Chapter 2 (Part 1)

Celestia met Kayev again exactly three years after he had left the Danverton estate.  

“Kayev…?”  

It was the worst situation, in the worst place.  

“Why are you here…?”  

Her face turned pale, as if she had seen a ghost.  

“How dare you! Show proper respect to the Duke!”  

Even as she was harshly scolded, Celestia couldn’t regain her composure due to the sheer surprise of their unexpected encounter.  

Kayev stood before her, looking confident and arrogant—completely unlike the gloomy figure she remembered from the past.  

Kneeling on the floor, she looked up at him and felt a strange sense of déjà vu. It was almost like their very first meeting, except their roles were now reversed.  

“Enough.”  

When his lieutenant stepped forward to punish Celestia for not bowing her head, Kayev raised a hand to stop him. His expression, as he looked down at her in her maid’s uniform, was complicated.  

But Celestia had no time to wonder why he looked that way. She was too busy cursing her fate for reuniting her with him at the most humiliating moment of her life.  

Seeing his polished armor and face, which had grown even more refined, she was overcome with shame. This was the one person she never wanted to see her like this.  

For a while, the two of them silently stared at each other.  

After watching her wordlessly for some time, Kayev finally spoke.  

“It’s been a while.”  

His voice, lower and heavier than she remembered, was unmistakably Kayev’s.  

Once, she had dreamed of hearing him call her name tenderly in that voice. Even now, his masculine baritone seemed as if it would call her “young lady” in that familiar brusque tone…  

“…Celestia.”  

The sound of her name, falling heavily from his lips, reminded her of her current plight, weighing down on her shoulders.  

***

The past year had been the worst for Celestia—or rather, for the entire Danverton family. The downfall of Prince Julian Panien, whom Earl Danverton had supported and backed, had been entirely unexpected.  

It was none other than Prince Jacob, whom Julian’s faction had oppressed and restrained, who brought about the sudden collapse of his rival.  

Though thought to have fled north, Prince Jacob had returned to the capital, rallying the northern nobles who had been marginalized by the Kingdom. With unstoppable momentum, he secured the position of Crown Prince, and it was only natural that his blade turned toward Julian’s supporters next.  

Many families were accused of treason overnight. As if receiving retribution for their past misdeeds, the House of Danverton was caught up in the same fate.  

Earl Danverton, who had merely served as a financial backer, was spared execution but lost most of his wealth and title.  

The estate passed into another’s hands, the servants scattered, and her two older brothers were sent to the penal colony of Gwen. Her father, stricken by the shock, collapsed and never recovered.  

Every day was filled with anxiety.  

For the twenty-year-old Celestia, who had no idea how to cope with such sudden misfortune, a slightly better fate was decided. Stripped of the Danverton name and all her rights as a noble, she was sent to work as a maid in a certain household. The house she was sent to belonged to an elderly Duchess who lived alone.  

It wasn’t a good situation, but for Celestia, it was a relief. Her once-praised beauty could have caused her far worse trouble if she had been sent to the home of a male noble.  

However, the elderly Duchess tormented her in more subtle ways. The servants, too, harbored resentment toward the nobility and took secret pleasure in tormenting Celestia, who had fallen from a noble to a commoner.  

While it was a far more lenient punishment than death, it was by no means easy. Celestia endured each day in humiliation and loneliness.  

And then, suddenly, he appeared before her.  

Her knight, Kayev.  

Kayev Ruden.  

The man who had left the Danverton estate to reunite with his former master had now reclaimed his family’s title and become the Duke of Ruden.  

The young Duke of Ruden was now Prince Jacob’s most powerful sword and right-hand man. Rumors often circulated that the bloody purges that shook the capital had been the work of Prince Jacob’s hound, Kayev Ruden.  

Even Celestia, who knew little of the world, had heard his name mentioned many times. It was clear how famous he had become.  

The boy she had once loved with near-worship was now fully a man, standing high above her, beyond her reach.  

