“Once again, it is Your Highness.”
Had I been waiting for this deep down?
Suppressing the brief swell of happiness that rose at his low, resonant voice, I looked up at the man standing before me.
Pale skin, light brown eyes casting a cold, detached gaze from behind his spectacles, and pitch-black hair neatly slicked back and tied at the nape.
As always, he wore an immaculate black suit, its collar fastened tightly just beneath his Adam’s apple.
Why did that composed appearance of his feel especially grating today?
Well, because his appearance here in the end meant that…
I deliberately pitched my voice to sound spiteful. “Yes, it’s me again. You must be quite disappointed, My Lord.”
"…"
He tugged at his cravat, loosening it as though he were thirsty, or as if it were chafing his throat.
With that, his collar parted slightly. His once-pious impression took on an air of subtle decadence.
I swallowed hard.
“Your Highness must know what your presence here entails.”
His words echoed in their usual, unrippling tone.
Moonlight traced the length of his body as he stood with his back to the window.
To tell the truth, I could hardly bear seeing him like this.
That voice entirely devoid of passion for anything, and those brown eyes that reflected no warmth whatsoever.
Yet the repressed turmoil churning inside him was undoubtedly what had driven him here…
‘As I thought, it’s because he loves her…’
I felt a wave of wretchedness at the thought that I had been glad to see him, even for a moment.
I took a step back so that no trace of it would show, keeping the moonlight from striking my face.
“How could I not? It means your scheme to kidnap Miss Roseberry has been foiled.”
"…"
“I really am terribly sorry for you.”
The corner of my mouth curved into a mocking smirk.
Unconsciously, my fingers tightened around the edge of my cloak.
In my hand lay a small key.
It was a magical tool capable, with a mere flick of the hand, of summoning the shadow knights waiting outside to storm the room.
Yet I knew how futile that would be.
The man before me was a mage.
And not just any mage—he possessed immense magical power, had never studied at the Magic Tower, and cast formulas he had devised entirely on his own.
Even a single one of his shifting, effortless spells would be impossible for knights to breach.
‘Because he wields the greatest magic of this generation.’
Even so, I knew he wouldn’t harm me.
Or rather, so I had thought.
‘Seeing him appear here in the end… it seems that was nothing more than my own delusion.’
Without probing why my heart ached so, I painted a wicked smile onto my lips.
With the sentiment of someone casting a stone into stagnant water.
“Oh dear, you must be utterly devastated, aren’t you?”
Not a single ripple of agitation appeared on his face.
I still didn’t know why that annoyed me so much.
In truth, it had been a long time since I stopped trying to untangle the complicated layers of emotion that surfaced whenever I faced him.
From the very beginning, his heart had already been claimed.
Miss Roseberry—Emily. The heroine of this world.
And the man before me, Rosivius, was destined to play the ‘obsessive second male lead,’ driven so mad with passion for her that he would resort to kidnapping.
As for me, I was merely a reincarnator who had made it her purpose in this life to ensure the main leads’ romance ran smoothly.
So it was only natural that I thwarted his plans time and time again.
To the point where I had willingly walked into the trap he set to abduct the heroine.
I had confronted him countless times with fury on my face to stop the plots that threatened their love, but today… he seemed subtly different.
Was it disappointment? Irritation?
Or perhaps anger?
Lest that curiosity cause my composure to crumble, I hardened my gaze and glared sharply at him.
“What can I say? Don’t blame me. It seems you were so blinded by love that your plan turned out utterly flimsy this time. You’ve ended up failing yet again.”
“It is indeed regrettable.”
“…I imagine so.”
Just like that, whenever he displayed his feelings for Emily, my heart sank helplessly.
Unwittingly, I bit my lower lip.
“However.”
Rosivius’s gaze deepened as he looked down at me.
“With Your Highness crossing my path at every turn, my dignity has been entirely compromised.”
His voice lacked any trace of emotion—so utterly devoid of it that it was pitiful.
Yes, pitifully so…
“Then why not seek a healthier sort of love? Instead of someone who is already taken.”
“Already taken, you say?”
His eyes flashed cold behind his spectacles.
Ah, did he mean he had fallen for Emily before she became involved with the male lead?
“That is the greatest problem. And of course, the fact that her partner is Lord Leoport, your political rival, only makes it worse.”
“…It seems Your Highness always knows everything.”
His footsteps echoed, as quiet and low as his voice. The shadow falling over my face grew darker.
My head tilted back instinctively so as not to break his gaze.
“What transpires in the imperial fortress markets, what goods will be offered at the secret auction, and why the aristocratic faction covets them.”
“That is because—”
“Even the succession dispute within Marquis Goebbels’s house, and the fact that the aristocratic faction has its eyes on Helberg.”
