The cold wind slapped her face and her blond hair fluttered wildly.
The sky turned blood red as if the world had already perished, and the peaceful flower garden lost its fragrance and was engulfed in dark shadows.
But it was then.
“Sob…… sob sob ….”
There was a sob somewhere, and Asha slowly opened one eye.
Suddenly, someone appeared through a large rose vine surrounded by thorns like a cave.
Inside, a dark-haired boy was crying, burying his face in his knees.
It’d be nice if he just cried, but the boy was swallowing his tears to the extent that anyone who saw him would feel sorry.
The more the child drowned in grief, the closer the thorns came to the child and hurt him.
The boy’s body was already covered in wounds to the point that there wasn’t a single place free of scars on his body.
Asha reached out to rescue the boy, but her hand was stabbed by a thorn sharp as a knife.
“Ah!”
Asha screamed and quickly pulled her hand away.
A drop of blood ran down her hand and fell to the ground.
At that moment, there was an eerie silence around him.
As if everything had stopped, the boy raised his head and looked at Asha.
His blood-red eyes were brimming with tears.
His eyes somehow resembled Karaf’s.
Didn’t he think someone would come to him?
The moment the boy’s red eyes, which widened in surprise, stared at her, Asha took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
When she came to her senses, she was laying on a luxurious bed.
It was a nightmare….?
Seeing the darkness around her, Asha tried to fumble where she lay with her hand.
But when the soft bedding rubbed against her fingertips, she felt a terrible pain in her arm.
Asha frowned and quickly grabbed her injured arm with her other arm.
It was then that she remembered collapsing after being struck by an assassin with a poisoned knife.
Bandages were carefully wrapped around her arm where she had been stabbed, and her clothing was changed into a more comfortable nightgown.
Asha smiled involuntarily as she looked at the white silk nightgown.
It was the same nightgown she was wearing when she jumped off the cliff…….
Asha took a deep breath as she looked up at the ceiling.
However, she did not have time to organize the situation, and immediately a low and slow voice was heard from nearby.
“… … You’re finally awake.”
Asha stood rigidly frozen.
She struggled to hide her surprise and slowly turned her head to see Karaf sitting cross-legged on a wooden chair by the window.
The moonlight fell softly on his black hair, and his red eyes glowed brighter in the darkness.
Asha remembered the boy she had seen in her dream and just stared blankly at him.
Karaf also looked at her with his arms crossed, then quietly opened his mouth.
“How did you know there was an assassin hiding in the banquet hall?”
When Asha felt a prick in her conscience, he said again with a serious expression on his face.
“It’s useless to try to deceive me. Do you think I don’t know? The reason you spilled the wine on the floor was probably that you knew there was poison in it. Am I wrong?”
Asha looked down a bit.
“…… That’s right.”
“Is that a butterfly ability?”
When Asha couldn’t answer, he spoke again.
“If you knew there was an assassin, why didn’t you tell me or Duran in advance?”
“…… It’s because I wasn’t sure.”
“Why?”
Asha looked at him calmly and continued speaking.
“I had a vivid dream last night. But I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or if it was just a nightmare. So…… I thought I’d have to find out first. I don’t trust myself either, but even if I tell you, I don’t know if anyone in this palace will believe me.”
It was a lie, but Karaf felt guilty.
It sounded like he was included in those words.
In fact, he tested her and sent people to keep an eye on her because he didn’t believe her until what happened today.
She was in a situation that would have made her ponder whether or not she should speak up.
Karaf suddenly remembered Duran’s first report.
Asha also said that she had seen the Lycaons being killed by knights.
But whether or not that was really going to happen, she must have wanted to see with her own eyes if it was the right choice for her to turn herself in and be taken to the Imperial Palace.
Once he figured out Asha’s heart, his expression became serious.
Karaf got up from his chair and walked over to the bed.
She couldn’t figure out for herself how long it took for him to move since she was frozen in shock.
But Asha clutched at the quilt as if she knew instinctively that she would be stabbed by his thorns.
Then, Karaf paused a bit, and quietly sat in a small chair next to her instead of sitting on the bed.
It was the first time that he was so careful with other people, especially minorities.
Karaf put his hands on his thighs with a somewhat complicated look on his face. Then he asked after a while.
“Did it…… hurt a lot?”
Asha’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she was avoiding his worried gaze.
“I’m fine. No one dies from a stab wound like this.”
Asha said it so casually, but Karaf was even more shocked by those words.
