Chapter 04
Two maids seemed to be washing Kevenriac’s body.
It could have been a simple bath, but something felt off.
It was late at night, and there were sounds of other adults laughing in the background.
Reina opened the door a little wider.
And then—
“….”
The child was in a wooden bathtub.
Moonlight streamed through the window and shone down on the tub, and between the beams of light, white steam was rising.
It wasn’t steam from the bathwater, but from the child’s mouth.
“Hey, His Highness is going to get cold. Add some hot water for him.”
“Where’s the hot water? And His Highness likes his baths cold. Right, Your Highness?”
“…….”
“Of course. For the great royal family of Heteroven, this is nothing.”
“May the glorious Heteroven forever shine!”
The maids and servants scattered around the room laughed mockingly as they smoked cigarettes.
Their careless laughter seemed all too familiar in this kind of situation.
Reina’s heart sank, and her hands began to tremble.
[Don’t forgive them.]
Someone whispered from deep within her consciousness.
But aside from that, Reina felt a cold shiver run through her entire body.
An uncontrollable rage began to rise.
It wasn’t anger toward the entity that had put her into this novel, nor toward the palace or the people who were abusing the child.
No, it was anger toward herself—Reina, no, Andohwa. Anger toward herself.
“….”
What had she said earlier that morning?
To the child trembling in that ice-cold bath.
Hadn’t she given him medicine and said, “Apply it if you get hurt later?”
Because that’s how the original story was. She knew he’d get hurt later.
“What’s…?”
What was this original setting? What was this villainous narrative?
Reina’s gaze met the child’s when she raised her head and stepped into the threshold.
Those round, wide blue eyes—filled with nothing but surprise at seeing her, pure with no emotion behind them.
[For the child, abuse and neglect were everyday things.]
‘Everyday?’
Reina clenched her teeth, grinding them.
And then, without hesitation, she strode directly toward one spot.
“Who—who are you?”
The sound of footsteps echoed.
The child’s pale face came into view.
The small head, completely soaked, released puffs of breath.
“This is not a place anyone can enter… Ahh!”
Clack.
The child’s pale body, so thin that the bones were visible, had new wounds scattered across it.
“Please, please spare me…”
Clack.
The child’s skin reddened, his body trembling like a leaf in the wind, the pain evident, yet…
“Forgive me, please!”
Clack.
Despite it all, the child remained calm—just like the words on the page that said abuse was a daily routine for him.
Reina stopped in front of the wooden bath. The voices of the pleading servants and maids were no longer heard.
They had all been consumed by Reina’s magic.
Only silence enveloped the two of them.
“…Reina?”
Clack. The child’s jaw trembled so violently that it felt like his teeth were about to collide.
Once again, the child’s cracked lips, now bleeding, whispered her name.
He knew her name.
She had seen him only as a character, but…
He had been watching her.
‘Why did I only realize this now?’
The Kevenriac in front of her wasn’t a villain or a tyrant.
He was just an eight-year-old child, who had never received affection from anyone, and who had come to accept the unbelievable abuse as normal.
Reina lifted the trembling Kevenriac out of the bath.
She dried him with magic, then knelt in front of him and wrapped him in her outer cloak, covering his body tightly.
“…Why are you crying?”
Kevenriac asked.
Reina fixed her gaze on her hands as she tied the coat around him and spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
“Ah…”
A clumsy exclamation slipped from the child’s lips.
It wasn’t that he was indifferent to Reina’s tears.
He just didn’t know how to respond in this situation.
Kevenriac had never been comforted by anyone before.
“Your Highness.”
Reina pulled Kevenriac into a tight embrace.
His silver eyes, dimmed before, quietly began to burn with emotion.
What did a villain’s story matter now?
What mattered more than some forgotten promise was that this child in front of her was not hurt anymore.
‘Are you watching?’
Reina thought, as if asking the unknown presence that was interfering with her.
It didn’t matter if it couldn’t hear her thoughts. This was a kind of vow to herself.
‘Is this the ending I promised to protect? The happy ending for the protagonists? If so, I’ll protect it.’
But the happy ending wouldn’t just belong to them.
The child in her arms, still stiff and uncomfortable from the warmth of another person—
This child, too, will be happy.
Reina made up her mind firmly.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
On the continent of Tan, there were two empires.
Seventy years ago, the two suns began a war, each trying to devour the other.
In the end, only one sun remained in the sky, shining its brilliant light across the continent.
Endless glory to Heteroven!
The current emperor of the Betugenia Empire, Cheynol Heteroven, had achieved the dream he had long desired.
The dominance of the continent was now in his grasp.
Everything was thanks to the one sitting in front of him now.
“Are you still thinking about the reward?”
The emperor asked as he placed sugar cubes into his teacup.
At the end of his gaze was the youthful face of a woman whose thoughts were unclear.
“You were the one who suggested taking care of the stuff first, so I thought you were about to speak of a reward for your contributions in the war.”
“……”
Reina Hart.
An eighteen-year-old who seemed impossible to believe, possessing monstrous skills.
No, age wasn’t the issue. There wasn’t anyone with such skills, not just on the Tan continent, but worldwide.
She wasn’t affiliated with the Mage Tower, the imperial palace, or any other group.
Reina Hart was strong, even alone.
“Well, if that’s not your business, it’s fine. But consider my position, having you tied to the imperial palace under the pretense of education. Do you think I only asked you to train a few palace mages?”
