“Karl.”

Realizing where her gaze had fallen, Calsion opened his mouth again.

“Give proper compensation to the citizens gathered here as well.”

“Understood.”

As soon as his order was given, Jarenne led some knights to stand before the commoners. Until Calsion turned back and helped her into the carriage, April couldn’t take her eyes off them. In the distance, she saw Haya staring at her with wide, startled eyes, so she waved her hand slightly.

Seated in her chair, April cautiously spoke to Calsion, who looked visibly angry.

“Sit down.”

She gave a faint smile and tapped the seat beside her. Without refusing, Calsion sat down right next to her. The rogue she had first met was now gazing at her with such gentle eyes. The corners of his eyes were still raised as if in anger, but within his gaze lay a trace of relief.

April bit her lip, holding back the urge to laugh.

‘Now, even when he makes that expression, I can no longer guess what he’s really thinking… I suppose it’s because the time we’ve shared has brought us closer.’

Realizing that not only Calsion but she herself had changed, April sank into thought.

After pondering for a long while, April finally spoke first.

“…Why did you come?”

“Why did I come?”

“Why did you come looking for me?”

“Because you were gone! You’ll never know what I felt when you disappeared from the banquet hall.”

His voice carried anger, worry, and concern all at once. April didn’t know how to respond. Calsion had never once told her what was truly in his heart.

Though they had shared much time together, she still had no certainty. Why had he come to find her?

‘Even now, why does he look at me with those eyes?’

If it was out of love, then his gaze was understandable. But since he never said it aloud, perhaps she was just misunderstanding. She no longer wanted to be left alone with her thoughts and her doubts. Even Harit’s words had shaken her because he hadn’t given her a clear answer.

April sorted out her wavering heart that way. Sitting before him, her feelings that had been all over the place began to grow a little clearer.

‘I’ll ask him. I’ll ask, and then I’ll decide.’

Taking a deep breath, April spoke again.

“What was it like?”

“What?”

“What was it like? How did you feel? What did you feel that made you come running like this?”

“Vi.”

“Did you feel deceived? Did you think the contract wasn’t over yet? Our promises were all finished, and I no longer had any reason to stay by your side.”

“Reason?”

“Or was I wrong?”

“You mean to say our relationship was nothing more than need?”

Calsion’s voice carried a threatening edge. But without any change in expression, April asked again.

“If not, then what is it?”

“Vi!”

“If you don’t say it, I won’t know. It’s always been that way. You speak as though you care for me, as though you love me, but you never say the one thing that matters most. That’s why I left the palace.”

“That’s why you left?”

“Yes.”

At April’s answer, Calsion let out a brief laugh. When his icy gaze fell on her, April could no longer speak. His deep black eyes gleamed sharply, filled with a killing intent she had never seen before. She froze.

“Or was it that you were waiting for a chance to escape?”

At his question, she felt as though the air had been crushed out of her lungs. He had read her heart too precisely. April bit down hard on her lip, unable to answer.

“What am I supposed to do with someone who, even while standing before me, still wishes to leave the palace? All I could do was pretend not to notice.”

“Pretend not to notice?”

“What else? Should I have asked you outright if you were planning to leave me?”

His eyes grew more threatening. At the fierce angle of his gaze, April swallowed dryly.

“Even when we met again, you had other thoughts in mind. If I had asked you then, what answer would you have given me?”

It was only then that April understood. Just like her, Calsion had been afraid.

‘If not for now, I, too, wouldn’t have been able to speak honestly to him.’

As she hesitated, about to open her mouth to answer him, Calsion’s piercing eyes fixed on her.

“An ambush!!”

The knights’ shouts could be heard, and Calsion opened the carriage window to grasp the situation.

The moment he did, whatever he saw made him urgently draw his sword, but before anything else, something crashed against them with a loud bang.

Before the carriage could be thrown off, Calsion pulled April into his arms and pressed his back against the carriage wall. When the overturned carriage door swung open, Calsion slashed his sword.

His clean strike did not merely cut the door—it split the entire carriage in half.

What April saw, right in front of her, was a man swinging his sword.

“Karl!”

There was no time to think of anything else. April leapt in front of Calsion and immediately felt the searing heat. She felt her shoulder burn, placed her hand over it, and in the very next moment, Calsion swung his sword again, shielding April behind him. Unable to endure the fiery pain, she lost consciousness.

“Vi!”

Seeing April collapse limply behind him, Calsion swung his sword in fury. With that one strike, more than half of the assassins who had ambushed them lost their lives. His anguished roar echoed all around, and the murderous aura radiating from him stabbed at the skin like needles.

Feeling his killing intent, the knights gritted their teeth and swung their swords even harder.

When Calsion could not reach April, his rage flared once more, and he swung his sword again. The remaining half of the assassins fell on the spot.

“Leave one alive. We need to find out who’s behind this.”

If not for that, he would have killed them all—his voice revealed fury he could not conceal.

This was the third time a royal had been attacked in the capital. The first time was his own doing, the second was Walter’s work, and this last time…

‘Of course, it must be the remnants loyal to the Empress.’

Otherwise, no noble would dare commit such a brazen act in broad daylight.

It would have to be someone with considerable power—Calsion thought it was likely one of the ducal or marquis households. The most suspicious was the House of Duke Cephiron.

Even after supporting the Empress and being imprisoned, they had not lost their arrogance, demanding that the guards treat them as nobles.

‘Even if they’re not the culprits, it doesn’t matter. I’ll make them the ones behind it.’

Calsion’s eyes glinted savagely as he lifted April’s unconscious body into his arms.

“Tell the High Priest at the Imperial Palace to come out immediately. If anything happens to April, the temple will not be spared.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Prepare a horse.”

At his command, a knight cut the harness of the carriage horse and led it to him. Calsion hated the idea of entrusting April to anyone else, but there was no choice if he was to mount.

As soon as he was on horseback, he took April gently from Theo, who had been standing by, and embraced her securely in his arms. Holding her tightly, he spurred the horse into a gallop. The palace was not far now.

A knight who had ridden ahead to deliver the news must have done his job well, for the High Priest himself was already waiting at the palace gates.

“Your Highness!”

“Check her condition.”

The High Priest, seeing April, hastily poured divine power into her after noticing her blood-soaked shoulder. The pure white light of divine power was absorbed into her body, and the wound on her shoulder disappeared completely.

But as he channeled divine power into her, the High Priest felt an unfamiliar presence within her and flinched.

“What is this…?”

Calsion did not bother to hide his displeasure at the High Priest’s hesitation. He had told him to check her condition—so why was he faltering like that? The divine power seemed to have healed her wound perfectly, but was there some other illness afflicting April? The thought unsettled him.

Lifting his trembling eyes, he stared at the High Priest, who flinched and averted his gaze.

At that sight, Calsion clenched his teeth. Countless thoughts ran through his head.

Especially since he had been away from her side for long stretches of time, and he could not know what might have happened while she was outside the palace, Calsion pressed the High Priest with barely restrained worry.

After a long hesitation, the High Priest finally opened his mouth with difficulty.

Hearing his words, Calsion’s eyes widened, and the corners of his lips trembled.