Chapter 144
When Lione desperately cried out as if begging her not to make such terrible remarks, even in jest, Riina’s eyes widened briefly before she broke into a smile.
“Thank you for your concern. But I’m truly fine.”
“But we absolutely must identify the poison…”
Lione trailed off, unable to finish his sentence, his insides burning with anxiety.
As her personal servant who acted solely on her orders, if Riina ultimately refused, he would have no choice but to consult with Becky immediately.
Only in this moment did he fully grasp why the Second Prince had spoken to him as he had:
‘She’s far too insensitive to threats against herself, which makes your role beside her critically important.’
How painfully true that was.
The lady who had rescued him—someone he had only met by chance a few times, who had shown no particular interest in him and had even seemed to avoid him—was now acting as if her own life held no value.
Lione was startled by his own mounting anxiety.
“My lady, just because you feel fine now doesn’t mean the poison is no longer poison.”
Hearing the desperation in Lione’s voice, Riina’s smile faded, and she blinked momentarily.
The question of why he cared so much rose within her.
If she were to dismiss the matter outright, Lione looked ready to plead with her even more desperately than the day he had asked her to take him in.
Though puzzled, she set her questions aside and nodded in acquiescence.
It wasn’t a difficult request, and there was no reason to refuse a plea born purely out of concern for her.
“Very well. Jane will soon discard the poison, so we can have experts identify it then.”
At Riina’s affirmative response, Lione’s face instantly brightened.
Just as he was about to offer a genuine smile—the kind that had once earned him universal adoration—
“Your report is finished, isn’t it? You may go.”
Einar, who had somehow slipped between them unnoticed, flashed a smile at Lione.
A chill ran down Lione’s spine as he faced the prince’s menacing grin head-on.
Since learning Akcendel—the specialized magic that allowed him to move freely through shadows and darkness, to read others’ presences or conceal his own—Lione had never once failed to detect another person’s presence.
Even if he had been focusing intently on his lady, for someone to appear before him with absolutely no warning…
Riina, too, recognized without looking that Einar was deliberately blocking her while intimidating Lione.
She also understood perfectly well why he was making Lione turn pale.
His jealousy was so vivid that it was impossible to ignore or pretend not to notice, and Riina swallowed a sigh.
Though strangely, the sigh felt as sweet as swallowing honey. Knowing Lione’s face was growing increasingly pallid even without looking, she pressed Einar’s back gently, like a cat kneading, and whispered:
“That’s enough.”
The moment she spoke, the pressure bearing down on Lione vanished completely. Seizing this opportunity, Lione hastily retreated into the shadows.
No—he was about to disappear when he hurriedly called out:
“My lady, I shall take my leave first!”
Riina waved her hand lightly in response, and only then did Lione completely vanish.
Einar, who had been tracking Lione’s fleeting presence, raised one eyebrow skeptically as he felt a hand gently tapping his back.
“Einar, look at me.”
At her words, Einar turned and pulled Riina close as she looked up at him reproachfully.
Encircling her within his arms, he clasped his hands together and lowered his eyebrows before speaking.
“You’re far too unguarded.”
“Einar is being… too harsh.”
As Riina’s cheeks turned a faint peach color, deliberately avoiding the word “jealous,” Einar whispered with a sigh:
“If that’s what you think, then perhaps it’s true. I’ll try to exercise more restraint.”
His dejected response somehow struck her as endearing, and Riina suppressed a small laugh.
When she smiled, an identical smile appeared on Einar’s lips.
He soon bent down to touch his forehead to hers, changing the subject.
“I should take steps to identify the poison you ingested more quickly.”
“Not you too, Einar. The previous health examinations all showed I was perfectly normal.”
“Riina.”
Einar gently rubbed his forehead against hers as he continued.
“Please take better care of yourself. Even if it’s just half, no, a quarter, no—even just a small fraction of how much I care for you.”
