Chapter 44
It must’ve been clear even to Calix how bad my condition was. He gently stroked my shoulders and back, trying to soothe me.
“Rena, Rena. It’s okay. It’s just the two of us here.”
“Let me go for a second.”
I replied between ragged breaths.
As soon as he released me, I collapsed to the ground. My head was spinning. The world spun. I felt like throwing up.
I hadn’t realized just how mentally exhausted I was.
“Water.”
“Yeah, should I get you some? I’ll just—”
Before he could finish, I snapped my fingers. Droplets of water began to gather in the air, quickly forming a full glass’s worth of floating water.
Ignoring Calix’s dumbfounded expression, I opened my mouth and drank it down in gulps.
The air was cold, and so was the water. It helped. The icy shock sobered me up.
“The Emperor asked me about the dragon.”
I only managed to speak after a deep breath. Calix had brought me to a secluded spot outside the palace buildings. There was a bench and a well-trimmed tree nearby—probably a small garden tucked away behind one of the lesser palaces.
As expected, the moment he heard what I said, Calix burst out in fury.
“That bastard actually dared to…”
“…So I told her I didn’t know anything.”
‘I was close friends with the former Duke and Duchess of Hertrio, you see,’ the Emperor had said.
Why did that particular line pop into my head just now?
I couldn’t bring myself to meet Calix’s gaze. I dug my fingers into the grass, feeling the moisture between them. Grass in this weather? Then I remembered—the entire Imperial garden was maintained by massive magic.
When I ran my hand over the lawn, tiny shoots emerged between the blades. They grew quickly, budding, and soon bloomed into flowers.
“Did you do that just now?”
“Yeah.”
Calix sounded amazed.
It was a wildflower I’d never seen before. Must’ve been from a stray seed blown in. I gently touched one of the small yellow petals and spoke again.
“And then she asked me if I wanted to be a royal mage.”
“The Emperor’s insane.”
“Right? I thought the same.”
I agreed, comforted by how openly Calix expressed his anger on my behalf. Something about it loosened the tension in my chest. I frowned and added,
“But I still don’t get why she wanted to see me in the first place.”
“You don’t need to know. Don’t even think about it. I’ll…”
“…kill her for me?”
“…”
Calix fell silent.
I stared down at the flower opening and closing its petals rapidly and mentally replayed the earlier conversation.
No matter how I thought about it, it had been a fruitless meeting. The Emperor hadn’t directly accused me of being Reggiana or Rohello Troxia. We hadn’t even had a real conversation about the poisoning attempt.
To an outsider, it might’ve seemed like a mere formal greeting.
No— she’d asked if I was Calix’s lover.
Even if she didn’t say it outright, she had clearly implied things. And she had deliberately asked me about Troxia. What had my face looked like in that moment? I thought I’d handled it well, but had the Emperor seen through my lies?
‘Did you see Duke Hertrio’s face when you collapsed from the poison?’
That was practically her declaring that I was Calix’s weakness.
But what I really wanted to know was whether she knows who the culprit is…
A bitter taste lingered in my mouth.
Calix studied me quietly as I sat there thinking, then cautiously asked,
“Rena. I want to ask you something.”
I was so deep in thought that it took me a moment to respond.
“…Huh? What?”
When I looked up, I saw a familiar expression on Calix’s face. The one he wore whenever he was plotting something.
He didn’t even try to hide it from me anymore. Or maybe I just knew him too well now.
“Please answer me honestly.”
He stroked my cheek with a gentle look. I swallowed hard. The taste of blood in my mouth felt especially unpleasant.
As if bracing himself, he finally asked,
“Rena, who were you looking for at the party?”
My heart dropped like a rock.
That was not what I expected him to say.
I thought he’d ask about the Emperor, or what I thought about the poisoning—something like that.
I hadn’t prepared for this question, and it showed. I couldn’t control my expression as I stammered,
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
“It just seemed strange. You barely know anything about noble society, yet you insisted on getting a guest list. I wondered who it was you were so desperate to find.”
