The man, speaking in a cold voice as if he were choking on his words, slapped Swan repeatedly on the cheek. At the mention of serving two m*n, the m*n behind him began to hurl crude insults, mocking and taunting Swan.

“What…?”

“Do you think I don’t know you’re the woman who was with the Emperor?”

The man narrowed his eyes. Then, with a look of disgust, he slapped Swan hard on the cheek and spat on the floor. Swan fell weakly, gasping for breath. She was too frightened to raise her head. It was the first time she had ever been slapped so directly in the face.

But what frightened her even more was his cold gaze… her whole body trembled as if it were about to break.

“I will never…”

“Shut up, you filthy woman. The whole city of Solam is full of rumours about you. You’re either the Emperor’s wife or a pr*stitute. Isn’t that right?”

He chuckled as he looked back at the m*n behind him. Terrified, Swan blinked her eyes. Her cheek burned. She had no idea what rumours had spread to bring her to such a state. She turned her eyes to the dead or bound guards, wondering how this could have happened.

The guards, apparently taken by surprise by the ambush, looked visibly distraught. Suddenly, a small rustling sound caught their attention. The back of one of the guards was visible, hastily retreating through the thick bushes. Swan ducked her head to avoid being seen by the bandits. If she stayed here, Atlion might come to her rescue. Yes, he might come to her rescue.

She bit her lip and looked away coldly, but the child was his daughter. No matter how bad things got, the child wouldn’t deny it. Swan squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. Theo, whose wounds hadn’t even healed yet, was kicked again and swallowed a groan.

***

Her hands and feet were tied and her eyes covered with a cloth. She had asked to hold the child, but they wouldn’t let her. Swan didn’t even know who they were.

She had no one who would want her in that state. As their coarse words made clear, the people they wanted to provoke or make pay were Atlion.

If he didn’t react, there was nothing she could do. In any case, capturing Swan and Theo’s group wasn’t a bad thing for her. If things got desperate, they could sell them as slaves.

Swan exhaled sharply and tightened her lips. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably. She had not been able to calm herself since the child was taken from her. The sound of the child’s cries echoed in her ears and horrible images began to flood her mind. Each of the terrible thoughts that filled her mind seemed to have a potential reality.

Swan bit her lips, trying to control her ragged breathing. What if Mirabella had also been sold into slavery? What if Atlion hadn’t sent his troops in time?

No, what if she had died before the soldiers arrived? Even if they survived, what if someone had died, either Theo or Mirabella?

She tried to dismiss these thoughts as mere fantasies, but they took on concrete forms and tormented her.

“Walk properly!”

The voice of someone in front of her shouted as she kicked someone. With a grunt, someone collapsed. Swan immediately recognised the fallen person as Theo and screamed.

“Please, please stop! He’s already hurt!”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. The sharp taste of blood filled her mouth where her lip had been split. Soon her hair was being pulled roughly. Swan screamed as she was dragged somewhere, only to be kicked and thrown to the ground.

“We’re worthless. Truly.”

Her blindfold fell away. It was evening, not daylight, so the light wasn’t blinding. But because she was frightened, she couldn’t see who was in front of her or how many people there were. It was hard to count them.

Theo, who had already been tortured and was now being beaten, could only moan weakly, his mind in a fog. And Mirabella, she didn’t know where she was.

“Please, please give me the child back. The child knows nothing. She’s already emotionally unstable and can’t live without me. She’s small and weak even under normal circumstances…”

There was no response. Swan struggled to breathe and then began to speak again, her voice shaking as she tried to explain how useless she was to the Emperor.

“If I… if I were really the Emperor’s wife… if His Majesty really cared for me, I wouldn’t have left the palace.”

That was the truth. She wasn’t the Emperor’s wife. Although she was called ‘Madame’ in the palace, she was not his official wife. It was Swan who had remained in this ambiguous position. She had recklessly conceived a child and tried to marry on her own terms. She never wanted to make that mistake again.

She couldn’t bear to live with a man who didn’t love her, to endure every moment when he showed her that he didn’t care. She wanted to avoid that more than anything. It was a life she had lived before.

