The one who dug through the holly fence was neither a stalker nor a spy.

It was a boy who looked barely 10 years old.

“Who are you?”

“……”

“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to come in here? Didn’t the knight uncles tell you, you little rascal?”

The boy wearing a worn hunting cap didn’t answer.

He just looked up at me with light green eyes that sparkled almost golden in the sunlight.

Though his gaze was defiant, the boy was as pretty as an angel from Raphael’s masterpiece.

His cheeks were tinged with rose, and his eyelashes were long and even like a doll’s.

Unlike his noble-like appearance, the boy was wearing a pale green jacket and pants worn by low-ranking servants.

Perhaps handed down from a senior?

The loose cuffs were stained messily with black ink.

What caught my eye more than that were the boy’s scarred hands.

Small hands, red and chafed.

‘Is he a servant apprentice? Was he beaten or bullied?’

It reminded me of my childhood when I couldn’t even say I was happy as an empty phrase.

“I heard your mom and dad are unfaithful? They ran away and abandoned you, right?”

“My mom told me not to play with kids like you!”

“Don’t act so high and mighty. You’re just an orphan!”

Children have no malice?

They don’t know any better?

It was all nonsense.

Kids weren’t as innocent as adults believed.

Who was rich and who was poor.

Who could be bullied and how to make it more fun to bully them. They knew it well.

You can believe me, it’s from experience.

“Sorry for startling you, little one.”

I reached out to the boy who resembled my past self.

The boy’s eyes sharpened, seemingly displeased at being called “little one”.

“Who are you, woman?”

“Suddenly speaking informally? Not even greeting an adult properly.”

“Cut the nonsense and just answer.”

“You’ll get scolded if you keep that up, you know?”

Despite my polite admonishment, the boy held his head high.

His ill-mannered way of speaking didn’t change either.

“Answer me, woman. Where did you come from and what does your father do?”

“Little one. I didn’t want this, but this is my quarters, and you’re an uninvited guest. Why should I answer your rude questions?”

“You’re as stupid as you look. Of course you should answer. Because I’m asking.”

“What?”

“Woman. Just who gave you permission to be in this canary room?”

For a moment, the back of my head throbbed.

But there’s nothing more foolish than getting seriously angry at a child.

What’s needed at times like this? A lesson!

I grabbed the cheeky boy’s cheeks with both hands.

“Let go of this!”

Though lacking in flesh, it had a chewy and soft texture like rice cake.

It was perfect for stretching out sideways.

The boy struggled, tears welling up in his eyes.

“It hurts!”

“Little one. At times like this, you should apologize first. Or beg.”

“How dare a lowly woman try to teach me!”

I grew up without parents too, but I think I understood how the phrase ‘I wonder what my parents look like’ came about.

“Little one. You don’t have any friends, do you?”

I squatted down in front of the boy and rested my chin on my hand.

The boy flinched, wary of having his cheeks pinched again.

“You’re so mean even to someone you just met, who would want to play with you?”

“I have lots of friends!”

“Liar.”

The boy’s light green eyes trembled slightly.

Now he finally looked a bit like a child his age.

“Just because you play together doesn’t mean they’re all friends. Real friends are those who help you when you’re really in trouble. Those who stay by your side consistently.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Because you have no friends, you dig holes and come in to pick fights, right?”

“Who dug a dog hole? This place was originally my…!”

The boy shut his mouth.

He seemed to have circumstances he couldn’t talk about, or didn’t want to say any more.

The boy, now pale-faced, raised his chin.

“I don’t need friends.”

“Me neither. So will you leave now?”

“Are you kicking me out?”

“I don’t really like kids to begin with. Especially ill-mannered little ones like you.”

I smiled brightly.

The boy looked quite shocked.

“You’re the first woman I’ve met who’s so bluntly honest. Usually people pretend to find kids cute even if they don’t like them, right? Because they don’t want to be cursed at.”

“You know quite a lot, little one. Anyway, will you just get lost?”

“Whatever I do here is my business. No one can go against me.”

The boy retorted, putting his hands on his hips.

That appearance was not like a servant, but a young tyrant.

“Pfft. You’re exactly like a man I know.”

“Who?”

“A villain among villains with a nasty personality, foul language, and a love for tormenting others.”

“How dare you compare me to such a guy. I won’t forgive you!”

The boy swung his little fist at me.

Unlike his tone, it was a weak punch, frailer than a cat’s paw.

I could see beads of sweat forming under his hunting cap.

‘Why is he sweating when the weather is cool? Come to think of it, his complexion is pale too.’

I reached out and touched the boy’s forehead.

There was no fever, but the low body temperature, cool enough to feel chilly, worried me.

The boy swatted my hand away.

“Don’t touch a man’s body carelessly!”

“M-man?”

“Unmarried men and women should keep their distance. Don’t you even know that?”

Though it must have been ignorant chatter, I was momentarily moved.

‘The Confucian spirit is alive in this world too. Bravo, boys and girls shouldn’t sit together after age seven!’

Feeling a bit of nostalgia for my homeland, I got up with my stiff body.

I waved my hand as if shooing away flies.

“Alright, now go. If you don’t leave, I’ll call someone.”

“Are you threatening me now?”

“It seems you’ve run away, abandoning your work. Are you okay with being caught?”

