Two men in a bad relationship
“What? Princess Greta?”
“Yes. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes. The woman who went in to meet the shadow merchant was clearly the princess of the Kingdom of Liotta.”
At a late hour, Herhan raised his fierce eyes at the urgent report from Carnel, who returned from an investigation.
He had no idea how things were going.
‘Princess Greta was meeting a shadow merchant in order to find out how to identify a saint?’
“The letter sent yesterday said that the princess and her party would arrive at the imperial palace in two days. If what Carnel saw was true, then the princess sent a false letter.”
“She is a woman who is good at lying.”
‘The question was what the princess’s intentions were. The reason why she hid the fact from the imperial family even though she had already arrived at the imperial city. Also, the reason why she lied like that and went to the shadow merchant.’
“Could it be that the princess found out about what happened to Miss Riella?”
Herhan’s face darkened at the suspicions raised by Jess.
It was a low possibility, but it could not be said to be impossible.
That tightened Herhan’s heart. In the end, the thought of someone starting to threaten Riella made him so angry that his brain felt like it was going to burn out.
Riella was now Herhan’s only light and everything in his life.
He couldn’t let a mere princess get her hands on her.
“We need to move faster on our part.”
“Shall we catch that shadow merchant right away?”
“You said that a shadow merchant can only determine it If we are going there?”
Herhan glared fiercely somewhere with his blue eyes flashing.
“Without fear, he tells my treasure to come, so I will grant his wish. Bring Asion.”
* * *
Riella was dumbfounded.
“A walk? At this late hour?”
“Yes.”
The Emperor’s answer was terse, though she repeated it several times, unable to believe the suggestion she’d heard in the middle of the night.
‘Did I sulking too much just because I was locked up? Yesterday, the maids took me for a walk around the lake…’
‘It was embarrassing, but there was nothing bad about it anyway.’
When the emperor said he would be with her, she was even more excited than when she went around the lake with the maids yesterday.
“Wait a minute. I need to wake Lou up. I think she might have fallen asleep.”
“Leave Lou alone. There is no need to call maids.”
“What? But… Is that okay? You told me to take my maids with me wherever I go.”
“Yes. Except now. Because I will be by your side tonight.”
Herhan, who said that, walked in front of Riella and stretched out his arms.
Riella thought it was a gesture to hug her, so naturally she leaned her forehead against Herhan’s chest.
But even after a while, she didn’t feel the strong arms hugging her body.
What was placed on Riella’s shoulder was not Herhan’s arm, but only the cloak Herhan had wrapped around her.
“hahah….”
Herhan’s low laugh lingered in Riella’s ears, as if teasing her.
Herhan’s breath was hot against her ear.
Riella immediately pulled her body away from Herhan and took a few steps back, shooting a look of resentment in her eyes.
“I could hug you right now, Riella.”
“Oh, no. It’s not like that.”
“You were expecting it, but I’m sorry for disappointing you.”
“It’s not what I expected!”
Realizing that she would never win if she tried to respond to Herhan’s teasing, Riella simply pressed the hat on her cloak.
However, when she put it on her head, the hat was so deep that she could barely see through her eyes.
The length of the cloak is also long enough to cover all the way to the toes. The width was wide and the fabric was thick velvet that she could barely see her skin once she buttoned the front.
“Is there even a need to wear such a thick cloak?”
Riella was about to add that no matter how cool the night was, it was still summer, but she just kept quiet when she saw that Herhan had started to wear the same cloak as her.
“Let’s go. Riella.”
Herhan fastened Riella’s cloak tightly once more and held her fingers between his.
Riella silently followed Herhan.
As they quietly came out through the back gate rather than the main gate of the Lake Palace, they saw a black horse in front of them that looked like someone had prepared it in advance.
‘A time of darkness all around. Cloaks covering our faces. No escort, just the two of us. And a horse…’
Riella climbed onto the horse with Herhan’s help. Herhan sat right behind Riella and held the reins of the horse.
“your majesty. This isn’t just a walk, is it?”
Riella noticed something and asked calmly.
“Yes.” Herhan answered briefly.
Behind Riella’s back, she felt Herhan’s body wrapped around her becoming very stiff.
* * *
Herhan’s horse ran very quietly and smoothly, as if swimming in the night air, but fast.
Perhaps because the speed was quite fast, the night wind brushed Riella’s skin quite sharply.
Perhaps because he was worried, Herhan held the reins in one hand and used the other hand to smooth the hem of her robe or wrap his arms around her waist.
Riella entrusted herself to Herhan’s solid body supporting her back and looked where the horse’s head was leading.
The prediction that they might get out of the imperial city was exactly right.
The horse stopped running only when it passed the walls of Bachavorden and reached a dark alley.
“Isn’t this place too gloomy for a date?”
Riella asked, purposely trying to sound cheerful and playful because she knew Herhan was worried about her.
“Are you scared?”
“I think you’re more scared than me. When I was a mercenary, I often went to places that were darker than here.”
“More than here?”
“Yes. Every corner of the back alley, there’s nowhere I haven’t been.”
