“Destroy the holy object?! You want to get rid of the barrier?! The very barrier that has been maintained through countless Votive Offerings?”
Does this guy want to turn this entire area into a monster den? Is he completely crazy? My thoughts must have spilled out because a response came.
“You must. Because that holy object is a fake.”
“…Huh?”
“If you touch it with your blood, Your Highness will be in danger.”
“Then why are you telling me this after kidnapping me in the dark without even revealing your identity?!”
“Because I can’t trust Your Highness. Isn’t it the same for you?”
Was he on some kind of drug, or had he inhaled helium? The voice, which sounded unfamiliar even to him, echoed in the air.
“Of course, I don’t trust you!”
I was so dumbfounded that I shot up from the bed.
“Common sense, would you trust someone like that? Would you?! Someone who kidnaps a person while they’re sleeping and then suddenly says, ‘Hey, don’t do your job, just break that thing’? Instead of meeting me properly in broad daylight…!”
“Is that the reason you’re angry? You don’t seem to feel a sense of danger.”
“What if it’s a fake? What do you think will happen if I break a holy object right now…?”
“I cannot be seen during the day.”
“Why?! Did you put honey on your face? Is there something wrong with your feet—!”
It was at that moment.
Click. The lights came on.
I saw the scene in front of me and was speechless.
The room was surprisingly magnificent. But what was more impressive was the person standing in front of me.
At first glance, he was a boy about my age. His well-groomed brown hair was swept back and tied at the nape of his neck, and he wore a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. The brown suit he was wearing was well-tailored, giving off the maturity of an adult man. His eyes were also a similar brown.
However, the whites of his eyes were completely bloodshot, as if they were filled with blood.
Both of the boy’s feet, who was sitting in the chair, were tightly wrapped in bandages. Since there was no splint, it didn’t seem to be a simple fracture. Even his hands were covered in multiple layers of gloves, so his wrists weren’t even visible. Every single one of them exuded an unusual aura.
“My name is Flux Roman ven Cortez.”
The boy, who was looking at me with one corner of his mouth raised and a terribly eerie expression, said, “I am the young Count Cortez.”
He looked so unstable, as if he was ready to bite into everything in this world at any moment.
“I have no intention of acting as that child’s mother.”
The Empress said calmly.
The room was spacious and secluded. It felt a little too modest for the Empress of the Empire and the heir of a great noble family to have a private meeting. But no one in the room cared about such a trivial matter.
“For someone with no intention of doing so, you have placed a very big gamble with this incident.”
Raymond’s voice was monotonous. The Empress looked down at the teacups that neither of them had touched.
The tea, which had long since gone cold, was still untouched, but the Empress’s maid, who was waiting like a shadow near the door, didn’t move. She knew well that such a minor service wasn’t important in such a significant conversation.
“Your Majesty has released monsters into the imperial palace. If the Empress Consort had found out, she would have accused you of high treason against His Majesty the Emperor.”
“And what would that accomplish? If something goes wrong, I will be the one to be accused of high treason.”
The Empress dropped a sugar cube into the tea she wouldn’t drink.
“For now, she will hold her breath. She will obediently try to appease the Emperor until his anger subsides. It is better for Titania to go on the Votive Offering right now. Adrian and Briam have no problem being treated as imperial family members whether they go to one Votive Offering or not. But that child is a little different.”
Titania did have the right to succession. She was just at the bottom of the line, and she was treated poorly because she was seen more as “a princess to be married into the House of Castrain” rather than an imperial family member.
If her engagement to the House of Castrain was broken and something happened to her birth mother, her position would be so fragile that no one could guarantee it. So, even though it was an event that had only its name left, it was still better for Titania to participate in it on her own name.
“Now you want to play the role of a fiancé?”
The sound of a silver spoon hitting a teacup was heard.
The Empress, who had been taught etiquette since she was a toddler, wouldn’t make a mistake. So, this was an intentional noise. Raymond’s golden eyes sank like wet sand.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“She is a child who would have sacrificed her life if you had just smiled and held her hand.”
Raymond’s body stiffened.
“So, unlike the Empress Consort, I didn’t want to trick a child who was starved for affection and use her, so I chose to ignore her. Like turning away from a stray animal on the street because you don’t want to take responsibility for it.”
Titania had changed like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. She assessed the situation with a cold eye and found a way even by throwing herself into danger.
“That child grew up on her own. So I have no intention of acting like her mother now. My only child is Adrian. So even if you come to me and say you want to follow that child because you’re worried about her belatedly…”
The Empress smiled bitterly.
“Would that be something I could allow?”
“…The situation in the South is unusual. Even if it’s not something that pleases you, it is a necessary matter.”
“No, you came to me because you needed an excuse.”
The Empress smiled, raising only the corners of her mouth.
“You know well that the child doesn’t see me as her mother. You also know that my permission means nothing. If it were truly a necessary matter, would you have come all the way here to ask me? So, you wanted to use my name as an excuse to get to Titania.”
The Empress watched the other person, who was as motionless as a statue. He was a person with very little facial expression in the first place. This was especially true when he was in the palace for official matters and met with the Empress.
However, like a child who had to swallow a terribly bitter medicine. Like a sinner who knew there was no escape even though they desperately wanted to. The stiff shoulders and the lips that couldn’t even utter an excuse… they looked strangely vulnerable.
The lips, which had been moving for a long time, finally spoke.
“…It is a legitimate thing for a fiancé to worry about his fiancée.”
“Was your engagement with the princess a legitimate and ordinary matter?”
“In the current House of Castrain, we see Her Highness the Princess as…”
“Yes, would it have been the same if you hadn’t saved that adopted daughter, Vivi, the treasure of the House of Castrain?”
“…It would not have been exactly the same.”
Raymond, even as he answered, seemed to know that he was making an excuse for himself.
The young Grand Duke of Castrain had always been decisive when making a choice. He chose what was in accordance with his priorities. There was no “self” in it. No desire.
“Do you want to scold me, saying that I deceived Her Highness the Princess?”
Then, what if a problem that cannot be prioritized arises? What if only questions without answers block your path?
“Do you want to blame me, saying that it’s my fault that I didn’t care how she was broken, thinking she was a hand I would eventually let go of?”
‘Find someone you love and marry them.’
Raymond had never forgotten the moment Titania had said she wanted to break off the engagement.
‘I haven’t been indebted to Her Majesty the Empress. I don’t think I’m indebted to anyone in the imperial family. It may have been a shameful life for the House of Castrain.’
The words she had spilled out in a calm tone.
‘So, you know. I hate it when someone sacrifices because of the hand you extended, thinking, “I can help you this much,” just out of a little compassion. I really hate it. I hate thinking that it’s a price to pay for helping that young, ignorant, stupid princess.’
When he heard those words, he felt a sudden emptiness. It was as if someone had hit him on the back of his head. This was even more so because he knew that what he was hearing was Titania’s true feelings.
Ultimately, it was the attitude of someone who had concluded that their existence was a burden to others.
She lived a life that was a shame to the House of Castrain…
Her love became a shame for her. His throat felt clogged. He should have said, No, it’s not, but he couldn’t. It felt as if his own neck was being choked.
It was shameful to cling to someone she wouldn’t love and be a burden, and she almost died by her own choice but was saved by being a burden to others.
For her, all these things were just that.
Even though it was the sole decision of the House of Castrain to take her to the Empress’s palace when she was unconscious.
