Why was there a glimpse of attachment to life? Just like that child.

His fingers twitched, applying and releasing pressure on the princess’s neck like he was going to strangle her. Perhaps if he just applied a little force and snapped it, the princess’s faint breath would stop immediately.

He could feel the pulse along with the heat through his palm. Feeling that slow vibration, Genoa furrowed his brow.

“Be quiet, Mel.”

A chilling voice escaped between Genoa’s lips. Yet in his mind, the innocent child’s words continued.

“I’ll help you. I’ll make sure you can get out of there.”

A twisted smile appeared on his lips. Blue veins bulged on the back of Genoa’s hand. His fingers twitched, stopped, and repeated.

“You ended up abandoning me and running away.”

His furrowed brow showed no signs of relaxing.

“You’re still spouting sweet words.”

The small child who smiled brightly and spoke of trust and affection still lived in his mind. If only he had directly seen Mel running away, would this boiling killing intent have stopped?

He had only heard through Bane that she had died and betrayed him, Genoa hadn’t even seen Mel’s corpse. So he simply couldn’t imagine it. The image of Mel turning her back on Ivanstein and leaving coldly.

“Should I just kill her?”

Genoa’s indifferent voice settled quietly.

Looking at the princess, at that face that seemed like Mel had grown up just as she was, that bitter despair he had tasted for the first time in his life revived again. The despair he felt was incomprehensible, unable to forgive the slave who had left an indelible wound on his lofty pride.

“……”

After staring at the princess’s face for a moment, Genoa soon withdrew his hand. The princess was still sleeping with a peaceful face, breathing raggedly. Even after withdrawing his hand, the movement of his fingers that had been constantly twitching stopped when the princess’s lips quivered with ragged breaths.

“……Cruel……”

“Hm?”

A faint voice, barely audible, was heard from between the princess’s lips. Genoa unknowingly bent his waist, lowered his head, and listened closely.

“Cruel…… person.”

“……!”

Genoa’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment. Could it be that she had heard what he had muttered to himself earlier?

Blinking slowly and frozen for a moment, Genoa soon exhaled evenly and swallowed a laugh as he looked at the princess who had fallen back into deep sleep.

“This woman is a princess.”

Even with a face resembling Mel and making the same sounds as Mel, this woman was a princess. The noble princess of Reibritton. The key that would bring clear water to an empire that seemed like it would stagnate and rot.

Genoa recalled her appearance as she established her authority in front of the head maid, and the voice that didn’t yield a single word to him. The child’s voice that had been whispering in his mind for a long time seemed to say this.

“How could I possibly speak to you like that, young master?”

What had been consuming his insides disappeared so easily it was almost ridiculous.

Once Mel’s ghost started to appear, it was rarely easy to make it disappear. But when looking at the princess who had a face resembling Mel yet acted and spoke in ways that child would never do, the ghost disappeared this easily.

“……”

Genoa sincerely thought at this moment that it was fortunate the princess was a princess.

Just then, with a small knock, the head maid entered the room with cautious movements.

“What is it?”

Genoa asked without taking his eyes off the princess. The head maid swallowed before speaking.

“I will watch over her here. The bedroom has been prepared, so please go and rest comfortably.”

“Why, are you anxious?”

“What do you mean by that……”

The head maid rolled her eyes, perplexed. Genoa slowly turned around and stared at her.

“About me being by the princess’s side.”

The head maid couldn’t exactly grasp what Genoa meant by his words. She knew that the small dispute between her and the princess hadn’t yet reached Genoa’s ears. But had Genoa somehow seen through her heart, which was anxiously worrying about when the princess might say something careless to the Duke?

To the head maid who couldn’t easily answer and kept her mouth shut, Genoa shrugged and said,

“Bane is still wary of the princess from an enemy country. I’m asking if you are too.”

“……That’s not the case.”

The head maid’s shoulders, which had risen slightly with tension, returned to their place. Noticing this, Genoa, as if he hadn’t seen anything, turned his head back to look at the princess and said,

“Then I will stay by the princess’s side.”

“There’s no need to go that far……”

“I want to do so.”

“……”

At Genoa’s answer, the head maid’s expression hardened terribly. The head maid knew that no matter how many times she urged, Genoa’s answer would be the same.

“Then call if you need anything.”

In the end, the head maid had no choice but to leave the princess’s room with a serious face.

* * *

“The princess is sick?”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying that the Duke of Ivanstein really left his seat for that reason?”

“That’s what they say.”

First Prince Rihast tried to hide his expression that was about to distort as he listened to his subordinate’s report.

“He rejected my private audience for such a reason…?”

Rihast stood up abruptly from his seat with a restless gesture. Then he sat back down in the chair with a thud, repeating this action.

Tap, tap, tap.

Tapping his fingers on the desk was a habit that emerged when Rihast was deep in thought. His subordinate waited silently until Rihast finished organizing his thoughts.

How much time had passed like that? Rihast stood up, slamming his palm on the desk with a bang.

“That can’t be.”

“Your Highness?”

“There must be a hidden intention.”

Rihast opened the office door and headed for the corridor. His subordinates and knights hurriedly followed behind him.

Moonlight was pouring in through the large windows in the palace corridor. Rihast frowned at the moonlight that seemed to pierce his eyes as he headed towards the hall where the memorial service was being held. Even just seeing the moon in the night sky reminded him of Genoa Ivanstein’s dazzling silver hair.

Some called him a blessing from God, but to Rihast, he was closer to a curse from God. Genoa becoming the Duke of Ivanstein was precisely the curse on the imperial family. No one knew what Genoa was thinking or what he was plotting.

The Second Prince, Rudrich, said this about him:

“Don’t be fooled by the favor shown by the Duke of Ivanstein.”

“Even an emperor can’t easily start a war. It was that man who created this situation where we attacked Reibritton without any justification.”

“Just look at the results. In the end, isn’t it the case that only the imperial family’s honor has been tarnished, and the Ivanstein ducal family has taken the practical gains from Reibritton?”

There was no need to believe everything Rudrich said. Even though they were brothers, they were ultimately competing for the throne. His words would be mixed with appropriate checks and balances.

But Rihast agreed that Genoa Ivanstein was an excellent person at hiding his true intentions. He was truly an insidious man.

“Surely you don’t think you can handle that man, Genoa Ivanstein, do you, brother?”

Recalling Rudrich’s last words, Rihast gritted his teeth.

“Send a letter to the Duke of Ivanstein. Tell him he doesn’t need to attend the upcoming memorial service for the late emperor.”

“What? But the other nobles……”

The subordinate carefully expressed his concern. It was the Duke of Ivanstein who was currently leading the memorial service for the deceased emperor. Although he had briefly left his seat, he couldn’t completely absent himself from the upcoming memorial services. But despite his subordinate’s perfectly reasonable concern, Rihast shouted angrily,

“Am I not here? I, who will lead this empire in the future!”

“……!”

“Since when did this Raon Empire become incapable of doing anything without the Duke of Ivanstein!”

In front of Rihast, who was breathing angrily, the subordinate ultimately had to rush down the corridor to send a letter to the ducal family without being able to say a word.

If the nobles learned that it was the First Prince who prevented the Duke of Ivanstein from attending the memorial service, he would likely move further away from the throne. Even the subordinate running down the corridor knew this.

But no one could stop Rihast, who was angry to the tips of his hair. That temper, where reason was consumed by anger, closely resembled the deceased emperor.

“……Phew.”