Chapter 27

After all the back-and-forth banter, we finally arrived at the Prince’s palace—  

Only to be told that Esadien was out.

“The Prince would’ve been delighted to see you. I’m terribly sorry,” his attendant said, bowing deeply.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Has His Highness been doing well lately?”

“Yes, though… he’s become quite busy.”

Busy?

‘Did the Emperor or Crown Princess assign him some kind of task?’

I was curious, but pestering the attendant with questions felt inappropriate, so I let it go.

‘I’ll find out next time I see him.’

That’s what I told myself. But I couldn’t shake this vague unease, and found myself glancing around the palace again and again.

“What are you doing, Minuelle?”  

Until Ramande hurried me along.

A few days later, I returned to the capital with Sister Elga, who was scheduled to meet the Crown Princess.

But once again, Esadien was out.

‘He really must be busy these days…’

Still, since I was already here, I accepted Sister Elga’s offer to spend some time together and followed her to the Crown Princess’ palace.

“Well, well, who do we have here! My darling, my beautiful Minuelle came too? Did I have a prophetic dream or what?”

The Crown Princess greeted us with open arms, beaming as she pulled me into a hug.  

She practically acted like Sister Elga—the one she was actually meeting—was invisible. I was embarrassed out of my mind, but they were so close that neither of them seemed to care.

“But where’s Lady Celeste? I don’t see her.”

I asked out of courtesy… and maybe just a little curiosity. She was still technically the heroine, after all.  

I’d half expected to run into her here, but maybe she was at the main palace.

The Crown Princess’ answer wasn’t far from what I’d assumed.

“His Majesty summoned her for company. It’s been a while now, so I imagine she’s gone home by now.”

Leaving work early, huh. Living the dream.

“Is she doing well?”

“Hard to say. She doesn’t talk much about herself.”

From the Crown Princess’ response—and the way the palace staff acted—it didn’t seem like she was getting along particularly well here either.

“And the prince? Has he been given any duties lately? He seems awfully busy.”

“Eddie? I’ll include him in expeditions if he asks, but otherwise, I don’t assign him much. He hates drawing attention to himself.”

“I see…”

While Sister Elga and the Crown Princess chatted quietly, I sat there like a broken doll, sipping tea again and again.

‘Why do I feel uneasy again…’

It was like someone had pressed a block of ice to the middle of my back.  

No matter how much warm tea I drank, I couldn’t shake the chill.

 

* * *

 

That day, after returning home, I wrote a letter to Esadien for the very first time.

[It feels awkward writing to ask how you are—I’ve never done this before.]

That’s how the letter began.  

It meandered through a brief update on my own life and eventually wrapped up with a suggestion that we meet sometime, if he had the time.

But the reply that came back late the next afternoon in the hands of a royal courier read simply:

[The Crown Princess has entrusted me with urgent tasks. I don’t have time to spare. I’m sorry.]

The letter slipped from my hand and dropped to the floor.

—Beep.

A high-pitched ringing pierced my ears, and my head throbbed dully with pain.

‘If I hadn’t spoken with the Crown Prince yesterday and asked directly, I probably would’ve believed this.’

My vision swam, and I tipped my head back, pressing a hand to my forehead.

‘Or… maybe it would’ve been better not to know anything at all.’

When Esadien had once come to visit me during an illness, he had said:

“Even if love cannot be expected between us, I believe there must at least be honesty and trust…”

Trust…

‘Between the Crown Princess and Esadien—whose words should I believe?’

They say love is built on trust. So… should I choose to trust Esadien?

Maybe the Crown Princess just couldn’t speak of certain things in front of an outsider. Maybe I should think of it that way.

“Haa…”

That heat began to well up inside me again.

I now understood it was a residue of the elemental spirit’s power.  

But even knowing that didn’t help. It still felt like something hot and smoldering was burning inside me, like a coal that refused to die out.

“Minuelle, can I come in?”

Right then, I heard a knock, followed by Ramande’s voice outside the door.

But I had no energy left to answer.

Even my eyeballs burned, and I squeezed my eyes shut. My arm dropped limply to the side, and hot breath spilled from between my lips.

“It’s dinner time. Let’s head down.”

“…”

We’d been together not even thirty minutes ago, Ramande and I.  

I was never one to wander around aimlessly.

“Minuelle?”

He must’ve started to worry when I didn’t respond.

The door creaked open softly—  

Then came the sound of hurried footsteps rushing over.

“Minuelle! What’s wrong?!”

“Don’t shout… it’s making my head ring…”

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

Ramande’s cool hand pressed gently to my forehead and cheek. Without meaning to, I leaned into that refreshing palm with a faint groan.  

He clicked his tongue.

“You’re running a fever again.”  

Without another word, Ramande scooped me up and carried me to the bedroom.

“I’ll bring you dinner. Just rest here.”

Of all days, I’d chosen to wear something that hugged my waist tightly.  

As I sat on the bed, Ramande reached around to loosen the ribbon at the back of my dress.  

I feebly raised a hand to stop him.

“Why?”

“I don’t want to worry Mother and Father. I’ll just… go down for dinner.”

