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Chapter 4
It seemed that two maids were washing Kevenriack’s body.
It might have been mistaken for ordinary bathing service, but something about it felt wrong.
For one thing, it was the middle of the night.
And for another, she could hear the snickering laughter of other adults.
Reina opened the door a little wider.
And then—
There was a child inside a wooden bathing tub.
Moonlight streamed through the window and illuminated the tub, while white steam rose through the light.
But it wasn’t coming from the bathwater.
It was coming from the child’s mouth.
“Hey, His Highness is freezing. Put some hot water in.”
“Where am I supposed to get hot water? Besides, His Highness likes bathing in cold water. Isn’t that right, Your Highness?”
“……”
“Of course. Something like this is nothing to a noble member of the great Heteroben imperial family.”
“May eternal glory shine upon the glorious Heteroben!”
The maids and servants scattered throughout the room smoked cigarettes while laughing at the child.
The way they laughed without a trace of guilt made it seem as though they were very accustomed to situations like this.
Reina’s heart dropped.
Her hands trembled.
[Do not forgive them.]
Someone whispered from the depths of her consciousness.
But separately from that, Reina felt as though the blood in her entire body had turned cold.
An unbearable rage began to rise within her.
It wasn’t directed at the mysterious being that had dragged her into the novel.
Nor was it directed at the imperial palace or the people who had abused the child.
It was directed at herself.
Reina.
No—An Do-hwa.
“……”
What had she said that morning?
To the child trembling in that ice-cold bathtub.
Hadn’t she given him medicine and casually said something like,
“If you get hurt somewhere later, put this on.”
Because that was how the original story was written.
Because he was bound to get hurt later.
“What…”
What part of this was an original setting?
What part of this was a villain’s backstory?
The child raised his head.
His eyes met Reina’s as she stood on the threshold.
Round blue eyes.
Pure eyes containing nothing but surprise at having discovered her.
Abuse and neglect were simply a part of the child’s everyday life.
‘Everyday life?’
Reina ground her teeth.
Then she began walking toward one particular place.
Her steps were firm and utterly without hesitation.
“Wh-Who are you?!”
Step.
She could see the child’s pale complexion.
Steam puffed from the little head, his hair completely soaked.
“This is not a place where just anyone can enter—Aaaagh!”
Step.
His emaciated upper body was so thin that the outlines of his bones were visible.
And already, fresh wounds had appeared all over his body.
“P-Please, save me…”
Step.
His skin was red and inflamed.
His body trembled like a leaf from the pain.
Yet—
“Forgive me… Please, forgive me!”
Step.
Even then, the child remained strangely calm.
Just like the horrifying words written on a page:
‘Abuse was his everyday life.’
Reina stopped in front of the wooden bathing tub.
She could no longer hear the maids and servants begging for mercy.
They had all been swallowed by Reina’s magic.
Only silence remained between the two of them.
“…Reina?”
Clack. Clack.
The child’s jaw trembled so violently that his teeth knocked together.
Her name slipped through his lips, which had split open once again and were stained with blood.
So you knew.
You knew the name of the person whose body I had taken.
I thought of you as nothing more than a character.
But you had been looking at me.
‘Why did it take me this long to realize?’
The Kevenriack standing before her was neither a villain nor a tyrant.
He was simply an eight-year-old child.
A child who had never experienced anyone’s affection and had come to believe that such absurd abuse was simply normal.
Reina lifted the trembling Kevenriack out of the tub.
She dried the water from his body with magic.
Then she knelt on one knee in front of him and wrapped him tightly in the outer robe she had been wearing.
“…Why are you crying?”
Kevenriack asked.
Reina kept her eyes fixed on her hands as she tied the robe around him.
“Because I’m sorry.”
“Ah…”
A clumsy sound of realization escaped the child’s lips.
It wasn’t that he was indifferent to Reina’s tears.
He simply didn’t know how to react in a situation like this.
Kevenriack had never been comforted by anyone before.
“Your Highness.”
Reina pulled Kevenriack tightly into her arms.
Her lowered silver eyes burned quietly.
