Chapter 1
“Ah…”
Sian Roosevelt let out a strange sound with no discernible meaning. Water dripped steadily from her long, soaked hair, and the air in the deep midnight forest was bitingly cold. Her shoulders instinctively hunched against the desolate wind filled with the scent of grass.
In a word, it was freezing.
But the strange sounds that involuntarily escaped her lips – “Ah, uh, eh, um” – weren’t solely due to the cold.
“…I can’t believe this.”
After repeating nonsensical utterances several times, Sian finally spoke actual words.
It was truly unbelievable. She examined the scene for a long while, wondering if this was really happening. No matter how she looked at it, the figure collapsed before her was indeed a person.
“Hey, you there?”
Black hair soaked in blood, skin as pale as if all the blood had drained from the body. The closed eyelids, unmoving despite Sian’s voice calling from close by, indicated that he was completely unconscious.
When there was no response to her call, she prodded the collapsed figure with her dripping wet toes, but again, was met with only motionless silence.
“Wow, I really can’t believe this.”
Sian muttered again with a hollow laugh.
She had come to this secluded spot in the deep forest late at night, hoping to find clean water and properly wash off the grime. But before she could even enjoy the water, some shameless man suddenly appeared.
The moment she realized someone was there, her body moved faster than her thoughts. Her trained reflexes grabbed the sword and hurled it, but instead of piercing between the man’s eyes, it flew past menacingly and embedded itself in the tree behind him.
Though her aim had gone completely awry, the culprit who dared to peek at a lady’s bare form collapsed on the spot, showcasing a frail disposition despite the missed strike. When she hurriedly covered herself with clothes and ran out to look, this was the scene that greeted her.
The chilling scent of blood. The aura of death, masked by the thick forest fragrance, that she had failed to notice earlier.
“Hey, Mr. Perpetrator? Did you get hit by my sword? It doesn’t look like it, right? Right?”
Sian crouched down and asked the fallen man. Naturally, there was no response.
“Then why are you lying here covered in blood, making people panic?”
Geez, talk about rotten luck.
Sian muttered to herself, scratching her head vigorously.
Haah. She sighed, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed at the man. The dark stains soaking his shirt from collar to sleeve were unmistakably bloodstains.
If left alone, the man before her eyes would undoubtedly die.
Though she clearly knew this fact – no, precisely because she knew it – Sian could only stare blankly at the man exuding the scent of death, unable to take hasty action.
Sian didn’t believe in fate. But how should she interpret this ‘fate’ that had so abruptly dropped before her eyes?
“Miss Siaaaan!”
“Miss! What’s the matter?!”
Just as Sian was at a loss, unable to decide what to do, staring at the fallen man like she was observing a poisonous mushroom, boisterous shouts were heard from afar. The deep male voices reverberated throughout the pitch-black forest.
Soon, a group of burly men came rushing towards Sian.
‘How did they know to come?’
Sian pondered briefly before recalling that she had let out a shriek – “Kyaak!” – after throwing the sword at the man. They must have heard that sound, which would have stood out starkly in the dead silence of the deep night.
“Miss! …Huk!”
The men who had been running helter-skelter with swords drawn, thinking some calamity had occurred, stopped short near Sian. They seemed to have spotted the fallen man behind her. The expression of the man in the lead quickly turned ashen. The two following him had similar reactions.
“Gasp, what’s this?”
“Did you kill him?”
“Miss Sian, no matter what, murder is…”
The men who had rushed over spoke almost simultaneously.
Sian’s brow furrowed deeply, filled with displeasure and dissatisfaction, towards the men who, without a shred of doubt, assumed the blood-soaked, collapsed man was her doing.
“I didn’t do it, okay? And he’s not dead either. …Why are you so quick to assume I killed this person?”
“Well, we just… given the situation…”
These idiots, Sian growled, baring her teeth. The men flinched, their shoulders trembling as they laughed awkwardly at Sian’s fierce reaction.
“But is he really still alive?”
“He looks dead to me.”
The men shifted their attention to the fallen man, trying to avoid Sian’s sharp gaze.
“Don’t touch him.”
Sian spoke in a sharp voice, her brow still furrowed as she belatedly wrapped a towel around herself.
She had hastily wiped her body, but there was nothing she could do about the water still dripping from her long hair. Her clothes quickly became soaked from the water falling from her head.
“I won’t stop you if you want to become an accomplice to the treasonous prince.”
