Chapter – 21
Even though he always wore a scowl that made him look terrifying, he didn’t seem all that scary anymore. As the two of them kept bickering like children, Jin came charging over to where they were, his face twisted in anger. The moment he saw Kyle, he exploded.
“This makes no sense!”
“And what doesn’t make sense this time?”
“If I’d stayed just a little longer, I could’ve seen you with my own eyes calling Dee a fairy! I’ve never been this disappointed in my own patience!”
“…This con artist manipulated me, you bastard.”
“Ah, that explains it. I heard cheering from far away and came back to see what was going on, and it’s this… Ugh, how unfair. I could’ve teased you about this for the rest of my life.”
As Jin slumped in despair, Dee clicked her tongue.
“Even if you didn’t see it, you should’ve pretended you did and teased him anyway.”
“Me? A con artist? I could never.”
“Well, fair enough. Let’s agree not to trespass into each other’s domains.”
Dee nodded, but her face—pale from blood loss—looked unwell. Kyle shut the door and had the carriage depart first.
After the carriage left, Kyle asked Jin,
“You know the Emperor will be coming soon, right?”
“I know. That’s why I’m planning to leave the country for a while.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re coming, even if it’s just to show your face.”
“I don’t want to—”
“Come.”
“Fine. I’ll just show my face. That’s my limit.”
Jin crossed his arms and grumbled, then asked,
“By the way, Kyle. Our eldest brother’s on his deathbed—aren’t we being a little too indifferent?”
“Are you sad?”
“That brother being alive is a disaster.”
Jin answered immediately with a sigh. Kyle looked at him as if to say, Why even ask something so obvious? and mounted his horse.
* * *
Since Bernadoc had fled somewhere in the middle of the match, Kyle sent his men to track him down.
After barely surviving the ordeal, Dee returned to the royal castle. She went first to the eastern temple, but Amilla still hadn’t returned, and it was empty.
“Ah, I was going to brag about saving her…”
Amilla’s maid, Ellie, spotted Dee and asked,
“West Priestess, have you seen our priestess?”
“That’s what I want to know. Amilla’s gone…”
“She said she’d be back by nightfall. Where could she have gone?”
The two tilted their heads in confusion.
Dee had exhausted all the energy in her body that day and was too tired to wander any longer. But she couldn’t rest, worried about Amilla, who had been betrayed by her own blood.
With no strength left to search, Dee crouched down in front of the eastern temple.
She decided to wait there for Amilla to return. Ellie looked worried and said,
“I’ll tell her when she comes back. Please go inside and rest.”
“Mmm… I’ll just wait a little longer.”
Dee thought—
If Ms. Kim Seonnyeo, who had always been on her side, suddenly betrayed her one day, it would be devastating. Far worse than finding out her grandmother had been hiding hwatu cards in her palm to take back her allowance.
As Dee hugged her knees and crouched there, she sensed someone bending down in front of her. She looked up and saw Kyle.
“Kyle? Did you come to look for Amilla too— Ah! Showing up here in the middle of the night! Don’t tell me you like Amilla!”
“It’s not like that. Stop pointing fingers.”
Kyle stared silently at Dee’s bandaged fingers, then said,
“Go inside and sleep.”
“I’ll go as soon as Amilla comes back.”
Dee smiled brightly and waved her hand. Kyle turned around and headed toward his office. Once he was far enough away that Dee couldn’t hear, he clicked his tongue and muttered,
“So she’s not sulking.”
Jin had said that when Dee sulked, she hugged her knees and crouched like that—but apparently, that was nonsense.
* * *
Bernadoc was frantically packing his belongings in his house deep in the forest. Kyle’s men would definitely be looking for him.
He planned to flee straight to where Crown Prince Sian was. He’d never imagined things would spiral this badly.
Though the Crown Prince seemed close to death, the only person who might still help him—after all his loyalty—was Sian.
When Bernadoc finished gathering everything and opened the door to leave, his breath caught.
Amilla stood there, expressionless.
“Grandfather.”
“A-Amilla…”
As she slowly stepped inside, Bernadoc instinctively staggered backward.
This was a place no one in the world knew about—the house where Amilla had been born. Thinking that anything could happen here without anyone knowing, Bernadoc hurriedly made excuses.
“I—I wasn’t trying to put you in danger! I was just so startled…”
Amilla murmured,
“At the very least, I thought you considered me your granddaughter. I never imagined you would actually try to kill me.”
“It’s true! I believed you’d survive even in that situation! There’s no time for this. I have to go to His Highness immediately, Amilla. Why don’t we think about our future together?”
“I’ll take care of the future myself.”
“You—you have to win His Highness’s heart! That woman beside him is a nuisance! With the Crown Prince’s power, getting rid of a single priestess like Diana would be easy!”
Bernadoc tried to push past her, but Amilla didn’t allow it. She blocked his way again and said,
“What are you talking about? You promised not to touch my people anymore.”
“I-I never touched the king!”
“You think Kyle is my only person?”
Bernadoc flinched and stumbled back. He had always thought Amilla felt nothing—that was why she was easy to handle. But now, he couldn’t read her at all.
Amilla began opening the drawers one by one, starting from the bottom.
“W-What are you doing…?”