What did a villain’s backstory matter?
More important than some promise she could barely even remember was making sure the child in front of her didn’t get hurt.
‘Are you watching?’
Reina thought the question toward the mysterious being that had been interfering with her.
It didn’t matter even if it couldn’t hear her thoughts.
This was a kind of vow she was making to herself.
‘Was what I promised you to protect the ending of this novel? The protagonists’ happy ending? If that’s what it is, then I’ll protect it.’
But they wouldn’t be the only ones to have a happy ending.
There was the child in her arms, stiff and awkward because he wasn’t accustomed to the warmth of another person.
This child would be happy, too.
Reina made a firm decision.
“I’ll make it happen.”
There were two empires on the continent of Tan.
Seventy years ago, the two suns had gone to war in an attempt to devour one another.
And at last, only one sun remained in the sky, casting its brilliant light across the continent.
May eternal glory shine upon Heteroben!
The current emperor of the Betuzhenia Empire, Chainols Heteroben, had achieved the dream he had yearned for so desperately.
The hegemony of the continent was now in his hands.
And everything was thanks to the person sitting before him.
“Are you still thinking about your reward?”
The emperor asked as he dropped a sugar cube into his teacup.
At the end of his gaze sat a young-looking woman whose thoughts were impossible to read.
“You were the one who asked to see me first, so I assumed you wanted to discuss your reward for your achievements in the war.”
Reina Hart.
A woman with such monstrous talent that it was impossible to believe she was only eighteen years old.
No.
Age wasn’t even the issue.
There was no one with abilities like hers anywhere on the continent of Tan.
In fact, even if one searched the entire world, they would find no one like her.
She belonged neither to a magic tower nor to the imperial palace or any other organization.
Reina Hart was strong all on her own.
“That’s fine if that isn’t why you came. But you should also consider my position. I’ve kept you in the imperial palace under the pretext of training. Do you really think I asked you to train a few imperial mages for no reason?”
That was why he wanted to have her.
Even though he knew perfectly well that forcing her would only lead to trouble.
But how could he possibly hold onto someone who possessed neither greed for wealth nor ambition for honor?
“Do you truly intend to return to Hibei?”
“…I would like to take responsibility for the education of His Highness the Prince.”
Reina, who hadn’t said a single word since the tea had been served, finally spoke.
The emperor’s brown eyes turned toward her.
He was Kevenriack’s father, but there was not a single feature on his face that resembled the child.
The boy’s beautiful appearance, including his blue eyes and black hair, had all come from his Second Empress.
“The education of a prince. You mean the First Prince?”
“No.”
Reina shook her head at the emperor, whose expression had brightened.
“I would like to take responsibility for the education of His Highness the Fourth Prince. I believe that would be a suitable reward for me.”
“…The Fourth Prince.”
The emperor stroked his chin.
Indeed.
The report from the attendant he had sent to Reina several days ago hadn’t been baseless.
“She was paying close attention to the Fourth Prince’s detached palace. She also seemed displeased when I mentioned that Her Majesty the Empress did not think highly of the Fourth Prince.”
After hearing that report, it had taken the emperor a moment to remember who the Fourth Prince even was.
The child had been born from a single night of reckless passion after the emperor had been captivated by a woman’s beauty.
To be honest, he had practically forgotten the boy even existed.
Was he still alive?
‘And that child survived long enough to gain Reina Hart’s attention…’
An unexpected chess piece.
The emperor smiled darkly to himself.
“I hear that several servants working in the imperial palace disappeared overnight.”
“Is that so?”
The disappearance of a few servants.
Under normal circumstances, it was such a trivial matter that it would never have reached the emperor’s ears.
The problem was that the destination of those servants after leaving their quarters the previous night had been the detached palace of the Fourth Prince, who had recently caught the emperor’s attention.
“They must have run away. The lowborn are always doing things like rats, aren’t they?”
“I see.”
Reina responded to the emperor’s words with a formal acknowledgment in a completely emotionless voice.
“But there’s something strange. They left all their belongings behind. As if they had simply stepped out for a while.”
