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Chapter 69
Cassius. It was a name he had only ever seen a few times in old, discarded history books.
He was too busy dealing with the enemy in front of him to notice the hidden attack behind it. An abrupt death—a conclusion so hollow and futile that it made his teeth clench.
His consciousness drifted far away, and as though pulled into the past, Calix lost himself in a faint dream.
…In that dream of the past, Calix was a child.
Everywhere he went, the palace glistened with gold and was sprinkled with jewels that sparkled so bright they hurt the eyes. Around him were only things that others would envy.
Yet Calix had never once thought of the palace as comfortable.
The Empress Dowager wanted every member of the royal family under her control.
She couldn’t rein in her son—the Emperor was not someone to be subdued—so naturally, her arrows were aimed downward.
Thus, the Empress Dowager ceaselessly attempted to assassinate Calix, and each time, the Emperor sent someone to save him.
In that endless tug-of-war between the two, Calix witnessed countless deaths. It became ordinary for someone who was there yesterday to be gone today.
With such things repeating, he could never know whose servant stood at his side.
Was it an enemy trying to kill him? Or an ally trying to save him? Sadly, to him, everyone felt like an enemy.
Neither wealth nor power had ever tempted him. He could not die easily when he wanted to die, and when he wanted to live, he could not live in peace.
He was supposed to love the Empire, but even that he only forced himself to memorize, like reciting lines.
There was nowhere for his heart to settle. He couldn’t even find a reason to remain here.
Duties and responsibilities were heaped upon him, but he could not find a reason to bear them.
Was this fever something every royal had to endure? Or was saying he hated it merely a lazy excuse?
Was the constant urge to run away nothing more than a spoiled complaint?
“Your Highness Prince Calix. I am Duke Meyer Crescent of the Crescent family.”
A young man he met by chance in the corridor of the Prince’s Palace gave him a sly smile.
“My daughter has just entered the palace, so I came by to pay my respects.”
Calix regarded the duke’s forced smile with indifference.
The duke must have taken his reaction as permission to go on, for he continued with endless honeyed greetings. Calix soon turned his back on him.
Calix knew of the prophecy that had existed since the founding of the Empire. And he knew it could be fulfilled in his generation.
But the divine power granted to him was pitifully weak. With no will to wield it, power merely circled him briefly before leaving.
Even if he somehow ascended the throne, it was obvious he would quickly be devoured by another faction.
Thus, the Crescent family had better prospects elsewhere than to pin their hopes on Calix.
So why the duke bowed and scraped before him, Calix couldn’t understand. He thought it would benefit the duke’s house far more if he simply ignored him.
And so Calix passed several months without even once seeing the Crescent family’s young lady.
Should I try going that way today?
In his mind, he drew the palace map and the positions of the guards. Today, he wanted to test how quickly the watchers would react.
The hide-and-seek disguised as escape had already gone on for years inside the palace.
With his skill still lacking, it was difficult to fully shake off the guards. The unseen eyes watching him from afar were still there.
But if he kept gaining experience, maybe one day he really could leave the palace.
Not just the palace—perhaps he could even escape the Empire.
After weaving through routes of escape, he ended up at the small garden of the Empress’s Palace.
The cramped space was filled with so many yellow flowers it almost made him sneeze.
Calix stretched out his arm and plucked one blooming by the window. Its petals felt strangely familiar and beautiful.
And then—red eyes inside the window met his gaze.
…A person?
Calix was genuinely surprised.
After the First Empress died, the Emperor had left the Empress’s Palace abandoned. No guards, no attendants—this place should have been empty.
As he stood there stunned, the closed window slowly creaked open. Rusted hinges groaned until the window swung wide, and the red gaze became clearer.
The sun was unusually bright that day. In the cloudless warmth of spring, golden hair shone almost white.
Someone smaller, younger than him blinked twice before giving an awkward smile.
“Ah, h-hello…”
The stammered words were far too informal for palace speech, and awkward to the point of clumsiness.
“…Ah.”
The familiar hair color reminded Calix of Duke Crescent. Then this must be the Crescent family’s daughter.
Her name… was Lilith, if he recalled correctly—something he had half-heard and quickly forgotten.
“What are you doing here?”
