‘This can’t be happening.’

I put the earthenware pot down on the floor.

As soon as it touched the ground, it shattered into three pieces.

‘I hope his head is alright.’

In the original story, Kashar suffered from a disease called madness.

In reality, it wasn’t a disease but a curse. That’s why it was even more problematic.

‘They said that when the madness first struck, an entire palace was completely destroyed.’

The basis of the madness was indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.

That day, all the staff managing the palace lost their lives by his hand.

Not knowing that the cause of the madness was a curse, the Emperor banished Kashar from the imperial palace and even sent him to the battlefield.

Remembering the original story, I felt a chill run down my spine.

‘I just knocked out a man who could annihilate entire armies.’

And with an earthenware pot, no less.

‘But if it’s madness, isn’t it a problem with the brain? And I just hit his head…’

Did I just do something terribly wrong?

Thinking that I had struck a patient with an earthenware pot made my conscience sting twice as much.

‘In the original story, it said Kashar ate poison.’

‘Alruvi’ is a rare fruit that awakens the mind.

However, the longer it’s consumed, the more severe headaches it causes, along with the side effect of vomiting black blood.

The curse could only be broken by the female protagonist. Kashar lived relying on the poison until he met Elsius.

‘What should I do?’

No matter how monstrous a man he was, I felt incredibly sorry.

Standing there restlessly, I finally began to reprimand Kashar.

“You, why are you even here?”

I couldn’t understand why he was here, as Kashar rarely visited the imperial palace in the first place.

‘For him to be here means…’

After desperately wracking my brain, I could only recall one clue.

‘It was his mother’s death anniversary.’

The Emperor had confined Empress Viviana for giving birth to a son with madness.

Only after Viviana’s death did the Emperor feel guilty and made this request to Kashar when granting him a title.

‘Help her rest in peace.’

Every year on Viviana’s death anniversary, Kashar would visit the tower where she had been confined and keep watch.

At that moment, a familiar scene flashed through my mind.

‘If it’s a tower, could it be…’

As I hurriedly ran outside, I could see a tower beyond the forest.

‘How can it be this close?’

To think that the tower I had always thought nothing of was where the former Empress had been confined.

After staring at the tower with dazed eyes for a while, I returned to the kitchen.

Kashar was still lying on the cold floor.

‘He’s going to die.’

Now the astonishment had faded, and a terrible sense of reality began to dominate me.

He’ll end up like that broken earthenware pot!

Surely he would regain consciousness in a short time.

Then he would assess the situation, find the culprit, and brutally murder them.

‘Chop, chop, chop.’

For a moment, the near future flashed in my mind.

It was a scene of my life’s closing ceremony.

‘If I pretend not to know and just go to sleep… that won’t work, right? Yeah.’

I slowly crouched down beside Kashar.

‘Life is unpredictable, they say.’

As I sat there lamenting my fate, not even realizing my legs were cramping.

‘Ah, the sun will rise soon.’

The day was already breaking.

I alternated between looking at the bluish sky and Kashar.

“…”

Would he even know how I was burning up inside?

Kashar was just quietly breathing, his chest rising and falling.

‘Sleep well.’

Kashar looked as peaceful as if he were just sleeping.

‘He’ll probably be fine when he wakes up.’

Contrary to my worries, Kashar was described as a monster in the original story.

‘How could I forget the scene where he swung his sword with his stomach pierced?’

He would surely wake up as if nothing had happened.

“Ah.”

It was then that another opportunity flashed through my mind.

‘Let’s abandon him.’

The day is breaking.

My gaze was fixed on the shopping cart.

On the opposite side of the cold palace and tower was an abandoned forest.

If I left him there, could I get away with it?

‘He might think he was attacked.’

When people faint and wake up, they’re usually confused.

I hoped he would forget his memory of being in the cold palace.

I gazed longingly at the cart.

‘It was tough bringing that here.’

Who knew it would come in handy like this?

I marveled at my foresight.

“…Alright.”

I stretched my crouched body and stood up.

‘He’s still unconscious.’

After checking Kashar’s condition once more, I stepped over his body.

“Please don’t wake up.”

I lifted Kashar’s legs and put them over my shoulder.

“Huff, huff…!”

He’s so damn heavy!

I wiped away cold sweat as I looked down at Kashar lying in the cart.

His tall, well-built body had his legs and arms hanging out of the cart.

After struggling for a while,

I succeeded in loading Kashar into the cart.

“I, I’m sorry about this.”

I looked down at his handsome face, still beautiful even as he lay in the cart.

The complex, mixed feelings lasted only for a moment.

“Hurry up.”

I need to abandon him and come back.

Looking at the brightening sky, I gripped the cart handle tightly.

“Heave-ho.”

I started pulling the cart vigorously.

“Inventions are great.”

Even after going for a while, Kashar didn’t wake up.

Finally, I arrived at the center of the forest.

“This should be far enough.”

There couldn’t be a better spot for abandoning a side male character.

‘Please let Kashar get amnesia.’

Even if not, I hope he loses at least half a day’s worth of memories.

That way, his memories of the cold palace and the blow to his head would be forgotten.

‘I’m really, really sorry.’

I grabbed Kashar’s legs and pulled him out of the cart.

‘A handsome man looks good even lying on the dirt.’

I pretended to wipe tears with my sleeve.

“Let’s never see each other again.”

I looked like a tragic female lead, but there was no sincerity greater than this right now.

