A shabby inn in the capital.
A man covered in a black robe rushed into the room in a huff.
Gabriel, who was sitting leaning on the sofa in a room with a crackling fire in the fireplace, asked the man.
“Brother, did you do what you were told to do properly?”
Vincent responded to Gabriel's words by wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Of course."
Vincent took off his robe and lay down on the bed.
"However... If I do as you say, will Seliya come back?”
“If you ruin her reputation, she has nowhere to go. She must have been accused of being a witch. If she wasn’t accepted anywhere anymore, wouldn’t she just walk into the house on her own?”
Vincent grinned, brushing up his tangled hair.
“Do you think I’ve been waiting just for today? Anyway, how did you find out where I was?”
“Even if the capital city of Amman is large, it is obvious that this is where my brother will be. Even if you save money on lodging, you don’t save money on prostitutes.”
“...Is it pretty?”
You stupid brother.
Gabriel twitched her lips.
“But what about Brother Kane?”
It was only after hearing Gabriel's words that Vincent remembered the existence of his younger brother, Kane.
It was so non-existent that he didn't even know it was gone for several days.
"I don't know. I wonder where he is doing something so dark again.”
“Hmm.”
“Where did you go and what did you do? What did you do that made the knights so anxious that they couldn’t catch us?”
Gabriel shrugged her shoulders.
“I guess Seliya personally asked his famous lover, Duke Calypso, to put us in prison.”
“...What?"
“Otherwise, why would the knights want to throw us, innocent people, in prison? Isn’t that right, Brother?”
Vincent scrunched up his face in displeasure.
“Ha, damn it!”
Vincent jumped up from the bed and glared at Gabriel.
“If mother and you hadn’t sent Seliya to thr imperial palace in the first place, things wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
“...”
“You send us to a resort and sell Seliya to the old emperor? Can you still call yourself Seliya’s family?”
Family. Gabriel's eyes turned cold at those words.
“You’ve never seen Seliya as your family, have you?”
“..."
“I saw it. My brother came to Seliya’s door in the early morning, wearing nothing but clothes.”
Vincent's expression hardened.
“You saw it? When?"
“It was when Seliya was at the mansion. It must have been a pouring rain day.”
Vincent swallowed. He had no idea that following his father, even Gabriel would know what he had done.
“Relax. I'm not blaming you. It’s when you’re at your peak of energy, right?”
Gabriel grinned. Vincent's chin trembled convulsively.
“...You."
“But, I saw something strange. A little while later, my brother was dragged out of the room with a dazed look on his face. With Seliya’s hands holding your ankles.”
Vincent's eyes narrowed at Gabriel's words.
He had little memory of that early morning.
He remembered that he couldn't overcome his lust and went to Seliya's door, but his other memories were almost non-existent.
Then, he woke up and found himself in his room.
It was a strange thing, but he couldn't bear to tell anyone about it.
He was from her family, but he didn't know what he would hear if it was discovered that he had tried to rape Seliya.
“...Is what you saw real?”
“Why would I lie to you? What’s the benefit?”
“Say it properly. Did you see something else?”
“After throwing brother in your room, Seliya staggered out of her way into the hallway. She leaned her body against the wall, caught her breath, and then she went back to her room.”
Gabriel added, his eyes widening.
“Brother, isn’t it strange?”
“...What?"
"All. Shelly. Well, if you find out, she’s really a witch, right?”
***
Popo, who had lost control of his body to Arthur, soon returned to his original state.
Seliya hugged Popo tightly, who was no longer shouting things like “female” or “female,” but instead was trembling with fear.
“Are you okay, Popo?”
At Seliya's words, Popo cried in a sad voice, saying, "Princess, princess."
“I will never leave you alone from now on. I’m sorry, Popo.”
Perhaps because Seliya’s embrace was cozy, Popo fell into a deep sleep while being held in her arms.
“Good night, Popo.”
Seliya stroked Popo’s feathers and closed her eyes.
***
Dietrich looked down at Seliya, who was sleeping, with calm eyes, holding Popo tightly in his arms.
Dietrich’s hand carefully brushed back the silver hair that had fallen on Seliya’s round forehead.
Seliya was always faced with a crisis without even having a moment to catch her breath.
If it was like this even when he was with her, how would she have endured it without him?
Dietrich stroked Seliya’s cheek.
‘If only I had met you a little earlier...’
He didn’t even try to look for her. He thought that everyone except him had naturally died on the day his homeland was reduced to ashes.
In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Seliya was the one who found him.