Bernadoc asked in a trembling voice. Amilla spoke.
“Grandfather. When my mother—the one you wanted so badly to turn into a priestess—ran away with another man, and you started raising me to replace her… I was very young then. Maybe that’s why.”
She murmured,
“I don’t know warmth, happiness, joy, or sadness. Not a single one.”
At last, Amilla found what she was looking for—a thick, long thread. She tied both ends together, made several loops, overlapped them, and hooked them onto both hands like a string game.
Bernadoc trembled.
“S-So…?”
“But among all those emotions, there was one I understood without ever being taught. So I treasured it all this time. I thought that if I lost even this, nothing human would remain of me.”
“W-Which emotion is— AAAAAH!”
Amilla pressed the thread over Bernadoc’s head and slammed him into the wall. The old man’s scream was brief; his breath stopped instantly.
Her hands soaked in blood, Amilla replied flatly,
“Rage.”
* * *
As if it were nothing, Amilla wiped the blood from her hands, changed her clothes, went to the kitchen, lit the firewood, threw it onto the bed beside the fallen corpse, and left the house.
Riding her horse back to the royal castle, she spotted Dee asleep, curled up on the steps of the eastern temple.
Amilla ignored her and walked past, but sensing movement, Dee startled awake. After looking around, she spotted Amilla behind her and followed her inside, pouting.
“Amilla, if someone’s sleeping on the stairs, don’t you think you should wake them?”
“Get out. I’ll kill you.”
“You won’t. You really won’t. Ugh, seriously. If someone’s waiting for you and sleeping on the stairs, you wake them. Got it? Even if you don’t understand, just memorize it.”
“Shut up.”
‘Ah, my daughter’s teenage rebellion… no, wait.’
“My shoulders hurt, my neck hurts, everything hurts.”
Dee exaggeratedly stretched her neck so Amilla could hear her complaining. After a full day of tension and dozing on the stairs, she was on the verge of collapse.
Just as Dee felt relieved and was about to leave, Amilla called out,
“Dee.”
“Hm?”
“Is there something wrong with someone who feels nothing except anger?”
Amilla asked with a blank face. Dee clenched both fists.
“My teenage daughter is finally trying to have a conversation!”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
As Amilla bristled, Dee hurriedly said,
“You know, my master used to say this—anger is the second emotion.”
“The second?”
“Yeah. It means you felt something before the anger. Disappointment, sadness, loneliness, sleepiness, hunger—even being so happy you wanted to laugh out loud but couldn’t. That’s why people get angry.”
She continued brightly,
“So if someone who only felt anger starts wondering whether something’s wrong with them… I think that’s the beginning of trying to understand the emotion that caused the anger in the first place.”
“….”
“So isn’t that a good thing?”
Dee shrugged.
After listening quietly, Amilla spoke again,
“That’s enough. Stop bothering me and go.”
“You little— I was happy you talked to me for once.”
Amilla chased Dee out and slammed the door shut.
As Dee grumbled and headed back toward the western temple, she spotted black hair behind a tree. Startled, she cautiously approached—and found Kyle leaning against the tree, asleep.
“…What? Why are you sleeping here?”
She blinked in confusion. Seeing Kyle asleep with his head slightly tilted felt strangely unsettling.
He acted like priestesses didn’t exist, listened seriously to plans involving divine power, was stingy, and slept anywhere.
‘Maybe he’s not a bad person… Or maybe he’s not stingy, just poor? Is the Vitencia Empire way smaller and poorer than I thought…?’
Lost in thought, Dee shook his shoulder.
“Kyle, what kind of king sleeps just anywhere?”
He opened his eyes, exhaustion written all over his face.
“And you’re one to talk. What kind of patient sleeps just anywhere?”
When he headed toward the western temple, Dee followed in confusion. Upon arrival, Kyle gestured at the door.
“Go sleep.”
“Huh? You walked me back?”
“Because you’re a patient.”
“I’m really not that badly hurt.”
“Your standards and mine seem to differ.”
Kyle spoke curtly, yawned, and headed back toward the castle.
Dee blinked awkwardly, then hurried inside and collapsed onto her bed.
“Ah… I forgot to say thank you…”
She muttered, burying her face in the pillow.
From the next day on, preparations began for the welcoming ceremony for the Emperor’s arrival in Pheton.
Kyle rested his chin in his hand and stared out the window, but his father William’s nagging was endless.
“How in the world can you be less popular than a thief, you idiot?!”
“…You mean a righteous thief.”
“Isn’t a righteous thief still a thief?!”
Kyle recalled that he’d once given the exact same answer himself. Thinking like father, like son, he sighed.
The imperial couple arrived at Pheton Castle a full three days earlier than scheduled. The incident at the arena hadn’t even been fully resolved yet. Bernadoc was still missing, and several fleeing priests’ positions remained vacant.
Upon hearing that High Priest Bernadoc had been dismissed, the imperial family rushed their court mages to secure the fastest carriage possible. William worried his atheist son might have caused a major disaster, but he was relieved to find that wasn’t the case.
William seized the chance to scold his son without mercy.
His father’s nagging was bearable. What truly drove Kyle insane was his stepmother—who was the same age as him.
Rona spoke with a mocking smile.
