Chapter 7. Shallow Lies

Arriving at the Sedas Kingdom, Hayden clicked his tongue at the luxurious interior of the royal palace. Although he and the imperial army had invaded half a year ago and plundered most of the treasures and gold as the invaders’ right, all traces of that had completely disappeared.

Rather, there were even more decorations and sculptures, gold leaf covering walls and floors alike, jewels embedded in the ceiling as if imitating the night sky, and splendid chandeliers. It felt exactly like being in the Central Palace where the emperor resided within the imperial palace.

‘This won’t last more than a few years.’

Hayden sensed it. That the current Sedas Kingdom wouldn’t last long. For a small country’s palace devastated by war to become this luxurious required the lives of many citizens.

The atmosphere in the villages along the way had already been unsettling. While areas near the kingdom’s capital seemed better off, the rest of the regions, even from just passing through briefly, clearly showed impoverished lives. And among those dazed with hunger, though few, there were clearly some with eyes of defiance. Such people would likely increase day by day, and at some point grow uncontrollably and rise like wildfire.

‘……It’s none of my business.’

Civil war after the war. Just imagining that terrible tragedy was painful. Hayden frowned but tried to dismiss it as something not for him to be involved in. But suddenly he remembered someone—Yerena Sedas, who had lived a noble life as a princess of this place before being dragged away as a prisoner of the empire.

‘Love at first sight…… I didn’t believe in it.’

She was clearly a woman his lord had taken an interest in. Hayden recognized this and erased his brief but intense feelings for Yerena. However, the heat of his secret crush reignited as he approached the country of its object. Of course, once he returned, these feelings would again be hidden like smoldering embers, but here, away from his lord’s eyes, he wanted to think freely about her.

‘If Knox saw my expression right now, he’d lecture me again.’

He could easily imagine Knox giving him a stern lecture if he discovered his feelings. Hayden smiled bitterly as he walked. A well-dressed servant walking about two steps ahead of him turned around at the sound of his hollow laughter. Hayden quickly composed his expression.

“This is the place.”

After walking for some time, the servant stopped in front of a building in a corner of the palace. It was a very shabby and small building compared to the one they had just passed where the king and queen dowager resided. Hayden frowned at the plaster falling from above as he followed the servant inside the building.

After passing through a corridor where old wood creaked, thousands of books unfolded before his eyes. Unlike the entrance, the well-maintained hall resembled a library.

“This is the archivist who manages the royal records.”

The servant introduced a young man with the smell of old paper to him. With a skinny build wearing oversized clothes, he had only his sleeves tightly bound.

At the servant’s signal, the archivist bowed his head to Hayden. But behind his glasses, his eyes revealed undisguised defiance.

“I’ll be going now. He’s an important guest, so serve him well.”

The servant spoke arrogantly to the archivist and turned around. The archivist looked at the servant’s back with contempt before flinching when his eyes met Hayden’s.

“Follow me.”

The archivist guided Hayden to the center of the hall. On the large desk lay several books, papers, and ink. The archivist meticulously wiped the ink from his hands with a cloth on the desk and asked Hayden,

“I heard you’re looking for something. Please tell me, and I’ll find it for you.”

“In that case…… First, I need records about the princesses of Sedas. Also those related to the curse on the princesses.”

At Hayden’s words, the archivist took out several thick record books from the desk drawer. Eight heavy books piled up on the desk with a thud, and he opened one of them, searching intently for something and writing on a paper placed beside him.

Watching this, Hayden grew a bit bored and looked around. Then he approached the nearest bookshelf and reached for a book that caught his eye.

“Wait.”

A sharp, urgent voice caught Hayden from behind. When he turned his head, he saw the archivist clenching his fist.

Hayden patiently watched the man who trembled with fear yet still moved his lips. The archivist moved his stiff body as if tense and came close to Hayden to speak,

“……These are important assets of the royal family. Originally, no one except royalty could see them.”

He was right. This was the royal family archives of the Sedas Palace, a place where outsiders couldn’t normally enter. It was natural. There would be many secret records among the royal family’s documents.

‘Among those I’ve met in the palace, he knows his duty better than anyone.’

But the Sedas king and queen dowager had immediately nodded when Hayden said he wanted to see this place. Caring little for old records, they were uncomfortable with the imperial knight’s visit but tried to make a good impression on him.

