In an instant, the blood in his entire body turned ice cold. The terrible sound ringing out right before him. Bluoa’s face turning deathly pale. Anya’s head turned slowly back as if making a creaking sound. The beast that had been peacefully drinking water just moments ago was now wheezing in agony. Its black pupils, constricted to their limit, looked at Anya.
It was still, fortunately, breathing. Just as Anya unconsciously tried to take a step toward the creature.
“Your Highness, don’t move!”
Once again, an arrow grazed past Anya’s ear and plunged deep into the reindeer’s heart. Before his eyes, the massive beast thrashed about, raising its front hooves threateningly toward Anya. But Anya didn’t run away, instead taking in the creature’s suffering with his eyes. His heart tingled too much to run away.
Thud! Finally, the reindeer’s body fell onto the green moss with a dull sound. Blood vessels appeared in the creature’s white pupils as they trembled, then soon the eyes rolled back. Even in its last moments, that beast did not take its eyes off Anya.
“Your Highness, I almost shot you thinking you were prey for a moment.”
It was then. Several warhorses revealed themselves through the vegetation surrounding the massive lake. Since it was still midday, the sunlight coming through the dense leaves created a huge backlight, making their figures invisible for a moment, but—
“Haha. Raniel, if you’d shot him dead, you would’ve gone down in history.”
It was a familiar voice.
“As the mad knight who killed an Imperial Prince?”
“Sir Raniel. History is always rewritten by the victors. I would describe you as a loyal and brave knight who cuts down in one stroke the trash that gets in the way of his lord.”
Royster and Raniel’s warhorses walked slowly toward Anya, stepping on the damp, moist green ground. Many attendants were following behind them.
“…Your Highness Royster.”
Bluoa looked up at him with an expression that couldn’t be more displeased.
“Sir Bluoa is here too.”
Royster glanced at Bluoa with an expression that seemed to say, why are you going around with such a half-wit, then stopped his horse near Anya. Raniel dismounted from his horse instead of Royster and walked heavily toward the reindeer’s side.
“Its body is still faintly moving. As expected of a divine beast. Isn’t that right?”
Raniel asked Anya with a grin. Then he drew a dagger and pressed it into the reindeer’s heart without hesitation. Red blood splattered across Raniel’s face. Hoo, he raised his sleeve to wipe off the blood, then gestured, and the other knights who had followed quickly began to wrap the reindeer’s corpse tightly with rope.
“My cute and pitiful little brother. You almost got shot with an arrow yourself.”
Royster’s warhorse circled around Anya, occasionally letting out rough breaths.
“Be careful. Next time, I might shoot you dead.”
The reindeer’s corpse, now completely lifeless, was mercilessly dragged away by the knights’ hands, leaving a long trail on the ground.
“Your Highness, I’ll go back to the camp.”
When obtaining such a large game, the subordinate knights or attendants would drag the results of the hunt back to the camp and stack them up neatly in the designated place. However, that didn’t mean the rankings of the hunting festival were determined by the total. No matter how much game was piled up, only the fiercest and largest one was selected to determine the rankings.
“…Couldn’t it be the other way around?”
Anya, who had been silent until now, stared at Royster and asked.
“What?”
“Hyung, I’m saying I might kill you thinking you were prey.”
At Anya’s calm words, Bluoa, who was standing nearby, let out a pfft of laughter before hurriedly covering his mouth. But his shoulders were still trembling slightly, unable to contain himself.
The laughter gradually disappeared from Royster’s face, and he dismounted and instantly grabbed Anya by the hair.
“How dare you be so impudent.”
Anya’s head snapped back sharply. Royster’s mood twisted in an instant, and he had to breathe roughly like his warhorse. Anya or Cloy—these bastards who would have crawled around unable to even speak to him before were now looking him straight in the eye and defying him, making the madness he’d barely been suppressing rise again.
“Your Highness!”
Bluoa turned serious and rushed over with a cry, but couldn’t recklessly approach Royster’s madness. Raniel burst into thick laughter and sat astride the reindeer, twirling his dagger.
“Fuck, your ass must be mighty light. I thought you were a half-wit, but you’re quite something. You have unusual talent.”
Royster glanced at Bluoa and pulled up the corners of his mouth in a fishy grin. Then he put in even more strength. It was a brutal grip that felt like all his hair would be pulled out.
“Does your husband know you act like a whore like this? I shouldn’t have just beaten you like a dog back then—I should have stripped you naked in front of everyone.”
At the highly offensive insult, Bluoa lost his words. He had guessed that Anya’s life wouldn’t have been easy, but he hadn’t known it was this bad. Moreover, Anya was pregnant. If he was treated like this, something serious could happen. What if the baby was lost? Bluoa was genuinely flustered, unlike himself.
“My Lord Duke. If you interfere any further, it won’t be good for the Shonda family either. Let’s just leisurely watch at times like this.”
The pupils inside Raniel’s helmet glinted as he warned Bluoa in a strange tone. As he said, there was nothing Bluoa could do here. No matter whose side he took, he would only lose.
“I’m f-fine, Sir Bluoa.”
Anya quickly noticed his conflict. For the first time, Bluoa truly realized that he could become very small and insignificant.
