Chapter 011. Their Twisted Hero (7)

Peggy’s emotions, no matter how hard she tried to hide them, were vivid and alive with color.

In contrast, Rosalyn’s emotions had been a monotonous gray from the start.

If one had to describe them, they were like an oxidized, worn-out shade of gray. Deep hatred that had faded with time.

Rosalyn, who had been staring down at Peggy for a moment, slowly bent forward.

A sharp intake of breath could be heard, but Rosalyn ignored it as she brought her face closer.

“When you agreed to become the Emperor’s eyes and spy on me, did you not expect this much?”

“!”

The moment Peggy realized her cover had been blown, her teeth began to chatter. This wasn’t about punishment for teaching him the letters after all.

“You should be grateful I haven’t tested the poisonous herbs you slipped into my tea on you yet.”

“…”

The maid, who had been weeping and begging moments ago, suddenly froze, as if all that had been a lie.

Rosalyn sneered, her lips curling mockingly as she straightened herself.

“What are you standing there for, Sionne? I told you to kill her.”

She casually called him by a pet name, urging him to act.

Instead, Sionne dropped the sword he was holding.

The girl was young and weak. He thought that perhaps if he stabbed her just a few times, Rosalyn’s anger would subside.

“Oh, so you’re just going to stab her a few times, huh?”

Rosalyn caught onto his intention and mocked him.

“Go ahead.”

Surprisingly, she shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t matter. As if her previous concern that Sionne might get hurt had been a lie.

“…Are you serious?”

“What?”

“Are you really allowing that?”

“Yes, do whatever you want.”

Rosalyn pressed her index finger firmly against Sionne’s chest as she continued.

“Just remember, I’ll do whatever I want too.”

“?”

“For every wound you get, I’ll do the same to Merilyn and Anna.”

Rosalyn’s words were deliberately provocative.

“If you get a cut on your arm, I’ll cut theirs. If you hurt your leg, I’ll break theirs.”

Every word she spoke was laced with danger.

“And at the end, when you abandon them, I wonder what their faces will look like. I bet it’ll be quite a sight, don’t you think?”

As Rosalyn’s words piled on, the hatred in Sionne’s blue eyes began to gleam.

He wanted to kill her. Not the trembling maid, but the woman standing before him with that cruel smile.

“Ah, those eyes suit you.”

But instead of being intimidated, Rosalyn seemed to relish the sight of his rage.

Her smile even seemed to be goading him further. As if daring him, ‘”Go ahead, if you have the guts.”‘

Sionne’s grip tightened around the sword, lifting it as if he were about to strike.

It was at that moment—

“Aaah! Die!”

Peggy, holding the dagger, lunged at the two of them.

“Just die!!”

The target of her murderous intent was clear. The dagger wasn’t aimed at Sionne, but at Rosalyn.

“Huh?”

Rosalyn scoffed and easily dodged the dagger. She slipped past the thrusting blade, just as she had taught earlier.

In one swift motion, she grabbed Peggy’s wrist and twisted it.

“Ah!”

The girl dropped the dagger instantly. An amateurish attack like hers couldn’t leave a scratch on a war hero like Rosalyn.

“Ugh.”

Rosalyn extended her arm and grabbed the maid by the throat.

“Ugh, this…”

Peggy clawed at the arm strangling her, struggling in vain.

“Why is it that no one seems to understand what I say?”

The cruel woman stared coldly at the dying girl in her grasp.

“I told you to attack Sionne, didn’t I?”

Saliva dripped from Peggy’s mouth as her eyes rolled back, her lips turning a shade of purple.

“Stop…”

It was too painful for Sionne to watch Peggy die.

Her black hair and brown eyes reminded him too much of his younger sister. Peggy’s words about her family back home echoed in his mind.

But more than anything, she was just a girl.

“Stop it!”

Sionne Feitan could no longer tolerate Rosalyn de Anata.

He shoved Rosalyn hard. Caught off guard, she lost her grip on Peggy’s neck.

Rosalyn stumbled, trying to regain her balance, but she stepped on the dagger that had fallen earlier and slipped.

Thud. With a loud crash, Rosalyn slammed into the wardrobe.

But Sionne’s attention was focused elsewhere.

“Are you alright?”

