The pickpocket immediately collapsed, coughing up blood. His clothes were stained with red blood.
Killian quickly covered Jediel’s eyes and ears. It was a scene that a young child could not handle.
“I’ll take Jediel and hide over there. Leave it to me.”
“Yes, please do, Your Highness.”
Killian nodded at Espin’s suggestion. Espin immediately left the crowd, holding Jediel in her arms.
Caspian, who was already extremely agitated, continued to stab his sword into the body of the fallen pickpocket. Everyone around stood frozen like ice, watching the bloody scene that resembled the convulsions of a madman.
Subduing someone wielding a sword in a frenzy required considerable skill.
Approaching carelessly could result in serious injury. Moreover, if the opponent was an imperial prince, extra caution was needed. One must not harm the royal body.
At that moment, Killian stepped forward.
“Your Highness, please stop now. The criminal is already dead.”
“What?”
Caspian, suddenly coming to his senses at Killian’s voice, finally stopped and lowered his sword. Caspian’s eyes, turned towards Killian, were empty. He looked like someone who had lost his mind.
“Ah…”
Not missing the opportunity, Killian immediately snatched the sword from Caspian’s hand. Fortunately, Caspian willingly gave up the sword to Killian.
Killian spoke in a gentle voice, as if soothing Caspian.
“The one who deserved to die has already died by your hand. Now you must preserve your royal body.”
“Ah…”
Caspian’s body went limp, drained of energy from his frenzied outburst.
Killian supported Caspian and handed him over to the imperial guard knights. Then, with a heavily sunken expression and voice, he immediately issued orders to the reconnaissance team members.
“Collect the corpse.”
“Yes, we will obey your command, Your Excellency.”
Following Killian’s orders, the team members moved swiftly. They wrapped the corpse in cloth and loaded it onto a cart, erasing the gruesome bloodstains from the street. The entire square seemed to reek of blood.
Murmurs could be heard here and there.
“Even though he was a criminal, there was no need to kill him so brutally.”
“That’s right. And that… it didn’t look like punishment for a crime, it just looked like venting anger.”
“True. He looked like nothing more than a person raging out of control.”
“I’m scared it might appear in my dreams. Ugh…”
Everyone’s expressions were uniformly dark. As if goosebumps were rising all over their bodies, someone rubbed their nape while another stroked their forearm.
“I thought the youngest prince would have a gentle personality like his delicate face, but it turns out he’s not like that at all. He’s an incredibly cruel person.”
“Shh! Be careful. What if someone hears you?”
“…”
People scared out of their wits began to leave one by one. They had much to say, but fear gripped them that if they spilled it all, they might be secretly arrested and killed without anyone knowing.
The fear that people felt was directly transmitted to Killian.
‘That reckless prince is always like this. In any situation, he always loses his reason at the end and tries to solve things with violence.’
He clenched his fist, suppressing a sigh that was about to burst out. Caspian had been like this since his teens.
He had always been involved in violent incidents, and whenever problems arose, the imperial family used money and power to prevent rumors from leaking out.
‘But I wonder how long they can keep covering it up…’
Killian was pessimistic about the future of the youngest prince, who was a troublemaker for the imperial family.
He had a feeling that someday he would cause a major incident that even the imperial family couldn’t handle. After all, childhood habits often persist into old age.
‘Still, it’s fortunate that Veronia and Caspian didn’t come face to face today.’
They must never meet in the future. But as soon as he thought this, anxiety overtook him. It was clear that people would talk about Veronia’s heroic act of saving a dying child.
Not only ordinary citizens but also Prince Caspian and the imperial guard knights had witnessed it. Princess Espin was no exception.
‘I hope it doesn’t reach the ears of the Emperor or the Empress Dowager…’
A dark shadow fell over Killian’s worried face. It seemed he needed to prepare countermeasures for any contingency.
[This is the timeline separator]“How badly are you hurt?”
As soon as the carriage started moving, Onyx pulled down the cloak covering Veronia’s head to check her injuries. And as soon as he saw Veronia’s face, he let out a heavy sigh.