The emperor casually tossed a question toward Reina as she lifted her teacup.
“Did you kill them?”
Reina’s hand paused for a moment.
Then she brought the teacup to her lips as though nothing had happened.
It was a reaction that lasted only an instant, too subtle for an ordinary person to notice.
But Chainols Heteroben was no ordinary man.
He was the emperor.
Though all that remained of him now was greed and ambition, he had once lived on battlefields where he had repeatedly crossed the line between life and death.
There was no way he would miss such a reaction.
“I’m joking.”
The emperor smiled pleasantly.
The Fourth Prince’s detached palace, where the servants had supposedly gone last, was spotless.
There wasn’t a single drop of blood or scrap of flesh.
Apparently, it was possible to make people disappear as though they had simply evaporated.
It was obvious that Reina Hart was responsible.
But what did the lives of a few insignificant insects matter?
It was enough that his question had put some pressure on Viscount Hart.
‘A joke? Does the emperor want me to tremble in fear?’
But it wasn’t even a threat.
She was merely a little irritated because becoming the child’s teacher was proving to be more troublesome than she had expected.
“…Your Majesty, forgive me, but I would appreciate it if you would simply tell me what you actually wish to say. Are you changing the subject because you believe I am unqualified to become His Highness the Fourth Prince’s teacher?”
“What are you talking about? How could someone with the blood of a dragon be unqualified to teach the Fourth Prince?”
Reina fell silent again.
The emperor rested his clasped hands on his thighs.
His movements were relaxed.
“Fortunately, there’s no one else listening in this room. Now that your master is dead, this is a secret known only to you and me.”
Thirteen years ago, an old mage had brought a young child before the newly crowned emperor.
“Your Majesty, this child is a dragon quarter.”
Dragons were said to be the most superior race of all.
However, their numbers were exceedingly small, and because they rarely left their nests, sightings of dragons were extraordinarily rare—perhaps once every several centuries.
A race regarded almost like a myth.
And this girl carried their blood.
The emperor had initially refused to believe it.
But there was no other way to explain Reina Hart’s absurd magical power and astonishing growth.
“A dragon quarter doesn’t age once they reach adulthood, does she? Until the day she dies. How enviable.”
The day Reina first carried out one of his orders, the emperor had been overwhelmed by an immense sense of superiority.
As he watched Reina kneel before him and present him with the enemy’s banner, he made a silent vow.
He would make her his.
“If I become the Fourth Prince’s teacher, will I remain in the imperial palace?”
“I would like to take him with me to Hibei.”
“You’re not planning to take the prince hostage, are you?”
“No.”
Reina answered the emperor’s questions without changing her expression, but her irritation was steadily building, nearly reaching its breaking point.
‘He’s being incredibly condescending. If he was going to act like this, why did he even offer me a reward?’
A month ago, hadn’t he clearly told her so?
That he would grant her anything she wanted as a reward for her achievements in the war.
If he had said that, he should simply honor his word.
Why did he have to talk so much?
But she needed the emperor’s permission if she wanted to get Kevenriack out of the imperial palace safely.
‘Patience. It’s annoying, but just endure it.’
While Reina suppressed her bubbling irritation, the emperor continued.
“That would be troublesome. You, as a dragon quarter, are far too powerful for me to make an enemy of you.”
“You have nothing to worry about.”
“Perhaps. But one never knows what the future holds. Viscount Hart, did you know? Your master is dead now, but he left something with me.”
The emperor took a small glass vial from inside his robes and placed it on the table.
“Your master gave this to me. As a way to control you, since you have dragon blood flowing through your veins.”
“…A Subjugation Potion.”
The true Reina Hart’s memories, which An Do-hwa had inherited before her possession, contained the answer as to what was inside that glass vial.
At her words, the emperor couldn’t hide his delight.
A sinister smile spread across his face.
At last, the moment he had been waiting for had arrived.
“Drink it.”
He smiled.
“And swear eternal loyalty to me. Then, whether it’s the Fourth Prince or any other prince, I’ll hand over whichever one you want.”
