Every part of her body, from head to toe, was in pain.

It felt as if a giant hammer was striking down on her body. At the same time, it was like thousands of needles were pricking her. She couldn’t breathe from the heat boiling up in her body, and then suddenly, chills would come, making her curl up and shiver violently.

It would have been better if only such physical pain kept repeating. What made things even harder for Ir than the bodily pain were the memories that kept surfacing. Starting with her comrades who died without being able to resist even once, older memories continued to crawl up into her consciousness.

Among them, what tormented Ir the most was the memory of the day she was burned.

Her father’s gentle voice that she heard for the first time in her life. The burning, collapsing mansion when she opened her eyes. Herself tied to a pillar and her father’s manic cry about dying together.

The burning mansion came crashing down over her head. Her body caught fire….

“P-please save me….”

Even though she knew better than anyone that it was already over, Ir unconsciously thrashed about, begging for help. In her memory, as the mansion’s pillar collapsed, it crushed her right arm. It was hot. Hot enough to die, no, hot enough to make her beg to just die.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts….”

Ir trembled and kept muttering like someone who had lost their mind. Her right arm, which now could barely feel sensation, seemed to be burning and melting again.

‘Should I cut it off?’

Rather than experiencing that pain again….

That’s when someone grabbed Ir’s arm. Startled by the sudden warmth of another person, Ir frantically grabbed onto them. It was just like back then. When she couldn’t come to her senses, someone grabbed her and pulled her out from under the pillar. Without even knowing who it was, she had clung to them, begging to be saved. At the same time, she had felt relief that someone had found her.

It was the same now. Someone grabbed Ir’s arm and slowly massaged it.

As if telling her it was okay, that all the pain she was experiencing now was just an illusion, and that it was all over.

With the careful touch, her mind slowly returned. Her gasping breath calmed, though the burning fever remained.

She unconsciously clung to the hand holding her. Though she didn’t know who it was, their hand was incredibly cool. When Ir grabbed on, the hand that had briefly stopped moving began to caress various parts of her face. Her forehead, cheeks, neck, shoulders….

As the fever gradually subsided, Ir’s breathing became much easier. And then Ir fell into a deep sleep without any nightmares.

***

“Mmm….”

With a groan, Ir slowly opened her eyes.

Where was this? What time was it? What was she supposed to do?

At least she could tell she was lying in a bed from the soft feeling against her back. The blanket covering her body was also incredibly soft. So much so that she wanted to close her eyes and go back to sleep. Then Ir realized that her right hand was holding onto something.

‘What is it?’

When she turned her head without thinking, golden sparkles filled her vision. Because her sight was still blurry, she couldn’t tell what it was at first. She just thought the color was pretty.

Perhaps because she moved, the gold that had filled her vision also moved slowly. And the blue light beneath it gazed at her. The moment she met that light, Ir unconsciously smiled and opened her mouth.

“Nerg…”

At that, a hint of amusement appeared in the blue light that was watching her.

The only peer who used to talk with her long ago. Someone who, despite always choosing to say mean things, would secretly leave food under his clothes on days when she couldn’t eat properly.

But after the kingdom fell and they each returned to their proper places, they were no longer on terms to share casual conversation….

The moment her thoughts reached that point, Ir shot up and shouted.

“Prince Nergal!”

At that moment, the blue light watching her distorted. Ir blinked rapidly. After a few blinks, everything around her regained clear form. What she saw immediately was Nergal’s expressionless face.

The moment she faced him, the fragmented memories in her mind came together. Ir immediately got off the bed. Every movement made her body ache. Moreover, her head, which had once been feverish, was now throbbing with a headache. But that wasn’t the issue right now.

Ir steadied her swaying body and bowed at the waist to him on the bed. It was a perfectly angled greeting posture, like something straight out of the Imperial Knights’ manual.

“You…”

Watching Ir like this, Nergal rose. As Ir watched him, she unconsciously swallowed. Nergal, rising from the bed, was wearing only simple pants, with nothing covering his upper body.

