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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Red Ring
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“Your Majesty, that’s not what I meant at all! I was just—my sister, she—”
“Riana, why aren’t you drinking? Are you not feeling well?”
Enoch ignored Elisha, who was reaching for him, and instead pointed to my teacup, which was still full.
“Shall I have them bring you some warm honey water?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I’m fine.”
My voice came out awkwardly, unused to this cold side of Enoch.
“Did you drink too much yesterday? You don’t look well.”
“Your Majesty!”
As Enoch continued to treat her as if she weren't there, Elisha shrieked. He tilted his head.
“Ah. You were still here.”
“Your Majesty, I am your fiancée, not my sister!”
“Fiancée? Who is?”
Enoch ran a hand through his hair as if exasperated. *Tap, tap.* He drummed his fingers on the table, a habit of his.
“I have no memory of having a fiancée.”
“Don’t you remember the oracle? We were destined for each other from birth!”
“Ah. The oracle.”
His long, gloved fingers rubbed his brow in annoyance.
“Are you going to bring up that pathetic story again? That nonsense about the Daphne bloodline saving me… ah.”
Muttering with deep irritation, Enoch stopped rubbing his forehead as if he’d realized something.
“Come to think of it, you’re not the only one with Daphne blood.”
*Huh? Me?*
I blinked as Enoch’s gaze turned to me, having been grumbling to myself about this oracle I was hearing about for the first time.
“Salvation, salvation… Perhaps the oracle isn’t complete nonsense after all…”
“No, Your Majesty! It’s me!”
“?”
“My sister isn’t even a special ability user… It’s me! My father, the former emperor. Everyone said I was your match.”
“My match? Or do you mean your father needs a puppet emperor to control as he pleases?”
Unable to bear his cold, emotionless voice, Elisha bit her lower lip and rose from her seat.
“No matter what you say, you will marry me in the end.”
“Lady Elisha.”
Enoch called to Elisha as she was about to leave the room, his face an emotionless mask.
“Do you wish to marry me?”
“…Of course.”
Elisha, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, answered and left the room.
“Your Majesty, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…”
I rose from my seat to follow Elisha as she disappeared beyond the ornate door and called out to her in the hallway.
“Elisha, can we talk for a moment?”
“What is it?”
*Her whole demeanor…*
Elisha glared at me, her atmosphere completely different—cold and sharp—from when she was with Enoch.
“What gives you the right to talk to me?”
“The right?”
Feeling a wave of exhaustion, I rubbed the back of my neck and stepped closer. Hostility flared in her large, green eyes.
“Hah. I know you don’t think highly of me, but your father was the one who was in the wrong first, you know?”
“My father?”
“See this?”
I tapped my cheek, where a bluish bruise remained though the swelling had gone down.
“The Duke did this.”
“Father… hit you?”
“Yes.”
“…So? What’s the big deal if he laid a hand on you?”
“…Never mind. I didn’t stop you just to argue.”
It was a reaction I had half-expected, so it was neither surprising nor upsetting.
Figuring it would just drain my energy to argue about it, I skipped any further explanation and got straight to the point.
“Elisha, you have a child, don’t you?”
“…Shut your mouth.”
“Ariel. She’s here, in this mansion.”
At my words, her sorrowful eyes, which had been downcast, widened in surprise, but only for a fleeting moment.
Her expression quickly hardened again, and she turned to leave as if she hadn’t heard a thing.
“Elisha, didn’t you hear me? Your daughter is here—”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“…What did you say?”
“Whether she’s dead or alive, or wherever she is. What does that have to do with me?”
“Hey, how can you say that?”
As she tried to walk away, I grabbed her arm, and Elisha let out a sharp cry.
“She doesn’t exist! There’s no such thing as a daughter in my life, so don’t you ever speak of that child to me again!”
“Ugh… Let go, won’t you?”
Reacting with an excessive sensitivity, Elisha twisted around and seized my wrist.
How could such strength come from a body that had been staggering just moments before?
A crushing pain shot through my wrist, and as I tried to pull my arm free, the ring on Elisha’s finger began to glow with a strange light.
“Sister, why are you suddenly acting like this?”
*Hah…*
It felt as though something inside me was abruptly severed and pulled out.
My teeth chattered from the emptiness, and Elisha’s grip on my arm tightened.
“Why are you suddenly lashing out? Why can’t you just stay quiet like a dead doll, the way you always have?”
*Ugh. What is this now?*
Was I some kind of punching bag? What was with her now?
The brighter the red jewel on the ring shone, the more strength drained from my body.
I braced a hand on my knee to keep from collapsing, but I couldn't stop my vision from blurring.
“Please, just don’t do anything. Nothing you do will change anything! You know that, don’t you?”
Her quiet whisper buzzed in my ear like tinnitus.
