Despite calling for Dietrich to report on Celiya’s condition, as soon as the physician faced him directly, he turned pale with fear.

Dietrich’s gaze slid from the physician’s pale face to Celiya. As he looked at Celiya, limp and bloodless, not a trace of sympathy showed on Dietrich’s face.

Not only was there no sympathy, but no anger or resentment either.

His face was devoid of any emotion, which made it all the more terrifying.

Everyone in the imperial family knew how cruel Dietrich could be.

He hadn’t gained the Emperor’s unconditional trust from the beginning. The Emperor had forgotten that he brought Dietrich to the palace on a whim, being too busy pursuing women.

In the palace full of all kinds of schemes, a handsome boy without any backing was easy prey for many.

Even the servants handling various chores in the palace were mostly children of low-ranking nobles, so when an unheard-of boy who was almost sold to a slave trader suddenly came to stay in their quarters, they didn’t hide their displeasure.

However, since the Emperor had brought him, they initially watched their superiors carefully. But after three months, the Emperor did not call for Dietrich.

When the servants realized Dietrich had been abandoned, they began to openly ignore him. The one-sided bullying of assigning him all the menial tasks gradually intensified as days went by.

Whether they “accidentally” poured cold water on him or verbally abused him, Dietrich’s expression never changed.

The male servants didn’t like how Dietrich acted so detached, as if he were an old man who had seen it all, despite being not fully grown.

One day, the male servant who bullied Dietrich the most locked him in a storage room and called four strong men to humiliate him.

On this day, not a hair on Dietrich’s head was harmed.

On the other hand, the humans who tried to harm Dietrich were all found as miserable corpses without exception. All five bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. Stab wounds from knives were found all over the bodies.

The male servant who tried to harm Dietrich was holding a rusty knife in his hand.

The incident was vaguely concluded as them having a fierce argument and dying after losing their temper and resorting to violence.

People dying in the imperial palace was a common occurrence. They died for backing the wrong person, or for falling out of favor with their superiors.

In such an imperial palace, it was only natural to hush up an incident involving the deaths of a few insignificant servants, especially when it appeared they had died fighting among themselves.

The humans who tried to harm Dietrich all died on the same day at the same time. It was a strange incident to be mere coincidence.

Even after this, there were many who tried to mess with Dietrich, but they all met tragic ends.

After a greedy male servant who tried to secretly sell Dietrich as a plaything to a high-ranking noble was executed for allegedly attempting to rape the Emperor’s court lady, people finally realized that Dietrich was not ordinary.

Scared servants chased Dietrich, who had been temporarily staying in the servants’ quarters, to a stable on the outskirts of the palace where old and sick war horses were kept.

Although the horses were old and sick, they were excellent horses that once showed high skills on the battlefield, so they were kept alive to spend their peaceful retirement.

The horses’ temperaments were all fierce, so it wouldn’t have been strange to die from being kicked in one’s sleep. In fact, the servant who took care of the horses before Dietrich was instantly killed after being kicked in a vital spot by a horse.

The servants, well aware of this fact, sent Dietrich to the stable hoping the horses would kill him.

But contrary to their wishes, the horses followed Dietrich very well. He spent his days sleeping in the stable at night and taking care of the horses or doing the servants’ menial tasks during the day.

An imperial knight who noticed Dietrich’s skill in taming horses reported this to the Emperor, but the Emperor just laughed, tilting his head back, saying, “Ah, the red eyes? He was still alive?”

The imperial knight, feeling sympathetic, taught Dietrich swordsmanship.

After 10 years passed, Anderson, the imperial knight who had taught Dietrich swordsmanship at the time, became Dietrich’s subordinate, and Dietrich became the captain of the imperial knights and one of the Emperor’s closest confidants.

Dietrich was secretly called the Emperor’s mad dog. Now that the Emperor was dead… how would he react?

Dietrich’s emotionless gaze, which the physician had been observing, turned toward him.

The physician trembled, completely overwhelmed by Dietrich’s aura. He quickly lowered his gaze to the floor, pretending not to have seen anything.

“Speak. How is her condition?”

At the emotionless voice matching his expressionless eyes, the physician swallowed hard and recited the information he had gathered.

“…Her life expectancy is, at most, one year. Her condition is terrible. Her organs are not functioning properly, and there’s rotten blood pooled inside her body.”

The physician looked at Celiya with a troubled face and added.