And what of herself, by comparison?  

She had just risen from her bed in the maid’s quarters and was in the process of putting on her clothes. Her once-lustrous golden hair was a tangled mess, uncombed, and there was surely residue around her eyes from crying herself to sleep the night before.  

She had barely managed to pull herself up when she was told she had a visitor. Curious, she opened the door, only to find Kayev standing there.  

It was no wonder she was so shocked that she forgot to breathe.  

“Why… why are you here…?”  

All she could manage to say, over and over, was “why.” She didn’t even know why she was so surprised. Perhaps it was because he was the last person she ever expected to see here.  

“How rude. Why don’t you bow your head and greet him properly?”  

“Greg, leave us.”  

Ignoring his subordinate’s defiance, Kayev dismissed him with a cold command and strode forward. He stopped in front of Celestia, who was sitting on the floor, and scrutinized her appearance.  

“Your face has changed quite a bit.”  

His low voice carried no emotion.  

For a moment, their gazes met in the air.  

While Kayev’s eyes seemed to assess her, Celestia’s were still dazed. Even in her confusion, her instincts greedily took in the sight of his face.  

He was as beautiful as ever, yet there was something dangerous about him now. His sharper features seemed to give off that impression.  

The man before her looked far stronger and braver than the twenty-one-year-old Kayev she had imagined. His high nose, chiseled cheeks, and tightly pressed lips were like a sculpture crafted by a god’s finest efforts.  

His already impressive height and build had grown even more, forcing Celestia to crane her neck to look up at him. His slicked-back black hair, thick eyebrows, and indifferent gray eyes were the same, but his gaze now seemed deeper and more intense.  

Celestia thought his eyes looked like they were quietly burning. Once, they had been nothing but lifeless black voids. Now, there was a heat in them that hadn’t been there before. Judging by his expression, he seemed quite angry.  

“Well, I suppose the lady of Danverton wouldn’t be able to endure life as a maid. Not that anyone seems to care about that now, except for you and me.”  

His voice, as he said this, sounded as if he was suppressing some emotion.  

Celestia, preoccupied with understanding the situation, didn’t even notice how sharp his tone had become. While she couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of his words, one thing was clear: Kayev already knew everything about her current circumstances.  

She had a vague idea of why he had come.  

Perhaps he wanted to see how the woman who had once tormented him with her foolish affections had fallen into such a wretched state.  

Celestia, who had once been so naive, now understood everything. She finally realized why he had hated the Danverton family and why he had left the estate the way he did.  

She could now imagine how much he must have detested her for shamelessly declaring her love for him back then. Having experienced the fall of her own family at the hands of the prince he served, she felt she could understand his feelings better than anyone.  

But knowing something in her head didn’t make the pain in her heart any less.  

It was unbearably humiliating to think that the man she had once loved—perhaps still loved—had come to witness her downfall.  

Tears she thought she had shed completely the night before threatened to rise again.  

But Celestia held them back.  

She refused to cry in front of him.  

It was the last shred of pride she had left.  

***

Contrary to Celestia’s pessimistic thoughts, Kayev had not come to mock his former master. In fact, his intentions were the complete opposite.  

As a close aide to the Crown Prince, Kayev was, of course, well aware of the Danverton family’s plight. Not only that, but he had personally assisted Prince Jacob in orchestrating the downfall of the House of Danverton.  

Earl Danverton, who had destroyed the House of Ruden and brought Kayev a lifetime of humiliation, had been punished along with his two sons. Kayev felt no guilt about that.  

However, no matter how consumed by vengeance he was, he found it difficult to ignore Celestia, who had once been by his side.  

Celestia Danverton.  

Once the greatest source of trouble in his life, later the protagonist of his dreams, and ultimately the subject of his long-standing love-hate relationship.  

Even as he planned the downfall of her family, Kayev secretly hoped she would remain safe. There had been plenty of ways to smuggle her out of the House of Danverton.