At a loss for words, I could only bite my lip.
“While knowing all of that…”
Rosivius did not finish, letting the sentence trail off into silence.
In that unnecessarily prolonged hush,
he suddenly raised his hand.
It was clad in a black glove, just as always.
He hesitated a beat before reaching toward me, then slowly tugged the glove off and removed it.
Though he kept his body obsessively covered to an almost pathological degree, there were times he showed his bare skin to me alone. And because of things like that, I…
Just then, my heart fluttered at the fleeting memory.
“…There was no need for Your Highness to come in person.”
His fingertips hovered at my chin, brushed along my cheek, and finally, his thumb pressed firmly against my lip.
He gently pulled my lip from between my teeth where I had been biting it without realizing.
That touch of his always sent a faint tingle of heat through me…
I took another step back so he wouldn’t notice my expression softening.
As if taking refuge in the shadow he cast.
His pale hand, having brushed against my face, hung suspended in the space between us.
Seeing that, his gaze appeared faintly sorrowful.
No, that had to be my imagination.
‘It’s probably just polite pity…’
Pulling together the fragments of my cynical heart, I forced a smile.
“I don’t know. Perhaps I wanted to be the one to tell you that your plan failed? I hardly expected to run into you in person.”
“…Then you have done something entirely meaningless.”
His expression hardened slightly in the dim light.
Right. Having believed Emily was within his grasp only to fail, he had to resent me.
I sharpened my tone even further. “Meaningless only to you. Because you failed to achieve what you so desperately wanted.”
Rosivius offered no reply.
With his face remaining cold no matter what I threw at him, fury began to boil up inside me.
Why must you make me harbor delusions?
And why, to the very bitter end, can you still not tear your heart away from the heroine?
“Do you really think Miss Roseberry will ever offer you even a fraction of her heart?”
"…"
“This isn’t love. It’s nothing more than a twisted obsession, My Lord. Wake up, please.”
Though he maintained his silence, a faint warmth stirred in the depths of his eyes.
Had my words struck a nerve? Or had my harsh remarks wounded him?
“And even if it were love, the way you express it is utterly wrong.”
Yes, I was furious.
His endless silence, hiding whatever lay inside him, was infuriating.
Why? What words did I even want to hear from him?
And why was I so desperate to tell him that his love wasn’t love at all?
He slowly curled his hand into a fist where it still lingered near my lips.
That sluggish motion carried a hint of hesitation… and that was precisely the problem.
It made me read into intentions that weren't there.
Thud.
I struck him hard on the chest.
The blow was undeniably loaded with blame.
“Why didn’t you dodge it?”
Seeing him take the hit without flinching made my blood boil all over again.
“Why can’t you stop clinging to something so impossible…!”
“What you don’t understand is—”
The moment I raised my arm to strike him again, he caught my wrist.
I tried to wrench myself free, but it had been an impossible contest from the start.
There was no escaping that large, relentless hand.
“Let go of me!”
I brought up my other hand to hit him, but it met the exact same fate.
Warmth radiated from his bare palm and his gloved hand alike.
“I told you to let go!”
I shouted in a voice close to a wail, yet his eyes remained entirely unruffled.
Spurred by sheer stubbornness, I twisted my arms with everything I had, but the hands binding my wrists didn’t budge an inch.
“The one who understands nothing isn’t me, but…”
Suddenly, he yanked my arms, his grip tightening around my wrists.
Losing my balance, I was pulled flush against his solid chest.
“…isn’t it Your Highness?”
“Me? I know everything far better than you do! And I know how futile what you’re trying to do right now—”
“You don’t even know this much!”
I flinched at the voice that suddenly erupted right above my head.
Not because he was loud, but because his face, when I looked up, looked so terribly agonized.
It was obvious that, even while raising his voice to cut me off, he had muffled it as much as he could so as not to frighten me.
…Wasn’t this accumulated trust the real problem?
“Things like that—do you really think I don’t know? How much I…”
As I gazed into those brown eyes I had always thought so devoid of emotion… an unmistakable feeling churned violently within them.
“Would someone who knew make a face like that?”
“Your Highness… were you not in danger?”
What?
In that instant, whatever expression I had been wearing vanished completely.
“I wished I could see you, even if only like this, but for you to truly come…”
Unable to believe what I was hearing, I searched the face still looking down at me.
His features carried an inexplicable warmth—a faint tangle of pain, sorrow, relief, and worry.
Had I been waiting for something like this? It felt as though a heavy stone sitting on my heart had begun to melt.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
Then, his forehead slowly dipped toward mine… and I gently closed my eyes.
It felt as natural as if it had been destined long ago.
Just as I had come here, and just as he had come knowing I would.
Yes, perhaps… if there were someone in this world I was truly meant to save, perhaps it was him.