“Kuh, k-keugh…”

Peggy coughed a few times before finally gasping for breath. Though she looked pained, her life didn’t seem to be in danger.

“So, it was true… that dog-like story,” came a low voice from behind him.

“Prince, you.”

At Rosalyn’s call, Sionne slowly turned around. He felt both relieved and regretful after what he had just done.

“Why didn’t you use the sword?”

Rosalyn didn’t bother to get up from the floor, nor did she fix her disheveled hair. She simply glared at Sionne with cold, red eyes.

“Or is it not that you didn’t, but that you couldn’t?”

“……”

“Shit, you really can’t kill a woman, can you?”

After those words, Rosalyn’s expression shifted, filled with an unidentifiable mix of emotions—too complex to name.

“Haha.”

Rosalyn let out a dry laugh as she got to her feet.

“The spoil of war I brought back…”

Thud. She stumbled again, crashing into the wardrobe once more.

“Turns out it’s just this piece of junk.”

Thud! This time, she hit the wardrobe harder, not out of weakness, but out of frustration.

“!”

At that moment, the large statue perched on top of the wardrobe wobbled a few times before toppling over.

“Your Highness!”

Sionne instinctively called out to her in alarm.

Crash!

But the statue fell too fast. Rosalyn’s body crumpled as her head collided with it.

Blood began seeping through her red hair, gradually staining her face crimson.

“Damn it… The imperial palace… this can’t happen…”

With a faint grumble, her quivering eyelashes closed, and her red eyes disappeared.

“Ah…”

A hollow sound escaped Sionne’s lips. It was only natural to feel relief when someone so hateful died.

Yet, as he looked down at her peaceful face, smiling faintly even in unconsciousness, he froze.

‘That same face… as Ariel.’

A sharp ringing echoed in his ears. Rosalyn’s face overlapped with the image of the woman he had once killed, making his stomach churn.

“W-what…?”

Tap, tap, tap. The sound of Peggy scrambling to her feet and fleeing out the door echoed faintly in the room.

But unlike Peggy, Sionne didn’t run. Nor did he approach Rosalyn. He just stood there, stuck between the past and the present.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when—

“Your Highness!!”

A frantic scream came from the doorway that Peggy had fled through.

* * *

Was it luck, or was it that her life thread was simply that strong?

Rosalyn de Anata didn’t die.

It was all thanks to her nurse, Meriwood, who had come to visit the princess’s palace at that very moment.

Thanks to Meriwood, the situation was quickly brought under control. Though she was crying, she calmly treated Rosalyn’s injuries, and when the palace doctors failed to act properly, she secretly brought in a physician from outside.

Not only that, but she also had the fallen prince of a ruined kingdom, suspected of harming Rosalyn, restrained.

“It was an accident. I didn’t… it wasn’t me,” Sionne tried to explain before being subdued by the soldiers, but it was no use.

“That will be determined when Her Highness wakes up. Until then, wait.”

Meriwood responded coldly, giving the same answer repeatedly.

She then guided the soldiers to a solitary cell within the palace. Once she nodded, the soldiers shoved Sionne inside.

Click. Meriwood locked the door with a heavy padlock. She then gave the soldiers new orders.

“Thank you for your hard work. Now, search for the maid who fled. She can’t have gotten far yet.”

Given that this could be seen as an attempt on the life of a member of the royal family, swift action was necessary. However, the Emperor distanced himself from the matter, claiming that ‘Hernia’ could not interfere in ‘Anata’s’ affairs.

As a result, no proper investigation took place, and the incident remained unresolved—whether it was an accident or something more.

In a situation where no one took initiative, Meriwood had to take the minimum actions.

“Sigh…”

But on her way back to Rosalyn’s chambers, Meriwood sighed frequently.

“It doesn’t feel right, truly.”

In her heart, she hoped that Sionne hadn’t been the one to harm Rosalyn.

He was the man that Rosalyn had personally brought back as her consort after her triumphant return.

A man whom the cautious princess had allowed to stay in her chambers.

A man who had been pale with shock and fear after seeing Rosalyn injured.

Meriwood couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something significant between Rosalyn and Sionne. This uneasy feeling weighed heavily on her.

“What if Her Highness is misunderstanding someone important?”

Moreover, she worried if she, an outsider returning after years, was overstepping her bounds by taking control of the situation.

‘But…’