Thanasis Avein Apentina saw the back of Reniel Beila walking in front of him.

That foolish woman must be showing her back because she trusts me.

He continued to feel uneasy, thinking she seemed reluctant to leave the Le Pelique duchy.

He too looked at the Le Pelique mansion, which was enveloped in thick black smoke.

The smoke from the main building was gradually thinning, perhaps as the fire was being brought under control.

It was the natural order of things – the moment Thanasis withdrew his magic, the fire became controllable.

Soon, Reniel’s seemingly weak legs trying to walk briskly caught his attention.

Whenever she pretended not to be as fragile as she looked, he found her fascinating as a person.

Where does such audacity come from?

“…What would happen if I killed you right now?”

Thanasis said that deliberately.

He disliked how Reniel’s thoughts of the Le Pelique duchy seemed to blur her focus on escape.

No, to be precise, he couldn’t stand seeing her appear to be thinking about Felix.

Of course, he didn’t know much about their relationship.

What he did know was that Reniel’s attitude somehow seemed too affectionate for a master-servant relationship, which bothered him.

Thanasis thought that monster wouldn’t know human emotions in the first place.

‘Thanasis, be careful. That monster can peer into your mind and manipulate you at any time. And make people go mad by messing with their heads.’

He knew well what kind of being Felix was. Though pretending to be human, his abilities were far from human-like.

“Why are you suddenly asking such a question?”

Reniel was not flustered at all. She glanced back and her eyes met Thanasis’s.

Seeing her reflexively smiling eyes, he felt displeased that even she seemed to know he couldn’t kill her.

“I don’t think Your Highness will kill me.”

“Why?”

“Well… If Your Highness were going to kill me, it wouldn’t make sense to take me out like this. You could have killed me when we first met.”

“…And?”

“And seeing that Your Highness escaped alone, it seems I wasn’t necessary from the start, right? So there must be a reason for taking me along.”

Thanasis realized that Reniel’s seemingly careless expression and smile were not actually careless.

She seemed smarter than he had thought.

“What do you think that reason is?”

“Because you think I’m the princess of Nuremberg. Of course, I’m not such an important person.”

“…”

“And maybe… um…”

Reniel felt she knew a bit about his personality from her memories of the original story.

Thanasis was starved for human connection. For positive emotions that could arise between people.

Living as the crown prince, he was desolate, and everyone around him treated him like a monster.

He, who was originally a monster in the palace, opened his heart to Felix because Felix was also feared as a monster by people.

The two realized their wounds were the same and opened their hearts to each other.

If he could open his heart for a bit of warmth from someone who tortured and tormented him, he must have lived an extremely difficult and weary life.

She thought perhaps what he wanted from her was that kind of trusting relationship.

Moreover, she had proven her trust to Thanasis several times.

She thought that might be the reason, but she couldn’t say it out loud.

“And what?”

Thanasis glared at her, urging her to answer.

“You must have an eye for talent like me?”

Reniel answered like that, without revealing her inner thoughts.

She knew well that telling the truth wasn’t always good.

Some truths could hurt the other person the moment they’re spoken.

She wanted to get along well with Thanasis.

She didn’t want to dig into his wounds, rub salt in them, and make him submit to and depend on her. And that was Felix’s specialty anyway.

Her specialty was service, after all.

“Ha. Do you find this funny?”

Thanasis glared at her, raising one eyebrow as if dumbfounded.

“See? You do have a hawk’s eye.”

She said that and started walking again.

As Reniel hid in the bushes, Thanasis did the same.

This was a place where the shadow of the building fell. So the knights rushing by didn’t see them.

“Hurry!”

“The fire is almost under control!”

“Still, hurry!”

“Yes!”

Reniel was somewhat relieved to hear that the fire was almost under control.

If they were caught after pretending to be dead and fleeing, and even starting a fire, they would truly be dead.

Soon after a group of knights disappeared, Reniel peeked her head out. She pointed to the distance and said to Thanasis.

