That morning, Peon was very happy. Why was he happy? He was thoroughly enjoying carefully bathing his wife who could barely walk, and directly feeding her delicious food when she couldn’t even properly hold a spoon. This was his most cherished hobby and joy.
“Would you like one more bite? Should I cut a peach for you?”
He always says “just one more bite” to Kaela, who loves sweet fruits with soft flesh that make her mouth water – strawberries, peaches, plums. He eventually fed her one more strawberry.
“Good job. Thank you.”
Peon had heard “oppa” so many times that morning that his ears were completely full and overflowing. He was so full that he didn’t even need to eat. Watching Kaela chew and swallow everything made him feel even more full and grateful.
“Hm? Why? Are you uncomfortable? Does something hurt?”
The moment her expression slightly changed while she was sitting still, he was the first to notice and asked.
“Why… why isn’t it getting better?”
“What?”
“Why does it hurt more each time?”
Though her words were fragmented, Peon immediately understood. Kaela could barely walk now. If he hadn’t caught her with one arm when she was about to leave the bed, ignorant of her condition, she would have almost fallen.
“It wasn’t like this at first.”
Even so, admitting it hurt, Peon held her gently and kissed her forehead. He was sorry.
That night, he was happy and joyful, but he had to bury a deep sense of guilt along with a fantasy he had seen, but how much pain and suffering must she have experienced?
“I’m sorry. I should have taken care of you.”
His voice was filled with new apologies and guilt. This incident would remain like a brand in his heart, never to heal.
“I can’t walk…why can’t I walk?”
“Because you used muscles you hadn’t used before.”
It was a truly knight-like answer. He spread his hand over her thin, comfortable one-piece dress and pressed her waist.
Last night, he had become excited while massaging her legs, and today he was obliged to massage and knead her due to the excitement. Fortunately, her swollen feet had improved somewhat, but whether yesterday or today, Kaela couldn’t walk.
“You’ll get used to it, and it won’t be like this.”
At those words, she met Peon’s gaze.
“I said the next night would be free. Was it not good?”
His thick arms were wrapped around her waist. After asking, he would kiss her swollen eyes, cheeks, and lips, just like when he often sat her on his knee.
Touching you is enough.
This wasn’t disgust, but a state of anxiety from not being able to touch her.
“It didn’t seem bad.”
Just enough for the words ‘do you like me that much’ to barely touch Kaela’s tongue tip, Peon kissed her endlessly, caressed her, and filled her with his gaze.
And that, cunningly and shallowly, was still good.
“Surely it wasn’t bad?”
She found it fascinating and enjoyable how Peon would become serious immediately if she delayed her answer even slightly, and how he would become happy again with just one word. She liked how he was led by her.
‘Ah.’
Kaela was slightly surprised. How could she even think that Peon was led by her?
“Stop thinking randomly.”
Peon made a sharp sound with his mouth to divert her attention.
“Anyway, you’re too difficult.”
She would often turn her gaze away, get lost in other thoughts, and completely drift away from reality. For Peon, getting her to focus on the present, not her dark past, and making her look directly at him was extremely difficult.
“Next time.”
“Hm?”
“Next night, next…”
“I wasn’t whining like a child.”
She was just anxious because he didn’t promise. Peon simply held her and endured her anxiety. Kaela buried her face in his solid chest and thought quietly.
‘This isn’t betrayal.’
What was the reason she had initially been told ‘even touching is disgusting’? Because Kaela wanted to fulfill her duty of bearing an heir.
Continuing the family line was a crucial duty for all nobility. One must diligently fulfill this duty while alive, so this isn’t betrayal. She’s not betraying the self who was quietly dying locked in the northern tower. Right?
Most importantly, hadn’t they agreed to try everything possible before dying?
So if she receives unexpected affection from Peon, there’s no reason to refuse. If he loves her more, well, that’s fine too. Love is good. Even if she can’t reciprocate.
Her unchanged conviction was that dying without leaving behind any rumors, simply receiving what she can and fulfilling her duty, was the best and easiest path.
Everything would disappear meaninglessly, everything was just a moment. Like how her childhood together with Peon had disappeared.
But, nevertheless.
Despite having let go of all attachments and not even expecting anything.
It was possible to simultaneously not forgive yet desperately want something. Kaela closed her eyes for a moment in his embrace.
‘Is this a momentary compromise?’
Summer sunlight seeping through the window slightly illuminated Kaela’s face sitting in the shade. Peon blocked the light and looked down at his wife with cool eyes. He couldn’t tell if it was a compromise or if it didn’t matter at all.
How could she forgive a husband who had abandoned her to the point of near death, an incompetent husband? Peon, knowing he couldn’t be forgiven, didn’t even seek forgiveness and simply plunged her into brief pleasure.
Having experienced too much, she didn’t struggle long in pleasure and quickly wore a cold expression.
‘Would things be better if the Emperor disappeared?’
No, that’s impossible. For his intelligent wife who fears imperial power itself, Peon was in the process of making the Emperor collapse in the most ugly and dirty way possible.
****
The ship carrying the princess of the Keruzhan Kingdom finally arrived at the port.
The Crown Prince was completely preoccupied with matters related to the engagement and the treaty to be made with Keruzhan, the Marchioness of Schroz was still paralyzed with terror and unable to do anything, and the Emperor, experiencing an unprecedented anxiety, immediately summoned Beatrice Ravalley.
“The magicians say it’s impossible.”
It can’t be. Beatrice glanced briefly at the Empress lying far away on the bed. The Empress lay covered with a thin summer blanket.
Except for being turned periodically to prevent bedsores, she lay motionless. She couldn’t disappear by herself.
“They’re all saying the same thing!”
The Emperor said he hadn’t even slept a wink, he was so surprised.
