“Eat.”

It was the morning after Dietrich had thrown the uniform to Celiya that he brought her food.

Celiya looked at the food Dietrich had brought.

The steaming soup was clearly different from the thin soup she had seen yesterday.

At a glance, the soup with fresh vegetables and meat floating in it stimulated her appetite. Moreover, Dietrich had even brought freshly baked crispy bread and placed it on the bowl.

Celiya alternately looked at Dietrich and the food he had brought with suspicious eyes.

“Are you trying to fatten me up to eat me?”

“…”

Ignoring Celiya’s words lightly, Dietrich walked into the iron cage. He put down the bowl containing soup and bread in front of Celiya and leaned against the wall at an angle.

“I’ll watch you eat and then leave.”

“Hey, I’m curious about something.”

Dietrich’s eyes narrowed at Celiya’s question. He expected her to ask again about how she knew about the ability.

“…Are you not going to give me utensils separately? Am I supposed to eat this with my hands?”

Celiya made a gesture of holding a spoon with her eyes wide open. Dietrich was dumbfounded.

In his life, he had never seen such a brazen woman.

“You, do you have any awareness that you’re a criminal? Stop complaining and just eat it in one go.”

“No. You said with your own mouth that you’d save me. Didn’t you mean you’d get me out of prison?”

Dietrich felt his forehead throbbing as he got up from the wall. He knelt on one knee in front of Celiya and met her eyes.

Celiya stared at him blankly, wearing Dietrich’s uniform that didn’t fit her. If one looked closely, Dietrich’s brow was furrowed ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Nevertheless, there was no emotion in the red eyes looking at Celiya.

Celiya found such a Dietrich fascinating. He was the first man who didn’t get stirred up by her.

Famous priests, beasts wearing the mask of family, nobles, men who had seen her even once, regardless of age, all desired and lusted after her.

Just like the guard she saw yesterday. Just like the emperor who died by her hands.

Celiya examined Dietrich’s face closely. Her gaze swept over the red eyes under the neat eyebrows, the sharp nose bridge, and the light pink lips that seemed unfamiliar with smiling.

Celiya had once viewed him, called the emperor’s mad dog, through colored glasses.

But the Dietrich in front of her eyes now seemed like a completely different person from what she superficially knew.

“My face is not food.”

Dietrich muttered lowly as he tore the bread into pieces. He brought the torn bread to her mouth.

“Eat.”

“…”

As Celiya didn’t open her mouth and just stared at him blankly, Dietrich’s patience reached its limit.

“Do you want me to feed you mouth to mouth?”

Dietrich said mockingly. At those words, Celiya, who had been still, suddenly burst into laughter. Her green eyes, reminiscent of a summer forest, curved into crescent moons.

Contrary to the laughing Celiya, Dietrich’s face froze, not just cold but icy.

Celiya looked at him with a face that said she found it hilarious.

“If I say I want that, will you really feed me that way?”

Dietrich was about to throw the bread he had brought to Celiya’s mouth on the floor but stopped. To suppress his anger, Dietrich took his gaze off Celiya and dipped the bread he was holding into the soup.

“Now I see that all the talk about the Angel of Brillyon was nonsense. Even a demon would be less brazen than you.”

“Didn’t you know? That’s all just nonsense made up by foolish guys.”

Dietrich was completely lost for words at Celiya’s casual remark. While appreciating Dietrich’s hardened expression, Celiya took a bite of the bread dipped in soup.

The aroma of the soup filled her mouth, melting together with the bread. Dietrich silently watched Celiya eat the bread like a rabbit.

“Do you want some too?”

Celiya said, offering the bread she was eating to Dietrich. Dietrich looked at her with a completely disgusted face and slowly stood up.

The upright, royal-like appearance he had seen when they first met in prison was completely gone. Celiya, biting into the bread and chewing as if savoring the taste, looked exactly like a rabbit.

Of course, Dietrich knew very well that a weak rabbit would never even think of assassinating the emperor, let alone actually do it.

“…Eat a lot.”

“Aren’t you taking the uniform? It’s yours, isn’t it?”

Celiya asked with round eyes, bread crumbs on her mouth. Dietrich found such a Celiya excessively irritating.

“It’s annoying.”

“Huh? What’s annoying?”

Celiya tilted her head, seemingly not understanding. Her shimmering silver hair cascaded over his black uniform, following her head movement.

Dietrich pointed to his own mouth with his index finger and said,

“…The bread crumbs.”

