INTEC 45

Chapter 45

“Lie down. We’ll start from the lower abdomen.”

“Y-yes….”

Kaiserten gently infused mana into Roabellin as he pressed on her main qi-blood points as carefully as he could.

Whether it was because he was using mana or for some other reason, Roabellin felt that his hands touching different parts of her body were much warmer than she had expected. A strange feeling crept over her, but she tried hard not to think about it that way.

‘This is treatment, treatment. It’s nothing strange. But… does mana normally feel warm? Or is it… Kai’s hands that are hot?’

Rather than completely untangling her deeply knotted qi-blood that had accumulated over a long time, Kaiserten only calmed the parts that had suddenly gone wild due to the side effects of the tea. Thinking that she wouldn’t know he was carefully adjusting things so as not to restore all of her mana at once made his heart feel heavy.

For her part, Roabellin couldn’t focus solely on the treatment either. Every time his hand touched her body, her face felt inexplicably hot. Still, as his hands moved from point to point, the pain gradually faded and her body began to relax.

‘Wow… so it really works. I honestly half-doubted it. Ah, this feels good… it’s like my body is sinking deeply into the bed….’

After pressing all over her body and soothing her qi-blood, Kaiserten finally let out a long breath and withdrew his hands.

It wasn’t because of using mana—rather, he was exhausted from having to ignore his instincts that kept rising up and focus only on treatment.

“Hoo… It seems to be done.”

Thanks to his warm hands easing her qi-blood all over her body, Roabellin had grown drowsy and had unknowingly drifted halfway into sleep.

“Mm…”

Kaiserten looked down at her face as she lay defenseless on the edge of dreams. Her pale cheeks, straight nose, and full lips were all lovely. He tried hard not to look toward her body, clothed only in her undergarments.

After gazing at her for a moment, Kaiserten took off his shirt and lay down beside her. Just lying next to her made his heart react. He couldn’t take his eyes off her face beside him.

‘I want to hold her right now, but… I promised that tonight I’d really just let her sleep.’

Feeling regretful, Kaiserten reached out and pulled Roabellin by the waist. Her sleeping body came close to him without resistance and pressed against him.

“Mmm…”

Roabellin shifted slightly at the movement, but she didn’t wake up, as if she were sleeping deeply.

“Hoo…”

Kaiserten took a deep breath to calm his wildly beating heart. Even so, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Though he lay there with his eyes closed, instead of falling asleep, his mind only grew clearer.

After the long night passed and before morning came—at dawn—Roabellin opened her eyes on a wide, comfortable bed. A ceiling different from her usual one came into view.

‘Huh…? Where am I…? Gasp.’

Her mind snapped awake as if struck by lightning. In an instant, last night’s events flashed before her eyes.

‘Did I really just fall asleep like that?! Do you have no sense of caution at all?’

No matter that he was her first love, “Kai,” he was still a man—and she was shocked at herself for sleeping so soundly. She hurriedly checked her body just in case, but she was still dressed exactly as she had been the night before, in her underclothes.

‘Ah… nothing happened after I fell asleep. Kai really kept his promise.’

She felt relieved, then suddenly remembered that this was Kaiserten’s bed.

‘Ah! But where is Kai?!’

She quickly looked around the bed, but he wasn’t there. Getting up, she surveyed the spacious bedroom and spotted him lying on the sofa far away.

‘Why is he sleeping over there instead of in his own bed?’

Roabellin had no way of knowing that he had been unable to sleep because of his pounding heart beside her and had eventually fled to the sofa.

‘I should leave quickly… If someone finds me like this, it’ll really be a disaster.’

If she were discovered, there would be no escape—she would immediately become the emperor’s concubine. It would be no different from being trapped in the imperial palace forever.

Quietly putting on her maid uniform, Roabellin tiptoed out and closed the door without a sound.

‘If the palace staff misunderstand, what would Kai say? Would he correct them and say he didn’t sleep with me? Or… would he use that misunderstanding to make me stay in the palace?’

Until now, she had only run toward her own goal of having the emperor’s child and escaping, so she had never considered Kaiserten’s position.

‘At the festival before, I know Kai liked me. But I ran away from him, and the night before last I rejected him again. Would Kai… still want someone like me? What does he really feel about me?’

Thinking about his position for the first time made her feel strange. But she set aside the expectations that kept rising and returned to reality.

