Eleon couldn’t believe it.
Elysia’s lips touched his left cheek, and sparks erupted in front of him as if lightning had struck the spot.
What’s wrong with my heart?
His broken heart was pounding hard as if it were going to bounce out of his body.
“This… before you go to sleep.”
“What?”
“So if you keep this secret, I’ll reward you before you go to bed.”
“Uh. O…okay”
Eleon panicked, and the air quickly turned strange. He and Elysia were awkward.
“Then…then, I’ll go to talk to the butler for a bit.”
Elysia looked into his eyes. It seemed like he was nervous when she wasn’t there earlier.
“Go ahead.”
“Yes.”
As soon as he allowed it, Elysia ran out of the room, covering her cheeks with her hands in embarrassment.
“You want me to treat you as Rona?”
It seemed like she had no idea that her actions were different from ‘Rona’.
“But why did I have that dream anyway?”
Elysia’s funeral.
It was such a bad dream that he didn’t even want to think about it.
“It was so vivid.”
That’s why he felt so bad. Everything seemed so real as if he had seen what really happened.
“Dreams are the opposite of reality.”
Heard something like that somewhere.
“Does that mean that Elysia will live by my side for a long time?”
Eleon tried to find the meaning of the nightmare. If he didn’t, the afterimage would come to mind.
He fought to distract himself.
“Think of something that will make you feel better.”
Elysia.
As soon as he thought of her, a smile appeared on his lips.
“But she’s also Rona.”
As soon as he thought about it, he felt depressed again.
“What should I ask her to do?”
Asking her to change his clothes was unreasonable.
He struggled as her fingertips touched his chest as she unbuttoned his shirt.
He didn’t know if he could meet her eyes, but it was hard for him to see Elysia, flushed and trying to unbutton his shirt.
“Sigh.”
Eleon lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.
“This is the reality.”
He did not want to have such a dream again in which he was aware that such a nightmare could become a reality.
* * * * *
Sabiel smiled with satisfaction for the first time in a long time.
“I like it.”
In his bedroom was placed a beautiful object.
The curved design was similar to a cage in general. It has hooks on the top like a real birdcage as if it could be hung from the ceiling.
Perhaps it was made by a skilled craftsman, but the entire smooth surface seemed to be plated with gold.
It looked so elegant and luxurious that it did not look like an iron cage.
Even the part of the lock that opens and closes the cage door was decorated with a purple amethyst, which was also elegantly decorated.
If anyone doesn’t know the Crown Prince’s impure intentions in bringing such a thing into his bedroom, it was an object that in itself would seem like a precious treasure.
“Good work. I will give you a generous reward.”
“I feel honored. Your Highness.”
The lieutenant bowed his head.
“Is there any answer to my invitation yet?”
“Yes. There are none. Your Highness.”
“Hmm.”
Sabiel frowned.
“Insolents.”
An invitation was sent without the purpose and time of the visit.
The Duke of Yuter wouldn’t know the meaning of it. It was a method related to royal secrets, and it was often used when a prince or emperor, who had reached marriageable age, invited a woman he liked to the palace.
Empress Seraphina had chosen Elysia as his mate from the moment she was born.
It was a blessing to have a crown princess born to a prestigious family like the Yuters.
However, before even officially discussing marriage and engagement, Elysia joined Hadunsha.
The Empress lamented it during that time.
And his mother’s feelings were conveyed to him.
Elysia Yuter was the woman who should have belonged to him.
God took her from me. And now she was about to be taken by that bastard Eleon Clevent.
“How dare you touch what’s mine?”
Sabiel compared Eleon to a guy who rolled from the battlefield crashing into his flower garden with dirt.
He grew impatient at the thought of Eleon.
When he called, the lieutenant ran straight into his bedroom.
“Did you call? Your Highness.”
“Go to the Yuter Dukedom now.”
“Do you mean now?”
“Bring Elysia Yuter. Even if you have to use force.”
“What? But Your Highness, the Yuters are one of the founding families and the descendants of the five gods. If you go too far…….”
“Are you disobeying my orders now!”
The lieutenant kept his mouth shut as Sabiel yelled in annoyance.
“Do not forget who will be the emperor of this empire. Whose glory will your family, your wife, and children bear!”
The lieutenant just kept his mouth shut and his face turned white as he spoke of his family.
“I’ve committed a grave sin. Please forgive me. Your Highness.”
“Hurry up.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the lieutenant ran out.
“You’re so slow.”
This is a place where talented people were really valuable.
Is he unable to understand what I just said once?
Sabiel sighed as if he had to say it twice or three times.
He took out his handkerchief and had an exciting time wiping the gold-plated iron bars.
As much as Sabiel cared for her, he was going to hide her like a treasure. So that no one could see her except him.
He was humming and fantasizing about Elysia being caged.
“Your Highness The Crown Prince.”
The lieutenant returned empty-handed. Seeing this, Sabiel’s face hardened.
“What about Elysia?”
“Your…Your Highness”
The lieutenant got on his knees trembling.
“She disappeared.”
“What did you say?”
