Seoho, who had been guessing the reason why Rosetta didn’t refuse her proposal despite disliking Angel, swallowed a sigh. Even if he tried to find the reason now, Angel staying at the imperial palace was already a settled matter.
However, Seoho had resolved.
‘Even if Angel comes to find me directly, I won’t meet her.’
It was natural since he clearly knew that Rosetta’s relationship with Angel wasn’t good, and Seoho’s own impression of Angel wasn’t good either.
Even if Angel knew the most about the mirror, there were too many abstract parts.
But that resolution was broken because of a strange dream. Seoho looked at Angel and opened his mouth.
“I had a dream where someone grabbed and pulled my ankle.”
“Your ankle?”
“Yes, and when I woke up from the dream, my ankle was bruised.”
Angel asked carefully.
“May I take a look?”
“Yes.”
Puti pushed the table to the side. Seoho gave Puti an eye greeting and rolled up his pants. Angel’s face hardened as she looked at Seoho’s left ankle, which had turned not just bruised but pitch black.
“…This is.”
At Angel’s serious face, Seoho asked worriedly.
“Is it something bad?”
Angel lowered her head a bit more toward Seoho’s ankle. Seoho was slightly surprised but didn’t stop her as she looked at the empty space around his ankle with a serious face.
“…I can’t give you a definite answer, but I can tell it’s not a good thing. Have there been any other special changes?”
Seoho answered as promised with Rosetta in advance.
“No.”
“…If you delayed treatment to show me, shall we treat it first?”
When Rosetta nodded at Angel’s suggestion, a white light slightly different from what Seoho had seen jumped out from her hand.
It was a transparent yet milky white, pure-looking energy. But even after that energy disappeared, there was no change to Seoho’s leg.
“…It’s not effective.”
Certainly, the power that came from Angel only hovered around the leg without producing any particular effect. But rather than disappointment, he somehow felt like that would be the case. Seoho smiled at the flustered Angel.
“It doesn’t hurt, so it’s okay.”
Then Rosetta stepped forward.
“I have something to ask.”
“Rosetta?”
Seoho turned to Rosetta. He was worried he might say something about the failed treatment, but Rosetta gently wrapped Seoho’s wrist and asked Angel.
“You said the thread of fate is connected to his ankle. Is that okay?”
At Rosetta’s question, Angel, who had been looking down at the ankle again, let out an exclamation.
“Ah.”
Angel, who raised her head again, watched Rosetta’s reaction with that ambiguous gaze of hers. Seoho frowned, and Rosetta said in a flat voice.
“Without lies or hiding. Say it properly.”
Rosetta still wore a faint smile, but Seoho didn’t think he was smiling at all.
‘A threat?’
Did Angel feel what Seoho felt too? Angel, who had turned pale, answered.
“…It’s still firmly connected. However, the middle parts of several threads seem to have thinned.”
Seoho, who had been watching the atmosphere between the two, asked.
“What does that mean?”
Angel pointed at Seoho’s ankle with her hand.
“The middle part between the thread hanging on Seoho-nim’s ankle and the thread attached to His Majesty’s foot.”
That hand moved to the middle of the empty space between Rosetta and Seoho’s ankles.
“So the threads around here have thinned. Of course, only a few are like that, not all of them.”
That meant the threads of fate had nearly been severed.
‘Can threads of fate be severed?’
Questions arose, but he had no idea what or how to ask. Rosetta narrowed his brows.
“Can you explain what happened?”
At his question, Angel answered hesitantly.
“The threads of fate thin or thicken depending on the relationship between the parties involved, but it doesn’t seem like anything happened between you two. They were fine until recently.”
It seemed threads really could be severed. He wanted to get a proper confirmation, but Rosetta’s mood didn’t look good.
“Right, there’s no problem between us.”
“If that’s the case, I also don’t really…”
Rosetta spat out.
“Useless.”
Rosetta’s words were full of sharpness that cut off the bud. Angel bit her lip and closed her mouth. But Rosetta didn’t stop there.
“You don’t know anything.”
Even though they were both sitting in chairs, Rosetta seemed like someone standing in a much higher place than Angel. When Rosetta looked down at Angel with emotionless eyes, she apologized.
“…I’m sorry. Your Majesty.”
At the sudden change, Seoho carefully grabbed Rosetta. Then Rosetta turned to Seoho and ran down along Seoho’s wrist that he was still holding and patted the back of his hand.
