Chapter 9

If you ask why I didn’t tell him sooner, it wasn’t exactly on purpose…

No, actually, it was on purpose.

Honestly, explaining everything one by one just wasn’t my style.

Even today alone, how many hours had I spent talking nonstop by myself?

Staring blankly at the dark ceiling, I answered,

“Ask Marquis Stauffen yourself for the details.”

One thing was certain.

The real hardship for the Saintess who couldn’t even use divine power and the abandoned prince was only beginning now.

Early the next morning, when the snowfall finally weakened, we left the inn.

I’m so damn sleepy.

Did I even sleep four hours?

The moment I climbed into the carriage, I closed my eyes.

I was just tired, but Lothar, sitting across from me, asked,

“Are you praying to the Goddess?”

“Go pray yourself…”

My life had already turned out like this because of one badly made prayer.

I never should’ve wished to random gods without even having a religion.

“Just sleep already. Clear thinking and mental strength come from proper rest.”

“I see. Since when did you develop such severe sleeping habits?”

“……”

This bastard?

It was a meaningless little jab, but my eyes snapped open anyway.

“Hey, it only happened once. You hold grudges way too long.”

“Are you unaware of your own sleeping habits?”

“What? Why? What did I do now?”

“Hmm… Never mind.”

There are two ways to truly piss someone off.

The first is stopping halfway through what you were about to say.

“Are you going to talk properly or not?”

“You’d be better off just getting angry and kicking me.”

“What the hell are you even talking about? Hey!”

This guy was unexpectedly talented at irritating people.

No matter how much I questioned, threatened, or coaxed him, he stubbornly kept his mouth shut, and my fists started trembling.

Even if I punched him, it didn’t seem like I’d leave a scratch.

What was I supposed to do with that?

Then suddenly, something landed on my lap.

“Use it while you sleep.”

It was thick and warm.

Lothar’s jacket.

“…We’re continuing this conversation later.”

The warmth pulled the drowsiness back over me almost instantly.

I glared sharply at Lothar before pulling his jacket over my head.

With my vision blocked, sleep came even faster.

“Sleep well.”

His low voice sounded almost like a lullaby.

That was the last thing I heard.

***

Even after that, it took another full week to reach Graufels.

At first, we stayed in inns, but villages became harder and harder to find as time passed.

Still, I slept just fine in the tents the knights set up.

Lothar?

No idea.

He always went to sleep later than me and woke up earlier too.

The closer we got to the border region, the rougher the roads became.

One of this body’s few advantages really shined there.

I didn’t get motion sickness.

Even while the carriage rattled around like it was deliberately aiming for every bump in the road, I slept.

The day we arrived at Graufels wasn’t much different.

“Halt for a moment!”

“Hk!”

I jolted awake at the shout from outside the carriage.

Strange.

Just a moment ago it had still been early dawn.

Confused, I looked out the window and saw the sun already high in the sky.

How many hours did I sleep?

I started counting on my fingers one by one.

“Pfft.”

A muffled laugh escaped nearby.

I immediately looked up and saw Lothar wearing his usual indifferent expression.

What’s with him?

Why was he pretending he hadn’t laughed?

I glared at him suspiciously.

Then he slowly raised a finger and pointed toward my mouth.

“What?”

“You’ve got something there.”

“What?”

“Drool.”

“Ah, damn it. Embarrassing.”

I aggressively wiped my mouth with the sleeve of the jacket draped around me.

Only a second later did I realize the owner of the jacket was Lothar.

He’d handed it to me as a blanket substitute so many times that I’d forgotten.

When I glanced up, I saw Lothar looking away into empty space.

Hey. Your lips are twitching.

Pretending nothing had happened, Lothar turned back and reached out.

Then he rubbed the opposite side of my mouth several times with his thumb.

Wait.

I’d wiped the wrong side?

After withdrawing his hand, he spoke calmly.

