Chapter 69
No matter what, Lord Derwin wouldn’t have struck Lady Chanel. If he had, would he really show up at the palace so confidently?
He showed up at the palace?
Didn’t you know? He’s been accompanying the princess again for about two weeks now. Just like before.
What? Then he goes to the princess’s palace but hasn’t come here to see his own fiancée?
Strange, isn’t it?
Just like before? Visiting the palace? Coming here—to the Royal Residence?
Until now, even after overhearing such conversations, Chanellica hadn’t thought much of it. But this time, her heart rippled like water disturbed by a stone.
Then why doesn’t he come?
Plop.
The stone she had thrown landed in the pond before her shoes, breaking the still surface and vanishing. She had flung it with her tangled emotions.
Like the ripples spreading across the pond, Chanellica’s mind was unsettled. She couldn’t even sleep at night.
So when is he planning to come? When I’ve fully become a Sacred Dragon and can undo my own magic? Then what will he say to me?
Chanellica bit down hard on her lip.
She had waited all this time—for Derwin to come. To properly explain what had happened.
But no matter how long she waited, Derwin never came near the Royal Residence where Chanellica was staying. At first, she thought maybe there was a reason he couldn’t.
But hearing he visited the princess’s palace, yet never once came to the king’s villa where she was recovering…
It was frustrating, and humiliating. She had nearly died, barely survived, and was still struggling to recover. And Derwin wasn’t some stranger—he was her lord, her bond as a dragon, even her fiancé when she was living as a human. And yet, he ignored her completely.
In this chaotic mess, the one who should have come first was not Chanellica, but Derwin. Whether as a human or as a dragon, whether there were misunderstandings or not.
Unforgivable.
Chanellica stood up from where she had been crouching. The maids who had been nearby seemed to have stepped away.
Good. That suited her just fine. She began walking somewhere with determined steps.
harbaragi_syk
To go out of the palace, Lydia was leaving the princess’s quarters. In such sweltering weather, being cooped up inside the palace was unbearable—far better to go somewhere cool.
The maids and servants agreed, following her in large numbers. They planned to head toward a nearby river. At least the river breeze would help them survive the heat—an escape, literally.
“Lady Chanel! What are you doing here—?”
As Lydia was just stepping out, waiting for her carriage, a startled voice rang out. Lydia froze. The name she heard made her turn quickly.
“Chanel?”
At Lydia’s halt, everyone following her also stopped. Surprise and joy mixed in her blue eyes.
Not far away stood a small girl with light pink hair—Chanellica.
In the sunlight, her hair looked almost white, her skin so pale it seemed translucent. She wore a plain white dress falling just below her knees—simple, almost too plain for the palace. Yet it only made her ghostly whiteness stand out more.
“What are you…doing here?”
Lydia, eager to greet her after so long, faltered. This was the first time they had met since Chanellica’s engagement to Derwin had been publicly announced.
It was Lydia who had cut off their Garione language lessons, who had deliberately avoided Chanellica ever since.
As she recalled the awkwardness of their strained relationship, a new realization struck her—her knight, standing behind her. The man with black hair and black eyes.
While Chanellica recovered in the king’s villa, Derwin had been confined for abandoning his post as Lydia’s knight.
Lydia had rushed to Eleusis, her brother, to defend Derwin, saying she herself had permitted his actions.
Later, around the time Chanellica first regained consciousness, Eleusis had a private meeting with Derwin.
What had they talked about? No one knew. But afterward, Derwin was released and reinstated as Lydia’s knight.
Honestly, Lydia hadn’t expected it. Derwin was the type to hold himself accountable for his failures, and abandoning his post was no small matter. He was too responsible to return so easily. Yet he had.
But Derwin now felt…different. Almost like another man entirely.
Even before Chanellica’s appearance, Derwin had never let Lydia into his heart. But now it was worse—he spoke only in curt replies, sometimes not answering at all. Lydia’s frustration didn’t even seem to register to him.
And stranger still—he left Chanellica, his fiancée, in Eleusis’s care, never visiting her once. Even after regaining his position, he hadn’t gone to see her.
Meanwhile, rumors about Chanellica and Derwin swirled across the kingdom, spreading everywhere.
But Derwin seemed not to care in the slightest.