At Dietrich’s words, Celiya wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Dietrich, who detested anything irregular, felt frustrated watching Celiya wipe the left side of her mouth where nothing was stuck.

“Not there. The other side.”

“There, is it okay now?”

Celiya smiled proudly with bread crumbs still on her mouth. Dietrich’s eyes sank deeply.

“…Do you really not know shame?”

Dietrich muttered to himself. Is even this sloppy behavior calculated?

While harboring all sorts of suspicions, Dietrich unconsciously reached out and wiped off the bread crumbs stuck on her mouth himself.

Celiya was hit with a whiff of Dietrich’s scent. He smelled like the scent from his uniform. It was a scent that reminded her of rose-scented soap, or perhaps a woody scent reminiscent of forest trees – a scent she wanted to keep smelling.

After wiping off the crumbs on her mouth, Dietrich stared at Celiya, who wouldn’t take her eyes off him, and opened his mouth.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“I’m curious about something. What kind of perfume do you use?”

Dietrich remained silent. He wordlessly stepped back from her. He carefully observed Celiya, who was wearing an expression that looked utterly harmless.

“If you don’t want to answer, don’t.”

At her voice, Dietrich muttered in a low voice as he walked out of the iron bars.

“Eat a lot. I don’t know when I’ll bring the next meal. It’s so chaotic outside because you assassinated the emperor.”

Dietrich turned around while locking the iron cage where Celiya was confined with a key. Celiya shouted at Dietrich’s back as he was about to leave.

“How chaotic is it outside?”

“…”

Dietrich had no intention of explaining the outside situation to Celiya. After all, Celiya was just a card that Dietrich could discard mercilessly if deemed useless.

If he could just use Celiya according to his own thoughts by covering her eyes and ears, he could embrace her mockery of him with a generous heart.

‘If she’s not worth keeping alive, I’ll just dispose of her.’

Dietrich moved his steps with his mouth firmly shut. But Celiya stopped him once again.

“Wait, what are you going to do with this uniform? Do you want to take it back?”

Dietrich just slightly turned his head and silently stared at his uniform that Celiya was wearing. Several medals were dangling on the uniform. They were medals awarded to him by the dead emperor.

The medals, obtained at the cost of stripping off his pride, were shining reflected in the torchlight, making him want to vomit just by looking at them.

“…Do whatever you want with it.”

“What about these medals? They’re too heavy.”

“Do as you please. That uniform is yours now.”

With those words, Dietrich left without looking back.

* * *

The emperor’s funeral was held as grandly as it was disproportionate to his incompetence. In truth, there was no one who sincerely mourned the emperor’s death.

As soon as the emperor’s funeral ended, many were paying attention to the movements of Jeremy, who was to become the next emperor.

Perhaps because the dead emperor was not really a proper human being, there were no dissenting voices to Jeremy becoming emperor.

In fact, there had been quite a few people who opposed Jeremy becoming emperor, as he was somewhat impulsive despite being quite intelligent. However, they were all killed by Erphia, Jeremy’s mother and the empress.

Now that the emperor’s funeral was over, the priority was the emperor’s coronation ceremony. However, it seemed apparent that it would take a long time for Jeremy to ascend to the throne, as there were too many unresolved issues.

Above all, the biggest problem was that Celiya, who had assassinated the emperor, was still alive in prison. The ministers’ opinions were divided over her treatment.

“There’s an uproar outside the palace demanding the release of the Angel of Brillyon. Not just one person, but from the children of high-ranking officials to famous high priests, they’re all claiming her innocence.”

“But isn’t it true that that woman assassinated the emperor? Why on earth are they causing such a commotion to save one woman?”

Marquis Taylor, the leader of the ministers, looked as if he couldn’t understand them at all. He shook his head with a frown.

“Marquis, do you know this? The people who are now inciting riots and instigating others are, without exception, all men who have a history of courting the Angel of Brillyon.”

“!”

At the words of one minister, wrinkles seemed to form another layer on Marquis Taylor’s already wrinkled eyes.

“How beautiful must that woman be for humans to cause such an uproar?”

“I don’t know well since I haven’t seen her myself. For now, the underground prison is strictly controlled by Lord Dietrich and…”

Marquis Taylor slammed the desk with a bang!

“That man is finally trying to manipulate the palace!”

Just then, with a loud bang, the conference room door was flung open.

“Who dares to open the sacred conference room…”

Marquis Taylor couldn’t finish his words and his face turned pale blue. The eyes of the ministers in the conference room turned to the sudden intruder.

“…Who’s manipulating what?”