I pondered carefully what matter could bring three people at the same time. The first thing that came to mind was something related to the family, but then that wouldn’t explain why Sister Jane came along. After her marriage, Sister had always focused on performing her role as the duchess in public settings. Though no one forgot that Sayus was always behind her, it was certain she had drawn a faint yet clear line.
‘Then what on earth is this about?’
His Highness opened his mouth leisurely as if to resolve my curiosity.
“Right. They said they came because they have something to give.”
“Yes. I offer my apologies once more for visiting even knowing you must be tired, having just returned from subjugation not long ago.”
“It wasn’t a major subjugation, so there’s no need to worry so much. Sir Kaeun also went along, so I assume you’ve already received a report.”
“It was easy thanks to Your Highness accompanying us.”
Hyung-nim Kaeun deflected the credit in a somewhat awkward tone. In the situation where they were oddly only gauging each other, His Highness was the first to draw the sword.
“Rather than getting straight to the point, how about having a meal first?”
“It would be an honor.”
Hyung-nim Kaeun, who didn’t know how to beat around the bush, seemed to want to bring up the matter right away, but made a face trying hard to hold back. Hyung-nim Darian and Sister Jane, who were skilled at such matters, organized the situation, and soon after, the meal was brought in. I stayed quietly between them like a borrowed cat. My goal was to be as inconspicuous as possible. Of course, that was my goal, not His Highness’s, so nothing was achieved.
“Everyone eat comfortably.”
As those words fell, everyone began eating while maintaining etiquette. Those elegant gestures stopped solely because of His Highness’s actions. They saw him push food toward me after having it tested for poison. At first, thinking he was merely pushing food over, they seemed to view us as foolish lovers who hadn’t been together long, but as this continued, they seemed to have grasped the situation. Only then did I realize that while this situation was familiar to me and the bedroom servants, it wasn’t to others.
‘Ah, have I adapted too much? Even if I’m hungry, I couldn’t even consider how this would look to others.’
But I couldn’t tell His Highness not to do so. Not only because it was already too late since they’d seen it, but that wasn’t the only reason.
‘Because it’s all for my sake.’
It was ironic that what was for my sake was immediately for His Highness’s sake. I decided to take comfort in the fact that at least he didn’t show the appearance of feeding me like a mother bird feeding her young.
“The checks must already be serious. There’s nothing wrong with being careful.”
The first to come to his senses was Hyung-nim Darian. He immediately realized the reason for poison testing.
“Quite an astute response.”
“Not at all. I was merely admiring Your Highness’s wisdom.”
His Highness, who seemed quite displeased, rinsed his mouth with water before trying to eat other food. Seeing some tension in his throat, it didn’t seem like he particularly wanted to eat it either.
“What’s in front of me is sufficient.”
When I quietly declined, His Highness told me to eat the available food diligently rather than recommending other things. Hyung-nim Kaeun blatantly stared at me and His Highness, but I couldn’t understand his thoughts at all. Seeing him unable to grasp the situation, I thought that perhaps he didn’t even know he was sending such looks.
“Eat slowly.”
As expected, His Highness, who didn’t continue the meal any further, only watched me eat. Implicitly, as the meal of the person of high status ended, everyone soon followed and put down their utensils. Since they all hadn’t come to eat anyway, their hearts seemed busy. Coincidentally, I had also eaten diligently as His Highness gave me, so my stomach was sufficiently full and I finished the meal not long after.
His Highness didn’t seem satisfied with my meal quantity, but without any particular comment, he got straight to the point.
“So what is this item you brought so urgently?”
“We intercepted an item the Arsein family was secretly sending to the Tesaha family. Though we haven’t confirmed the contents yet, we thought it might be helpful and brought it. Since it was being sent in utmost secrecy, there’s a high possibility it’s related to schemes they plan to devise in the future.”