I hope he doesn’t remember me.

Just as I was about to leave this place without regret, my long hair fluttering like a pure and pitiful heroine, it happened.

Grip—

“…!”

Something grabbed my wrist as if it would break it.

I tried to shake it off in surprise, but instead I fell in the direction it was pulling me.

Thud. In an instant, the world flipped upside down and my head hit the ground.

And before I could even register this fact.

“You, what are you?”

A dark shadow fell over my head.

Kashar, who had suddenly mounted my body, was growling fiercely.

Everything felt too surreal, so I just blinked blankly.

Even in this situation, Kashar was observing me.

“Th… that…”

As soon as I opened my mouth, his red eyes glinted.

‘Is this the same person?’

My whole body tingled with tension.

I realized too late that when people are too scared, they start babbling nonsense.

“Did you… lose your memory?”

Please say you did. Please.

The hope I had kept hidden in my heart broke through and escaped from my impudent mouth.

I was forcing him to be an amnesiac patient.

“What did you say?”

Kashar’s face distorted mercilessly.

He was now looking at me as if I were completely insane.

Gulp. I swallowed dry saliva involuntarily.

I couldn’t come to my senses in my rapidly burning state.

“I, on purpose…”

I had to say something to survive.

I closed my eyes tightly and shouted.

“I wasn’t trying to abandon you on purpose!”

This was true.

If only you hadn’t tried to intrude into our house in the first place!

Had I gone mad?

As the fear faded slightly, indignation began to fill its place.

“Abandon? What?”

Kashar muttered as if he didn’t understand.

However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that the object I was trying to abandon was Kashar himself.

“…Huh?”

I opened my eyes slightly to try to make an excuse, but hearing that sigh-like voice, I had to squeeze my eyes shut again.

“I, I thought you were a thief! Really…”

My trailing words became as small as if they were trying to crawl into a mouse hole.

Like the long time that had passed from the Cretaceous period to modern times, I was enduring such a long silence when it happened.

“Open your eyes.”

It was a voice tinged with irritation.

At Kashar’s command, I opened my eyes like an obedient doll.

Even after opening my eyes, I didn’t know where to look.

As I was just rolling my eyes around, a calloused hand grabbed my chin and lifted it.

“Eeng-oeng-o (Please save me)!”

As Kashar held my chin and turned it this way and that, then pressed hard on my cheek, a strange sound came out involuntarily.

He looked at me as if he was seeing something truly bizarre and asked.

“That place was inhabited?”

You remember everything, don’t you.

Even in this situation, I focused on the fact that Kashar’s memory was intact.

‘Surprisingly, people do live in such a place.’

I know our house is dirty too, you know.

It didn’t feel good to hear such words from someone else’s mouth.

“So.”

Kashar said, twisting his lips.

“You personally smashed the thief’s head, and tried to abandon him in a deserted forest?”

I had to close my mouth like a clam at his words.

Because it was 100% correct with nothing to refute.

“What a way to destroy evidence.”

Kashar ran his hand through his hair as if dumbfounded.

The incredulous smile was brief. As he put his hand on his own head, he frowned at the belated pain.

“Damn it.”

At that short curse, it felt like not just my breath but even my cells had stopped.

Because I seemed to understand why Kashar was acting like that.

‘A bump must have formed.’

Watching him touch the back of his head, cold sweat poured down my spine like a downpour.

There was nothing left to salvage the situation.

With the superhuman strength that only comes when you’re about to die, I pushed him away.

“You want to die…”

Thinking I was trying to escape, he growled and tried to pin me down again.

At that moment, I fell to my knees on the ground faster than him.

“Pl-please don’t kill me!”

I desperately rubbed my palms together.

Tears that didn’t come out even when I was trying to abandon Kashar now poured out in tiny amounts.

“I have young princes to feed…!”

Whether Kashar was bewildered or not, I shouted, embodying a head of household with young children.

“Young princes?”

Kashar, who had been watching my tearful plea expressionlessly, focused on just one word.

“Yes! Your younger brothers, Your Grace!”

I nodded frantically, grateful that he had responded even that much.

“You, are you a maid?”

“Yes. I’m a complete maid.”

Although I couldn’t show a professional appearance because I was kneeling, I tried to express my professionalism through my expression.

“You serve the royal family, you say.”

Kashar’s gaze towards me twisted subtly.

‘Disputes between royals tend to get troublesome.’

Finally, he took his hand off that terrifying thing he had been fiddling with – the sword handle.

‘It worked!’

I can live!

A hallucination of rainbows appearing in the sky and trumpet-playing angels descending flashed.

As I was inwardly rejoicing, he narrowed his eyes at me.

“Is that so? Then I should have a talk with the one you serve.”

It was a smile that could bewitch people, but to me, it was a death sentence.

While I couldn’t come to my senses, his melting smile suddenly stopped.

“Lead the way.”

As he said this with a nod, his hand was once again on the sword handle.

It was a warning that if I delayed even a little, my body and head would become a two-piece set.

I had no choice but to stand up on shaky legs.

“Um…”

When I cautiously called out, a murderous gaze poured down on me.

I pointed at the shopping cart with an awkward smile.

“I, I need to… bring that with me.”

You might not understand, but I brought that here with great difficulty.

When I swallowed the rest of my words, he didn’t say anything, as if dumbfounded.

“…I’ll guide you now!”

I took his silence as agreement and pulled the shopping cart.