The man who had been reaching out to the blood-soaked, unconscious man abruptly stopped at Sian’s icy words.
“What?!”
“What do you mean?!”
The men shouted in surprise. Their expressions, which had been filled with sympathy and doubt as they looked at the fallen man, now showed a chaotic mix of shock, awe, confusion, fear, and bewilderment.
“Is this man… Prince Carlston?”
“I’m sure of it. I remember seeing him from afar once before.”
At Sian’s words, Bill gasped, taking in a surprised breath as he turned to look at Carlston.
“If it’s Prince Carlston… Isn’t he the one who was nearly executed by the Crown Prince for the crime of assassinating the Dragon King? Why would such an important person appear in this backwoods and suffer harm from you, Miss Sian?”
“Hey now, I told you I didn’t do it. He was already in this state when I found him.”
“Regardless of whether he was in this state or that state, what should we do? His injuries look severe…”
“If we leave him be, he’ll die,” said Max, another man, as he looked at Sian. His gaze demanded a decision.
“You know what they say? If you carelessly pick up a stray kitten, it’ll smell like humans and the mother cat will abandon it.”
“…Why are you suddenly talking about that?”
Max’s eyes widened in confusion, not understanding the relevance. Sian grinned.
“It means that carelessly spilled cheap sympathy can become poison.”
“You’re not going to help him?”
Max frowned deeply as he finally understood. Sian crossed her arms.
“Didn’t you hear what Bill said earlier? He’s a prince who barely escaped execution by the Crown Prince for the crime of assassinating the Dragon King. His story might be pitiful, but he’s an atrocious criminal. Do you want your portrait added to the Empire’s wanted list as an accomplice to a treasonous prince? Do you have about ten lives to spare?”
“That’s not it, but you know better than anyone, Miss Sian. There are considerable rumors that the Crown Prince’s immediate execution order was hasty. Who knows? If the Prince was falsely accused…”
“Oh my, look at you. Such a rash judgment without any evidence, worthy of a politician. How would we know if it’s a false accusation or the truth? People don’t care about the truth anyway. They just need some noisy gossip.”
“I’m not saying we should save him in a way that spreads rumors everywhere. He’s going to die miserably anyway, so isn’t it okay to extend his lifeline a little?”
Max attempted a desperate persuasion. The proposal to just help him survive appealed slightly to Sian as well.
Sian stopped arguing and looked down at Prince Carlston lying on the ground.
She hadn’t lived such a peaceful life that seeing someone die would shock her, but she wasn’t so callous that she could watch someone dying without feeling anything. She understood Max’s uneasiness too.
However, it was impossible to ignore the possibility, however slim. What if there were trackers nearby? What if there were watchers attached?
They might have to worry about their own future before they could even rekindle the dying flame of the prince’s life.
It wasn’t a decision to be made based on cheap compassion alone. Unable to decide either way, Sian, unusually pensive, stood with her arms crossed, staring at Carlston for a long time.
“Oh? I think he’s regaining consciousness.”
His eyelashes, as black and long as his dark hair, seemed to tremble pitifully. Soon, as his eyelashes lifted, deep turquoise eyes like aquamarine appeared.
“Oh, he’s awake.”
It was Bill who spoke in a naive tone.
* * *
…What on earth was this situation?
Carlston pondered his unbearable bewilderment even through the haze of terrible pain.
The first thing that appeared in his blurry vision was four pairs of starlight. Starlight rising from the pitch-black darkness – Carlston simply thought he was dreaming, but soon realized. The curious light pouring down on him was not stars, but eyes.
Huk, Carlston took in a big breath in surprise.
“…Keuuk…”
Just that short, deep breath made his side, pierced by a sword, feel like it was burning up. Carlston curled up, swallowing his groan. Sweat beaded on his face and dripped down his chin.
“Oh no, what do we do?”
“Wait a minute.”
“Should we save him?”
“Did you get hit in the head with an arrow? Save him?”
Whispers jumbled together nearby.
“What… are you… bastards doing?”
Carlston desperately tried to straighten himself up, clutching his side. However, he could only barely lift his upper body.
When he finally managed to speak, squeezing out every ounce of strength he had, the four pairs of eyes focused on him shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred.
“His voice sounds clearer than I expected…”
“It might be difficult to just save his life and run.”
“What should we do, Miss?”
The whispered voices continued, unnecessarily clear. At the end of the gazes of three pairs of eyes was a woman with long platinum blonde hair.
