Chapter 32
“If I get kicked out of here, I’ll die anyway. So why would I lie? Isn’t that right?”
Caspian was correct. After looking closely at his face, Kylenn realized he had seen this man a few times before.
But the man sitting in Winterford Castle’s underground prison was so damaged that it was hard to believe he was the same Adam he’d seen in the imperial palace.
When Kylenn raised his hand, the knight holding Adam’s hair roughly let go.
Adam’s head dropped forward with a thud, and he suddenly burst into crazed chuckles.
Kylenn walked to the empty chair in front of Adam and sat down. As he crossed his long legs, the tip of his shoe entered Adam’s line of sight.
“Y-Your Highness!”
Adam lifted his head and struggled, the chains binding his hands and feet scraping loudly against the stone floor.
“P-Please spare me. Please. Please!”
His lips must have burst open again, because saliva and blood dripped steadily onto the ground.
“Why should I?”
Kylenn’s chilling voice echoed through the underground prison.
Adam Povik didn’t despair at Kylenn’s coldness.
“I—I have information that might interest you, Your Highness.”
Kylenn stared at desperate Adam without a word.
Adam couldn’t tell what Kylenn was thinking. Seeing no reaction, he hurried to speak again.
“Your—Your Highness, please, ugh!”
Caspian stabbed Adam in the abdomen with the sword still sheathed at his hip.
There was no blood since the blade hadn’t been drawn, but the pain was enough to twist Adam’s face.
“He is Duke now. If you came to beg for your life, then use the proper title.”
Coughing violently, Adam nodded hard.
Curling up in pain, Adam eventually lifted his head with difficulty.
“Your Grace. If you spare my life, I’ll tell you everything I know.”
It seemed Adam Povik had been abandoned by the Empress.
The endings of the Empress’s lovers were all similar.
They died from illness, were attacked by mysterious assailants, or simply disappeared one day.
Adam, who had lost the Empress’s favor, should have met the same end. Yet here he was, in faraway Winterford, begging not just anyone but Kylenn to save him.
“Fine. Shall we negotiate, then?”
At Kylenn’s words, hope flared in Adam’s pale blue eyes.
“T-The Empress has recently been looking for noble young ladies.”
Adam glanced at Caspian and the other knights, then finally paused and looked at Kylenn again.
“She’s searching for a Crown Princess.”
Kylenn let out a small laugh. But he quickly wiped the expression away, his brows tightening.
Seeing his reaction, Adam leaned forward nervously and added:
“She’s only pretending to search—she already knows who the final candidate is—”
“Florence Hernia.”
Before Adam could finish, Kylenn said the answer for him. Adam’s jaw dropped.
“I know everything about the Empress—what time she wakes up, what she eats for breakfast, how many cigarettes she smokes a day, and which men come and go from her bed. Every damn thing.”
Kylenn’s low voice spread coldly across the stone floor.
“And someone like me—”
He uncrossed his legs, leaned forward, and rested his elbows on his knees.
“—you think I wouldn’t know what woman she plans to tie to Ferdinand?”
Adam’s frostbitten and scraped hands began to tremble.
“But—but! If the Hernia duchy joins hands with the Crown Prince, then Your Grace will—”
So he wasn’t completely stupid. He understood what would happen to Kylenn if the Hernia family sided with the Crown Prince.
It seemed he hadn’t been completely useless while wagging his tail beside the Empress.
Well, he had eyes and ears—he couldn’t be totally clueless.
Kylenn twisted the corner of his mouth and stood up.
“Take him away.”
He had wasted enough time.
Kylenn buttoned his coat again, irritation showing in every movement. Caspian watched him, then looked toward the knights.
“Handle it quietly.”
“Yes, sir!”
Their voices boomed through the underground prison.
“N-no! Let go! I—I still have more! Let go! I said LET GO, you bastard! Your Grace! Please—just give me a moment!”
When the knights grabbed him, Adam thrashed and screamed.
Ignoring the commotion, Kylenn walked toward the exit of the prison without hesitation.
He passed the thick iron door and began to climb the stairs when Adam shouted:
“T-The Empress seemed to need money!”
Kylenn froze instantly. Caspian also stopped and turned his head.
“Y-Yes! That’s right! I’m sure of it!”
Seeing Kylenn stop, Adam quickly changed his words from “seemed” to “certain.”
Kylenn paused, staring at nothing as if thinking, then turned back and approached Adam again. He sat in the same chair as before.
“If you opened your mouth recklessly just to get my attention, you’d better prepare yourself.”
His low voice pressed against Adam’s throat like a blade.
Adam swallowed hard and nodded violently.
Kylenn said nothing else, simply staring into Adam’s eyes, waiting. Trembling, Adam clasped his hands tightly and began rambling.
“I-It was a little while ago. Maybe a few weeks before Your High—no, Your Grace got married.”
Adam’s eyes darted everywhere, unable to stay still. With anxiety clouding his gaze, he spoke haltingly.
“Speak properly. You’re not making this up, are you?”
Caspian’s annoyed voice accompanied his hand moving toward his sword.
“N-No! Please—water. I need water.”
Adam grabbed his throat, panicked.
The knights snorted in disbelief, but when Kylenn nodded, one of them brought water.
Half of it spilled, half was swallowed. Adam gulped it down and caught his breath before exhaling slowly.
“A guest came to the Empress’s palace in the middle of the night.”
“When exactly?”
“I—I don’t remember the exact date…”
Adam shrank into himself.
“It was a man. I don’t know who he was. He came to the palace only once while I was there, and never returned until I was thrown out.”
It was a late night in late autumn. The man who had visited seemed to be someone the Empress knew well.
Adam, worried that she might already be interested in someone other than him, pressed his ear to the small door between the bedroom and reception room and listened to their conversation.
“They didn’t talk long.”
“Get to the point.”
Startled by Caspian’s growl, Adam quickly continued:
“H-He asked her to sell a mine.”
Kylenn’s brows furrowed sharply.
“A mine? The Empress?”
“Yes!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Our intelligence network shows no change in ownership among the mines she controls.”
“That—That’s correct. She didn’t want to sell the ownership of the mine. She wanted to sell the exclusive distribution rights for the Torpaz produced from it.”
Caspian glanced at Kylenn. As if having the same thought, he ordered one of the knights to fetch Dylan.
“They said they’d slowly increase the monopoly ratio so others wouldn’t notice—”
“Which mine?”
Kylenn cut him off. Adam pressed his lips together and shook his head.
“I… I didn’t hear that part.”
Was that the key?
Adam clenched his hands. Watching Kylenn turn away coldly, that night’s memory resurfaced on its own.
He searched desperately for more details, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember which mine’s Torpaz rights were being sold.
He had felt relieved when he realized the midnight visitor wasn’t a new lover, and simply returned to bed. Now he regretted it deeply.
Back then, he had no idea how much money Torpaz distribution rights could generate—a fact he learned only much later.
“Couldn’t she have just changed the distribution route? Why did you think the Empress needed money?”
At Kylenn’s question, Adam suddenly lifted his head, as if seeing one last strand of hope.
