# Chapter 14
The situation had become even more difficult.
Regardless of what Devan’s role was or how much he had found out, as long as he was positioned as a threat to Kadilen, a collision between the two was inevitable. If I disclosed Devan’s plans to protect Kadilen, I would also be giving Kadilen the opportunity to harm him. Depending on my actions, one of them was bound to get hurt.
Whether I wanted it or not, the two would definitely meet, and I would have to make a choice. In this situation, having carelessly developed feelings for him was a very troublesome thing. Blaming myself, I recalled Devan’s actions. What kind of relationship did Ludin and he have? One thing was certain—it wasn’t very deep. If it had been, I wouldn’t even have been able to convince him that I had forgotten him. But there were too many uncomfortable aspects to claim nothing had happened between them.
‘We had some fun together.’
‘You’re lying about not remembering me, aren’t you?’
‘And yet, you’ve still brought along your old growth from the past days.’
I gathered statements that could serve as clues. I guessed that Ludin had done something with him that wouldn’t be easy to forget. ‘The old growth’ must have also been referring to Devan.
I needed to hear his story. Everything from his mission to monitor Kadilen to his past with Ludin. Though he went around smiling casually as if everything was easy, I knew he wasn’t an opponent to be taken lightly. To get what I wanted to hear, I needed to approach strategically, putting aside my feelings for him for now.
“I will inform Devan. He’ll be surprised to know that you’ve taken such an active role. I hope you’ll rekindle your former self and be of help to me.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I will do my best. May I deliver the news to Devan myself? There are many developments to discuss…”
“Ah, of course.”
Zendal nodded. He seemed surprised by my approach but couldn’t hide his joy. It was natural—his son, whom he thought was completely insane, had voluntarily offered to act as his subject according to his wishes. However, I had to be wary of his growing hopes. Although I had made it clear that I would stay only in this position, Zendal, having seen the possibility, might try to make me his successor again.
How had Ludin planned his end? It was easy to guess now that I understood his position piece by piece. He probably intended to make it look like he had gotten himself killed by causing trouble. With his dishonorable death, the possibility of his secret being discovered would be buried forever in the grave. My own end would likely be no different.
After saying goodbye to Zendal, I set out to find Devan. I realized I didn’t know which room he was staying in. He had been following me around since the moment we first met, so I hadn’t thought about it, but now that I was actively looking for him, I knew nothing about him. Even when I grabbed passing servants and asked, the only answer I got was that they didn’t know. Changing people and repeating the question, still no one knew his location.
After wandering for a while, I became short of breath. Since reducing my dosage to save medicine, fatigue didn’t easily fade away. Though I had only been walking slowly around the palace, my head was spinning, and my breathing was labored as if I had run a long distance at full speed. As I leaned against a wall to catch my breath, a nearby maid approached, looking alarmed.
“Are you alright?”
Too exhausted to say I was fine, I just waved my hand. She stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Finding her concern burdensome and feeling disoriented, I waved my hand more forcefully, and the maid moved away from me with a worried face.
“It’s been a while, Brother.”
But the palace wouldn’t leave me alone. At the word ‘Brother,’ my relaxed body tensed up. It was Luan. Before I could decide how to greet him, my body, which had been leaning against the wall, lost its strength, and I slid down to the floor.
“Brother…?”
With an irritated expression, I grabbed onto anything I could to stand back up. Luan, flustered, reached out his hand to me. Though reluctant, I needed support and took his hand. Having successfully managed to stand with his support, I carefully composed my expression.
“It’s been a while.”
“Are you unwell somewhere…?”
“I just enjoyed the banquet a bit too much yesterday.”
He was also someone I needed to be as cautious with as Zendal. Although the relationship between the brothers wasn’t good, having grown up together as family, he would instinctively know things about Ludin. There was no benefit in arousing suspicion. Moreover, I had just planted a seed of hope in Zendal. If I wasn’t careful, it could be misunderstood that I was after his position again.
“You should cut down on the alcohol now.”
Luan sighed. I looked at his face, which resembled Ludin’s. They shared many features, but his impression was gentler and rounder. Compared to Ludin, who had grown thin from illness, he had an appropriate amount of flesh, looking healthy and sturdy. Though none of this was his fault, I found myself identifying with Ludin’s emotions and my attitude toward him became curt.
“Now that I’ve come down from the mountain, I should be able to enjoy this much.”
“But if it’s to the extent that you can’t even stand properly…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
At my irritated reply, he quietly closed his mouth. An awkward silence flowed, and as I was pulling myself together and about to set out to find Devan again, I saw him approaching from the far end of the corridor. Nice!
“Devan!”
He squinted his eyes as he walked toward me, seeming slightly suspicious of my welcoming voice. I hurriedly released Luan’s hand, which I had been holding to support myself. It would look too strange to Devan, after all.
“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for ages.”
“What’s this…”
He raised his eyebrows and looked at me suspiciously at my proactive attitude. Luan was showing a noticeably uncomfortable expression at Devan’s appearance. It seemed Devan wasn’t exactly in a welcomed position here either. It looked like everyone appropriately avoided him, being merely a useful subject to the king and a magician by status.
“You were looking for me?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“Your bedroom!”
Devan now folded his arms and looked down at me as if gauging the situation. Luan, making no secret of his displeasure, looked Devan up and down, then gave me a slight bow before walking in the opposite direction. Relieved that my uncomfortably awkward fake brother was moving away, I didn’t take my eyes off him until he was completely gone. After confirming that Luan had disappeared around the corner, I turned my head back to find Devan staring at me intently with a subtle look.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“So you want to go to my bedroom.”
