The Royal Capital Prison of Baldina.
The sound of loud, heavy footsteps echoing through the prison made no attempt to hide its presence.
“Ah. You’ve finally come.”
Inside a filthy cell, Samon, who had been staring intently at nothing, looked up.
“A lowly commoner wretch dares to try and threaten me?”
Outside the bars stood the 4th Imperial Princess, glaring at him.
[*4th Imperial Princess, shall I reveal to the world that the person responsible for releasing the wolves to attack Medeia at the Royal Hunting Competition was actually Your Highness?*]
This was the message he had sent to the 4th Imperial Princess through Raju.
Samon shrugged his shoulders.
“If I hadn't done that, you wouldn't have bothered to visit me at all. Did I have any other choice?”
He rose and approached the bars.
“How was it, Your Highness? How did it feel to finally meet my dear elder brother, whom you’ve dreamed of?”
He threw the question sarcastically. He had a look of disdain, as if he already knew the answer.
The 4th Imperial Princess’s face instantly turned fierce as she barked at him.
“Shut up. Unless you want that babbling mouth of yours torn off.”
He had hit the mark.
Upon hearing news of the rebellion, the Kazen delegation had hurriedly left the Royal Capital, only to return to the Baldina Royal Palace shortly after.
Before even reaching the border after fleeing the capital, they had turned back in haste upon hearing that the rebellion had been suppressed.
“The King has returned! They say the King has appeared!”
To be more precise, they moved because of the 4th Imperial Princess’s insistence after she heard news of Peleus.
Of course, by the time they reached the Royal Capital, the grand triumphal ceremony was already over.
The 4th Imperial Princess had stood before the King with an expectant heart.
Somehow, she felt refreshed, as if she were discarding a misbuttoned shirt and putting on a crisp, clean new one.
“The Kazen delegation, I see…. I have heard much of your news.”
When the King’s gaze turned toward the Kazen delegation, the 4th Imperial Princess swallowed hard.
Though he was merely looking at them indifferently, she felt as tense as if she were standing on the tip of her toes on ice.
‘How can a person look like that?’
She stared at him, momentarily dazed.
Incredibly, the King of Baldina looked far more handsome than he did in the 4th Imperial Princess’s memories from a few years ago.
His lips, the bridge of his nose, his hair that looked as if moonlight had been scattered upon it, and those sincere-looking blue eyes remained the same.
Combined with his cold and restrained appearance was the sturdiness and killing intent unique to a warrior.
Her mouth felt dry. She even worried that standing beside such a man would make her look terribly shabby.
The impulse to pluck a beautiful rose and the fear that her flesh would be sliced open if she touched it coexisted within her.
“King of Baldina, congratulations on your victory. May auspicious energy and the will of the Goddess dwell in this land. I am Angeli—”
“It seems the purpose of the delegation has already been achieved. Since the Castulo Grand Duke conveyed Kazen’s sincerity quite well, why don't you all return now?”
Of course, before she could even utter her prepared greeting, she had to face the King of Baldina’s elegant yet chilling order of expulsion.
The siblings were exactly alike in their way of speaking, as if slapping someone’s cheek with a beautiful face.
“No! We have nothing to do with the Grand Duke. That was something he did on his own!”
However, as if there were no need for further argument, Peleus coldly left the spot.
“I am sorry, 4th Imperial Princess. No further audiences are possible.”
The 4th Imperial Princess, having been expelled just like that, was bewildered. Even though she was Imperial royalty of Kazen, she didn't expect to be given so little face.
The King of Baldina was like a sharp sword.
The Princess, who had been soft and kind on the surface, seemed better by comparison.
Still, the fact that she couldn't erase that handsome face from her mind was now making her furious.
As if he had expected such a reaction from the 4th Imperial Princess, Samon curled his lip into a crooked smile.
“Did I not tell you? My cousin would rather break than ever bend to Kazen.”
“You, do you want your head to fly off before the execution ceremony even arrives? You still don't seem to grasp the situation.”
Samon shrugged at the 4th Imperial Princess’s threat.
“With a body that is going to die anyway, what more is there to fear?”
“Just tell me the reason you called for me.”
The 4th Imperial Princess furrowed her brow.
She only wanted to finish her business and get out of this filthy prison as quickly as possible.
