Chapter 4
“Y-Yes! I’ll just hold your hand! Just the hand, I promise!”
Angelica’s pleading, trembling voice shook endlessly.
Hugo glanced fleetingly at her. Even though she couldn’t see anything, she was moving her head with obvious tension, as if vigilantly scanning her surroundings.
“If I refuse, you’ll stay like this all night, won’t you?”
Not sleeping for one night wouldn’t pose a great danger to her. She had gone four days without sleep before.
But Hugo couldn’t refuse her request just because it was uncomfortable for him.
Her grip clinging to him tightly, as if it were her last lifeline, and the terror etched on her face weren’t something he could easily ignore. She was the first person, ever, to cling to him this way seeking safety, rather than trembling in fear of him.
“Do as you please.”
Finally, Hugo Bernstein gave an answer that would make him uncomfortable all night.
“Thank you!”
Angelica was oblivious to what was going through his mind; her face lit up with unconcealed joy.
For the first time, Hugo saw her smile.
‘So, she can smile like this?’
After spending the past days seeing her pale face filled with anxiety or tears, this smile seemed strangely foreign to him.
Unconsciously, he began to look closely at her features.
Her cheeks, glowing under the moonlight, appeared entirely different from before. And her eyes, gently curving with her smile, added a special charm to her.
But what caught his attention most—
“……”
Was the crimson color of her eyes, which, despite matching his own, seemed to carry an entirely different feeling.
He then recalled the Emperor’s words about the “Sage’s Eye.”
“Distinguishing the Sage’s Eye is easy; it loses its original color and becomes transparent upon awakening.”
It reflects all the colors of the world, just like the sage who knows everything… but there was one person who wasn’t like that… Winter Crainville. It’s said he retained the eye color of the woman he loved, as if engraving it into his eyes. Strange, isn’t it?”
He remembered how the Emperor spoke with uncharacteristic enthusiasm, then his features twisted into a sly smile.
“I heard an interesting theory—if the Sage’s Eye is dyed with someone else’s color, that person can never escape from it.”
“It won’t just be an engraving; it will be a shackle.”
“If that’s true, perhaps the sage was the happiest person in the world.”
“Hugo, can’t we shackle the Duke’s daughter in the same way?”
A shackle, huh…
Hugo muttered unconsciously.
He didn’t believe in those legends. How could a simple eye color form a shackle on someone?
To him, a shackle was something entirely different—cold chains piercing the skin, or a cursed seal of slavery.
He had been raised in the harsh northern winter, learned to fight before he learned to read, and spent his life killing monsters and savage humans.
“Therefore, Kain, you’d better find another way before I reach the empire.”
A realistic method, not some meaningless superstition.
“Anyway, I’m confident you will.”
Hugo shook those thoughts from his head and closed his eyes. He still had a full month to protect her before arriving there.
But as soon as he closed his eyes—
“Um… are you awake?”
Angelica’s hesitant voice came as she fiddled with the hand she was holding.
As usual, he ignored her in silence.
But, contrary to his expectations—
“No.”
The word slipped from his mouth before he could stop it.
A look of surprise crossed his features, annoyed at himself, while Angelica’s face… brightened as if she’d found treasure.
“Great! I wasn’t sleepy anyway, and now I have someone to talk to!”
As the distant howls of wolves echoed in her ears, sleep had long fled from her.
❈❈❈
A little earlier, while Hugo was lost in thoughts about the “Sage’s Eye”—
Angelica was struggling to push fear from her mind, desperately trying to count sheep to fall asleep.
But, as expected, her vivid imagination ruined it.
Every time she pictured sheep, she remembered the shepherd boy story. And from the shepherd boy, she thought of wolves… what a terrifying idea in this situation!
After thirty minutes of failed attempts to sleep, she started thinking about something else—
The man who kidnapped her.
“He’s such a strange person.”
How many times had she been shocked when his body touched hers? Everything about him was imposing… his size, his strength, his voice.
And yet, his presence was astonishingly faint.
No breathing, no sound of footsteps; even when he carried her and walked, she wasn’t sure if her feet had touched the ground.
“He’s more like a professional assassin…”
She sometimes felt terrified by that, but she couldn’t deny a strange sense of comfort as well.
Even if he decided to harm her, she felt she wouldn’t realize it until it was too late.
