“Eat.”
Dietrich didn't bring food until the morning after he gave Seliya his uniform.
Seliya looked at the food Dietrich brought.
The steaming soup was noticeably different from the watery soup she saw yesterday.
At first glance, the soup with fresh vegetables and meat floating around stimulated her appetite. In addition, Dietrich even brought freshly baked crispy bread and placed it in the bowl.
Seliya looked suspiciously at Dietrich and the food he had brought.
“Are you trying to fatten me up and eat me?”
“...”
Dietrich easily ignored Seliya's words and walked into the cage. He placed the bowl of soup and bread in front of Seliya and leaned against the wall.
“I will go and see what you eat.”
“Hey, I have one question.”
Dietrich's eyes narrowed at Seliya's question. He expected that Seliya would also ask him how he knew about supernatural abilities.
“...Aren’t they giving you separate utensils to eat from? You want me to eat this with my hands?”
Seliya opened her eyes wide and pretended to lift her spoon. Dietrich was stunned.
In his life, he had never seen such a shameless woman.
“Do you have any awareness that you are a sinner? Don’t complain, just eat it in one bite.”
"No. You said you would save me with your mouth. Didn’t you mean that I would be released from prison?”
Dietrich lifted himself up from the wall, feeling his forehead tingle. He knelt down on one knee in front of her and brought his to eye level with Seliya.
Seliya looked at him blankly, dressed in Dietrich's uniform that did not fit her. Dietrich's once insensitive eyebrows narrowed so slightly that she couldn't tell if he looked closely.
Despite this, the red eyes looking at Seliya did not contain any emotion.
Seliya found Dietrich like that fascinating. Because he was the first man who was not shaken by her.
Famous priests, beasts in the guise of the family, the nobles, and all men who had seen her even once, lusted after her regardless of her age.
Just like the guard she saw yesterday. Just like the Emperor who died by her hands.
Seliya looked closely at Dietrich's face. Seliya's gaze swept over his neat eyebrows, the red eyes beneath them, the sharply stretched bridge of his nose, and his pink lips that seemed to not know how to smile.
Seliya had once looked at him through her sunglasses, as he called the Emperor's mad dog.
However, what she knew on the surface and Dietrich in front of her now seemed like a completely different person.
“My face is not food.”
Dietrich muttered softly and tore the bread into pieces. He brought the bread, torn into pieces, to her mouth.
“Eat.”
“...”
As Seliya just stared at him without opening her mouth, Dietrich's patience reached its limit.
“Do you want me to feed you from mouth to mouth?”
Dietrich said sarcastically. Seliya, who had been quiet at those words, suddenly burst into laughter. Fresh green eyes, reminiscent of a summer forest, were curved into the shape of a crescent moon.
In contrast to the smiling Seliya, Dietrich's face was as cold as it was frozen.
Seliya looked at him with an amused expression.
“If I say that’s what I want, are you really going to feed me that?”
Dietrich tried to throw the bread he had brought to Seliya's mouth onto the floor. Dietrich took his gaze away from Seliya to suppress his anger and dipped the bread he was holding into the soup.
“Now I see that everything they said about Brillion’s angel was nonsense. Even the devil would be less shameless than you.”
"You did not know? Those are all words made up by idiots.”
Dietrich was completely speechless at the sound that Seliya made so casually. Admiring Dietrich's stern expression, Seliya took a bite of the bread in the soup.
The aroma of the soup spread throughout her mouth and melted along with the bread. Dietrich watched in silence as Seliya ate the bread like a rabbit.
“Would you like some too?”
She said, handing Dietrich the bread Seliya had been eating. Dietrich slowly raised his body, looking at her with a look of complete disgust on his face.
The upright, royal appearance that he had seen when he first met her in prison had completely disappeared. Seliya looked like a rabbit, biting into the bread and munching on it as if savoring the taste.
Of course, Dietrich knew very well that the weak rabbit would not have even thought of assassinating the Emperor.
“...Eat a lot.”
“Aren’t you going to bring your uniform? It’s yours.”
Seliya asked with wide eyes and a crumb of bread in the corner of her mouth. Dietrich was extremely annoyed by Seliya.
“It’s annoying.”
"Huh? What’s bothering you?”
Seliya tilted her head as if she had no idea what was going on. Shining silver hair followed her nod and spilled over her black uniform.
Dietrich said, pointing his index finger to the corner of her mouth.
“...Crumb."
