Feeling the pulsating movement in her stomach, she was reminded of the king’s order that she had momentarily forgotten. With their bodies pressed together without any space to escape, he felt even more enormous, and because of this, she couldn’t muster the courage to kill him.

‘Still… somehow I must do it.’

If only her own life were at stake, she would have preferred to close her eyes as if fainting and ignore this situation. But her mother remained in Talis, and she had to save her somehow.

In the end, what she needed to do in this darkness was not to give in to despair but to strengthen her resolve. Her small hand gripping the hem of her dress gradually tightened.

“I’m sure you’ll like the Empire. So much that you won’t even think about returning to Talis.”

He continuously rubbed her cheek with his other hand, trying somehow to stop her trembling. Elze accepted his caressing hand without pushing it away.

There was nothing to gain by rejecting his touch and falling out of his favor. Somehow she needed to get close to him to find an opportunity to kill him.

“…Though we need time to get used to each other, leaving this place seems to be the priority now. Look at the soldiers surrounding us. It’s useless trying to comfort her in this ominous scene.”

Roah, sitting on his horse alongside them, spoke up. Elze hunched her shoulders and looked around. Knights sat on their horses with spears firmly fixed to their thighs.

“Let’s move out.”

Noticing her increasingly pale complexion, Kelta took the reins as if agreeing with Roah’s words.

Hearing his dry voice, three or four messengers quickly rode their horses into the formation. In response, the formation slowly moved like a rippling black wave.

As the horse picked up speed, her body couldn’t keep up and tilted backward.

“Lean on me. Sitting so stiffly like that could hurt you.”

Kelta, who was controlling the horse while looking straight ahead, naturally extended his arm around her waist. After pausing briefly, he took one of her arms and wrapped it around her waist, then covered her thin arm with his.

‘Perhaps he’s avoiding touching my stomach…’

Elze lowered her head in his embrace. The overlapping hands were warm but not as uncomfortable as what she had felt in her abdomen.

‘My ears feel like they’re going to tear…’

As he spurred the horse, the sound of the ground rumbling vibrated. The speed was so fast that the passing buildings overlapped like ink spreading in water. When she lowered her head due to dizziness, she saw the dirt path densely filled with hoofprints.

Elze swallowed dryly at the intensity of their charge, creating paths where there were none without hesitation. Then the large hand covering the back of her hand interlaced their fingers.

“There’s nothing to be anxious about.”

She hesitantly raised her head. He was still looking straight ahead, and all she could see in her field of vision was his sharp jawline.

Elze, who had been timidly glancing at him, squinted uncomfortably. The wind felt not just cold but stinging as her hair wildly fluttered.

“The wind will sting because of our speed.”

Kelta, controlling the horse’s movements with his thigh muscles, let go of the reins and tucked her into his cloak.

Elze blinked awkwardly inside the cloak.

The Emperor read her thoughts as easily as noticing the fluttering of a fish caught in his hand. She was suddenly afraid that if she were to face him, he might even read the king’s orders.

She fidgeted to hide her face and closed the cloak, which was split in two, with one hand.

“Yes, keep it closed like that.”

Thanks to the cloak that blocked the outside like a cocoon, both the Emperor’s low voice and the loud clattering of hooves sounded muffled. As a result, her anxiously fluctuating emotions gradually calmed down.

* * *

After riding for some time, the sound of rustling leaves entered through the cloak.

Elze carefully peeked her face through the gap in the cloak. By now, the army had left the village and was racing through the forest.

‘When will we be able to rest?’

The bones along her back ached sharply from the long journey. She twisted her body slightly to find a more comfortable position.

“Let’s take a short break.”

Kelta, who briefly looked down at her, halted the army. After lightly dismounting, he helped Elze down so she could place her feet on the ground.

Elze slowly moved forward and stretched her stiffened back. When she shifted her gaze to the movement below, she saw that Roah had already settled in the grass, stroking his wet platinum hair while drinking water.

“At this rate, we’ll reach the Empire next year.”

Feeling Roah’s glancing gaze, Elze hunched her shoulders. He seemed displeased with the rest situation.

“Even if we walked, we’d definitely arrive before next year. Why don’t you try walking yourself? If you arrive before the end of this year, you wouldn’t complain like this.”