Just when they’d barely managed to separate him from this room, he’d sit back next to the Empress again, acting like a pathetic widower. Beatrice made all sorts of grimaces internally but maintained a gloomy and heavy expression externally.
“I saw it clearly!”
But the Emperor had been heavily intoxicated with alcohol and drugs at the time.
Beatrice already knew that the person the Emperor had been with was a man, not a woman, and was searching for that individual. She planned to interrogate the Emperor about his state at that time and handle it appropriately.
‘Of course, the quick-handed Count Horhen might have already taken care of it.’
No outsider who knows about the Emperor’s strange symptoms should be allowed to exist.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty. Please calm down. It’s undoubtedly true that you saw it.”
Everyone said it was true. But thoughts can differ. Was the Emperor, intoxicated with alcohol and drugs, truly in his right mind? People didn’t dare to voice such thoughts because they believed he was.
Beatrice, therefore, called the Emperor in a soft voice to comfort him.
“Your Majesty, you must tell me precisely how the Empress disappeared. Very precisely. Did she suddenly vanish and then reappear?”
“No, she became transparent. Like a dragonfly’s wing or glass.”
A dragonfly’s wing? This was an entirely new dimension.
“I couldn’t catch a person who became transparent. I definitely tried to grab her, but she slipped away.”
“The Empress?”
“My hand!”
The Emperor raised his hand and trembled violently.
“This hand couldn’t catch the Empress!”
Beatrice roughly listened to the Emperor’s almost hysterical speech and thought about more substantive matters. For instance, the prophecy she had observed with the use of Kaela’s poison in Lusenford.
‘The pearl breaking.’
A pearl. Among the oysters that divers retrieve from limited seas, the most perfectly round and pristine pearl, difficult to obtain, was a gem particularly favored by noble ladies.
And the most famous and representative crown of the Empress was precisely a pearl tiara.
A massive tiara built in three layers: the first layer stacked with round pearls, the frame made of diamonds, the second layer carefully selected with large teardrop pearls, and the third layer assembled with the largest pearls.
The prophecy Beatrice saw began with a pearl breaking. The Empress’s tiara breaking. Meaning the Empress would soon disappear.
‘I was wondering what to do, but sure enough, my prophecy is undoubtedly correct.’
Although she didn’t know the reason, if something was wrong with the Empress, the prophecy was being enacted. Beatrice was certain. So, what comes next?
‘Red rose being torn.’
The rose petals spontaneously flew off. When the red rose petals touched the broken pearl, they became blood. No, it was as if the petals had become blood splattered on the pearl.
The pearl is the Empress, the most noble woman. Then where is the red rose that will stain the pearl with blood?
As a prophet interpreting prophecies, Beatrice had already guessed who the red rose would be – the one who would be torn, become blood, and ultimately fall, break, and burn with the crown.
“I see. You must have been very surprised, Your Majesty. I’ll repair the magical tools and investigate the cause. Is there anything that seems suspicious?”
What the Emperor wants now is a kind, attentive magician. Not an attractive woman who might challenge the Empress’s position.
“I don’t know.”
The Emperor shook his head.
“If there was something suspicious, I would have said it.”
Pretending not to know. Beatrice observed the Emperor’s two-second pause before responding. The Emperor was also aware of what everyone knew but didn’t speak about.
There was only one who could cast such an unbelievable magic and terrify everyone.
‘The Evil Dragon Gusalante.’
Though the dragon who lost his only wife is supposedly prohibited from using any magic against the Crania Empire due to a promise with the first Emperor, he would still be watching Craine with sharp, wide-open eyes.
It was a strange matter, but a prophecy is a prophecy. What is meant to happen will happen.
“Is there a way?”
Beatrice smiled meaningfully.
“Let’s go to Avenro.”
****
Dragons were secretive beings. The only known existence was the Evil Dragon Gusalante. His territory stretched across the northern edge of the Crania Empire, where the first Emperor encountered him while pushing northward.
Dragons created large territories and lived in isolation, showing no interest in their own kind. So even if the Evil Dragon was engaged in a passionate conflict with the current Emperor, no other dragon would help him. The Emperor only needed to deal with this one dragon.
Since only Gusalante was known.
Thus, people’s perception of dragons was limited to just one dragon rampaging in the north.
No one knew how dragons lived, how they reproduced, or what family structures they formed.
The dragon Gusalante, a disaster constantly eyeing the empire, filled with madness and desire beyond human comprehension. Nobody thought he could have any emotions besides madness and greed.
“We’re here.”
On a pitch-black night, a carriage entered a very small alley in Avenro, a tiny city located in the northwest of the Crania Empire.
So small and not particularly famous, this city had some hot springs that occasionally attracted vacationers.
But the person who descended from this carriage wasn’t here for the hot springs. The person, with a hood pulled low to hide their face, was guided to stand before a certain building.
“Is anyone here?”
The person was a woman. The escort she was with shook his head.
“I’ve continuously checked, but there are no signs of people.”
Having come this far, she couldn’t return without results. The woman ordered:
“Knock on the door.”
The guide raised his fist over the firmly closed door. But before his fist could knock, the door silently opened from within.
“Please enter.”
Inside the open door, black darkness was stagnant. A voice calling the strange visitor from deep inside was low but heard precisely in the visitor’s ear. Truly a bizarre experience.
“I’ve been waiting for you to arrive around this time.”
The voice was extremely polite, but an endless arrogance could be felt. The politeness he constructed was not respect for an equal being, but a magnanimous bestowal.
“We’re both short on time. Shall we hurry, Lady Ravalley?”
Beatrice immediately stepped forward.
“Welcome to the ‘Insenidraken’ group.”
A refined pair of lips smiled in the darkness.
