“Can’t I do that?”

Laila’s questioning attitude was unadorned. It seemed so natural that it felt innocent. Eustar wore an expression that was half-smiling, half-not, then deliberately crossed his arms with a serious attitude. And he turned towards Laila.

“I don’t keep secrets from you.”

Laila’s eyes widened round. Her lips, as red as her pupils, also parted slightly.

Eustar could tell just by that expression what Laila was thinking inside. She was probably thinking this……

‘So what am I supposed to do?’

Laila said,

“That doesn’t mean… I shouldn’t have secrets from Eustar either. Right?”

She blinked her eyes, slightly furrowed her brow, and tilted her head.

“…Or am I wrong?”

At that moment, Eustar burst out laughing without realizing it.

“Goodness, Laila. Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Doing what?”

She still looked clueless, and to Eustar, it wasn’t something that could be feigned even if she tried.

He thought that this level of innocence was almost like a weapon. Though it was a somewhat shameful thought towards Laila, who had no intention of wielding it, and couldn’t even imagine it as a weapon to be wielded.

Eustar, who had been laughing softly for a while, said,

“Alright, go ahead. But don’t stay alone for too long…”

A ray of sunlight fell across Laila’s eyes. Eustar, who was gazing intently into her eyes, as transparent and dazzling as freshly picked pomegranate seeds, smiled.

Smiling contentedly as if seeing something satisfactory, he caressed Laila’s ear. His gentle fingers stroked the delicate bone of her ear shell, neatly tucking back a stray strand of hair.

“Don’t stay alone for too long.”

Having finished speaking, Eustar turned and left first. However, even after he was out of sight, Laila remained standing still in that spot for a while.

What was that?

She felt her heart pounding as if leaping upwards. With her hand on her chest, breathing out, Laila carefully touched her ear where Eustar had caressed. It was so hot, like freshly heated charcoal, that she startled and pulled her hand away.

She felt somehow like a person suffering from neurosis.

It wasn’t a recent development that she became overly sensitive to Eustar’s every word and action… She wondered if it was normal to feel this strange just because he tucked her hair behind her ear.

‘When I brush his hair, Eustar doesn’t seem affected at all.’

Laila headed towards the library, deep in thought. Though the path from her room to the library was now so familiar she could walk it with her eyes closed, perhaps because her starting point was different, she ended up on an unfamiliar path.

Passing through an unfamiliar corridor draped with ornate curtains, Laila wandered for a while before realizing she was near King Ord’s bedroom.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never been here except for the first few times.’

No one except Eustar, Baso, and the royal physicians was allowed to casually approach the area near the king’s bedroom.

If someone like her who had taken a wrong turn caused a commotion, they might wake Ord who had just fallen asleep under the influence of medicine. Then, like Duchess Himierd last time, they would be immediately expelled from the palace and never allowed to enter again.

In Himierd’s case, since she was an official in an important position, and for some reason Ord seemed to dislike her but showed a soft attitude, the entry ban order would soon be forgotten, but for others, it was out of the question.

Therefore, near the king’s bedroom, even the servants and even the soldiers on guard duty walked carefully, trying to avoid making noise as much as possible.

A soldier standing in the corridor recognized Laila and bowed his head. The interlocking parts of his armor made a clanking sound. The metallic sound spreading through the tomb-like quiet corridor made Laila shudder.

‘To get to the library from here…’

Laila mentally mapped out the surrounding corridors, then nodded to herself and started walking again. This time, she was sure she could find her way without getting lost.

It was purely by chance that her eyes caught sight of the bedroom door slightly ajar.

Usually, it was a main door that remained firmly closed and rarely opened no matter who came.

Since Eustar and Baso used secret side doors directly connected from other corridors or rooms, the only people who used the main door were servants or royal physicians.

But now, there was no busy sound of physicians. No servants coming and going either.

Had one of the attendants carelessly left the door open? If Ord or Baso found out about this, they would probably be furious.

Laila carefully approached the bedroom to close the door. It would just take a slight push. It wouldn’t make a sound…

At that moment, a strange sound reached her ears.

Laila froze with her hand on the doorknob.

Looking around, she saw that the soldiers who had just greeted her moments ago were gone. The corridor was empty and seemed much longer than she had actually walked.

