Herhan’s circumstances
“Oh. She just goes back. Miss Riella really walked away.”
“……”
“Her shoulders are slumped. I see she is very heartbroken.”
“…..”
“Oh my god, Is she crying?”
“….!”
“Ah. She was just flipping her hair.”
‘That bastard…’
For no reason, Herhan tightened his grip on the pen and glared at Asion.
Asion continued to cling to the door, not even realizing that the back of his head was burning under his lord’s sharp gaze.
He peeked through the crack of the door and watched Riella walk away, relaying it to Herhan.
‘Why did I do that? I shouldn’t have told her to go back because I didn’t want to see her. I should have just told her I went to sleep first…’
Herhan let out a deep sigh, his expression grim. He rubbed his temples vigorously against his throbbing headache.
‘How on earth did the situation get to this point?’
It started with a few words from Riella this morning.
“Please let me return to my ambassadorial position.”
Herhan’s heart sank at the thought that it had finally come.
It was something he’d been preparing for ever since he’d handled things so self-righteously without Riella’s knowledge.
Even if Riella will hate him, he thought it was a priority to get Riella away from the princess and that damn man.
The problem was, the situation of getting Riella’s hatred was much harder than he’d expected.
“I feel a little resentment.”
‘She said she resented me…’
For Herhan, it was like a death sentence.
If Riella, who is very cautious and doesn’t even say things she doesn’t like, said something like that, it would have been the end of the world.
‘Because I refused to help the princess? Because I got Fabian in trouble?’
‘Of course, I knew that Fabian was not just an old lover to Riella.’
‘I’ll go to the West Palace first.’
‘Are you so worried about him that you said you would go see him as soon as I told you to do whatever you wanted?’
‘Does this mean that she can’t ignore the years they’d grown up together?’
He called Asion to confirm, and he said that Riella had indeed stopped by the West Palace and then returned to the Lake Palace Embassy.
In Herhan’s ears, the words sounded like ‘Riella went to see Fabian, then Riella went to see El.’
“I will not meet Riella today.”
“Yes?”
“With a dear former lover and a loyal aide, Riella must have had a busy and satisfying day. She doesn’t need me. So I’m not going to see her today.”
Asion’s eyes widened and he asked back at Herhan’s bold declaration.
“Really? You don’t want to see Miss Riella?”
“Yes.”
“Even if Miss Riella comes to visit you?”
“That…yes.”
The last statement was actually just a bluff.
‘Riella won’t come looking for me anyway.’
Herhan thought.
But at that time, Riella was actually waiting at the door to meet Herhan.
Asion knew about this from the beginning and deliberately made fun of Herhan.
“Oh my gosh. What should I do? Miss Riella seems very hurt. Aren’t you going to catch her right now?”
“I’m not going.”
“Really? What if she goes to see Fabian to soothe her aching heart?”
“If she wants to do that, she can do it.”
‘Why do only words that are completely opposite to my heart come out of my open mouth?’
Herhan clenched his fists on the desk.
‘I felt like I had to do something to come to my senses, whether it was hitting Asion with my fist or hitting myself in the face.’
“Your majesty. Aren’t you a bit conceited? I don’t think it’s time to be like that.”
At that time, Asion made a point.
“Your Majesty, you don’t seem to know your situation.”
“What is my situation?”
“Of course, Miss Riella’s servant.”
“What…I’m a servant?”
Herhan, who was born as a crown prince and had always been someone’s lord, burst into absurd laughter.
“Isn’t that right? If Miss Riella is truly a saint, Your Majesty is the unfortunate one. A saint can live without a person with powers, but a person with powers cannot live without a saint, right?”
“That….”
“And actually, I wasn’t even going to bring this up.”
Even though Herhan knew that he was being dragged by Asion, he could not stop him from talking.
“You’re not forgetting, are you? A power can only be imprinted on one saint, but a saint can purify multiple powers at the same time.”
Herhan’s jaw dropped.
He had forgotten.
No, it was a fact he had never thought about in the first place.
He hadn’t expected to meet an extinct saint, but then again, who had time for principles when dealing with saints?
“Right now, Your Majesty is lucky enough to have a monopoly on Miss Riella. But if it becomes clear and widely known that she is a saint, then…maybe….”
Gulp.
“There may come a time when you will have to ‘share’ Miss Riella with others…”
Bang-!
Herhan hit the desk without saying a word and stood up.
His head was dizzy and a thousand fires were burning in his chest.
‘Is the word ‘sharing’ this terrible and creepy?’
If there was any substance to that word, he would have torn it up, slashed it, and thrown it into the flames right away.
“Ugh. There’s nothing to fuss about. I’ve got a neat solution for you, your majesty.”
At that time, Jess came into the living room and interrupted their conversation.