How pathetic they looked. Hayden was disappointed with the current state of the Sedas Palace. Just last year during the war, it hadn’t been like this. Where had all those admirable people gone, even though they were enemies? That was all he could think.

“Since orders were given, I will find what you’re looking for without delay. But please don’t touch anything else.”

Though pale with fear, the archivist’s articulate insistence on his duty appeared far more dignified than the king of this country. Hayden recalled a certain Sedas knight who had clashed swords with him and grabbed his feet even while dying, and slowly bowed his head.

“I understand.”

* * *

Fear. People thought Roshan Vistius didn’t have that emotion.

He had roamed battlefields since the age of twelve. Enemies who underestimated Roshan as a young boy soon fell to his sword, and those who watched feared him. And as the years passed, Roshan Vistius reigned as fear itself on the battlefield.

It wasn’t much different outside the battlefield. Though people didn’t turn deathly pale as if facing death, they bowed their heads when they saw Roshan, whether well-dressed or in rags. No one ignored him or criticized his arrogance. The reverence people showed naturally included fear of him who seemed inhuman.

‘You can see?’

But now, Roshan felt fear. A massive fear that consumed his mind, along with the feeling that all blood was draining from his body.

‘No.’

Ironically, the root of Roshan’s fear was a small woman. The pitiful princess he had dragged as a prisoner, abandoned even by her homeland. Yerena Sedas. Roshan was terrified because of her.

‘I couldn’t even hear about your Lady Yerena’s condition, let alone see it. Some blind people can distinguish light, but this is something no person can explain. We can only see it as a miracle from the Goddess.’

Yerena’s condition, which even the physician couldn’t explain and only described as a miracle. She could see again. She described it as golden light drawing what was before her.

‘I can see. Though it’s dizzying, shapes are roughly drawn.’

Roshan couldn’t marvel at her description as a miracle like others did. He only froze in fear, wondering what if she recognized him.

‘But I don’t know what color this is or exactly what it looks like. Especially people or birds outside the window—the golden light is intense and fluctuates severely, so I can’t even properly distinguish the shapes. I can only roughly tell what something is by its perceived movement or size.’

Fortunately, Yerena’s strange eyes, unable to see colors or detailed appearances, didn’t recognize Roshan. But Roshan saw something in Yerena’s unconscious that even she hadn’t noticed.

When Yerena turned her head at his voice, which was closest to the bed, she clearly showed fear for a very brief moment. And it was the same expression she had shown at their first meeting.

‘That voice…… It’s Sir Kian.’

Though she herself hadn’t noticed, Roshan felt his heart sink at what he had witnessed. If she hadn’t called him by his false name, he might have knelt in fear.

Thus, although he had spent most of the time by her side while she was ill, he couldn’t stay beside her once she awoke. Fortunately or unfortunately, Yerena didn’t welcome him either. Roshan had fled through the secret passage connecting the tower and the Blue Palace and had been holed up in his quarters until now.

‘If not right now, what if her sight fully returns like this?’

He bit his lip and raised his eyebrows. With a suffocating feeling of anxiety, he tugged at his collar. A button fell with a plop. But Roshan didn’t even notice the falling button.

‘And if she discovers my identity then……’

Roshan was only seeking a way to resolve this situation. He rubbed his exposed neck while racking his confused brain.

‘That can’t happen. It would be over.’

Clenching his fist tightly with a taut jaw, he shook his head. The thought that the woman must not discover his identity dominated his mind.

‘If I made her blind again before that……’

Even as fear controlled his reason, his mind brilliantly found a solution. Roshan made a chilling face at the most certain method. There were many ways to blind someone. There were physical methods, and poisons could be found in abundance if searched for.

But at Yerena’s description, he soon frowned. If her condition truly was due to the d*mn goddess’s power……

‘That light……’

In fact, he had felt inexplicably uneasy since Alicia used her holy power on Yerena. And the golden light Yerena described—it was clearly presumed to be the same color as what had burst from Alicia’s body.

“Your Highness. As you commanded……”

“……”

“Your Highness?”

Lost in thought, Roshan didn’t come to his senses despite Knox’s call, only raising his head after Knox came closer. Knox observed his lord’s unfamiliar appearance and bowed at the waist before speaking.

“I’ve brought the priestess.”

* * *