The council chamber was located on the second floor of the main castle. To simply call it a council chamber didn’t quite capture it—the dark-colored iron door reminded one of a crude armory set into a rampart. Two sentries stood guard in front of it. Although many knights and soldiers were stationed at Eos Castle, a strict hierarchy existed among them.
The select few honor knights chosen for the Imperial Guard wore golden silk cloaks, the ordinary knights beneath them wore white cloaks, and the lower-ranking soldiers below them, rather than wearing cloaks, wore hoods that came only halfway down their backs, fastened near the area between shoulder and chest with a bronze brooch in the shape of a black bird indicating their Imperial affiliation.
“What brings you here?”
One of them recognized Anya and addressed him.
“This is the mistress of Tildyen.”
Buppu answered them. At that, the sentries’ expressions changed. They exchanged brief glances with each other, then tilted the spears they were holding toward the door and shook their heads.
“What business brings you here?”
“I came to meet my, my husband.”
The word “husband” still didn’t sit comfortably on his tongue, and each time he uttered it, the embarrassment wouldn’t fade. Tildyen’s cold air, the dim interior of Tildyen Rock even at midday, the unfrozen ice lake… he’d grown accustomed to all of it, yet this alone he simply couldn’t get used to.
“Do you mean Duke Evernight?”
It seemed even these mere sentries standing here felt the same way. They displayed a measure of curiosity toward Anya, who was both an Imperial Prince and had become the mistress of the North. Moreover, wasn’t he the very person who had brought down the demon beast at the hunting festival not long ago? Compared to the frightening rumors, his appearance was clearly young, so the curiosity in the sentries’ eyes still hadn’t faded.
“Yes. Is he, is he inside?”
When the sentry standing beside poked him in the ribs, only then did the man clear his throat briefly and straighten his chest.
“I cannot tell you that, my lady.”
“I, I see. May I wait in front?”
To go back now meant there was no guarantee that Evernight would visit his bedroom. He was a man who had declared he wouldn’t look at any heir. Now that he had learned of this fact, how would he react…
Though more than half was vague fear and anxiety, nevertheless a small unavoidable hope peeked its face out.
‘He won’t tell me to get rid of the child I already have. He’s not so… heartless.’
Even as he thought this, the face that had sharply drawn a line at the Eos Castle banquet came to mind, and his mood instantly sank.
‘No. Even after learning of my pregnancy, he waited for me like this.’
As evidence, both Sisou and Buppu seemed unaware of Anya’s pregnancy. His belly would gradually swell, and it wasn’t something he could hide forever. Rather, he was fortunate that he had learned of it this way.
I don’t have to be anxious anymore.
Anya gently placed his hand over his belly. He couldn’t feel any fetal movement yet. The healer had said the baby’s heart was weak… he’d been so absorbed in only the matters that had befallen him that it felt like he hadn’t properly cared for the baby, making his nose sting.
‘Perhaps I too… just wished you would simply cease to matter.’
With that thought, his heart became so heavy he couldn’t bear it.
“Do as you please.”
After whispering among themselves, the sentries finally gave their permission. Anya leaned against the wall at a distance from them.
“Everyone, you may go now. I can wait alone. Since there are soldiers here, this place doesn’t seem particularly dan, dangerous.”
Anya leaned against the cold wall and clasped his two hands together. The hands he unconsciously looked down at were a mess. Just a few months ago, when leaving this place, his hands, while not soft, hadn’t been covered in scars and burn marks like now.
“Don’t you know? That cannot be done. Buppu, you go and attend to your duties. I will guard His Highness’s side.”
Sisou simply plopped down beside him, crossed his arms, and settled in. Anya didn’t add any more words, as if he’d known Sisou would do that. He felt indebted to him. And Anya knew that feeling of debt better than anyone. No matter how much he said, that knight with such a strong sense of responsibility wouldn’t listen to him.
“Then, my lady. I shall return to the castle to tidy the bedroom and prepare dinner.”
Buppu keenly noticed that his guidance duties had concluded here. He’d been more than a little worried seeing how bad things seemed between the Tildyen couple. However, judging from Evernight’s attitude over the past few days, when he learned that Anya had rushed to his spouse as soon as he woke up, even that cynical lord of the North would surely be pleased. Though it was regrettable he couldn’t witness it with his own eyes, for now it was far more beneficial to return to the annex and help with the convenience of the master couple who would soon return.
“Thank you for, for guiding me.”
Buppu bowed deeply as he spoke.
“The rain has brought the temperature down quite a bit, so please return before nightfall. Extended outings aren’t very good for recovery.”
Anya nodded at the kind and gentle advice.
How much time had passed? The sentries fidgeted, feeling restless. As the sunset spread vivid crimson over the world beyond the railing, the rain began to gradually thin.
“The meeting is taking unbelievably long. His Majesty the Emperor didn’t seem that way, but he must talk a lot.”
As servants busily moved about preparing the evening meal and torches, Sisou stretched long.
“How is your body? It would be best not to overdo it.”
Oh my, your complexion already doesn’t look good. Sisou spoke while examining Anya’s face, which had turned slightly pale.
“If you return to the annex first, I will escort the commander and visit His Highness’s bedroom.”
Perhaps that would be better. Since the hunting festival that day, besides his physical discomfort, everything had been confusing. After losing consciousness, he could no longer hear Dragcals’s voice. That capricious spirit always appeared as it pleased, so this time, as soon as his body recovered, Anya intended to forcibly summon Dragcals first. He needed to become closer to it. To do that, he would have to be very, very far from Eos Castle. That spirit’s body was, after all, tremendously massive.
