Chapter 03
Edith reflexively took a step back.
There was one knight pointing a sword at her, and another standing behind him. And behind them, she spotted a little girl.
Edith let out a short groan when she saw the girl’s familiar face. It was the child who had been lying sick in the street not long ago. She had treated her and sent her on her way, but…
“Did this person treat you?”
At the knight’s question, the child nodded vigorously. The knight then spoke in a cold tone.
“You were using your great power for the sake of the lowly. It is time for you to go to a place befitting that power, Healer.”
Though his words were polite, their meaning was entirely different. He was telling her that they already knew everything, so if she didn’t want trouble, she should comply quietly.
“I am not a healer—”
“Are you going to deny it?”
The knight retorted with an expressionless face, then moved the sword that had been aimed at Edith’s neck toward the child.
As the cold blade touched her skin, the child began to hiccup in fear.
“I—!”
The child tried to say something, but the knight ignored her and turned his gaze back to Edith.
“If not, then this child must have lied.”
“That’s…!”
It was a threat disguised as a choice. If Edith said she was not a healer, the child would be put to death for lying. If Edith admitted to being a healer, the child would be released, but Edith would be taken to the royal palace.
Edith hesitated, then looked into the knight’s eyes and clutched the hem of her skirt tightly. There was no emotion whatsoever in the knight’s eyes.
Edith squeezed her eyes shut and nodded.
“That’s correct.”
“…”
“I treated her.”
There was no way out.
Edith resolved to accept the fate placed before her.
—
***
—
“Once we cross this bridge, we will arrive at the royal palace.”
The knight said courteously to Edith.
As they drew closer to the royal palace, Edith’s body stiffened reflexively. All the healers brought into the palace, regardless of gender, had been executed by the Crown Prince’s hand within half a year.
Under the charge of insulting the royal family.
Edith didn’t know the details either. According to rumor, it was because they couldn’t break Kalad’s curse.
The Kalad were a race infamous for using wicked sorcery. It was said that if one was wounded by their weapons, they would be cursed and have no choice but to wait for death.
‘What will become of me now?’
As she looked up at the sky, lamenting the future ahead of her, her eyes met something in that instant.
It was a gaze that seemed to stare blankly at something, yet looked at nothing at all…
The eyes of the dead.
“Ah…”
Edith involuntarily caught her breath.
A severed head, its mouth still agape in death, was impaled on the tip of a spear. It was a different person from the one executed yesterday.
She hurriedly averted her gaze, but the sight she had just seen was burned into her mind and wouldn’t fade. Those lifeless eyes seemed to warn her—that next time, it would be her neck on display.
“This is a healer who came to the palace a few days ago.”
The knight said flatly. Hearing this, Edith squeezed her eyes shut. Strength unconsciously filled her clenched fists.
“Once you enter the palace, people will monitor your every move. There may even be those who treat you with disrespect.”
What was he trying to say?
Edith slightly turned her head to look at the man. But he simply continued speaking, facing forward with an expressionless face.
“It would be best for you to endure whatever they say.”
It was brusque to the extreme, but somehow, his words carried a hint of concern.
“That is the only way to extend your life, even for a second longer.”
Was he feeling sympathy for a common healer unluckily dragged into the imperial palace?
The knight said nothing more after that. Yet in his words, Edith found a small measure of comfort.
But it was short-lived. As the reality she wished would never come drew near, tension once again enveloped Edith’s body.
After crossing the bridge, the gate leading to the royal palace came into view. Once this gate opened and she stepped inside, Edith would become a healer of the imperial household.
That meant a life completely different from what she had known until now.
“From here on, you must walk.”
The man said so and helped Edith dismount from the horse. With a resigned expression, she got down and stepped into the royal palace.
—
***
—
As soon as she entered the palace, people swarmed her as if they had been waiting, washing her body. They gave her the robes worn by imperial healers and even neatly combed her hair.
“You will now serve as an imperial healer, miss.”
A woman who appeared to be the head maid said in a calm voice.
Edith nodded with a resigned expression. The head maid then took the lead and guided her. Edith obediently followed her footsteps.
The head maid knocked a couple of times on the large door at the end of the corridor, then bowed her head.
“…Do I just go in here?”