She was stabbed with a poisoned knife while trying to save him from an assassin, and she acted as if nothing had happened…….
Karaf unknowingly got angry.
“Didn’t you know you almost die!”
“I’m fine now. Didn’t I wake up?”
Karaf’s expression went blank when he saw that Asha was still looking down with an unpretentious attitude.
As for what he was dissatisfied with, he frowned and licked his lips, then changed his expression and asked in a low voice.
“Was it…… scary?”
“Pardon?”
Asha was taken aback by the unfamiliar questions.
“Even so, there was an assassin. I’m used to receiving so many assassination threats from a very young age, but you must have been very surprised…….”
Asha replied with a faint smile.
“I’ve almost died several times too, so I’m fine. However, if there was something that scared me, I was afraid that would not be able to stop the assassin.”
Karaf kept his mouth shut.
To him, those words sounded like she was afraid that she couldn’t save him.
How on earth had she lived to say such words when she had only become an adult?
It was natural for Karaf to know how difficult it must have been for her to live with the threat of survival as an ethnic minority.
“… … I heard from Duran about your childhood.”
He just said that and kept his mouth shut again.
He couldn’t even say frivolous words like ‘it must have been a tough life‘.
The reason she went through it was because he had placed minorities on the wanted list across the empire.
From the elderly to children. He had no right to say anything.
He threatens them to catch them and threatens anyone who has the potential to break his curse.
He was deep in thought with a face full of regret and guilt, but to Asha, his expressions were only unfamiliar.
Before regression, he had never wondered at all about her past, and he didn’t blink when he heard that she was close to death.
Rather, he treated her preciously as an empress who had been sold as a slave, so he only treated her like his own property and forced her to fulfill her duty as a butterfly.
Then Karaf let out a deep sigh and spoke seriously.
“…… You saved my life, so I will surely repay you. Let me know if you want anything. I’ll listen to everything.”
Asha was surprised by those words.
He truly became a different person from the first time she met him.
Karaf must have been touched by the fact that she had saved his life.
Duran said in the past that he sacrificed his life to save Karaf and because of that, he became his favorite subject.
Perhaps she had gotten one step closer to breaking through his thick layer of thorns with this incident.
Asha immediately raised her gaze and opened her mouth, looking into his red eyes.
“What I want is…… There is only one thing.”
Karaf did not avert her gaze and asked calmly.
“What is it? You can tell me.”
“Please give Lycaon a reward equal to the reward you gave to the bandits.”
Karaf’s face hardened a bit as soon as Lycaon was mentioned.
Asha lowered her gaze and spoke as politely as possible.
“They didn’t know I was a butterfly, but they kept me safe from the bandits. Without them, I would have been dead before coming to your side.”
Karaf already knew about it from Duran’s report.
But he kept worrying about why.
He continued to worry about Lycaon’s leader.
“……you have a point. But for me, ethnic minorities are unforgivable. Until my curse is broken, it will be difficult to reward them”
“Then, until then, please withdraw the order to eliminate Lycaon. They are a group from a long-time ethnic village. They had never attempted to rebel against the Empire, and they’re living like fugitives, only taking small hunting requests. I don’t think there can be a greater reward for them than that.”
Karaf paused for a moment and looked at Asha.
Asha seemed calm on the outside, but when he wasn’t responding, her heart sped up.
She was worried that he would reject her request.
But it was then.
“……I understand. I will grant your request.”
Asha looked at him with wide eyes.
“Will you really grant my request?”
“Yes. Since you saved my life, I should save their lives.”
“Thank you. Thank you very much, Your Majesty…….”
Asha has a genuinely moving expression on her face.
But Karaf looked at her with some distaste.
He asked her to tell him what she wanted, and he felt a bit strange to see her so happy when she asked him to save someone’s life.
“However, you should tell me the truth. You must have absolutely nothing to do with their leader.”
“Absolutely.”
Karaf’s expression softened at Asha’s response.
Seeing him persistently inquiring about him, Asha wondered if Jackal was a bother to him.
Karaf had a terrible hatred when other men who approached her in the past.
Truly, his possessiveness was so strong that no one could beat him.
“I will trust your word. However, the rumor that a butterfly flew into the Imperial Palace due to today’s commotion has now spread throughout the Empire, so it must have reached the ears of Lycaon. So they will have to let you go now.”
He said while his red eyes glowed a bit.
“But if they fail and challenge me again, then this agreement is broken.”
