Chapter 5
She exhaled. Harzen steadied her by the arm, straightened her skirt, and helped her sit on the wisteria chair.
He glanced down the corridor to call for an attendant. But the long hallway was filled only with the music pouring out from the ballroom.
He held the woman by both shoulders so she wouldn’t collapse again. His gaze naturally drifted to her face. It was familiar.
He felt certain he had seen her somewhere before. Tilting his head, he tried to recall which noble house she might belong to.
“W-Wa…ter…”
Harzen lifted the bottle and held it to her lips. But as soon as the glass touched her mouth, she clamped her lips shut.
“Huuk—”
“My lady, come to your senses. At least drink this if not water.”
She needed to part her lips and exhale, but instead, she was holding her breath.
Harzen brought the bottle to his own lips and took a small sip of the Atražan. Then, gently holding her chin, he parted her lips.
He leaned in and slowly let the liquor flow into her mouth. As she swallowed it, she finally opened her mouth and released her held breath.
Where had he seen her?
He took another deep swig from the green bottle, held a mouthful, and passed it to her through her parted lips.
He was certain he’d seen this lady somewhere before, just as the thought crossed his mind, she slowly opened her eyes. Her deep blue eyes shimmered and wavered.
Harzen froze.
She was the one who first slightly parted her soft lips. Then, at the same time, their lips met, stolen.
His hand instinctively moved to the back of her neck, but she shoved him hard in the chest.
She sprang to her feet. The ribbon at her back had come undone, and the front of her dress fell open. Startled, she quickly covered herself with her hands and glared at him.
“My lady… Allow me to explain.”
Slap! She struck Harzen hard across the face.
“You… scoundrel!”
Gathering up her long, trailing skirt in one swift motion, she turned. Before he could stop her, she stepped onto the railing and leapt off.
Harzen sat down heavily on the wisteria chair, staring after her as she grabbed the edge of the balustrade and vanished into the darkness.
In a daze, he touched his cheek, then rubbed his lips. Through the scent of Atražan, he caught a faint, indescribably strange and lingering fragrance.
“…Ha. What the hell.”
Lighting a cigar, he picked up the white cat mask that had fallen to the ground.
Too much evidence remained for it to have been a dream. Most of all, the feel of her lips still pricked at his chest.
.
.
.
Patricia gathered her skirt and ran behind the academy ballroom.
She mounted the horse that Eden had tied at their agreed spot. As if possessed, she rode through the woods and returned to the tower of the detached palace. After changing out of her dress into simpler clothes, she took up her sword.
In the darkness of the tower’s rooftop garden, she swung her blade.
She slashed through the sorrow of her cold-hearted mother, who had once dressed a thirteen-year-old girl in armor instead of a gown, because she had no choice.
The blade cut cleanly through the night.
She struck at the image of the emperor who had stared her down after she fell from her horse on the blood-soaked battlefield.
The eyes of her merciless father, who had driven his massive warhorse past her body lying in a pool of blood, were struck down by her blade drenched in the night fog.
She cut through her cruel fate.
When her whole body was soaked in the dew of dawn, her sword finally softened.
The passionate night came to an end. As the darkness faded, a sky of pure blue spread out, and Tane’s clear sun rose.
Patricia stood with her sword lowered diagonally.
With her mind clearing, she was overcome by guilt. The scent of Atražan that had passed through his lips still lingered on hers. She bit her lower lip until it bled.
She had stolen his lips. Why? She had been swept away by a surge of uncontrollable emotion.
Facing the burning sun, Patricia raised her sword high.
His striking appearance, broad and balanced physique, deep green eyes like a bottomless swamp, and the confidence of someone who seemed to own the world—she slashed through the memory of that arrogant man’s smile and their moment on the terrace with her sun-drenched blade.
She erased his name.
***
In the capital, Liswan, since no ladies-in-waiting had accompanied her, the palace was full of attendants but lacked personal maids. She had no choice but to summon two laundresses to assist her.
Having no experience in serving nobility, the maids had nothing prepared after her bath, so they fetched a white shirt from the emperor’s dressing room. They also fashioned some cloth into makeshift undergarments.
One of the maids guessed Patricia’s measurements by eye.
“Your Highness, please wear this just for tonight. We’ll make you a dress overnight.”
Still lost in thought, Patricia replied.
“While you’re at it, make me a knight’s trousers and shirt. Something easy to move in.”
“Oh, that’s simple. Yes, of course.”
They had expected the imperial princess to demand a dress on the spot with a shout, but Patricia was so calm and modest that the maids were surprised. Though there was no fabric for ladies’ dresses in the Pana Castle laundry, there was an abundance of material for knights’ trousers and shirts.
.
.
.
The emperor sat on the drawing room sofa and poured himself another glass of the strong liquor, Panian.
Twins with Patrick? They shared the same womb?
He told Kalip, Rean, and Bern to go rest.
“Your Majesty, though the princess’s wrists are bound, her swordsmanship was enough to easily take down two knights.”
Kalip said, offering a pair of iron shackles.
“Perhaps you should bind her to the bedpost.”