Before an answer to her question could return, the door opened from the inside first.
“His Highness the Crown Prince has stepped out for a moment. Please wait until he returns.”
One of the attendants inside said briefly, then closed the door again. Edith stared blankly at the head maid beside her, then asked in a shrill voice.
“W-Wait a moment. His Highness the Crown Prince?”
She must have misheard, right?
No matter how much she had become an imperial healer, it didn’t make sense to skip all procedures and meet the Crown Prince directly.
Her vision swam, but the head maid only repeated like a parrot that she must wait here until the Crown Prince arrived.
Aedric Kaitel Kesmel.
He was the man who had presided over a person’s life and death with an impassive face on the day of the healer’s execution.
Moreover, the epithets referring to Kesmel’s Crown Prince were all chillingly brutal.
The Beast Born of Battlefields, The Monster of Kesmel, The Blood-Mad Murderer.
As Edith’s face hardened with tension, the head maid standing beside her called her in a low voice.
“Healer.”
Soon after, she bowed so low her head nearly touched the ground. Edith reflexively turned her head.
The first thing she met was a menacing violet gaze. The approaching footsteps were heavy enough to be mistaken for those of a beast.
“This is His Highness the Crown Prince.”
At the cold voice coming from behind, Edith hurriedly lowered her head.
Meanwhile, the threatening footsteps she had felt from afar were now right before her. Seeing the black shoes at the edge of her vision, Edith swallowed dryly.
“This is the new healer who arrived today.”
A scoff and a cold response followed.
“I heard it was a rare sight, but I’ve been seeing quite a lot of them lately.”
The mocking tone carried clear murderous intent. At the same time, a rough hand gripped Edith’s chin. Before she could even register the pain, her body was pulled along.
“Quite unremarkable.”
The man, who had turned her this way and that while gripping her chin, shoved her away as if discarding her.
“Ugh…!”
Edith, who had been barely supporting herself on her toes, lost her balance from the strong push and fell to the ground.
But the Crown Prince paid her no mind and walked past her into the room.
The head maid standing nearby grabbed Edith’s arm and helped her up.
“Let’s go inside.”
Edith clenched her fingertips.
She let out a trembling sigh and entered the room. The Crown Prince, standing by the window, turned and spoke casually.
“I heard you treated the Duke of Felix.”
How had he found out about that? Edith’s body shuddered as if struck by lightning.
But she couldn’t give any answer. In the end, Edith remained silent.
The Crown Prince, Aedric, glared at her with eyes faintly laced with murderous intent and spoke.
“I had already heard that someone has been treating people in the slums for a while now.”
Aedric lifted a document and sneered.
“The rumors were quite extravagant.”
He scanned the document and let out a scoff. The rumors written there were so grand that it wouldn’t be strange if a saint had descended.
“Even with broken or severed limbs, people don’t die, and plagues hardly strike.”
His words, spoken with emphasis, revealed a deep-seated, seething hatred.
At the blatant bloodlust, Edith trembled. But Aedric, regardless of whether she trembled or not, continued speaking as if he didn’t care in the least.
“Anyone would think a saint had appeared in that place. Each and every one of them is the sort who would have no excuse even under inquisition.”
Inquisition. Edith raised her head sharply, and Aedric spat coldly.
“But there must be a reason for such rumors to spread. I will give you a chance to prove it.”
Aedric glared at her and said deliberately.
“Go to the military garrison. Go and prove your abilities. Of course, if it turns out the rumors were exaggerated…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but Edith could guess what followed.
What would happen afterward was clear. If she couldn’t treat the people there, Edith would be executed like the other healers.
“Your Highness, that place is quite harsh for a healer to go.”
The dignified attendant who had been attending to Aedric throughout quickly interjected.
“Should I be concerned about this woman’s safety?”
“…”
“Since when did the Crown Prince of the Kesmel Empire’s position fall so low?”
Aedric glared at Edith. Edith lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
He reached out and stroked Edith’s hair. Her greyish-blue hair tangled like thread between his thick fingers.
After toying with her hair as if playing with it, he whispered by Edith’s ear.
“Rather, you should be grateful I don’t cut out the tongue of this woman who won’t even utter a single word in reply.”
