- Episode 6
It was a mystery how someone could say such things, given that a study supposedly holds such special meaning.
However, since there was no harm in hearing only the truth, Dominic remained silent without any change in expression.
"I have no goals for Henburg whatsoever. I have even forgotten what my homeland means to me."
'You said you 'forgot'?'
“My life is more important to me than my country. In my life, there is something more important, something I cannot escape from. The Captain might not understand, but that is how I am. That is my world. Perhaps in the past, the country might have been more important. But not anymore.”
"..."
“Not anymore.”
As Adelheid said, Dominic could not understand her.
That mindset that an individual's life is more important than the country was one thing, but it was difficult to understand her words themselves.
Adelheid closed the book after thinking about something for a moment.
“...It’s late. Thank you for talking to me today.”
She wore that usual smile that she wore like skin.
"I will come tomorrow too. I am always here."
"..."
“Can you come again? I know what you are worried about. But the King has never once visited the study. So it will be fine.”
She acted that way all this time, knowing what he was worried about? There are so many things he can't understand.
So Dominic did not answer. Adelheid blinked a few times as if observing him, then whispered in a thin voice, just as she would to the King.
"If you come here again tomorrow, I won't visit you during the Captain's shift anymore. About I belong."
***
Dominic and Adelheid read books in the study every night. And they talked about what they read.
Since Adelheid's first request, no one asked for a promise first, and no one asked for a conversation first.
He simply came to the same place to read a book, occasionally breaking the silence. It happened naturally, like air.
When the topic of subjectification came up, Adelheid got up from her seat and took a book from the corner of the study.
And she opened the page dealing with the arrangement of enunciation.
Dominic stared at Adelheid flipping through a book and suddenly had a question.
"...Didn't you say you don't read books?"
“When am I?”
Dominic retorted. Come to think of it, she didn't seem to have said she wouldn't read them.
He asked Adelheid if she enjoyed reading books, and she replied that she didn't.
She took her eyes off the bookshelf and stretched her lips into a smile.
"I read. I just don't enjoy it."
You mean someone who doesn't enjoy it knows this study inside and out?
Dominic thought it wasn't true at all, but since the person involved said so, he couldn't question it. There was no way. It was also a tiring task.
Adelheid, tracing the type with her fingers next to the lamp, looked like she was of a fairly noble status.
Dominic suddenly realized the fundamental reason why he had hated Adelheid.
He had many conversations with Adelheid, but there was an argument he could never yield to, even now.
The very first conversation.
'There is no situation that must be humiliating unless it is for the sake of greater virtue and value.'
There are many in the world who possess values more precious than life, and the thinking human being willingly walks the difficult path.
Dominic was a knight, and Adelheid was royalty of a fallen kingdom.
A knight has the value of a knight, and royalty has the value of royalty.
To Dominic, such values were more important than life itself. However, no value as royalty could be found in Adelheid.
She pleased the King like a pet and smiled at other men to gain the King's attention.
Dominic's thoughts remained unchanged even to this day.
Adelheid was the kind of person he loathed the most.
A person who willingly endures compromising their own help and values for the sake of an easier and better path.
Suddenly, she said.
"Captain, you are a formidable warrior, but is it just my imagination that you seem to fit politics better?"
"...I am..."
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
Adelheid shrugged her shoulders like a child caught doing something naughty.
Then, he sprang to his feet from his seat. He seemed to pay no attention to Dominic, who was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
The maidservant spoke from outside the door in a flat voice.
"Your Highness, the King is coming."
Adelheid's blue eyes traced a precarious wave.
She hurriedly let her hair down with her hand and left the study. There was no coquettish smile, nor was there a swaying gait.
The door closed a little nervously behind her footsteps.
The study fell silent in an instant. Left in a desolate silence, Dominic stared at the closed door with a slightly bewildered expression.
His thoughts were slow. He averted his gaze and tried to read the book, but he couldn't focus on it at all, so he closed it.
He tilted his head back and leaned comfortably back in the chair. His head was spinning.
For some reason, he wondered how long he had been doing that. Dominic soon sat up due to an unknown anxiety.
He approached and stood by the window overlooking the palace gate.
Not long after, Adelheid was seen walking hurriedly out of the building.
Before he knew it, her hair and clothes were fully adorned. Soon, the massive palace gate slowly opened.
In this place enclosed by windows, there was not even the usual noise of doors. It was simply quiet.
At the revealing appearance of the King, she approached closer. Even though he couldn't see it, she was surely smiling.
It was only her back, but it was the gait Dominic knew all too well. He let out a low sigh.
And just as Adelheid was about to hug Anton, Anton kicked her.
He grabbed Adelheid, who had fallen to the ground, by the hair and dragged her.
Adelheid seemed to try to push away Anton's hand gripping her hair, but Anton walked on, paying no heed. She was dragged along listlessly.
Everything happened in an instant. The study was still quiet.
Dominic watched the scene frozen in place.
***
About Adelheid.
There was an invasion by Genomes.
In the burning Henburg Palace, Adelheid thought of death.
After all her blood relatives except herself and her brother had died, she thought of death when she met the man who had killed them. Her body trembled like an aspen tree.
Waiting for death was actually more terrifying than death itself, so she wished she would just be killed quickly.
The blessing the dragon bestowed upon Henburg was that the lineage of descendants with noble blood would never end.
According to the blessing, the royal lineage should never end.
Faced with the situation where only two people remained waiting for death, Adelheid could not feel any hope.
Her brother's head fell first, and as the blade rushed toward her neck, Adelheid thought of death.
And then she opened her eyes again.
A blood-stained blade lay before her eyes. Her headless brother was also beside her. Adelheid thought of death again.
She opened her eyes again.
A blood-stained blade lay before her eyes. Her headless brother was also beside her. Adelheid thought of death again.
She opened her eyes.
Adelheid thought of death again.
She thought about death again, and thought about death, and thought about it, and thought about it, but it did not end.
The fear was the same, and the pain was the same. Death came after death, and death came after death. She felt like she was going to go crazy.
She was so scared and in so much pain that she felt like she was going to die. However, she neither went crazy nor died.
The blessing the dragon bestowed upon Henburg was that the lineage of descendants with noble blood would never end.
Ah.
Goosebumps ran down her entire body. She snapped awake as if cold water had been poured over her. A blessing... was this what a blessing meant? Was this what it was? Was it meant to be this way?
Is this a blessing? An indescribable rage welled up inside her. This can't be happening.
She cannot dare to call such a thing a blessing. She died before she could even finish his thoughts.
Adelheid opened her eyes.
When she realized that it never ends, Adelheid begged to be spared. But the blade showed no mercy.
When she opened her eyes again, she begged even more desperately.
Before the King of Genomes, she cast aside all her pride and dignity as a member of the royal family and begged miserably.
She wanted to live because she knew she wouldn't die even if she tried. She wanted to live because she was afraid of not dying.
It was a feeling worse than fear. Adelheid wanted to live so, so badly.
Adelheid did not know the language to express this emotion, so she just kept repeating the same words while shedding tears.
'I'll do anything. Please save me, please save me, please, I'll do anything...'
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