Chapter 60
Heehyo Palace (嬉晓宮).
Its former mistress, Lyuslav Vi, had come from the northern Ruth Kingdom.
Unlike the people of Dar, her skin was pale as freshly fallen snow, her hair shone a dazzling golden hue, and her sparkling dark-brown eyes all came together like the image of dawn itself. That was why she became the mistress of Heehyo Palace.
Argana gazed up at the worn and crumbling plaque with a troubled heart.
Long abandoned by its master, Heehyo Palace stood like a graveyard overrun with weeds, as if it would forever remember its mistress’s grim end. Its desolation gave off the feeling of a palace in ruin.
“Y-Your Highness, the Princess!”
A eunuch, who had merely been pacing about the palace front yard, nearly collapsed in shock when he spotted Argana. Panicked, he rushed forward, trembling so violently he forgot even to bow properly.
Argana let out a short, uneasy sigh as she looked down at him.
“Is Brother Yetekerid inside?”
“Y-Yes, Your Highness. He is, indeed!”
Her tone sharpened slightly.
“Then why haven’t you announced me? What are you standing here for?”
“Eh? Ah! I—I will at once!”
With his face gone pale, the eunuch scurried inside in haste.
Argana crossed the cracked, timeworn threshold of Heehyo Palace. Frowning at the courtyard, which looked haunted enough for ghosts to appear at any moment, she thought to herself:
“Brother Yetekerid… knows much about poisons.”
In her memories of her previous life, Yetekerid was so insignificant that even his face had become blurry in her mind.
When his birth mother, Lyuslav Vi, died, he held the funeral according to the rules and then shut himself away inside Heehyo Palace.
He had been present when Khan Astrakhan drew his last breath, but not a single tear had fallen from his lowered eyes.
No regret, no sorrow—only careless hatred and a weary, killing aura dripping from him.
And was there any guarantee that such hatred and malice had not been aimed, not at his dead father, but at the one who would succeed him—Argana herself?
That’s why it feels so unsettling…
She pieced together hazy fragments of past memories while waiting for the eunuch to return.
Clang!
Suddenly, something shattered inside. The door opened and shut clumsily.
Still standing where she was, Argana only twitched an eyebrow before turning her sharp gaze toward the eunuch, who stumbled out clutching one cheek.
“Y-Your Highness, the Princess…”
The man trembled as though he had seen a ghost. His lips quivered helplessly, like a man who had been buried in a cave for decades and had just now encountered another human.
“What is it?”
“Th-the Prince… His Highness is… unwell…”
“And?”
“S-so, it would be best if Your Highness… returned today and came again tomorrow…”
Argana’s golden eyes flashed dangerously.
Ignoring the eunuch, who looked ready to bury himself underground, she strode straight into Heehyo Palace.
“Y-Your Highness, no, you mustn’t! Princess—”
“Don’t follow me. Go treat your wound.”
She pushed open a dusty door. Inside, a maid shivered in the cold, her lips pale as she bowed her head.
The entire palace was barren, without even a single brazier burning.
Not even cleaned properly.
“You’re the only one here?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Argana sighed.
“Go to the Household Office and request that five or six more maids be sent to serve in Heehyo Palace. Say that I personally asked for them. And tell them to bring in several braziers.”
“U-understood.”
“Don’t worry about angering your master. I’ll handle that.”
Only then did the maid look relieved and hurry out.
The reason Heehyo Palace had fallen into such ruin was simple: Yetekerid could not bear having people around him. He had driven out every maid and eunuch.
Not only guards, but even servants who were supposed to clean or tend the gardens were forbidden entry.
Argana flung open another door without a sound.
Inside, Yetekerid shivered under a tattered blanket like an invalid. Without even looking up, he snatched a flower vase from beside him and hurled it at the floor.
“Who gave you permission to enter!”
Crash!
The vase shattered, shards scattering across the floor.
Argana stepped right over them and yanked the blanket off him.
“Brother.”
Only then did Yetekerid lift his head. His eyes were dull at first, then slowly regained their light.
The corners of his lips twitched and lifted ever so slightly, a strange expression—as though even the muscles of his face had been frozen stiff from the cold.
“What brings you here?”
“I came to see what kind of state you’ve let yourself live in. What is this? Do you mean to freeze to death, trembling without even a brazier?”
A thin, glasslike smile flickered across Yetekerid’s pale face.
It was the kind of sharp, fragile smile that left deep wounds despite its weakness.
“They say I killed someone with poison. How could I, so lucky with my fate, dare to warm myself with braziers or hot water?”
Argana frowned, staring down at him.
Yetekerid was small in both stature and build.
Though three years older than she was, he was barely larger than Tirsalan.
For someone like that to wrap himself in a ragged blanket and spout such self-destructive words in the freezing cold—it made her feel, inexplicably, furious.
“So, you’re admitting you’re the one who did it?”
His icy blue eyes gleamed like midwinter ice.
“And what if I am? What would you do then?”
“……”
No… Argana realized at once. At least this incident had nothing to do with Yetekerid.
Looking at his condition, it seemed more likely he’d die of illness before he could ever poison someone.
And those eyes—eyes that held no lingering attachment to life—were not the kind of eyes that could plot so deeply and kill.
But she couldn’t be sure he had not been involved in her own death.
There was nothing to prove that Yetekerid hadn’t taken the lead in killing her, or at least helped in some way.
“…Attend me. Is no one there?”
At her raised voice, the eunuch from before appeared hurriedly in the doorway. The maid had not yet returned.
“Your Highness, I am here.”
“Empty the ashes from that old brazier. Search the storerooms—there should be some firewood. Even if it’s hard to use, warm it and bring it here. I’ve already sent word, so more servants and supplies will arrive soon from the Household Office.”
“At once, Your Highness!”
“And when the maids arrive, have them thoroughly sweep and scrub every room. If they neglect it, I won’t forgive them.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The eunuch shuddered and left with the brazier.
Yetekerid, coughing in the rising dust and ash, fixed his eyes on her.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What about you, Brother? What are you doing?”
“What? What are you accusing me of now?”
“Why are you sitting here letting such rumors spread when you’re not the culprit? Why don’t you proclaim your innocence? Do you not realize that every eye in the Imperial Palace is fixed on you and Heehyo Palace right now?”
“You must be joking.”
With a hollow laugh, Yetekerid hunched deeper into his blanket, his shivering body curling tighter.
“How can you be so sure I’m not the culprit?”