“Over there, we need to go that way to reach the hole in the wall.”

But the path ahead was an open field.

There were dense garden trees, but they were just bushes reaching up to the waist.

Moreover, they were trimmed into special shapes that couldn’t hide a body.

“Change into this.”

Thanasis handed her the knight’s uniform he had brought.

“Will this fit me?”

“You think it fits me? It’s small. For me.”

“Then I’ll have to be a man for now.”

She put the ring back on properly.

Thanasis was really irritated that the knight’s uniform felt too small. Even though he wore the largest one, it still felt very small on his body.

“Turn around.”

“What, you think I’m going to peek?”

“Do you want to watch?”

“Do you think I would?”

Thanasis said that and turned his body around.

There can be shadows within shadows. Perhaps because of the lights lit around the building, several shadows were overlapping.

A faint light was cast over them, and every time Reniel moved, her body created a darker shadow.

That moving shadow made him feel strange.

Even knowing that she was in a man’s body now, the presence and scent from behind couldn’t be thought of as a man’s.

She smelled like peach blossoms, and that ticklish yet sweet scent made him feel glad that his magic was recovering again.

“Can’t you do it faster?”

Clearly, it wasn’t this strong when wearing the ring.

But as she took off her clothes and became naked, it seemed to feel stronger. As if something that had been blocked by clothes was now released.

“It’s my first time wearing this kind of clothes, so I’m a bit confused.”

The uniform that knights usually wear was made of just cloth.

But perhaps because of the cloak hanging on the shoulders, she was struggling a bit with how to put it on.

She managed to put her arms and legs into the clothes.

“Ah…”

Unfortunately, the shirt brushed against her ear, causing a sharp pain.

Perhaps because it hadn’t been long since she pierced her ear, the left pierced ear stung.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Thanasis turned to look at her for a moment.

He saw Reniel with her pants barely on, the shirt pulled over her head, and tears in her eyes.

“My ear…”

She groaned as she pulled down the shirt. Her slender abs were soon covered by the black shirt.

“What’s this?”

Thanasis frowned as he saw the earring stuck to her ear.

“It just happened.”

She quickly fastened her pants belt. Then she put on the coat, but the cloak was still dangling.

Of all places, even the knights’ attire here was very dark.

Perhaps because the duke of Le Pelique enjoyed wearing black clothes, the knights also had to wear knight uniforms that were almost black, close to navy blue.

Anyway, it looked black in dark places.

Reniel finally finished dressing and stood up straight.

“Shall we go now?”

“Your ear is really red.”

“It hurts.”

Her ear was still stinging. It was red enough to be distinguishable even in the darkness.

“Do you know what that is?”

“An earring…?”

Reniel tried to laugh it off and take the lead, pretending this wasn’t the time for this.

Nevertheless, she was afraid of being discovered because of her unusual hair color.

“Do you see that building over there? Let’s go there as fast as we can.”

Thanasis was suspicious about the energy he felt from Reniel’s ear.

It felt ominous somehow. As if it were a magic stone.

He kept feeling suspicious, but when Reniel gestured to go quickly, he had no choice but to follow her for now.

“Hey.”

Someone among the knights called out to them as they headed towards the northern building.

“Yes?”

“Which unit are you from?”

“We are…”

“We were guarding the underground prison. The secret room.”

“Ah… I see. Are you alright?”

“We’re injured. Just going to rest a bit.”

Thanasis answered nonchalantly.

However, one of the knights looked at Reniel’s hair color with curiosity.

Though it looked a bit darker due to the darkness, her pale sky-blue hair was still a mysterious color.

“The infirmary for knights isn’t that way.”

“You think we don’t know?”

When Thanasis retorted irritably, the knight who seemed to be of higher rank among them sighed and said,

“Fine. Do as you please. The secret room isn’t part of our knight order anyway.”

Just as they were about to turn around after roughly resolving the situation,

“Wait, aren’t you Deputy Chamberlain Reniel?”