It felt like I had a pleasant dream after a long time. When I woke up, I even felt like my body had become lighter.

But I couldn’t remember the exact content of the dream.

Celiya slowly opened her eyes. She belatedly realized that she was lying not on the hard iron floor of a cage, but on a soft bed.

‘I remember coughing up blood and losing consciousness…’

After that, there was no memory. Did Dietrich move her to this place?

‘If so… where is Dietrich?’

Celiya tried to look around, but the room she was in was dark. Celiya saw a white full moon hanging over the half-open window.

She got out of bed and fully opened the window. A refreshing breeze blew in, disheveling Celiya’s silver hair. At the same time, the full moon dimly illuminated the interior of the room.

Celiya looked around using the moon as a lamp. The room she was in was spacious but extremely simple. There wasn’t even a common tea table. A bed, desk, chair, drawer, and wardrobe were all the furniture in this room.

Dietrich was nowhere to be seen.

Celiya wondered what he was thinking by moving her to this place. Did he decide to put her here instead of in prison because of what happened there?

‘But there will be strong opposition.’

Celiya didn’t know the detailed situation outside. No one had told her that those who coveted her were causing riots everywhere to save her life.

Apart from not trusting Dietrich, she judged that he wasn’t as bad a person as she had thought.

Originally, she had a very bad opinion of Dietrich. She had heard that there were several people who had tried to assassinate the emperor before, but Dietrich had repeatedly thwarted them.

Despite serving the emperor to the point of being called the emperor’s mad dog, when he learned that Celiya, who had killed the emperor, had an ability, he spared her life.

She had known from the start that he was keeping her alive because she had value to him. If she didn’t have the ability, she wouldn’t be in this place now.

Celiya was curious about Dietrich’s real purpose. But he kept his mouth shut about truly important matters.

Knowing that Dietrich wouldn’t answer her questions, Celiya always said useless things when talking to him.

Then the man who had no expression would show a reaction. However, that reaction was very different from the men she had seen in the baron’s house.

Unlike the beasts who were always thinking about what to do with her, Dietrich would narrow his brow as if he didn’t like what she said, or occasionally look at her with contempt.

Seeing emotions added to those insensitive red eyes, she strangely wanted to tease him.

Was it because Dietrich was the only human she could have a proper conversation with?

Was it because she felt safe since he showed no intention of doing anything to her even though her ability didn’t work on him?

Well, it didn’t matter either way. Celiya had no intention of being docilely used by Dietrich.

Celiya planned to only ‘pretend’ to be used by Dietrich.

‘After finding out everything he’s hiding, like his ability, his identity…’

After that… no particular plan came to mind. Had she lost her purpose after eliminating her archenemy, the emperor?

Celiya decided to focus on building a rapport with Dietrich for now.

The Dietrich she knew might have noticed that the more she used her ability, the more her body deteriorated.

The more sympathy and compassion he felt for Celiya, the better it was for her.

If his guard towards her lowered, Celiya’s range of action might widen. Although the master he served had died, the fact that Dietrich was the captain of the imperial knights remained unchanged, and he was a figure who held military power in the imperial palace.

‘Let’s first figure out where this is.’

Celiya grabbed the doorknob to leave the room. As soon as she opened the door, Dietrich was standing right in front of her.

He looked down at Celiya, holding a lamp in his hand. Dietrich’s eyes, illuminated by the lamp, were infinitely dry.

“…It seems you’re feeling better now.”

“I guess it’s because I slept in a bed, thanks to someone.”

Dietrich let out a chuckle at Celiya’s words. It was more of a sneer than a laugh.

“You were sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world.”

“You, you saw me sleeping? Why didn’t you wake me up if you saw me?”

Celiya asked, narrowing her eyes. Dietrich replied in a stiff tone.

“I thought it was right to let you sleep comfortably for about half a day, since I failed to properly protect you.”

“…You must have been in a difficult position for taking me out of prison.”

Dietrich didn’t answer. His gaze lingered on Celiya’s face for a moment. His expressionless face remained unchanged, but somehow Dietrich’s mood seemed worse than usual.

Finally, Celiya asked once more.

“Am I wrong?”

“For a criminal to be concerned about me. Should I call this stupid, or are you pretending to be stupid?”

A sarcastic remark came back, but it had no impact on Celiya. Rather, Celiya looked up at Dietrich with a bright smile.

“Try to guess. Am I stupid? Or am I pretending to be stupid?”

“…”

“The odds are fifty-fifty, so choose.”

