He reopened the letter after seeing the princess’s appearance. The princess’s condition after being insulted by the emperor was miserable. The sight of her wearing a shabby dress that even maids might wear, under the watch of cold-looking priestesses—Count Wibly could hardly believe his eyes, yet he smiled with delight.

‘Princess. You must listen carefully. These are words the Queen Dowager specifically asked me to convey.’

He fulfilled Bianca’s order while venting his inferiority complex about his origins on the princess. Insulting the princess under the pretense of delivering a message made him feel elated.

‘Seeing your current state, it’s unlikely, but… I don’t need to leave this behind and create future problems.’

Count Wibly believed he had prepared for any future consequences by putting the letter back in his pocket instead of giving it to the princess. But that was his mistake.

After bidding farewell to the emperor, he planned to leisurely enjoy his remaining days in the imperial palace. But he couldn’t do as he wished. He was seized by knights who suddenly burst in at midnight and dragged to the Blue Palace.

“Y-Your Highness? What is this…… Why are you doing this to me?”

The man with red eyes greeted him. Count Wibly immediately recognized Roshan Vistius and cowered while bowing deeply.

The crown prince of the empire didn’t acknowledge his greeting. Instead, he signaled his knights, and Count Wibly had to kneel as if collapsing.

“Read it.”

After forcing him to kneel, Roshan threw Bianca’s letter, which he had somehow found, in front of Count Wibly. Then he ordered him to read it.

Unable to disobey Roshan’s command, Count Wibly began reading the letter. Naturally, the arrogant demeanor he had shown before Yerena had completely vanished. And when he had read a portion of the letter, a knight’s sharp whip grazed him.

Roshan demanded that he continue reading the letter while moaning in pain. And each time his hand rose, another wound appeared on Count Wibly’s body.

“W-wh*re who couldn’t even become… Aack!”

“Continue.”

“Cough…… P-Please forgive… Forgive me……”

Despite his status as an envoy, Count Wibly’s appearance transformed horribly in the Blue Palace. He wept and begged for forgiveness without knowing the reason. But the blood-colored eyes remained ominous.

His vision darkened. Count Wibly trembled, looking at the letter—of which he had read barely a quarter—as if it were the executioner’s block about to cut off his head.

‘I’m going to be beaten to death. I’ll die right here!’

The content of the letter grew increasingly vile toward the end compared to the beginning. And he knew this meant the beatings would also increase significantly.

Terrified, he couldn’t bring himself to read the letter and raised his head to look at the tall man standing before him. The man, as dark as a shadow, stared down at him coldly with lowered eyes.

* * *

The beating didn’t last long—because Count Wibly had fainted. Knox, who had been beating him, turned around and asked Roshan,

“What should we do with him?”

“Keep him alive enough to return. It’s less troublesome and more convenient if he stays alive until he leaves the forest.”

Count Wibly saved his life for the moment. But it was obvious that his life would be taken again on the forest path beyond the imperial capital. The Sedas Kingdom would soon hear news that Count Wibly had lost his life in an unfortunate accident while returning to his homeland.

Before heading to the underground passage of the Blue Palace, Roshan thoroughly washed himself. He particularly cleaned his ears, which had heard Count Wibly’s voice, several times.

Immediately afterward, he went to the tower and checked on Yerena’s condition. Fortunately, the physician’s medicine had improved her condition, and her fever had subsided somewhat. Though the princess still looked precarious, she no longer mumbled deliriously in a hoarse voice, calling for her family.

But the tearful streaks remained. Roshan knelt again beside Yerena, looking at the tear tracks that wouldn’t disappear. After sending everyone else out, he stayed close to her and murmured with his head bowed like someone confessing before a deity,

“It was just venting anger.”

Roshan clearly knew that the t*rture he had inflicted on Count Wibly and the future he had prepared for him stemmed from his own emotions. He couldn’t stand by and watch those who shocked and hurt Yerena.

“I suppose I’m the one who made you like this in the first place.”

But if he punished Count Wibly for such reasons, he too should be punished. After all, he was the one who had hurt Yerena more than anyone else.

“Why did I……”

The memory of her collapsing from shock after losing her parents before her eyes painfully resurfaced. Surely when he carried out that act, he hadn’t felt anything. Just because she caught his eye—why did he now regret that act so much, why did it pain his heart so?

