“Still feeling uneasy?”
“Ah, well... kind of, yeah.”
I answered awkwardly. Kiaros then asked slowly.
“Are you worried the spy might be Victor?”
“...Excuse ?”
“I heard it myself. At the banquet, Victor Arwin confessed to you in a pretty strange way.”
“Haaaahm... Sorry, the sleeping pills are still wearing off, so I keep yawning.”
After a big yawn, I mumbled, lost in thought.
“It was definitely a twisted sort of affection. But I kind of agree that the timing was bad.”
He beca an adult four years earlier than I did, and then the mont we both ca of age, he left on a long-term foreign assignnt...
“I feel like maybe he had more to say to . But he probably left quickly because he misunderstood that His Highness the Crown Prince had feelings for .”
“If that’s a misunderstanding, then I guess the entire Imperial Palace is mistaken.”
Kiaros looked at with amusent, a faint smile on his lips.
“These days there’s even a rumor that I like Namia Roafi so much, I’ve locked her up in the palace and am desperately clinging to her day and night, offering blood and tears.”
His red eyes sparkled mischievously. I hurriedly bowed my head.
“If that upset you, I truly apologize. I was just trying to trap the Reformist faction...”
“No need to apologize. I’m the one who said you could use my na, rember?”
Right? That’s fine, isn’t it? Honestly, I just said it out of courtesy.
“...But I didn’t think you’d use it this much.”
Or not? Well, what can you do... you’ve got to own it now.
Just as I lowered my head even further and was about to say “I am truly sorry”—
“Am I still that hard for you to be around?”
...What kind of question is that?
Who in this entire Empire isn’t nervous around Kiaros?
As I stayed silent and bowed even deeper—
“Look up. I was just teasing.”
I quickly lifted my head.
“Kiaros Polariwood can only et Namia Roafi’s eyes when he gives her an order, it seems.”
His crimson eyes, full of playfulness, carried a faint trace of sadness.
I opened my lips to speak but ended up yawning again.
“Haaaahm... Sorry. That wasn’t because I’m bored of this conversation...”
“It’s fine.”
Kiaros waved his hand lightly.
“These days, even the palace crows look at with pity. I wonder where they heard that nonsense from...”
“Ah... well, once you bring in a Crown Princess, those rumors will disappear.”
“Really?”
“Well, at least in front of Their Highnesses the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. I guarantee it.”
Because no one wants to die...
“Is that so?”
Kiaros gave an even more mischievous smile at my sincere response.
“Namia Roafi, do you think there’s any woman out there right now who’d marry ?”
Even in the dark, Kiaros’s boyishly teasing smile was breathtakingly beautiful.
To resist being captivated, I had to consciously relax my optic nerves.
Seriously, his looks were outrageously stunning. Just sitting here talking like this felt surreal.
“Of course. You really don’t need to worry about that.”
In the end, I gave my most heartfelt and sincere assurance.
“For most won, if Your Highness even gave them a proper smiling glance, they’d probably already be naming your future children.”
“Really?”
Then Kiaros curved his eyes into a half-moon shape as he looked at .
His under-eye dimples, normally hidden, bunched up adorably.
Even his long lashes cast delicate shadows over those glowing red irises.
Faced with such dazzling beauty for the first ti in my life, I felt like my heart had stopped for a second.
In a voice like honey, Kiaros whispered:
“Like this, perhaps?”
Completely bewitched, I answered without thinking.
“If I had a daughter, I’d na her Anastasia. If a son, Victor.”
At my imdiate answer, Kiaros’s expression turned dead serious.
“You really have a talent for killing the mood in the weirdest way. There is no way I’m naming my son Victor.”
“My apologies. Honestly, I’ve never seriously thought about baby nas before, but lately, those two nas just keep circling in my head. I’m sorry.”
It couldn’t be helped.
Yes, I answered because I was montarily dazzled by his smile, but truthfully, I’d never really imagined getting married and having children.
Because finding my father had always been my number one priority.
I had vaguely wanted to have a family one day, but never above the desire to live with my dad again.
To put anything before that would’ve felt like betraying the man who sacrificed his life for mine.
Kiaros pinched the bridge of his nose like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, and muttered in displeasure:
“Still, who the hell nas their kid after a love rival? That’s insane.”
“Hahaha... Love rival, seriously?”
Being cross-examined like this by none other than the Crown Prince himself, I honestly started wondering if I was about to be executed.
I ended up defending myself with a timid voice.
“The rumor that His Highness likes ... is just a rumor, not fact.”
Wasn’t he just using the gossip about heartbreak as an excuse to lay low during his blackout period?
I’d tried so hard to avoid touching that topic... but the injustice was too much, and it slipped out.
“It’s not like anything major happened between us... I just figured Your Highness had your reasons for playing along with the rumor.”
“...Is that what you thought?”
Kiaros stared at quietly.
“Namia Roafi, so that’s what you’ve been thinking all this ti.”
As I kept silent, Kiaros added softly:
“Or maybe that’s what you wanted to believe.”
His eyes shimred again with sothing quiet and sorrowful. A beat of silence passed between us. I waved my hand with an awkward laugh.
“Well, I an... honestly, we’re not that close...”
“True. It was just a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) one-sided, fifteen-year vow of chastity on my part.”
...Vow of chastity? What kind of word choice is that?
At that mont, a sudden tension crossed Kiaros’s face.
I widened my eyes as well.
Tap, tap. Footsteps began approaching.
Before I even identified the owner of the steps, I glanced over at the empty desks of Anastasia and Victor in the Scroll Departnt office.
Victor’s pencil holder still had that one pen I gave him—the one Kibon broke.
You still haven’t thrown that away...
No matter what happened later, he had been the first person to reach out to when I was young.
If he had confessed back then, I would’ve accepted. If he had asked about my situation, I would’ve told him everything.
Because back then, just one person ant the world to .
Then I shifted my gaze to Anastasia’s desk.
Ah... so this is what she’s reading these days.
A book titled “Obsession Culminates in Flight” was neatly placed on her desk.
That sa girl who used to shyly hand coffee, and boldly vanquish Liden with hot water and instant grounds...
Now I can finally know for sure who it is.
I yawned again, involuntarily, and quietly looked out the window.
A cloaked Anastasia was walking the corridor in the darkness.
Ah.
Step by step, neither fast nor slow, she passed by the Scroll Departnt office and entered the production room without hesitation.
Kiaros and I locked eyes. In the darkness, I couldn’t read his expression behind those glowing red irises.
Ti passed. Anastasia erged from the production room. In her hands was clearly the beaker containing dragon’s blood—the one I had just been experinting with.
Good heavens...
As Anastasia slowly walked by and I let out a quiet sigh, thinking I was fully ntally prepared, tears welled up against my will.
Then—
“Hold on.”
Kiaros looked at and whispered. Sohow, he had gotten right up next to .
“Pardon for a mont.”
“...Yes?”
“Sothing’s off. I need to follow this through. May I hold you for a bit?”
And at the sa ti, my body was lifted into the air.
He cradled and flung open the window of the adjacent office.
“Don’t scream.”
And with that, he leapt out.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
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