Chapter 10
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A sharp headache, as if struck in the head with a hammer.
Ludville pressed his temples, trying to catch his breath.
'It's starting again.'
Every time he tried to recall his memories, an unknown pain surged.
"You say you've lost your memories? But I have never once seen you with a Blue-Eyed Woman. No, you haven't even kept a woman by your side in the first place."
"Rather, you avoided them. There were even scandalous rumors going around about you being... well, I can't bring myself to say it."
"From the time you took me, a slave boy, as your subordinate, I have never left your side for a single day. If I don't know, then no one in this empire will."
Whenever he said he seemed to have lost his memories, his subordinates invariably showed bewildered reactions.
'What illusion am I chasing?'
Ludville closed his eyes, looking tired.
Every night, various Blue-Eyed Women visited the banquet hall, but he never found what he was looking for.
Sometimes, there were moments when he was a little confused.
Moments when he thought, 'Is it this eye?'
No, maybe he knew it wasn't, but he was just tired.
There were times when he was drunk, reaching out with a dazed mind, searching for a longing that pierced his heart.
But when the other person tried to embrace him, an indescribable discomfort washed over him, and he pushed them away.
It was a maddening thirst.
The feeling of chasing a mirage that seemed within reach but never was, every day.
"......Hah."
Ludville leaned against the wall and quietly caught his breath.
He simply endured until the headache passed.
As he always had.
But...
At that moment, a cool temperature touched his forehead.
At the same time, the pain disappeared.
His mind cleared.
His blurry vision became clear as if by magic.
Ludville opened his eyes in surprise.
And he realized that someone's shadow was cast over him while he was suffering from the headache.
He saw the tattered end of a worn black hood.
He raised his head.
The woman he had ignored earlier was standing on tiptoe, placing her hand on his head.
"I'd like to continue the conversation about the deal I mentioned earlier."
"......"
"Will this be enough as a negotiating condition?"
......The headache was gone.
Completely.
The sharp pain that had been coming every day for the past three months.
When he roamed the battlefield, when he was doing his duties, even when he was enduring sleepless nights alone.
The persistent pain that had always followed him like a shadow was now gone as if it had never been.
Without a trace.
Ludville stared at Odelia with a dazed look for a brief moment.
Then his expression gradually hardened.
"......What are you?"
He slapped away the hand that had touched his forehead.
"What did you do to me?"
His voice was low and rough, as if scraping the floor.
But Odelia answered calmly, without wavering.
"I relieved your headache."
"......Who do you think asked you that?"
"Then what are you asking about?"
"......"
Ludville was speechless.
Did she really not know anything?
Or was she shamelessly feigning ignorance?
She was answering as if she had only relieved a headache.
But what he felt was not just the absence of pain.
"You..."
Ludville swallowed the words that had risen to his throat without realizing it.
That he felt like she was the center of the world.
That for a moment, everything that had gone wrong seemed to be back in place.
But to say such a thing would be tantamount to admitting that her sinister trick had worked.
He grabbed Odelia's chin roughly.
"Approaching me defenselessly without revealing your identity and trying to pull something, do you think I haven't seen the likes of you before..."
That was the moment.
His eyes met the eyes hidden beneath the hood.
The sky-blue eyes beneath the snow-white eyelashes were so clear it was almost cruel.
Ludville's heart pounded wildly for a moment.
'These eyes...'
In that instant, countless memories that had never existed flashed through his mind.
Sad eyes hidden beneath faintly trembling eyelashes.
Eyes filled with venom, ready to risk everything.
Tender eyes that tried to hide by looking away, but ultimately revealed themselves.
Clear and soft eyes that looked at him with a shy smile.
Even eyes on the verge of breaking, pouring out emotions that had been suppressed along with tears.
'......What is this?'
A feeling that was clearly different from anything he had ever seen.
Ludville fell into confusion.
With a trembling hand, he took off her hood.
The hair that fell along her shoulders was like moonlight shining over a snow-covered field.
"......"
A woman with all white and cold colors.
It was as if she would melt away before he could even reach out and touch her.
It was a scene from a dream, as if standing on the boundary between reality and unreality.
Ludville unconsciously swallowed his breath.
It felt like a broken clock was starting to tick again.
In time with the ticking, his heart, which had been stopped, began to beat one beat faster.
But only for a moment.
"My name is Odelia Cardel."
Those words shattered his thoughts.
'Cardel......'
Only then did he properly see the snow-white silver hair, the symbol of Cardel.
The fragments of memory that had just flashed through his mind all became blurred, like scenery beyond an opaque window.
Instead, what was superimposed on it was only the unpleasant family name of 'Cardel' and suspicion.
'......The third Princess, who has recently gone missing.'
He couldn't not know.
Because a missing person notice had been spread throughout the empire by order of the Emperor.
All sorts of speculations were rampant about her disappearance.
Kidnapping, running away from home, eloping...
And now, there were even pessimistic rumors that she might already be dead.
After all, it had been three months since she disappeared.
But...
"I didn't expect you to come to the North."
And in such a vagrant-like appearance.
Ludville scanned Odelia up and down, then twisted his lips and asked.
"What brings the noble flower of Cardel's greenhouse to this desolate land?"
But even at the sarcastic words, Odelia did not waver.
Without running away or shrinking back, she stared straight at him and said.
"I wish to form a marital bond with Your Highness."
"......"
And silence.
"......"
"......"
The silence lasted quite a while.
'......Is this woman out of her mind?'
Ludville stared down at the woman in front of him.
Cardel.
A family that no one in the Luminaire Empire could not know.
There were countless publicly available historical records alone.
The Knight of Azure Flames who prevented the empire's disaster, the Saintess of Sacred Blood who purified the Emperor's curse, the Sage of the West who first revived the ancient barrier...
All were heroes who inherited the blood of Cardel.
And yet, the Princess, who was born into that 'noble' family and raised with the love of all, was proposing to a madman whose origins and past were unclear?
He let out a short laugh.
Was she naive, or was she really that 'Cardel'?
"......Did you just say marital bond?"
There was laughter in his voice, but his eyes were not laughing at all.
Ludville tilted his head languidly.
"Seeing as you came here hiding your identity, it seems you even made a fake scar."
"......"
"Your sincerity is truly admirable. The noble savior of Cardel... Did God tell you to take in this madman with that noble hand?"
If not.
Ludville's voice became even lower.
"Were you that greedy for the position of Grand Duchess?"
