“What? You want to go to Khalid?”

After taking some time to rest, Dana Rowen visited Taras a few days later. She insisted on leaving the capital for a retreat to Khalid.

Khalid was an estate in the northern part of the Rowen Kingdom, originally the duchy of Khalid. However, the former duke, who was the late king’s brother, had died young, leaving the title vacant.

Khalid was quite distant from the capital, Larnas, which was located in the southern part of Rowen, but Dana had visited Khalid when she was ten, accompanied by the late king and queen.

It was a mysterious land where the first king was said to have made a pact with a divine beast. The young Dana, who was filled with romantic notions about the place where Rowen began, had begged to visit. The late king and queen, who cherished their daughter born to them later in life, adjusted their schedules to take the princess to Khalid.

The Viscount Vicar couple, who were responsible for the northern border in place of the vacant duchy, were kind people. The summer they spent there was enjoyable, and she believed it would become a cherished memory for life.

If it had ended there, it might have remained so forever—if the late king and queen had not died in a carriage accident on the way back from Khalid.

Dana returned alone to the capital, Larnas. Taras, who had been left to manage state affairs in the absence of the late king and queen, came to dislike Khalid and the north from that day forward. His younger sister, who had dragged their busy parents so far away and returned alone, became a target of resentment.

So when Khalid’s name came up, Taras’s expression soured. With a stern face, he asked, “Why do you intend to go so far away?”

Dana replied with a prepared, gloomy expression and a pale face.

“What are the nobles saying, brother? About me, the first royal from Rowen who couldn’t summon a divine beast or make a pact?”

“Oh, Dana.”

Taras rose from the king’s chair and approached her. Grasping his sister’s shoulders, he spoke soothingly.

“Don’t worry about what the nobles say. I’m the king of this kingdom, and you’re my sister. Who dares to speak against you?”

Dana responded with a disheartened look.

“They’ll probably question my qualifications. No royal has ever failed to make a pact with a divine beast. Maybe, just maybe, someone will even suspect me… that I might be…”

“What!”

Taras exclaimed in shock, raising his voice.

“That’s nonsense! What of the divine beast! It’s no problem if you can’t make a pact! It means nothing!”

Dana felt as if Taras’s shout was directed more at himself. She lowered her gaze and said,

“But I care. I’m ashamed and want to hide. I just want to rest. I wish to go to the quiet Khalid for recovery. Please grant me this for my sake.”

“Oh… but must it be Khalid? That place.”

Khalid was inevitably a site of bad memories for the siblings. It would be even more so for Dana than for Taras, who had never even visited. Dana looked at Taras, who seemed to be genuinely concerned, with a thoughtful expression.

In the past, Dana had thought it was natural for Taras to dislike her. She believed his resentment was justified and inevitable because their parents had died because of her.

Taras ascended to the throne unprepared. At that time, he was only seventeen—an age when the absence of parents and the weight of heavy responsibilities could feel overwhelming. For the young prince, who was disappointed to have made only a mediocre pact with a divine beast, the entire situation might have felt suffocating.

‘But.’

Taras was young when he ascended the throne, but he was not young when Dana made a pact with the divine beast. At that time, he was twenty-four—an adult. He was older than Dana, who was twenty-one when the kingdom fell. At the time of the kingdom’s collapse, Taras was not only an adult but also a parent. During that time…

‘Couldn’t he have considered my position even once?’

How scared his young sister must have been, how tormented by guilt. Couldn’t he have embraced her like a brother, assuring her it wasn’t her fault? Couldn’t they have supported each other as the only family left?

Seventeen-year-old Taras blamed and ignored his younger sister. “Because of you.” Ten-year-old Dana was crushed under those words. She was oppressed by guilt and curled up alone. She had no one to lean on and was constantly on edge.

When Dana turned seventeen, she made a pact with the divine beast Yentamien—the great divine beast. She finally thought she could do something for the kingdom. No longer just the sister who caused her parents’ deaths, she believed she had found a way to help her brother and atone for their parents’ deaths.

But she remembered the cold expression he had shown her the day after her birthday celebration, when she had made the pact with the divine beast and approached the king with excitement.

“Don’t be mistaken, Dana Rowen.”

The words of her brother, who had not forgotten their parents’ death, tightened around Dana Rowen’s neck like a noose on a gallows.

