For the person involved, being killed in one blow like that could have been better than being tortured. But from a spectator’s standpoint, it was absolutely not.
‘To kill him in one blow like that without a trial or consultation with his family.’
An attendant who could enter and exit the Crown Prince’s chambers was a young master from a quite famous noble family. In other words, it meant there was room for backlash. Yet he had been executed immediately without such calculations. If His Highness had already ascended to the emperor’s throne, the story would be different, but he was still only the Crown Prince.
‘I know it was an act worthy of execution anyway.’
Still, not following procedure must contain a different meaning. Probably, it was a kind of warning. By the time I swallowed dry saliva, the corpse had already been carried out the door.
“Your Highness, shouldn’t you have killed him after finding out who was behind this…?”
“The mastermind is obvious.”
His Highness, who answered the aide like that, momentarily couldn’t hide eyes burning with hatred. It was something filled purely with malice, incomparable to the love-hate emotions he had shown when thinking of Tiel.
His Highness, who briefly closed his eyes, gathered up the violently raging emotions and gently stroked my cheek. It was as if he was finding stability through that process.
“You weren’t startled, were you?”
“Not at all.”
I wasn’t even raised delicately, and I had seen countless people die, so there was no way I’d be startled by just that. I was only a little surprised that a summary execution had been carried out without trial.
“I see. Then let’s resume the meal.”
“Pardon?”
However, no matter how much it was me, I couldn’t help but be surprised by the next words. It wasn’t even that an assassin had burst in—His Highness had eaten poisoned food during a meal, yet we had to continue the meal, which felt bizarre.
“You’ll have to get used to things like this for a while. You can act as if nothing happened without being shaken. I’ll make it that way.”
His Highness explained gently, as if soothing a very timid child. The attendants cleared away the corpse and food was brought in again as if nothing had happened. It felt like watching a play.
His Highness checked whether the food brought out this time also had poison, just like before. I tried to stop him, thinking the person who had just consumed poison shouldn’t do this, but His Highness, who noticed this, beat me to it.
“Now you understand why I taste it first?”
“If you do that and poison that truly threatens Your Highness’s health appears, what will you do? If someone must taste it first, I should…”
“No.”
My words were cut off before they could even be tied up.
“If such poison existed, I would have been destined to die even before being born.”
The utterly resolute attitude was bitter. Perhaps I felt that way because I knew well that despite being born with the divine power to not die easily after receiving a blessing, he had lived his entire life with his life being threatened.
“The fact that I’m alive now means there’s no way to kill me at present.”
His Highness asserted that he wouldn’t die until the divine power was inherited.
“So you just need to find a way for you to survive.”
Food that His Highness had personally scooped up suddenly entered my mouth. Thanks to that, it was fortunate I didn’t have to answer.
* * *
In the imperial palace, the love of someone in power becomes both power and poison. This was even more so because His Highness had never shown weakness until now. Moreover, His Highness didn’t particularly hide his relationship with me. More precisely, it seemed like he was trying to let as many people know as possible.
“Tomorrow at the hunting competition, we’ll attend together.”
“Ah, of course.”
“Not as a guard knight. You’ll just need to stand by my side at the opening ceremony, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
My body stiffened. Though he spoke as if it were a simple matter, I wasn’t foolish enough to not understand the meaning of asking me to be by his side at the hunting competition.
‘Moreover, at this hunting competition… he’s supposed to announce the broken engagement.’
Then naturally, people would think I, standing beside His Highness, would take that position. Though it hadn’t been officially announced, I could naturally picture a future where rumors of being the next fiancé would spread.
“Your Highness… wouldn’t that be excessive?”
Though I didn’t dare want to object, there was no way to take back the words that had burst out. Of course, it was common for those in power to change their minds frequently and it wasn’t particularly a flaw, but with the deadline set until the coronation ceremony, there was no reason to make such a big deal of things.
