“I’m sorry, Father.”

“Lady Yerena.”

“Ugh…… Forgive, forgive me, Mother. But I’m too……”

“Please wake up.”

“I’m, I’m so lonely. It’s too…… too hard.”

“Yerena.”

Despite the repeated calls, Yerena couldn’t wake up. The man finally reached out to her as she suffered from nightmares in an uncomfortable position, leaning against the couch.

When his large hand touched her, Yerena finally escaped the nightmare. Sweating cold and suffering, she slowly opened her eyes and showed a relieved face when she saw the familiar golden figure wavering before her.

“Ah…… Sir Kian.”

“Are you alright?”

The man asked as he handed Yerena a glass of water. She nodded and took the glass with both hands.

“Yes. I’m fine. I just fell asleep briefly and had a dream, so don’t worry about it.”

Though she said this, both her hands holding the glass were trembling badly. The man looked at her thin wrists, then knelt and wrapped his hands around Yerena’s hands holding the glass. At the sudden contact, Yerena momentarily flinched. But soon she relaxed her body at the warmth of the large hands warming her cold ones completely, and whispered a small thank you.

At her faintly spreading smile, the man’s nerves, which had been stretched long and sharp, curled up into circles. Those large, deep eyes looking at him, the slightly upturned corners of her lips, and a few strands of golden thread fluttering beside them. When he saw each of these things, it felt like someone was gently tickling his heart with a feather.

“……How about I speak to Priestess Alicia about changing your maid?”

The man, who had helped Yerena drink water, asked while still kneeling on one knee below her. At the word “maid” from his lips, Yerena recalled Jane and shook her head with a bitter face.

“I told her not to come until I call for her.”

“But if you’re alone and struggling like what just happened…… That maid receives a proper salary for serving you, Lady Yerena.”

“I don’t want it. And such a sight as just now……”

Yerena frowned slightly as she spoke, unable to remember the name of the maid in the next room.

“……I don’t want to show it to Louisa.”

Yerena finally remembered the maid’s name and continued. The man stared at her and raised the corner of his mouth almost imperceptibly.

After the incident with Jane, Yerena didn’t give even a shred of affection to the new maid. Not only that, unlike with Jane, Yerena didn’t allow the new maid into her personal space. She had Alicia install a bell cord connected to the maid’s room and didn’t call the maid except at mealtimes or when absolutely necessary.

Of course, the man already knew this from reports. He was secretly pleased that things were going as planned, seeing Yerena not giving affection to anyone else. But he pretended not to know and asked her in a subtle voice,

“Is it alright for me to be here?”

“You…… are fine.”

Yerena nodded slowly. At the end of summer, after the kiss with the man, she no longer rebelled against her own heart. She simply regarded him as the only person left by her side whom she could care for, and used him as a barrier to prevent the emptiness and loneliness that were consuming her.

Of course, even that wasn’t perfect, and her insides continued to rot away. Moreover, though daytime peace came after she stopped pushing the man away, at night she was again tormented by nightmares where her family appeared to blame her. But the princess considered such pain her due burden to bear, so she never showed any sign of struggling.

“Actually, I installed the bell cord and sent Louisa away because of you.”

“……”

“I wanted to talk more comfortably with you and spend time with you.”

At Yerena’s honest confession, the man kneeling before her looked surprised. He took the water glass still in her hands and placed it on a nearby table, then held both her hands in his. While kissing various parts of her hands, he asked,

“……Do you speak this way to Frederick as well?”

The man asked after kissing Yerena’s small, hard-tipped yet dainty left ring finger. Thinking that the man burying his face in her hands was like a large, warm puppy, she answered,

“No. I only do this with you. Sir Frederick…… doesn’t say much. And I have nothing to say to him either. Besides, Sir Frederick says he’ll be leaving soon. Because knight order duties have become busier……”

Recently, Frederick had told her that he would be removed from guard duty because knight order work had increased. But Yerena instinctively knew his words were an excuse.

‘They probably think two guard knights is excessive courtesy for a prisoner who’s being forgotten. Even Alicia’s visits have become less frequent…..’