Her eyes, filled with contempt, scanned Samon from his pale complexion down to his body, which was soiled with dust and blood.
‘I must have been crazy. To think I briefly thought someone like him was similar to the King.’
Even when he was dressed up, he was barely passable, but in his current shabby state, he couldn't even be compared to the King.
She felt as if filth had rubbed off on her.
Just as she was thinking she should scrub her body in a bath as soon as she returned, Samon spoke.
“Your Highness, please help our family. It is possible if it is you.”
*In the end, it doesn't deviate an inch from my expectations.*
The 4th Imperial Princess snorted and crossed her arms.
“Hmph, why should I? To a wretch like you who joined hands with Iason and screwed me over?”
She glanced with revulsion at Samon’s strangely twisted arm. During the recent coup, his arm had been broken while trying to block an Agema’s sword, and it had not yet been treated.
“Do you truly mean to abandon me like this?”
“Did you and I ever have anything? You were just a towel to wipe my feet for a moment. You don't have the capacity to act so arrogantly as if you were something special.”
The 4th Imperial Princess immediately rejected his plea and even hurled a crude insult at him.
The smile Samon had been maintaining out of courtesy completely vanished from his face.
“You will regret this.”
“Ha! Regret? The only thing I regret is getting involved with a filthy thing like you!”
The 4th Imperial Princess couldn't contain herself and stomped her foot.
Suddenly, perhaps because her temper had flared too much, she felt a momentary dizziness and staggered.
“Your Highness!”
“It’s fine, I’m okay.”
When a maid supported the 4th Imperial Princess, she waved her off and looked down at Samon.
“You seem quite desperate to live? You must have thought that by mentioning sleeping with me or whatever, you could grab onto a lifeline. Unfortunately, you're not the first fool to throw himself at me like that.”
She spat on the floor. Samon wiped the sticky liquid trailing down his temple.
“…”
As those eyes filled with humiliation looked up at her, the 4th Imperial Princess finally felt a bit relieved.
“You aren't even an ant for me to crush. Well, stay well. Since I’ve come to see your final state, be grateful to me. I’ll hear how it felt to have your head cut off at the guillotine once I die later.”
Samon bit the inside of his cheek hard.
He wanted to pin that arrogant Princess down right now and shut her mouth, but Samon did not forget that she was the one with the absolute upper hand.
The lives of himself and his family were in the Princess’s hands. He spoke in a soft voice.
“You should… be careful, Your Highness. Since you are not alone.”
“What?”
The 4th Imperial Princess flinched and turned her head while clutching her forehead.
Between the bars, she saw Samon’s face, looking like a sinister wolf with a smirk.
“Did you not know? That the fruit of the love between us two is breathing and living within Your Highness’s body?”
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
The 4th Imperial Princess knew her position well, as well as the benefits and importance gained through marriage.
Ultimately, her husband had to be a man with a solid background who could strategically assist and bolster her ambitions, not a mere paramour.
So, even when she indulged in nighttime pleasures with various men, the 4th Imperial Princess never forgot contraception. Samon was no exception.
“I shall say it again. Have you not felt something wrong with your body lately?”
“There is… no such thing!”
When the 4th Imperial Princess spoke with certainty, Samon chuckled.
“How can you be so sure? Just as Your Highness is frantic to avoid the seeds of men like me, why haven't you considered that there are also those who seek to use your womb to target the Imperial Family?”
“This filthy scoundrel—”
The 4th Imperial Princess, unaware that Raju had bribed her aide, thought Samon had tampered with the contraceptives.
“A mere contraceptive could not stop my love for the 4th Imperial Princess.”
“Shut up! Don't talk nonsense! Do you think I’ll be fooled by the provocations of someone like you?”
“You will know the truth soon enough.”
He spoke triumphantly.
“I have already sent word to Kazen, so the news must have reached His Majesty by now. Since it is his first grandchild, His Majesty must surely be pleased.”
*What?* The 4th Imperial Princess asked back as if doubting her ears.
“You—you informed Father?”
“Yes, and would it be only the Kazen Imperial Family? I also informed the Temple of the joyous birth. Our passionate love that transcended the borders of Baldina and Kazen.”
“You crazy bastarrrrrrrd!”
The 4th Imperial Princess screamed.
Samon had already created all the undeniable evidence so that the 4th Imperial Princess wouldn't even be able to think about getting rid of the child.