Will Chanel really end up as my sister-in-law?
Lydia knew Eleusis liked Chanellica. But her brother was the type who controlled his emotions, who rarely indulged his desires. Especially with Chanellica already engaged, Lydia thought there was no way.
Yet even Eleusis seemed different now.
Something strange was undeniably flowing between the three of them: Chanellica, Eleusis, Derwin. Lydia’s hopes, once crushed after the engagement announcement, were now creeping back.
And now—Chanellica had suddenly appeared before her.
Thump-thump.
Lydia’s heart raced.
Stern had promised to help her, but the methods he used against Chanellica were so brutal they weighed heavily on Lydia’s conscience. She had even gone so far as to break Stern and Ferdinand out of prison to keep her secret from Eleusis.
So standing before Chanellica, Lydia felt like nothing but a criminal. On top of that, Derwin—the fiancé who never once visited the ailing Chanellica—stood constantly at her side. She hadn’t planned it, but it felt wrong.
“Are you…feeling better?”
Chanellica only stared silently at Lydia. Lydia remembered hearing she hadn’t spoken since the day she was injured.
Can she really not speak?
Eleusis visited Chanellica daily, devoted in his care. Yet he had told Lydia nothing of her condition. Left in the dark, Lydia could only tread carefully.
“Do you remember who I am?”
Chanellica was alone—no Eleusis, no maids. Her hair and clothes were unkempt, as if she had slipped out without telling anyone.
“Princess.”
For the first time since her abduction by Stern, Chanellica’s lips moved. Her voice was hoarse, broken, strangely dark.
“I’m taking that man with me.”
The tone mattered more than the words. Though she addressed Lydia, it wasn’t a request—it was a declaration.
If I push her now, something terrible will happen.
Lydia looked into those pale mint eyes, now hollow and empty, and unconsciously nodded.
Chanellica had come to the princess’s palace without warning. Fortune, or perhaps fate, allowed her to find the one she sought in the crowd exiting the gates.
That hair—jet black, absorbing all light—stood out even at a distance. Derwin stood behind Lydia, clad in his usual light armor, black longbow slung across his back, as if nothing had ever happened. As if Chanellica’s ordeal meant nothing.
She had hoped, deep down, the rumors were wrong. But seeing Derwin so unchanged in his daily life—Chanellica felt a hatred burn in her chest.
She had already heard of his reinstatement as Lydia’s knight. But the truth that followed…was unbearable.
Even before Lydia spotted her, Chanellica had locked eyes with Derwin. And Derwin had immediately turned away.
He had ignored her. Brazenly.
In that instant, Chanellica felt her world freeze. Though the summer sun blazed overhead, the air around her turned icy.
Why? How?
It wasn’t avoidance, like seeing someone you didn’t want to meet. It was indifference. As if she were nothing more than a pebble on the roadside.
So Chanellica spoke, for the first time. Her voice was ugly, cracked, but she forced the words out. Lydia’s unease didn’t matter. If she didn’t confront Derwin now, she would suffocate.
That brought them here.
Beneath the vine-covered arbor at the edge of the princess’s garden, shaded from the harsh sun, the two stood face to face—once known as lovers, now silent strangers.
After informing Lydia she was taking him, Chanellica had pulled Derwin here. Not into the princess’s palace, nor the king’s villa—both too conspicuous. This quiet arbor would do.
What is he playing at?
Looking into his empty black eyes, Chanellica could no longer bear the silence.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Her voice was harsh, broken, burning her throat even in short words.
“Weren’t you the one with business?”
Derwin replied indifferently.
“Business,” “you”—the dismissive tone, the casual disrespect.
In that moment, Chanellica wanted to turn and flee. No—she wanted to vanish entirely, to disappear from his sight. That was how strongly she rejected this reality.
The Derwin she had known—the man who had once been kind, warm, who had spoken of love—no longer existed. Only a hollow shell stood before her.
“You’re the one who should speak. You pretended to lose your memory, deceived me, and even put me in danger.”
Chell had told her it was all a misunderstanding, and Chanellica had partly believed that. But now she deliberately accused him, desperate for some kind of response—an explanation, a denial, anything.
But Derwin only asked an unrelated question.
“Are you a dragon now…or a human?”