‘No. The emperor’s marriage is strongly political anyway. No matter how Kai feels, he’s the emperor. Realistically, it’d be hard for him to take someone he believes is a commoner as anything higher than a low-ranking concubine.’

Though she was a young woman who had just come of age, Roabellin had lived through many hardships and didn’t indulge in unrealistic dreams. That was why it was also hard for her to take Kaiserten’s confession too seriously.

‘A young man burning with passion can say anything. It might just be something said on impulse. And besides, he’s a man in a position where he can take any woman he wants if he wishes. Don’t take everything so seriously. It’s better for me to filter it out and let it go.’

An emperor who, at twenty-three, was leading a great empire splendidly. Just his power alone was enough to make any woman waver—and on top of that, he was an attractive man with sculpted looks and a subtle sensual air.

‘Roa, don’t forget your goal.’

As she thought of Kai, the image of his face sleeping on the sofa a moment ago—looking a little tired—came to mind. Then, suddenly, Roabellin realized something.

‘Ah… come to think of it, the emperor used his own mana to treat a maid himself?’

In the imperial palace, he could have summoned court physicians at any time, and even for magical matters, there were palace mages. Yet he had exhausted his own strength to personally treat a mere maid.

Inside Roabellin, the idea that “Kai’s feelings are genuine” raised its head again, but she quickly brushed it aside.

‘Don’t think too deeply about it. Still, it’s such a relief I was able to leave quietly. No one seems to have seen me. Kai won’t make an issue of me leaving like this, right?’

Even though no one was watching, Roabellin muffled her footsteps and returned to her own room.

“Huff… huff….”

Breathing lightly, Estina managed to pass through the garbage yard and escape the central temple district. Just then, she spotted a tall person in a black robe walking toward her from ahead.

‘Looks like a man… Who is it?’

Having just escaped, she tensed up without realizing it.

‘If I run, I’ll look even more suspicious.’

Estina deliberately straightened her chest and kept walking calmly. Her heart pounded, but she maintained a composed expression.

Soon, the distance between them closed, and as the moon emerged from behind the clouds, her view brightened. When Estina glanced at him, their eyes met.

It was a familiar face—but someone she had never imagined meeting here. It was Iskal.

“Is… ah.”

She realized she had almost called him Prince Iskal and quickly shut her mouth. He was no longer a prince but the Grand Duke of Rexton, and since she had changed her appearance into that of a maid, she wasn’t supposed to recognize his true identity.

It had been eight years, but Iskal had hardly changed, and she recognized him at a glance.

‘The last time we met was at the magic academy on the day the final vacation before the annihilation began. But why is Your Highness here…?’

Estina considered greeting him as “Maria,” the alias she had used at the magic academy, but then remembered that she had changed her appearance again.

‘Ah, he’s never seen me like this… so he won’t recognize me.’

She didn’t know why he was here, nor whether he was connected to the destruction of the Hertenes family, nor whether he was an ally or an enemy. She couldn’t recklessly reveal herself—especially since she was secretly inside the royal palace.

So Estina pretended not to know him and tried to pass by. At that moment, Iskal spoke.

“Maria.”

Startled, Estina stopped in her tracks.

‘I changed my face—how did he recognize me?’

In fact, Iskal was not only the Tower Master and the Grand Archmage of the Prahenfeld Empire’s imperial palace, but also served as an advisory mage to the Aventador royal palace.

Because he had to go back and forth between the magic tower and the palace, he visited the Aventador royal palace irregularly. Of course, the fact that he held the positions of Tower Master and Imperial Grand Archmage at the same time was a secret in the Aventador palace.

The current Grand Archmage of the Aventador palace was also from the magic tower and was one of Iskal’s disciples. Keeping their origins secret, the two shared much confidential information, including palace secrets.

One of those tasks was detecting mana used within the palace. Although this was officially the responsibility of the magical department under the Grand Archmage, Iskal would often volunteer to handle it whenever he returned to the palace. In truth, it was a convenient duty for grasping what was happening secretly inside the palace.

Though divine power was said not to be detected in the Aventador palace, lately even the divine power used for temple affairs had been monitored. It was simply not considered a problem because it was an authorized power within the palace.

Because of that, Iskal had already identified the source of divine power that had been detected at the palace entrance two weeks earlier, not at the temple.

And today, at last, he met her again. He had intended to leave after confirming that Estina came out of the temple safely, but without realizing it, he was drawn toward her like a magnet.

“Maria. It’s been a long time.”

“Pro… Professor… You recognized me.”