Chapter 19
“I have something to tell you, Duke.”
Jaeger, who had been reaching for his dagger, flinched around the eyes. He turned his gaze and looked down at me with a grim expression.
His eyes asked, What nonsense are you about to spout now, speaking so formally?
I gave a faint, nervous laugh before opening my mouth.
“I want to formally apologize for my past behavior.”
Jaeger frowned.
“An apology?”
His gaze turned sharp in an instant.
A chill ran down my spine, but I didn’t retreat and continued.
“In truth, because of this recent incident, I lost all my childhood memories. That’s why only fragments remain here and there.”
“What?”
With a sharp motion, Jaeger pulled the dagger out of the wall of the cabin, his expression saying, What trick are you trying to pull now?
The timing’s weird. Did he just pull that out to stab me in the neck?
I hurriedly added, keeping my eyes fixed on the dagger.
“Ah, of course I’m not asking for forgiveness just because of my amnesia. Rather, I sincerely want to apologize to you, Duke, for the hurt I’ve caused.”
“Ha.”
Jaeger gave a cold laugh, sharp as moonlight.
“You can’t even remember properly, and yet you claim to apologize? Do you think that makes sense?”
Honestly, I expected that kind of response. An apology without recognition of one’s fault tends to sound hollow.
But if he asked why I bullied Roeni, or why I had sent assassins, I wouldn’t be able to answer — because I’m not the original Redria.
I could lie my way out, but if he happened to know details about Redria that I didn’t, it could backfire badly.
So, to calm him down, I decided to apologize while pretending to have lost my memories.
I lowered my gaze. I was terrible at acting, but maybe I at least looked like I was reflecting.
“I know I haven’t forgotten everything. I bullied Roeni, and that incident, too…”
My eyes flickered to the scar on his eyebrow. When our gazes met, sharp and piercing, I quickly looked away.
“I truly am sorry. Once we return, I intend to apologize to Roeni as well.”
“……”
Jaeger, still holding the dagger, pressed his lips into a thin line and stared at me. A moment later, he spoke in a voice cold as ice.
“…So you’re saying you’ve apologized, and therefore I should forget the past here and now?”
Sharper than I thought.
I glanced up at him and forced myself to smile as best I could. The corner of my mouth twitched awkwardly.
“Ha.”
Was that laugh because I looked ridiculous?
Jaeger let out a bitter chuckle and ran a hand down his face.
“Still the same.”
Exhaling deeply, he turned his gaze back on me. His eyes, filled with contempt, glittered like blades.
“So, is this how you deceived His Highness and the Tower Lord as well? With lies like these?”
“What?”
“Your way of beguiling people and stabbing them in the back — it no longer works on me.”
“…?”
Beguiling? No longer works?
What was he talking about?
He was speaking as if he’d actually been deceived and betrayed by Redria in the past.
My face must have shown complete bewilderment, because Jaeger wiped his blade clean on his shoulder and sheathed it in his leather holster, as if I wasn’t worth dealing with.
“There’s no need to approach me unnecessarily. As promised, I’ll simply watch over you until the escape.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away.
I stared at his back in disbelief, then snapped out of it.
He just made me out to be some manipulative witch who bewitches men.
Annoyance surged, and I glared at the back of his head.
If I let it go, I wouldn’t be able to sleep for days.
If he’s going to act like this, then there’s no need for me to keep being meek, right?
Since even my apology hadn’t worked, crawling any lower wouldn’t change a thing.
Just as Jaeger was opening the back door, I called out to him.
“Don’t we still have something to settle?”
He stopped and looked back.
“Settle?”
“I apologized, but you still haven’t thanked me.”
His lips curved into a disbelieving smile.
“…What did you just say?”
“I saved you, so you should at least say thank you. I don’t think I’ve heard those words from you yet.”
Because, in truth, I had saved him.
In the original story, Jaeger left the Sacred Forest while searching for the Saint and was bitten by a zombie.
With quick judgment as a knight, he amputated his own hand to prevent infection, but he couldn’t avoid permanent disability.
Afterward, he always wore a prosthetic hand and gloves. When greeting the Saint, he would try to hide his hand against his chest. During meals, he only ever used one hand.
