Chapter 73
He suspected that if it were the Cronen he knew, he would have planned things far more meticulously.
Still, Cronen was, after all, the true master of this temple. If he wanted, nothing was beyond his reach.
The princess had brought only a handful of maids with her, and her only real guard, Lysiances, was far away. Who knew when such an opportunity might come again? It wouldn’t be strange if Cronen had seized the timing and acted somewhat hastily.
Still, he should have at least tipped me off…
Should he go to the princess? Or not?
Gregory pondered the matter seriously.
If the princess died, he would be punished anyway. The empress would likely intervene so that his life wouldn’t be in danger, though he would have to endure some suffering for a year or two. But once Brian became emperor, Gregory’s fortunes would rise, so it wasn’t a major concern.
Pretending to guard the princess was not a problem.
But he had no way of knowing how Cronen planned to act. If his searching for the princess and putting up a show of protecting her somehow disrupted Cronen’s plan…?
…Well, if it comes to that, I could just take care of the princess myself.
So he decided to go to her, fully prepared to kill her with his own hands if necessary.
He hadn’t originally separated the princess’s guards with this intent, but now that he thought about it, it felt like a chance he would regret missing.
“Your Highness, Princess! Your Highness, where are you?”
Yet something felt off. According to the morning’s report, the princess should be bathing in the Purifying Waters.
But the area was silent—as if no one were there at all.
No matter the emergency, for a man to barge into a place where the princess was alone—even if it was called the Purifying Waters but was in truth just a bath—would be difficult to justify.
But the empress would surely be pleased. And with the building on fire, even if someone saw him, he could easily make an excuse. Thinking thus, Gregory grasped the doorknob.
At that very moment, a voice whispered in his ear:
“Wow. Are all the people around the princess this trashy?”
Then something clamped around his neck.
“Kuhhk! Khhhk!” His vision went black. His mind went blank. Gregory fainted on the spot.
…And when he opened his eyes, he was lying in the middle of the fire scene, covered in soot and ash.
Priests were dousing him with water, pitying him, saying he must have passed out from inhaling too much smoke.
As soon as he came to, before he could even assess the situation, his instincts drove him to rush to where Princess Titania and the crowd were gathered, backing up Cronen’s words.
So of course, when he was interrogated about where he had been at the most critical moment, he had no good answer.
To claim he’d been ambushed into unconsciousness? That would be worse than saying nothing. Lips trembling, Gregory protested:
“As soon as I realized there was a fire… I diligently searched for Her Highness the Princess, but the thick smoke caused me to faint from lack of air, that’s all!”
He couldn’t possibly take all the blame. He was desperate.
If the princess had died, he would have obediently offered himself up to be punished.
But he hadn’t even managed to kill her! The princess had survived the flames unharmed.
Wait.
Gregory sensed something off.
How had the princess survived at all? Was this her own scheme?
But how? Wasn’t the temple like Cronen’s personal backyard?
While Gregory was mired in confusion, Flux attacked fiercely:
“It was said that the one consistently guarding Princess Titania was actually Sir Lysiances. Wasn’t it you, Sir Gregory, who forcibly sent Sir Lysiances and the other guards out of the temple?”
Gregory clicked his tongue. At this point, he had no choice but to drag Lysiances down with him. He had to insist that all the guards bore responsibility, so that the princess—indebted to the Castrain family—would retreat to protect Lysiances.
“…How many times must I say it? I sent them because I saw traces of suspicious beasts and flocks of predatory birds to clear! From the start, I was the princess’s chief of security. I received orders directly from His Majesty the Emperor! If you’re going to interrogate me here without cause—!”
“If we’re going to interrogate you, then what?”
The voice was cold as ice.
Everyone present froze under the pressure.
Even Titania—who had been hiding her face with her hands, pretending to cry sorrowfully while watching them tear each other apart—froze the same way.
Flux, engrossed in tearing Gregory apart, unconsciously took a step back.
Though it was a hot day, it felt as if an icy winter wind had swept in.
No—more like a sudden winter night sky had spread before their eyes. Beneath hair like the frozen heavens burned eyes like falling stars. No one had expected him to appear here.
“Must even His Majesty the Emperor himself come here to judge you?”
Step. Step. Step…
He moved less like a man than a predator.
A gloved hand gripped Gregory’s chin, lifting him into the air. With one hand alone, the large knight dangled helplessly.
Fingers hooked around his throat twitched, as if longing to snap his neck. Gregory’s face turned red, then blue, before he was thrown to the ground like garbage.
No one dared look at the man sprawled there.
No one dared ask why he was here. Only Lysiances, groaning like a leashed dog at Titania’s side, had a complicated look in his eyes.
Raymond Oberon el Castrain.
The man, like an enraged beast, extended his hand to the princess who was huddled on the ground in a pitiful state.
Titania and Raymond presented a striking contrast.
Raymond—armed as if ready to hunt prey at any moment.
Titania—wearing plain, unadorned clothes chosen to win the sympathy of the citizens, having resolved to soil herself with dust, ash, and smoke.
They looked like a storybook knight and a scullery maid. Of course, Titania was far too beautiful to truly resemble a maid.
Perhaps that was why she almost took his hand, only to glance at her own grimy fingers and pull back.
But Raymond, as if unaware of her refusal, did not move an inch—like a statue frozen in that pose.
As if to say: If you won’t take my hand, I won’t move. Refusal is not allowed.
That was how it felt.
At last, as her trembling fingers brushed against his gloved palm, Raymond—like a predator finally swallowing its prey—pulled Titania straight into his arms.
A small gasp escaped Titania’s lips.
“Ah, ah?!”
“From now on, I will protect you.”
“R-right now, this is…”
“Your attire is disheveled. You dislike showing yourself like this to others, do you not?”
“……”
Their eyes met. Sparks seemed to fly whenever their gazes crossed.
To be honest, I thought I was dreaming. A person who had no business being here was standing before me.
I’d been smirking, amused that things were going according to my predictions—until I froze solid. Only after I saw the hand extended toward me did my reason return.
It was just holding a hand. It wasn’t the first time.
I still needed to maintain the appearance of a “plausible engagement” in public. Hadn’t I said we would announce our break-up later?
And yet…
When I went to take his hand, my eyes fell to it.
It was a white, slender, delicate hand that had never done rough work—but today, it was filthy.
Dirt clung beneath my nails, the smell of smoke clung to me. I’d been lucky not to stain it with blood. If I wiped it with fine cloth, the cloth would be ruined. Meanwhile, Raymond’s gloves shone with an elegant sheen, showing the stark contrast between us. Without realizing it, I pulled my hand back. And then our eyes met.
Why are you looking at me like that? You, at me?
Desperate eyes.
Eyes that would never give up.
Eyes that only the “Titania” of long ago might have seen…
Raymond didn’t look away from me for an instant.
Even though, in front of everyone, my refusal could humiliate him, make things awkward for him—he didn’t seem to care in the slightest. My breath caught strangely.
Almost without thinking, my trembling fingertips brushed against him—anything to break this moment.
Just that small contact.
But Raymond, as if he had been waiting for exactly that, swiftly and decisively scooped me into his arms, like a hawk seizing a chick.
“You dislike showing yourself like this to others, do you not?”
Suddenly, my throat tightened.
