“Don’t touch me!”

The child glared at Felix and the physician, his red eyes wide with fury.

“Little one, I… I’m not a scary person. So please…”

‘How could he possibly explain this to a child?’

As Felix hesitated, the boy’s gaze darted anxiously around the room.

The physician, wiping blood from his hands, spoke gruffly.

“This is a clinic. That soldier saved your life. Most foreigners have fled to the provinces — if they’re seen here in the capital, they’re killed. Why are you still here?”

Though his scolding tone carried concern, the boy seemed deaf to it.

“My doll. Where’s my doll?”

“Doll?”

Felix was taken aback that the first thing the boy searched for upon waking was a doll. Most children in his place would have cowered from the soldier who shot them, asked where they were, or cried for their parents.

“The doll I was holding! Haven’t you seen it?”

The boy tried to rise from the bed, only to collapse back down, his legs too weak to support him.

“Don’t take a hand injury lightly! You need to rest it now!”

“But I have to give her the doll! Angelia is waiting for me!”

The boy shouted desperately.

“Angelia doesn’t have much time left—she’s going to die soon!”

Tears welled as the boy rubbed at his eyes, his voice breaking.

Felix didn’t understand what he meant, but he knew he wanted to find the doll for him.

“If we go back to where it happened, we’ll find it, right?”

“Y-yes!”

“Hold on tight! Cover your eyes, too. If the soldiers realise you have foreign blood, they’ll kill you. As for me, I might be executed for disobeying orders by trying to save you.”

The boy nodded and pressed both hands tightly over his eyes.

“Tch. Here, wear this.”

The physician pulled out a wide-brimmed hat.

“Thank you.”

Tch! If you’re so grateful, then don’t ever bring another spoilt foreign child here again. You’ll kill me!”

Grumbling, the physician sank heavily into his chair. Felix chuckled softly and pulled the child into his arms.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“Ed-Edmund Reihardt.”

“…What?”

Both the physician, leisurely stirring cocoa, and Felix, holding the boy, turned to him with stunned expressions.

“Reihardt … isn’t that the imperial family’s name?”

“Little one, what’s your father’s name?”

“My father’s name is Kai Reihardt. But he told me it was a secret…”

Crash.

The physician dropped the cup he was holding. Shards scattered across the floor like falling snowflakes.

“Good heavens! Felix, I’ve made a terrible mistake! Bring anyone you can! My word…”

To think he had saved a child of the imperial house. Every citizen knew that the Emperor’s youngest son, Kai, had run off with an foreign dancer, abandoning the palace. But no one had known they had a child.

“In any case, let’s go. We need to find that doll, don’t we?”

“Yes. Angelia told me I must bring it back.”

Edmund nodded firmly.

“Angelia always said so. That doll was precious, made by her late grandmother. To her, it was like family.”

Edmund sniffled again, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Angelia… she’s your mother, then?”

“Y-yes. But Mama told me not to call her Mama or Papa outside…”

Edmund’s cries grew louder. It seemed that the foreign dancer had wanted to hide the boy’s existence for the sake of her husband’s future, which had already been ruined.

“Strange men suddenly shot Angelia. I was so scared, I ran away… but Angelia told me to bring Olivia to her.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

The physician sprang to his feet and grabbed his medical bag.

“Little one—or no, should I be calling you Your Highness instead?”

“That’s not what matters right now.”

Felix let out a sigh.

“I don’t think the doll is what’s important at the moment. I don’t know how long it’s been since your mother was… but this doctor, despite appearances, is quite skilled.”

“Despite appearances? Bah.”

“Which is why I think we should go to your mother first. What do you say?”

At Felix’s question, Edmund’s red eyes wavered.

“You might be able to save her.”

At those words, Edmund seemed to harden his resolve.

“I’ll take you to my house.”

And so the three of them followed Edmund’s lead to his home. Knights stood clustered at the entrance.

Edmund jumped out of Felix’s arms when he saw it.

“Angelia!”

