Chapter 06
The sky on the verge of autumn was beautiful, and Kylian, walking ahead of me, was silent. I followed him from three long steps behind.
I had been close to him when we danced, but back then I had been so focused on the unfamiliar steps and on trying not to step on him that I hardly remembered anything.
There wasn’t much to see in the narrow garden, yet Kylian walked slowly, as if there were. For some reason, being alone together felt awkward.
My gaze drifted from the ground to his back, then fixed there.
He must be in the upper 180s… Why is his back so broad?
I had to roll my eyes from one shoulder to the other because it was that wide.
Even if I rolled forward and backward, it was unmistakably the male lead’s back. I was trying to estimate how many centimeters that width was when he suddenly stopped walking.
“Never seen that flower before.”
Following his gaze, I turned my head.
“That’s a Shaero-tail flower. It’s named after the tail of the Shaero bird. It’s a common wildflower that grows in the western part of the Empire.”
I repeated the explanation a gardener once gave me. Kylian nodded while listening to my rambling.
Wait—did I just speak casually?
He had shown flawless manners while asking me to dance at the ball. Did he speak formally then? I felt like he did… or maybe I was too overwhelmed to remember.
Whatever. Formal or informal—what did it matter?
I glanced at his profile and spoke.
“I haven’t told anyone.”
Kylian whirled around with his hands in his pockets, and I sucked in a breath.
I knew the face he showed at banquets, the face I’d seen earlier in the drawing room—all a mask.
In the original novel, the male lead, Kylian, was colder and more calculating than anyone when it came to his goals. And the person who changed him was the female lead.
But right now, before he’d ever met her, the man standing before me, looking down at me, was dangerous.
“That night…”
I glanced around nervously, worried someone might overhear. Only one knight who had accompanied Kylian was nearby, glaring in our direction—but no one else. Still, I felt the need to lower my voice.
“That night, when I saw Your Highness there… I didn’t tell anyone. And I won’t tell anyone.”
I delivered my intention in a barely audible murmur, yet Kylian’s expression didn’t soften.
Did I speak too quietly?
I stepped closer and tried again.
“Please believe me. I absolutely—absolutely won’t say anything.”
I looked around again and raised my right hand like I was taking an oath. Then Kylian stepped toward me with long strides.
His approaching figure forced me to crane my neck upward. Just that slight reduction in distance made him overwhelmingly intimidating.
I swallowed hard and parted my lips to reaffirm my sincerity—
“Why should I trust anything about you?”
Before I could speak, a cold, eerie voice flowed from him.
Ah. So he doesn’t trust me.
In the original, he was described as highly suspicious, someone who never trusted people easily. Of course. Why would Kylian trust someone he barely knew?
But still—this wasn’t fair.
It’s not like I wanted to see anything. If I hadn’t run into him that night, I would have pretended to be sick and escaped back to my territory.
I hadn’t wanted to see anything, and I had zero desire to meddle in the main characters’ lives.
My thoughts raced, tangling into one another, and eventually poked something inside me.
“I mean, it’s not like I expected Your Highness to show up there! I was startled too! I was!”
Stop. Stop, Eliana.
“I just… I got tempted by some really expensive alcohol and drank four glasses of champagne in a row, so of course I needed to go to the restroom. And then—why is the Imperial Palace playing hide-and-seek with its restrooms? Why are they so thoroughly hidden? I barely found one, and when I came out, I got lost… It was really, truly just an accident!”
Stop! Shut your mouth!
The little rationality shoved into a corner of my brain screamed at me, but once my mouth burst open, I couldn’t close it.
“You’re the one who did something wrong…”
When I muttered under my breath—Right. Why start a fire? Why.—one of Kylian’s eyebrows shot up sharply.
“Fine! What do you want me to do then? Should I write a blood oath?!”
I had been like this in my previous life too.
“Seoha, you’re smart and all, but… you’re a bit too hot-tempered? If I’m being nice, I could call it ‘energetic,’ but if you want to work here, you need to tone down your personality. And stop acting impulsively.”
That was what a reporter from another newspaper had said when we spent nights together staking out the police station during my social affairs reporting internship.
And now, staring at Kylian’s expressionless face as he held out a dagger to me, I realized my senior had been right.
“I-I was just speaking figuratively…”
I hid both hands behind my back and took a step away.
He was a man who didn’t understand jokes.
The bandage wrapped around my right thumb throbbed faintly.
Kylian had held out the dagger until the very end. Staring into his cold green eyes, I had offered another suggestion.
“T-then… should I just use a fingerprint…?”
I called Mia, who stood far away, and asked for a pen and paper.
I scribbled a hasty promise that I would never speak a word about what happened that night.
I vividly remembered his eyebrow twitching violently—whether from my handwriting or the content, I didn’t know.
I had lightly cut my thumb with his dagger.
Should’ve just cut it properly the first time.
A tiny bead of blood welled up—so little that I couldn’t even make a fingerprint, so I had to cut myself again.
After staring at the paper for a long time, Kylian quietly left the estate.
I had lived intensely since university.
I had done so many part-time jobs that it was easier to list the ones I hadn’t done.
As a social affairs reporter intern, I practically lived in emergency rooms and police stations. I thought I’d seen everything there was to see…
But remembering Kylian pointing a dagger at me made me shake my head.
I needed to get out of the male lead’s life as quickly as possible. Once I made up my mind, I had to act immediately!
I left a short letter on my desk telling my parents not to worry.
Then I packed only valuables that could be sold, slipped out of the estate at dawn, and headed for the capital’s train station.
I stood in line to buy a train ticket among the people starting their day before sunrise.
“The fastest train heading north, please.”
Summer was coming soon—so the cool north seemed ideal.
It must have seemed strange for a woman alone to buy a ticket at dawn without knowing her destination, because the station attendant eyed me suspiciously.
“Second class is 300 Pellio, first class is 500. Which one?”
I pressed my wide-brimmed hat down further and handed over 300 Pellio. Considering a four-person commoner family could live on 1,500 Pellio for a month, it was not cheap.
The train I’d be taking was headed to the northern Totlo region.
I made my way to Gate 6 to board the train departing in thirty minutes.
I slung my heavy bag higher onto my shoulder as I went down the stairs.
It was the first time I had run away from home—in both my previous and current life.
The sun had begun to rise.
I sat on a wooden bench near the gate. Red light climbed up the gate pillars, across the tracks, and over people’s faces.
A perfect day to run away, really.
I sniffed in the crisp morning air with a smirk just as the whistle announcing the train’s arrival sounded.
It was about twenty minutes later than scheduled, but judging by people’s reactions, this happened often.
A black train rolled in with a loud roar, then stopped.
Thick gray steam spewed from the smokestack, covering the ground and people.
Those waiting cut through the steam and lined up to show their tickets.
I joined the line.
Since it was the first train of the day, there weren’t many passengers, and I boarded quickly after showing my ticket.
This was my first time riding a train since arriving in this world.
“Not bad.”
The seats were hard and covered with cheap cloth, but it was fine. Nobles usually rode first class or premium, but I had no idea how long this runaway journey would last—I needed to save every coin.
My plan was to get off in Totlo, travel the northern region through summer, then eventually go meet my brother studying abroad.
I hadn’t thought much beyond that.
I’d figure it out somehow.
After living two lives, one thing was clear: nothing ever went the way I wanted. I’d think about later, later.
For now, the only thing on my mind was getting as far away from the male lead as possible.