“Nia, you… did you lose your piercing?”
“Oh my!”
Only then did Veronia feel her ears. She could feel the piercing in one ear, but nothing could be felt in the ear that had been cut by the knife.
“Ah…”
A deep sigh mixed with worry and despair burst out.
“Your hair color is the same, but the burn scars and tattoo are gone.”
“Do you think Killian saw? What if he did?”
Her heart was racing madly, thump-thump-thump.
“Wait…”
Veronia tried to calm her pounding heart and carefully recalled the situation at the time.
“As soon as Killian checked my wound, he took off his cloak and covered my head with it. He said it was because Jediel would be shocked if he saw blood.”
“That means… Killian, that guy, saw your face without scars and pretended not to notice?”
“That’s… not certain. But…”
“But what?”
Onyx urged, seemingly impatient with Veronia’s hesitation. She continued with an expression that looked like she was about to cry.
“That person… he said it was for Jediel’s sake, but… it actually felt a bit strange. It felt like he was wrapping my face too tightly.”
“…”
This time Onyx fell into thought.
“It’s not certain, but let’s say Killian, that guy, saw your face without scars.”
“…”
It was a terrible thought, but Veronia nodded for now. Onyx continued.
“Then why didn’t he react or ask about it? Why did he wrap your face up so tightly, as if pretending not to see? It’s almost as if he was helping you not to be discovered by others.”
“That means…”
Thump-thump-thump, Veronia’s heart started racing wildly again. Veronia and Onyx’s gazes intertwined in mid-air.
It was a gaze that held many things they wanted to say. But it was a gaze that contained words they couldn’t carelessly utter out loud.
Onyx spoke first.
“This is my guess, Nia.”
“…”
Veronia’s feelings as she waited for Onyx’s next words were similar to those of someone waiting for a death sentence.
“Killian, that guy… He actually knew everything from the beginning.”
“What? Surely not…”
“He knew that you were Princess Veronia, who had supposedly died 5 years ago, as soon as he first saw you.”
“…”
“But he pretended not to know. Because if he had acknowledged it, you would have run away again.”
“Ah…”
Everything Onyx said sounded true. She was scared because his words seemed to be the truth. So she wanted to deny it.
She shook her head and opened her mouth.
“But I used a magic stone to change my appearance. He couldn’t have recognized me so easily. Besides, I’m a woman who’s been dead for 5 years already.”
“…”
Onyx stared at her silently for a moment, seemingly pondering. He seemed to be debating whether to tell her or not.
But the deliberation was brief. Given the situation, it seemed right to inform her rather than keep it hidden any longer.
“No. Killian, that guy… didn’t believe the princess was dead.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Right after the princess’s memorial service ended, a request came into our information guild.”
Onyx explained the events of that time step by step.
Killian’s request was quite complex. To capture the appearance and voice of women in their early 20s who suddenly appeared in various regions of the empire on video stones. To report the collected video stones every month.
He said this had continued consistently for the past 5 years.
“Haa…”
Veronia let out a sigh, deflated with shock and disbelief.
“How… how could he do that? He saw the burned corpse. He even attended the funeral. And yet… how…!”
What an absurd and unbelievable situation this was! No matter how hard she tried to understand, Veronia couldn’t comprehend it at all.
Onyx let out a shallow sigh as he spoke.
“I don’t want to say this either, but. You know those cases, right? When you have a strong hunch. When you can’t explain the reason, but your intuition just clicks.”
“…”
“Well… I think it might have been a similar case? Besides… you brushed past him at the memorial service in the square.”
“Ah, at that time…”
It was just a brief moment. Moreover, she already had silver hair and was wearing a hood.
“To think he never forgot that brief encounter.”
Veronia held her forehead. The pain in her ear that had been cut by the sword was no longer felt. The matter at hand was too significant.
“Then… Killian knew my true identity from the moment he first saw me.”
“…That’s a possibility, but we can’t be certain yet.”
“…”
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