“You know suppressing this with divine power is only temporary.”

“That’s enough for now. Really. It’s not that I’m sick, it’s just…”

“Just? You’re clearly unwell, and you’re saying it’s ‘just’ something?”

Ramande frowned. His gaze dropped to the paper still clutched in my hand.  

The letter had more blank space than words, so it only took a second for him to read it.

His eyes widened briefly, then hardened.

“…Sigh.”

He exhaled deeply, then said:

“Your eyes are bloodshot. Close them.”

“…Okay.”

I leaned against him as I shut my eyes.

“Take a deep breath.”

Divine power poured into me, wrapping around my whole body like a wave.  

Ramande’s power—so familiar, so gentle.

I felt like a butterfly wrapped in a cocoon of divinity.  

I thought this warmth would bring peace to my heart, but all I could think about was Esadien.

“I keep thinking about you… and I don’t know what to do.”

Such a foolish prince.

‘Now I’m the one who doesn’t know what to do.’

I wanted to ask Theodore for advice—he’d spent more time with Esadien than anyone.  

But after Juela’s wedding, he was dispatched again to the desert region.

“I should never have said I’d wait for him.”

The words slipped out in bitter regret.

“I should’ve just kept doing what I was doing…”

I should’ve worn out the threshold of the Prince’s palace, stuck by Esadien’s side like always.

But like always, regret came too late.  

Everything was starting to unravel, one thread at a time.

 

* * *

 

A few more gloomy days passed—days where I drooped like a wilted foxtail weed.  

It was around then that the truth about what had happened between the Second Prince and Esadien finally reached my hands.

“Good heavens. This isn’t just ‘something between the two of them.’ It’s outright abuse.”

The torment had begun as soon as Esadien entered the Imperial palace.

The petty assaults were too numerous to count, and two incidents stood out as especially horrifying.  

One—early in his knight training, the Second Prince had bribed fellow trainee knights to gang up on Esadien and beat him.

Two—during a mountain training exercise, he gave Esadien a falsified map, kidnapped him, and attempted to sell him off as a slave.

“The person who rescued him… was Yugatis Karnian. The knights, and my mother?”

‘I accepted the engagement only to repay the Emperor and the Grand Duchess for the favor they showed me.’

“So that was the favor he meant.”

Even cover-ups have their limits.

Naturally, the Emperor had been informed of the kidnapping.  

The Second Prince had knelt and groveled before the furious sovereign, but in the end, he was shipped off to Chitrum under the guise of “studying abroad.”  

Of course, calling it “studying” was laughable. He’d returned to the Empire only a handful of times since. Anyone could see it was half-exile.

I closed the flimsy report and let out a long sigh.

“So there was a villain worse than me, huh?”

Esadien had become a Prince at just nine years old.  

What could a child that young have done to deserve such cruelty?

“It must’ve been unbearable…”

The thought of a small, fragile Esadien silently enduring all that—for the sake of the emperor who accepted him—made my chest ache.

If only I’d met Esadien sooner.  

If I’d been able to help him the way I once helped Ramande…

“I miss him…”

This pity I felt, this sorrow that had wrapped around me lately—  

It was all because I liked him. Because I loved him.

Only now… did I truly understand that.

“I have to trust him. I said I’d wait.”

I had to believe in those words: “I keep thinking about you, and I don’t know what to do.”

“I miss you, Esadien.”

Even if I couldn’t go back to his drawing room—the one that used to feel like our own little world—  

If I could just see his face again, hear him tell me it would be okay… I really would be okay.

My eyes stung, but instead of tears, what welled up—

—was blood.

“Nngh… ngh…”

Ever since I absorbed that fireball, the fury in my chest had only grown more violent.  

Or was that just my imagination?

Before anyone could see, I shoved the bloodied handkerchief beneath the ashes of the fireplace.  

But my fingers trembled, without any clear reason why.

 

* * *

 

“I’m sorry, Lady Karnian.”

But the resolve I had so painstakingly built up that day shattered the moment I visited the Prince’s residence.

“……”

There was still no reply from Esadien. Once again, he was away.

“Milady?”

The sight of a stranger, in servant’s livery, plummeted my already sour mood straight into the ground.  

Once upon a time, I visited the Prince’s residence as often as I ate meals.  

I knew the staff here as well as the Head Chamberlain himself.

But the servant now observing my expression with concern—  

I could say with certainty I was seeing him for the first time.

“It’s nothing. His Highness being busy is no fault of yours.”

“If Your Ladyship wishes, I’ll inform His Highness that you visited—”

“That won’t be necessary.”

I shook my head and strode past the servant without hesitation.

“L-Lady Karnian?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just thought I’d take a look around—something seems different.”

Yes. Esadien’s haven had changed.

A stranger for a servant. New touches in the décor. A shift in the atmosphere.

‘What happened while I was away…?’

I bit my lip hard and pushed open the door to the drawing room closest to his bedchamber.

I was immediately hit by a thick, cloying scent of chocolate so sweet it was almost sticky.

“……”

Speechless, I looked around the room.