“It’s amazing how she endured with that body. Though it’s not apparent from the outside, her internal organs are already beyond repair. Not only is a cure impossible, but even alleviating her symptoms is nearly impossible.”

At the physician’s additional words, emotion appeared on Dietrich’s face for the first time. His tightly pressed lips curved into a faint smile.

By the time the physician, who had been looking at Celiya, turned his head towards Dietrich, the smile that had lingered on his lips had disappeared without a trace.

“That’s excellent.”

Dietrich’s quiet mutter dispersed like mist in the underground prison. However, the physician, who had been paying attention to Dietrich’s every move, heard it clearly.

“What do you, i-intend to do with this woman?”

Dietrich spoke indifferently without even looking at the physician.

“They say people who talk too much don’t live long.”

“…!”

“Today, you didn’t come here. You didn’t see anything.”

At Dietrich’s words, the physician nodded his head several times.

“Yes, yes! Today, I was wandering the corridors to brew precious herbs imported from the East.”

The physician barely managed to answer with a trembling voice.

Dietrich silently pointed towards the exit with his chin.

The physician fled the prison as if escaping. He seemed concerned about Celiya and stopped midway to look back.

However, he couldn’t see Celiya. It was because Dietrich was watching him with his arms crossed. His brow had furrowed tightly at some point.

The physician barely managed to suppress a scream and fled in a hurry.

After confirming the physician’s disappearance, Dietrich approached Celiya. He looked down at Celiya, who was breathing faintly like a thread, as if she were some foreign object.

His lips twisted as he looked at Celiya.

“The angel of Brillion.”

Dietrich muttered softly to himself. His large hand touched near Celiya’s neck.

People might chatter about this woman being the angel of Brillion or whatever, but Dietrich wasn’t interested in such things at all.

If he strangled her now, she would die.

That grand reputation, her life, would crumble with just a small gesture.

But Dietrich changed his mind and withdrew his hand. It was because the woman was clearly awake but made no attempt to open her eyes.

“Get up.”

At the icy, dry voice, Celiya’s closed eyelids slowly opened. Eyes as fresh as a forest filled Dietrich’s view.

Celiya also looked at Dietrich.

A man with a threatening build that seemed to fill the entire prison was looking at her as if she were an insect.

Celiya raised her body and sat up in place. She sat up straight and stared at Dietrich.

Dietrich felt as if Celiya was looking down on him from above.

As if reading his thoughts, Celiya smiled softly. Even at her picture-perfect smile that people couldn’t stop praising, Dietrich’s expression didn’t change.

“Tell me the real reason you killed the Emperor.”

Dietrich went straight to the point as soon as he saw Celiya.

“Celiya Brillion, adopted daughter of the Viscount Brillion. Why did you kill the Emperor?”

Celiya watched Dietrich with a calm face as if listening to someone else’s story. On the other hand, Dietrich was pretending to be calm on the outside, but he was far from it inside.

“It would be better to tell the truth. Whose instigation did you follow?”

“……”

When Celiya didn’t answer, Dietrich leaned down to meet her eyes.

“Should I torture you to make you talk?”

Dietrich looked at Celiya’s snow-white ankles as if he really might torture her. Finally, Celiya’s lips slowly parted.

“…Dietrich.”

Perhaps he didn’t expect the woman to know him, a slight crease appeared between Dietrich’s brows.

“You know me?”

Celiya answered with a slight smile.

“There’s no one in the Abelon Empire who doesn’t know your name.”

Despite being here as a criminal, Celiya spoke casually without hesitation. But it seemed so natural that Dietrich felt a sense of discomfort.

Celiya looked at Dietrich like that and sneered.

“If I had known it was you, the one called the Emperor’s mad dog, I wouldn’t have fainted so pathetically in front of you.”

Celiya’s lips were curved in a gentle arc, but her eyes weren’t smiling. Deep resentment seeped from her cool eyes.

Dietrich quietly gazed into those eyes. Unlike his own blood-red eyes, the woman before him had clear green eyes.

With her chin held high, refusing to compromise with him, Celiya exuded a noble dignity.

How could this insignificant adopted daughter of a viscount family emanate an aura typically seen only in well-educated royalty?

Dietrich knew well that this type of person wouldn’t give the desired answer no matter how severe the torture.

How many people could act like this in a situation where they might die at any moment? Especially when they’re terminally ill.

Or is it because she’s terminally ill that she’s not afraid of death?

But what really surprised Dietrich was the one sentence Celiya uttered next.