As soon as I opened the door, I flinched in surprise. The room was shrouded in darkness.
“Deputy lady-in-waiting, you can’t just—”
“I’ll handle this.”
I hastily dismissed the guards and locked the door behind me. An instinctive sense warned me that they shouldn’t see what was inside.
With the light from the hallway cut off, the room became so dark that I couldn’t see a thing. I stood still, waiting for my eyes to adjust before carefully stepping forward.
“Your Majesty, you’re here, aren’t you?”
I had visited this chamber countless times. I knew where the bed was, where the table stood—every inch of the space was familiar, even in the dark.
I walked toward the window and drew back the curtains.
And then, the scene before me came into view.
It was a complete mess.
Chairs lay overturned, and trays of food—meals that the servants had somehow managed to send in—were scattered across the table.
The carpet on the floor was in disarray, tangled with what seemed to be the blankets that once belonged on the bed.
And beside that—amidst the chaos—was Caesar, looking just as wrecked as the room itself.
“…Your Majesty!”
I ran to his side.
Caesar sat on the floor, his back against the bed.
His usually neat hair was tousled into a complete mess, and his shirt was barely fastened, carelessly draped over his body. With his eyes shut, he almost looked unconscious.
“Your Majesty!”
I carefully shook him. His brows furrowed slightly, his eyelids trembling before they slowly opened.
Beneath the long lashes, his blue eyes gradually came into focus.
“…Eve?”
“Yes, Your Majesty! It’s me!”
Caesar blinked dazedly, then slowly closed his eyes again.
“…Your Majesty?”
Worried that he had passed out again, I shook him once more. This time, he weakly waved me off, as if I were an annoyance.
What was going on? I didn’t understand, so I kept trying to wake him.
“Come on, snap out of it. Are you unwell? Should I call the royal physician?”
But when Caesar opened his eyes again, the words that left his lips were completely unexpected.
“Why… aren’t you gone?”
“What?”
“…Are you really Eve?”
“Of course I am.”
Caesar’s eyes widened.
With a trembling hand, he hesitantly reached out, fumbling to touch mine.
That was when I realized what was happening.
He thought I was a dream. Or an illusion.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Out of habit, I held his hand firmly.
Caesar flinched as if he had been burned.
His gaze flickered between my face and our joined hands, disbelief clouding his expression. But beneath that, I saw something else—pain and guilt.
So, it really was because of that night…
The wrecked room, his self-imposed isolation… all of it stemmed from what had happened.
I hadn’t been the only one suffering this past week. Caesar had been just as tormented.
I was now certain—we needed to talk.
“Your Majesty.”
I tightened my grip on his hand and met his gaze directly.
“I came here because I want to talk. I want to know why you lied to me.”
At the word lie, Caesar flinched.
“You have to tell me the reason… so that I can understand.”
Caesar hesitated before finally parting his lips.
“I overheard you… saying that you were going to leave. That once my awakening was complete, your role would be over—that you would leave me, leave the palace.”
He had heard my conversation with Katana.
That had been the first and only time I had ever voiced those thoughts out loud.
“That’s why I did it.”
“…What?”
“I wanted to keep you by my side.”
His words were simple.
Too simple.
For a moment, I was speechless.
“I didn’t want to be away from you. So I lied. I thought that if you believed I hadn’t fully awakened… you wouldn’t leave.”
Caesar lowered his head.
So, it really was because of that.
I had suspected it, but hearing him admit it made my chest ache even more.
“But Your Majesty, leaving doesn’t mean we’ll never see each other again. I told you from the start, didn’t I? That I would help you ascend the throne. And now that your rule is secure—”
“No.”
Caesar cut me off. His voice, firm and unwavering.
“You said you would save me. That we had to live together.”
“That was…”
“I will save you, Your Highness. But in return, you have to save me too. We have to live together.”
I remembered the words I had spoken years ago, gripping his hand tightly.
To me, those words had meant the same thing.
Helping him ascend to the throne was the way to save him. And in turn, it was how I would save myself.
But to Caesar, those words must have meant something entirely different.
“We have to live together.”
I looked at him closely.
Even with a neutral expression, he looked more sorrowful now than he had when he cried.
