Unlike Frederick, ‘Kian’ was silent. But Yerena found the man who sat directly in front of her, unlike Frederick who had sat diagonally, quite bothersome.

‘Uncomfortable.’

Having lived together for over a month, she no longer felt the aversion strong enough to leave her seat. But she still felt awkward when in the same space with the man. Moreover, for some reason, even Jane became noticeably quieter when this guard named Kian entered.

Of course, she had some idea why. From what she had observed over the past month, the man had a heavy presence as much as he was taciturn. Someone whose mere presence in the same space could freeze people. Yerena couldn’t know what color the man’s hair and eyes were, or what he looked like, but she was certain that he was no ordinary person.

‘……Don’t mind him. The sun will set soon anyway, and then he’ll leave.’

Trying to suppress her heightened nerves, Yerena focused again on the beads in her hand. But somehow the hole in the bead seemed to have gotten smaller, as the results were not satisfactory at all.

She frowned and applied force to the bead that wouldn’t thread properly. At that moment, her hand slipped from using too much force, and the bead she was holding fell.

“Ah!”

Startled by the sound of the bead hitting the marble table, Yerena also dropped the already threaded beads along with the thread in her other hand. Then, with a sound like hail falling, several beads poured onto the floor.

“I’ll do it!”

Although her hearing seemed to have become more sensitive, Yerena froze at the sound of the falling beads before coming to her senses at Jane’s voice. When she heard Jane moving busily, Yerena hesitated but bent down.

“I’ll help too……”

Feeling the floor directly below, she found a couple of beads. Yerena picked them up and then extended her hand further to feel the tabletop.

Several beads that had rolled across the marble table touched her hand. She picked them up one by one and put them in the basket, and before she knew it, she had stretched her upper body forward.

A bead barely grazed her hand that was stretched to its limit. Yerena concentrated and hunched her body a bit more. And at that moment, someone drew very close to her.

‘Huh?’

A faintly cool scent. A long exhale. Yerena stopped her hand as she felt the warm air on her face.

The hair that lightly brushed her cheek was clearly soft but provided a strangely prickling sensation. Goosebumps rose from her neck throughout her body.

Just as the startled Yerena was about to lean back as if escaping, a firm hand gently grasped her wrist. Although it wasn’t particularly strong, Yerena froze like a stone, unable to break free.

“Lady Yerena.”

A low voice tickled Yerena’s ear, completely frozen. She felt her hair stand on end as an even hotter breath came very close.

“Here they are.”

The man slowly dropped something into her immobilized hand. With a clatter, three beads rolled into the palm below her captured wrist.

Yerena turned her head toward where the man’s face would be with a blank expression, then suddenly came to her senses. She clenched her fist around the beads and pushed the man away.

The man withdrew obediently. Yerena unconsciously took rough breaths and grasped the wrist that had been held by the man. Her face burned while cold sweat ran down her back.

The contrasting temperatures of her body made her head dizzy as well. After fidgeting for a while, Yerena opened her mouth with her unseeing eyes wide.

“Forgive my rudeness. I acted because it seemed you might fall.”

But before she could snap at him, the man spoke first. It was an emotionless and calm voice, devoid of any intention.

“……Don’t touch my body without permission.”

With her words stuck, Yerena remained silent for a moment before finally uttering a single sentence. The man immediately answered with a “Yes.”

His attitude somehow irritated her. But it was a situation where she couldn’t say anything more. Yerena somewhat nervously emptied the beads she was holding into the basket and stood up from her seat.

“Jane. I want to rest early today……”

Just as she was turning her body and taking a step, her foot caught on a bead that hadn’t been picked up yet. The round bead rolled away, and Yerena’s foot followed, causing her to lose balance and fall backward.

“Lady Yerena!”

By the time the startled Jane called out, her body had already leaning. Yerena flailed her arms and tightly closed her unseeing eyes, anticipating the imminent impact.

But there was no dull sound of her fall, nor any groan of pain. Instead, something broad and firm touched her back. Yerena belatedly realized it was the man’s embrace.

‘……Cover your nose and mouth with your sleeve.’

She remembered when the man had saved her. Despite her dizziness from the poison, she recalled the voice that strongly pierced her ear and the arms that seemed like they would never break. And for a moment, Yerena even thought it felt cozy.

‘Yerena.’

But for an instant, a strange voice called her and then immediately faded away. And then voices poured out, cascading……

‘Yerena. Our child.’

‘Yerena. My only sister.’

They were the voices of her dead family members.

