Medea looked down from the high tower of the palace.
"Your Highness should have been there too."
Neril sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"With all due respect, I still cannot understand why Your Highness has so persistently refused to attend the ceremony."
Her voice grew louder.
She couldn't stop the regret and inexplicable sadness from welling up in her.
"The fall of the Regent, the suppression of the rebellion, the victory over the Pingyuan, all would have been impossible without Your Highness's arrangements. The one who protected this country was Your Highness the Princess."
Do those people who shout for joy really know?
The Princess put everything on the line every time for today's victory.
To strangle the necks of her enemies without a single error, the Princess also had countless sleepless nights.
"Neril, I'm sorry I didn't know you, and I was so foolish."
"Neril, where is your master now?"
"Neril, prepare my sword."
All the moments that the Princess had arranged and helped her move flashed through Neril's mind.
As if Medea knew what was on her mind, a small hand reached out and tapped Neril on the shoulder.
The Princess said, slightly raising the corners of her lips.
"That's not my place."
'I don't deserve that.'
She has only just now returned to her country what they had stolen and taken from her.
Medea took in the sight of the triumphant procession in a hazy way.
The lively and cheerful atmosphere of the palace intersected with the Valdina of her past life that she remembered.
Gray smoke piled up the corpses of demons and humans. A land of ruins where no life remained. It was a curse she had brought upon herself.
'It's different. It's different this time. I... changed it.'
The other hand, not reaching out to Neril, clenched into a fist between the hem of her dress.
A firm determination flashed through his green eyes.
'It will be like that in the future too.'
It was both the wind and the assurance she repeated to herself.
"The ceremony is no longer important. Neril, remember that we still have work to do. Who has been to the prison where Claudio is?"
At Medea's question, Neril suppressed her frustration and regained her composure.
She must never forget that the most important thing to her is to help the Princess with her trustworthy hands and feet.
In fact, Neril, who had been with the Princess until now despite her sullen face, instinctively felt that Medea's plan was not over yet.
'How far is Your Highness looking?'
"Yes, Count Raju came with medicine and a doctor."
"Hmm...."
Raju managed to survive.
'Even back then, he was good at tightrope walking.'
Count Raju, despite being hated by Perdiccas II, supported Jason with all his might behind the scenes.
And when Jason's throne was confirmed, then he finally came out of the shadows.
'Then he wouldn't give up his daughter so easily.'
Medea looked in the direction where Claudio was imprisoned, with an expression on her face that made her wonder what was going on.
Somewhere in the palace, two more people were at odds with each other, unable to narrow their differences.
"Saya, you're being deceived!"
Theo and Saya were siblings.
Theo came to the palace to meet her.
Before they could even begin to rejoice at their reunion after so many years, a sharp tension began to rise between the two.
"The Princess, do you know what kind of person the woman you serve is?"
"What am I being fooled by?"
Saya asked sharply.
No girl always smiled brightly and received all the love from the Princess's palace.
Saya looked at her brother's face with a dry, unsmiling expression.
Theo's face was quite different from what Saya remembered. He had grown taller and bigger, and his lines had become thicker.
His handsome face was still there, but he looked somehow gloomy and tired.
The eyes that were once full of the boy's passion and energy had long since lost their vitality, like a faded painting.
Saya could guess that Theo's time apart from her had not been entirely comfortable either.
But that gave her no comfort.
"Saya, the Princess threatened me with your life! She used you as bait to stop the rebels! That's why she brought you in as a handmaiden in the first place!"
Theo beat his chest as if he was frustrated.
He thought his sister had fallen for the Princess's cunning tricks.
When he finds out the truth, his sister will also be shocked and horrified at the fact that she helped such a cruel villain like the Princess.
But contrary to his expectations, Saya simply asked back calmly.
"So?"
"What?"
"So, Theo, what do you want to do now? Are you dissatisfied that the rebellion ended in the middle? Are you dissatisfied that Her Highness the Princess personally asked the King to spare your life?"
"Saya, how can you say that to me?"
Theo looked at Saya with shocked eyes. Shock, betrayal, and disappointment passed through him.
"What did I do to save you! What did I give up! Freedom, beliefs, everything-"
"Don't rationalize yourself because of me!"
Saya snapped back sharply.
They are brothers who were born in the same boat and grew up together. They knew each other's thoughts clearly.
"Theo, don't I know you? If you really believed in them, if the revolution was real, you would have protected them until your death, no matter what Her Highness threatened. You would have done it, no matter what the sacrifice. Even if it meant my life."
I guess you thought there was nothing you could do, even if your heart was torn apart.
It must have been considered inevitable that small sacrifices would be made for a greater cause.
Just like back then, Theo left Saya without any regrets.
"Should I be grateful that you valued the fake rebellion over my life?"
"I am..."
Theo's face turned pale.
Only after his sister hit him hard was he able to look back on the past.
Why did he think that his sister would understand him when he left the palace without any regrets, driven mad by resentment and anger?
The rift between the siblings that time had created was too deep.
Now that Theo has come, it's not easy to fill it.
"Saya. I was wrong. How much you were hurt... . I'll pay for it all. Come with me. Let's get out of here, okay?"
Theo extended his hand towards Saya, offering a belated apology.
He thought that his sister's wounded heart would be healed little by little.
The important thing is that he can't leave his sister by the side of the evil Princess.
"I'm going to the Holy Land. If I apply to the temple, it won't be hard for the two of us to live off of each other."
"..."
"I can't keep you around that woman any longer. She's a villain who sees people as nothing more than chess pieces, so how could I know she'd use you again-"
"Theo, you were so worried about me. Didn't you ever think about how I was going to live alone in that street after you left?"
At that time, Saya had so many things she wanted to say to her brother.
There were so many things she wanted to vent, to complain about, and to resent.
But at some point, that story and her desire to find Theo all disappeared as if they were sinking into the sand.
"Her Highness the Princess warned me."
"You might regret making me your master."
Saya still couldn't forget what the Princess said on the day she accepted her earnest request.
Perhaps she wasn't surprised by Theo's accusation because she had expected a day like this.
"Oh, mine is so worthless!! It's the most precious thing to Your Majesty. You look at it every time before you go to bed!"
The King's bracelet that the Princess had insisted on holding onto. The apology that the Princess had tried to convey silently.
Now it all makes sense.
'Your Highness, you didn't have to feel sorry for me.'
She knows the Princess well now.
The fact that someone who leaves no regrets would let a disloyal person like Theo live...
'Because he is my brother.'
Saya made an exception for herself, as she was heartbroken by Theo's death.
Saya rubbed her reddening eyes fiercely. She felt as if tears were about to well up in her eyes.
"Theo. His Majesty spared you because you are my brother."
"What?"
Theo's eyes became as big as lanterns.
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