“If you’re curious about anything, ask.”
After all the schedules were finished and we returned to the room, His Highness spoke. My heart skipped a beat at his words, filled with certainty that I would have questions.
“Has your insomnia improved much lately?”
There were many things I was curious about, but this was the only question I could voice out loud right now. It would be far too presumptuous for a mere guard knight to be curious about His Highness’s engagement, and I was afraid of being caught harboring improper thoughts toward His Highness.
“Why are you asking that when we lie down and sleep in the same bed every day?”
His gentle smile seemed to question whether what I was really curious about wasn’t something else.
“Even when you seem to be sleeping, you often aren’t. You open your eyes whenever I move even slightly……”
Before I could even finish speaking, His Highness let out a low laugh as if he had heard something very amusing.
“No. Thanks to you, I’m sleeping very well. Waking up is, well. It’s just my body reacting because you moved.”
“Pardon?”
“My body is just reacting in case you try to run away. So there’s no need to worry.”
His Highness paused briefly, then looked directly into my eyes. Then, as if casting a spell, he continued very slowly.
“You won’t run away and leave me. Right?”
I was at a loss for words. It hadn’t even been long since I had resolved to leave His Highness’s side, yet this person seemed to see right through everything. By the time I realized I hadn’t answered immediately, His Highness’s eyes had already darkened.
“I am Your Highness’s guard knight. Even if it means death, I will not run away, and I will remain by your side unless you order me to leave.”
“That’s not it.”
I thought I had given the textbook answer, but it seemed His Highness didn’t think so. Rather, he appeared even less able to control his emotions than before I answered.
“No. You cannot escape even through death.”
Only after hearing that declaration did I realize I had misspoken. In my haste to make excuses, I had touched His Highness’s reverse scale. The moment I licked my lips, which had gone dry with tension, His Highness’s terrifyingly distorted expression softened as if nothing had happened.
“To say such things even after seeing me embrace a corpse, you’re so naive.”
His Highness lightly tapped my stiffly frozen cheek with his index finger. Only then did I gasp for breath as if released from a curse.
“At this rate, it seems you’ll never ask what you’re curious about for the rest of your life, so I’ll speak first. The engagement with Serina was made with the premise of breaking it off from the start. The timing was set for when I completely pushed aside the Second Prince.”
“But, wasn’t there a rumor that Your Highness cherished the Lady very much?”
It might not have been romantic love, but His Highness particularly cherished Lady Serina. Not just me, but everyone thought so.
“Because it was necessary.”
However, His Highness’s attitude now was utterly resolute.
“When I had to decide on an engagement partner, I met with Serina in secret and discussed it. Since then, I’ve never brought up that conversation or shown any sign of it. That way, people wouldn’t have suspicions, and indeed, most moved according to my thoughts.”
I had heard shocking news, yet my heart was strangely calm. The emotions I felt when I heard about the broken engagement were so overwhelming that I seemed numb now.
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this story.”
“Because you were curious.”
It was always like this when conversing with His Highness. I was afraid of him, who sharply penetrated even the vital points I wasn’t aware of.
“No. To be a bit more honest, I wanted you to know. I have experience with actions I took to handle things perfectly ultimately becoming poison.”
His Highness continued speaking slowly and softly as if soothing a child. My tension slowly eased at his appearance of trying to be affectionate.
“That’s to say you don’t need to make such a frightened face.”
From the moment I met him, there was never a moment I didn’t love him, but at the same time, there was never a moment I wasn’t afraid either. I hadn’t revealed this inner truth, but His Highness had known all along.
“I’m deeply sorry.”
“There’s no need for that either.”
One who knows everything soothes the ignorant. Sometimes this ignorance felt like a heavy sin, and right now was one of those times.
“Let’s sleep now. My body feels a bit heavy.”
Since this person who rarely mentioned himself said so directly that his body felt heavy, all my previous thoughts flew away and worry came first. His Highness, a born knight, was someone who would head to the battlefield acting as if nothing was wrong even when seriously injured, so my heart couldn’t help but sink.
“Wouldn’t it be better to call a priest or physician?”
“There’s no need for that. I’ll get better quickly if I sleep well. So hurry and lie down.”
When he said this much, I couldn’t hesitate. Though I still couldn’t get used to sharing a bed, His Highness lying next to me today was especially unfamiliar. He seemed hotter than usual, and the faint pheromones flowing out made him seem truly exhausted.
“You seem to wake frequently these days, so you should sleep soundly too.”
“Yes.”
My body slowly sank down as if to follow His Highness’s affectionate command. When we first started sharing a bed, there were many nights I stayed awake with my eyes open, but now I fell asleep quickly. It was truly strange when my tension hadn’t even eased.
“I should put a leash on you after all.”
Even as my consciousness grew hazy, His Highness’s words remained in my ears. However, the sleep demon pulling at my consciousness was too strong to understand that content. It was as if I had taken sleeping pills.
* * *
I opened my heavy eyelids because it was excessively hot beside me. Since it couldn’t get this hot just from the sun coming in, I came to my senses with a start.
“What is it?”
However, when I actually opened my eyes, the room itself wasn’t particularly different from when I had fallen asleep. The only slight difference was that His Highness, who usually slept on his side, was embracing me. From the moment I recognized that, my heart beat like crazy.
‘His Highness was embracing me like this and I was just sleeping like a fool?’
Setting aside how embarrassing it was that I had become dull enough not to notice such a presence, the fact that His Highness’s nose bridge was touching my arm felt so unreal. I was breathless at the beautiful face revealed between the blonde hair shining in the sunlight. I was admiring how no word in this world could describe this person’s beauty when it happened.
“Your Highness?”
I belatedly realized that heat as hot as fire could be felt from His Highness’s body. Though he originally ran hot, this temperature was abnormal.
‘He said his body felt heavy yesterday, so he really isn’t feeling well, is he?’
I pushed away His Highness’s arm, which was heavier than it looked, and got up from the bed. At the rough movement, the eyes of the knights guarding the bedroom sharpened.
“A physician, no, a priest… Please call some…”
When I urgently opened my mouth to ask for help, my voice trembled miserably. I couldn’t even complete that because His Highness reached out his arm and laid me back down on the bed. I couldn’t resist the sudden force and ended up in His Highness’s embrace just like that.
“I said there’s no need for that.”
A low, rough voice stopped me.
“Your Highness, your body is too hot right now. If we leave it like this, something could go wrong with your body.”
Of course, I knew that with the Imperial Family’s divine power, His Highness wouldn’t be in a life-threatening situation, yet I couldn’t help but become anxious. But having thought this far, I suddenly felt something was strange.
“I’m not sick.”
His Highness hadn’t suffered from colds, pneumonia, or any other illnesses since perfectly inheriting the Imperial Family’s divine power.
“Don’t tell me……”
His Highness’s pheromones poured over me, who was defenseless. A breathtakingly sweet scent rushed at me violently. My breathing stopped at the excessive pheromones that felt bitter beyond sweet.
“It seems my rut started earlier than scheduled.”
Contrary to his languid voice, His Highness’s eyes were rippling with desire. For Tienas, who had always stood outside the door when His Highness’s rut came, it was a blatant and violent lust he had never seen before.