After smiling at Seoho for a moment, Rosetta, who returned to an expressionless face, commanded Angel.
“Go back to the temple and find out properly.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it an item the temple gifted to me? Since there’s a problem, find a solution.”
Then Angel resisted.
“If, if this happens again…”
“That’s why you need to find a solution before this happens again.”
“……”
Rosetta made his will firm.
“Holy Maiden, leave the imperial palace before the palace gates close today.”
Seoho looked back and forth between the two. So this was another side of Rosetta that Seoho didn’t know.
He had guessed that what he knew wasn’t everything, but seeing it directly with his eyes was new. Watching the cold blue eyes pressuring Angel, Seoho swallowed a sigh.
‘They both act the same.’
Although the texture of their emotions was different, both were in a relationship where they openly showed their dislike for each other.
***
It was a tremendous insult. It felt like curses would come out of her mouth any moment, but Angel did her very best to shove the words down her throat.
“…Yes, I understand. Your Majesty.”
Her answering voice came out trembling. Just that alone exhausted all her mental strength, but Rosetta didn’t stop there.
“You’ll have to bring an answer that satisfies me.”
Angel bowed her head deeper. She couldn’t show her terribly distorted face. Because she was the Holy Maiden. For the prestige of the temple, for her father’s prestige, she always had to show only a perfect appearance.
‘I can’t show that damn bastard my defeat.’
Angel hoped her long hair would cover her expression.
“I will do my best.”
As always, Rosetta stood up without giving Angel a proper greeting.
“Let’s go, Seoho.”
No matter how hard she tried, her distorted face wouldn’t straighten. After Rosetta and Seoho disappeared like that and Angel was left alone in the drawing room, she chewed on the flesh inside her mouth.
Just a few minutes ago, she couldn’t have felt better. But as if mocking that Angel, the situation changed in an instant.
‘How dare!’
Rosetta’s action just now was coercion.
Angel, who belonged to the temple, didn’t take orders from the emperor institutionally. Yet Rosetta had given orders with that attitude to Angel, who was not just any priest but the one and only Holy Maiden.
She couldn’t control her body trembling with anger. She wanted to retaliate somehow, and if that wasn’t possible, she wanted to refuse the emperor’s words, but he was someone who received a name from the gods.
That meant even if he wasn’t affiliated with the temple, he was treated as equal to the Pope.
‘Even if the temple knows about this, they’ll just let it pass.’
In the end, there was nothing Angel could do except hide her anger, bow her head, and follow his orders.
‘…Why is there nothing I can do? There’s the otherworlder.’
What Seoho had just experienced was clearly no ordinary matter. Angel tried to calm her anger.
Getting angry and cursing could be done after going to the temple. Right now, the most important thing was to grasp the current situation.
‘That earlier…’
That mysterious energy hovering around Seoho’s foot. That energy that even pushed away her holy power was…
‘It’s not of this world.’
It was an instinctive feeling engraved on her soul. That strange power didn’t derive from her father.
What Seoho experienced this time wasn’t the kind of thing a mere human could do anything about.
‘Did he say it felt like he was being pulled?’
Moreover, the position of the bruised ankle was too exquisite. The ankle where the threads of fate were intertwined, and the threads that had nearly been severed.
She recalled the records written in the book. Among the fates that all headed toward the worst without exception, the last record about the only one who had a good relationship with fate.
They had adapted well to this place too, and their relationships with people weren’t bad. But even so, the ending was the same.
[The natural order could not be defied. The red thread connecting the two began to thin, and soon the otherworlder returned to their world.]
The last passage of the second book that had already been burned. The reason why Angel could hand the mirror to the emperor without hesitation, even knowing the possibility.
[As long as the natural order is maintained, the end is determined in any case, so the mirror is sealed.]
Coming to this world through the mirror itself wasn’t something that fit the natural order. So if the world tried to maintain the natural order?
‘If the original world is trying to take back its own human, the hand in Seoho’s dream…’
Seoho’s ankle covered in energy that wasn’t of this world. And the natural order.
‘…Even if he doesn’t want it himself, he’ll have no choice but to return to his original world.’
A clear smile rose on Angel’s face as she thought that far. If that happened, didn’t it mean that even if Angel didn’t do anything, didn’t make an effort, the two would separate on their own?
‘If the emperor and Seoho maintain an intimate relationship like now…’
When Seoho returned to his original world not by his own will but by external forces, the emperor would suffer even more.
‘I need to look into it once.’
