Achilleon’s army attacked the mansion about ten days after Hari had been kidnapped. It was a night when the moonlight floated pale blue. At that time, Hari was taking a bath after being examined by the doctor.

“This is really becoming serious. You need to eat something.”

The doctor clicked her tongue while looking at Hari, who had lost weight over the past few days.

“At this rate, not only the mother but the child will be in danger too. Do you really want to die?”

She didn’t want to hear such words. The life lodged in her belly felt cursed like a parasite sucking away her strength. Skipping meals and unable to get sunlight, Hari grew increasingly haggard.

The maid in charge of food had even screamed, thinking Hari was dead when she found her stretched out like a ghost.

Antor absolutely wouldn’t let her leave the room. He only provided food, sent the doctor, and occasionally sent maids to report on Hari’s condition.

“Did you eat anything today?”

“……”

“You’re not deliberately refusing food just because you don’t like His Highness the Second Prince’s treatment, are you? Don’t do such foolish things, miss.”

The doctor muttered bluntly, put down the medicine, and left. That female doctor, who had been Princess Madalena’s personal physician, didn’t seem to like her much. From the beginning, she had disapproved of the rumor that she was ‘pregnant with Antor’s child.’

Sighing, Hari killed time in the lukewarm water. It was when she was about to change clothes that she heard faint noise from beyond the window she had been staring at blankly. She quickly looked outside. Gray background with a red snake and crown.

It was Achilleon’s military flag.

Restless footsteps could be heard from outside the bathroom as well. The doctor’s scream, who had been looking at her with disdain, suddenly awakened her senses.

“W-wait a moment! That way is…!”

Bang!

She tried to escape using the commotion, but at that moment the bathroom door opened and she was caught by someone.

“Where are you going?”

“Achilleon… Ah!”

She tried to jump out the first-floor bathroom window, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed. The moment she heard the familiar low voice that sent chills up her skin, her heart plummeted.

Since she remained without turning around while hanging her body on the window frame, he gripped Hari’s hand even more strongly. That hand was hot enough to burn her entire body.

‘Did he come knowing everything? He must have. He would have come knowing that I betrayed him.’

Her heart was beating so fast it was hard to breathe.

“You must have something to say too.”

She barely managed to turn around. Achilleon filled her entire field of vision. His face with sharpened cheek and jaw lines, seeming to have lost as much weight as she had. His eyes were dark underneath and his gaze was razor-sharp, but still a beautiful face.

Perhaps because he was wearing steel armor, Achilleon cast shadows over Hari threateningly and emanated a chilling aura throughout his body. Looking at his cold face that held not a trace of affection, her breath somehow caught in her throat.

Achilleon looked coldly at Hari, who was holding her breath like a small herbivore. He had doubted until the end, believed it couldn’t be true, but part of his heart had been accepting the betrayal.

However, Achilleon still believed that the woman who had deceived him hadn’t acted from her true heart. That she had joined hands with Antor because she was cornered. He could understand that choice since Hari didn’t like palace life…

His head understood, but he couldn’t help the wound in his heart. Achilleon groaned lowly. Hari had turned her head away again and stubbornly stared only at the window without looking back at him.

Her profile with tension in her jaw, her arms and legs that had grown thinner from further weight loss, and her cheek leaning weakly against the window frame. The anger of being betrayed gradually subsided and pity took its place.

“You already knew everything when you came.”

“About attacking Rainan? About betraying me and joining hands with Antor?”

“What do you want to hear when you already know?”

At her trembling voice, the strength left Achilleon’s hand. It was also deflating that she admitted it so easily.

At first he had intended to interrogate her harshly, but seeing Margharita who had become so pitifully fragile that she might break at a touch, anger made different words burst out.

“You should have escaped in exchange for complying with Antor’s demands. But why are you trapped in that bastard’s villa in this state…”

When his cold eyes swept over Hari’s pathetically thin arms and legs, she curled up her body tightly.

“I was going to leave. I was going to go to a country so far away that news from Hitais wouldn’t even reach.”

“And then you were caught by Antor?”

Hari remained silent. That dejected appearance was so unbearably irritating that he ended up spitting out words he didn’t mean.

