There was no time to even try to avoid it.

Sinclair started relentlessly pummeling Hister’s face as if he had gotten a hold of his prey.

Of course, it wasn’t as if Hister just stayed still. He struggled as much as he could and tried to fight back in the most unsightly manner, but unfortunately, there was no way to defeat Sinclair anywhere.

Sinclair’s golden eyes, looking down at Hister who had fallen to the ground like a dead insect, were filled with thick anger.

“How…”

And it was around the time when Sinclair had precisely slapped his face eight times that Hister opened his lips with a voice that still contained a sneer.

“How… are you going to handle this aftermath?”

“Well?”

“To dare make the Imperial Crown Prince… look like this…”

Hister said with a mad giggle.

“What do you think the nobles will say?”

“What will they say?”

“Finally, that good-for-nothing Sinclair… after concubine Yuria, he’s trying to kill her bloodline too…”

“…”

“Isn’t it just perfect for creating such a scandal?”

Hister’s words were not wrong. But even after hearing his story, Sinclair still had his usual calm expression.

“Then what about the thought that concubine Yuria, colluding with the Emperor, dared to instigate the deaths of the Empress and the eldest legitimate son?”

“Puhaha…”

Hister began to laugh at Sinclair even louder than before, as if he had heard a very funny joke.

“Are you going to spout that nonsense again this time?”

“…”

“Isn’t it time to stop now? To still be clinging on to something that happened well over 10 years ago… It’s truly pitiful, elder brother.”

“Is that so?”

“No, it’s not. Go ahead. Do it as much as you want. Then a new rumor will spread in Edenbell. That good-for-nothing Sinclair, possessed by the Empress’ ghost, has finally lost his mind.”

“No, a new rumor will spread.”

Eventually, what Sinclair took out from his bosom was the secret letter he had shown the Emperor a few days ago.

The one stamped with Yuria and the Emperor’s seals…

“Just like the scandal you spread about Elaina Butler. But with only the main characters changed.”

Suddenly, Hister’s face froze. As if it would crumble the moment it was touched.

“That the commoner Yuria who became a concubine seduced the Emperor to covet the position of Empress, and even that wasn’t enough, so in order to bestow the title of Crown Prince upon her son of lowly blood, she finally killed the Empress and even tried to kill the eldest legitimate son.”

“…”

“Quite an amusing rumor, right Hister?”

Hister couldn’t possibly not know the things Yuria had orchestrated. He also knew that the Emperor was involved in it. That’s why he had trusted the Emperor even more. Thinking his father had come this far, so he absolutely wouldn’t be able to abandon him now.

But what was this sudden secret letter? It was absurd.

“Ha…”

Hister let out a groan-like hollow laugh with a face that had turned deathly pale, and Sinclair grabbed his collar again.

“But you don’t have to worry too much right now. I don’t intend to reveal this card yet.”

Sinclair said with a sneer.

“The most important card should be played when the situation becomes clear, right? Even with that head of yours that doesn’t function properly, you should know that much.”

“So.”

Hister, bleeding from his nose, laughed while dripping blood.

“From now on, don’t touch Elaina Butler?”

Then he asked.

“Or don’t tell the facts I know as if tattling to parents?”

Sinclair didn’t give any answer.

He just slapped Hister’s face once more.

“I told you. In the end, everything can only go according to my plan.”

Sinclair, grabbing Hister’s blond hair that resembled his own, continued while glaring at his swollen face.

“Try struggling if you want to. But you’d better know for sure, Hister Butler. There’s nothing you can do as you please in this Imperial Palace anymore.”

“…”

“Not even freely wagging your tongue.”

Smack!

After finishing his words, Sinclair slammed Hister’s body onto the hard ground with all his might. Then, as if to show, he shook his hands while making a disgusted expression. As if he had touched something very dirty.

“Now, go back to the Crown Prince’s palace and huff and puff to your heart’s content.”

And he said with utmost derision.

“Now that even the Emperor won’t listen to your whining, you should slowly learn to stand on your own, shouldn’t you?”

Hister’s hand, limply stretched out on the ground, was seen clenching into a fist. But Sinclair, as if finding even that ridiculous, stepped on his hand and slowly started to walk away.

… If Hister hadn’t touched Elaina. If only he hadn’t spread that filthy scandal that was absurd to even mention, he wouldn’t have gone this far.