That’s why I want to keep her.
I know forcing it would only backfire.
But how can I hold onto someone with no greed for wealth or fame?
“Are you really planning to return to Hibei?”
“……I want to take on the education of the Crown Prince.”
After the tea was served, Reina finally spoke, having been silent up to that point.
The emperor’s brown eyes turned to Reina.
He was the father of Kevenriac, but there was nothing in his face that resembled the child.
The blue eyes and black hair, along with the child’s beauty, were all from the second empress.
“The education of the Crown Prince, you mean the First Prince?”
“No.”
Reina shook her head at the emperor, who was smiling in delight.
“I want to take on the education of the Fourth Prince. I believe that would be the reward you should give me.”
“…The Fourth Prince, huh.”
The emperor stroked his chin.
I see.
The words from the attendant he sent to Reina a few days ago didn’t seem to be nonsense after all.
“She has been keeping an eye on the Fourth Prince’s palace. It seems she had a strong reaction to hearing that the empress does not look favorably on him.”
Upon hearing the report, the emperor took a moment to recall who the Fourth Prince was.
He was a child born from a night of reckless passion, his beauty captivating for a brief time. To be honest, the emperor had almost forgotten about his existence.
Is he still alive?
‘And now he’s caught the interest of Reina Hart…’
An unexpected chess piece.
The emperor smirked slyly to himself.
“I heard a few palace servants disappeared overnight.”
“Really?”
The disappearance of the servants.
Normally, this wouldn’t have even reached the emperor’s ears, as it would have been considered a trivial matter.
But the issue was that the destination of those servants, who left last night, was the Fourth Prince’s palace—something that had recently caught the emperor’s attention.
“Looks like they ran away. The lower ones often do such things like rats, don’t they?”
“I see.”
Reina replied with a neutral tone, giving a formal acknowledgment to the emperor’s words.
“However, there’s something odd. They left all their belongings behind. It’s as if they just stepped out for a moment.”
The emperor, lifting his teacup, casually threw a question toward Reina.
“Did you kill them?”
Reina paused for a moment, then, as if nothing had happened, brought the teacup to her lips.
The reaction was subtle, almost imperceptible to an ordinary person, but not to Cheynol Heteroven. He knew who she was.
Once a man who lived on the battlefield, walking the line between life and death, now a greedy emperor, he would never miss such a scene.
“Just joking.”
The emperor smiled faintly.
The servants who had last gone to the Fourth Prince’s palace had left without a trace, as if they had vanished into thin air.
To think it was possible to make people disappear without a drop of blood or a single piece of flesh.
It was certainly something Reina Hart had done. But who cared about a few insignificant lives?
If the question had pressured her, that was enough.
‘Joking? Does the emperor want me to be trembling in fear?’
But it wasn’t even a real threat. It was just a small irritation, the realization that becoming the child’s teacher wouldn’t be as easy as she thought.
“…Your Majesty, I apologize, but it would be better if you could speak more clearly. Are you suggesting that I, as the Fourth Prince’s teacher, am somehow lacking in some way?”
“What are you saying? How could someone with dragon blood like you be lacking as the Fourth Prince’s teacher?”
“…”
Reina fell silent again.
The emperor placed his hands on his thighs, his posture relaxed.
“It’s fortunate there’s no one else in this room. Now, the secret is between you and me alone. Your master is dead, and it’s a secret only you and I know.”
Thirteen years ago, an old mage had brought a young child before the newly crowned emperor.
“Your Majesty, this child has dragon blood.”
Dragons, the most superior species among all races.
However, because their numbers were so few and they rarely left their nests, sightings of dragons were so rare that they could be counted once every few centuries.
They were a mythical race. And to think this child had dragon blood.
The emperor hadn’t wanted to believe it, but nothing else could explain Reina Hart’s incredible magic and rapid growth.
“Dragon quarter blood means that once they reach adulthood, they never age until they die. How enviable.”
On the day she first carried out one of his orders, the emperor was filled with a sense of superiority.
Watching Reina kneel before him and present the enemy’s flag, he made a vow.
He would make her his own.
“If you become the Fourth Prince’s teacher, will you stay in the palace?”
“I would like to take him back to Hibei.”
“Are you planning to use the prince as a hostage?”
“No.”
Reina answered the emperor’s question without any change in her expression, but her irritation was growing, on the verge of exploding.
‘He’s really acting so high and mighty. Why even offer a reward if he’s going to act like this?’
A month ago, didn’t he say the opposite?
He had promised to grant her anything in gratitude for her achievements in the war.
If that was the case, why didn’t he just follow through without all this unnecessary talk?
But to safely get Kevenriac out of the palace, she needed the emperor’s approval.
‘Hold it together. It’s annoying, but I’ll endure it.’
While Reina simmered with frustration, the emperor continued speaking.
“That would be troublesome. Someone with dragon blood like you is too strong to turn into an enemy.”
“You need not worry about that.”
“Who knows what the future holds? Do you know what your late master left for me?”
The emperor took a small glass vial from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“This is what your master gave me. A way to control someone like you, with dragon’s blood.”
“…It’s a subjugation potion.”
Before her possession, in the real Reina Hart’s memories, she recognized the vial.
At her words, the emperor couldn’t hide his pleased expression and grinned wickedly.
The moment he had long desired had finally come.
“Drink it. And swear eternal loyalty to me. Then, I’ll give you whatever you want—whether it’s the Fourth Prince or any other prince.”