Though it was an unexpected answer, the situation became clear. If it was related to the Arsein family, the Empress’s original family, it made sense why they brought it so urgently, and I understood why they chose a somewhat private setting rather than a public one. However, suspicion remained that it would have been cleaner for just Hyung-nim Darian to visit secretly.
‘Did they want to send a signal to reconcile with this?’
I came up with one hypothesis. It was an established fact that the Crown Prince and the Sayus family had been at odds recently. I thought they might have all come from the family to make up for that. A kind of submission signal.
‘Then what reason is there for me to be by His Highness’s side? Was it really simply to share a meal together?’
As I swallowed my curiosity inwardly, His Highness gave a leisurely answer.
“Right. Then let’s open that envelope while having tea.”
His tone was so relaxed that he seemed either not particularly curious about the contents, or looked as if he already knew what was inside. His Highness was always like this, never anxious, so he always seemed omnipotent.
“Yes. We’ll do so.”
Soon, the servants cleanly cleared the table and were bringing tea when it happened. A flash signaling the start of a prophecy rushed in.
‘What could there be that would warrant a prophecy? Will it be an ordinary prophecy like last time?’
I surveyed my surroundings in a somewhat off-guard state. Nothing had changed much from just before, and I saw Hyung-nim Darian lightly shaking the envelope.
‘It must be the scene right after.’
From the envelope came a sound like something rattling inside. It seemed there were other items along with documents.
[I’ll open it.]
And the moment the envelope’s seal was opened, an explosion suddenly occurred with a loud roar. I reflexively tried to step forward to protect people. His Highness, who had read even that sign, strongly pulled me into his embrace and rolled on the floor to get as far away from the explosive as possible.
‘This can’t be.’
Some avoided the crisis, but those holding the envelope couldn’t. After the smoke cleared, terrible wounds remained on Hyung-nim Darian’s body. Others whose reactions were somewhat slow were also injured in various places. I hurriedly checked if His Highness was okay. Fortunately, no major injuries were visible.
Perhaps because my biggest worry was relieved, the prophecy ended quickly. I immediately realized the cause of what happened in the prophecy. It was clear that magic had been placed on the envelope so that an explosion would occur if it wasn’t opened by an authorized person or if the seal wasn’t opened with a special tool.
‘But if it’s the Sayus family, they would have checked that much beforehand. Is it such powerful magic that it can’t be detected?’
Hyung-nim was already quite cautious, so I couldn’t believe he’d made such a mistake. Perhaps he’d been a bit careless because there had been too much going on recently.
‘If I’d seen the prophecy a little earlier, I would have quietly tipped off Sir Ken to suggest getting confirmation from the imperial palace mage once more.’
However, regrettably, Hyung-nim had already taken out the envelope and was shaking it.
Having moved quickly, His Highness and I had a high possibility of being safe. Recalling that there were no major wounds in the prophecy, even if there were injuries they would be scratches, so it might be better to pretend not to know for now.
“I’ll open it.”
But the moment I heard the words from the prophecy fall, I stopped racking my brain and ended up shouting.
“Wait a moment!”
When someone who had been quietly silent made a loud noise, everyone’s attention focused on me. As I drew attention, cold sweat ran down my back. I tried to organize words to explain my impulsive action.
“Just in case, how about first getting confirmation from the imperial palace mage that it’s safe?”
The words I would utter didn’t change much regardless of when I knew. However, I’d hoped that His Highness and the people of the Sayus family wouldn’t know I’d made such a prediction, but I couldn’t just let those I could save get injured for that reason. At my words, the reception room became very quiet.
“Why?”
The one who broke that ambiguous silence was Hyung-nim Darian.
“Couldn’t there be dangerous magic placed on it? Of course, you might have checked beforehand, Your Grace, but it would be better to get confirmation once more in front of His Highness.”
The moment I uttered those words, the faces of the Sayus family people were colored with shock. An intuition that I’d made some mistake raced through my entire body.