“I couldn’t show my heart to Tiel or to people.”
His Highness made a confession that felt somewhat out of the blue. It was difficult to gauge exactly how great that ‘heart’ was, but at least I now knew it was based on affection. So I didn’t foolishly interrupt or ask what that had to do with me attending the hunting competition.
“I thought that was how to protect that child. But that choice ultimately killed Tiel.”
The corners of His Highness’s eyes drooped down, and his pupils wandered in the air as if ruminating on the past. My heart throbbed at His Highness’s weak appearance, which he had never shown to anyone. My foolish choice, the decision I had thought was best at the time, had ruined His Highness like this.
‘It’s my fault.’
Even if my heart became rags, even if I lost my usefulness and was abandoned, I should have stayed by his side. If I had been afraid of harming His Highness, I could have punished myself after such a thing happened.
‘Sometimes ignorance is also a sin. If I had been just a little quicker-witted and wiser, could I have known His Highness’s heart?’
It probably would have been difficult since I had stamped it as impossible. Moreover, even more so when I thought of myself who, despite having gained a new life, still couldn’t confess the truth and only thought of running away. Perhaps even now, I was trying to take the easy path under the excuse of being for His Highness’s sake.
As I was burying my head in such deep despair, His Highness lightly tapped my cheek. The weak appearance had disappeared, but it was a face where sadness hadn’t been completely erased.
“So this time, I’ll express myself to you to my heart’s content, show everyone, and protect you. Fortunately, the situation is better than back then. Will you let me do that?”
It was a tone suggesting I could choose.
‘If this is a necessary process to heal His Highness’s wounds…’
Playing along with a performance that would soon end wasn’t a terribly difficult thing either.
“Yes. I will also try to protect myself.”
“Yes. That’s a good attitude.”
Finally, the sadness disappeared from His Highness’s eyes. That alone opened up my breathing. However, in less than a day, I realized that this choice was something that required considerable resolve.
* * *
“Aila-nim, I am the attendant Shane. May I help you prepare your attire?”
“Attire preparation? I plan to wear my knight’s uniform, so there’s no need for help.”
“That’s absurd…! Ahem, ahem. Aila-nim, you’re not attending this hunting competition as a knight but as His Highness’s fiancé. Attending in uniform is out of the question.”
Fiancé. My head went blank as the expression I had tried hard not to think about burst from the attendant’s mouth.
“If you had told me earlier, I would have prepared many better clothes, but for now I’ve prepared the finest quality among what we can procure right now.”
I hadn’t even answered to ask for help, but clothes came flooding in. It was such a large amount that I wondered if they had brought an entire wardrobe.
“In my opinion, how about these white clothes with gold decorations? There’s a ruby in the middle that will double the elegance. At the same time, it won’t look too flashy on the outside, so it will also clearly show your background as a knight.”
Shane held out an outfit with a flushed face. As he said, the shape of the clothes wasn’t much different from those of knights, but the problem was the accessories attached to it.
‘Too flashy.’
Though the Sayus Family was wealthy, they valued frugality, so I had never worn such flashy clothes. No, even if there were any, they were absolutely not clothes I could ever lay my hands on.
‘Unless His Highness were wearing them…’
However, the hesitation couldn’t continue long. Shane pressed the clothes into my hands and urged me to try them on quickly. The best I could do was stop him from helping me dress.
“They suit you so well. Oh my, how dazzling.”
“Then I’ll go with these clothes…”
“Ah, but that outfit is also hard to give up. Would you try this one on too?”
Like that, I had to change clothes fifteen times before His Highness returned. Moreover, at first there was only Shane helping, but as time went on, more attendants joined in with their opinions. After being tormented for quite a while, I was moved to tears of joy when His Highness returned to the room after finishing work.
“Are you choosing clothes to wear tomorrow?”
But contrary to my wishes, His Highness didn’t rescue me.
“It seems too flashy.”
Rather, he made things bigger.