I can’t believe it, Laila thought. This is unbelievable. Absolutely…

Then the sound came from inside the bedroom again. How to describe it? It was like the sound of a giant snake crawling.

Or it sounded like a huge fish with its scales peeled off, thrashing about dragging its fins. There was a slithering sound, followed by a flopping sound, then slithering again…

Laila gripped the doorknob tightly, trying to steady her quickening breath.

A strong premonition struck her back that she should close it right away, but her stubbornness to find out exactly what was happening to Ord made her enter the bedroom.

There were no attendants. The door leading from the short corridor inside the main entrance was also slightly open. Baso, who would normally have come running at the slightest sound, was nowhere to be seen.

As she got closer to the bedroom, the strange sounds continued to grow louder. Laila shuddered, standing still, feeling as if dozens of snakes were crawling at her feet.

When she finally entered Ord’s bedroom, Laila encountered an unbelievable sight.

Something black, a horrible thing that looked like a snake but with its head and body split into several branches, was slithering over various parts of Ord’s motionless body, flicking its tongue.

Seeing the bizarrely conspicuous bright red tongue in the darkness where no sunlight entered, Laila covered her mouth and retched.

It was just climbing from Ord’s chest up to his neck when, as if by a lie, it disappeared the moment Laila groaned.

Laila couldn’t believe what she had just seen. She didn’t even know what it was, but she could feel one thing – it was an entity so unpleasant that even approaching it was disgusting.

It felt as if she had seen a moving corpse. It seemed like something that couldn’t and shouldn’t exist was right behind her…

“…Witch.”

Laila, who had been catching her breath, startled and opened her eyes wide. Ord was awake.

“Bring me… some water.”

He seemed to know that Baso wasn’t in the bedroom even while lying down. Laila, who had been hesitating with her fists clenched, quickly shook her head and approached his bedside.

Before filling the silver cup with water, Laila carefully supported Ord to sit up. He looked like he was struggling even to lean against the cushions, but his eyes strangely gleamed.

“Your Majesty.”

Laila held out the silver cup filled with water respectfully. With her head bowed, Ord couldn’t see her expression. Laila gritted her molars as she went over and over what she had just seen.

Ord tilted the cup and drank the water with difficulty. As water he couldn’t swallow dripped down his parched lips, he said,

“What did you see?”

Laila raised her head in surprise. But Ord stared at her with humorless eyes and continued,

“Whatever you saw, don’t tell Eustar.”

A rebellious look flashed in Laila’s eyes.

“What are you?”

“I am the king of this country.”

“Are you human?”

Ord sneered.

“Then what do I look like to you? Do I look like a ghost? Or a beast? Or perhaps a demon?”

Laila maintained a calm attitude as she stepped back from Ord. It was an instinctive action, not because she feared him, but to show how wary she was of him.

“If you’re a demon, or a beast or a ghost, that’s precisely what Eustar should know. Isn’t it?”

Hearing her words, Ord burst into rough, hoarse laughter.

“What a foolish witch. If I were a demon, and if my only brother found out about it, think about it. Would I just let him be?”

Laila glared at Ord with a cold, indifferent expression.

“If you harm him, I won’t forgive you, whatever you are. Remember that clearly. You’d better think carefully about what this witch you call foolish might do to you.”

For a moment, Ord grinned, baring his teeth. It was an expression Laila had never seen before. It looked both beast-like and somehow affectionate. It was nothing short of bizarre.

“Do your best.”

His body slid back down onto the bed. Laila knew he hadn’t lost consciousness, and soon realized she had been given a silent dismissal.

Laila quietly looked down at Ord, who lay sprawled, taking shallow breaths.

Until Laila left the bedroom, and until she closed the layers of doors, no one appeared. Not Baso, not the servants, not the soldiers.

The sound of Laila closing the outermost door heavily shook the silent bedroom.

As if sunk deep into the sea, Ord succumbed to the overwhelming force pressing down on his entire body and let out a long breath. It felt as if his whole body was crumbling into pieces and coming back together, repeating dozens, hundreds of times.

Then a faint whistle sounded from somewhere. Outside the slightly parted curtains, in the direction of the wooded garden, something yellow flashed and disappeared.

In his fading consciousness, Ord sensed a faint presence. Before the long shadow crawled onto the bed, Ord’s consciousness flickered out with a short breath.