~Chapter 44~
If no one else knew, I did.
That he would one day become Emperor.
To achieve that simple statement—“He ascended the throne”—countless preparations were necessary.
So why had he come to Ermel, at a time when he should be focusing on his future?
Because I’m here?
Then why was he looking for me?
Did he come to kill me?
Fear parched my throat dry, but I shook my head.
If that was his intent, he would have snapped my neck long ago.
My body was frail—I couldn’t even handle seeing the prince without fainting.
For someone like him, who had survived countless battles and earned endless glory, ending me would be as easy as twisting a twig.
The fact that he had laid me in bed upstairs instead—
it meant he had other intentions.
Then why…
Yesterday, when I told him I didn’t know him, it was partly to avoid him,
but also to show him that I could live as if I had forgotten him.
Armin had destroyed the Rohilton family, but unlike before, he hadn’t reduced them to complete ruin or extinction.
Watching that, I had wondered—
maybe he wanted to forget that missing year.
So I thought pretending not to know him was best.
Was I wrong?
I remembered his face turning pale at my words, “I don’t remember you.”
Perhaps he never intended to kill me.
Perhaps… meeting me itself was his goal.
My memories stopped two years ago.
The day he removed my restraints. He had held my hand, whispering the same words again and again:
Please wait for me.
He promised he would return and take me away.
At the time, I couldn’t afford to wait for anyone’s salvation.
Even after I escaped, it was the same—I was too busy just surviving.
But if he had kept that promise all this time, even after becoming a duke—
and had come now to take me away…
Had I done something too cruel?
Had I driven a nail into the heart of someone who thought he had finally kept his vow?
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe the rumors were right—that he was a cruel duke,
and I had only mistaken scraps of kindness for something more.
And yet, I wanted to know.
To see for myself what kind of man he really was.
I thought the shop was empty. But when I went downstairs, knights were there.
Two knights, wearing the imperial crest, blocked my way out.
“You cannot leave right now.”
“His Grace the Duke—”
“Did he order you to imprison me?”
At my sharp probe, both knights averted their eyes.
So it wasn’t an order—just their own judgment.
“Move aside.”
Noise had been coming from outside for a while. I wanted to see what it was.
They shifted awkwardly, and I slipped between them, grabbing the door handle.
“Is that why you killed Jacob?”
The words I thought were noise rang clear.
The street, usually quiet at this hour except for a few wanderers,
was lined with knights.
At the center stood Armin—
and kneeling before him was a man.
His clothes were torn and dirtied.
I realized belatedly that it was Gale, the captain of the town guard.
“I admit it. Jacob was filth.
And I was no better, taking his bribes to stay quiet!
But did his sins deserve death?
Cut down in broad daylight, not even given a chance to speak in his defense?”
Jacob is dead?
I looked at Armin, startled.
He showed not a flicker of emotion.
“What is it you want to say?”
“The reason you came to Ermel!”
Gale let out a hysterical laugh.
“I know it.”
“…”
“It’s all because of that woman. Lara. Isn’t that right?”
For a split second, I saw it—
Armin’s shoulders flinch.
“Jacob said maybe she conned you.
How else could a single woman come up with so much money?
But Jacob only ever thought of coin and drink.
Me—I know better.”
Gale’s tone grew sharper.
“Your Grace silences anyone who mentions the ‘missing year.’
Kills them, or banishes them to the fringes—
as if that time itself were your reverse scale.
At first, I thought that year was your weakness.
But the more I thought, the less sense it made.
You have the power to bury such truths.
The Emperor is frail, and with no other heirs, power is flowing to you.”
“…”
“So I realized.
Your weakness isn’t the missing year—
it’s that wo—”
Steel flashed.
I hadn’t even seen him draw.
Armin’s blade swept diagonally down,
and Gale collapsed.
His head rolled across the ground, stopping at my feet.
“Pointless prattle.”
His voice was flat, almost bored.
Too emotionless for someone looking down at the dead.
I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t even tell if making a sound would be safe.
Blood pooled like a crimson cloth,
and in Armin’s hand, the sword still dripped.
“Bella.”
When his eyes met mine, he smiled—
bright, almost boyish. Unreal.
“You’re awake.”
On his cheek, still smeared with Gale’s blood,
that smile glowed with relief and joy.
“Do you know it’s been four days?”
“…”
“I was worried.”
Clack. Clack.
His boots rang loud on the empty street.
No one dared stop him as he approached me.
It was only then I realized—
I was sitting on the ground.
“Perhaps it’s hasty to ask, after you’ve only just woken…
But do you truly not remember me?”
When I said nothing, he crouched,
trying to lift me to my feet.
“It’s me. Armin.
I may look a little different, but…
the face is the same.
If you just meet my eyes—”
“No!”
Smack!
I slapped his hand away.
The silence that followed was colder than when Gale had died.
I tried to shuffle back,
any distance at all between us.
It was all I could do.
“I don’t.”
“Bella.”
“I don’t… remember…”
He was in golden armor—
just as he had been the day he killed Charlotte.
That day, blood had dripped down smooth steel.
Why had I believed he’d only kill Charlotte?
I bled the same as any human.
Why had I assumed the future could change?
He hadn’t changed at all.
“…Bella.”
Armin didn’t get angry.
His face was full of worry, nothing else.
Just as before.
As if nothing had happened.
The more I saw, the less I could believe it.
“Let me go.”
“…”
“I want to go home…”
Anywhere.
Anywhere without him.
Anywhere I wouldn’t have to think.
Now even he fell silent.
He only stared at me, like a lost child,
his eyes stubbornly fixed on mine.
Gale’s last words rang in my mind.
[The reason you came to Ermel!]
[It’s because of that woman. Lara.]
Even facing death, Gale had spent his last breath on the truth.
He hadn’t finished—but his intent was clear.
Armin had come here for me.
One truth led to another.
Your kindness was meant to bind me.
Which meant escape would be so much harder.
The weight of that realization pressed down,
and my vision warped with pain.
“What’s wrong?
Are you hurt?
Bella? Bella!”
His voice rang in my ears as my eyes closed.
Armin had only one reason for killing Gale.
Because the man tried to use Bella.
Though Gale hadn’t finished his words,
Armin knew what they would have been.
He realized it too.
That Bella is my weakness.
