Chapter 45
Tristan steadied his breath as he gently cupped Maya’s cheek.
“….”
Only then did Maya realize that she was bleeding from her face.
She hadn’t noticed until now, too caught up in the urgency of the moment.
“It must’ve been a shard from the broken pillar earlier.”
It had crumbled quite dramatically, after all.
“Please turn your head just slightly.”
Since there was someone else nearby (Tristan didn’t know much about Seren Baker), he only used a minimal amount of power to stop the bleeding on Maya’s face.
He wanted to heal it completely.
If it were just the two of them, he could’ve.
If it were just the two of them.
As he looked at Maya, Tristan’s eyes darkened, the shadow of his suppressed desires creeping in.
“And… what’s that in your arms?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Tristan quickly began stuffing the documents that had been sticking out of his bag back inside.
“But taking you too far away would be dangerous, considering the surroundings.”
“That’s true…”
There could be more casualties along the way—that much was fact.
“We’ll have to find a place where there’s unlikely to be people. That’s the hard part…”
Of course, for Maya, it wasn’t difficult at all.
The Imperial Palace was a place she had stayed in countless times. She knew it so well, she could walk through it in her sleep.
‘They’ll both probably find it strange…’
Tristan didn’t ask about the oddly specific knowledge Maya seemed to have.
Not when they fought the white-furred beasts in the North, and not now either.
That was why Maya could share what she knew with him freely.
“The training grounds.”
Just like now.
“…Excuse me?”
“The knights here love to slack off. Plenty of them are probably at the banquet instead of training right now.”
She wasn’t wrong—earlier, when they passed through the knight’s quarters, she’d seen quite a few familiar faces.
“The training grounds, huh…”
“It’s that way.”
Tristan hesitated when he looked in the direction Maya pointed.
It was close to the Imperial Library—the very place he had escaped from in such a hurry.
They might still be searching through the library right now.
‘I didn’t expect the emperor to show up.’
If the wyvern hadn’t rushed in when it did, he would’ve been caught.
Still, at least he’d learned something valuable—that Riserfield was his enemy.
‘And that he had impure thoughts about Maya.’
Tristan grit his teeth, recalling what happened in the library.
There was a secret space hidden within the library walls.
He’d found it purely thanks to his own observation skills.
Among the thousands of books on imperial history, there had been one book shelved upside down.
It was located at the very bottom of the bookshelf, in a place where no normal person would even glance.
A spot hidden from all eyes.
‘There’s no reason to place it like that unless someone wanted to mark it.’
Could it be no one had ever noticed?
In the Imperial Library?
When Tristan pulled the book out, he felt something beneath it.
A recessed area—perfect for pressing. So, he did.
With a clunk, the bookshelf split open to reveal a hidden room.
Despite being a secret space, the room was spotless, not a speck of dust.
Clearly, someone visited it regularly.
‘What are they hiding?’
Tristan stepped inside and pulled a roll of parchment from one of the shelves.
“An accident report?”
Inside were records detailing the causes of death for several nobles.
But it wasn’t just about how they died.
[Baron Doshen – Framed as an accidental fall from a cliff by Count Baker]
It was a list of incidents nobles had “taken care of” for the emperor—a collection of leverage, complete with fingerprints of the perpetrators.
This was the source of his power to manipulate the nobility.
‘It’s been too quiet for too long.’
Despite earning the nickname “the Bloody Emperor” for killing his brother to seize the throne, Riserfield had barely killed anyone since.
At the time, Tristan assumed Riserfield had turned to diplomacy to solidify his reign.
Terror ruled through fear, but not loyalty.
‘But it wasn’t diplomacy…’
He had simply eliminated all who wouldn’t bend to his will and kept only those he could control.
As Tristan flipped through the documents, a familiar name stopped him cold.
[Pedro Beyaiden / Julia Beyaiden – Assassinated by Count Baker under orders; covered up as a carriage accident on return from the capital]
Seeing his parents’ names, Tristan froze, a bitter smile playing on his lips.
‘As expected.’
They say the hottest flames burn blue.
His fury, having reached its peak, made his mind eerily calm.
‘So it really was you.’
The Beyaiden family had long been oppressed—since the time Riserfield was just a prince.
Unlike the ambitious Riserfield, Gellion, who had been the crown prince before him, was gentle and kind.
He once wrote to the Beyaidens:
If you come and offer an apology, I’ll forgive what happened. I’d just like to see your faces.
Hoping to finally mend relations with the imperial family, Tristan’s parents traveled to the capital, leaving their young son behind.
The last letter they sent had been cheerful and hopeful:
Tristan, I think things might finally turn out well. Prince Gellion seems to be looking kindly upon our house.
He mentioned trade involving beast materials and building ties with the Imperial Knights—it might benefit us both.
For your future too. We love you.
That was the final letter he received from them.
‘So it all comes out in the end.’
His mouth tasted bitter—not because he didn’t suspect this truth, but because he had still hoped it wasn’t real.
Don’t be arrogant just because you’re descended from dragons.
The Imperial Family is the one chosen by dragons to protect. It’s only right that you show proper respect.
That was what his parents always said when he was young.
The Beyaiden family had respected the Imperial family—even endured persecution.
And in return, they were betrayed.
Hadn’t he endured enough?
“Kiieee!”
His wyvern came rushing toward him.
Thud thud! Loud banging came from the locked library doors.
“Yaaawn…”
“Huh, why am I…”
He could hear the voices of those he’d knocked out starting to wake up.
They were still far, but closing in fast.
Tristan gathered the documents and stuffed them into his bag before leaping from the window.
As he fell, the wyvern expanded its form and caught him midair.
Just as the wyvern soared high into the sky, the doors behind them slammed open.
“Search every corner! An intruder in the imperial quarters!”
Judging from the commotion, it was clearly the room Tristan had entered.
He hadn’t noticed it going in, but it seemed there had been a security spell on the room.
“Find him now!”
A sharp voice rang out below. Tristan looked down.
A man with striking red hair and lavish clothing was barking orders at the flustered soldiers.
His green eyes were anything but warm—cold, murky like a swamp, making Tristan’s skin crawl.
A face soaked in greed, used to lashing out at others in anger.
‘That must be Riserfield.’
Tristan remembered his parents describing Riserfield’s face.
Calm eyes hiding a monstrous tyrant.
“I came to find Maya Pendragon, and what a mess I’ve walked into.”
The sound of Riserfield’s tongue clicking made Tristan flinch.
Tightening his grip on the wyvern’s reins, he furrowed his brow.
‘So they’ve met.’
Riserfield had countless noblewomen clinging to him, but never took any of them seriously.
And yet, this feeling of unease had never been wrong before.
Drowning in self-loathing, Tristan suddenly felt his body shrinking.
His hands grew smaller, his perspective shifted.
‘Why am I so powerless?’
Not even healing magic could help against the curse.
He had no choice but to depend on Maya.
Of course, Maya needed him too.
But the fact that he was ultimately the one relying more—it disgusted Tristan.
He had to break free of this curse, not just for revenge, but to bring down that emperor.
He needed contact.
He had to touch Maya.
But I don’t want that to be the only reason.
This was both for Maya’s sake and his last shred of pride.
Even if it all began because of the curse, he didn’t want their relationship to exist only for that reason.
Why was I cursed in the first place…
Wasn’t it enough to just be overwhelmed by his feelings for her? Why did a curse have to complicate everything?
Tristan frowned.
“T-Tris… I mean, attendant.”
It was Maya’s voice that snapped him out of his thoughts.