Since she looked so much like an innocent child, Calix softened his tone.
He stepped onto the window ledge and bent his knees, leaning halfway inside though not fully entering.
Lilith was seated at the desk by the window, books stacked high upon it.
“I don’t know. I woke up, and I was here.”
Her red eyes shone with intelligence and clarity, contradicting her words. She showed not the slightest wariness toward someone she had surely never met before.
“Talk casually with me.”
He thought of himself as neither someone to be feared nor to be shown deference.
Lilith seemed to mull over his words.
“…Alright.”
But after much thought, her answer was still formal.
Hmm…
He had heard the Crescent bloodline always carried some kind of odd temperament. Yet this young lady seemed strangely mild.
Still, Calix didn’t have time to dwell on it.
The sound of footsteps in the distance must have been the watchers pursuing him.
Damn.
If he delayed any longer, his position would be revealed. Without even saying goodbye, Calix slipped away.
Why she was locked away alone in the Empress’s Palace, he didn’t know. He could have found out, but he didn’t care to.
Once out of sight, Calix forgot Lilith’s existence.
The vast palace was still the same, and his concern was himself, not her.
But not long after, taking a wrong turn brought him before Lilith again.
She was the same as before—reading books piled high by the narrow window.
So absorbed was she that she didn’t notice when Calix came near.
This time, he himself pushed open the tightly closed window.
“Hey.”
He greeted lightly, hoping she wouldn’t stand on ceremony again. Her red eyes turned to him.
“You’ve come again.”
Her tone sounded less than welcoming.
But Calix, used to everyone around him sounding that way, didn’t notice.
“Do you stay here all the time?”
He glanced briefly around the room.
It was cleaner than last time, but still smelled musty. There were more signs of use, yet it was still lacking compared to other places.
The unchanged furnishings gave him an uneasy feeling.
“…Have you ever been outside the Empress’s Palace?”
She quietly shook her head, and a sigh escaped him.
It was one thing for him, destined to inherit the throne, to be trapped this way—but to do the same to a little girl seemed cruel.
Did they bring her here only to abandon her?
The Emperor, certainly, and Duke Crescent as well—neither seemed like someone who would care for their daughter.
“Aren’t you bored?”
“I think it’s safest just to stay still.”
“…Hah.”
Anywhere in the palace was safe unless one was in his special situation. But in its own way, her answer was rational.
He didn’t have the courage to reach out to strangers himself. Yet leaving her like this felt too pitiful.
“I’ll come visit often.”
It was the only thing he could offer.
Of course, that pity was all his own assumption. He had never asked Lilith how she felt about her circumstances.
Maybe he was simply meddling where it wasn’t needed.
But at his words, Lilith blinked again and again.
Each time her lids opened and closed, her ruby eyes seemed to grow wider, revealing her emotions.
“…I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Seeing her reaction, he added one more line.
It wasn’t much, but it felt necessary to say it.
And suddenly, Calix wondered—maybe she was the only one in the palace who belonged neither to the Empress Dowager’s nor the Emperor’s side.
From then on, slipping past the watchers to visit the Empress’s Palace became his routine.
Sometimes he brought rare treasures. Other times, sweet desserts.
Lilith’s demeanor was not like that of an ordinary child. Listening to her words, she often sounded far more mature.
Yet strangely, she was overly sensitive to even the smallest threats. If anything seemed remotely dangerous, she would cut off her curiosity altogether.
No one in the Empire would dare harm her unless they wished for divine punishment. Her reactions were astonishingly cautious.
“Calix.”
As they saw each other more, Lilith naturally began to speak to him casually.
“Hold out your hand.”
When he obediently did, she placed something small in his palm.
It looked like a flat metal brooch adorned with yellow petals—the same flowers that bloomed all over the Empress’s garden.
“Do you know what this flower means?”
Calix stared blankly at her. He had never cared about flowers.
“It means safety.”
Her small voice whispered.
“Then shouldn’t you be the one to keep it?”
Safety was clearly most important to her—so it was a natural question.
But Lilith shook her head.
“You look like the one who’s in the most danger.”
Me? It wasn’t untrue, but to hear it from someone who looked far more fragile than him felt strange.
Calix let out a soft laugh at her words.