Anya grabbed Royster’s wrist and shook it off forcefully. Royster made a gah sound and staggered. Enraged, he immediately raised his hand to strike Anya’s cheek, but Anya fluidly dodged to the side. Royster stumbled forward disgracefully.
“Thank you, Hyung Royster.”
“What, fuck, what, you bastard!”
Royster, with bloodshot eyes, rushed at Anya once more. Each time, Anya lightly dodged and blocked Royster’s attacks. Royster threw his fist with all his might and ended up face-first on the ground again.
The dagger that had been playing on Raniel’s hand had stopped moving at some point, and Bluoa showed an expression of shock with his mouth covered.
“Thanks to you, Hyung, I’ve be-become serious about this hunting festival.”
Anya looked down at the fallen Royster and said. The Emperor had buried Royster’s atrocities a few days ago under the pretext of the hunting festival and equestrian tournament. In other words, he no longer needed to pay attention to him.
“The red earring…”
His unusually sunken brown eyes turned toward the red jewel dangling from one of Royster’s ears. Once, he had admired and feared the brothers who wore that earring. He had envied him for receiving their father’s love and trust, and blamed himself for not receiving it.
“If I ob-obtain it, I’m thinking of giving it to Hyung Cloy.”
Royster’s eyes began to fill with shock. Anya’s eyes curved into crescents.
“Or I’ll offer it back to Father and make one re-request. To make you suffer the same thing in front of the whole world that you did to Sir Sisou… to Lord Evernight… to the people of Tildyen.”
Royster’s mouth hung half open in a daze, unable to believe these words came from Anya. In his memory, Anya had always been a stuttering, cowardly, servile child. Suddenly, as if a hazy fog had lifted and he’d realized a new truth, his head ached as if it would split.
Anya turned his back on Royster without regret. Then he approached the beast’s corpse, now grown cold. What? One of Raniel’s eyebrows, hidden by his helmet, rose sharply as he gripped the dagger tightly in his hand.
“……”
Anya didn’t even glance at Raniel, instead bending his knees slightly and gently placing his hands on the beast’s two eyes. Then he slowly closed those black eyes that couldn’t close. Raniel watched the scene with a hah, snorting as if absurd.
“Are you saying you’ll create enmity with His Highness Imperial Prince Royster over a single reindeer like this?”
Raniel showed a bizarre expression as if he truly couldn’t understand.
“No.”
Anya silently received his uncomfortable gaze as if seeing through the burn scars inside Raniel’s helmet. So the one who became uncomfortable again was Raniel himself.
“I was planning to create enmity anyway.”
Anya said flatly with a thud, then immediately mounted Mil without delay.
“Let’s go together!”
Bluoa hastily grabbed his bow and followed Anya. That bastard, kill him right now! Kill him right now! Behind them, Royster’s furious shouts rang out piercingly.
* * *
“Commander, didn’t you hear something just now?”
Sisou’s head, which had been lying on the ground comparing his hand to the tracks left by a beast, snapped up. He stood up and looked up at Evernight sitting on his warhorse.
“Should we go check?”
“Don’t bother.”
Evernight jumped down from his horse and knelt on one knee next to the tracks Sisou had been examining, gauging their size.
“What if it’s Prince Anya… ? Imperial Prince Royster is participating in the hunting festival too, isn’t he?”
“That’s his share to handle.”
It was a rather cold tone. Evernight was particularly harsh with Anya. Shouldn’t one take care of one’s partner more warmly? Even if it was a forced political marriage, Anya was the boy who lived most diligently among all the people Sisou knew.
“Commander, that incident was entirely my fault. Rather, His Highness stood up to protect me. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be a person of this world anymore. He’s my life’s benefactor. And though you may not know, Commander… His Highness’s swordsmanship has already surpassed most lower-ranking knights. I’ve never seen anyone grow that much in such a short period.”
Sisou willingly spoke on Anya’s behalf. Somehow, since that incident, the relationship between Evernight and Anya seemed to have rapidly cooled, making him feel guilty. It seemed Evernight thought the incident with Royster was Anya’s fault.
“I know. That it’s not that child’s fault.”
“Pardon?”
Sisou’s voice grew loud in surprise. Then why…
Evernight’s cold eyes quietly gazed at an invisible place beyond the deep forest.
“These tracks are from Bearwolves. We’re catching these bastards.”
Sisou stood still, looking at Evernight with a face still full of unresolved questions.
“Actually… you’re pissed off that His Highness got hurt, aren’t you?”
Evernight, who had been about to grab the horse’s reins, turned to look at Sisou. In the blue eyes he always thought were cold, he seemed to detect a strange heat. This deep, vast ancient forest made him think such absurd thoughts.
“I apologize. That was a slip of the tongue…”
“That’s right. Whether it’s Tildyen or whatever, I wanted to kill Imperial Prince Royster on the spot.”
Just as Sisou was about to apologize with a grimace, Evernight suddenly opened his mouth. His warhorse quickly passed Sisou, and the words he couldn’t finish scattered in the wind like an afterimage, lingering in Sisou’s ear.
“So I won’t pay any more attention to it.”
Because I can’t stand how fucking terrible I feel.
