- Episode 10
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
It felt like waking from a dream. Adelheid was startled enough to shrug her shoulders.
There was only the maid who was knocking on the door at this hour.
Without even a moment to think properly, she sprang up from her seat.
"His Majesty, the King is coming."
Anton did not like being greeted in casual attire.
Adelheid walked quickly, untying her loosely tied hair and combing it with her hand.
She didn't have the time or the nerve to say anything to Dominic.
Her hand trembled as she fumbled to grab the doorknob.
With the help of the maids, she dressed simply and ran down the stairs.
Fortunately, Anton did not seem to have arrived yet.
She tucked the stray hairs clinging to her forehead behind her ears and nervously stared at the door.
It was not common for Anton to look for Adelheid at such a late hour.
And it was generally not a good thing.
In a past life, Anton had killed her after barging in late at night. She still didn't know the reason.
Adelheid pulled her lower lip tight and bit it.
She paced back and forth in front of the door, repeatedly tightening and loosening her clasped hands.
Anxiety gnawed at her insides and filled her mind.
Her throat was burning. Why now? Why now, of all times? What is going on? What is the reason? Her teeth chattered.
Finally, the palace gates opened.
Adelheid walked toward the door with one hand on her chest.
She wore the smile that Anton praised the most.
She thought she wouldn't be able to walk, but she walked just fine, and she thought she wouldn't be able to laugh, but she laughed just fine.
Adelheid was sick and tired of it. She was so bored that her head felt heavy.
When Anton's face was half-revealed through the door, Adelheid froze, her smiling face frozen.
A chilling, murderous aura flowed across the man's face.
The daytime of a predator looking down on its prey, familiar eyes suffocating her throat, and the scent of heavy silence.
Anton's brown hair looked pitch black in the darkness.
The piercing eyes were staring intently at Adelheid.
Even in her previous lives, Anton was sometimes in a very bad mood. There were such days irregularly.
And he released it to Adelheid. If it went too far, it was fatal.
That was the Anton of today. Looking at him, Adelheid recalled the place where she opened her eyes every time.
Her brother's severed head. The smell of death.
A blood-stained blade. A fortress wall scorched by fire.
Ashes. Thoughts. Thoughts on death.
Anton kicked Adelheid with a cold expression.
A dull pain tightened in her abdomen and took away her strength to stand.
Adelheid, having collapsed, let out a rough breath onto the dry floor.
Before she could even regain her senses, a strong grip grabbed her blonde hair.
"Ugh!"
Incredible pain.
She instinctively tried to push away the hand gripping her hair, but the merciless force did not budge.
Adelheid was dragged along.
Blood rushed to her face, and her legs scraped against the floor.
She was dragged across the entire garden until she reached the building entrance.
"Your, Your Majesty, I will walk."
Anton's steps came to a sudden halt. A long silence fell.
Adelheid trembled and barely managed to lift her head to look up.
Dominic was standing on the stairs. His shoulders were heaving irregularly, as if he had run all the way from the study.
Her vision was blurry, so she couldn't see his face clearly.
“Ah, sir.”
"..."
"It's been a long time."
The moment of death in her past life overlapped. Anton, having drawn his sword. The day it touched the nape of the neck.
The man trying to kill him. And the man standing by the door. Tall enough to touch the branches of a towering tree.
Ash hair swaying in the wind. A cold face. Gray eyes that met. Eyes that were indifferent, cold, desolate, and nothing at all.
She wondered if Dominic still had those eyes.
"Hmm? Sir, did you run over?
"..."
" It's late at night. What were you doing up at night? Go inside."
"..."
“Why aren’t you going in and just standing there? Ah, because of this?”
Anton spoke as if he were amused, then suddenly let go of the grip on his hand.
At the same time, Adelheid's neck snapped.
Dominic said as he went down a couple more steps.
"Your Majesty."
It was a voice that sounded as if it were trying to stop him. Anton let out a hollow laugh.
" Is it because you can't bear to see a poor woman's suffering?"
" It is Your Majesty who has ordered me to be Her Highness's bodyguard."
"Hmm? Ah. Ah, right."
Anton raised both arms as if to surrender.
Then, glancing at Adelheid, who had slumped down, almost collapsing, he took a step back.
"Oh no, I stole a knight from my concubine."
"..."
"Sir. I will call you in soon, so stay on standby. I feel it is a waste to let such a talented person rot here. Have you rested enough in the meantime?"
"...Yes."
"Adele, it must be nice to have a loyal bodyguard."
Anton's voice was endlessly cheerful, but Adelheid knew that his mood was not.
Having observed Anton for a long time, she had lived by reading the room and trying to please others. It is impossible not to know.
That suppressed emotion is clearly directed at Dominic.
Several guards passed by Adelheid, but Anton had never shown such emotions to anyone.
A cruel man. That man is someone who can wield violence while smiling.
He is someone who can commit murder while whispering seemingly kind and merciful words.
Like poking an insect with a twig, he is someone who can violently slice human flesh into pieces.
So, Adelheid was most afraid when Anton smiled like that.
He always killed Adelheid with a smile.
He never once failed to laugh when killing her.
“Have a good night.”
The sound of footsteps faded away. The building doors closed, and a moment later, the palace gates closed as well. Silence fell in an instant.
When all those sounds disappeared, Adelheid felt her energy drained.
With both hands on the floor, she bowed my head and thought.
What kind of person is Dominic to Anton? Why is he wary of him?
Is it because he is a hero of an era where blessings were realized?
Because you are wary of that force? Simply because of that?
"Your Highness."
Adelheid raised her head.
Before she knew it, Dominic was close to her, with only three steps left.
Two steps. One step. He reached out his hand with a confused look on his face.
Adelheid just stared blankly at the outstretched hand.
"...Please stand up."
The first question came to mind.
Why didn't you just ignore it and walk past? Why did you speak as if you were stopping Anton's actions?
Why are you reaching out to me?
I wish I hadn't done that in my previous life.
Secondly, I felt anger.
I wish you could do this.
I thought you would stop it, make a certain expression, and reach out a hand.
Why did you look at me like that back then? I didn't even expect you to save me.
Just a little sympathetic, pitiful, at a loss, flustered...
"Dying."
The conversation stopped. Adelheid slowly inhaled and continued speaking.
"...I almost died.
"..."
"I almost died."
I almost died. I calmly concluded that and got up on my own.
Dominic looked at her with eyes resembling soot. Soon, he withdrew the hand he had extended.
***
After that, Adelheid went to the study every evening.
However, Dominic was not there.
There was no one. It was only Adelheid.
Everything returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
Overwhelmed by a renewed sense of misery, she sobbed in the study. She cried for a long time.
However, it wasn't that she couldn't understand Dominic.
According to Anton, Dominic will soon return to the Knights Division.
At this point, with so little time left, he probably wouldn't want to start something pointless. All the more so, judging by the track record of her former guards. He was an honorable knight.
I understood. I understood, and it was okay. It was better than I thought.
She felt much more at ease if Dominic thought of her as just one of the handmaidens who ignored her as if she didn't exist.
It was better than Anton, who treated her like a pet dog. So it was fine.
It was about returning to normal daily life.
Something inside her chest kept crackling and burning up.
She had no way of knowing what it was, so she just suffered in silence.
Occasionally, Dominic would be seen on duty outside the window, but she would stare blankly for a moment and then quickly draw the curtain.
She slept all day in the pitch-black room. The overwhelming desolation made it impossible for her to even open her eyes.
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