“Your Grace, a letter has arrived from the royal family.”

Returning home from a visit to the knights’ division, Ruben was met with unwelcome news. He stared at the letter bearing the royal seal, then walked past Will without a word. Will swallowed a sigh and carried the letter on a silver tray to the duke’s study, placing it carefully on the desk.

It wasn’t until he had washed and eaten a simple meal that Ruben entered the study and glanced at the letter addressed to him. His dry green eyes were as cold as ever. There were only two members of the royal family who would send him a letter. He had just spoken to one of them yesterday, leaving only one possibility. He opened the envelope with a detached motion.

As expected, it was from the sender he had anticipated, with a message he had also foreseen. In all her pride, the princess had commanded him to enter the palace immediately tomorrow to discuss the engagement.

*Of course.*

So she’d merely been waiting for the right moment to act.

Ruben set the letter down on his desk. Though tomorrow hadn’t yet arrived, he already felt fatigue encroaching. Abandoning his work, he left the study and went to his bedroom.

“Hah…”

The room, having been unoccupied for some time, was utterly devoid of warmth. Ruben immediately lay on the bed, resting his head on the pillow. But sleep wouldn’t come. As usual, his thoughts began to seep into the cold night air.

It was a night of sorrow. The news of Arphon Helferion de Bailey’s passing, a universally revered figure, had reached him as he was just preparing for bed. Having lost his parents early on, the boy first thought of the girl, who was likely grieving even more than for the deceased king himself. Ignoring the servants’ attempts to dissuade him, he urgently saddled his horse and rode for the palace. There was no time to lose.

The palace was in turmoil. While everyone had anticipated this outcome given the king’s long illness, almost no one remained untouched by grief in the face of his passing. As everyone busily carried out their duties in response to the emergency, the boy knelt before the Solar Palace with his sword in silent mourning. Then, he made his way to the Lily Palace.

The Lily Palace was even more chaotic. Amid the frenzy to locate the missing princess, the boy slipped unnoticed into the garden’s hidden corner, avoiding the eyes of the adults. Through a small, unpaved path, just enough for a child or two to enter, lay a secluded space. The girl was hidden among the bushes, burying her head in her hands.

No sound could be heard. It was still silence, so quiet that even the flap of a butterfly’s wings would have been noise. The girl did not cry. The spot where she sat was dry, without even a single drop of dew. The boy, too, remained motionless.

At that moment, a leaf drifted down from a tree, tracing a delicate arc through the air before landing on the girl’s narrow shoulders. The leaf trembled slightly with a gentle shiver as if trying to hold its place. But unable to endure, it soon fell to the ground again. The boy didn’t miss a single movement of the leaf’s path through the air.

He did nothing. He did not move, make a sound, or reach out to the girl. He offered no comforting words, like “It’s okay to cry.” He simply stayed by her side, thinking that he was glad to be her knight.

The two remained unmoving until dawn broke, and the girl finally raised her face. Her once-clear face now held no trace of emotion.

Throughout the funeral, the girl did not shed a single tear. Standing by her side, the boy thought again how fortunate he was to be her knight.

“……”

Yes. There had undoubtedly been a time like that. A time when he had resolved to protect her, thinking he had to support those small shoulders. A time when he had wanted with all his strength to bear her resolve.

And yet… precisely because of those days they shared, realizing now that all of it had been a lie and that this was her true nature made his blood run cold. It wasn’t a matter of feeling deceived. It was as if his entire past had been denied.

And despite having inflicted that feeling upon him, she felt not the slightest remorse. If anything, she seemed to grow crueler by the day, as if she had been waiting for this moment.

Less than a year after the late king’s passing, her mother, Queen Kate, had also died. That was when the girl’s true transformation began. Her once calm nature had turned as sharp as a blade. And that blade’s edge turned indiscriminately toward those around her.

She began to distrust her maids, belittle the nobles, and spurn any kindness as if it were hostility. She lashed out with cruelty and dismissed people quickly. Ultimately, everyone who could leave her side did so, while those who remained couldn’t breathe freely around her.

Her manner now closely resembled that of her father, Rigel Edgar Bailey, who was infamously known as a tyrant. People whispered that her true nature had come to light, just as her father’s had.

Nevertheless, Ruben stayed by her side. Even if it was simply youthful stubbornness, he felt that, as her knight, it was his duty to protect her, even if no one else did.

However, he held one person above her—the Saintess of the Kingdom of Bailey and the continent’s sole divine blessing, Lette Klein. For Ruben, as for every citizen of Bailey, prioritizing Lette was a matter of honor. She was the sole symbol of Bailey’s claim against the Pteria Empire.

But Helia despised Lette more than anyone else for one simple reason: because Ruben placed Lette above her.

As Helia’s cruelty continued to escalate, the breaking point finally came the day she drew her sword, intending to harm the Saintess. That was the day the oath between the princess and her knight shattered.

“I withdraw the vow I made to you, Princess.”

He couldn’t remember her expression when she heard those words, nor did he need to.

Renouncing a knight’s sworn oath was a disgrace of the highest order. Yet, not once did he regret that decision.

‘I might as well get some sleep.’

Anticipating a tiring day ahead, Ruben closed his eyes. But the night offered no easy rest.

✥✥✥

It was a bright day. The sun shone down warmly, but the breeze was cool. The chirping of birds blended with the rustling of leaves, creating a natural harmony. It was spring.

The Rose Palace was bustling with activity as it prepared for a rare guest. It was even more chaotic than usual because few maids were familiar with its layout.

Anna, the head maid, sighed. Just as the new staff would start to get comfortable, Helia would send them away. It was an endless cycle. No matter how much she trained them, it never mattered. There was never enough time for the maids to settle in and demonstrate their skills, and just as their faces began to feel familiar, they would do something to irritate Helia and be banished from the Rose Palace, never to return. Anna wondered how so many people could provoke Helia in so many ways, almost as if she intended to intentionally drive them away. Of course, she couldn’t honestly know the princess’s mind.

However, she knew where it had all begun. It started when Helia mercilessly dismissed her nurse, Ellie. From that moment, Helia began to torment the maids, distrust others, and dismiss people over the slightest offense. Only now did Anna regret not stepping in to discourage her more tactfully back then, wondering if things would be different had she done so.

“Bring me the new necklace that arrived.”

Helia instructed her to make her appearance more dazzling than usual. Her hair was braided, and she wore a subdued, deep green dress, exuding an elegance surpassing any queen’s. The diamond necklace resting on her neck sparkled continuously, distracting the eyes of those who looked at it.

Helia, adorned without a single flaw, was breathtakingly beautiful but exuded a cold, intimidating distance, like a general ready for battle. She appeared so formidable that anyone attempting to speak might as well be preparing for a bombardment. No doubt, the Duke of Effenberg would feel the same way.

Anna sighed inwardly, barely reaching her knee as she remembered the days when these two troubled individuals were young. The girl was kind to the boy, and the boy was utterly devoted to the girl.