At Dietrich's words, Seliya wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. Dietrich, who hated irregularities, felt frustrated as he watched Seliya wiping the left side of her mouth, which had left nothing on it.
“Not there. On the other side.”
"Yes, that’s enough now, right?”
Seliya smiled proudly, with bread crumbs still in her mouth. Dietrich's eyes sank deeply.
“...Do you really not know what shame is?”
Dietrich muttered to himself. Was this reckless behavior calculated?
Despite all his doubts, Dietrich unconsciously reached out and wiped the crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
Dietrich's body odor wafted through Seliya. He smelled like his uniform. It was a scent that he wanted to keep smelling, like a soap scent with roses, or a wood scent that reminded her of trees in the forest.
Dietrich, who had wiped the crumbs from the corners of her mouth, opened his mouth, staring at Selya, who did not take her eyes off him.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
“I have a question, what kind of perfume are you wearing?”
Dietrich was silent. Without a word, he stepped away from her, just behind her. Dietrich looked closely at Seliya, who had an infinitely harmless expression on her face.
“Don’t tell me you don’t want to answer.”
At her voice, Dietrich walked out of the cage and muttered in a low voice.
“Eat a lot. I don't know when the next meal will be brought. There is so much commotion outside because you murdered the Emperor.”
Dietrich keyed the lock of the cage in which Seliya was trapped and turned her body around. Seliya shouted at Dietrich's back as he tried to walk away.
“Why is there so much noise outside?”
“...”
Dietrich had no intention of explaining the outside situation to Seliya. She will always be Seliya to Dietrich because she is a card that can be thrown away without mercy if she is deemed useless.
Blindfolding his eyes, and covering his ears, he could tolerate her mockery as long as he could use Seliya as he pleased.
'If she's not worth keeping alive, just get rid of her.'
Dietrich kept his mouth shut and walked on. However, Seliya called him out again.
“Wait, what are you going to do with this uniform? Would you like to take it?”
Dietrich only slightly turned his head and stared silently at the uniform Seliya was wearing. Several medals were hanging on the uniform. These were medals bestowed upon him by the dead Emperor.
The medals that made him vomit just by looking at them, which he had earned in return for taking away his pride, were shining in the reflection of the torchlight.
“...It’s up to you whether you throw it away or not.”
“What about these medals? It’s heavy because there are so many of them.”
"Do whatever you want. Now those clothes are yours.”
After saying those words, Dietrich left without looking back.
***
The Emperor's funeral was held in a very grand manner, inversely proportional to his incompetence. In fact, no one truly mourned the Emperor's death.
As soon as the Emperor's funeral was over, many people were paying attention to the movements of Jeremy, who would become the next Emperor.
Perhaps because the dead Emperor was not a proper human being, no one objected to Jeremy becoming Emperor.
In fact, many people opposed Jeremy becoming Emperor, as he was quite smart but somewhat impulsive. However, they were all killed by Erphea, Jeremy's mother and Empress.
Now that the emp6eror's funeral had been held, the first priority was the Emperor's coronation ceremony. However, there were so many unresolved problems that it seemed obvious that it would take a long time for Jeremy to sit on the throne.
Above all, the biggest problem was that Seliya, who had assassinated the Emperor, was still alive in prison. She was divided among the ministers over her treatment.
“They are crying out for the release of Brillion’s angel outside the imperial palace. It is not just one person, but everyone, from the children of high-ranking officials to the famous high priest, are claiming her innocence.”
“Isn’t it true that she murdered the Emperor? Why on earth would they go to such lengths to save a woman?”
The head of the ministers, the Marquis Tailor, looked like he couldn't understand them. He frowned and shook his head.
“Marquis, do you know that? The people who are currently inciting people to riot are all men with a record of courting Brillion’s angel.”
“!”
As a result of what the minister said, it seemed as if the Marquis's already wrinkled eyes had become even more wrinkled.
“How beautiful is she that people are making such a fuss?”
“I don’t know because I’ve never seen her. First of all, the dungeon is strictly controlled by Lord Dietrich...”
Marquis Tailor slams the desk! I hit it loudly.
“She is trying to control the imperial palace!”
At that moment, the door to the conference room opened with a loud bang.
“Who dares to visit the sacred conference hall...”
Marquis Tailor was unable to continue speaking and his complexion turned blue. The eyes of the ministers in the conference hall turned to the intruder who came out of nowhere.
“...Who is controlling it?”
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