Chapter 42
Rubbing her palm on her clothes for no reason, Ria felt Zen’s familiar approach, and he suddenly grabbed her hand again.
‘Huh?’
She quickly looked up, but Zen wasn’t even looking at her.
“Just in case you disappear again, that would be troublesome.”
Ria felt her cheeks warm slightly.
‘So he does care… I thought he wouldn’t even notice.’
Holding her hand, Zen frowned at the man in front of them and said,
“So why exactly did you bring him along?”
He glared down at Luchina, who was sticking closely to Ria, wearing a displeased expression.
“Well, there was no other way to climb the cliff. To use a teleportation spell, we’d need a mage, but I didn’t think you’d want to be informed… I apologize.”
“I see.”
Despite his usual serious demeanor, Zen seemed to accept this explanation rather lightly.
“Then let’s go.”
“Wait.”
Ria grabbed Zen’s hand, which seemed ready to dash off at any moment, and spoke with a bewildered expression.
“What’s going on here?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’s going on’? …Ah, this guy is like my attendant. There’s a simple tracking spell on my sword, so if I’m unreachable for a long time, it automatically…”
“That I understand. But this cat! What about this cat!”
As Ria stared at Luchina at her feet, the man answered for her.
“As I said, we need Luchina’s power to climb this cliff.”
“Lu…china?”
Ria looked down at the cat with a puzzled expression.
“Meow~”
Luchina, acting clueless, twitched her tail cutely.
‘Cute, but…’
“Yes, Luchina. Is the name a problem?”
“Is it a problem? Of course it is!”
Ria widened her eyes and alternated her gaze between Luchina and Zen.
“How do you even know her? She’s a stray cat I brought along!”
The cat she had somehow gotten to know transformed into a white tiger, hid in the bushes, and encountered a suspicious man—who, it turns out, is one of Zen’s subordinates. And Zen, as if it were natural, already knew the cat’s name.
‘What an absurd coincidence!’
Before she knew it, Ria was riding atop Luchina, who had transformed back into a white tiger. The tiger scaled the steep cliff effortlessly, as if flying.
Grasping Luchina’s long fur and lowering herself as much as possible, Ria felt rocks falling on both sides of her.
‘What on earth is happening.’
She could feel Zen’s solid chest against her back, and she struggled to decide whether to believe the story she had been told.
‘Everything really is a coincidence? That Luchina, Zen’s subordinate cat, appeared in front of me and led me to our house?’
Zen insisted it was all coincidence. It was true that Luchina and the entirely black man were his subordinates, but her appearance before Ria was something even he didn’t know would happen. Especially when he heard that Luchina had attacked Ernie in her white tiger form, he seemed genuinely surprised.
It could be dismissed as coincidence.
‘But… a divine beast. Why on earth would a divine beast be pecking at chicken in our house?’
As Ria had expected, Luchina wasn’t an ordinary cat. She was a divine beast, bound by an ancient contract with the royal family of the Baisen Empire. In her true form, she was a white tiger, but she usually stayed as a cat to conserve her magic, and could even shrink to the size of a handful of fur if she wanted.
‘It doesn’t sound like a lie, but why do I feel uneasy?’
Ria gently tugged Luchina’s fur. A low, vibrating purr emerged.
‘So this cute, pitiful cat is actually a divine beast?’
Even if there was no intent to deceive, Ria couldn’t entirely shake the feeling of having been tricked.
Finally, the wind that had been cutting through the area subsided, and Luchina stopped moving. Ria looked around—they had reached the base of the mountain where they had first disembarked from the carriage.
“Phew…”
Ria exhaled in relief, worried about how she would descend if Luchina dropped her at the summit.
Zen climbed down gracefully from Luchina’s back and offered Ria his hand in an almost ceremonious gesture of escorting. Despite the slightly awkward kindness, she accepted his hand without protest.
Swoosh—Luchina shrank back into a cat.
“Meow!”
She rubbed against Ria as if asking for praise, and Ria reluctantly scratched her chin. Zen chuckled.
“She follows you well.”
“…She is cute, I’ll admit that.”
Though she felt uneasy, Ria couldn’t help but smile at Luchina’s face.
“I see. I don’t know about that.”
Zen took Ria’s hand, which was petting Luchina, and held it firmly again, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Ria’s fingers twitched unconsciously.
