Roderick opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar ceiling. Since that night, the knights had no choice but to relocate the King and Queen’s residence, even without formal orders. The scene they encountered when they opened the door had been far too disturbing.
Everyone tasked with protecting the King wore dark expressions. The commander of the knights, in particular, looked the most stricken.
As soon as the King opened his eyes, the Knight Commander rushed over.
“Your Majesty! Are you all right?”
“What’s there to be all right about? First tell me why I’m here.”
“You were unconscious for several days.”
“…Me?”
Roderick asked again, looking utterly baffled.
“The royal physician found no fatal injuries, but Your Majesty wouldn’t wake up. We were very concerned. …You were coughing blood, too.”
At that, Roderick immediately sat up in bed. But there was nothing wrong with his body. In fact, it felt strangely light—as though his qi* had become more active and free-flowing.
[*T/N: the circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine.]
Watching him anxiously, Jade finally spoke.
“Your Majesty, there is something urgent I must report. You must hear this.”
“What is it?”
“Could you please dismiss the others? It concerns Her Majesty the Queen.”
At those words, Roderick gave a nod of his chin. A gesture to clear the room.
Everyone except the knight commander quickly filed out.
“Go on. Let’s hear it.”
But Jade hesitated. He couldn’t open his mouth right away.
That night, sensing a sharp, acrid smell—mingled with something metallic—Jade had asked forgiveness and opened the door. What he saw, even as a hardened knight, had chilled him to the bone.
The King and Queen were both bleeding from the mouth. Yet the Queen, with her clothes in disarray, was seated upright in the center of the room—crying and laughing at the same time.
Her fingers were tattered, bitten to shreds, and the floor was covered in strange markings drawn in blood. Jade had been speechless for a long time.
“Her Majesty the Queen came to Your Majesty that night. I confirmed with my own eyes that both of you were well before she entered.”
“…”
“But when I opened the door after smelling something burning, both of you were bleeding.”
“She bled again? Is Hailey all right now?”
Startled, Roderick tried to rise and go to the Queen. Even at this moment, his only concern was her safety.
But for some reason, the Knight Commander shook his head and stopped him.
“Her Majesty has also been moved to another chamber. I told her it was for safety, but in truth… I did it on my own authority to begin an investigation.”
“…An investigation?”
Roderick paused. Jade held out a bundle of objects.
“Because Your Majesty was unconscious, I had no choice. I will accept whatever punishment is due for acting without permission.”
“What… is all this?”
Jade swallowed dryly before speaking again.
“That night, Her Majesty locked the door and kept burning something. These are the remaining fragments. And these were found in both Your Majesty’s room and the Queen’s.”
“…”
“To my eyes… they look almost identical in form.”
“…”
“They were hidden behind picture frames, furniture, even inside jewelry boxes.”
It was a bundle of talismans. Roderick’s expression also darkened.
The symbols were strangely familiar to him. He had seen them before—on the handkerchief the Queen had given him, and on her wooden bracelet.
Roderick understood what Jade was trying to say.
This might be the sorcery of the ancient Daemon, the ones who once ruled the continent long ago. Though most people believed their power was nothing more than myth spun by founding legends, the truth was: it had once been real.
Though his suspicions ran in a different direction than the Knight Commander’s, the King had harbored similar doubts.
“…How is Hailey? Is my wife very ill?”
“Her Majesty is all right. She stayed in bed for about a day but never lost consciousness. However…”
When Roderick wordlessly urged him on, Jade hesitated before continuing.
“Your Majesty… that night, Her Majesty was in a very strange state. Her clothes were torn, and her fingers… she had bitten them—there was so much blood…”
“What the hell—”
“The royal physician has already treated her.”
Roderick pressed a hand to his forehead. He tried to rise, intent on going straight to his wife. But Jade blocked him firmly again.
Jade harbored a terrible suspicion—that perhaps the Queen had initially come to harm the King, only to change her mind.
Her behavior that night had been odd from beginning to end, and she had said something strange to him when he opened the door. Upon seeing the King bleeding, Jade had stiffened, but the Queen—tears brimming in her eyes—had said:
“His Majesty is fine. The malice—or rather, the poison—is being expelled. He’ll wake in a few days.”
Jade couldn’t determine the full truth of what had occurred. But he couldn’t completely dismiss the notion that the Queen had caused the chaos in that room.
“Your Majesty. The queen is a Duncan. And after she entered, Your Majesty’s condition worsened and the room was left in ruins.”
“…”
“And the strange paper found in Your Majesty’s chamber… Her Majesty burned them herself.”
Jade’s suspicions were reasonable and logical.