“When I went to the Yuter Dukedom, the mansion was overturned. Lady Elysia is said to have run away from home last night.”
“What….”
“The Duke sent people to find Lady Elysia.”
“She ran away? Does that make sense? Where did she go?”
The lieutenant recalled what he had heard at the duke’s residence.
「“If only the Crown Prince hadn’t sent such an invitation”」
「“I know right. Didn’t the Duchess faint as soon as she saw it?”」
「“Lady Elysia must have been so upset that she left the house. She is a precious and kind person.”」
In the Yuter Dukedom, it seemed that Sabiel was the main culprit.
However, if he told the Crown Prince the truth in jest, he didn’t know if he would threaten his family.
“That’s…. that’s because she lost his memory.”
“Why did she lose her memory?”
The lieutenant swallowed dry saliva.
“It is said that she had a hard time staying there because her memories did not return.”
That’s what Laurie said. It wasn’t entirely a lie, as one of the young maids serving Elysia cried and said something similar.
“Find her.”
“What?”
“Chase her now. Obviously, she couldn’t go that far. Find her even if you have to search the entire capital.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After the lieutenant left, Sabiel became furious and began breaking things in his bedroom.
“Alcohol! Bring me the alcohol!”
Sabiel drank a lot of strong liquor and kept smashing precious things in the messy room.
“Huff…huff.”
He collapsed from exhaustion after running rampantly because he could not overcome his anger and fell asleep as if passing out from drunkenness.
Whoosh
Late at night, the candle that had lit up Sabiel’s room was blown out.
Slide
The dark shadows of the furniture stretched as if someone had pulled them.
Soon, a black figure appeared in the prince’s bedroom from the darkness.
It was a man wearing a white mask and a black hooded robe.
“The time has come. Sabiel.”
The man approached Sabiel, who was sleeping in a mess.
As he waved his hands above his head, something moved like a flower blooming from the man’s fingertips, and then flapped its wings and flew into the air.
It was a little bird.
The bird was so black that it was almost invisible as if it were made of total darkness.
The bird fluttered around as the man beckoned to and fro.
Soon the bird landed gently on Sabiel’s forehead, and the man murmured grimly.
“Be faithful to the role imprinted on you.”
To the emperor, the man who was a ‘representative of God’ hypnotized the sleeping Sabiel.
“Then Elysia Yuter will be yours.”
The bird perched on Sabiel’s forehead tilted its head from side to side before fluttering its wings again.
“…… Elysia.”
Suddenly, Sabiel opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
“Elysia.”
Watching him persistently repeating her name, a satisfied laugh leaked out from under the mask that seeped into the darkness.
* * * * *
My Lord has changed.
Elysia thought so. Once upon a time, Eleon wanted to do everything on his own.
He spent a long time practicing and doing it over and over again, slowly improving on what he could do ‘alone‘.
Not only that, he gets upset if he fails. She used to be exhausted trying to calm him down and comfort him.
“Wash my hair.”
Before, the intensity of her work was not that high. From morning to late at night, she never felt exhausted, even though she waited for Eleon all day.
But why did this happen?
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
In these two days, Eleon started asking her to do everything.
“Haven’t you been doing well on your own so far?”
It wasn’t something he couldn’t do if he had to do it over again.
“I wasn’t doing well. There was always soap left.”
“You said before that if you touch it with your hand, you rinse it until you can’t feel the soap anymore. I even checked it out.”
“It didn’t work, so I was wiping it off with a towel.”
Eleon thought that if he said in this way, ‘Actually, I wasn’t doing well‘, she would have nothing to say and would end up helping him.
Elysia sighed, leaving Eleon in the bathtub.
“Sigh.”
Eleon sensitively reacted to the sound and became sad.
“As expected, it’s a bit weird to ask you this.”
“It’s not like that. And it’s definitely not difficult.”
“That’s a relief.”
When Eleon smiled, it was as if a spark lit up the Grand Duke’s spacious bathroom.
As soon as Elysia saw his smiling face, her mental energy boosted.
“Please tell me if it’s hot.”
“Umm.”
She began to gently massage his black hair with soap and bubbles began to foam around her fingers.
Eleon, who is lying in the bathtub with his eyes closed, was still handsome.
He tilted his head back, and his Adam’s apple moved as he breathed.
Elysia felt the urge to kiss him.
I can’t.
Elysia reprimanded herself resolutely.
Wasn’t I too shameful to ask Eleon to treat her as ‘Rona’? I knew better than anyone what was wrong.
If Mariela knew about it, she might drag me away by the hair.
It’s a bit unfair because she’s not her real daughter, and she knows it too, but since she lives in Elysia’s body, she wouldn’t be able to break free of her status in this world.
She sighed as she rinsed Eleon’s hair.
“Ouch!”
Eleon covered his eyes with his hand as the water splashed on him.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Elysia quickly knelt beside him. She covered his dripping head with a towel.
“Ugh.”
“Does it hurt a lot? I thought it wasn’t too much water.”
Eleon embraced her hand that covered his eyes.
“Can’t I call you Elysia for a moment?”
