Chapter 29
For some reason, my eyes met Kyle’s far too often. Whenever I turned around at that strange sensation, I would always find him watching me. As if he had been observing me all along.
The sudden presence of Kyle, the warden of Fortress Prison, who carefully kept me under his gaze, pushed me—already hanging on by a thread—into even greater anxiety.
It wasn’t only because I was a fraud that I became especially conscious of his eyes.
His gaze shamed me. In moments when I had to endure Young Lord Georg, it became almost unbearable.
“Sniff, Veronica, th-this, eat this. It’s my favorite.”
It was during the dinner to which Kyle had been invited.
For once, Georg seemed in a good mood. He picked up a raw oyster, shell and all, from the table and spoke.
The moment he noisily slurped the oyster into his mouth, I, who had been quietly eating with a faint frown, lost control of my expression and stiffened.
I usually ate almost anything, but there was one type of food I couldn’t stand: seafood. Only after coming to this coastal territory did I encounter all sorts of fresh seafood.
Especially those things called oysters—they weren’t cooked at all, and the very sight made me nauseous.
To think that after making all those revolting sounds while slurping them down himself, he would insist that I eat such a disgusting thing too.
“Thank you, but I don’t really like oyster dishes.”
When I cautiously pushed the oyster shell away with my palm, Georg’s expression instantly turned cold, and a menacing glare shot at me.
“I-I told you to eat it. I’m kindly offering to feed you myself, and you’re refusing?”
In distress, I instinctively looked around for someone who might help. But the Lord and his wife simply observed, as if to say, ‘Are you really trying to upset our son over something so trivial?’
Georg’s temper was bad enough, but the scolding from the lordly couple was something I equally wanted to avoid. I thought maybe I could take the oyster onto my plate, then discreetly leave it or throw it away later.
But the troublesome situation wasn’t so easily evaded.
“Then… please put it on my plate, and I’ll eat it.”
“Eat it now. Y-you’ll see it tastes good once you try. Here, open up.”
“Please, just put it on my plate—”
“C-come on! I said eat it right now!”
Screeech—his chair scraped harshly against the floor. Georg had risen from his seat, offended at being refused, and was about to cause another scene.
“Ow, that hurts!”
He grabbed my arm and shoved the oyster right up to my lips. The fishy stench of raw seafood wafted from his mouth, inches from my face.
I pressed my lips together tightly and held my breath.
“Eat it! I said eat it right now!”
Fine, I’ll eat it. I’ll just swallow it somehow and then run outside to vomit later. I closed my eyes tightly, resolving at least to pretend to eat, when suddenly a voice I’d almost forgotten about cut in.
“Truly, this is unbearable to watch.”
Kyle Kaysenis set down his cutlery, as if he had lost his appetite, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. Only then did the lord and his wife remember this wasn’t the kind of occasion where Georg could throw tantrums unchecked—their eyes wavered.
Kyle kept his gaze fixed on me as he spoke to the lord.
“So this is how the Gluck Territory treats its guests, I see. I suppose after forcing food on the Saintess, I’ll be next?”
“Ahem, yes… we forgot ourselves with a guest present. If the meal was disrupted, forgive us.”
“You too, sit down. Leave the Saintess to eat at her own pace.”
Having always lorded around as the young heir, Georg now found himself forced to swallow his pride and heed someone else. His glare was fierce, but he could not withstand Kyle’s intimidating stare for long. Reluctantly, he backed down and sat.
The lord tried to smooth things over.
“Our son only meant to tease the Saintess a little, as they are close. I hope you won’t misunderstand.”
He spoke with a merchant’s oily smile, to which Kyle replied in a chilling tone:
“I’m not misunderstanding. I was merely wondering what sentence such behavior would warrant.”
The lord flinched at the ominous remark. But the one truly stricken with fear was me. For I was a fraud, pretending to be the Saintess, sitting right in front of the infamous warden of Fortress Prison.
Silence fell over the meal. Kyle rose from his seat, and all eyes turned to him.
“My stomach is unsettled. I’ll excuse myself. Please, do continue enjoying your meal.”
His disregard for courtesy might have seemed rude, but really, who could rebuke him? No one dared.
This was the dignity and freedom reserved only for those with true power. Watching him, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy.
But just as I thought he would leave, he stopped and asked:
“Will the Saintess be dining further?”
He waited for my reply, eyes fixed on me. Snapping back to my senses, I glanced around nervously before rising from my seat.
“…My stomach doesn’t feel well either. I’ll excuse myself.”
Though I had escaped only by clinging to his authority, I found myself less frightened of him afterward. If the warden ever discovered my fraud, I would be in grave danger—but perhaps he wasn’t as terrifying as I thought.
Maybe he was even a good man, and it was only criminals like me, guilty at heart, who trembled before him.
“Whoa there—”
The coachman pulled the reins, slowing the horses. Inside the carriage, Kyle’s gaze lingered on the dense forest.
Branches jutted out wildly like the ruins of a city, and the shadows cast by the leaves exuded a cursed, foreboding gloom.
He had traveled this very road before, escorting prisoners on rainy days, and felt nothing. But now the towering pines looked more desolate than ever—because he himself had changed.
I thought I’d never set foot in Gluck Territory again.
A bitter expression crossed his face. He had never strayed from the strict path he had chosen for himself. Yet somehow, because of Veronica, he kept making choices that were unlike him.
No matter how much he tried to grip and control her, in the end, he was the one being swayed. Veronica would never admit it, but it was true.
Kyle covered his mouth with one hand, hiding the wry smile tugging at his lips.
“I swore I’d never follow in my father’s footsteps. Who would’ve thought I’d end up like this?”
He muttered with a hollow laugh. From the driver’s seat, the coachman called back.
“We’re almost there, sir. Did you say something?”
“Nothing. How long until we reach the lord’s castle?”
“Not long at all. Though, I heard in the last village that ever since his son died, the lord hasn’t been receiving guests. What shall I tell the gatekeeper?”
The last traces of Kyle’s smile vanished. His eyes darkened.
“…Tell them we’ve come to discuss the matter of the witch. They’ll open the gate.”
He leaned back, resting his head against the carriage seat, and closed his eyes. His thoughts were a tangled storm.
Veronica denied being a witch, but Kyle believed otherwise.
How could she not be? Unless she had cursed him the very moment they met, there was no way he would have changed like this.
It must be an inescapable, vicious curse.
Veronica was the root of it all—the one who had clouded his reason and ruined him.
In the darkness behind his closed eyelids, memories of her rose like glowing fragments, sharp and vivid.
What is she doing?
When he first met Veronica at the lord’s castle while waiting out the rain, he had felt nothing more than curiosity. She was clearly a swindler, but not of the sort deserving to be hauled off to Fortress Prison.
But people are never what they seem. That very night, when he discovered her wandering suspiciously through the castle, his suspicions were confirmed.
Of course. She wasn’t the real Saintess, so her approach to the lord’s family could hardly be pure. And now that she had crossed paths with him, she must have grown desperate and rushed to reveal her true colors.
Why else sneak about the castle at midnight, if not to pursue some hidden scheme?
Her actions were transparent. With a faint, mocking smile, he followed after her.
He watched as the fake Saintess glanced around nervously, then quietly opened a door and slipped inside. Waiting a short moment, he struck.
“What are you doing?”