The overlapping voices increased from four to eight, and soon became tens, hundreds. Yerena screamed at the sounds that endlessly struck her ears like echoes.

“Aagh!”

“Lady Yerena!”

As the startled Jane called out loudly, the strength of the man’s arms supporting Yerena increased. But Yerena could neither hear nor feel anything due to her splitting headache.

“T-take me with you. Mother! Father! Brothers, please……”

The emotions she had barely suppressed, that she had been holding back with all her might, overflowed uncontrollably. Anger, resignation, resentment, and the loneliness of being left alone, along with the anxiety of feeling like she was standing at the edge of a cliff every day…… Yerena shed tears while flailing her arms and legs, not even knowing what she was shouting.

But the more she struggled, the stronger the force constricting her body became, and the voices of her family members that seemed like they would never disappear gradually grew quieter until they finally vanished. Yerena gasped for breath and barely managed to hold her head up under the pressure that even compressed her lungs.

“How is she……”

“Go get Alicia……”

The voices of Jane and the man were confusingly intertwined in her buzzing ears, but her throat, overexerted from screaming, refused to utter any more words. Yerena eventually just shed tears with her unseeing eyes and then dropped her head.

* * *

Even in the darkness, the Blue Palace exuded elegant charm. This place, traditionally bestowed upon the crown prince of the Vistius Empire, was quite far from the Central Palace where the emperor resided, but was still located within the imperial palace grounds.

Roshan, the crown prince, had stayed here since birth. Because of this, people also called the Blue Palace the Grand Duke’s residence, using his other title.

Currently, Roshan had been secluded in the Blue Palace since conquering the Sedas Kingdom. Or at least, that’s what people believed. In reality, he only stayed there for about half a day, spending the rest of his time at the Gray Tower through a secret passage in the basement of the Blue Palace, where he served as a guard knight named Kian.

Today was no different. After changing shifts with Frederick in the afternoon, he returned to the Blue Palace only at dawn. And now he had been sitting in silence for over an hour in front of Frederick, who must have been waiting for him for hours.

As a result, Frederick, who was kneeling on one knee before Roshan, gradually turned pale. It wasn’t because his body was tired. It was because of his lord’s gaze, whose expression he couldn’t even dare to guess.

‘Rather than this……’

He thought it would have been better when his arm was broken for not properly carrying out an order. Frederick bit his lower lip as cold sweat ran down his back. He was afraid. Even without any rebuke, he felt as if his body was being crushed and his mind was collapsing.

“Frederick.”

Fortunately, just before Frederick collapsed, Roshan spoke. Frederick slowly raised his head to look at around his lord’s chin. Then, straightening his trembling legs, he said,

“Tell me, Your Highness.”

“Back then, you asked me. Why I spared your life.”

Roshan, who had already shifted his gaze from Frederick and was looking outside, uttered words that might have seemed abrupt. But Frederick immediately understood what Roshan meant. The question of why he was spared was one that Frederick had asked more than 10 years ago, when he first met Roshan.

At that time, Frederick was about to lose his life, caught up in the rebellion of his eldest sister, who was the head of House Ludeta. But for some reason, the fifteen-year-old Roshan spared only Frederick. Not only that, Roshan didn’t erase the name of Frederick’s family, House Ludeta, but passed it on to Frederick as it was.

‘Though I lived separately, I am a direct family member of a traitor. Yet why do you spare me?’

Frederick had asked this because he couldn’t understand Roshan’s mercy. But at that time, Roshan had only issued his first command to stop being noisy instead of answering Frederick’s question.

“Back then, I didn’t feel the need to answer, so I didn’t say anything……”

“……”

“You didn’t seem like you would become a troublesome dog.”

“……”

“I didn’t think you would bark loudly in my ear. And above all, I didn’t think you would bother me later. You terribly hated betrayal.”

The answer he heard after more than 10 years was almost deflating. But at the same time, it felt very much like his lord.

Just as Frederick was trying to hide his emptiness and bow his head, Roshan, who had been looking out the window, turned his head and directly cast his gaze at Frederick.

“……But watching you these days suddenly reminds me of your sister. Yuzan, was it? The one who embraced the prince of a fallen country and took up arms against the Empire for him, falling from the supreme lord of the south to a mere traitor because she couldn’t overcome her emotions.”

Roshan’s voice hadn’t changed at all. But Frederick turned deathly pale as if a blade had touched his neck. What did his lord’s words imply? Was he suggesting that Frederick might betray Roshan because of emotions?

“Your Highness.”