Episode 12

With Lian blocking my path, I had no choice but to stop and look at him.

We stood in the middle of a corridor bathed in sunlight streaming through the large windows lining the wall. He remained silently in front of me for quite some time.

The snake will kill me, Vitrain had said.

And now, with his silence, Lian was acknowledging that I was his obstacle.

Obstacles are meant to be eliminated. It was the kind of thing a morally bankrupt snake would do.

Lian seemed to be contemplating something, and it appeared he had decided to evade rather than lie.

He turned his gaze to the window and asked,

“Shall we go for a walk today?”

At his unexpected suggestion, I too glanced outside.

In the garden, the August sun blazed, causing heat waves to shimmer in the air.

A walk in this weather? Does the snake not feel the heat?

Though I could endure both heat and cold well, I had no desire to venture out into the scorching sun.

“I’ll pass.”

“Then would you like to go out?”

“Out?”

“Yes, I know a place you might like.”

Lian smiled confidently.

I scrutinized him, wondering what he was up to, but his smooth violet eyes, as always, revealed nothing.

“You don’t plan to lure me out of the palace and dispose of me, do you?”

My question was almost a provocation, and his smile deepened.

Not satisfied with merely showing his perfect white teeth, he even laughed out loud.

“Your Majesty, if I intended to harm you, I would choose a time and place where no one could suspect me. I wouldn’t give the dog and the eagle a reason to kill me.”

The smartest man in the empire had given an answer that completely missed the point of my question.

I wondered if he was trying to avoid the topic because he indeed planned to kill me, so I pressed the matter more firmly.

“You don’t deny that you plan to kill me.”

“I will not kill you.”

He responded immediately, still wearing his bright smile.

As always, his inscrutable violet eyes gazed at me, wrapping around me like a serpent, and he added in a languid voice,

“Because I find you interesting, Your Majesty.”

That was less comforting than a death threat.

What did it matter if I had caught the fancy of a narcissistic, morally bankrupt snake?

As I sighed, Lian laughed out loud again.

Judging by his words, I could be assured, at least for now. His desire to avoid the scrutiny of the dog and the eagle was likely genuine.

It was more accurate to say that he had nothing to gain by killing me at this moment.

Even so, I had no desire to venture out of the palace with the snake in this weather.

“I’ll decline that as well.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“Isn’t it too soon to talk about trust between us?”

“But it seems you’ve decided to trust the dog.”

His tone was casual, but his eyes changed.

When I met his cold, amethyst-like gaze, my heart skipped a beat.

Could he have noticed the pact with Aiden?

If I looked away, he might see through me, so I answered as nonchalantly as possible.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I saw the white shadow move. He’s begun investigating the late emperor’s death, hasn’t he?”

“You know as well as I do that there were suspicious circumstances surrounding His Majesty’s death. It’s strange that no investigation has been conducted until now.”

“True. But Your Majesty, what if the dog is the culprit? Why entrust such an important task to him?”

“I don’t believe Duke Aiden has any reason to assassinate the Emperor.”

Lian chuckled, raising one corner of his mouth.

He tilted his chin slightly, looking at me with a languid expression and clicking his tongue as if disappointed.

“Aside from our shared goal of breaking free from the collar of our oaths, he’s the only one among us who might hold a personal grudge against the late Emperor.”

“A grudge?”

“His father, the late Duke Tilender, went mad and died because of the late Emperor. And Aiden was abused by his insane father.”

Lian spoke terrifying words with a nonchalant face and tone.

I had heard from Tito that the late Duke Tilender had suffered from madness for five years before taking his own life. I also knew it was because he had become a berserker twice.

But that he had abused his son, Aiden?

I didn’t know how to react to this horrifying story that I couldn’t fully believe or dismiss.

If Lian’s words were true, and Aiden, once the most loyal beast, had harbored a grudge against Nerian all this time, then maybe he was the one I should be most wary of among the three beasts.

Perhaps I had handed over my and Lothania’s lives to a treacherous dog.

But it was the snake who had told me this story.

Lian, with his serpent’s tongue, wouldn’t share this information without a reason. He knew about the white shadow’s movements and might be trying to sow discord between Aiden and me.

Either way, I needed more information.

“Tell me more.”

I demanded.

Lian, seemingly satisfied that I had taken the bait, smiled with a pleased expression, his eyes narrowing. His smile, dark and revealing, was so dazzling that it almost made me sigh.

“Accompany me on an outing, Your Majesty.”

“I told you I decline.”

“In that case, I won’t say anything more.”

Lian laughed, his face a picture of amusement that I longed to slap.

I couldn’t understand why he was so insistent on this outing if he had no intention of killing me.

I bit the inside of my lip, pondering. I hesitated for quite a while, but Lian’s smile never faltered as he patiently awaited my answer.

Whether his bait was true or false, I had no choice but to hear him out.

Depending on the gravity of the situation, I might need to reconsider who I allied with.

Finally, I nodded.

“I hope it’s a story worth my time.”

“You won’t be disappointed.”

I didn’t want to look forward to gossip about Aiden, but Lian’s face lit up with a smile, the most joyous I had ever seen from him. His beautiful face, adorned with such a genuine smile, looked like a painting.

A pity that someone with such a face would also possess such a twisted nature.

* * *

She was a strange woman.

This was the conclusion Lian had reached after observing Sione for some time.

At first, when she accepted his proposal, Lian thought Sione was a foolish woman who would risk her life for the vanity of becoming the Empress of the Great Empire.

When she cleverly countered with the suggestion that she would choose one of the three, Lian revised his opinion—she wasn’t as foolish as he had initially thought, but that was all.

None of the three beasts, including Lian, had any reason to keep Sione alive for long.

Their current performance in front of Sione was merely to keep each other in check, not because her choice held any real importance.

By now, Sione would have realized that her life was as precarious as a candle in the wind.

And humans, typically, become servile when their lives are threatened.

But,

“Where are we?”

Sione, having alighted from the carriage, looked around expressionlessly before asking Lian.

Her gaze mixed incredulity and disdain.

Yes, disdain.

It took him a while to recognize what that look meant, as it was the first time anyone had ever looked at him that way.

It made sense since Sione was the first to regard him with such disdain.

The Empress of Belpator, who had a slender neck that could be severed with a single strike, was looking down on him in a secluded place that could harbor an ambush, with only thirty knights accompanying her.

Normally, he would have been angry, but Lian’s lips curved up involuntarily.

“This is a farm owned by the Zernia family.”

“Duke Lian, didn’t you promise not to kill me?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

“If your intention isn’t to roast me to death, then explain why you brought me here.”

At Sione’s blunt question, Lian chuckled.

“I told you it was a place you would like, Your Majesty.”

Sione sighed as she stood under the midday summer sun.

Though she hadn’t expected much from a sociopath with a broken sense of empathy, an open field without a hint of shade in this weather was a bit too much.

Creating a shade with her hand, Sione looked around, but all she saw was an expanse of lush grassland.

“You seem to have a grave misunderstanding about my preferences.”

Sione muttered, looking at Lian resentfully.

Lian, amused, pointed in one direction.

“They’re coming.”

When she turned to look where he was pointing, she saw several horses with flowing manes galloping towards them from a distance.