Even if the subject of the scandal had been himself.

However, there were areas that should never be touched. For priests who served gods, it was god, for an emperor of a nation, it was pride in the empire, and for knights, it was chivalry.

Just as Elaina’s existence was like that to Sinclair.

[This is the timeline separator]

When Sinclair returned to the prince’s palace, dinner preparations had already been finished.

Judith and Anna had prepared the meal in the bedroom with devotion as always, and Sinclair had a peaceful mealtime with Elaina.

… Of course, in between, Elaina looked at his slightly reddened hands with a puzzled expression, but Sinclair gave the absurd excuse that it was from “swatting bugs.”

What kind of bugs did he hit to make the back of his hands look like that?

Elaina tilted her head but thought it could happen and stayed silent, and Sinclair laughed to himself thinking ‘Elaina also has a slightly dense side to her.’

“I heard Lady Perin Ilain visited.”

And it was around the time they were having tea after finishing the meal that Sinclair brought up the story about Perin.

“She came alone and ate a tremendous amount of food before leaving.”

“Ah, yes. I was glad that Judith and Anna’s cooking suited her taste.”

Elaina answered brightly with a smile.

“She said she had been worried because of what happened last time. Actually, seeing her once at the gathering was all, so I didn’t expect her to think of me that much and was very grateful.”

No, no matter who you bring, you’ll open your heart to them that easily and quickly.

Just as I did.

Sinclair swallowed the words that rose to the tip of his tongue and looked at Elaina as if to tell her to continue talking.

“She said many good things. She has such a fiery personality that it was continuously fun while conversing with her.”

That woman is indeed fiery. Sinclair recalled the sight of Perin grabbing the collar of enemies with that slender body and flinging them to the ground.

“And…”

Elaina, who was about to continue speaking, slightly hesitated. At her sudden action, Sinclair narrowed his eyes a bit and looked at Elaina.

She looked exactly like someone lost in thought.

“Elaina?”

“… Can I ask you something?”

“To me?”

“Yes.”

It seemed Elaina had never asked him something like this before. Could it be that she heard something strange from Perin Ilain? A slight tension appeared on Sinclair’s face.

“It’s nothing difficult. I just became curious about something.”

“… Tell me.”

“Lady Perin said this. That she had gone to battle together with you a few times. Including the last war.”

War.

With just those two words, it was easy to grasp. The fact that the question that would come out of Elaina’s mouth would not be a pleasant topic.

It was natural. As Perin had said, it was on the battlefield that he earned the nickname of not only a good-for-nothing but also a murderous demon.

Endlessly killing people, and killing again.

Was she going to talk about that?

Was she going to ask if those rumors were true?

But the words that continued to flow from Elaina’s mouth were completely different from Sinclair’s guess.

“I thought it was amazing.”

“… What?”

“That you, who always returned alive even in such difficult situations… were so cool.”

“…”

“And I thought, you must have been very lonely. All alone.”

That’s right.

It was like that.

There were days like that. Days when I trembled alone in pain not from the wounds that made my guts almost spill out, but from loneliness and solitude…

… And longing.

“Lady Perin said.”

[There were times when it was just injuries, but there were also times when your life literally hung in the balance. But whenever that happened, you would say strange things.]

“Sometimes when you were severely injured and not in your right mind… you would say strange things.”

Suddenly, Sinclair’s body greatly flinched.

“That there was something you had to do no matter what.”

[That you had something you absolutely had to do.]

“So you couldn’t die like this…”

[So you absolutely could not die like this. You mumbled it like a chant. Even though you weren’t properly conscious.]

Perin said it was probably related to the throne.

Perhaps her guess was correct. But strangely, a different thought kept coming to mind.

… Could it be decisively said that the thing Sinclair really wanted to do was becoming the Emperor?

Could it have been something else?

That wretched wish that he couldn’t even die before fulfilling.

“What was it?”

So Elaina asked.

“How important was it to you… that you even said you couldn’t die until it was done?”

Elaina’s guess was right.

The thing that Sinclair said he couldn’t bear to die before achieving was not the mere throne.

It was because of the unfulfilled dream he had…

Together with that bright girl who kept following him around like a shadow.

“That is…”

… Eventually, Sinclair slowly parted his lips.

In a very low voice, slightly cracked.

And while looking at Elaina with eyes full of regret.