Lia was so appalled she could not even exhale the breath she drew in. It was truly a crucible of shock.

To think that the king of this country, the man who claimed to be her biological father, was such a madman.

“You look unwell. I hear you haven’t touched the meals prepared for you… What should I do to make my daughter eat?”

King Gryphon looked at Lia with a deliberately grave face. But she only clenched her mouth shut and glared at his white beard as though to kill it.

“Ah. How about punishing the servant who brings it each time you skip a meal? Those who deserve death for great crimes are everywhere nearby.”

“You’re insane.”

“I could cut off their fingers one by one, or if you dislike blood, press a hot iron against them. If they die from the pain, the next person, and the next, wait in an endless line.”

“Words that hold the lives of the people hostage coming from a king’s mouth. You are not a king.”

“That is why I said it. Those who committed crimes deserving death….”

“Madman.”

She held nothing back. Her attitude said she did not care if her head flew off right now.

“You have a bad way of speaking.”

“What do you want?”

Her single sentence made the eyes of the two men buried in the darkness flash wide, like they met lightning.

“So you are finally willing to talk?”

“I just want to stop hearing your nonsense.”

“Whatever you wish. Let us try this thing called negotiation.”

The king said with a benevolent smile.

“I want only one thing. For you to live as Blair. All your father wants is for his daughter to live comfortably as a princess, nothing else.”

Lia’s bony body shook at the shamelessness that seemed inhuman. She looked at the king with contempt. He was the devil himself.

“Now, you tell me. What do you want from me?”

The king’s flashing eyes were like a snake in the darkness. Lia swallowed down the urge to retch and clenched her teeth.

“Right now, retrieve my father’s body. Restore his honor as a librarian, of course, and build a tower in his memory on the site of our house.”

“That is not difficult. Let us do so.”

“Bury Blair properly too, in the castle’s underground tomb where royalty is buried. By any means necessary, without fail.”

“Hmm….”

The king made a peculiar nasal sound. That would surely be troublesome and bothersome. He would have to take measures with the records that posterity would read in the distant future in mind.

“What. You don’t want to?”

“Fine. I will grant it.”

“Also, this man. Give me this man’s life.”

“!”

She raised her limp arm and pointed at ‘Louis.’

“Bold. Even insolent.”

The king’s face crumpled in an instant. She should have been daunted by the king’s presence, yet she grew even more spirited.

“You wanted to tie yourself to Felix through marriage, didn’t you?”

At Lia’s words, the king’s deeply wrinkled eyes narrowed to threads.

“If I die, there’s no royal woman in this country to marry the prince of Felix. That’s why you brought me here. After a grand wedding, if mighty Felix learned the bride had been swapped, would they stay quiet?”

“You are quite clever. You have a sharp eye for the ways of the world as well.”

“When you grow up as the daughter of a royal palace librarian, you get to read all sorts of books.”

The king’s worry deepened.

She was no ordinary girl. He assumed a girl who wandered through rural backwaters would obey meekly if he scared her a little, but she was shrewd beyond measure.

“Louis. She says she wants to kill you. What shall we do?”

The king raised his head and asked the man standing beside him.

“My life belongs to the king. Do as you wish.”

The man spoke of his loyalty without the slightest delay.

“Quit playing around. Who said anything about killing you? No, I won’t kill you. Unless it’s making you beg to be killed. Even if everyone in the world screams for your death, I will never kill you. I want you to live in eternal pain and go mad.”

“Ahahaha. What nerve. I can entrust things to you.”

The king roared with laughter, greatly pleased.

“Fine. Whatever it is, I will grant it. As long as it does not threaten my seat.”

Just as the king, thinking the negotiation over, was about to smile in triumph.

“Last one.”

The king’s face scrunched up. She wanted far too much. But he could not ruin everything now, so he reluctantly agreed.

“Let me live my whole life undiscovered. After the wedding, let me go.”

“Hmm…”

The king pondered.

After the marriage, she would cross over to Felix and live there anyway. But the world could change suddenly at any time, and what she could do for him in the future was limitless. Moreover, he would feel at ease only with her in his grasp, yet she dared to want freedom.

“An unfair negotiation. If I do as you say, it amounts to giving up the mountain of gains I would reap from now on. Isn’t that too much of a loss for me?”

“It was unfair from the start. You abducted me, who was living well, and now you’re trying to bind me for life. The start isn’t fair, yet you wanted a clean result?”

“You were never the daughter of that lowly scribbler. You are my daughter. You have merely returned to your rightful place.”

“Right. I am your daughter.”

“!”

“It’s your daughter’s first and last request to her father.”

The twins resembled each other greatly, but unlike Blair, whose eye corners drooped slightly, this child with sharply upturned corners was the spitting image of him. Even the look in her eyes now, the very image of him….

He felt a peculiar emotion toward the daughter he was seeing for the first time.

Perhaps that was why. It was a request he would never have permitted under the original plan.

“Fine. After the marriage, live as you wish. But remember this. The day you are discovered, you will not die gracefully.”

“….”

No answer came back, but her eyes spoke.

That she would surely do so. That she would live, never discovered by anyone.

“Good. With this, the negotiation is over.”

With those words, the king left. Louis, who remained, also vanished without a trace at some point.

Only when she was finally left alone in the darkness could Lia, no, Blair, fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

At that time, Taran sat sulking before the endless stream of rare gifts. Fine liquor, glittering jewels, the finest fabrics, soft and light like feathers, and swords that craftsmen of various countries tempered dozens of times.

“Quite cliché.”

Sitting on the wide sofa, he crossed his long legs and spoke. Ariel, who appeared with the gifts that arrived a moment ago, retorted.

“See if there’s one my father sent. Though it might be so cliché that it won’t catch your eye.”

She swept her voluminous skirt across in front of him and stood by the window. The cold winter was not even over yet, but the large window was wide open.

Taran smiled and picked up a long sword leaning at an angle beside the chair.

“I like Duke Stefan’s gift. This is a precious sword made by the dwarves of the north, the finest craftsmen there are.”

“Ah. He said he would give it to you when you returned from the battlefield. To think he would give it as a wedding gift.”

Ariel sneered. But Taran, seemingly quite pleased with the sword, only studied the engraved part of the hilt and did not react at all.

Somehow, Ariel felt an impulsive urge to touch him.

She wanted him to look at her right now! She wanted the gaze fixed on that sword to come to her!

“Taran. Look at my face.”

The woman who stood before the windy window was now sitting pressed right up against Taran. She stroked his soft face.

“Ariel.”

“I won’t see you for a while, so I want to look at you plenty.”

Taran sighed, then turned his head to look at her. A face as beautiful as any other day sat very close. Close enough to touch at any moment.

“It seems too close for looking at your face.”

“Then look at my eyes.”

Her brilliant golden eyes filled with the beautiful man.