“Huff, huff, huff…”
A small forest near the royal palace.
I was being chased by a large number of assassins.
None of them had any focus in their eyes as they charged at me.
“Haah… haah…”
If I hadn’t been quick on my feet, I would’ve been dead long before now.
In fact, the maid who had been guarding me threw herself in front of me and was killed instantly.
I used all my strength to leap with aura infused in my legs, but it seemed like it wouldn’t be enough.
Just as the assassin closest to me reached out to grab my hair—
“Gwaaah!”
“Kyaaah!”
Screams erupted from behind me.
A man appeared, exuding a powerful aura, and in a single swing of his sword, he cut down more than five assassins.
“What are you doing, Your Highness?”
With jet-black hair, a tall figure, and striking features, it was Kayan Barklith, my childhood friend who had been like a brother to me.
He spoke in a low voice, his eyes sharp.
“Run, now.”
“K-K-Kayan?”
I didn’t expect him to show up here. After all, eight years ago, I had broken off our friendship with no explanation.
Too shocked to react, I blinked in a daze. Kayan urged me with an impatient tone, as if telling me to snap out of it.
“Hurry!”
“Y-yes!”
At his insistence, I started running.
Kayan followed behind me, cutting down the assassins.
They attacked us not like humans but like beasts that knew no fear.
As we dashed through the forest, Kayan muttered under his breath.
“It’s dark magic. But I’ve never seen anything on this scale before.”
“You know about dark magic?”
Kayan swung his sword and quietly responded.
“Whenever Your Highness made public appearances, I sensed this same energy. Everyone who wanted to harm you had those same eyes.”
“How… how do you know that?”
“Because I was the one who killed them.”
His answer took me by surprise.
I asked, stunned.
“Not Simon, but you?”
In hindsight, it made sense. After all, everything happening to me now was because of Simon.
Simon was the fiancé assigned to me by my half-brother, the crown prince, to serve as my protector. He was also my brother’s closest friend.
“The influence of Prince Hugo’s faction had grown too large to ignore. To join them, I had no choice but to eliminate both the crown prince and you, Your Highness.”
And now, Simon had betrayed both me and my brother, leading to this.
“What’s so surprising?”
It wasn’t an unexpected betrayal. Simon had been weighing his options for a while.
“I was the one who made up the lies that led to your falling out with Kayan Barklith, and I’m the one who killed his father, Arthur Barklith.”
Simon had been isolating me for years, just to make me easier to manipulate.
“Having Your Highness’s loyal eyes and ears around wasn’t to my advantage, after all.”
Eight years ago, at the age of twelve, I believed only Simon’s words and broke off my friendship with Kayan.
But in reality, it was Kayan who had been secretly protecting me all along.
‘And even now…’
Even as I ran, the battle continued behind me.
Kayan, who was protecting me while taking down our enemies, had already started accumulating wounds.
“Why, why… why would you?”
When I ended our friendship, I had insulted him deeply.
I thought he would never want to see me again.
Steadying my emotions that were in turmoil, I barely managed to ask:
“Didn’t… didn’t you hate me?”
Kayan didn’t answer that question.
Instead, he said something completely different.
“Years ago, someone came to assassinate you, but there was no response from the Duke of Serneaux’s household.”
“Ah…”
“Your Highness was unguarded as always… I thought for sure you would be assassinated this time. My body just moved on its own.”
So Kayan had been protecting me all this time.
When I stammered in shock and surprise, he spoke firmly.
“I didn’t protect you because I wanted anything in return.”
“Then why… why did you…?”
“Maybe it’s because all the people from the happy days are gone now, and I didn’t want you to disappear too, Your Highness.”
Until I was twelve, I had grown up in the north, outside of the royal palace. All the people I had known there, except for Kayan, were already dead.
“It’s happened so many times now that protecting you has become the only thing that gives my life meaning.”
Kayan swung his sword again, cutting down another group of assassins.
“In a way, Your Highness saved me. You gave purpose to my life, which was filled with nothing but misery.”
Then he looked at me and said
“So, Your Highness doesn’t need to feel sorry for me.’”
His face was calm, despite being covered in blood.