Kelta, who had been examining the surrounding terrain, shot Roah a sharp look. Roah deliberately ignored his gaze and stared at the sprawling forest.

Elze looked at the back of Roah’s head with wonder, as if flowers had bloomed there. His attitude of saying what he wanted to say, despite knowing he would be scolded, was astonishing.

How could a person be so… arrogant? Honest? She was confused about which word to use to define him.

“Is there something bothering you?”

Roah extended his arm behind him to support himself on the ground and quickly turned his head toward her. With eyes widened like a startled rabbit, she shook her head.

“I see.”

After indifferently uttering those words, Roah shrugged his shoulders and withdrew his gaze. She lightly patted her chest and released the breath she had been holding.

Her aimlessly moving gaze stopped at a nearby stream.

The stream held white, blurred clouds. As the dark clouds completely cleared, the fragrance of flowers blooming in the forest vibrated even more strongly. It felt like a dream, so detached from reality.

As she blankly watched the yellow flowers turning golden in the sunlight, a large hand suddenly appeared.

“Here, drink.”

When she startled and knocked away the large hand, the canteen fell to the ground, splashing water. The canteen, which had been rolling weakly, stopped moving when it encountered Roah sitting there.

As Kelta shook off his wet hand, droplets fell onto the grass leaves. He frowned and sighed deeply.

“Rather die than drink water offered by someone from the Empire. Is that what you mean?”

Kelta’s eyes met her tension-filled eyes for a long time. Though she belatedly shook her head, his expression hardly softened.

‘How can I explain that it was a mistake…’

Elze rolled her eyes in embarrassment. The way she had thrown away the canteen was not of her own will. If something appeared so suddenly, wouldn’t anyone naturally be startled?

“…Fine. I didn’t expect any affection anyway.”

He ruffled his hair with a face that looked as if he were swallowing bitter herbs. His lips, which seemed to contain many stories unknown to her, were firmly closed.

The lonely aura still emanating from him pricked her skin almost painfully. So she tried to understand his emotions, but no matter how hard she tried, her efforts couldn’t reach him standing alone.

‘Why does he think so negatively?’

Though it was a situation where misunderstanding was possible, it still seemed excessive. It felt as if a veil covered his eyes. It seemed like he was projecting her actions onto someone else and making assumptions.

“I underestimated your stubbornness. I never imagined we’d be quarreling from the very first day.”

She met his coldly subdued eyes once more. She hesitated and pondered his words with a complicated expression. Even now, it didn’t feel like he was speaking while fully seeing her.

In the Emperor’s misconception, she, a prisoner, had impudently knocked away his hand. His words, which packaged this arrogant action as a simple quarrel, somehow didn’t resonate.

‘Why is he really acting like this…’

All she could do was shake her head, but he was finding various meanings in that single head shake and feeling disheartened.

Frustrated by the unsolved puzzle, she secretly ruffled her own hair.

Then suddenly she thought she should pick up the canteen. No matter how hard she tried now, her understanding wouldn’t reach him, so she had no choice but to clear up the misunderstanding. As she hurriedly turned and walked toward where Roah was, the Emperor irritably grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Does it satisfy you to treat me like I don’t exist and ignore me?”

Before she could shake her head at his sharp voice, Kelta lifted her up.

Elze was startled by the sudden elevation of her view and wore a dumbfounded expression.

His action was not at all awkward but natural, which was disconcerting. It didn’t seem like the skill of someone who had done it only once or twice.

“Enough time has passed that you might have changed, but your personality remains the same.”

With a deeply furrowed face, he briefly glared at her and then strode forward.

Elze, being carried like a bundle in Kelta’s arms, moved her lips. Did the Emperor even have any intention of understanding what she wanted to convey? No matter how much she shook her head, he was lost in his own delusion, just muttering to himself.

“I’m going crazy with gratitude that you remain so consistent.”

Kelta, who had emphasized the word ‘consistent,’ suddenly stopped walking. Then he looked down at Elze in his arms as if seeing her anew.

Her eyes looking up at him were not only filled with indignation but also contained a bit of sulkiness. As he observed those eyes, Kelta’s pupils began to waver slightly.