Chapter 12
Instinctively, I turned my headāand froze where I stood.
“What are you doing?”
Damian stood at the entrance to the annex, glaring at me with open hostility.
Since when had he been there?
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
I hurriedly turned around, hiding my bandaged arm behind me.
“It’s nothing.”
“The fact that Her Imperial Highness the Princess is here is far from nothing. The guest quarters are in the main residence, not the annex.”
His sharp, undisguised hostility pierced my ears.
The lingering emotions from a moment ago vanished, replaced by tension.
I’d gone out of my way to avoid meeting him, yet we ended up face to face anyway.
It was common knowledge throughout the Empire that the Carter Grand Ducal House’s sole heir hated the Imperial Princess.
Even when I had driven him out of the Empire under my command, Damian had cursed the Imperial Family to the very end.
Back then, I thought I’d won.
But in the end…
I was the one who lost.
Just then, Damian’s gaze shifted over my shoulder.
His expression immediately twisted with fury.
“Don’t misunderstand. I only came here becauseā”
Before I could finish, Damian strode across the hallway and violently grabbed my arm.
Unfortunately…
It was the one wrapped in bandages.
The pressure crushed the wound beneath the cloth, sending a blinding wave of pain through me.
“Ugh…!”
“Where exactly did you go? Do you have any idea what kind of place that is?”
Damian’s emerald eyes glinted darkly.
I desperately tried to shake him off.
He didn’t budge.
Why is he so strong?!
Clenching my teeth, I twisted my wrist.
It hurt.
The wound felt as though it had split open again.
I had barely managed to wrench my wrist free whenā
“So now the noble Imperial Princess has stooped to sneaking around the Grand Duke’s estate like a filthy rat.”
With that sneering remark, Damian abruptly released my arm.
I immediately clutched it.
It throbbed painfully.
The bleeding had probably gotten worse.
But I couldn’t let it show.
“That room is not a place where someone like you has any right to set foot.”
“…I didn’t go in on purpose.”
“Of course you didn’t. Has there ever been anything Her Noble Highness wasn’t ‘innocent’ of?”
His voice dripped with sarcasm.
Endure it. Talking back won’t do any good.
Back when I was the Imperial Princess, I could have silenced him in dozens of different ways.
But now…
I was merely a guest living under the Grand Duke’s roof.
After struggling to find the words, I finally answered quietly.
“I was only looking for the infirmary. Besides, I’m a guest your father personally allowed to stay here.”
“Ah, a guest.”
Damian lowered his head and let out a short, mocking laugh.
“Since the subject came up, let’s make one thing perfectly clear.”
He leaned down until we were eye to eye.
His voice was low, almost a whisper.
“Your Highness, I don’t know what you’re plotting, but you’d better watch yourself. Unlike my father, I have no intention of letting you deceive me.”
I pressed my lips together and met his glittering eyes without flinching.
The murderous intent swirling within them made it seem as though he wanted to cut me down where I stood.
“Never…”
His voice was as sharp as a freshly honed blade.
“…come anywhere near my sister’s room again.”
The words struck my ears like a knife.
“That is no place for the filthy, treacherous offspring of the Imperial Family. Is that understood?”
I swallowed hard.
My throat tightened.
Perhaps…
Even more than Carlos, Damian hated the Imperial Family.
He called it his sister’s room…
For some reason, those words lingered in my heart.
Sister.
Once…
I had actually been this boy’s little sister.
Though now, to him, I was nothing more than the daughter of the people who had stolen her away.
“Leave.”
Damian glared at me as he stepped aside.
His eyes clearly told me to get out.
I looked back at him for a long moment before quietly walking away.
I’d better avoid running into him for a while.
My arm, hidden beneath my long sleeve, throbbed painfully.
In the end…
I never even managed to apply the medicine.
After that encounter with Damian, I stayed holed up in my room as quietly as a mouse.
It wasn’t exactly that I was afraid of him.
Facing him was simply… awkward.
Before I returned to the past, every encounter with that man had sent my blood pressure soaring.
The moment he opened his mouth, sarcasm poured out, and even when he said nothing, he somehow managed to get on my nerves.
Back then, I’d regarded Damian as nothing more than an enemy.
Now it was different.
Whenever he hurled those razor-sharp words at me, I had no idea how to respond.
The only time I left my room was to prepare lunch.
Every meal, I carefully made my way to the kitchen and worked with Mia to prepare dishes for Carlos.
Every single one was made with ingredients known to suppress demonic energy.
At first, I was clumsy.
Now I’d become fairly accustomed to it.
Though, to be honest, Mia still did most of the work.
Fortunately, despite always wearing a complicated expression, Carlos accepted my cooking every time.
That alone was enough.
Like always, I knocked on the study door.
“I’m coming in.”
When I entered, Carlos was reading documents as usual.
He barely reacted even as I placed the tray on his desk.
It seemed he’d grown used to my visits.
I set the tray neatly on one side.
“Today’s lunch is a detox juice made with carrots and kale, along with sandwiches.”
A juice to help suppress demonic energy.
Herb-filled sandwiches.
It was a recipe Mia and I had chosen together.
There was no reply.
I had already grown accustomed to that.
I quietly straightened the tray and was about to leave when Carlos suddenly looked up.
“Damian will accompany you to the Western Territory, Princess.”
“Huh?”
…What?
I stared at him in disbelief.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you ask for an escort to accompany you there?”
Carlos answered matter-of-factly, as though wondering why I was asking.
Wait.
I had requested transportation and an escort to the west.
But…
I meant a few ordinary knights.
Not Damian.
Even if the escort is really just surveillance in disguise… are they trying to suffocate me to death before I even reach the west?
My mouth fell open.
“But… isn’t the Young Lord still a minor?”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s just…”
What was I supposed to say?
I couldn’t exactly tell him I didn’t want Damian.
But agreeing meant spending the entire journey with him.
Just imagining it made my head hurt.
As I searched for an answer, the study door opened behind me.
“You called for me, Father?”
It was Damian.
His eyes met mine.
The temperature in his expression seemed to drop instantly.
“What are you looking at?”
…I’m doomed.