Before the knights could stop him, Edmund rushed inside.

There, a woman on the verge of death lay cradled in Kai’s arms.

“Oh… my Edmund. Thank goodness. I get to see you before I go.”

“Mother, don’t leave me! I’ll… I’ll bring Olivia to you!”

“Huhu… Olivia is safe, my son.”

Angelia smiled faintly as she stroked her child’s cheek.

“Listen to your father. Grow up to be a fine man.”

“Mother, please, I beg you. Don’t leave me behind.”

Smiling through tears at Kai’s sobbing face, Angelia forced out her final words.

“Become the Emperor. Promise me. Embrace our Puglish with love.”

“Angelia!”

“It’s better this way. A foreign as Empress? Someone uneducated like me, what could I possibly do in such a place?”

“No, Angelia. If I don’t have you, then becoming Emperor means nothing. Please… please, live. I beg you.”

Kai whispered desperately, but ultimately she took her last breath.

Kai and Edmund cried for a long time in that place.

After watching them for some time, Felix quietly left. He had to find the doll that Edmund had mentioned — the one called Olivia.

But no matter how much he searched the area, all he could find were red stains of blood.

“Little one… no, Edmund.”

Felix returned to the boy who had just lost his mother, forcing the words out with difficulty.

“I went back to where you collapsed earlier, but I didn’t see the doll.”

“Forget it! I never want to see that stupid doll again! If I hadn’t gone looking for it, I could’ve been with Mother a little longer!”

As Edmund broke down and cried, Kai spoke in his stead.

“Angelia cherished that doll. But when I asked her about it a while ago, she said she had pawned it when we were short of money.”

Kai clenched his jaw, his face tight with pain.

“When she told me that, I made up my mind. No matter how filthy or degrading it was, I would climb to that position. I would let myself be used like a chess piece if I had to. And yet… Angelia left me first…”

He had vowed to become Emperor for the sake of his beloved wife—and on the very day he resolved it, he lost her.

As the physician watched the devastated man, he spoke.

“You must endure, sir. You still have Edmund.”

“…Yes. You’re right. I must endure. Edmund is the precious child Angelia left to me.”

Kai resolved to take the grieving boy into his arms.

“Edmund, your father will change this world. I will transform this empire that persecutes you because of your foreign blood. I’ll fulfil Angelia’s final wish and create policies that benefit them.”

Edmund, unaware of the meaning of ‘foreigner’ or of what had happened to his father that day, could only cried bitterly in Kai’s embrace.

💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠

“And that’s why His Highness came to hate dolls. He says they remind him of his own weakness. As if a child could even be called weak in the first place. The truth is, His Highness simply grew up far too quickly.”

Felix sighed as he spoke.

“The reason Lady Angelia pawned the doll was because Prince Edmund had begged for cake.”

“His Highness… begged for cake?”

“He always said, if he had known his birthday cake meant pawning her cherished doll, he would never have asked for it. I suppose that’s also why he came to dislike sweets.”

“…The doll’s name was really Olivia?”

At my question, Felix nodded.

“Yes. The very same Olivia. It was the name of Angelia’s mother—the Empress’s mother. It seems Her Highness cherished that doll as though it were her own mother.”

The strength drained from my body.

“Olivia? What’s wrong?”

“Your Highness. I have to go to His Highness.”

The master I had been searching for—the true master of Olivia. The one I had failed to recognize because of Galahad’s lies.

“It was Edmund.”

“What?”

‘Edmund was my master.’

The heart I had rejected because of Galahad—the heart I was meant to embrace as my own—belonged to him.

“Hurry, we must go at once!”

I couldn’t afford to waste a moment. I started running.

‘Why is Olivia’s body so unbearably slow?’

My breath burned in my chest, but I couldn’t stop.

‘I want to see him. I want to hold him right now—the one who told me he loved me.’

If only Edmund had spoken to me about his mother that day, he would have told me everything. I would have realized it then.

But when I arrived at the palace in a hurry, Edmund was nowhere to be found.