Medeia looked down from the high tower of the Royal Palace.
“Your Highness should have been there as well.”
Neril sighed, her shoulders drooping.
“Forgive me for saying so, but I still cannot understand why Your Highness so adamantly refused to participate in the triumphal ceremony.”
Her voice grew louder. She could not prevent the frustration and an unidentifiable sorrow from seeping into her tone.
“The fall of the Regent Duke, the suppression of the rebellion, and the victory on the plains—none of it would have been possible without Your Highness’s arrangements. You are the one who protected this country, Princess Her Highness.”
Did those cheering citizens truly know?
That for today’s victory, the Princess had staked her entire self every single time.
That there were countless sleepless nights for the Princess to ensnare her enemies without a single inch of error.
*“Neril, I’m sorry for not recognizing you, for being foolish.”*
*“Neril, where is your master now?”*
*“Neril, prepare my sword.”*
All the moments the Princess had arranged, and the times she had moved to help her, flashed through Neril’s mind.
As if understanding her heart, a small hand reached out and patted Neril’s shoulder.
The Princess spoke, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.
“That is not my place.”
*‘I don’t even have the right.’*
She had merely finally returned to her homeland what she had once stolen and taken away.
Medeia took in the sight of the triumphal ceremony with a distant gaze.
The vibrant and joyful atmosphere of the Royal Capital overlapped with the Baldina of her past life that she remembered.
Grey smoke, piles of corpses of demonic beasts and humans. A ruined land where no life remained. It was the curse she had brought upon it.
*‘It’s different. This time, it’s different. I… changed it.’*
The hand not resting on Neril clenched into a firm fist within the folds of her dress.
A solid resolve flickered through her green eyes.
*‘And I will continue to do so.’*
It was a wish, and a conviction she repeated to herself.
“The triumphal ceremony is no longer important. Neril, do not forget that we still have tasks remaining. Who did you say visited the prison where Claudio is held?”
At Medeia’s question, Neril suppressed her upset and regained her composure.
She must not forget that her most important role was to help the Princess as her reliable hands and feet.
In truth, despite her sulky face, Neril—who had been with the Princess all this time—instinctively felt that Medeia’s plan was not yet over.
*‘Just how far ahead is Her Highness looking?’*
“Yes, Raju Count visited with medicine and a physician.”
“Hmm… Raju managed to survive, I see.”
*‘He was always good at playing both sides back then, too.’*
Raju Count had supported Iason with all his might under the surface, even while being disliked by Perdicas II.
And when Iason’s path to the throne became certain, only then did he step out from the shadows.
*‘A man like him wouldn't give up on his daughter so easily.’*
While Medeia stared toward the prison where Claudio was held with an inscrutable expression.
Elsewhere in the Royal Palace, two other people were in a confrontation, unable to bridge the gap between their positions.
“Saya, you’re being deceived!”
It was the siblings, Theo and Saya.
Theo had come to the Royal Palace to meet Saya.
Before they could even rejoice in their reunion after several years, a sharp atmosphere bloomed between them.
“Do you even have any idea what kind of person the Princess is—the woman you are serving?”
“What exactly am I being deceived about?”
Saya asked sharply.
The girl who always went around with a beaming smile, receiving all the affection of the Princess’s Palace, was gone.
She stared at her brother’s face with a dry expression, devoid of any laughter.
Theo’s face had changed quite a bit from what Saya remembered. He had grown much taller and sturdier, and his features had become more rugged.
His handsome face was the same, but somehow he exuded a gloomy and exhausted air.
The eyes that were once filled with a boy’s passion and vitality had long since lost their spark, like a faded painting.
Saya could guess that Theo’s time away from her had not been easy either.
However, that provided her with no comfort.
“Saya, the Princess threatened me using your life! She used you as bait to stop the Rebels! She made you a servant girl from the beginning just for that!”
Theo pounded his chest in frustration.
He believed his younger sister had fallen for the Princess’s cunning schemes.
Once she learned the truth, he thought his sister would also be horrified and feel chills at the fact that she had helped such a cruel villain.
However, contrary to his expectations, Saya simply asked back calmly.
“So?”
“What?”
“So, Theo, what is it you want to do now? Are you unsatisfied that the rebellion ended halfway? Are you unhappy that Princess Her Highness personally asked the King to spare your life?”
“Saya, how can you say such things to me…?”
Theo looked at Saya with shocked eyes. Consternation, a sense of betrayal, and disappointment flashed across his face.
“Do you know what I did to save you! What I gave up! My freedom, my convictions—all of it—”
“Do not justify yourself using me as the reason!”
Saya shot back scathingly.
They were siblings born from the same womb and raised together. Their thoughts were as clear to each other as if seen through glass.
“Theo, do you think I don’t know you? If you truly believed in them, if the revolution was real, you would have protected them until death no matter how much the Princess threatened you. You would have endured any sacrifice. Even if that were my life.”
He would have thought it couldn't be helped, even if his heart were tearing apart.
He would have considered a small private sacrifice for a greater cause to be inevitable.
Just as Theo had left Saya behind without hesitation back then.
“Should I be grateful that you valued my life more than a fake rebellion?”
“I am…”
Theo’s complexion turned pale.
Only after being struck at his core by his sister could he look back on the past.
Mad with grief and rage, why did he think his sister would simply understand him for leaving the Royal Capital without hesitation?
The rift between the siblings created by time was too deep.
Too deep for Theo to easily fill now.
“Saya. I was wrong. How much you must have been hurt… I will make it all up to you. Come with me. Let’s leave this place, okay?”
Even as he offered a belated apology, Theo reached out his hand toward Saya.
He thought he could slowly soothe his sister’s wounded heart.
The important thing was that he could not leave his sister by the side of that wicked Princess.
“We’ll go to the Holy Kingdom. If we apply to the temple, it won't be hard for the two of us to make a living.”
“…”
“I can’t leave you by that woman’s side any longer. She’s an evil person who sees people as nothing more than chess pieces; how do I know she won't use you again—”
“Theo, you say you worry about me like that. Did it not occur to you back then how I was supposed to live alone on that street after you left like that?”
Back then, there were so many things she wanted to say to her brother.
There were so many things she wanted to sob out in sorrow, things she wanted to complain about, and things she wanted to resent him for.
However, those stories and the heart that searched for Theo had all disappeared at some point, as if submerged in sand.
“Princess Her Highness warned me.”
*“You might regret having me as your master.”*
On the day she accepted her earnest plea, Saya had not yet forgotten the words the Princess had said.
The reason she wasn't surprised by Theo’s accusation was perhaps because she had expected a day like this.
*“Ah, mine is too meager…! This is Your Highness’s most precious possession. You look at it every time before you sleep!”*
The King’s bracelet, which the Princess had insisted on pressing into her hand. The apology the Princess had tried to convey silently.
Only now did everything make sense.
*‘Your Highness did not need to feel sorry toward me.’*
She knew the Princess well now.
*‘For someone who leaves no loose ends to have let an unfaithful person like Theo live and go free….’*
It was because he was her brother.
She had made an exception for her, who would be heartbroken by Theo’s death.
Saya rubbed her reddening eyes fiercely. Somehow, it felt as if unseemly tears were about to fall.
“Theo, the reason Her Highness spared you is because you are my brother.”
“What?”
Theo’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.