“Just how much do you care for me to say such things?”
“Far more than the largest number you can imagine.”
His unhesitating, immediate response made Riina’s head spin with sweetness, though she hadn’t eaten anything.
“Can you do that for me?”
Despite looking down at her, his eyes seemed to be gazing up at her like a rain-drenched puppy. Riina nodded.
“All right.”
“Thank you.”
As she looked up at Einar, who made no effort to hide his happiness at her simple promise to take better care of herself—not even a pledge to protect him—Riina felt her insides tickle so intensely she wanted to scratch her heart.
Unable to do so, she changed the subject instead.
“According to what Lione told me…”
After hearing about Jane and Smith’s plans, Einar burst into laughter while still holding her.
“Our opponents are so stupid that I can’t help but laugh.”
“Indeed. To think we’re in a position where we must help perfect the plans of those trying to eliminate us.”
“This absolutely must be recorded for posterity, so future generations can turn it into an amusing play.”
Still holding her, Einar added:
“I should see His Majesty today.”
“Since Father said he hasn’t mentioned anything, His Majesty will learn of our plans today.”
Riina didn’t urge him to leave but instead quietly rested her head against his chest.
How long they remained like that, leaning on each other?
Suddenly, Einar spoke.
“Don’t go.”
His quiet voice, filled with longing, dispersed over her head.
“I wish you wouldn’t come with me.”
Though he didn’t specify where, the only place he could be going was the border.
With her face still buried in his chest, Riina asked:
“Do you dislike having me with you?”
“If it were with you, I would gladly walk through hell itself, but…”
“It’s hardly hell. Nothing has happened yet, and nothing will happen if you go.”
Unlike before her regression, it wouldn’t be the Empire suffering misfortune but rather the foreign powers coveting it.
Einar pulled her closer, holding her so tightly that not even a sheet of paper could slip between them.
“The border will become a battlefield. Just the possibility that you might be in danger would drive me mad.”
Having witnessed Riina’s misfortune with his own eyes and experienced it firsthand by her side, Einar wished she wouldn’t go anywhere near the border, let alone to it.
“But wouldn’t I be in more danger without you by my side?”
Riina shook her head, recalling the hunting competition when she had been separated from him by a considerable distance—when the black tiger had opened its jaws, aiming directly at her.
“Your luck can overcome my misfortune even at some distance, but the gap between the capital and the border is too great.”
Riina gently stroked his tense back as she spoke softly.
“I’m safest when I’m with you. You know that. And…”
After hesitating briefly, she whispered even more quietly:
“I want to be with you. Even knowing you won’t get so much as a scratch, I’m… worried.”
As her increasingly faint voice trembled at the end, Einar instinctively knew that Riina would accompany him to the border.
And that for the rest of his life, he would willingly be the one to yield before her.
“So I’m coming with you.”
Einar remained silent, and his silence was acceptance.
Though neither spoke after Riina closed her mouth, the silence was deafening.
As if Einar’s heart—pounding heavily from top to bottom before rising again—had transmitted its rhythm directly to her, Riina’s heart began to beat just as forcefully in the same cadence.
With the sound reverberating painfully in her ears like a bass drum, Riina said with a hint of laughter in her voice:
“Your heartbeat is so loud.”
“Mine too.”
Having said this, Einar lowered his lips to Riina’s round forehead.
As she shrank her neck and giggled ticklishly, he carefully cupped her cheeks and placed light, bird-like kisses on her forehead, the white skin around her eyes where blue veins were visible, the bridge and tip of her nose, and her cheeks.
“I truly cannot win against you.”
Finally, he knelt on one knee before her.
“Einar?”
Looking up at Riina, whose eyes had widened like a rabbit’s in surprise, Einar pressed his lips deeply against the back of her hand.
“The honor of being with you.”
With his eyes curved into a smile, he whispered with his lips still touching her skin:
“I will protect you, by any means necessary.”
