Just as Lia, exhausted by the endless waiting, was about to rise from her seat, his cracked, whitened lips quivered slightly, ready to confess an old secret.

“Where should I begin?”

Noah raised a wrinkled hand and clutched his head, thick with white hair. Her father’s hair, once rich with a warm brown, was faded and shabby.

“You….”

Lia’s ears perked up at her father’s tiny voice.

“You are a child born with the blessing of the beautiful royal family of Lucia.”

Lia’s blank expression filled with astonishment. It was unbelievable.

“You were the daughter of a mother more beautiful than anyone, and the radiant future of this country. It was a cold winter night, when the white snow fell so hard you couldn’t see ahead….”

Her father’s eyes, searching through memory, were trapped in deep tears. His mind seemed to have returned to the past already.

“It was twins.”

“That’s absurd.”

“You must have heard of it at least once. Hundreds of years ago, twins devoured each other. The Lucian royal family defined that as a ‘curse’ and burned to death every pair of twins born afterward.”

Lia recalled the ‘curse of the Lucian royal family’ passed down by word of mouth. Her brow furrowed on its own.

“Your mother decided to deceive the king to protect you both. Lorelia. To her, the children she carried for ten months were not a curse but a blessing itself.”

Noah’s face twisted in pain. He struggled with all his might not to shed tears in front of his daughter.

“It was a very brave decision. It was the best choice that only she could make. You must never forget. All of this was the great love of your mother, who wanted to save you and your sister. Never….”

Until now he stared only at the floor. The moment he raised his heavy head and met his daughter’s black eyes.

Thud!

With a dull sound, Noah’s head snapped sideways. His pupils, drowned in tears, contracted at once.

The muscles of her father’s face twitched slightly. Lia’s face did the same as she watched.

Soon, the tears trapping his warm eyes ran down his crooked nose.

Along with red blood, her father’s thin body plunged to the floor. Dust rose with a loud noise.

“Father!!”

A huge arrow was lodged in Noah’s head.

Lia crawled across the floor in an instant, wrapped her arms around her father’s head, and looked around wildly. The window beside the front door was horribly shattered.

Lia stared at the arrow that pierced her father’s temple. Her limbs trembled and no words came out. The thought that she herself might be threatened next never crossed her mind. She felt only her father’s hot blood, more vivid than anything.

“Dad! Ah, Father!!”

Her scream made her father’s eyelashes, which seemed ready to never move again, begin to tremble.

“Someone, someone please… someone help me!!”

No one would come to help them at this late hour, and her father was dying, bleeding more with each moment.

Lia howled fiercely, enough to tear her throat, but no one could hear the voice of Lia, who lived in a secluded house at the foot of the mountain.

Thick blood ran down along Noah’s deep wrinkles, and Lia’s hot tears fell drop by drop upon it.

Noah, twitching faintly, struggled to lift his heavy eyelids but failed, seemingly out of strength.

“Uh… uh….”

In the end, the warm brown eyes stopped forever without taking in his beloved daughter.

The hair on her whole body stood on end.

Her father’s thin chest, which was faintly heaving, no longer moved. The focus vanished from her beloved father’s brown eyes and emptiness settled in. Yes, this was.

Death. It was death.

Who on earth, why! Why!!

She hugged her father’s limp head and shook her own.

“No. It’s not. It’s not… It’s not!”

Her mind completely gone, she raised her hand, smeared with her father’s blood, and wiped away her tears. Her slender shoulders heaved roughly, and her short, rapid breaths seemed ready to stop at any moment. Her anguish was enough to make even a bystander’s heart ache.

Her father’s body gradually lost its warmth. The body that was supple and soft stiffened, and the blood that flowed in abundance seemed drained of all it could give and no longer flowed.

“Who is it?”

Soon Lia began looking around like a madwoman. Her head whipped in every direction.

“Who is it!! Which bastard!! Which goddamn bastard did this!!”

Was something answering her call? A long shadow fell before her as she howled fiercely.

“Princess. It is time to return to the castle.”

A man in a black mask extended his hand.

* * *

Lia clutched her throbbing head and opened her eyes with difficulty.

A fragrant scent pricked her nose, and a soft, fluffy blanket wrapped her whole body. Sweet music that delighted the ears even flowed from somewhere, and just as she wondered whether it had all been a dream.

“Are you feeling a little better, Princess?”

A strange voice whispered.

It was a very low, cold voice with clean, unwasted breathing. Hearing it, Lia’s body stiffened.

“You slept quite long, so your body must feel a bit stiff. You went through much hardship living in such uncomfortable conditions all this time.”

“Who are you?”

Lia turned her head to look at the owner of the voice.

A man, pale as an expressionless ghost, sat alone on a chair beside the bed. Even with her eyes on him, she could barely sense his presence.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Louis, a loyal subject of His Majesty King Gryphon and an ordinary citizen of Lucia. It is an honor to meet you.”

The chilling, ghostlike man rose without the slightest sound and bowed at the waist to her. Again, it was a motion of perfect cleanness and precision.

“That’s not what I’m asking. What kind of person are you, I said.”

Lia forced her drooping eyes wide and answered with an even colder tone than the man’s.

“I just told you. I am merely the king’s loyal subject….”

“Stop messing around and say it straight, you goddamn bastard.”

“Your mouth is a little rough.”

“Want me to make it rougher? Would you talk then?”

“Pfft. Puhuhu. Puhahahaha!”

The man burst into laughter at Lia’s fearless attitude. The man clutching his belly and cackling looked entirely different from his ghostlike appearance a moment ago.

“Crazy bastard.”

Lia, having no more to see, got out of bed and tried to leave the strange room, but the man did not allow it.

“Please sit.”

The large hands pressing down on both of Lia’s shoulders were very cold and hard. Like those of someone who handled weapons, the palms and fingertips were coarse and rough, and his touch held no consideration or mercy.

A knight, a soldier, a mercenary, or…

‘A killer’s hand.’

Instinct told her so. She threw herself at him blindly to strangle his neck.

“It was you! You! You killed him! You goddamn… Aaaagh!”

She screamed and reached out her arms, but he slipped away lightly with minimal movements, seemingly finding her ridiculous.

“Well, well. Will you manage to play princess like this?”

Chuckling and enjoying her flailing, the man finally put on an icy expression again when Lia’s nails raked his face, and he ruthlessly pinned both her arms.

“This is self-defense, Princess.”

He untied a leather cord from his waist, bound her arms tightly, and tossed her onto the bed.

“Don’t you have many questions? I can answer all of them. Ask me anything. Ah, I think this is what you’d wonder first.”

The man smiled and raised the index finger of his left hand.

“Why did I kill him? Right?”

Lia felt she might go mad with the hot rage rising to the top of her head, but a tiny remnant of reason coaxed her, saying ‘that man is right.’

Yes. She wanted to know the reason. Why, why on earth!

“Yes. Why did you kill him? A man living perfectly well, why did you kill him? Why?!”

Her father’s fading eyes came to mind, and Lia felt tears would burst out at any moment.

“So you’re finally willing to talk. I will answer as best I can. Now, first there is something you need to know. Do you know that he belonged to the royal household?”

“I know. He said he worked at the court a very long time ago.”

The man widened his narrow eyes and smiled brightly.