It was half serious and half joke. Still, thanks to her, a smile appeared on Herhan’s face, which had been frozen the whole time, so Riella figured it was good enough.
“Good. I also want to thank this brave mercenary girl.”
Herhan held Riella’s hand. The place he pointed to was a shabby bar located deep in a dark alley.
“Riella. Do you remember what I always say?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just stay by my side. I will protect you.”
A voice soaked in moonlight resonated with Riella’s heart. Even though he was covered in his pitch-black cloak, Herhan shined brightly.
Instead of answering, Riella held his hand more tightly.
It was the moment when the two people were about to open the old door of the bar and enter.
“No!”
The sound of horses’ hooves coming from far away stopped harshly nearby, and someone ran into the alley, out of breath.
“You must not enter. Don’t fall for their tricks!”
The man, who quickly ran up to Herhan and Riella, spread his arms and blocked the entrance to the bar and gasped.
Riella recognized his identity and covered her mouth.
“Sir El…?”
When she looked up at the emperor’s face, she saw that he too had his eyes wide open. This meant that El was not a guest invited by the emperor.
“Sir El! What are you doing here? Where did you come from, how long have you been following me, and what do you mean by no…”
While Riella was pouring out all kinds of questions, El continued to block the entrance and was out of breath.
Breathing heavily, the person he finally raised his head to look at was Herhan.
“El.”
“Yes. Your majesty.”
“Did you follow me?”
Instead of answering, El raised his sturdy eyes.
He looked as if he were about to confront the Emperor, so Riella began to be nervous again.
‘They did it just a few days ago, so why on earth do these two people always fight over something?’
“It seems like you know the identity of the shadow merchant.”
“……”
“Do you even know why I came here?”
“I will receive my punishment later, without exception…”
“Haha.”
In response to the affirmative answer, Herhan laughed and he let out resonated loudly in the alley.
“You have to get out of here quickly before that happens. Now there are members of the shadow merchants gathered inside. As soon as your Majesty opens the door and enters, they will target the ambassador.”
“They are targeting me?”
When Riella asked in surprise, Herhan’s expression became more grim.
El also bit his lip as she looked at Riella’s complexion, probably thinking something was wrong. He didn’t mean to scare Riella.
Herhan wrapped his arms around Riella’s shoulders and hid her behind him.
With the two men’s cold gazes meeting again, Herhan was the first to break the silence.
“There are shadow merchant members in there right now.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll ask you later how you know that. Now let me ask you something else. El Weiss. Do you think I’m stupid enough to drag Riella into a dangerous place?”
“That…”
El, who was facing Herhan’s sharp gaze, sighed softly as if he soon realized something.
When El’s shoulders slumped down, the door he was blocking burst open and Asion stepped out.
“Your majesty. You’ve arrived at the right time! The bar has finally been cleaned up….eh why did you bring this person here?”
* * *
As she went down the stairs leading to the basement, Riella did not let go of her tight hand with Herhan.
El followed them one step behind with Asion.
Riella was concerned because El had a bad expression on his face, as if he was a felon, but Riella could not hastily intervene.
They entered the basement. No, a spacious room that was probably a bar.
Riella’s mouth dropped open in bewilderment at the sight.
‘I was expecting this when Captain Asion came out, but…’
In the midst of the mess, with tables overturned and chairs broken, about fifteen men were trapped, and other men with swords stood guard around them.
The people holding the sword were in civilian clothes, but they were faces Riella knew. They were all knights belonging to the Imperial Guard.
“The merchant I met is over there.”
At the place Asion pointed, the man tied up in the innermost part had a gag in his mouth.
He was in a daze, as if he had already gone through all kinds of hardships, and as soon as Asion removed the gag, he started crying.
“Why on earth are you all doing this? Huh? We are just good merchants…”
“Why are good merchants hiding together in the bar with weapons?”
“Oh, it’s for self-defense…”
“Okay. Now we will know whether your unfair situation is true.”
As Asion finished speaking, Herhan carefully let go of Riella’s hand.
Riella immediately realized that Herhan was trying to read the man’s memories, and immediately grabbed the emperor’s hand again.
“Be careful.”
Without knowing what crime the merchant had committed or how dangerous he was, Riella was only worried about Herhan.
After Herhan affectionately stroked Riella’s head once, he stood in front of the man again. Then he grabbed his kneeling man by the neck and glared at him for a long moment.
Even though the man was not gagged, he was unable to utter a single word due to the pressure of Herhan.
After some time had passed, Herhan made his decision.
“He was just an ordinary person. It was also a lie that he knew how to determine it.”
Asion’s reaction was that he wasn’t that surprised.
“It’s a shame Your Majesty came all the way here.”
“Well. I expected it. What I didn’t expect was on the other side.”
Herhan turned away from the man.
Beneath the deep hood, the sparkling hawk’s eyes were now directed at El.
“El. I thought we were just in a bad relationship, but my hunch was not wrong.”
Herhan approached El and gave an order.
“Give me your hand.”
“Alright…”
El held out his hand obediently, but looked up at the emperor with eyes that were not very obedient and said.
“But you can’t read my mind.”
* * *