“Uh… the hand, now…”
“We haven’t fully left the mountain. Who knows what could happen?”
Zen’s brows furrowed slightly, and Ria quickly looked away. She still wasn’t used to seeing him worried.
Meanwhile, Zen’s subordinate, Shadow, who had been lurking behind them and maintaining a low profile, looked on with a puzzled expression.
He had been born to serve Zen. Belonging to no noble house, tied to no power, his sole purpose was to protect the crown prince. He took pride in this duty and harbored no complaints.
‘Today, His Highness seems different… Or perhaps he’s returned to his usual self.’
The man studied Zen walking ahead. Normally gentle, carefree, bright, and sharp-minded, Zen had recently changed.
‘At some point, he completely changed.’
He had begun issuing instructions, gathering information, even seeking out men he would never have consulted before.
‘What could have happened to him?’
He longed to see Zen’s clear, radiant eyes and bright smile again. But… Zen glanced at Ria and smiled faintly.
‘Today, he seems to have returned to his usual self. Could it be because of her?’
As the man felt a sense of satisfaction, Zen suddenly turned and nodded. The man instantly wiped the smile from his face, rushed to his side, and bowed.
“Did you see anyone suspicious on the way here?”
‘Suspicious?’
The man quickly tried to recall. He had searched the entire mountain for Zen but hadn’t seen anyone unusual.
“No, my lord. Was something wrong?”
He thought Zen had merely had an accident.
“Something seems off. I’m not sure if it’s the mountain itself or if someone set a trap.”
“I’ll check.”
The man bowed slightly, and Zen gave a small nod, signaling him to proceed. He maintained a distance—close enough to intervene at any moment but not so close as to be intrusive.
Ria glanced at the man, still wondering where he had appeared from and disappeared to. Zen looked serious, which made Ria uneasy too.
‘Asking if I saw anyone suspicious… he must be sure someone’s plotting something.’
“Zen. That arrow… what is it? Who could it be?”
“Who knows. Only strange things keep happening.”
Zen gripped Ria’s hand firmly. The calloused, strong palm was unfamiliar, and Ria relaxed her grip instinctively.
“The real problem is getting back.”
As Zen murmured worriedly, the man cautiously spoke from behind.
“The carriage is waiting just ahead.”
‘Finally!’
Ria quietly exhaled in relief.
‘Finally, I can go home, wash up, eat, and rest.’
Thinking of a soft bed and a delicious meal made her smile. But suddenly, Ria stopped walking.
‘Wait…’
“Why?”
Zen turned back with a puzzled expression. Ria’s eyes widened, and her face paled.
“I didn’t… tell my family.”
“Tell them what?”
“…I stayed out overnight!”
Zen frowned, as if that wasn’t a problem.
“You’re already engaged. What’s the issue? Spending a night together—”
“Are you crazy?!”
Ria shouted sharply, biting her lower lip.
‘What should I do? He must know we stayed together yesterday morning when he barged in. If he finds out we spent the night together, it’ll be a disaster.’
“Ha, really.”
Zen clicked his tongue softly and used his thumb to pull Ria’s lower lip away.
“What…!”
Startled, Ria jerked her face back, and Zen shrugged.
“Habit? You do this often. You’ll bleed if you keep it up.”
Ria covered her mouth with one hand, wary.
‘Is he insane? Why is he touching my lips?’
A warmth seemed to rise from where Zen’s hand had touched, and the tingling sensation made her bite her lips harder.
Misinterpreting her reaction, Zen raised his eyebrow and said with a sigh,
“Fine. I’ll help you.”
“Help me?”
“You were worried about staying out overnight, weren’t you?”
“…You can help? How?”
Ria’s eyes sparkled.
‘Maybe some kind of magic! Erase memories! Travel through time!’
Even knowing Zen wasn’t a magician, Ria’s expression was desperate. His confident look suggested he must have an extraordinary solution.
‘My dad, mom, even my brother… and Isabel must be furious.’
Hearing Isabel’s nagging echo in her mind, Ria shivered. She needed a way to resolve the situation—anything, even a scrap of hope.
“Isn’t that what power is for? Times like this?”
With that innocent smile, Ria felt a strange certainty: whatever Zen’s method might be, it would likely make things even more complicated.
