Chapter 1 :

Prologue

The sound of measured footsteps echoed through the darkness. Gareth, who had been sitting on a garden bench and staring at the pond, turned his head toward the corridor.

Varkas, dressed impeccably in the formal uniform of the Imperial Knights, was walking out through the long arcade connected to the garden. The sight of him called to mind a snake swimming slowly through deep, dark water.

Sometimes, Gareth wondered why.

His pale blond hair, the color of faded flax. His blue eyes with a silvery sheen. His plaster-white skin... A man made up only of muted colors, like old parchment. Why did someone like that exude such an ominous air?

Whenever Gareth faced him, a chill always ran down his spine for no reason.

“Your Imperial Highness.”

The man placed a hand over his chest and bowed. Gareth waved one hand roughly, his face twisted in irritation.

“Cut the useless formalities.”

Even if he belonged to the Imperial Guard, the man was someone who would soon succeed Grand Duke Siarkan and rule the eastern region. He was by no means of a status Gareth could treat carelessly. Yet Gareth jerked his chin at him as though dealing with an insignificant subordinate.

“How long are you going to make me look up at you? Sit.”

Even at his rude attitude, the man’s face did not change at all. He neither looked displeased nor servilely obedient. With an indifferent expression, the man sat down on the marble chair.

The Crown Prince studied his finely carved features, which lacked any trace of humanity. At a glance, he seemed no different from usual, but it was not difficult to guess that he was not in a particularly good mood.

Had things perhaps not gone well? Gareth narrowed his eyes and asked in an interrogating tone.

“What happened with the interrogation? Don’t tell me you failed to uncover who was behind it.”

“I learned everything that could be learned.”

The man tugged down the very top of his tightly fastened coat with one hand and answered in a flat voice.

“But it will not be the answer Your Highness wants.”

Gareth raised one eyebrow.

“Explain.”

“The drug that was put into Her Highness the Princess’s wine did not come from the Empress’s Palace.”

“Then?”

“It was prescribed by an imperial apothecary to a maid working in the main palace. They said it was not even treated as a poison in the first place. It merely causes vomiting and abdominal pain as side effects when taken in large quantities all at once, so it is not managed with any particular strictness.”

“So you’re saying a maid from the main palace suddenly lost her mind and drugged my sister’s cup?”

The Crown Prince burst into an incredulous laugh. But the tendons in his thick neck were stretched taut. It was a sign that the Crown Prince was furious to the top of his head.

However, Varkas’s gaze as he looked at Gareth, whose face was mottled with rage, was endlessly dry.

“The maid did not put the drug in herself.”

“Then who is the culprit?” He lost his patience and raised his voice. “Stop dragging it out and just tell me the conclusion! If the Empress didn’t pull some trick and the maid didn’t cause an accident, then who dared to play a prank on my sister’s wine?”

“It was the Second Princess.”

At the calm answer, Gareth, who had been breathing heavily, flinched.

“That wench?”

The Crown Prince’s face twisted viciously. When he spoke of the Empress, he was like boiling lava. But when he mentioned the illegitimate child that woman had brought with her, the Crown Prince looked like someone holding the filthiest thing in the world in his mouth. From his tightly clenched jaw came the sound of grinding teeth.

“If it’s that mad wench, she’s more than capable of it. When it comes to my sister, she’s a bitch whose eyes roll back with jealousy until she can’t tell right from wrong...”

Even at the vulgar curse that would have suited a common thug, Varkas showed no reaction. Gareth stared intently at him, then, unable to let go of his lingering suspicion, latched onto the Empress again.

“Even so, isn’t it too early to be certain that Senevier... that bitch had no influence in this matter? There’s every possibility that woman egged her daughter on...”

“If she had, she would have used a proper deadly poison, not a toy-like drug such as this.”

Varkas spoke coldly. His pale eyes glimmered faintly in the darkness.

“If it were the Empress, she would not have handled the aftermath so clumsily and gotten herself caught either.”

Gareth could find no words to refute him and closed his mouth. He was offended that his words had been cut off midway, but the contempt in Varkas’s voice pleased him.

The fact that this young man, who was utterly indifferent to everything, showed his edge when it came to the stain of the imperial family, Thalia Roem Ghirta, was deeply satisfying to Gareth. It felt as though he had once again confirmed that this man was on his... on their side.

“Indeed... If it were Senevier, there’s no way she would endanger her own position with such idiotic nonsense.”

Gareth, whose mood had somewhat improved, spoke in an excited voice.

“Thalia, that bitch, has shot herself in the foot. I knew she would cause trouble someday.” He smiled like the mischievous troublemaker he had been back when he swept through the Academy. “She must have lost her reason because my sister took you from her. How arrogant that bastard girl has been all this time, ordering the heir of a grand ducal house around with her chin in the air. Since the guard knight she treated like her toy is about to become the consort of the ‘real princess,’ she must have gone completely mad with that temper of hers.”

The man gave no answer. Varkas Raedgo Siarkan was someone who did not speak more than necessary. Therefore, his silence was not particularly strange.