“I was happy back then, by your side. Just because it ended poorly doesn’t mean I can forget those days.”
With tears streaming down my face,I apologized.
“Im sorry.. it’s all, it’s all my fault.”
But my words felt too insignificant compared to what was in my heart, and my hands trembled.
Kayan shook his head and smiled.
“How could this be your fault? It’s just because I wasn’t a proper noble.”
“What… what does that even mean…?”
As I, still unable to wipe my tears, asked him, he remained silent for a long while before letting out a faint chuckle and muttered,
“Hmm, I take back what I said about having no attachment to life.”
It sounded more like self-deprecating words meant for himself.
“Becoming a proper noble… it seems I did want that after all.”
Despite everything, the assassins continued to pour in endlessly, their unfocused eyes unsettling.
I hadn’t anticipated that Prince Hugo’s dark magic would be this successful. It made sense why Simon decided to side with Hugo, the third in line for the throne.
Even with Kayan’s incredible swordsmanship, the situation was overwhelming.
Kayan’s wounds kept increasing, growing deeper.
As we rounded a corner in the forest, an even larger group began to appear.
Kayan spoke in a low voice.
“…From here on, you’ll have to go alone. I’ll try to hold them off.”
“I’m not going.”
I shook my head immediately.
“I’d rather die here with you.”
Kayan gave me a soft smile, as if trying to soothe me.
“I don’t want that, Your Highness. You have to respect my wishes too, don’t you?”
It was the first time I’d seen him smile since our falling out.
I felt my breath catch in my throat. There was a time when we used to smile at each other every day, back in our childhood…
How did things end up like this…?
“I, I…”
Tears began to fall uncontrollably.
“I really can’t go…”
I shook my head weakly, barely able to breathe.
“I just can’t…”
I meant it.
Then Kayan gently wiped my tears and whispered,
“Iv.”
It was the nickname he used for me when we were children.
“Now go.”
His playful childhood tone followed.
“For once, could you listen to someone else, huh?”
When a light smile appeared on his lips, it felt like my heart was being torn apart.
“If you cry, you’ll look really ugly, so stop.”
After teasing me like that, he turned to face the assassins rushing toward him again.
Realistically, there was no hope.
‘How foolish I’ve been.’
My vision blurred from the tears overflowing in my eyes.
‘I couldn’t protect a single person who was truly important to me…’
Simon’s mocking words came back to me.
“Just don’t do anything, and quietly die. As you’ve always done until now, Your Highness.”
Until now, I had really lived doing nothing. I regretted it deeply.
And the words Simon said after that…
“Oh, by the way, where is the royal treasure? If you hand it over to me, I might grant you the opportunity to end your own life.”
Wait a minute. The royal treasure.
It was something my brother had entrusted to me when he left for war. Since then, I hadn’t let it out of my possession even once.
With trembling hands, I hurriedly searched my clothes. I pulled out a half-pendant with a large ruby embedded in it, along with a torn photograph.
“This is the treasure of the Tayen royal family. I received it directly from the emperor when I was appointed as crown prince. Since you’re the second in line, keep it safe for me until I return.”
“Oh, this! They say if you feed it blood and make a wish, it grants miracles to royalty. But is that really true?”
“It’s just a legend. They say there are conditions to make a miracle happen, but no one knows what those conditions are.”
“Did you try it, brother?”
“Yeah. I tried every time I left the palace. But nothing ever happened.”
Back then, I thought it was just one of those common trinkets you’d find at a tourist spot
‘I don’t know what the conditions are, but still….’
Eventually, Kayan began to stagger in front of me.
“I-I told you… to go.. quickly…”
I couldn’t bear to watch, so I closed my eyes.
I had no intention of running away alone. Honestly, in this situation, I didn’t even feel much desire to survive.
But still.
Without hesitation, I stabbed the sharp edge of the half-pendant into my palm.
‘I make this wish before the relic.’
The pendant started to soak up the blood that poured from my hand.
‘The wish that only a miracle can grant…’
My consciousness faded in an instant,
The last thing I held onto was the torn photograph of our childhood, lingering as an afterimage.
***
And when I came to, I was thirteen again. l had returned to seven years in the past
