179. Was it not too late?

2024.03.27.

The morning when most of the military forces had moved toward the valley.

Inside the detached palace, where the Emperor was scheduled to stay for a week, a small commotion arose, contrary to the peaceful exterior.

“How dare you! Do you know where this is—!”

Knights from the North collapsed one after another.

It happened in an instant, without even a cry of protest.

Panicked shouts from men and the pitiful sound of sturdy wooden walls being shattered followed.

The shrieks of maids who had been diligently mopping the corridor since morning rang sharply through the hall.

Those dressed entirely in black swiftly seized control of the detached palace, cutting down anyone who stood in their way without hesitation.

Even the elite unit—composed of the North’s finest swordsmen and led by Solen Racha, the Imperial First Knight—was breached more easily than expected.

And even then, those guarding the inside of the detached palace numbered fewer than thirty.

It was an alarmingly small number for the place where the Emperor resided, especially during a period when military strength was heavily concentrated elsewhere.

Clade Euphris and his companions advanced at terrifying speed, clearing away all the maids guarding the Emperor’s bedroom before violently smashing the door handle.

Clade’s sturdy military boot kicked open the heavy wooden door with brutal force.

Since the Emperor had achieved mastery in swordsmanship by the age of twenty-five, those following behind tensely gripped their swords with both hands, entering sideways in defensive formation.

Yet, all those who poured into the Emperor’s bedroom saw—

only the Emperor’s concubine, trembling in terror beneath the blankets.

“Damn it!”

Eddie Rev spat a curse, his face excited from the sight of blood.

Blood from those Clade had slain dripped steadily from the blades, pooling on the floor covered with premium bear fur.

Clade’s hardened face was reflected in the widening puddle of blood.

***

Yuan leaned her head against a pillar, her face pale.

The boat carrying them swayed with each rolling wave.

Hire Hatarun, accustomed to seasickness from his time in the navy, offered Yuan some motion sickness medicine he had kept on hand.

Yuan only glared silently at Hire, refusing even to look at the medicine he offered.

Since the previous night, they had hurriedly run to the coast, and several hours had passed since boarding the ship.

Though the sun had long set, the journey took a long time despite nearing their destination.

Behind Hire, Eugene Kimfri watched Yuan stubbornly refusing even a sip of water and clenched his jaw.

Seeing Yuan, whose heart was utterly broken, made his own firm resolve seem to crumble bit by bit.

He felt as though the very first button had been fastened terribly wrong.

It was true that he was angry at Yuan.

Yuan had cleverly deceived Eugene, extracting information from him.

She claimed she still loved Clade and had been clinging to Bollonico to gather various pieces of information for him.

But had he known she intended to risk her life to kill both Bollonico and the Emperor, he would never have cooperated.

He had assumed Yuan would at most secretly steal a few seals.

When Bollonico, whom they had been touring around the valley with, went missing, and the Emperor made a veiled suggestion about Yuan serving him at night—

he realized he had been completely deceived.

Seeing her rushing headlong toward death, he felt literally dizzy with shock.

The look in her eyes, regarding him like an enemy, as he woke up and immediately searched for Clade to save her—his heart sank.

Why was she so stubborn? Why was she so desperate to return?

Why wasn’t she grateful, when he was offering her a chance to live, rescuing her from a place that would become a sea of blood?

Couldn’t she just leave the danger behind and live in peace?

……Is it truly impossible for me?

Eugene, repeating his thoughts over and over, shook his head in sudden startlement.

He had tried not to be greedy, but it wasn’t as easy as his heart wished.

“…….”

The Crown Prince had ordered Yuan’s safety that day in the black mansion.

Whether the rebellion succeeded or failed, he was to leave this country. If he had even a shred of care, he was to protect and guard Yuan until her last breath.

It was less of an order and more like a plea.

The arrogant man’s face, smeared with loneliness and regret, had blurred as he finished speaking.

Even as he made the request, he repeated his despair, acting as if he didn’t truly want it.

“If the rebellion succeeds, can’t I return?”

“If the rebellion succeeds, there’s still no guarantee I’ll survive.”

“What do you mean?”

“I promise you—I will kill Igor even if I die.”

“!”

“I will definitely kill Igor for you. Leave the revenge for your father and brother to me. You stay by Yuan’s side. With a sound and healthy mind. Don’t let yourself become twisted. Keep living upright like this. Don’t commit irreversible mistakes. Show her only good things, take her only to good places. Until Yuan lives a full, normal life and dies of old age. This is my first and final order to you.”

“We’ll be arriving at the island shortly. Prepare yourselves.”

Eugene, who had been nervously wiping his face repeatedly at the boatman’s report, stopped his thoughts and approached Yuan.

Even with his large shadow completely covering her, Yuan’s head remained stubbornly turned elsewhere.

