“I was just being childish earlier. I must have been anxious. Please understand.”

Kian felt all his anger dissipate at Yerena’s words. Childish…… Once again, his heart fluttered.

He was about to apologize to Yerena for being disrespectful due to excessive excitement when suddenly, she raised her head and spoke,

“And while it’s true I’ve never asked anything about you…… it’s not because I’m not curious about you.”

“……”

“I just thought such questions were a luxury in my situation.”

“……”

“I still think the same way, actually. But for today, just for this moment, it should be okay to take a little detour, right?”

The woman who had been crying just moments ago smiled brightly. For an instant, the man was enveloped in the illusion that the scent of the small lilies he had seen in the garden recently was intensifying. It felt as if flowers were blooming all around. He couldn’t take his eyes off the woman at the center of it all.

But Yerena didn’t notice how passionate his reaction was. After pondering for a moment, she asked shyly in a small voice,

“What color are your eyes?”

* * *

Late at night. The lights in the corridor of the Blue Palace were brightly lit. Sitting in the room at the end of the corridor, which he used for receiving reports from his close associates, Roshan had his eyes closed but opened them at the sound of footsteps in the distance.

He didn’t seem to be in a good mood. And sure enough, as soon as Knox opened the door, bringing Alicia with him, Roshan spoke,

“His Majesty the Emperor is too preoccupied with other matters to care about the princess. So why must the princess stand before the high priest?”

His voice, close to a rebuke, was full of displeasure. Alicia, who almost lost her balance while hurriedly bowing, managed to stand with Knox’s support and answered,

“The high priest is very anxious about incurring His Majesty the Emperor’s wrath.”

“……”

“Just recently, clerics and priestesses were summoned and hit on the head by objects thrown by His Majesty.”

“His Majesty hasn’t called for any of you since that day.”

Roshan, who had been present on that occasion, immediately retorted. Alicia seemed at a loss for words and remained silent for a moment before saying,

“……This is better for Lady Yerena’s sake as well.”

Roshan’s brow furrowed at her answer. Alicia lifted her face with the blindfold, as if making eye contact with him.

“Lady Yerena has been asking occasionally lately. When will the Goddess show mercy and free her from the curse?”

“……”

“Lady Yerena doesn’t believe in curses like ghosts of the dead from Sedas attaching to her. She doesn’t follow the Goddess of Light either. Yet she asks about the curse because she’s growing anxious.”

“……”

“Lady Yerena frets daily about not being able to help her homeland. What do you think someone like her will think if she continues to stay in the tower? That the emperor who even waged war to bring her here has abandoned her…… She might not realize it now, but eventually she’ll find it strange.”

“……”

“It’s better to have her stand before the high priest once and hear that the curse hasn’t been completely lifted yet. The result will come out as Your Highness wishes anyway.”

Having expressed her opinion, Alicia closed her mouth and lowered her head again. Roshan observed her for a moment, then turned his head to the side and murmured,

“Homeland. Why does she care so much about it?”

This was something Roshan couldn’t quite understand. Of course, it was natural to have some attachment to the country where one was born and raised. But Sedas, which had been conquered by his hand, had abandoned its princess. They had sent her as a prisoner, and the envoys who came with tributes didn’t express a single word of concern for her.

The princess seemed to know that her country didn’t think of her. Given that her estranged father’s concubine and half-sibling had taken the throne, it was a predictable outcome.

That’s why he found it even more incomprehensible. The current Sedas could offer no honor or glory to her who had been dragged to the empire as a prisoner. Considering the kingdom’s power, it was difficult to even hope they would someday overthrow the empire and rescue her. Yet strangely, the princess was anxious because of her homeland. Despite her visible fear, she was willing to go to the emperor’s bedroom.

‘……Come to think of it, there have been quite a few people like her.’

As Roshan pondered Yerena’s feelings, he recalled that there were quite a few similar individuals in his memory. Knights who charged forward shouting their country’s name despite certain defeat, envoys who knelt before him and tried to slit their throats to extend their country’s name, a hunter who gave his life to destroy a bridge and delay the imperial army’s advance by a day—there were too many to recall individually.

He didn’t need to look far; such people existed within the imperial palace too. The lady from the Principality of Litra, whose circumstances were similar to Yerena’s, was a case in point. Some people cursed her as a greedy witch for her elaborate adornments, but to Roshan, who had seen her once, she seemed to be decorating herself to hide her anxiety. And the lady’s anxiety had the same texture as Yerena’s.

