, confined in a cold castle in the north.

That life was horrifically painful. Living with restraints that suppressed the dragon’s power — a rare ability passed down to the imperial legitimate heir — always felt like being submerged underwater, suffocating. That pain sometimes manifested as maddening loneliness.

Though the restraints appeared as thin strings on the outside, he had once struggled and rebelled against them, but it was useless. No matter how powerful the dragon’s power was, he couldn’t remove restraints made with the power of the first Emperor who was even stronger than himself.

Life continued through that pain. Days where he couldn’t freely interact with others, couldn’t come and go as he pleased, couldn’t even die as he wished.

In a situation where he didn’t even know the reason for his birth, he was waiting for his final moment, having accepted death.

At that moment. She appeared.

‘They must be such kind people.’

The girl who appeared with pink hair swaying gently spoke freely about his parents, whom he had never thought about.

‘From now on, only good things will happen.’

She chattered about the future that no one had ever spoken of.

‘You will become happy.’

‘I’m sharing my power with you. So you can see a happy future.’

She casually spoke of ‘happiness’ — words he couldn’t even understand what they meant.

Every time he watched her return to the princess’s palace, he wanted to tell her.

That the reason he had survived until now was merely due to the Emperor’s whim.

That when they tried to kill him along with his mother, on that day, that cursed dragon power manifested at just that moment, allowing him to survive.

That he was raised like livestock, judged to have value to be used someday.

For someone like him, a future? Happiness? Such things couldn’t exist.

Could she be a spy after all?

It was natural for him to be suspicious.

Because until now, only such people had approached him with goodwill. Those who came by the Emperor’s order, showing interest in his power, trying to research that ability. Those types trying to probe his thoughts on the Emperor’s orders.

Not to mention, she even knew about the flower that he and his father had grown as a gift for his mother. There were many suspicious things about her.

So he closed his eyes with a sneer. Saying he would quickly forget that stupid girl. That he would continue to ignore her.

But strangely, he kept thinking about her. Even while thinking she was foolish, while criticizing her as stupid, her words lingered in his ears like an echo, and the warmth of her hand that had held his remained unfaded at his fingertips.

He wanted to meet her one more time.

So he secretly investigated about her. It was easy to find out. Everyone was talking about her.

Reibella Felicity. The last bloodline of House Felicity that had already fallen to ruin.

They said she had been poisoned. That she would die soon.

‘Right now, yes. It seems like everyone else in the world is happy except me.’

‘But I’ll become happy too.’

‘I’m confident about that.’

Everyone was accepting her death as if it were natural, as if it were satisfying. Yet this girl had proclaimed confidently that she was sure she would find happiness even in a situation as hopeless as his own.

Would she really die?

A strange emotion arose.

The thought that he hoped the girl wouldn’t die. The feeling that he wished she would survive and flatten these people’s noses with pride.

So he went to her with the ‘raffle’ she had been looking for.

Personally feeding her flower petals there was unexpected. Because it was difficult to shake off the hand she grabbed suddenly. Because she was the first person to desperately ask him for help.

But seeing her complexion improve from his actions, he felt truly strange.

The fact that he, who had always thought himself an unnecessary existence in this world, could become essential to someone. The fact that he had played a useful role at least once made his heart flutter.

Would the girl know?

How much he had cried after returning to the palace that day?

That even after that, when he received a note showing she knew his secret, he went along with it despite knowing it was a provocation, simply because he wanted to see for himself that she had become healthy.

She probably wouldn’t know.

That he had secretly hoped when she said she would find him. That she wouldn’t know he had waited constantly, wondering when she would come find where he was.

The reason he held out without telling his name was laughable too.

Because he hoped the girl would come just one more time out of curiosity.

He looked at the letter in his hand once again. Each word containing her heart entered his eyes.

[I want you to become happy.]

What kind of life would it be to say one is happy?

[The vast ocean! The fresh wind!]

Would it be a life of watching the ocean together and feeling the sea breeze?

“……I miss her.”

When his longing unconsciously escaped his lips, his emotions swelled up increasingly difficult to control.

He wanted to see her right now. His steps heading toward the princess’s palace to see her even from afar were light with excitement.

But then…

“Please, Your Highness must return safely.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“How dare those bastards who should be killed kidnap Her Highness.”

The atmosphere at the princess’s palace was terribly ominous. Among it all, her figure was nowhere to be seen. Observing the situation, it seemed the princess and Reibella had gone out together to the festival and were kidnapped.

His blood ran cold.

That’s when—

“We found her! Her Highness is coming!”

Everyone cheered at the news of finding the princess. So he too felt relieved.

Because he believed Reibella would return soon too.

But even after a day passed, then two days. There was no news of her, and others didn’t try to find out more about her whereabouts.

It felt like his blood was drying up.

He wanted to go look for her himself but he wasn’t in a position to do so, nor did he have the power. He was angry at his own helplessness, unable to do anything while living tied up like a dog.

It was the first time he had felt so suffocated that his heart seemed to be squeezed.

‘Of course, I’ll become happy too. I’m confident about that.’

The girl who found hope even in a situation as bleak as his own…

The girl who shone with her own color uniquely in a gray world…

Now it was time for him to move to meet her again.

“I know you’re hiding.”

Having left the princess’s palace, he spoke to those who were always watching him.

“I will go to His Majesty now. Report it.”

For the first time, he had something he wanted.

When they met again, he planned to first engrave his name in the girl’s heart. 

 * * *

 “Is nobody here?”

“Hello!”

Thump, thump. Though Reibella hit the small box confining her with all her might, only her voice echoed in the space so quiet not even the sound of a baby mouse crawling could be heard.

‘Wow…… to think this is reality.’

Even though everyone was obsessed with the protagonist, it was absurd that they didn’t check on the whereabouts of the child who was kidnapped together with her.

‘Did they deliberately leave me behind?’

That could be possible. Logically, with all her shouting and banging, there’s no way the Empire’s finest knights couldn’t have noticed.

‘Do they want me to die here?’

If not for that reason, there would be no reason to abandon her like this.

“……You think I’ll die?”

No, even if she died someday, she felt she wouldn’t be satisfied until she at least spat in the Emperor’s face, she felt so wronged.

Thinking that way, her will to escape this place immediately welled up. Reibella paused briefly to steady her breathing and pushed up on the box lid with all her might.

But no matter how much force she used, the lid wouldn’t budge at all. After straining to push it up, her strength gave out and she went limp.

How many times had she repeated this?

Thump.

There was a sound and something rolled and fell. At the same time, fresh air rushed into the stuffy, tightly sealed box.

‘……Huh?’

Reibella froze with wide eyes, then quickly came to her senses and stretched out her crumpled body to escape from the box.