The Grand Duke strode into the banquet hall, gripping the man’s ankle tightly and dragging him across the marble floor, leaving a dark crimson trail behind.
A red line stretched across the polished marble, following every step he took.
“Y-Your Grace…!”
Someone cried out in horror, but he paid no attention.
He flung the man, who was barely clinging to life, into the middle of the banquet hall.
Blood spread beneath him like a growing pool.
“I’m starting to grow tired of this. I wish they’d at least come up with something more creative.”
He muttered with obvious boredom and drew his sword with an expressionless face.
At that moment, someone among the murmuring crowd gasped and clapped a hand over their mouth.
“…Th-That’s the priest who came with that saint!”
Only a few hours earlier, he had attended the banquet claiming to be the guardian of the woman who called herself a saint.
As the hall fell into confusion over the man’s identity, another woman was dragged in by two knights, each gripping one of her arms.
The saint.
The very woman everyone had been watching, believing she might be chosen by the Grand Duke of Exepsion.
“If you truly are a saint, then surely you can predict something as simple as the near future.”
Turning his head, he looked down at the woman kneeling on the floor.
His tone was light, as though he were posing a riddle, but his voice dripped with mockery.
“Will I kill this assassin who tried to poison my tea… or will I generously show mercy?”
Ludville smiled lazily.
“Go on. Make your prediction.”
His steps were slightly unsteady, and his gaze was faintly unfocused.
He was clearly drunk, yet his violet eyes gleamed like a beast stalking its prey.
The woman’s face turned deathly pale as she trembled before collapsing to her knees.
“P-Please spare me. Have mercy…!”
The saint threw herself flat onto the floor, bowing her head.
But before she could finish speaking, Ludville interrupted.
“Wrong.”
The next instant, a sharp crack split the air as his sword flashed.
The man never moved again.
“Aaaahhh—!”
The saint collapsed onto the floor, her legs giving out beneath her as she screamed.
The knights, as though this were nothing unusual, didn’t even blink. They hauled her to her feet and dragged her away.
Silence settled over the banquet hall.
No one dared to speak.
Ludville nudged the blood-soaked corpse aside with the tip of his boot before walking calmly to the seat of honor.
As though nothing had happened.
There wasn’t the slightest emotion in his eyes.
Only an emptiness deeper than madness.
“Who’s next?”
Those two words froze the entire banquet hall.
No one dared step forward.
Not a single person.
As everyone remained silent, Odely quietly studied the man before her.
Ludville Exepsion.
My Lu…
Instead of reaching out with her fingertips, she traced him with her eyes.
His forehead.
His tightly set jaw.
The blood splattered across his cheek.
As though confirming that warmth still remained within the man drowned in madness and the scent of blood.
A very distant memory surfaced.
Now that she had regained her memories, she recalled their first meeting. Just as she had once watched him through a wall, that old instinct reacted before anything else.
My lover.
My savior.
My sword…
And my deceiver.
The man who had bled for her.
The man who had also been crueler than anyone else.
Even so…
In the end, he had saved her.
‘He’s alive. Still…’
But he had changed too much.
The man she once knew had been a ruler.
A strategist.
No matter what chaos surrounded him, he always found a way to seize control.
But now…
There was nothing left except directionless savagery and murderous intent.
The eyes that had once constantly calculated every possibility were now empty, like a bottomless abyss.
‘His memories are truly gone.’
The fact that he wandered aimlessly, bringing woman after woman into the castle instead of coming to find Odely himself proved it.
It seemed he remembered nothing about her except scattered fragments, like her blue eyes.
That was the problem.
Until now, he had lived for one purpose alone.
To save Odely.
Now that he had lost that purpose…
He was no different from a ship adrift on an endless sea without a compass.
It was the worst possible outcome she had never imagined.
I wanted you to forget me and be happy.
I wanted you to live your own life.
If she left him like this…
One day, he would destroy himself.
“…I’m next.”
Breaking the silence, she stepped forward.
Then she slowly raised her head.
Odely made up her mind.
She would stay.
She would remain by his side.
She would make sure the empty space in his memories was filled with something other than herself.
The eyes revealed beneath her worn, tattered robe looked straight at one person alone.
“I’ve come to propose a deal, Your Grace.”
Ludville slowly repeated the word.
“A deal?”
His tone was dry and indifferent.
It was the voice of someone who had no interest in whoever stood before him.
“What kind of deal?”
His words carried the attitude of, Go on. Amuse me.
There was neither expectation nor caution in his eyes.
It was simply the automatic response of a man who had heard the same approach countless times before.
“…It’s not something I can discuss here.”
Ludville let out a faint chuckle.
“I thought so. A mysterious figure hiding beneath a hood. A secret that can only be told in private. A special condition that we must be alone… The self-proclaimed saint, the deposed princess… they all began the same way.”
“I…”
“Are you going to tell me you’re the woman I’ve been searching for as well?”
He asked without even properly looking at Odely.
“…”
She couldn’t answer.
When only silence followed, Ludville turned away as though he had grown tired of the entire exchange.
“I suppose it’s time to end this banquet.”
Then he rose from his seat, thoroughly ignoring her.
For a moment, Odely was left speechless.
“…”
The urge to tell him I’m the one you’ve been searching for rose within her.
But she absolutely couldn’t.
Odely would never live past the age of twenty-nine.
She had only about five years left to live.
If Ludville became attached to her again…
She would only lead him to ruin once more.
Ludville walked right past Odely.
Like the sea parting before a miracle, the crowd silently stepped aside to clear a path.
His black cloak fluttered carelessly over the crimson carpet.
Without a word, Odely watched his retreating figure for a long time.
***
Meanwhile, Ludville left the banquet hall and walked indifferently down the long corridor.
The farther the dazzling music and laughter faded behind him, the deeper the emptiness in his chest became.
When had it begun?
When had the world slowly started to fall out of place?
A man born a slave.
A man who had clawed his way up from the lowest depths of the Empire.
The Grand Duke of Exepsion.
The ruler of the Empire’s northernmost and harshest land.
With nothing but the ruthless will carved into his blood, he had cut down thousands of enemies and shattered hundreds of conspiracies.
But…
‘…How bothersome.’
He didn’t know why.
He simply felt that way.
Leading soldiers.
Swearing loyalty to the Empire.
Winning.
Conquering.
Ruling.
Again and again.
At some point, all of it had begun to feel meaningless.
Why had he fought so desperately?
What had he sacrificed his life for?
He spoke.
He moved.
He breathed.
Yet everything felt like an empty shell.
The voices of laughing, chatting people sounded distant, as though they were coming from behind a wall.
Meaningless.
And that feeling was unbearably unpleasant.
It felt as though he had forgotten the single most important thing.
Something that would have been better to die than to forget…
“Ugh.”
At that moment, a sudden, stabbing pain made him stagger.
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