And when the male leads asked the Saint to dance, Jaeger would stand behind her, hands clasped behind his back.
His desperate fight for survival had become nothing more than a handicap before the woman he loved. He could never reach the noble, holy Saint.
Jaeger’s face twisted with humiliation under my gaze.
The atmosphere grew heavier, and for a moment I regretted speaking, but I wasn’t going to back down.
“What, is it too much for your pride to thank a parasite like me? Can’t you say that much to an old friend?”
“Who ever said we were friends?”
His face contorted fiercely, and he growled.
Why’s he reacting so strongly to the word friend?
He was terrible at psychological games — he practically displayed his triggers.
“Why not? We were childhood friends. Child. Hood. Friends.”
“…Ha.”
Jaeger gave a cold laugh and glanced around the empty air, as if to calm himself. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath, controlling his anger.
“I don’t believe for a second that you’ve lost your memories. But since you insist on deceiving me, I’ll tell you this once.”
His pale eyes, like morning clouds, fell on me. They reminded me of slender, elegant branches.
“I have never once considered you a friend.”
What?
My posture faltered.
What do you mean? In the original, you were childhood friends with Roeni.
I quickly racked my brain.
Come to think of it, Jaeger’s emotions did seem too intense for mere betrayal by a friend. What I sensed from him was deeper, heavier — contempt and loathing.
If that stemmed not just from betrayal, but from a wound in his heart—
No way…
The thought slipped from my mouth before I realized it.
“Did you… like me when we were kids?”
Jaeger’s eyes blazed with a murderous glare.
No… it can’t be.
But that look was almost an admission. It felt like being struck over the head.
“I thought you liked the Saint since childhood.”
His eyes, cold as a northern wind, swept over me.
“Your nonsense is more than enough, even without your supposed memory loss. Don’t you dare trouble Lady Roeni.”
With a sharp click of his tongue, Jaeger strode into the cabin as though he couldn’t stand to share the same space with me.
“…What the—? He really did?”
I stood there dumbfounded, then let out a hollow laugh.
Clack.
After Redria closed the back door, the cabin fell silent.
Rihad slowly opened his eyes and looked at the blanket wrapped around his body.
He chuckled softly.
It was hot and stuffy, but he had no desire to throw it off.
Just as Rihad was about to close his eyes again in peace—
“Why don’t you stop pretending to sleep? It’s nauseating.”
Rihad looked toward the bunk bed.
Sien had pushed himself halfway up, lazily fixing his hair.
“You’re one to talk. With your black heart, playing the frail and innocent one. I nearly gagged.”
“And you pretending to care for Lady Ria while not trusting her one bit — that’s revolting.”
“Pot, meet kettle. You don’t even like her, yet you fawn over her constantly.”
“Quite the tongue you’ve got. I have a gun, you know.”
Ha!
Rihad gave a cynical laugh.
“After all the years I blocked your attacks, do you think I can’t handle that?”
“You’ve never beaten me.”
“And I’ve never lost, either.”
“Does telling yourself that help you sleep at night?”
“Paul was right: if your head’s empty, your body suffers. I sparred with you in place of the previous Tower Lord, and now you’re delusional.”
“Ha, if not for your special ability, you’d already—”
Sien cut himself off, eyes widening.
Ah.
A sly smile crept across his lips. Resting his elbows on the railing, he propped his chin on the back of his hand.
“So the only ones who know your ability are the Emperor, your secretary Paul, and me — thanks to countless duels. Just a handful of others, right?”
Sien’s eyes curved pleasantly as he smiled sweetly.
“If Lady Ria were to find out, she’d call you a monster and run awa—”
Whoosh—!
Thud!
A dagger whirled through the air and nicked Sien’s cheek.
A thin line appeared on his pale skin, slowly beading with blood.
Still smiling, Sien touched the cut with the back of his hand.
Rihad’s golden eyes gleamed predatory as he growled.
“You’re awfully cheeky today. Watch your tongue, Tower Lord.”
One of Sien’s brows twitched.
Then, with a hollow laugh, his expression hardened.
“And if I don’t?”
His once-gentle voice dropped suddenly, sharp and cold.
