Chapter 06
Because of Brandt, who kept showing tears whenever he saw me, I had dinner in my room.
“Miss, are you really okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Father should also eat comfortably without crying during dinner.”
“Yes. Then please call me if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Summer.”
After Summer left, I scooped up a large spoonful of warm corn soup and was about to put it into my mouth.
Tap—
Tap—
I heard something hitting the window.
Thinking I had heard it wrong, I put the delicious corn soup straight into my mouth.
At that moment.
Hailers, wearing a black robe over his body, opened the window and confidently entered my room.
“Duke?”
Because my mouth was full of food, my pronunciation came out wrong.
“Eat first and talk.”
“Duke Hailers?”
“Do you usually eat in your room?”
“Ah, no. That’s not usually the case. It’s just that today there were some circumstances…”
I could never tell Hailers that it was because my father cried.
“Your father sent a letter saying that he wanted to arrange the engagement first.”
He already sent the letter.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“I came to ask for your thoughts.”
Thinking about Brandt crying all day, it seemed right to get engaged and then marry.
“Let’s get engaged first and then get married.”
“Very well.”
“But did you really come all the way here just to tell me this?”
“I had no way to contact you.”
“How did you get here? Since you came through the window, I don’t think you rode a horse.”
At my question, Hailers silently opened his hand.
There was a magic stone in his palm.
“It’s a teleportation magic stone.”
It was my first time seeing a magic stone in real life.
“Then, Duke, can you also use magic?”
“A little.”
“Even without a magic stone?”
“I naturally have mana in my body.”
Yes, yes. Of course you do.
While looking at Hailers with a skeptical expression, my eyes naturally moved toward the magic stone he had brought.
The smaller a magic stone was, the more expensive it became.
That was because it needed to be portable. Processing a large magic stone into a small one was extremely difficult.
It wasn’t something that could be done just by cutting it smaller.
If it was reduced beyond a certain size, it lost its mana and became nothing more than an ordinary stone.
The one in Hailers’ hand was the smallest size that could be processed among commercial magic stones.
A 3-centimeter magic stone.
How much money was this thing worth?!
“I also have something to give you.”
After briefly finishing his words, he showed me another stone.
A communication magic stone.
“I cannot come to your house every time.”
“I have never used one before.”
“It’s fine. This was made so that even ordinary people without mana can use it.”
“Thank you. But Duke, please don’t come through the window next time. It’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“This is the third floor.”
“Three floors is nothing. I can easily climb up and down.”
“……”
I forgot.
Eden Kler was from the Hailers family.
“By the way, are you going to keep calling me Duke?”
“Then what should I call you?”
“We will soon be engaged. You should call me Eden.”
“……”
“Isn’t that right, Duchess?”
“Since it’s only soon, I will continue calling you Duke for now. After we have the engagement ceremony, I’ll think about it then.”
“Ah…”
Knock, knock—
A voice coming from inside the room made Summer, who was waiting outside, knock on the door.
At that moment, without thinking, I approached Hailers and covered his mouth with both of my hands.
“Miss, do you need anything? I heard voices.”
“Uh, y-yes. My throat feels a little dry. Could you bring me some water?”
“But there is water in the room…”
“I want cold ice water, please!”
“I understand.”
Only after I heard Summer’s footsteps moving away did I realize that I was still covering Hailers’ mouth.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I just reacted without thinking…”
Realizing how close we were, I tried to step back.
But my foot caught on the chair behind me, and my body suddenly tilted.
“Ah.”
Before I could even let out a proper sound, Hailers caught me with his strong arm.
Because of the force, the robe he was wearing slipped off.
The color was not the silver that resembled moonlight, which I already knew.
It was black.
A color similar to my own hair.
“Why is your hair black…”
“I dyed it temporarily.”
“Dyed it?”
“My hair color is too bright. Even if I wear a robe, it stands out.”
For someone whose face itself stood out, I didn’t think his hair color was really an important issue.
Looking at Hailers with black hair, I felt that something about him was familiar.
To confirm whether my feeling was right, I covered the lower half of his face with my hand.
“Ah?! Back then, in that forest…”
The man I saw in the forest had been wearing a mask, but his eyes and the smooth line of his nose were exactly the same.
It was definitely Hailers.
Knock, knock—
“Miss, I’m coming in.”
“We’ll talk about that later.”
It was certain.
The man I met in the forest where I first opened my eyes in this world.
The man who showed no interest in the dangerous beast in front of him but reacted sensitively to the presence of a person.
That man was Eden Kler.
“Miss, why are you standing?”
“Huh?”
“The window is open too.”
“Ah, I got a little hot while eating, so I opened it. I was just about to close it.”
“Here is your water. Please finish your meal. I’ll close the window and leave.”
Thinking about it, the man’s hair color in the forest had been uneven.
Almost like his dye had faded.
The man I helped in the forest back then…
Was he really Eden Kler?
At that time, I couldn’t think clearly, and I didn’t have the chance to focus on his face.
But if it was Eden Kler, he must have seen my face.
And he must have figured out who I was.
Then, at the garden during the Imperial Palace party…
Did he already know me and help me there?
The moment I tried to remember when I first met Hailers, a loud noise suddenly rang inside my head.
Along with the terrible sound, my heart began beating uncontrollably fast.
Then, in an instant, it stopped.
It felt as if someone had grabbed my heart with their hand and forced it to stop.
“Ugh.”
I could only clutch my chest from the unbearable pain.
Just when I thought I might die, the pain squeezing my heart disappeared.
At the same time, the breath I could neither inhale nor exhale came out in rough gasps.
“Haa… haa…”
“Miss?”
Hearing my abnormal breathing, Summer quickly came beside me after closing the window.
“Summer, I…”
Thud—
As I lost consciousness, I also lost control of my body.
The reason I did not hit my head on the nearby bed was because Summer rushed from the window and caught me.
When I opened my eyes, it was not the forest or my bedroom.
There was only darkness.
The feeling of floating in the air told me that this was not reality, but a dream.
I walked toward the faint light far away.
The closer I got to the light, the more I could hear voices.
“…the god… inside…”
What are they saying?
Wanting to hear clearly, I moved closer.
What appeared before me was…
Me.
No.
It was the real Eloa Rumania.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Even though it could cost you your life because of the side effects?”
The person speaking with Eloa was covered in a black robe, so I could not see their face.
But the voice belonged to an old person.
A sorcerer?
Seeing Eloa’s firm expression, the sorcerer removed the robe.
The moment I saw the sorcerer’s face, I could not stop myself from being shocked.
No.
Anyone would react the same way in this situation.
That was me.
Why was I there?
No, more importantly…
Was I also a character in this novel?
While I was confused, the voices of the two people came again.
“What are the preparations?”
“Here they are.”
“Good. You brought everything. You know what the biggest problem with this spell is, right?”
Instead of answering, Eloa simply nodded with a firm expression.
What she handed to the sorcerer was her own hair and a small glass bottle filled with a thick, dark red liquid.
The sorcerer took out a silver dagger from inside their robe and poured the dark red liquid from the bottle onto the blade.
What exactly did you do?
I wanted to scream and tell them to stop.
But no voice came out.
I tried to move closer and stop Eloa with my body, but no matter how much I moved, the distance between us never became smaller.
The moment Eloa took the dagger covered in dark red liquid, her eyes met mine.
No.
What are you doing?!
Stop!
I wanted to scream, but my mouth would not move.
A mute person with honey stuck in their mouth.
That phrase described me perfectly at this moment.
And just as I continued shouting words inside my head that could never become sounds…