“Once we reach the island, I’ll remove your restraints. Please calm down and take some water and food. You’ll collapse otherwise.”

“Is this rebellion?”

After fiercely refusing to board the ship and falling silent upon rejection, this was the first thing Yuan had said.

Eugene glanced cautiously at the distant boatman and nodded.

“……Yes.”

“Was this planned a very long time ago?”

“I wasn’t, but the Crown Prince seems to have been.”

Yuan briefly stretched her dry lips before hardening her expression again.

“Is the Emperor dead?”

Seeing Eugene remain silent, Yuan asked a little urgently.

“Is there still no news? Whether he killed the Emperor, whether the rebellion succeeded, or the opposite?”

Yuan frowned as if the thought itself disgusted her, then looked up at Eugene with an anxious expression.

Eugene stared down at her face for a brief moment before letting out a short sigh.

“Please calm down. If he were someone easily killed, he would’ve died over ten years ago.”

His calm words sounded to Yuan like something said too easily.

Yuan, who had suppressed her anger tightly throughout the boat ride, now refined it carefully and presented it before him.

Her anxious, restless emotions twisted her lips uncontrollably.

“You’re running away with me, cowardly, from that dangerous place, leaving countless enemies behind?”

At her deliberately provoking words, Eugene stared at Yuan again, then gave a self-mocking smile.

“……A man who has lived nearly thirty years under the weight of duty dreams of every kind of dream he never had, even from a single spring breeze.”

“Hey.”

“Though he called it an order, to me it felt like a request. And to me, it wasn’t a burden—it was more like a gift.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say right now, is it?”

“I know it burdens you.”

He smiled bitterly at Yuan, who flinched.

“I know I’m far from being worthy of replacing him in your eyes. I don’t even dare to hope for that. But I was born a man who doesn’t know how to abandon duty. Whether it’s an order or a request, once I’ve decided to accept it willingly, I will carry it through. If before it was the secret behind my father and brother’s deaths, or the mindset I must have as the East’s heir, this time it’s simply you.”

“For someone who should inherit the East to abandon duty, those words are awfully shameless.”

Yuan immediately retorted, then quickly flinched and fell silent—remembering that Eugene Kimfri had never been the original eldest son of the Count Kimfri family.

He, too, seemed to recall his elder brother who had taken his own life, and his expression darkened briefly.

After a short silence, Eugene Kimfri casually opened his mouth again.

“Once we leave this country, I won’t force you in any way—neither your body nor your heart. I’ll keep my promise. Do whatever you wish. Just—stay alive.”

“…….”

“If you try to take your own life, then I will force you.”

It was a terrifyingly polite and calm threat.

‘I’ll be dead anyway. Then who will be responsible for the bitter regret I’ll feel in that moment?’

Glaring at the man who seemed impenetrable, like not even a needle could pierce him, Yuan gritted her teeth and turned her head.

The conversation was over.

Yuan had no emotional space to accept his sincere heart.

Even if her remaining days stretched from one day to a month or two, what would really change?

What she needed was revenge. What she needed was purpose.

Yuan’s plan was not some pitiful sacrifice as Clade or Eugene imagined.

This was her life’s mission—to punish and erase from this world, in the most painful way possible, the enemy of her parents, the enemy of Louise, the enemy of Clade, and ultimately, her own enemy.

The dark night.

All the while being helped off the ship by Eugene Kimfri, Yuan’s bloodshot eyes rapidly scanned the surroundings.

An uninhabited island, like a pirate’s hideout in the South. Many ships came and went, seemingly a transit point to other countries.

She quickly scanned the signboard listing docked ships and departure times, then quietly followed the group.

They would sleep, too.

She needed to create an opportunity to make physical contact, absorb minor pains to recover, then escape and board a ship to make her next move.

Especially, she had to flee as far as possible from this man, Eugene Kimfri.

Guided solely by that one thought, she obediently followed. They walked a rough forest path for quite some time and climbed a fairly steep mountain.

Finally arriving at a small hut that appeared on the intelligence report.

It stood alone in a desolate place, with almost no other buildings nearby.

The faint glow of light seeping out suggested the owner had been waiting for them.

Eugene briefly checked Yuan’s expression before opening the hut’s door.

A large, broad-shouldered man stood fully blocking the small entrance, preventing her from seeing inside.

But Yuan gasped, seeing at Eugene’s rigid feet the severed head of a man—eyes wide open, still warm with uncoagulated blood.

Like someone possessed, Yuan peered through the crack of the door that Eugene desperately tried to block.

“I did offer consideration—told you to rest well and prepare thoroughly.”

A dark, unfamiliar island in the North.

Inside the shabby hut, standing alone amid the bleak surroundings.

“……Was it not too late?”

“!”

“Yuan Pelliese, daughter of Philip Pelliese.”

There, Emperor Igor Euphris, entirely out of place in this setting, sat with a sleepy smile on his face.