‘Remember what your words and actions have caused.’

He told her to do nothing. The king’s decree was an inescapable punishment for the princess. How could she think she could forget her wrongdoing by claiming she had made a pact with a great divine beast, after causing their parents’ deaths and plunging the kingdom into chaos? Did she believe she could be celebrated by the people of the kingdom? Such a thing should never happen, her brother had said coldly.

Dana no longer dared to consider doing anything or even think about calling upon the great divine beast. She remained quietly in the palace, as if she were invisible, waiting only for the day she would marry the fiancé chosen by Taras. Just as Taras wanted. She lived in anticipation of fulfilling her royal duties and responsibilities by solidifying an alliance with a neighboring kingdom, contributing to the kingdom’s safety.

Reflecting on those past days, Dana spoke to Taras.

“That’s why I want to go to Khalid even more. Maybe the reason I couldn’t make a pact with a divine beast is that it’s a punishment for causing our parents’ deaths.”

“What are you saying, Dana?”

“I want to go to Khalid, face my mistakes, and atone for my sins. That place is where I should repent and seek forgiveness. Please let me go there, brother.”

As Dana voiced the forbidden topic between them, filled with guilt, Taras found himself unable to continue the conversation.

The king, who had experienced disappointment from making a pact with a lesser divine beast, felt slightly more lenient toward his sister for not being able to make a pact at all. Dana’s pitiful demeanor, as if she were crushed by reality, also influenced him. In the end, he nodded.

“If that’s what you want, then so be it. Think of it as a time to recuperate. Get some fresh air and rest, and you’ll feel better. Come back to the capital whenever you wish.”

Taras never once said that their parents’ deaths were not her fault and that she shouldn’t feel guilty. Dana couldn’t forget that fact.

After bidding farewell to Taras, Dana left the king’s audience chamber. She then spoke to Hilda and the waiting maids.

“I want to go to the portrait gallery.”

The maids quietly followed behind Dana. She climbed the stairs and headed toward a room with a firmly closed door. When the knights opened the door for her, she saw portraits lined up along the walls inside.

Dana walked toward a particular portrait as if she were familiar with it. Her steps stopped in front of a painting of two people. A man with dark blonde hair and green eyes stood behind, while a woman with bright blonde hair and sky-blue eyes sat in front. The names under the portrait read: Lucist Rowen and Izensina Rowen. It was a portrait of the late king and queen.

While the maids quietly stepped back, Dana stood there, unable to take her eyes off the portrait.

‘Father. Mother.’

She had been foolish. She should have realized this from the death of the late king and queen.

She was the daughter of the late king and a princess of Rowen. Therefore, her ignorance was a sin. Her foolishness was a sin.

Without knowing anything or considering deeply, she had naively begged her parents to take her to Khalid. Then, on the way back, a sudden carriage accident occurred. The cause of the accident was unknown, and her parents’ deaths remained a mystery.

Why the return route differed from the path to Khalid, and who had decided on that route—such things were unknown, as all the knights had perished in the carriage accident.

At the time, Taras probably had no capacity to investigate their parents’ deaths. He was young then and needed the support and help of the nobles. To uncover the mysterious deaths of the late king and queen and turn unspecified individuals into enemies would have been a burden. However,

‘Neglect is also a sin.’

There should have been plenty of opportunities afterward. Opportunities to strengthen and correct the royal authority. Opportunities to re-investigate their parents’ deaths.

Yet Taras did not do so. He buried the accident and planned to send Dana away in marriage to maintain peace.

In the end, Taras neglected their parents’ deaths and chose his own safety, just as he had when he abandoned the palace and fled during the kingdom’s dangerous times.

‘In the end, both my brother and I are sinners. To our parents, to this kingdom, to the people of this kingdom.’

If she was a sinner, then Taras was too. Both needed to protect their parents’ kingdom and the people of this kingdom with repentant and reflective hearts. Now, especially since time had barely been reversed, now was the moment.

‘I won’t stand idly by this time. I will protect this kingdom.’

She would do everything she could. She would safeguard her parents’ kingdom and not forgive those who endangered Rowen. She couldn’t waste this opportunity.

In doing so, she truly intended to atone to her parents, who had lost their lives because of her. She would fulfill her responsibilities to those who had sacrificed their lives while she did nothing.