Before Ir could wonder why Nergal was getting up from her bed in such a state, she noticed another fact. Compared to Nergal who was at least half-dressed, she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

“Ah, um, this is…”

Ir had been trained to remain calm in any situation. In fact, even when her training uniform was torn during practice with other knight orders, exposing her entire upper body, Ir hadn’t batted an eye. Rather, the one who had deliberately torn her clothes had backed away in disgust at seeing her scars.

But now, seeing this scarless body felt like looking at someone else’s stripped body, making her feel embarrassed.

Just as she was thinking about looking for clothes, something flew over Ir’s head. Ir reached out and caught it.

What covered her was the thin blanket from the bed. While Ir quickly wrapped it around herself, Nergal got up from the bed and approached her.

As Nergal stood before her, Ir knelt on her inner knee and looked up at him.

Now all her senses had returned. And with that came the realization of how incredibly awkward this situation was.

Nergal had bought a woman with money from a slave market. But what if that woman claims to be an imperial knight who was reportedly crushed to death in a cave six months ago? Anyone would think she was crazy.

Even while thinking this, Ir spoke to him without hesitation.

“Though it may be hard to believe, I am Ir… Kala of the 9th Knight Order.”

Ir Kala was the name her adoptive father had given her when she came to the empire.

“A new beginning needs a new name. How about Ir Kala?”

Seeing her adoptive father speak somewhat awkwardly, Ir felt grateful for his consideration.

While it was common in the continent to adopt children from noble families of defeated nations, it was rare to give them new names. This was because they weren’t really trying to raise them as their own children, but rather taking them as half hostage, half useful worker.

Such people typically insisted that these children not forget their past, rather than showing affection by going so far as to give them new names.

But Ir’s adoptive father had stayed up all night flipping through books to find a name that would suit Ir. Ir liked the new name her adoptive father had found. It was a name that allowed her to keep using ‘Ir,’ the nickname that those who once cared for her used to call her.

‘He considered the other side too.’

Ishtar, the name her birth father had given her, was the goddess of war as well as beauty and love. Having such a name with a body marred by burn scars would have made her even more of a laughingstock.

Her adoptive father had clearly worried about such situations.

That’s why Ir gladly accepted the new name. After all, there was no one who would mourn the disappearance of Ishtar.

After stating her affiliation and name, Ir observed Nergal.

Even though she thought he would treat her like a crazy person, she had no choice but to tell the truth.

Ir wasn’t confident in deep thinking and calculation. More precisely, she wasn’t confident in beating Nergal in that area.

‘Was there ever anyone in the palace who could beat Prince Nergal when it came to using their head?’

Even those who spoke so smoothly that one might think their tongues were oiled would clam up like mutes before Nergal.

As Chancellor, what he hated most was people trying to use their inadequate minds to lie in front of him.

‘Then it’s better to just tell the truth.’

Whether he believed it was a separate issue.

Ir met his gaze directly. Nergal’s gaze was colder than she had ever seen it. His searching gaze was so sharp and persistent that it felt like he was examining every corner of her mind.

Seeing his expression, Ir bit her lip.

‘He must think this is ridiculous.’

Even she, the person involved, still couldn’t believe this whole situation, so there was no way Nergal would believe her.

Just as she was preparing herself for his cold words, Nergal approached her.

Then he too knelt on one knee and faced her.

Nergal silently looked at her for a long while. It wasn’t a look of suspicion. Ir saw his eyelashes trembling as he looked at her.

Like someone witnessing an unbelievable miracle, his pupils dilated as complex emotions rippled through them.

Nergal slowly raised his hand. His hand, trembling more than his pupils, approached Ir. Though it seemed like he would grab her right away, his hesitating hand grabbed the thin cloth she was wrapped in. Then he pulled it with force.

Caught off guard by the unexpected action, Ir’s body stumbled forward. Nergal grabbed her shoulders. As he drew even closer, he looked at her intently. Just as Ir was about to speak again under his gaze that seemed to be examining not just her appearance but something beyond it.

“I know.”

The response came with certainty, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.