Chapter 06
I recognized the man’s identity at once.
“…The smell of blood.”
The same one I had encountered right after killing the Pope three years ago.
His eyes still aren’t completely red.
A member of <Blood Osbldarun> only gains eyes as red as blood after killing someone.
Yet even though he was an adult, his irises were still pink.
That made him look as though he stood on the boundary between a boy and a young man.
Clearly pink eyes—yet the central pupil was distinctly black, giving him a strangely composed yet oppressive gaze.
His pitch-black hair, dark enough to send chills down one’s spine, suited the pitch darkness perfectly.
Come to think of it… was this the time when <Mist Catobletta> wiped out <Blood Osbldarun>?
Ahak—likely the last survivor of the family—was dying before my eyes.
Even if I had killed the head of <Mist Catobletta>, as long as the family itself remained intact, Ahak’s fate wouldn’t have changed.
So even after watching his parents, siblings… the servants and knights who had been with him since childhood all die right before his eyes…
I let out a slow breath.
He still didn’t kill a single enemy, because of his principle of non-killing?
…Hah. With a strange sense of interest, I stared at Ahak.
Ahak looked at me—standing with the moon at my back—and breathed raggedly.
“…So it’s time for me to die.”
A low, murky voice.
Each time he closed and opened his eyes, the pink shimmered faintly in the darkness.
Thanks to my jewel-like eyes, I often admired my own beauty in the mirror—but perhaps his eyes were even prettier than mine.
“…Am I seeing a demon…?”
His words dragged slightly.
Even from afar, his voice was clear.
Those who had reached a high level in swordsmanship had abnormally developed senses.
I stopped swinging my legs.
Ahak’s gaze met mine.
Though he lay collapsed on the ground, as if sprawled face-down, his eyes alone were as commanding as a ruler. That contradiction was irritating.
<Mist Catobletta> raised troublesome poison assassins.
A defining trait of their sword wounds was that the cuts looked as if they had been burned.
I saw the scars that even his black uniform couldn’t hide.
Blood pooled beneath him, enough to form a puddle.
Doesn’t seem like he recognizes me.
Either he had lost too much blood and was delirious… or I simply wasn’t that memorable.
It wasn’t a look of recognition.
Just a gaze filled with fury.
I didn’t know the despair of watching one’s entire family be wiped out.
I had lost my sister and mother to Taleshet, but I had never faced everyone’s death all at once.
Lightly, I leapt down from the castle wall.
“Do you believe in fate?”
“…?”
He seemed to have already decided I was a demon.
He didn’t even question how an ordinary human could jump down from such a high wall so effortlessly.
“Haven’t you read them? Fairy tales where a princess in danger is saved by a prince who appears at the perfect, fated moment. There are plenty like that.”
I spoke casually, remembering we were the same age.
Suddenly, I recalled what maids had once whispered to me about Ahak.
“They say he’s the most moral among the nobles.”
“Legend says only the most moral person can discover divine relics, my lady.”
Those words overlapped with things I had heard while researching divine artifacts.
Because I wore a pure white dress, the hem was stained red with his blood.
Stelshanin was the wealthiest family in the empire.
The inheritance I had already received was immense by ordinary standards.
This dress might have been more luxurious and expensive than the Empress’s wedding gown—yet I didn’t care as I knelt on one knee and met his eyes.
Blood seeped into the muddy ground of the midnight.
“…Are you human?”
“And if I’m not?”
I smiled brightly and asked back.
It would be too much of a waste to simply let him die.
I wasn’t one to easily praise appearances, but Ahak was far more beautiful than even my father.
“……”
Ahak’s gaze had grown dull and unfocused.
The look of someone losing consciousness… someone on the verge of death.
Normally, a person would have already died from blood loss at this point, but—
I did hear that <Blood Osbldarun> has exceptional regenerative abilities.
It seemed the power within his bloodline was what kept him alive.
I looked toward the forest stretching behind him.
It was impressive enough that he had made it this far while escaping the relentless pursuit of poison assassins.
Still, leave him for five more minutes and he’ll die.
Would it be too much to call it fate—that I just happened to find him?
“Shall I save you?”
I asked softly, brushing Ahak’s cheek with my palm as he looked up at me.
Blood trickled from his lips, staining my hand. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the blood seemed slightly pink.
Usually, when I smiled warmly this close, men would easily fall under my charm—
So he’s chaste before marriage.
Even as he was dying, there was no sign he was drawn to me.
I withdrew my hand.
Reaching toward the sky, I sang a song like a requiem.
From afar, with a tearing sound, a phoenix flew in.