“It’s always because of me. My mother died because of me. My father, too…”
I remembered the young Caesar, speaking those words with a downcast face.
To someone like him, what weight must my words have carried?
He hadn’t lied to me because he wanted distance.
He had lied because he wanted to be close.
A surge of emotion overwhelmed me, and before I could think, I pulled him into a hug.
Caesar’s entire body stiffened.
“Your Majesty, do you remember what you told me last year at my debutante ball? You cried and begged me not to go.”
“…”
“And do you remember what I said in response?”
I loosened my arms, just enough to meet his gaze.
“I said I wouldn’t go.”
I smiled.
“So don’t make that face. You look best when you smile.”
“Eve…”
“If you’re honest with me, then I don’t have to leave.”
“Does that mean…”
Caesar’s eyes widened.
He hesitated, his lips moving soundlessly before he finally spoke.
“I know it’s cowardly, but… can I use that promise now?”
“Promise?”
“You once told me that if I granted your request, you would grant mine—whatever it was.”
“Someday, just once, when I ask… stay by my side. No matter what happens, no matter who calls for you… don’t leave me.”
A long-forgotten memory from our childhood resurfaced.
I had thought Caesar would forget about such a trivial promise after all these years.
“Don’t leave me.”
He pulled my hand toward his chest.
“…Alright.”
I smiled brightly as I answered.
****
“So, you were hiding in my room to catch the person spreading rumors about me?”
“Yeees.”
Caesar asked, his face looking perfectly fine now.
After our long conversation, the first thing I did was call the attendants. I ordered them to clean the room and tidy Caesar up at the same time.
An hour later, both the bedroom and Caesar looked just like they always did.
“A tyrant, huh…”
“Think about it while you eat.”
I placed a fork in Caesar’s hand and urged him to eat. Once the cleaning was done, I had the servants prepare a meal. Considering how little he had eaten, his face looked practically hollow—though that might be a bit of an exaggeration.
There was also a mountain of work to deal with. The only silver lining was that, while he hadn’t left his room, he had at least kept up with the paperwork he could handle from inside.
Though it seemed like he had abandoned even that over the past day or two.
“If I had come any later, things could’ve gotten really bad.”
“…Enough. Just eat.”
Looking embarrassed, Caesar picked up a piece of meat from his plate and placed it on mine.
Apparently, he thought my face looked just as bad, so he insisted we eat together. And that was how I ended up having a meal with the emperor himself.
“So, is it true?”
I asked as I took a bite of the meat he gave me.
“Is what true?”
“Vivian. Did you really expel her family?”
Caesar suddenly clamped his mouth shut and lowered his gaze to his plate.
“Well…”
“You said you’d be honest with me—”
“Fine! Just drop it already.”
His face reddened as he hurriedly spoke.
For someone who had so desperately pleaded with me not to leave, he sure was getting flustered now.
“Yes. I expelled the Sancia family.”
“Why?”
“They were harsh on their people in many ways. Collected absurd taxes. They deserved to be expelled.”
“It wasn’t because of me?”
“…”
Caesar fell silent.
I barely managed to hold back a smile. His long-winded excuse made it obvious—it was because of me.
“Well, at least he made it look justified.”
“Have you expelled any other noble families like that?”
“No. The Sancia family is the only one… for now.”
I decided to ignore those last three syllables and continued.
“What about the person who talked about your abilities? Other than Sir Alvin.”
“No one.”
“Hmm… Then how did the information get out? Even I didn’t know about your awakening.”
I had only been thinking out loud, but Caesar flinched as if he had something to hide.
“Could Sir Alvin be a spy?”
“I don’t see why he would be. There’s nothing in it for him.”
“What if he didn’t do it intentionally? What if someone tricked him into leaking information?”
“Tricked him? You mean someone planted a listening magic device on him or something?”
“Maybe. Or maybe he was fooled into dropping hints without realizing it.”
As I mulled over the situation, a plausible idea came to mind.
“Your Majesty, did you have Sir Alvin handle the matter with Vivian’s family?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Hmm…”
To create a justification, to investigate their wrongdoings, and to personally deliver the royal decree of their exile—
Alvin must have visited the Sancia family’s estate at least once.
“Then that means Vivian and Sir Alvin had some kind of contact, doesn’t it?”
Comments (0)