“Yeah. Where are you staying, anyway? No one seems to know.”
“You were trying to find my room to come to me…”
“That’s what I said.”
I answered impatiently, frustrated by him standing motionless and repeating my words. Devan, with a peculiar expression, seemed lost in thought before he finally started to move at my tugging hand.
His room was underground. It was a dark room with few people around and not even a window. No wonder no one knew. Having already dark hair and black eyes, he preferred to wear black clothes and stayed in a dark room without a single ray of light. It was hard to understand how he could be so full of laughter and joy in everything.
“Wow. It seems bigger than my room.”
It was truly enormous. Though not decorated with splendid gold ornaments like Ludin’s room, it was filled with dark brown furniture, giving it a dignified impression. As soon as he opened the door, I rushed in to observe everything.
“This looks expensive.”
As I randomly opened the wardrobe and lifted the blanket, I noticed what appeared to be a valuable raw gemstone. Curiously picking it up to satisfy my interest, I suddenly turned my head to find Devan staring at me.
Looking at his face, I thought it was a good idea to come to Devan’s room to escape the awkward space with Luan. I had been searching for his room anyway, and I had many questions for him. I carefully put down the gemstone and met Devan’s inscrutable gaze.
I hadn’t deliberately formulated a strategy yet, but there was a way to make him talk. Getting the truth out of Jiman had been really easy, but… though difficult, if I didn’t accomplish it now, I might never have another chance. I composed myself and recalled what I needed to find out from him: Devan’s past with Ludin, and how much Devan knew about Kadilen’s rebellion. I clenched my fist with determination.
I stood before him, slowly curving the corners of my eyes. It was the most affectionate smile I could manage.
“I remembered you.”
Please work. Though doing something so unlike me gave me goosebumps, there was no time to be embarrassed. I planned to pretend I somewhat remembered and try to extract detailed information.
His gaze changed slightly as he looked at me. Did he fall for it?
“You… remembered?”
“Not everything, just a little. Seeing you constantly, it’s coming back to me. We had fun, didn’t we?”
Now his eyes were sparkling. Momentarily flustered by his inscrutable gaze, he moved very close to me. Devan’s warm hand suddenly caressed the back of my neck.
“How much?”
“Not a lot…”
Now his hand was ruffling my hair. The increasingly close distance automatically made my breath stop. With a languid smile, he tilted his head toward me and lowered his gaze to look at my lips.
“Do you remember this too?”
Time seemed to flow slowly, as if frozen. I felt a warm heat rising wherever his gaze touched. Devan lifted me up from my frozen state and strode over to lay me on his bed. How far should I pretend to know? My mind was rigid with tension, making it difficult to think clearly. If I waited a little longer, it seemed like the words I wanted would come from his lips, but it wasn’t easy to stay still in such an unexpected situation.
After laying me on the bed, he came close enough for me to feel his breath and smiled at my now extremely tense expression, unlike before.
“Ludin.”
“…”
“Did you think I would fall for that?”
I was screwed. Unable to find words, I just rolled my eyeballs around. Devan laughed heartily and immediately moved away from me. Leaving me lying on the bed, frozen like a stone in a daze, he walked to a chair far away and sat down, crossing his legs. Reaching out to the table beside him, he took a cup and drank a little of some unknown liquid.
“Let’s hear it then. What do you want to know?”
Should I just ask directly since I’ve already failed anyway? It wasn’t actually a bad approach. The only issue was that I had no faith he would tell me the truth.
“Will you really answer everything I ask?”
“Well, maybe a few questions?”
He laughed at my sigh and looked amused.
“Your behavior makes me even more curious.”
My head was spinning as I assessed the situation. I tried to gauge which would more successfully elicit the answers I wanted: questions about his past with Ludin or information about Kadilen. Judging by his reaction when I accidentally mentioned Kadilen while drunk, asking about his past with Ludin seemed to have a higher success rate.
Of course, now that I had become a spy by Zendal’s orders, I could demand that he hand over the information he had gathered while monitoring Kadilen. But what bothered me was precisely that slip of the tongue. That I had said what I wanted was Kadilen. It was a statement prone to misunderstanding. No, maybe there was a way to use this?
“You said you wanted Kadilen. Shall I tell you why?”
Devan’s expression, which had looked pleased at the topic I raised, sank. He remained silent, as if telling me to continue.
“I suspect him too. That’s why I was just on my way back from requesting His Majesty to give me a position to watch over him. But truthfully, I don’t intend to just observe. Is there any need to leave someone who irritates His Majesty openly residing in the mountains?”
“…”
He scrutinized my expression with sharp eyes, as if measuring the truth of my words.
“I heard you’ve been assigned as his monitor. You can’t enter the temple and only manage the exterior, but I’ve lived there for two years. I don’t know what kind of relationship we had, but if we join hands this time, we can take care of him.”
Even after I finished speaking, he didn’t particularly respond. As he sat there organizing his thoughts, I tried to hide my nervous demeanor. Concealing my trembling hands behind my back, I anxiously waited for the words that would come from his lips.
“I heard you’d given up on politics.”
“This is the last time. I also have personal grievances.”
I deliberately crafted harsh words, and I could see Devan wavering slightly. As expected, this suited me better than awkward displays of affection. To give him confidence, this time I offered him a smile.
“I need your abilities, Devan.”
After much contemplation, he looked at me and slowly nodded. I tried hard not to show an overly happy expression, but it wasn’t easy. Seeing my face brighten immediately, Devan gave a hollow laugh.
“You’re really pleased.”
“Let’s do well together.”