She entered the Emperor's bedroom with a limited lifespan, killed the Emperor, and revealed herself using her hidden power.
When he first met Seliya, Dietrich had no idea that Seliya was his fiancée. He simply thought that her power would be quite useful.
If she was going to die anyway, wouldn't it be better to use it for herself?
That's what he thought. He whispered that he would protect her and tied her up next to him.
He didn't even try to understand Seliya's feelings.
She was smiling every moment, so he felt strange when she cried silently while having nightmares.
'If I don't take revenge, who will... Mom, Dad. How will I look at the dead people of our kingdom... I, on my own...'
The wounds that had festered and burst.
The resentment and time that she had to endure alone.
Dietrich truly wanted to protect Seliya.
He wanted to comfort her pain.
'When everything is over, let's go on a trip together. Go somewhere where no one knows us, do whatever we want, see whatever we want to see.'
What Seliya wanted was a very ordinary, ordinary life.
Originally, Dietrich had only lived looking forward to the destruction of Abelon.
However, now he dreamed of a future with Seliya.
If Seliya allowed it, he wanted to use his healing powers to completely heal Seliya’s body right away.
“Anastasia.”
Dietrich called Seliya’s real name softly.
Seliya was breathing evenly and sleeping deeply. He could see the red marks he had left on her bare skin through her thin negligee. They were marks of her driving him like an animal, unable to hold back his boiling desire.
“It’s a good thing it rained at that time, if only it hadn’t.”
The image of Seliya, who was being torn apart by his own gestures, never left Dietrich’s mind.
Her trembling eyelids, her fresh emerald eyes that contained only him.
There was nothing about them that wasn’t lovely.
Dietrich withdrew his hand from caressing Seliya’s cheek.
Instead, he kissed Seliya’s forehead as she slept and pulled the blanket up over her neck.
This caused Popo, who was in Seliya’s arms, to flutter his wings.
Popo blinked several times and stopped flapping his wings after confirming that Seliya was asleep.
Dietrich narrowed his eyebrows and motioned for Popo to be quiet.
The clever Popo understood perfectly and shook his beak up and down.
After confirming that Popo was asleep again, Dietrich carefully got up from Seliya’s bed.
Dietrich opened the door and saw Anderson. Dietrich had sensed Anderson’s presence since a while ago, lingering in front of the door as if he had something to worry about, not even bothering to knock.
Knock.
Dietrich closed Seliya’s door and asked Anderson in a low voice.
“Do you have something to tell me?”
“Your Excellency the Duke of Calypso.”
Anderson’s throat twitched as he called Dietrich.
When Dietrich gestured as if to tell him to speak, Anderson lowered his gaze.
Anderson’s face was darkened by the moonlight.
“... I have something important to tell you.”
“Can we not talk about this in the hallway?”
“Yes, it seems like it will take a long time...”
Dietrich slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“Understood.”
Dietrich went into the room right next to where Seliya was sleeping. Anderson followed Dietrich in.
The two sat facing each other across a wooden table in the center of the large room.
The light from the oil lamp on the table illuminated them both.
Anderson began to speak with a face full of memories.
“The two of us are here, so I remember when I first met you, Your Excellency. I was an imperial knight trusted by His Majesty the Emperor, and you were a stable boy who took care of the old and sick steeds of the Imperial Family.”
Dietrich corrected Anderson.
“Anderson, I am no longer a Duke. Illeon has taken away my dukedom.”
Anderson smiled gently at Dietrich’s words.
Even Anderson, who had unintentionally stolen the hearts of women in his youth, could not escape the cruelty of time.
Although his eyes were wrinkled and his hair had turned gray, Anderson’s face still retained its beauty.
“...Then, I will call you my lord as I used to.”
“If that is what you wish.”
When Dietrich’s calm words returned, Anderson smiled gently and stared into the light of the lamp.
“I have never regretted anything in my life. I never had any doubts about teaching you swordsmanship, serving you, and doing everything you asked me to do.”
Anderson turned his gaze to Dietrich.
Anderson’s black eyes, looking at Dietrich, were filled with countless emotions that were hard to describe.
“However, there is one thing I regret now.”
“...”
Dietrich didn’t answer.
Instead of asking what he regretted, Anderson’s eyes filled with tears as he watched Dietrich quietly listening to him.
“Why didn’t I try to understand your feelings earlier? I acted like a pathetic fool, not knowing that you wanted the destruction of Abelon, not its revival...”
A tear ran down Anderson’s cheek.
“I feel so guilty that I found out through someone else’s mouth.”
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