“So this is the result of selling me out to Antor. How pathetic.”

If you were going to run away, you should have done it properly. Did you stab me in the back just to live groveling like this?

The Lagonians who had attacked his troops first out of fear overlapped with Hari’s image.

“I never loved you from the beginning. You know that now.”

Achilleon’s expression darkened. He stared at Hari expressionlessly, then roughly commanded a soldier like he didn’t want to hear any more.

“Drag her away. No, I’ll do it myself.”

Then he rolled up his sleeves and instantly hoisted Hari’s entire body onto his shoulder. Startled, Hari struggled and let out a muffled scream.

“W-wait! Your Highness the Third Prince, carefully… you must hold her carefully!”

It was the doctor who stopped Achilleon’s rough actions. When the doctor pleaded while trembling, Achilleon’s movements stopped like a lie.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Well…”

“Speak. I asked where Margharita’s body is unwell.”

Hari, loaded like baggage on his shoulder, frantically gestured toward the doctor, but a mere retired doctor couldn’t remain silent under a royal’s interrogation.

“The miss is pregnant.”

She felt the body touching hers flinch and tremble. A chilling silence followed.

“…Pregnant?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Since it’s early stages, you must be especially careful… If you handle her so roughly, it could harm the miss’s mind and body, so please make your actions just a little, just a little gentler.”

* * *

Thud. The carriage shook greatly as her body was forcibly pushed inside.

“Stay right here without moving. Don’t even think about doing anything foolish.”

Hari grabbed the soldier who was about to lock her up and leave. If she was trapped and returned to the royal castle like this, she would never be able to escape again.

“I’m… I’m thirsty. Please bring me some water.”

It was a plan to catch him off guard, but the soldier who had received Achilleon’s orders was firm.

“Please endure it a little. The situation seems like it will be wrapped up soon, so I’ll bring you water then.”

Bang!

The carriage door closed. Hari looked at the curtained carriage window with her shoulders drooping weakly. Through the thin gap, she could see Antor’s associates tied with ropes. At the end, even Antor being dragged away in a criminal cart with his wrists bound in iron chains.

The people hiding with Antor in the mansion were few in number. The veteran generals had already lost their lives in earlier wars and the sacred inspectors were absent. Achilleon was able to capture the group of traitors in less than an hour.

For a moment, Antor suddenly turned his head and stared toward the carriage Hari was in. She seemed to briefly meet his bloodshot eyes. It was too far for Antor to recognize Hari, but she felt chills.

‘If he knows it’s his child, that bastard will never let you go, Margharita.’

Antor had said there was still a chance.

‘If you run away again, Doris, Julia, and Ilisei who helped you won’t escape severe punishment either.’

Achilleon’s threat weighed on her mind, and with no more holes to escape through, she had obediently allowed herself to be captured, but Hari was anxious.

‘How did he find out?’

Did he really know that Doris had helped her? But Julia and Ilisei had nothing to do with this matter. Then was he threatening them all together with Doris?

Or was he pointing out people who had been close to her to frighten her even without knowing the truth? While she was crouched with her arms wrapped around herself, the door opened. 

Through it came the thoroughly frozen doctor and Achilleon.

“Examine her again.”

“Yes, yes…”

When a sharp blade came to her throat, the doctor hurriedly grabbed Hari’s arm. Didn’t he believe it even though he had clearly heard about the pregnancy? Even examining two or three times wouldn’t change anything.

Hari glanced sideways at the rigidly stiff Achilleon and squeezed her eyes shut. A sharp needle penetrated her skin. Achilleon watched with fierce eyes as the doctor drew blood and put it in a reagent.

“The test results are certain. When the blood drop mixed in this reagent changes color, it means pregnancy. Look, Your Highness. Hasn’t it turned blue?”

However, the result was unchanged. A blue dot that had become even clearer than before pierced her vision.

“Miss Hari is pregnant. Right now the pregnancy doesn’t show, but soon…”

“Who is the father?”

A voice like roughly scraping metal cut off her words. The doctor groaned heavily. Her frightened voice was like a condemned prisoner facing death.

“…It is His Highness the Second Prince.”