Dietrich stared blankly at Celiya. As if he hadn’t heard Celiya’s words, he brought up a completely different topic.

“You can stay in that room from now on. I came to tell you that.”

Celiya looked at him with an expression of incomprehension. Dietrich looked at that face and added more words.

“There are clothes to change into in the wardrobe, so wear whatever you like, and the bathroom is attached to the room, so wash there if you want to clean up. If you need anything, pull the bell rope next to the bed. A maid will come.”

Celiya thought Dietrich’s words were very strange. After all, Celiya was a criminal. And a traitor who had assassinated the emperor at that.

But in one morning after waking up, her room had changed and her position had completely changed. Moreover, they even assigned her a maid? Celiya couldn’t understand this situation at all.

“…I’m a criminal who assassinated the emperor, right? Not only did you take me out of prison, but you’re telling me to live here? How will you deal with the consequences?”

“It’s good that you’re aware you killed the emperor.”

Dietrich gazed languidly at Celiya. Unlike his sarcastic words, his gaze at Celiya was as calm as quiet waves.

“I’ll take care of the consequences, so just know that. Don’t ever leave the room. I’ll explain everything when the time comes.”

“…Okay.”

When Celiya nodded obediently, Dietrich looked surprised.

“Then, I’ll be going.”

As if his purpose was to deliver the message, Dietrich turned away from her. Celiya pulled on Dietrich’s collar.

Dietrich’s brow furrowed nicely.

“Where do you sleep?”

“Why do you care about that?”

“…Because we’re on the same side now.”

At Celiya’s words, Dietrich looked dumbfounded. He furrowed his eyebrows as much as he could, let out a deep sigh, and then uttered one word.

“Sleep.”

Dietrich forcibly removed Celiya’s hand holding his clothes. And he moved away from her.

Celiya let out a soft laugh as she watched Dietrich walk away without looking back.

It wasn’t just her imagination.

The way Dietrich looked at her had become much more benign than before.

Dietrich crossed the hallway. This mansion was entirely his space.

The large mansion with a garden was bestowed upon him by the late emperor. The emperor had granted him the title of duke, but he thought that if he gave him a suitable domain to match, he would leave him.

So instead of giving him a domain, he built a spacious mansion for him inside the imperial palace. For him to stay in the palace at all times and protect him.

The emperor wouldn’t have known. That not long after the mansion was built, he would meet his death at the hands of the woman he so coveted.

At that moment, a coquettish voice stopped Dietrich.

“My lord.”

Dietrich tried to enter his room as if he hadn’t heard anything.

As if to stop this, a slender hand was placed on his firm arm.

Only then did Dietrich’s gaze fall on the owner of the hand. As soon as their eyes met, the woman smiled, closing her eyes.

“You finally look at me.”

The woman, with long, lush blonde hair and wearing only a thin dress, gave Dietrich a seductive look. But Dietrich was actually indifferent to her.

This woman used to do the same thing shamelessly even when the emperor was alive.

‘Empress, Erphia Li Basilisk.’

The woman in front of him was more cunning, crafty, and difficult to handle than the foolish emperor.

Dietrich stared beyond the Empress’s back. Seeing that she hadn’t even brought a maid, it seemed she had come with clear intentions.

“What brings Your Majesty the Empress to my mansion at this dawn? Others might think it strange if they see.”

“There’s nowhere in this palace I can’t go. Especially if it’s your mansion, my lord.”

The Empress stroked Dietrich’s arm with a subtle touch. Dietrich removed the Empress’s hand from himself and said,

“Go back.”

At Dietrich’s firm words, the smile on the Empress’s lips disappeared.

“I heard that you released that woman from prison, my lord.”

“…”

“Releasing a woman who assassinated the emperor. Are you in your right mind?”

The Empress said, opening her eyes wide. The way she quickly changed her attitude when things didn’t go her way was exactly like her son, Jeremy.

“Your Majesty must have heard the news from outside the palace. It was an unavoidable measure to quietly subdue those who were causing riots to the point of demanding the release of the criminal.”

“Unavoidable?”

“Yes. And I haven’t fully released the criminal, but have her confined in my mansion. To prevent others from doing useless things.”

Dietrich put particular emphasis on ‘useless things’. Because in the process of investigating his knight who tried to harm Celiya, he learned that the Empress knew about this and turned a blind eye.

“To ensure that such a thing never happens again, I intend to strictly monitor and watch over her.”

At those words, the Empress raised one corner of her mouth.

“That woman must be quite special to you, my lord?”