Just as my body was about to give way and fall forward,
“Riana.”
A familiar voice called my name, and a solid body caught me as I lost my balance.
Thanks to him, Elisha’s hand fell from my wrist, and my fading consciousness quickly began to return.
“…I’ll be going now. Sister, remember what I said.”
“Elisha, wait…”
My vision still blurry, I watched Elisha walk away before turning to the person holding me.
“Your Majesty…? When did you come out?”
“I heard a loud noise.”
“Thank you for catching me. I would have broken my nose if it weren’t for you.”
“…”
“I think you can let me go now.”
Despite my lighthearted joke, Enoch only tightened his grip, his expression stunned.
“Um… Did I startle you? My legs suddenly gave out, haha.”
“Riana.”
“I’m sorry for scaring you. But I’m really fine now.”
“…Riana, Riana.”
I gently patted his hand, which was gripping me so tightly the veins stood out. As if that was a signal, Enoch buried his forehead in the crook of my neck and repeated my name over and over.
A cool scent enveloped my nose, and the soft strands of his hair tickled my sensitive neck.
His movements were anxious as he rubbed his forehead against me. I instinctively raised a hand to stroke the back of his head, and my fingertips brushed against something.
*…A wound?*
I tried to feel for the unfamiliar texture again, but Enoch’s strong arms wrapped around me even tighter.
“What… did she do to you?”
“Pardon?”
As I fluttered my eyelashes at his incomprehensible words, Enoch slowly continued.
“Your body… you’re not warm.”
***
“Move.”
After leaving the mansion, Elisha shoved a knight aside and climbed into her carriage.
“So annoying, everything is so annoying!”
Riana’s sudden change, the Emperor’s interest in her—everything was infuriating.
Chewing on her lip, Elisha roughly tugged at the glowing ring on her fourth finger.
“Why won’t this thing come off…!”
Just as she finally managed to pull off the ring that had fit her hand so perfectly it was sickening, the carriage door clicked shut, and a shadow fell over her.
“What? Who are you to get in here?”
Her sharp, green eyes glared at the knight standing before her.
“Get out, now!”
Despite her command, the wooden-doll-like knight simply looked down on her arrogantly.
His posture seemed to mock her, as if he found her pathetic. Unable to contain her anger, she threw the ring in her hand at him and screamed.
“Get out!”
And in that moment,
“My, my, this is far too precious.”
A strange voice flowed from the knight’s lips as he spoke for the first time.
The knight picked up the ring that had rolled into a corner of the carriage, knelt on one knee, and slipped it back onto Elisha’s finger.
“L-let go of me!”
“The red is quite beautiful, isn’t it? Though I personally prefer blue.”
*Do we… have a knight like this in our family?*
The knight’s face, seen up close, felt strangely unfamiliar. Just then, a *knock, knock* sounded on the carriage door.
“My Lady, shall we depart? My Lady?”
Seeing her own knight through the small window in the door, Elisha tried to pull her hand away from the man in front of her.
“Are you really one of our family’s knights?”
At her question, the man squeezed the white hand trying to escape his grasp.
“You shouldn’t throw around such a precious ring.”
“You’re not… a knight. Who are you?”
“It was made from the heart of someone dear. You should handle it with care.”
“Who are you!”
Elisha shot up from her seat as the man spoke of a fact known only to her father, herself, and *that man*.
As she rose, the man who had been looking up at her slowly straightened his bent form.
As he moved, darkness began to settle over his body.
“Me? Hmm, I wonder.”
The illusion of the knight now gone, the man, in his true form under a black robe, smiled, his lips stretching wide.
“A pleasure to meet you, My Lady. You’ve grown so much since I last saw you.”
The man waved a hand that seemed to be made of smoke, then his lips twisted into a sneer.
“Ah. By the way, for the Duke to be tied up on the battlefield at such an important time… how troublesome. I need to replenish my power from time to time.”
The man tapped the ring disapprovingly and glanced outside, where a commotion was growing.
“My Lady, My Lady! Are you all right? My Lady! I’m coming in!”
Sensing something was wrong from Elisha’s unusual silence, the knights were trying to force the carriage door open.
At the sight, the man let out a vicious, amused laugh, released the ring, and stepped back.
“In any case, My Lady, we’ll be seeing each other again soon. I hope you’ll greet me warmly then. I’m quite excited, returning after so long.”
“Wait…!”
“My Lady!”
Just as she reached for the man who was dissolving like smoke, a cold wind swept into the carriage through the open door.
“My Lady, are you all right? Did something happen?”
“…No.”
The spot where the man had stood was empty, as if no one had ever been there at all.
Elisha stared at the empty space for a moment, then clenched her outstretched hand into a fist and glared at the ring on her finger.
“…Nothing. Nothing happened at all.”