‘Moreover, that demon beast and the ghoul horde… and the assassins in black iron masks who pursued Bluoa and me…’
In all the incidents that had struck at once, there seemed to be no particular common thread at all. Above all, the baby that had come at this time. That was what made Anya struggle the most.
Anya ran his hand over his face, scraped and scratched in various places and covered with cloth. Was lying in bed and sleeping really the best choice, as Sisou had said?
‘No. I would have only had nightmares anyway. There’s nothing in the world that can be solved on top of a bed.’
Wasn’t that what he’d done plenty of during his half-wit prince days?
Though he endlessly rationalized himself that way, in truth… he had wanted to see Evernight. It seemed like he could easily quell this confusion with those strong arms.
‘Am I still so lacking that I want to rely on him, who is more of an adult?’
No. In truth, when he opened his eyes from that long sleep, he had desperately hoped he would be by his side. To miss him. That man who despised him and openly disliked him, since when had he…
‘I… kept recalling him.’
Though he had condemned Royster as a cowardly liar, perhaps the liar was Anya himself. He kept harboring vain expectations that the touch that had caressed him in his dreams might have been Evernight.
“Hah…”
A self-deprecating sigh finally burst from Anya’s lips. Ever since becoming aware of the fetus in his belly, his feelings toward him had fluctuated to a bewildering degree.
“This won’t do. I’ll escort you!”
Just as Sisou, misunderstanding Anya’s condition, bolted upright, the tightly closed iron door finally creaked open. The first to emerge was Emperor Luksus. Emperor Luksus, receiving the sentries’ greetings, stopped at the sight of two figures standing in the distance. Anya bowed to the man who was his father yet the most unfamiliar person in the world.
“Anya, my son! What brings you here? Are your injuries all right?”
Emperor Luksus inquired after his well-being while examining Anya’s complexion.
So he too was someone who could ask after his son’s well-being so affectionately. Since this was the first time having such a normal father-son conversation with him, Anya could only feel bewildered.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m, I’m fine.”
“You couldn’t have come to see me.”
A deep smile spread across Emperor Luksus’s face. Though he’d tried so hard to change, his father’s existence still only filled him with fear.
“I have something to say to my, my husband…”
Saying this, Luksus burst into laughter and called out loudly for Evernight. Somehow it felt like he’d become a childish son whining to his father while being an outsider who’d married out, and embarrassment rippled across Anya’s face.
Evernight, who ducked his head slightly to exit the council chamber due to his height exceeding the iron door, discovered Anya standing in front of the door, his eyes widening briefly before quickly returning to expressionlessness. Anya could feel him examining him from head to toe with a somewhat stiff face.
“That your partner rushed here first thing upon opening his eyes, I was worried since it was a political marriage, but I can rest easy now.”
A lie. Everyone present thought so, yet they all skillfully hid their expressions. Luksus wore a face where satisfaction hadn’t faded, seemingly pleased with the meeting’s results. After praising Anya’s achievements at the hunting festival, he stepped aside. The empire’s dukes followed behind him in a line, whistling quietly.
“May I cite you two as a successful case of political marriage from now on?”
Rohan tapped Evernight’s shoulder and winked at Anya. Evernight let out a cold sneer and, without even responding to Rohan’s joke, kept his gaze fixed on Anya.
“What is it?”
“I have something to say…”
Though it was a face he’d seen just a few days ago, it felt distant, as if he hadn’t seen it for quite a long time. Evernight glanced into the council chamber, then soon moved his steps.
“Follow me.”
Evernight’s stride was so fast that Anya had to practically run to follow him. Since his body hadn’t fully healed yet, the area around his ribs ached dully with each step. When his panting grew louder, Evernight stopped his heavy knight’s gait before long. Anya bumped his nose right into his back.
“My lord, the thing is…”
Anya quietly lowered his voice, paying attention to Sisou’s footsteps following without showing any sign of pain, and the murmuring voices suggesting whether someone still remained in the council chamber.
“May we talk somewhere else for a mo, moment instead of here?”
“No. We’ll do it here.”
Evernight let out a sigh tinged with faint irritation and leaned his arm on the railing. Perhaps because of the long meeting, his nerves were somewhat on edge.
“Did the, the meeting end well?”
Anya asked carefully while gauging Evernight’s mood. He looked down at his young partner, whose body was still not whole, with slightly downcast eyes.
“Did you… come all the way here in that condition just to know such trivial things?”
Anya’s cheek still had scrapes on it, and seeing how he walked, the healer’s words about displaced ribs were indeed not wrong. Imagining the foolish sight of him having walked here like that made a hollow laugh escape.
While imagining cleanly cutting off the neck of the Emperor who had just been going on about political marriages and such, Evernight swallowed the rising irritation.
“N, no. I… have something to, to tell you, my lord…”
A red hue spread over his pale face. It wasn’t such a romantic blush.
It was because a trace of shame suddenly rushed over him for having run here alone full of anticipation when the other person was so cold.
“Anya.”
Evernight’s thick black eyelashes, which had created shadows below his eyes like a curtain, lifted to reveal his piercing eyes. It was a strange color that made one’s heart tingle just from looking at it. Everyone whispered that they were hideous eyes resembling demon beasts, but Anya had never thought so from the beginning.
“…Yes.”
Before he knew it, he found himself imagining what color the eyes of the child to be born might be. Since mine are dark brown… perhaps the blue will become a bit lighter. That would be somewhat disappointing, and so on.
Finding himself pathetic for a moment, Anya covered his heating cheeks with both hands.
He could see the red lips, vividly contrasting with the blue, slowly opening. Anya harbored faint expectations in his heart, without even knowing what words the voice emerging from that gap might convey. Though he clearly knew the outcome vaguely, he absolutely couldn’t give up hope.
O gods, perhaps he too…