Jess had been taking a step back the whole time, saying that he felt pathetic for his lord who was so jealous that he was being mean, and Asion, who was having fun making fun of his lord.
“It’s simple. When you and Miss Riella are getting along as well as you are now, you write a contract in advance, and even if you two separate later, she agrees to meet once a month to do the saint’s purification or something like that—”
“Jess!”
“Why? Are you sure Miss Riella is going to spend the rest of her life looking at you and never change her mind? Isn’t she going to have all kinds of things coming at her in the future?”
“…..”
“Is there anything more uncertain than a love relationship? It would be better to officially tie it up, even if it means paying a large down payment.…Your majesty. I want you to write a contract. Your Majesty!”
Herhan was Jess and Asion, and I hated them all.
Herhan hated Jess, he hated Asion, he hated them all.
He hated himself even more for allowing himself to be swayed by them, and still not going after Riella because of his own stupid jealousy and pride.
* * *
“Don’t be too upset. Miss Riella. It’s probably because Your Majesty is very tired.”
“huh….”
On the way back from the main palace to Lake Palace.
Riella’s expression remained grim as she retraced the path she had taken just ten minutes ago.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have insisted that you go to the main palace…”
In the end, even Lou was so sad, because Riella couldn’t say anything that would normally have comforted her by saying ‘It wasn’t your fault’.
The Emperor tells her to go back because he doesn’t want to meet her.
The shock and sadness of those words were too much for her.
‘Does His Majesty hate me? I heard the meeting was long today. Could it be that His Majesty’s position was in trouble because of the rumors?’
She could just trust Herhan’s heart, but she couldn’t help but worry needlessly.
Because Herhan was that important.
“Uh? That’s your aide.”
It was then that Lou pointed ahead and shouted.
El was just coming out of the lake palace after working overtime. On his way home from work, a guard posted by the emperor was also with him.
“Ah…sir El.”
Riella’s sigh brought their gazes together.
Riella bowed first. Even with the restraining order, she couldn’t pretend she didn’t see him when their eyes were clearly locked.
“Ambassador. Are you going in now?”
“Yes. Sir El is also late getting off work.”
“I always leave work at this time.”
“Sir El is having a hard time because of me.”
“I’m just doing my job.”
As the two people exchanged words, the guard standing next to El saw them with sharp eyes.
It was Lou who noticed and stepped in front of him. “Miss Riella wants to have a conversation with her aide.”
While doing so, she placed her hands on both sides and resolutely stepped forward.
Thanks to Lou, Riella and El were able to exchange a few more jokes.
“You have a very capable maid.”
“Haha. I guess I have a lot of luck. So, I also met sir El.”
Riella burst into laughter as she watched Lou growl like a small but not scary puppy.
Thanks to that, Riella seemed to have forgotten a little bit about how upset she had been about being kicked out of the main palace. Especially since it had been so long since she’d laughed with El face-to-face.
“Is it luck for you, Ambassador, to have met me?”
“Huh? Of course. What’s about Sir El? Ah. Maybe not. Because of me, His Majesty hates you for no reason, and you did a lot of work, right?”
“I am…”
El hesitated.
At that moment, the guard stepped between them. He held Lou in one hand and Lou’s sullen expression on her face said ‘Hmph. I lost, I’m sorry,’.
“No more. Are you going to break the restraining order issued by His Majesty?”
Riella waved her hands and expressed her will to surrender.
El stared at Riella for a long time as she walked into the lake palace with Lou.
“Why? Is it also prohibited to look at the back?”
The guard didn’t bother to answer, but he seemed to be displeased with El’s gaze towards Riella and urged him to move quickly.
After the man and woman who had met by chance on a moonlit night go back to their places.
Right next to where Riella and El stood facing each other, someone who was hiding behind the wall came out quickly.
It was the maid Loriel.
“What? Riella was rejected by His Majesty? In the meantime, meeting with her aide, El?’
Loriel entered the inner room of the Lake Palace a little later.
Inside the living room. Riella rested her chin on her table, deep in thought.
“Lou, Miss Riella, she doesn’t look well. What’s wrong?”
“Oh…ah, no. It’s no big deal. I guess she was a little tired because she started working again today.”
“Oh. I see. What should I do?”
In response to Lou’s vague remark, Loriel pretended not to know anything and agreed.
After that, she deliberately approached Riella.
“Miss Riella. Shall I bring you some tea that is good for recovering from fatigue?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Is there anything else you need?”
“No. I’m okay.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard. If you have anything you want to talk about, please say it at any time.”
“Okay. Thank you, Loriel.”
Riella smiled and answered, while Loriel drooped her shoulders as if she couldn’t shake off her worry.
However, the corner of Loriel’s mouth was suddenly twitching as she came out to prepare tea.
‘It seems like she doesn’t want to show off that she was rejected by His Majesty…’
* * *