I gulped.
“At first, I thought maybe you had someone in mind. But seeing your reaction now… I’m not so sure.”
“…”
“And then you suddenly collapsed during the party. I thought for sure you’d blame the Emperor, but instead, you insisted it wasn’t her.”
His handsome face looked genuinely terrifying at times like this. Then, all of a sudden, a wild idea crossed my mind.
No way. No way…
“Do you…?”
“Do you already know who the culprit is?”
“Was it you who poisoned my drink?”
“…”
“…”
We spoke simultaneously—and both stopped cold.
Calix’s smiling face froze over.
I messed up!
His expression turned pale in shock. His face crumbled like someone who’d been betrayed. I instinctively raised both hands to cover my mouth.
Why did I say that?!
Even though I knew Calix would never try to kill me!
But he looked so suspicious—like he had some elaborate scheme. Like he’d poison me just to find out who I was searching for at the party…
I opened my mouth to explain, but the moment our eyes met, I shut it again.
Calix already knew. He could see it all in my face. Which only made me feel worse.
Still smiling—but clearly wounded—he spoke in a quiet voice.
“Rena. I may be a bastard, but I’d never use you.”
“I know. I do know…”
“Do I look like someone who’d poison you?”
“No…”
“Is that how little you trust me?”
“No… I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. It’s my fault for not earning that trust.”
His tone was kind, even as he refused to look me in the eye. Those eyes that always watched me—they were turned away now. That terrified me.
I hastily grabbed his hand.
“Calix. What I just said was a complete mistake—”
“Even a mistake like that doesn’t come out of nowhere.”
He pulled his hand away.
Maybe it wasn’t coldness—maybe it just felt cold to me. I stared at the hand he took back like a squirrel who’d just lost the acorn it saved all winter.
“We should head back. You shouldn’t be out here like this.”
Calix stood and offered his hand. To an outsider, it might have looked like a natural gesture—but I knew. That hand was a rejection.
“Calix. Are you mad?”
“Yeah.”
At least now he was honest about it. That was some comfort, I guess. I apologized softly.
“I’m sorry…”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself.”
He cut in before I could finish. His face looked fine, and his voice sounded normal, but there was something different about the atmosphere around him.
“I hate that I couldn’t even earn that much trust from you. What an idiot.”
“No! You are an idiot, but…”
“You’re my favorite idiot!”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Silence fell between us.
And then—
“Pfft.”
Calix burst out laughing.
This time I looked away in embarrassment.
“Uh… if you could just forget what I said…”
“So I’m your favorite idiot, huh?”
“Uh…”
“Don’t look away. You owe your favorite idiot a good look.”
He grinned and lunged toward me for a kiss on the cheek. I had no choice but to use magic to escape him.
* * *
Even though it ended in a weird way, my brief talk with Calix had been far more productive than the Emperor’s.
‘Do you already know who the culprit is?’
Yeah. Calix’s question lit a fire under the theory I’d been brewing all along.
Who would dare target me at a royal banquet?
Who had the skills and power to pull it off?
Who might know about the dragon?
Someone who checked all those boxes. There could be only one person.
The female protagonist from the original story.
Let’s think it through.
In the original, Calix and the heroine joined forces because their goals aligned: assassinate the Emperor. Calix was motivated by the death of his first love; the heroine, for her own reasons.
But now, things are different. Calix didn’t lose his first love. He isn’t burning with vengeance anymore—though he might still consider killing the Emperor for my sake.
Still, that doesn’t mean the heroine abandoned her goal. Her motivation is separate from Calix’s. She would still want revenge.
Here’s where things get strange.
If she wants revenge on the Emperor, why poison me? I’m not her enemy—I’m just a surviving heir from a ruined family.
Unless…
Unless she knows about the dragon.
She knows I have a connection to it.
So what? She tried to kill me to take the dragon?
And use it to get revenge on the Emperor?
Thinking about how the Emperor wants the dragon too, the theory isn’t so far-fetched after all.