Forced tears that she had held back now streamed down her cheeks. Swan struggled against her bound hands.

“I have no value. So I don’t know what you want… but…”

“Shut up and stop crying.”

The sharp command made her lips quiver. Even the smallest sound echoed loudly in the darkness. A cold shiver ran through her body, unbearably cold.

Swan, curled up in a corner, turned to look at Theo. His hands and feet were tied and he couldn’t even hold himself up. Just by looking at him, she could tell how serious it was. He was sweating profusely, his body drenched in cold sweat, and it made her uneasy, as if a fever was beginning to rise.

The m*n, unwilling to listen to anything she said, left the cave. With her eyes covered by a blindfold, she couldn’t tell where she was. She didn’t know the geography of Solam to begin with, and since she hadn’t been able to observe her surroundings while they were moving, there was no way to figure out how to escape.

If only she had been the healthy one and Theo the sick one, would there have been a better chance of escape? A man collapsed from illness, and their daughter – who knew where she was going – disappeared. Swan knew she couldn’t cope.

“Theo, Theo… please wake up.”

“Swan.”

“Yes, I’m here.”

She replied, holding back her sobs at his call. He blinked his sweat soaked eyes and stared at her for a long moment. His lips, pale and colourless, trembled uncontrollably. Swan scanned his shirt, almost invisible in the darkness. The bandaged area had turned a deep red. It was clear that the wound had reopened.

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault…”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I should have told you properly…”

“You shouldn’t move. If you keep talking, your wound will get worse.”

Theo shook his head, and a tear finally fell from his eye.

“I should have told His Majesty… that we are really just good friends. I know you missed him. He missed you too…”

“Theo.”

“We love each other.”

“He doesn’t… love me.”

“He does. If he didn’t, how could he hurt me so much?”

Theo smiled weakly. Swan stared at him intently. For a while Theo said nothing. The shadow of death loomed in his eyes as they drooped heavily. Swan shook her head slowly and called to him again.

“Theo, open your eyes. Please open your eyes. I can’t let you go like this. I’m sorry, I can’t let you go.”

“We have to go back, Swan.”

“Yes. Yes. Theo, let’s go home together.”

Terrified, Swan nodded repeatedly at Theo’s words. Suddenly, when he opened his eyes again, he looked at her blankly.

Swan pulled herself to his side, then leaned in and pressed her lips to his forehead. As expected, his body was burning with fever. She wanted to check the wound, but her hands were tied. She struggled against the ropes, grunting in frustration. Then suddenly Theo spoke.

“His Majesty is coming to rescue you.”

“Even if he comes to rescue me, what good will it do if you die?”

“I’m not going to die.”

Theo smiled weakly. Swan looked at his wounded body and then thought of Atlion. She leaned against the cave wall and thought about him. She remembered the words Theo had just said – that if Atlion didn’t love her, he wouldn’t hurt so much. Had Swan really hurt him?

If so, why had Atlion never said he loved her?

She had waited for that word all this time. If he had said it just once, she might have tried some of the reckless things he spoke of. Perhaps she would have stood by his side, even shamelessly accepted the position of Empress. An ordinary woman like her would never have dared to dream of such a position, but she might have been tempted.

But Atlion never spoke the word “love”. Though he was hard and bitter, even then he never said it.

The memory of coming out of the corridor, crouching in the darkness, came back. The times she had loved him felt like fragments of a foolish past, and she had thought she had buried them all.

But being with him made her fall in love with him. She lowered her gaze. Facing him, their eyes locked, their bodies entwined through the night – could it be that the wound she had forcibly carved into herself was hurting because of it? The love she had forcibly cut from her heart was now hurting her.

Just as she remembered Atlion coldly turning his head and telling her to leave his bedroom, the sound of hooves began to echo in the distance. Breathing heavily, Swan looked towards the entrance of the cave. Inside the cave, shrouded in darkness, there was nothing to be seen. She half-crawled towards the entrance, her heart pounding.