The boy flinched again.

But this time too, he didn’t back down.

“I have the right to be here. And I still have things to ask you!”

I gave up on the troublesome argument and cleared my throat.

Then I shouted in a loud voice.

“Hello, knights! There’s an intruder here!”

“Be quiet, will you?!”

“Oh my, there’s even a dog hole here? How scary!”

“Stop it, I said!”

The boy clung to my leg with a tearful face.

The armored knights removed the cheeky koala.

“I’ll never forget this day, woman!”

The boy shouted even as he was carried away by the knights.

I bid him farewell with a broad smile.

“It was nice meeting you, let’s never see each other again.”

After the boy left, I examined the dog hole.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t big enough for me to go through.

“What’s this? Trash?”

I found a torn piece of paper in the dog hole.

When I put it together, it was a drawing of a monster in black ink.

The skill in meticulously depicting the ferocious teeth and glaring eyes was no ordinary talent.

Though torn, it seemed too good to throw away.

I took the pieces of the drawing back to my room.

I thought this would be the end of my encounter with the boy.

***

Two days later.

Nikolai, who had decided to accept Careth’s move, came looking for Elizabeth.

As before, a bronze padlock hung on the doorknob of the Canary Room.

Nikolai felt both directionless anger and immeasurable longing at the same time.

It seemed as if Laila would welcome him if he opened this door.

He had dreamed similar dreams many times.

Sometimes the fact that she no longer existed in this world felt like a dream.

“Nicky. Promise me you won’t forget me. That you’ll protect our Finch.”

The voice of the dying Laila briefly settled in his ears before fading away.

A tingling pain rose from below his breastbone.

What expression would Laila make if she knew he hadn’t seen Franz for a long time?

Erasing his thoughts, he opened the padlock.

“Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth was lying on the bed with her back turned.

She didn’t even budge despite surely hearing the door open.

Not only had she been kidnapped, but her last hope of marriage to Marquis Nettleton had also burst like a bubble.

Nikolai had threatened her in front of her fiancé that he would make him a servant of the imperial family and his sister a concubine.

‘It would be strange if she wasn’t angry. I can’t help being despised.’

He was used to being scorned.

But this time, he wanted to avoid it.

To be honest, he wanted to explain.

That there were circumstances that made it unavoidable.

But an emperor was not someone who sought understanding, but one who commanded.

No matter how irrational or dogmatic, Nikolai’s words became law.

So why did his mouth keep going dry?

The intensifying cherry blossom scent seemed to amplify the tension.

“Have you gotten used to life in the palace?”

He wanted to ask dryly, but his voice cracked a little.

Elizabeth still didn’t move.

It seemed she had decided to thoroughly ignore Nikolai.

His heart sank at that, for some reason.

“How long are you going to pretend not to know?”

He was about to grab Elizabeth’s shoulder but stopped.

It was because he belatedly realized she was asleep.

Elizabeth, curled up, furrowed her brow.

Was she having a nightmare?

Her eyes hidden under her eyelids moved left and right.

Her fine eyelashes revealed her emotions even more delicately.

Pain, fear, anxiety. A desperation beyond all of those combined.

Her plump lips parted, and a half-muffled voice leaked out.

“D-don’t do this. Please just once…”

Save me.

That was clearly what her lips were forming.

“…No! Stop!”

Elizabeth let out a groan and waved her thin arms in the air.

Nikolai noticed the red bruise marks left on her wrists.

He shut his eyes tightly.

It was a wound inflicted by his knights. Therefore, it was no different from a wound he had inflicted himself.

He wanted to kill the knights who had roughly handled Elizabeth.

Perhaps he almost did.

A wave of emotion that couldn’t be summed up as guilt arose.

Ever since meeting Elizabeth, an unfamiliar and unpleasant vibration hadn’t gone away.

If it had just been unpleasant, he wouldn’t have been this confused.

Nikolai grabbed Elizabeth’s hand that was wandering aimlessly.

It was small, soft, and hot.

So he found himself muttering without realizing it.

“Don’t be afraid. As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you.”

Elizabeth had much to do for the empire and the imperial family.

Nikolai ought to protect her.

So it was natural to want to gather all her fears and burn them away, to find the source of her anxiety and eliminate it.

No matter how he tried to justify it, it was just self-deception.

‘It was I who insulted Elizabeth’s fiancé and confined her in this well-decorated prison. I am the one this woman fears, and I am the one hurting her.’

Nikolai swallowed bitter arsenic.

Fortunately, Elizabeth didn’t seem to have heard what he had said.

Nikolai clapped his hands once.

“Aah!”

Elizabeth’s body sprang up like a coiled spring.

He felt sorry for waking her so roughly, but didn’t show it.

Blinking her eyelids, Elizabeth looked up at Nikolai.

A gentle smile bloomed on her drowsy face like a spring flower basking in sunlight.

It was a smile that would be branded into Nikolai’s heart, but he didn’t expect to hear her true thoughts that he didn’t want to hear.

“What? It’s the bastard tyrant.”

“?!”

“I thought it was Radia.”

Tsk. Elizabeth tried to go back to sleep, smacking her lips.

Nikolai’s thick eyebrows curved up sharply.

He couldn’t bear it any longer.