Episode 4
The schedule Anne brought back was simple.
Kallian held his usual morning meeting for about two hours, then went out on patrol and monster subjugation.
After that, he returned to the castle, washed up, toured nearby villages, and handled paperwork.
Very ordinary.
That was Asterophe’s first thought.
Yes. His schedule never changed.
What surprised her was that she was only remembering this now.
Had he really been so unimportant in her daily life that she couldn’t remember a routine repeated for years?
He had been far too sincere and too good a man to lose his life for someone like her.
Especially when it came to monster subjugation.
Serpwood was a dangerous region that had to kill monsters regularly.
If they failed, monsters would descend into civilian villages.
That was why patrols were constant.
Unless something urgent came up, Kallian always joined once a day.
Three mornings a week, four afternoons.
When Kallian led the subjugation, they killed far more monsters in a much shorter time.
The people felt safer because of him.
Serpwood had once been an abandoned land, so elderly residents often talked about the time before and after Kallian arrived like heroic legends.
And there was something even more important.
In the past, Asterophe had used this subjugation time very effectively.
She remembered now.
This was the time when she exchanged secret letters with Billish.
The person who brought her Billish’s letters was a skinny old man.
A nameless beggar who always came asking for food.
Asterophe would give him bread and milk, and he would hand her a letter.
The exchange always happened when a black flag was raised, signaling that Kallian had entered the patrol area.
That flag was the signal.
After reading the letter, Asterophe always burned it immediately.
That was why there was no evidence of how vile Billish Numa was, or what she had done with him.
Right now, Kallian was a loyal subject.
Yes.
Evidence.
That could become proof.
This time, Asterophe decided she would not burn the letter.
She would show it to Kallian.
What if he executed her as a traitor?
No.
That wouldn’t happen.
She knew it just by looking into his eyes.
Kallian Onyx loved her far too much.
Why?
That was what confused Asterophe.
It wasn’t because of her looks.
Kallian himself was incredibly handsome.
Even if not as beautiful as her, countless women would have followed him gladly.
Was it her innocent personality?
Anyone could fake that.
Only then did Asterophe realize something.
She had received Kallian’s love without having anything special at all.
“What if it’s different this time? What if Kallian likes another woman? What if he ends up hating me?”
Since she had decided to kill Billish Numa, the future might unfold differently from before.
And it already had.
Yesterday, she had asked Kallian to kill Billish.
What if, in this life, Kallian and Billish ended up on the same side?
What if she died like a dog again?
There was no one she could truly trust.
When the man she trusted most, Billish Numa, turned his back on her, not a single person stood on her side.
Kallian’s knights all died.
The people of Serpwood lost their lord and lost their strength.
They believed Asterophe was involved in Kallian’s death.
They hated her.
They had never loved her in the first place, so their hatred was even harsher.
The people of the capital hated her as the wife of a traitor.
The people of Serpwood hated her as the woman who killed their lord.
There was no one who loved her.
The coldness.
The daily torture.
The hunger and the freezing cold.
Just thinking about it made her fingertips go numb.
But no matter what, the only person she could trust now was Kallian.
Right now, Kallian Onyx loved her.
She didn’t know why.
But that fact mattered.
Keeping that love alive mattered too.
Asterophe thought carefully about what she could do.
But sitting inside and thinking wouldn’t give her any answers.
Breakfast was completely different from before.
In the past, she would have eaten a few almonds and warm milk.
Now, she ate two freshly baked loaves of bread and several slices of ham that had been cured in a salt cave all winter.
She didn’t forget the thin yogurt mixed with honey and blackberries.
The kitchen maids stared at her strange appetite, but Asterophe had no intention of explaining herself.
She only sighed in admiration.
“This tastes amazing.”
The Asterophe who ate with tiny, polite bites was gone.
She tried to eat as much and as fast as possible.
She remembered desperately shoving food into her mouth because it would be taken away if she didn’t.
No one was chasing her now, but the habit remained.
After washing the grease from her hands, Asterophe went into the garden.
A large black flag was flying over the castle walls.
It meant Kallian had left for subjugation.
And that meant the skinny old man would come.
Asterophe took bread and milk from the kitchen and headed to the back door.
The maids already had a basket prepared, knowing she often brought food around this time.
Some maids probably knew she was exchanging letters with someone.
Maybe they stayed silent.
Maybe they told Kallian.
But Kallian must have refused to believe it.
Did he really love her that much?
Why?
Asterophe wondered about Kallian’s pure devotion.
Was she his first love?
Was first love really that special?
Billish had been her first love too.
She had been just as blind as Kallian.
Neither of them knew love could become poison.
Love was ridiculous.
A dangerous potion that made people miserable most easily.
Thinking that, Asterophe walked to the back door.
No maids followed her.
She had scolded them repeatedly over the past year, telling them to leave her alone.
What if she had been assassinated?
Only now did that thought strike her.
She decided that from now on, she would take Anne with her every day.
Now that she had decided to betray Billish, if he discovered it, she might be killed even sooner.
To Asterophe, death still felt closer than life.
“Please… give this old man some bread…”
The old man wandered near the back door, muttering.
It sounded like a code meant for her.
Asterophe handed him the basket.
His hands were nothing but bone, with blackened nails.
He took the bread and milk, then slipped a letter from his sleeve into the basket.
“May the blessing of the gods be with you.”
The old man walked away, giggling.
His voice sounded strangely familiar.
Whose voice was it?
She couldn’t remember.
Maybe he was one of Billish’s underlings she had seen in prison.
Or maybe it was just because she hadn’t heard the old man’s voice in a long time.
She had heard it many times before, after all.
“Why does everything feel unlucky today?”
She muttered and turned back toward the door with the letter.
But after only a few steps, she stopped.
“Madam… were you just giving bread to a beggar?”
It was Chester, Kallian’s right-hand knight.
Asterophe checked that the cloth covering the basket still hid the letter, then spoke calmly.
“Yes. All people of Serpwood are under my care. Even beggars.”
“Y-yes, of course. But it’s strange that you always sneak out the back door and give food only to that old man. It’s almost like you knew he’d be here.”
Chester was sharp.
And it was more dangerous for Billish’s secret to reach Chester than Kallian.
Kallian’s knights were loyal.
Even if they died for it, they would kill Asterophe if she betrayed their lord.
“Yes. I knew.”
“What?”
“The old man knows I’ll come. Whenever the Grand Duke goes out for subjugation, I walk around the back and side doors giving bread and milk to beggars.”
“Hahaha. Please don’t joke, Your Grace. There’s no way you’d do that for the people of Serpwood.”
Chester was laughing, but his words were pointed.
In truth, Asterophe had never cared about the people of Serpwood.
They weren’t her people.
She had believed Serpwood would be meaningless once she became empress.
But there was no reason to expose that truth.
“Do you not see me as the Grand Duchess?”
Asterophe asked coldly.
Chester frowned.
“What blasphemous words are those? If His Grace heard that, I’d lose my head.”
“Then why ask such questions? While the Grand Duke risks his life fighting monsters, this is all I can do. I didn’t make a show of it because there was no need. Next time you see that old man, ask him yourself. Ask if the Grand Duchess has given him bread and milk before. And how often.”
Asterophe spoke confidently and walked past Chester.
At that exact moment, a strong wind blew.
The cloth covering the basket was lifted.
