Chapter 38
By now, Luke should have shown up and started being his usual annoying self.
But strangely, there was no sign of him.
Puzzled, Claudia immediately went to Nathan.
“Claudia.”
Recognizing her, Nathan halted his conversation with the ship’s captain.
After dismissing the captain, he ushered Claudia inside.
“Finished making the antidote? Does this mean we can finally spend some time together?”
“Yes, it’s all done now. But…”
“Hm?”
“I haven’t seen Luke since earlier. Did something happen?”
The faint smile on Nathan’s face instantly hardened.
His expression darkened into something terrifying—one Claudia had never seen before.
“I was just about to bring that up. I heard you were pushed off the cliff. By him. Is that true?”
“……”
Claudia couldn’t answer right away.
Officially, she was the future crown princess.
Even if her relationship with Nathan was purely contractual, that fact didn’t change.
‘If I say yes here, Luke won’t make it out alive. He’d be guilty of attempted assassination of the crown princess.’
The punishment for that would be brutal.
So Claudia hesitated.
She knew her answer could determine a man’s fate.
‘I don’t think he meant to push me…’
She clearly remembered the panic in Luke’s eyes when she fell.
He had even reached out as if trying to grab her.
‘What should I do?’
As her silence dragged on, Nathan pressed in a stern voice.
“Don’t try to protect him. Be honest. You’re not seriously covering for someone who tried to kill you, are you?”
Kill. A heavy word.
Claudia didn’t want to use it.
And something about applying it to Luke felt… off.
“Can I talk to Luke first before answering?”
“Talk to him? Why? All you have to say is whether he pushed you or not.”
“Um…”
Seeing her hesitate, Nathan saw right through her.
“…So he did push you.”
“W-Why would you think that…?”
“If he hadn’t, you would’ve denied it immediately. The fact that you’re stalling is proof.”
Nathan knew Claudia well.
If it weren’t true, she would’ve said so outright.
She wasn’t the type to falsely accuse someone of attempted murder.
“It’s just…”
Claudia averted her gaze.
Frustrated, Nathan dragged a hand down his face.
“Why… Why are you defending him? He pushed you off a cliff. That means he tried to kill you.”
“…It might not have been intentional.”
Clenching her teeth, Claudia continued.
“Intent changes the weight of the crime. That’s why I want to confirm first. No matter how much I dislike Luke, I can’t let him face an unfair punishment.”
“Listen carefully. Pushing someone standing at the edge of a cliff is attempted murder. ‘Might not have been intentional’? That’s nonsense.”
Even after this, Claudia still seemed reluctant to label Luke a murderer.
Nathan made a decision.
He would show her what he had originally planned to hide—for fear of hurting her.
She still didn’t understand the depths of human malice, and he needed her to see it.
“Look at this.”
What he pulled out was a tattered scrap of fabric.
It was so shredded its original shape was unrecognizable.
But Claudia knew instantly from the texture and color.
“This is… the dress I gifted Nayla?”
“Look closely at the tears. You can tell it was slashed with something sharp—a dagger or glass.”
Claudia examined the shredded edges carefully.
Then it hit her—how the dress had ended up like this.
Her hands trembled as she held the fabric.
“Did… Nayla do this?”
“Obviously.”
A surge of emotion burned in her chest.
For a moment, Claudia couldn’t move.
‘How could she go this far…?’
Even if it hadn’t worked out, she had tried to accept Nayla as a sister.
She had even gifted her favorite dress to cheer her up.
But the dress she gave as a peace offering had returned to her—
Mutilated beyond recognition.
Nathan’s low voice cut through her thoughts.
“Don’t assume everyone has good intentions toward you.”
Nathan, born under a cursed fate, was more familiar with malice than kindness.
To him, Claudia was still naive—and that scared him.
The thought of her getting hurt by someone’s sharp cruelty because she let her guard down.
“Just because you open your heart first doesn’t mean the other person will.”
“……”
“That girl acted like she adored you, calling you ‘sister’ so sweetly. But look at this dress.”
Then, Nathan whispered a bitter truth into her ear.
“There are far more people skilled at hiding their darkness than you think.”
This incident had clearly hurt Claudia.
But Nathan didn’t regret his actions.
Even if it pained her, she needed to understand how vile human malice could be.
“Now, answer me again. Do you really think pushing you was an accident?”
He expected a different answer this time. But—
“My opinion hasn’t changed. I still want to talk to Luke first.”
“……”
It was the last thing he wanted to allow.
Nathan let out a dry laugh.
“You’re going to ask him if it was intentional? Of course he’ll say no. Unless he’s insane, he won’t admit to a heavier crime.”
“Please. Just let me talk to him once.”
If Luke begged for forgiveness, claiming it wasn’t intentional, Claudia would likely accept it.
So Nathan was about to refuse again.
But Claudia was relentless.
“Even if it’s just in name… as your future wife, I’m asking you this favor.”
“……”
“Just once.”
An endless silence followed.
Finally, it was broken by Nathan’s resigned sigh.
“Ha… Fine. Do what you want.”
In the end, he surrendered to her stubbornness.
After Nathan’s beating, Luke had been confined to his cabin.
With everyone busy, no one could help him move.
The only person who might’ve assisted him was Nayla, but even she had stopped visiting.
All he could do was force himself to sleep in the cramped quarters.
“Ugh…”
A small noise woke him, and he grimaced.
The moment he regained consciousness, pain greeted him.
‘Is Nayla still busy?’
Being injured and unattended was exhausting.
But he didn’t blame her.
She must’ve had a good reason for not coming.
With sluggish movements, he opened a drawer and pulled out bandages.
He prepared to tend to his wounds alone—again.
Then, a blurry figure entered his vision.
“Nayla??”
Assuming it was her, he perked up and called her name.
But when his vision cleared, he froze.
“…Claudia.”
The woman he thought had died stood perfectly unharmed before him.
The sole witness to his crime had returned alive.
His lips trembled as he stammered.
“You—!”
“Yeah, I survived. Surprised?”
He shut his eyes tightly.
Then exhaled a long, deep sigh.
‘It’s over.’
There was no way Claudia hadn’t told Nathan about the push.
She was the type to revel in others’ suffering.
‘She probably came here after begging that prince to torture me.’
Luke had already given up.
Surprisingly, a laugh escaped him.
“Go ahead. Kill me, torture me, whatever. Even if I say it was an accident, you won’t believe me anyway—”
“No, I know it was an accident. That’s not what I’m here to ask.”
Luke’s half-lidded eyes snapped open as he studied Claudia.