But Roderick, after quietly thinking it through, shook his head. There were still plenty of reasons to doubt, just as his friend had said. But he no longer wanted to become the kind of man who let those doubts override his own heart.
His heart was clear on what it wanted to say.
“Jade.”
“…Yes?”
“You still don’t understand, do you?”
“…”
“The Queen is not someone who would ever betray me.”
And maybe… maybe she’s not really a Duncan at all.
But even more important than that—whether she’s a Duncan or not doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.
No matter who she is, where she came from, or what she’s hiding… I don’t care.
“And truthfully, even if she did betray me, I think I’d be fine with it.”
“Your Majesty!”
Jade cried out, almost in despair, but Roderick’s stance was unwavering.
“She’s the only one allowed to do that to me. Even if it happens… I’ll love her to the end and protect her all the same.”
“…Your Majesty.”
“Take me to the Queen’s chamber. I’ll stop by my room first.”
After patting Jade on the shoulder, Roderick turned toward his own quarters.
And he could feel it clearly now.
His body was light. He could sense even the flow of air around him. He didn’t know why, but he had been gradually growing more attuned to qi—sharper, more sensitive.
That was confirmed once again when he stepped into his room. The energy had shifted. The stability was gone, but it no longer felt ominous either.
The King now had a perception that, while unrealistic by others’ standards, allowed him to see things with much greater clarity.
Something had happened that night, and the Queen had known. She had come to him because of that.
‘You have to dream well tonight too.’
Roderick spoke to those trailing behind him.
“She didn’t try to harm me. She protected me.”
Everyone lowered their heads, and Roderick slowly looked around the room. Aside from the talismans, Jade had preserved the room exactly as it was. The King needed to see it for himself.
Approaching the bed, Roderick picked up the small statue. The wooden totem had a fine crack running through it.
How strange. He had replaced all the wood to prevent this very thing from happening again. And yet, just days after carving it, it had ended up like this.
That meant it wasn’t just a simple carving.
Setting the statue back by the bedside, his gaze shifted to the branch lying nearby.
Most people wouldn’t have recognized it, but as royalty, Roderick did at a glance. It was from Arthur’s Forest.
That tiny thing must’ve run all the way there. On legs that still haven’t fully healed.
And now, he thought he understood why the Queen had done it. There were moments when she’d anxiously urged him to go to Arthur’s Forest—especially when he was sick. She had once pleaded with him to go there. She had looked desperate then.
She might not have known the Royal family’s full history, or even the Duncans’, but she clearly knew something about that forest.
The sacred force passed down through royal generations, said to protect the bloodline of kings.
Roderick let out a long sigh and turned to leave the room. He missed her terribly.
But just as he was about to step out, he froze and looked down at the floor.
There were streaks of blood everywhere.
But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just random blood splatter.
The pattern was familiar.
He had seen the Queen draw similar symbols in the dirt using twigs. He used to think she was just playing around—but now he realized it had never been a game.
Roderick felt like crying. He covered his eyes with one hand.
“…Just how pathetic do you want to make me feel?”
She had bitten her fingers raw to draw those with her own blood.
To protect him.
And she must’ve been in pain. That tiny thing, acting so foolishly…
He couldn’t bear it anymore. He had to see her face—right now.
Roderick turned to go find Lee-Jae. But just then—
“Her Majesty is not in her chambers!”
“…What?”
Roderick’s face hardened instantly. Without another word, he bolted out of the room.
Lee-Jae was in a severely weakened state. She had exorcised an evil spirit unlike any she had ever seen before and drawn protective wards around the room. The only reason she hadn’t collapsed was thanks to the countless trial matches she had endured over the years, whether she wanted to or not.
Grandmother… I guess life really is just a nonstop battle, huh?
That’s the only way you truly grow stronger, my child.
Then why… why doesn’t this experience feel like any kind of victory at all?
The truth was, Lee-Jae felt troubled. She was deeply worried about Hailey’s condition. But the knights only kept repeating that, for safety reasons, they needed her to stay here a little longer.
Lee-Jae, too, had begun to think there might be no hope. The evil spirit had been powerful, and Hailey had already spent too much time in the King’s chamber before it was dealt with.
She was starting to fall into despair. Maybe this is actually imprisonment.
But Lee-Jae was no stranger to reading between the lines. From the way things were going, it wasn’t hard to guess.
Still, she understood. She knew very well how she must have appeared to others that night. And even though she had known it would come to this, she had done what she had to do.
There were no wards in this room, no talismans, no wooden totems. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do anything. She just lay there, unmoving.
Guess I really am burned out, she thought as she finally drifted off to sleep.
