Carlos didn’t know how much time had passed since then.

When he opened his eyes, a fortnight had already gone by, and what lay before him was…

“Mother…?”

It was all that remained of his mother—just her neck. Her eyes weren’t even closed, as if she had died in anguish. Her lifeless blue eyes seemed to harbor resentment towards him.

“Where did you find this…?”

The soldier who brought the countess’s neck bowed his head and replied.

“It was at the castle gate, stuck on the bars… along with this flag.”

<wh*re of Tezever.>

That was what was written on the flag.

“Ah.”

Carlos let out a low groan.

Her cracked, dry lips, brittle hair, and darkened skin revealed the nature of her final moments.

The news had arrived that morning: the king was dead. His father was gone.

He had heard that the king had passed away a month ago, but it had been kept secret because of the war.

That meant his mother had known long before that she had no value for negotiation. Yet, she still sought out the enemy camp to become a captive in order to save her son.

Understanding all this, Carlos’s legs gave out. With the sound of his crutches clattering to the floor, he knelt and embraced his mother’s neck.

“Because of me…”

His mother had died.

A pain worse than any torture he had endured in prison overwhelmed him. The heavy guilt made it impossible for him to lift his head.

Tears flowed endlessly from his eyes.

Then, the face of his mother, which he held, began to grow wet.

Feeling something strange, Carlos looked up. His hands were stained with red blood.

“What is this…?”

The bloody tears that had gathered in her blue eyes covered Carlos’s hands. Blood tears flowed over the face of his dead mother. At that moment, when Carlos’s body stiffened…

His mother’s unfocused eyes turned towards him. At the same time, her familiar voice sharply reprimanded him.

“Why are you crying? You abandoned your mother and went to war over just one woman.”

It was a terrible nightmare.

* * *

“Gah!”

Carlos, who had been tossing and turning on the bed as if having a seizure, suddenly sat up, gasping for breath.

“Ha, ha…”

His breath was ragged, like someone who hadn’t been able to breathe for a long time.

Carlos’s face was filled with fear as he looked around, unable to distinguish whether it was a dream or reality.

Once he grasped the situation, Carlos let out a low curse.

“Damn it.”

He clutched his hair in agony. The nightmares that had been quiet for a while had returned to torment him. It felt so severe that he thought he could never escape.

His hands trembled violently. It still felt as if his mother’s neck was in his embrace.

The reason he had started having nightmares again, after a long absence, was probably…

“Because of what Jeff said.”

Rachel Ankerid, Carlos’s biological mother.

She was supposed to receive a suitable position and status for bearing the king’s son, so she became the second wife of the old Count Ankerid.

People believed she couldn’t step out of the count’s residence due to health reasons.

But his mother had already…

“She died a long time ago.”

When he returned after the war, no one knew about the countess’s death.

Later, he discovered that the royal family had claimed the countess was a fake once they learned she was with the enemy.

They said she was just a madwoman pretending to be the countess who had become a captive.

At first, he was furious about this revelation, but he soon composed himself.

Yes, he decided it was better this way. At least his mother’s miserable death wasn’t known to everyone, and he was grateful for that.

So he pretended the countess was still alive, for his mother’s final honor.

Recalling the past, Carlos’s lips twisted. Suddenly, he remembered the promise the duke had made to him.

“There’s no need to worry too much. You just need to spend time in the rear and come back. In the meantime, I’ll take care of Countess Ankerid.”

He had thought they would at least check on her once, even if they didn’t care for her well. After all, he had gone to the army in place of their son. At least she was the king’s woman.

He could never forget the day he held his always beautiful mother’s neck in his arms.

I felt as if my mother’s eyes, which I couldn’t even sense, were blaming me.

I had gone to war for the sake of a mere woman, and my mother, who came to save me, died abandoned by everyone.

In the end, my mother perished because of my own foolish choice.

But still…

“Ines. If only you hadn’t betrayed me…”

I would have simply ended up regretting and blaming myself for my own decisions. But you…

It seemed as if you never intended to wait for me, becoming my brother’s fiancée instead.

Even though I endured torture there, with my skin torn and one of my legs rendered useless, I somehow managed to hold on.

Until I confirmed the whole truth with my own eyes.

At least, I had hoped that you, Ines, hadn’t betrayed me.

I clung to that hope until the very last moment.

Until I returned victorious from the war and saw you as my brother’s fiancée.

Carlos, unable to bear the agony, rose from the bed.

He thought he might need a drink to help him fall asleep again.

Carlos moved toward the table where the glass was placed.

As soon as he emptied the glass to quench his dry throat, he grimaced and spat everything out.

“Damn it!”

He cursed under his breath and wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

It wasn’t just alcohol.

A sweet vanilla taste, which shouldn’t have been in the drink, lingered on his tongue.

“Could they have mixed something in?”

He had tasted this before on the battlefield. It was an aphrodisiac for soldiers suffering from injuries.

The vanilla-flavored aphrodisiac was one of those drugs that transformed pain into pleasure. And now, such a drug was in his room.

Carlos let out a hollow laugh as he collected his thoughts.

“Someone’s trying to play a funny game.”

He could almost see their plan. They probably intended to give him this drug and then send in a woman to conceive a child. Their actions were despicably hypocritical, given their disdain for illegitimate children.

The culprit was likely one of the nobles trying to push their daughter onto him.

‘That means…’

Just as he grasped the clue, he sensed someone at the door. There was no hostility; it felt like someone who didn’t know how to hide their presence. Carlos instinctively grabbed the sword he had placed by his bedside.

“Eek!”

A weak scream accompanied the sound of the sword slicing through the air.

Only then did the face of the uninvited guest, hidden in the darkness, become visible. It was a face he recognized.

“You are…”

She was the daughter of Baron Hamilton, who had recently joined Ines as a lady-in-waiting. Her name was Uriel, if he remembered correctly.

Uriel, not expecting Carlos to brandish a sword, stammered with a terrified expression.

“I-I’m Uriel from the Baron of Hamilton. Your Majesty.”

“So why are you here?”

“Well, um, that is…”

Carlos glanced at her suspiciously. Then he naturally noticed Uriel’s attire. His brows furrowed. As expected, his guess was right.

‘It’s something her father ordered.’

Uriel was wearing pajamas that revealed every curve of her body. It would have been less provocative if she had worn nothing at all. Carlos, looking over her attire, smirked.

When the nobles handed over a list of suitable maid candidates, he had already anticipated a situation like this.

The list lacked any noblewomen who could advise the queen, consisting only of women of marriageable age.

Moreover, Ines currently had no one to support her. They thought they could remove her at any time.

“Sigh.”

Carlos let out an annoyed sigh and withdrew his sword.

“Get out while I’m being nice.”

Dealing with such a woman felt like a waste of time. However, despite Carlos’s stern order, Uriel showed no intention of leaving. Instead,

“Please don’t do that…”

As Carlos put away his sword, Uriel spoke in a sweet voice while watching him.

Then she slowly approached Carlos, her movements as seductive as a cat’s.

“Why don’t you try me?”

“…”

Despite Carlos’s sharp tone, Uriel, undeterred, let her barely-there gown slip off, attempting to entice him.

“I can do much better for you than a queen who can’t even use one of her legs.”

It wasn’t something one would expect from a supposedly refined noble lady.

With those words, Uriel, who had come close to Carlos, gently stroked his thigh with her fingers.

“I’ll show you more than you can imagine, Your Highness.”