The emperor recalled how she had tried to throw herself off the cliffs of the Tamil Valley. Setting down the pewter cup on the table, he stood. Wrapping the chains Kalip had handed him around his own wrist, he gave an order.
“Kalip, return to the camp and come back in the morning. The rest of you, stay here.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
When the emperor opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, the princess, wrists bound, was standing by the window, checking outside. He swiftly moved and lifted her up in his arms.
“Princess, trying to escape like a cat?”
“What are you doing? Let me go.”
“I can’t do that. You’re my prisoner now.”
“Who are you?”
Patricia, focused on finding a way to escape, hadn’t even looked at the man holding her.
“…Hah. Unbelievable.”
Wearing his loose shirt, the emperor adjusted his hold so the princess could see his face.
As she began to slip, Patricia instinctively grabbed his arms while looking at the floor. He pulled her in tighter to support her.
Then he leaned in close, so close their noses nearly touched. The scent of Panian, the strong liquor, wafted off him.
“Harzen Einte Kal Berg. Emperor of Carcik.”
The handmaidens who had been dozing at the foot of the bed sat up in shock and pressed their foreheads to the floor.
“The unsetting sun of the Empire.”
“The burning golden sun of the Empire. Have you eaten, Your Majesty?”
These handmaidens were of the nomadic Hün tribe.
After ascending to the throne and ushering in a new golden age, Harzen enacted laws recognizing the Hun people as equals to commoners.
They were granted the right to own private property and participate in economic activities, just like commoners.
This was met with fierce backlash from local nobles, but the aristocrats in the capital, well aware of Harzen’s character, dared not oppose him.
He had already eradicated several corrupt noble families during his time as crown prince. Though young, he wasn’t one to be taken lightly. His convictions were so firm that they bordered on autocracy.
The capital nobles’ greatest concern was the wealth, gold and diamonds, that emerged from the melting glaciers each early summer.
All eyes were on how the emperor would go about mining those riches.
The Hun handmaidens were new hires at Pana Castle’s laundry and were in training to handle the knights’ uniforms.
They had never seen the emperor up close before. Not knowing the proper greeting, they simply pressed their foreheads to the floor.
“You may go.”
As the handmaidens left at his command, the emperor looked down at Patricia, still in his arms.
‘That’s right. It was you. Harzen Berg.’
He was the one she had hoped never to meet, and shouldn’t have met.
She had worn full armor. If it hadn’t been for that sudden, intense chest pain, she wouldn’t have fallen behind in the duel. Even if she had, she could have responded quickly enough to stop Ahme’s armor from being removed.
But even her armor had been stripped away.
Two months ago, he had become the Emperor of Carcik. The one Queen Pamilla was obsessed with, desperate for the gold and diamonds buried beneath the imperial glaciers.
‘Ah, Patrick…’
Patricia didn’t show Patrick the emperor’s emergency deployment order that Eden had brought.
Patrick was too weak to move, suffering from a high fever and severe chest pain. The medicine prescribed by the royal physician had no effect, and his face had taken on a greenish hue.
Poison…!
Patricia recalled the last moments of her mother, her entire body turning green as the poison spread.
On the eve of the campaign, she and Eden secretly moved Patrick to the West Tower. She told Eva to say that Patricia was ill to the tower guards.
The knights, who had taken a vow of silence and lost their tongues, bowed deeply with their foreheads resting on their arms at Eva’s words.
Patricia handed Eva her mother’s jewelry box and asked her to find someone among the Hün tribe who might be able to obtain an antidote.
On the morning of the departure, the emperor was nowhere to be seen. Outside the palace wall, Eva was weeping into a handkerchief, wearing a blue dress and apron.
‘Patrick, just hold on until I return.’
*
Patricia came to her senses, worried about Patrick. She realized the emperor was carrying her toward the bed.
“Your Majesty, please put me down.”
“I intend to. But princess, allow me to remind you, you are my prisoner now.”
“If I’m a prisoner, then treat me as one should be treated.”
“Sigh… Princess, I…”
The emperor laid Patricia down on his bed.
“This is my first time capturing a princess pretending to be a crown prince, so I may be a bit clumsy at it.”
‘He doesn’t remember that night… Thank goodness. Right, I was wearing a mask. But… did I keep it on the whole time? On the terrace, we… Oh, Patricia, what were you thinking?’
Patricia felt a bit of relief that the emperor didn’t mention what had happened that night. She had seen Empress Pamilla at the ball. The fury that surged through her had made her entire body tremble.
She remembered stepping out onto the terrace.
And when she came to, she saw those vivid green eyes before her. She had thought they looked like a rain-soaked forest. And then…
In a moment of weakness, as if possessed, she had made the biggest mistake of her life. The man who had been crown prince at the time had been drunk. Thankfully, he seemed not to remember.
He must not.
As the emperor sat up after meeting her piercing blue gaze from the bed, he spoke.
“If it’s uncomfortable, just bear with my methods.”
Patricia, laid in the center of the large bed, lifted her upper body and shifted toward the headboard. Though her wrists were bound and she couldn’t move freely, she sat up as properly as she could.
“Show me some respect.”
“And why should I? You invaded first. I simply captured the enemy leader as a prisoner of war.”