Yerena’s face turned bitter as she recalled her situation again. Still kneeling, the man’s eyes darkened at her gloomy voice. If she harbored tender feelings for his subordinate, if she was disappointed about his departure……

“Well…… even if he didn’t leave, I wouldn’t be this close with Sir Frederick. You and Sir Frederick are different.”

Before the light of mercy toward his subordinate completely disappeared from the man’s eyes, Yerena spoke. Her unadorned answer came in a calm voice. The man slowly raised his head after giving a lingering kiss to Yerena’s fingertips, who had said exactly what he wanted to hear.

And when he saw the woman’s face from below, the man momentarily froze. There was clearly a smile on the face of the woman looking down at him. But it was unstable, and her entire face showed a precariousness as if it might collapse at any moment.

‘It’s my fault.’

At this sight, the man, the deceiver, recalled his original sin. He was the one who had made the princess like this. Her tragedy, her hardships, her sorrows—all had begun by his hand.

But as always, though he recognized his sin and looked back at what he had done with regret, he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t give up the deception he had built up continuously.

If she found out, if she learned his true identity, the love the princess was giving him now would disappear immediately—he knew this. He couldn’t give that up. He believed it was better to reinforce the tower of deception he had built, adding wood, nailing it down, and building stone walls beside it to make the deception perfect, so it would never collapse.

‘If she doesn’t find out…… the current situation would remain as is.’

But the more he fortified the surroundings of the tower, the more his anxiety and impatience grew. It felt like madly racing down a wrong path. Yet even knowing that his anxiety would soon turn into obsession, the man didn’t stop.

Despite destroying the kingdom of his loved one, brutally slaughtering her family, and completely ruining his lover’s life—despite carrying such a terrible original sin—he coveted her love and attention. The man buried his face directly in the princess’s palm. When her small, soft hand covered his sight, he felt somewhat more at ease.

But that tranquility was brief; Yerena suddenly began coughing. It was a dry cough. Not ending after once or twice, it became so painful as if she might cough up blood at any moment. The startled man jumped up and filled a glass with water.

“Lady Yerena.”

“Thank you. As the weather gets colder……!”

Yerena’s complexion was poor as she continued coughing even while drinking water. The man bit his lip hard as he saw a bluish tinge rising in her face, white as a sheet of paper.

Her dress, which had already become loose again, floated around her neck. Not only that, her long neck and limbs looked as if they might break at any moment, and her collarbones were clearly visible.

The man, clearly knowing that even this state of the princess’s body was his fault, stabbed himself that day. He cut his palm with a sword where the princess had been injured before, and following the self-harm scar on his thigh that he had hidden thinking she wouldn’t know, he stabbed his thigh with a dagger. But even without taking any measures, the man’s injured body soon healed itself cleanly with a golden light.

‘Now I understand. Why my mother found me so disgusting.’

He wished blood would flow like in those days when his mother would beat him. The man glared at his reflection in the mirror, completely uninjured everywhere, as if his own appearance was horrifying. But even while cursing himself, he continued with his planned actions to maintain the deception.

* * *

A room that could only be described as white—white walls, white ceiling, and even white furnishings. On a bed large enough for six adults to lie down, an old man lay, struggling to breathe.

“Huhk……”

A metallic sound accompanied each labored breath he took and released. The prophet’s deputy stood beside the bed, looking down at the old man before turning around.

“Ian. Bring that here.”

A white-haired boy cleric hurried over with small steps and held out a bottle. The prophet’s deputy took the bottle, opened the lid, and sighed as he looked between the bottle and the old man lying on the bed.

“The prophet thought you would endure until you turned fifteen, but even that seems difficult now.”

“……”

“With only this much left……”

“……”

“A prophet at thirteen…… Too young, even for a prodigy. I worry whether you, Ian, will manage well when that time comes.”

The old man lying on the bed was the temple’s highest authority—the prophet. The bottle contained pure white water. The prophet’s deputy had been extending the prophet’s life little by little with the pure white water, as the prophet had developed resistance to healing through holy power.

The prophet’s deputy dipped a glass rod into the pure white water and brought it to the prophet’s lips. The prophet, who had been lying as if dead, opened his eyes. Perhaps due to lost memories, his cloudy eyes contained no light. An old man just waiting to die—this was the true appearance of the prophet who received adoration from countless believers in the Empire.

“……What if he notices?”