And though that thought should have terrified her—
“……If this man is with me, I think I’d be safe even after a hundred years.”
Her kidnapper was strangely contradictory—gentle where you wouldn’t expect, rough in other ways.
“What’s the point of bringing sweets and clean water if you’re going to treat me like just a bag?”
His touches were unbelievably dry, even completely random.
And yet, there was no malice in them.
This made her stop being wary of him entirely, replacing that caution with curiosity.
“Why is his hand so huge? He must be over 190 cm tall.”
“And his voice was so deep…”
He spoke in a dry, sharp way, just like any northern duke in romance novels.
“And speaking of northern dukes, I have to mention Hugo.”
In fact, she noticed he resembled Hugo a lot.
“Especially in his strange personality.”
He wasn’t a warm person, but he was honest.
And that honesty made him strangely enjoyable.
“What does his face look like?”
Was he stern-looking, imposing awe? Or breathtakingly handsome?
“But from his build and voice, I think his appearance would be imposing.”
And as she thought, she suddenly realized she didn’t even know his name yet.
‘Wait… what’s his name?’
Would it be rude to ask now? Maybe I’ll ask tomorrow.
But she couldn’t resist her curiosity on that quiet night, so she decided to ask him finally.
A long time passed, and she thought he had fallen asleep, but…
“No.”
The man answered gently, as if waiting for her question. So she smiled and wanted to say:
“I know it’s a sudden question, but what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘you.'”
“……”
“Is he asleep again?”
The man’s silence was so long that she thought he had gone back to sleep.
But at that moment, as she felt a yawn creeping in, he finally answered:
“Hugo, Princess.”
Only then did he tell her his name.
“A strange name, isn’t it?”
She thought to herself, then suddenly laughed.
Was he also called Hugo? She wasn’t sure, but the name was so similar that she laughed.
It was funny that she was starting to find so many similarities between her kidnapper and Hugo. It was just a fleeting moment, yet she felt as if she was drawing unnaturally close to him.
“Of course, this isn’t natural.”
She shook her head mockingly at herself.
Hugo looked at her with interest as she laughed, and asked:
“Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing, I just felt the name suits you so well.”
Her smile held no sarcasm or jest; it was just a genuine smile.
“……”
This time, Hugo couldn’t look away from her.
She wasn’t sure of his feelings; perhaps he was puzzled.
But she felt as if he was facing an entirely new being.
How could someone like this show an innocent smile while holding hands full of scars?
“Can I ask you another question now that I know your name?”
She didn’t care if her actions were strange; she continued talking without hesitation.
It was amazing how quickly a person could adapt; despite her position as a kidnapped princess, she kept talking without any barriers.
In that moment,
As if an empty glass orb, her gaze glowed red.
“Hugo.”
It was strange.
Her eyes were still blind, yet she felt as if she was looking straight at him.
The red color in her eyes struck Hugo’s calm wall, like a small stone falling on it.
They said that “when the Sage’s eyes are dyed with a color, the person cannot escape its influence.”
Why did this power stir people so much?
Perhaps the Emperor’s and Kain’s words were wrong.
“Hugo, how tall are you?”
“…I’ve never measured.”
“But you must be very tall. How did you get these scars on your hand? I’m curious.”
“These scars are from the war I fought in at nineteen.”
“Were you scared? Were you okay? Does it hurt now? Or by the way, are you a fencing master? Hugo, you’re really amazing! And… the scars? They’re like medals, right? Why do you hate them? Sometimes, people who look scary can be kind. Hugo is like that too. Honestly, you’re fun.”
Perhaps it was he who couldn’t escape.
Because he had revealed everything in front of her, leaving himself completely exposed to her.
The red lights danced in the moonlight, her eyes like a curved crescent, and her mouth smiling as she laughed.
And here, Hugo discovered for the first time that the color red could be so beautiful.
Her whispers and laughter continued without stopping.
As if she had completely forgotten the moment of fear and anxiety toward him.
And after just one day of waking, all her hostile feelings had faded, and she smiled a little.
But Hugo was in a state where he couldn’t smile.
Angelica had completely forgotten she was deep in the forest, or even that wolves were howling outside.
And though he knew that, Hugo couldn’t let go of her hand, as if an invisible force was drawing him to her.
It remained that way until the morning of the next day.
It was truly a strange night.