“After observing you for several days, I think you may be more careless than expected.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that.”

“Really? It seems you lack loyal people around you like I do. You’re surrounded only by scheming flatterers.”

There was no confusion this time.

That was one hundred percent mockery.

I stared at him in disbelief, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of Lothar’s lips.

His fingers brushed lightly across my lips as he greeted me quietly.

“Welcome to Graufels.”

Only then did I look back outside the window.

Beneath the raging snowstorm stood a towering fortress.

The Empire’s flag flew high atop the gray walls and tall watchtowers.

This was where the border guards who watched the frontier year-round were stationed.

It truly looked like the first gate protecting the northern borderlands.

Whether foreign races or monsters, anyone seeking the Empire’s prosperity had to break through this place first.

And the Fortress of Graufels had never once fallen.

Not since House Stauffen first settled here.

So they really are a family that only produces monsters.

Just looking at Lothar crushing carriage doors made that obvious.

The gates slowly opened.

The stopped carriages began moving again.

Still, the silence everywhere felt strange.

Well, it can’t be helped. Publicly, House Stauffen has already abandoned Lothar.

However—

“…There are flowers.”

At my murmur, Lothar looked outside too, and his expression changed strangely.

Then he knocked lightly on the carriage wall.

A signal to stop.

Soon after, Lothar stepped out of the carriage and looked down at his feet.

On the barren stone road lay a white, soft flower shaped like a star.

…No.

Not just one flower.

Following Lothar out of the carriage, I looked ahead along the path.

“Edelweiss?”

Flowers lined the road.

One after another.

“They’re resilient flowers that only grow in snowy mountain ranges.”

As he explained, Lothar bent down.

He began carefully gathering the edelweiss scattered along the road prepared for him.

For a prince, it looked oddly modest.

But I didn’t feel like stopping him.

This was the first time I’d ever seen him smile so openly.

So the prince really was loved in his own way.

Even at the Grand Temple, no one had ever welcomed me with such sincerity.

Someday, I’d make the Archbishop kneel and crawl between my legs.

I was busy planning grand revenge when—

Whoosh.

The moment I heard the sharp sound of something cutting through the air, Lothar ducked.

Thunk.

Something slammed into the ground where his neck had been just moments earlier.

That’s…

No matter how I looked at it, it was an arrow.

Straightening slowly, Lothar looked toward the direction the arrow had come from.

A dangerous smile I’d never seen before appeared on his face.

“What a grand welcome.”

His muttered voice was ice cold.

Had this guy actually been pretending to seem harmless around me all this time?

Not that he’d ever truly felt harmless.

Lothar’s gaze landed on the wall of the right tower.

Following it, I let out a dry laugh when I saw the person aiming a bow at him.

“Is everyone in this family insane?”

Ash-brown hair whipped wildly in the wind atop the wall.

A tall figure with a massive body made almost entirely of muscle.

Nothing had changed since the last time I’d seen her.

Her tiger-like fierceness was exactly the same too.

She kind of looks like Lothar.

Then she shouted down at her nephew.

“Lothar, you idiot bastard!”

Ah, yes.

Their personalities definitely seemed different.

Waving the bow in her hand, the Marchioness continued hurling abuse without pause.

“If you were going to get imprisoned anyway, you should’ve at least cut off one of Maximilian’s fingers first! And you call yourself a man carrying Stauffen blood?”

“Shameful! Truly shameful! Your dead mother would rise from her grave if she saw you like this!”

Honestly, even family gatherings during holidays probably weren’t this intense.

As criticism rained down on him, the corner of Lothar’s mouth twisted further upward.

Ignoring every insult completely, he greeted her calmly.

“It’s been a long time, Marchioness.”

Wow.

Such polite and emotionless words somehow created even more distance.

What kind of nephew greeted his aunt after years apart like:

“Hello, Ms. Kim Sunja.”

“Hwhat?!”

The Marchioness’s face instantly turned bright red.