“Why did I fall in love with you……”

The emotion that could only be explained with a word he didn’t believe in tormented him. The princess he had brought here with his own hands had become too significant to him at some point. Or perhaps she had been that way for a very long time. He had imprisoned her in this remote tower because he wanted to monopolize her, pressured his subordinate who grew close to her in a childish way, and used all manner of cowardly methods to become intimate with her.

“……When did it begin?”

As he reflected on where his foolish emotions had started, he shook his head. What good would it do to find the starting point? Even if he did, he couldn’t erase the past.

He placed both arms on the bed where Yerena lay. With his hands clasped together, he struggled to speak words he had been holding back,

“I should say I’m sorry.”

If not for the feelings he dared to harbor for this woman, he wouldn’t have even thought of apologizing. After all, beheading or violating the leader of a conquered land was only natural. In fact, he felt no remorse whatsoever for the other countries he had conquered. They were the defeated, and he was the victor. Regret and apology were the lot of the defeated, not his.

But in the battle with the woman before him, he had lost miserably. Ironically, while the woman knew neither about the existence of the battle nor his true identity, the defeated one knew precisely. That he had knelt before this fragile being lying powerlessly in bed. That he only had left to bow his head miserably.

“For destroying Sedas and your family……”

Roshan tried to apologize while bowing his head even lower. But at that moment, Yerena twitched her eyebrows and turned her head, and Roshan immediately stopped speaking and examined her.

It was just a common tossing in sleep. But for a moment, Roshan worried that Yerena might have heard his words and suspected his identity. After Yerena fell back into deep sleep, Roshan burst into a hollow laugh at himself.

“Ha!”

Though he didn’t believe in love, he knew how incompatible it was with deception. Yet while acknowledging his awakening love for the woman, he couldn’t stop his deception.

An enormous self-loathing and self-reproach he had never felt before grew larger and larger, threatening to swallow him. Roshan was about to let them consume him when he closed his eyes.

“If I make you comfortable…… If I let you enjoy many things from now on, it will be somewhat better, right?”

The shameless murmur came from his lips after several dozen minutes had passed. Because he truly loved her, he didn’t want to be discovered. Because he didn’t want to be hated. Because he knew how terrible the end would be. The self-justification that emitted a disgusting odor gave legitimacy to his actions. Having swallowed his self-reproach in one gulp, it took the form of a monster residing in his heart.

His chest felt heavy each time the monster inside him exhaled black breath. To alleviate the pain somewhat, he exhaled and noticed a tear falling from Yerena’s eye.

He raised his hand and wiped away her tear. Then, holding the hand of the woman who was a goddess to him alone, he kissed it gently.

The soft lighting in the room cast shadows on the wall. The seemingly reverent kiss moved from her hand to her fingertips, to her white forehead, and soon to her lips.

Hot breath and saliva moistened her parched lips. It was a deep, dark desire that couldn’t be hidden—befitting a deceiver who dared to profess love.

* * *

Yerena’s condition fluctuated between improvement and deterioration. Though the physician’s medicine sometimes made her seem on the verge of regaining consciousness, she would then weaken again, unable to maintain her strength.

The physician worried that the patient couldn’t even eat properly. He warned that if her already depleted strength diminished further, it could become truly dangerous.

“Please give us a moment alone.”

Fortunately, just before reaching her limit, Alicia said she could use her holy power. Roshan instructed the physician and Jane to step back and moved away from Yerena’s side. Alicia stood where Roshan had been, then knelt on both knees and firmly grasped Yerena’s hand. Unlike her usual practice of using holy power silently, she began reciting a prayer,

“Merciful Goddess, please answer my prayer……”

A mass of light rose from Alicia’s entire body. Then suddenly, she began to shine like the midday sun.

Alicia, affiliated with the temple in the imperial palace, was a high-ranking priestess and one of the few possessors of holy power, unmatched in healing ability among them.

As such a precious person, she was someone not just anyone could see or summon freely. However, Roshan, the crown prince of the empire, had seen Alicia use her holy power quite often. After all, many people needed her, from the emperor to the high priest and high nobles.

‘This is as far as I can go. There is nothing more I can do.’

But even when using her power for them, Alicia clearly stated her limitations. She shook her head at those she couldn’t heal and insisted she couldn’t help despite threats.

Therefore, Roshan felt anxious even as he ordered Alicia to use her holy power on Yerena. He feared it might be difficult even for her.