‘It’s irritating.’

However, Roshan hadn’t paid attention to all those numerous individuals who cared for their countries that he had encountered before. Of course, he had noticed their spirit in charging forward despite certain defeat, their desperation to save their country by sacrificing their lives, and their willingness to abandon their own honor for their country. But that was it. Roshan might have paid attention to them in the moment, but he didn’t vividly remember them.

But the princess of Sedas, the woman he had brought as a prisoner, was different. Roshan found it unpleasant to see her suffering while thinking about her country. His chest rattled, wishing she wouldn’t do so.

‘Either help her increasingly wretched country to ease her mind, or else……’

Ridiculously, Roshan found himself contemplating what to do about Sedas, which he himself had destroyed. If he secretly helped Sedas through his subordinates, and thus conveyed good news to her under the name of Kian, the princess would smile brightly.

But somehow that option didn’t appeal to him. Though imagining the princess smiling did alleviate his displeasure, helping a specific country was a cumbersome affair. And above all, if he did so, the princess would smile but continue to think about her country.

‘……It might be better to eliminate it completely. She can’t worry about something that doesn’t exist.’

For a moment, Roshan clenched his fist with resolve, but soon relaxed it. It was obvious how the princess would react if the Sedas Kingdom disappeared from the map.

‘If I did that, she would cry. Her weak eyes would swell. She’d clutch her chest in agony.’

She would wither away like a plant that couldn’t absorb a single drop of water. Not only that. Even if he barely kept her alive and placed her roots in water, she would certainly waste away.

Uncharacteristically, Roshan couldn’t come to a clear answer and continued to deliberate. Only after a long while did he realize he had kept people standing while he was lost in thought. Temporarily setting aside his concerns, he addressed Alicia,

“There’s one more reason I called you.”

“Please speak.”

“Look into the princess’s eyes.”

“……”

“I want to know for certain whether her inability to see is due to a medical condition or some other problem.”

“Are you concerned about the legend Lady Yerena mentioned?”

“If it was significant enough for the kingdom to establish education around it, it’s probably not completely baseless. Even magic, which has mostly disappeared, still leaves traces behind.”

After gods vanished from the continent, followed by the disappearance of non-human races, magic faded away. Now was an era where dragons and magic were dismissed as legends, but occasionally fragments of the past emerged, displaying what could be called miracles. Because of this, many scholars studied magic, and rulers of various countries maintained faith in its mysterious power, directing continued research.

“A legend originating from the Sedas Kingdom…… We lack information.”

“I’ve already sent Hayden to the Sedas Kingdom. I instructed him to bring back everything related to the radiant princess or whatever it is, so we should receive materials soon.”

Roshan answered as if he had anticipated Alicia’s words. Instead of adding more, she asked,

“Do you want to heal Lady Yerena’s eyes?”

At Alicia’s question, Roshan momentarily froze all movement. Like a beast protecting its vital point, he steadied his breathing and scrutinized her with his red eyes before bluntly stating,

“Your tongue is unnecessarily long.”

It meant she shouldn’t ask such presumptuous questions. Alicia bit the inside of her mouth and bowed deeply at Roshan’s intimidating demeanor.

Roshan gestured for her to leave. As Alicia promptly withdrew from the Blue Palace, she murmured in an eerie voice before an engraved goddess symbol on the wall,

“……Goddess.”

* * *

‘My eyes are blue.’

‘Ah…… Who did you inherit them from?’

‘……My mother.’

Yerena mulled over their brief conversation, continuing her imagination. Though she couldn’t see now, in the past she had seen many beautiful blue hues. The mysterious emerald-green lake, the clear sky whose height was difficult to gauge, the serene forest at dawn with a slight mist—her memory held many beautiful blue shades etched vividly.

‘Which one is closest to his?’

She regretted not asking more detailed questions out of shyness. Yerena tried to match the most beautiful colors she knew to the man whose voice was all she knew.

In her imagination, no color seemed unsuitable for him. Eventually, unable to contain her curiosity, she asked Jane,

“Jane. What kind of blue are Sir Kian’s eyes? A deep blue? Or perhaps a color mixed with light gray?”

Jane, who had been smiling along with Yerena’s good mood, stiffened at the princess’s question. The blind princess had once again been deceived by the impostor. The color of the eyes of the man she called a knight was the opposite of blue. But how could she tell the truth? Jane stammered,

“I haven’t looked at the knight closely……”