“Save that man.”
A magical beast that only <Sun Stelshanin> could tame—the phoenix.
Flapping its blazing wings like the sun, it obeyed my command and shed tears over the man.
One drop was enough.
Ahak’s wounds would now begin to heal.
The phoenix scattered flames from its wings before gracefully flying away.
Since it takes five years for a phoenix to shed even a single tear, the man would not die.
“…If you’re not a demon, then what…?”
I silently watched Ahak as he soon lost consciousness.
I picked up a man in the middle of the night and brought him back.
“My, he’s handsome.”
Since his eyes were closed, no one recognized Ahak right away.
Even the emblem on the uniform proving his <Blood Osbldarun> lineage had been burned away.
I didn’t bother revealing his identity.
“I picked him up because it’d be a waste to let him die.”
“You did well, my lord.”
“Handsome men are always right!”
Even the maids of Stelshanin were extraordinary, so despite bringing in a blood-soaked man, they all remained calm.
I liked bright castles, so the interior was well-lit even at night.
A grand chandelier, a spacious room, trays overflowing with desserts.
“Hmm, I had to clean the dried blood, so I took off his clothes… that’s not harassment, right?”
“Of course not, my lord.”
“Even though it’s on my bed?”
“He should feel honored to be the first man to lie on your bed. There’s nothing to worry about.”
The smiling maid was entirely on my side.
Popping a cherry from the cake into my mouth, I looked down indifferently at Ahak, his upper body exposed.
Under bright light rather than darkness, his appearance was even more dazzling.
He had that unmistakable noble elegance.
His sharp features practically radiated wealth.
Well, he is the legitimate heir.
Seeing a man who had likely enjoyed every privilege since birth gave me a strange feeling.
I had never once thought someone had a “beautiful bone structure” before.
Even his body is beautiful.
Though his skin bore many sword wounds, his frame and lean muscles were well-shaped enough not to be unpleasant.
“Even so, I didn’t think the poison assassins of <Mist Catobletta> would fail…”
I spoke while touching the complex blue geometric pattern engraved on Ahak’s chest.
—Hum.
The pattern resonated.
Like a paper cut, a small bead of blood formed on my finger, and I sucked my index finger lightly.
“Is that a poison insect?”
“Yeah. And quite a nasty one.”
“How did he end up targeted by the poison assassins of <Mist Catobletta>?”
“Well, that’s as far as your curiosity should go.”
I smiled gently, and the maid quickly bowed, realizing she had crossed a line.
“Everything will go as you will, my lord.”
Since <Mist Catobletta> was still pursuing Ahak, it was best to keep things secret.
After all, it would hurt my pride if he died while under my protection.
“At the very least, it’s a superior-grade poison insect.”
I finished my diagnosis with an indifferent face.
The ‘Mist Poison Insect.’
It turned the infected into a mad killer at some unpredictable moment.
A curse waiting to explode.
There was only one known way to suppress it—but if the man was chaste before marriage, that method was useless.
I took Ahak’s hand and examined it closely.
Judging by the thick calluses… he’s held a sword for at least ten years.
If such a man suddenly lost control under the curse—
In the dead of night, while everyone slept, he might slaughter every servant in my castle… and come for me next.
A man who had upheld a lifelong principle of non-killing—if he rampaged even once, I couldn’t begin to imagine how far he’d go.
And once madness took over, removing the poison insect would become even more difficult.
“I only picked him up thinking he might be useful.”
As I stood up from the bed without hesitation, the maids bowed respectfully.
“Shall we assign someone to nurse him, my lord?”
“No need for that.”
“Then…?”
“Put a shackle around his neck.”
If the curse activated in the middle of the night, it would be troublesome.
I needed a safety measure—just in case.
“We obey your command.”
Ahak was sweating coldly, hovering between life and death.
“This is the first time you’ve brought a man back, isn’t it?”
“He doesn’t seem like a slave… more like a noble’s son.”
“As expected, even your taste is refined, my lord…”
Even after leaving the room, the maids’ admiring whispers reached my ears clearly.
All the rude ones had already been killed, so everyone under my command was loyal to me.
“My lord.”
“Hmm? Ah, thank you.”
I drew the Rose Sword from the scabbard a knight offered me.
Then I touched it to the stained hem of my dress.
The red bloodstains moved to the tip of the blade, and the dress returned to pure white.
“Close the castle gates and release the hounds into the mountains.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“It rained all day yesterday. There’ll be fog tomorrow.”
I gazed out the dark window, then turned away.
Since I had given my bed to Ahak, I planned to sleep in another room.
