The sound of footsteps echoed through the darkness where not a single ray of light entered.

Moonlight streaming through the window crossed the face of a man walking down the corridor. It was Carlos, his crimson eyes glowing in the depths.

Perhaps due to his long journey, his face looked very tired. His lifeless eyes and staggering steps showed that Carlos was standing only through sheer willpower.

After walking aimlessly for a while, he stared blankly at the corridor he was walking through. This was where Ines had once snapped at him, saying she couldn’t marry him. What had he replied that day? Something about remaining as a stain on his life.

Ironically, among the memories of Ines that remained in the palace, there wasn’t a single one that could be called pleasant. They were all memories of him ignoring, despising, and looking down on Ines.

‘You probably didn’t have a single happy memory here.’

A hollow laugh escaped his lips. Despite having no good memories with her, Carlos wandered like a madman searching only for traces of Ines. Even when he happened to see a maid with the same hair color as Ines, he would chase after her calling Ines’s name.

But what returned was only the bewildered face of an unfamiliar woman looking at him.

Each time, Carlos realized it. That Ines was no longer by his side.

Soon, with a thud, the door opened and he stepped into the room.

It was a bedroom fit for a noble lady. Inside were a dressing table bearing traces of time and dresses suitable for young ladies hanging here and there. All of these were items Ines had used in her youth.

Since the queen’s room had burned completely, not a single one of her possessions remained in the palace. Carlos, who had been tormented by this, had moved Ines’s entire room from the Claudia territory.

When he first created this room, everyone whispered that the king had gone mad. But he couldn’t endure without doing at least this much. Carlos was still trapped in the past, unable to move forward.

As he slowly surveyed the room, his eyes fell on a blue dress hanging on the wall.

It was the color of dress Ines often wore. He had always thought the blue went so well with her golden hair.

Lost in memories of the past, he walked over to the dress. His rough fingers touched the soft skirt. As he stroked the dress that smoothly wrapped around his fingers, he recalled his conversation with the maid he had met before coming to the palace.

‘P-please spare my life, Your Majesty…!’

The words from the maid kneeling before him had been shocking. The maid explained why she was alive and revealed there was someone who had ordered her to do so.

‘It was all Lord Herman’s doing.’

The mysterious fire at the Lily Palace and the maid pretending to be dead. All of this had been Herman’s doing, she confessed.

She said he had given her enough money to pay off her debts and more, telling her to just pretend to be dead and leave the capital. But more important than finding out who had started the fire was something else.

‘What about Ines? Is the queen alive like you…?’

They had brought in a corpse as a substitute and secretly smuggled the maid out. That meant the body lying in the bed might not have been Ines either.

Perhaps Ines was alive and breathing somewhere.

Just as hope began to kindle, the maid’s next words extinguished that spark coldly.

‘I-I don’t know about Her Majesty. Lord Herman only said that the queen wished to end her life quietly alone. So probably…’

Carlos’s heart sank again as he mulled over the maid’s words. He couldn’t deny it by saying she wouldn’t go that far, as Ines’s multiple suicide attempts weighed on his mind.

“Ha.”

It was futile. More than the feeling of betrayal toward his trusted subordinate, he hated Ines for preparing so meticulously to leave him.

“…Did you hate me that much?”

That she found being by his side more horrifying than feeling the pain of burning alive.

“Ines, just how far…”

Will you drag me down? Even in death, she had finally thrown his heart into the gutter.

Eventually, Carlos embraced the dress before him. Cold fabric, not warm flesh, entered his arms.

“I…nes…”

Carlos’s body collapsed right there. This despair was beyond words.

Crying out loud wasn’t enough.

“I was wrong, Ines.”

If only he could have a chance to make up for what he had done, he would not repeat the same mistakes. If he could just go back, even until just before she died, he would kneel before Ines, grab the hem of her skirt, and beg.

He would grant whatever she wished, just please don’t die.

Overwhelmed by uncontrollable despair and frustration, Carlos pressed his forehead to the floor.

He crawled on the floor, wailing like someone who had been poisoned.

No matter how many tears he shed, how many screams he let out, how much he shouted, he couldn’t be freed from the pain gnawing at his heart.

“I can’t…”

Take it anymore.

He didn’t want to do anything anymore, not even revenge. He had reached his limit.

He just missed Ines so much. He wanted to touch the living, breathing Ines before his eyes, not just a picture.

Carlos, barely managing to get up, took out a small bottle from the drawer. It was a poison so potent that a single drop could kill even a wild beast.

This was what he had prepared for his end after finishing everything.

Just as he opened the glass bottle with empty eyes, suddenly there came a knock and Jeremy’s voice.

“Your Majesty, I’ve brought Herman.”

His hand froze for a moment.

‘Ah right, Herman.’

Before returning to the palace, he had ordered Jeremy to bring Herman. It was to ask about what happened that day.

But what did that matter now? Ines wasn’t in this world anyway. She had chosen to die suffering horribly because of that. What importance did knowing the truth about that day have now? None of that meant anything to him anymore.

He was tired and just wanted to see Ines.

“Your Majesty?”

Finding it strange that there was no response, the voice calling him repeated from outside. However, Carlos, seeming to have given up on everything, just brought the glass bottle to his lips. Just as the glass bottle was about to tilt into his mouth.

“Your Majesty, I apologize for opening the door without permission… Your Majesty!”

Jeremy, who had opened the door due to an ominous feeling, discovered Carlos about to drink something. Without knowing what was in his hand, Jeremy rushed forward and instinctively knocked it away.

With the sound of breaking glass, blue liquid spread across the carpet.

Jeremy, intuitively realizing it was poison, shouted.

“Your Majesty, what is this…!”

However, despite Jeremy’s cry, Carlos only stared at the empty glass bottle with hollow eyes.

“Your Majesty! Please… please come to your senses…!”

“…”

But Carlos gave no response, like someone whose soul had departed.

And Herman, who had been waiting outside to meet Carlos, entered the room.

“Your Majesty…?”

Herman, who had been alternately looking at Jeremy holding onto Carlos while wailing and the lost Carlos, stared at the glass bottle scattered on the floor. After grasping the situation from these fragmentary scenes, he bit his lip.

Carlos had tried to take his own life. He had thought he was doing well, but that wasn’t the case.

Herman clenched his fist. Then he slowly looked around the bedroom.

It was a room full of traces of a woman. The familiar portraits covering the walls clearly showed whose traces they were.

‘What should I do about this?’

The reason he hadn’t revealed the truth to Carlos that day at the cemetery was Herman’s last consideration for Ines. Because he knew the moment Carlos learned Ines was alive, he would search for her with fire in his eyes.

The queen had finally found freedom after escaping from the man she so desperately wanted to get away from. To repay his sins against her, he had chosen to betray his lord and keep silent. And until now, he had no regrets about that choice. But…

Looking at the completely broken Carlos, he regretted for the first time. He realized what he had done.

Ines’s existence meant more to Carlos than he had thought. No, Ines was Carlos’s everything.

Realizing this, Herman clenched and unclenched his fist strongly. His internal conflict grew stronger as time passed.

With his head bowed like a sinner, he seemed to make a decision as he raised his gaze and approached Carlos, who was staring into space with lifeless eyes.

“Your Majesty… I have something to tell you.”

He was just sorry to Ines. He felt guilty for doing something terrible to her until the very end. Perhaps he could never repay her even if he apologized for the rest of his life.

But he couldn’t watch Carlos, who was practically his benefactor, die.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Herman continued.

“It’s about Her Majesty the Queen.”

—

T/N: “Did you hate me that much?” WHAT DID YOU THINK, YOU IDIOT?