But Gareth sometimes found this man’s muteness unbearably irritating. This was one of those times. He stared hard at Varkas as though demanding an answer and said,

“In any case, this time even that wench won’t escape punishment. If things go well, we may even be able to frame it as an attempted poisoning...”

“It will not turn out as you wish.”

For the second time, he cut off the Crown Prince. Gareth’s eyes immediately turned fierce. But the man’s eyes as he looked at the future emperor of the Empire remained still.

“First, there is only circumstantial evidence and no conclusive proof. If that woman decides to deny it outright, proving that she is the culprit behind this matter will not be easy.”

“Then we can just put the maid who provided the drug on the witness stand...!”

“Do you truly believe that with only the testimony of a single maid, you can place Senevier’s eldest daughter on the judgment seat?”

While Gareth struggled to find a rebuttal, he continued calmly.

“Second, even if it is clearly proven that this was the Second Princess’s doing, it will be difficult to impose a severe punishment for merely adding a drug that causes abdominal pain. If that woman insists it was a light prank, it will likely end with nothing more than confinement at best.”

“A light prank?”

Gareth, who had been silently listening to him, finally exploded. He sprang up from his seat and grabbed the future grand duke by the collar.

“Do you know what kind of humiliation the woman who will become your wife suffered in front of everyone? A girl who had never once shown herself disheveled collapsed in the banquet hall while vomiting! Aila was in so much pain, so how can you call that a light prank...!”

As though chewing over the memory of that day, the Crown Prince’s bronze face flushed red enough to be visible even in the darkness. He clenched his teeth and breathed heavily.

“Yes, I was too out of my mind back then and let it pass, but when Aila collapsed, I clearly saw Thalia, that bitch, laughing from afar! That filthy bastard girl whose limbs I could tear apart and still not feel satisfied dared to do that to my sister...!”

“Your Highness.”

Gareth flinched and released his grip. Varkas had not even raised his voice, yet cold sweat instantly formed along Gareth’s spine.

Gareth stepped back and watched Varkas’s expression.

The man calmly straightened his disheveled clothes.

“That woman is not someone worthy of such attention from Your Imperial Highness.”

His voice was monotonous, as though stating the obvious fact that night comes when the sun sets.

“All that woman can do is torment others with nasty pranks like this. Is it right for someone who will become the ruler of the Empire to lose his temper over such petty mischief?”

He spoke as though soothing a child.

Normally, Gareth would have burst into rage, asking how he dared lecture him, but knowing full well that he had crossed the line first, he kept silent.

The man slowly rose from his seat. Though he was committing the discourtesy of leaving without even asking the Crown Prince’s permission, his movements were as natural as flowing water.

“I have sent medicine to Her Highness the Princess to settle her stomach. Also, from now on, I intend to strictly supervise all wine and food placed on Her Highness’s table.”

“So you’re telling me to cover it up and move on?”

“If Your Highness insists on uncovering the truth of this matter and punishing the Second Princess, I will not stop you. But I would like to be left out of it.”

At the apathetic reply, Gareth’s face reddened. Varkas seemed to be trying to dismiss this matter as nothing more than a mischievous prank by an immature girl seized by jealousy.

As he said, if the Crown Prince and the heir of the eastern grand duke became heated over such a trifling incident, only their own dignity would suffer.

But Gareth felt strong resistance toward his coldness. It was not simply because of his indifferent attitude toward Gareth’s sister. Gareth shot him a suspicious look.

“Don’t tell me you’re protecting that wench.”

The man, who had been turning back toward the path he had come from, stopped and cast a freezing gaze over his shoulder.

Just then, the wind blowing in from the lakeside softly tousled his ash-blond hair. But the man’s impression did not blur in the slightest. A smile like a well-honed blade filled his lips.

It was the first expression that had ever appeared on his face, which had always been as still as though he wore a mask.

“Me? Protect that woman?”

Varkas let out a low laugh, as though he had heard something amusing. But in the man’s blue eyes, sharp anger flashed.

For a moment, Gareth lost his words. He knew this man despised Thalia. But he had not known he harbored such intense hostility toward her.

Was this not a man whose joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure had been thoroughly cut away by the priests? In truth, for more than ten years, Gareth had never once seen him reveal emotion.

Just what had she done for this wooden man to bare his teeth like this?

Gareth studied him intently with curiosity in his eyes.

He had heard that during the time Varkas served as Thalia Roem Ghirta’s guard knight, the man had suffered all manner of insults from that woman, but he had never imagined that Varkas would be affected by it.

Was he not far too noble to be swayed by the hysteria of an immature girl? Gareth had thought Thalia Roem Ghirta was merely an annoying and irritating existence to him, nothing more. But apparently, that was not the case.

Varkas’s blue eyes, devoid of even a trace of warmth, gleamed bleakly as he spat out the words.

“I simply do not wish to be involved with that woman ever again.”

Then, as though he had nothing more to say, he turned and went back the way he had come.

Gareth quietly watched him move away soundlessly, like a water snake crossing the surface of a lake. A bitter smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

‘I don’t know what Thalia did, but this works out well for me.’

The man who was supposed to become one of his powerful supporters hated his enemy. Would that not make their alliance even stronger?

With a satisfied expression, Gareth rose from his seat.