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Chapter 12
Secrets and Lies (4)
Berenice stood pressed against one side of the shadowed bedroom wall, watching Kaiden asleep beyond the canopy.
She was so tense that even breathing properly was difficult, but since she had trained herself to control her breathing while running for her life before her regression, it wasn’t a serious problem.
She had once held her breath for several minutes underwater to escape her pursuers — this much was nothing.
“Did I mishear? No… I’m sure I heard something.”
Keeping her eyes fixed on the faint movement beyond the canopy, Berenice steadied her posture, ready to leap out the window at a moment’s notice, and quietly surveyed the room.
Her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, so observing her surroundings wasn’t hard.
After scanning the area for a while longer, she let out a silent sigh.
No suspicious movement.
The sound she had heard earlier must have come from Kaiden shifting in his sleep.
…Even if it wasn’t, she couldn’t afford to waste more time here.
If what her father had found wasn’t in this room, she would have to search elsewhere in the lord’s manor.
“The time I can buy by pretending to be sick isn’t long.”
Before the second funeral began, she had to uncover both what her father had found in the manor and the secret hidden within Bleddyn’s sword.
She had to—for the sake of protecting her family.
With that resolve, Berenice took a quiet breath and began to move carefully.
Lowering her body, she crept forward on the tips of her toes—slowly, silently.
Each step was measured, each breath shallow. When she finally reached the edge of the bed, she could clearly make out Kaiden’s sleeping face through the thin fabric of the canopy.
A strikingly handsome man, with bold, well-defined features, lay still beyond the veil of gauze.
“So far, so good.”
Confirming the deep, steady rhythm of someone in deep sleep, Berenice exhaled softly and turned her gaze from him to the small table beside the bed.
Under the bed was out of the question—servants often cleaned there.
If anything was hidden, it would be in that nightstand.
With that thought, she gently grasped the drawer handle and slowly pulled.
Inside, she found a small, leather-bound notebook.
About the size of her palm, but two fingers thick, its worn surface bore the clear marks of frequent handling.
“My brother’s diary.”
Years ago, during one of Bleddyn’s visits to the capital, Lowell and Berenice had pooled their allowance to buy it as a gift.
She could still remember his warm smile as he patted their heads and said he would write in it diligently, even if not every day.
“This isn’t the time for nostalgia.”
Pushing away the wave of memories, she carefully took the diary, closed the drawer quietly, and straightened up.
She had found one thing. That was enough.
No need to be greedy—time to return to her room.
Even if there was something more hidden here, she couldn’t risk staying any longer.
Keeping her eyes on Kaiden’s sleeping face, she stepped backward carefully, widening the distance between them.
Just as quietly as she had entered, she slipped out the door, closing it behind her without a sound.
How much time passed in the silence that followed?
A small door to the adjoining chamber opened, and a man with dark green hair appeared.
So he was the source of the faint rustling Berenice had heard earlier.
He glanced briefly at the door Berenice had left through, then approached the bed and lifted one side of the canopy.
“Did you see her?”
“I didn’t see—only heard. She was quiet.”
“Shame. I did see her. A professional’s touch, that one.”
“You’re proud of spying on someone now?”
“Well, observation without being noticed is one of my specialities.”
Kaiden, who had seemed fast asleep, rose from the bed.
The man—As—helped him sit comfortably against the headboard and spoke.
“What could the precious young lady of the Marquis’ household hope to gain by searching her dead brother’s room?”
“Maybe she just came to admire my handsome face.”
“Do you know self-delusion can be a disease?”
“So you’re saying I’m ugly? Me? How dare you?”
“…I didn’t say that.”
Those crimson eyes glimmering in the darkness—As could never quite get used to them.
He pulled out a small medicine packet from his coat and handed it to Kaiden.
It was the medicine given by the Marquis’ physician.
Naturally, no matter how dire his condition, a member of the royal family couldn’t take unknown medicine unless it was prescribed by an Imperial doctor.
If it were a matter of life and death, perhaps it would be different—but the poison known as Tears of Sis caused pain, not immediate death.
To prove it wasn’t poisoned, the Marquis’ servants had even made a servant drink the same medicine under watch.
Still, Kaiden had only pretended to take it and secretly set it aside to have its ingredients analyzed.
And the one he trusted to do that was, of course, As.
He had grumbled that chemistry wasn’t his field—but even in the Imperial capital, he would have been the first to volunteer to verify it.
“It contains only painkillers and a mild sedative. The antidote, they say, is being prepared.”
“…They can make an antidote that fast?”
“The physician is quite skilled. If the Marquis’ house hadn’t sponsored him through the academy, Your Highness would’ve surely recruited him yourself.”
Like you, Kaiden thought.
As had been an orphan—a commoner who had entered the Imperial Academy as the top student and never once lost that position until graduation.
Everyone had said his low birth would limit his rise.
But Kaiden had been watching him since his academy days—and one rainy night, he had literally picked him up off the street, drenched like a stray cat, and made him his aide.
When others mocked As for being “the prince’s pet,” Kaiden had been so offended that he’d used the Crown Prince’s influence to grant him the noble surname Yonger.
“You know, I think your self-congratulation skills get sharper by the day.”
“Hardly. Now please take your medicine. How can someone so ill not even groan once? Are you even human?”
“Do royals look human to you?”
“…Now you’re just delirious from pain.”
The faint self-mocking smile on Kaiden’s lips disappeared quickly.
As pretended not to notice and tucked the empty packet into his coat.
“About the antidote—while the physician is certainly talented, I think the young lady of the Marquis’ house had a hand in it as well.”
“A hand in it?”
“I’ll need to confirm, but apparently, after the young lady visited the dispensary, the physician changed one of the ingredients. Seems he began testing it immediately afterward.”
Kaiden’s eyes narrowed slightly.
A skilled doctor changing his formula just because of something she said?
And for medicine meant for a royal?
Leaning back, he stared at the point where the white canopy’s fabric met overhead.
From the first moment they met, nothing about that woman had been ordinary.
“Find out exactly what happened. And why she came sneaking into this room tonight.”
His gaze dropped to the nightstand beside the bed.
What did she take from there?
Berenice had done her best to mask every sound—but Kaiden’s hearing was exceptional.
This was the man who could pick out the flap of a bird’s wings over the din of a battlefield.
“As.”
“Yes?”
“You’re a very competent aide, aren’t you?”
“…That question sounds dangerous, but for Your Highness, yes, of course I am.”
“Then find out exactly what the Marquis’ daughter took from that drawer.”
“It looked like… a book. Or a notebook of some sort.”
“I need a definite answer.”
“…Next time, take Sir Gibson instead.”
“You think Ben Gibson could handle something that requires subtlety?”
Ben Gibson—the captain of Kaiden’s elite Black Lion Guard.
The son of his childhood nanny, practically raised alongside him.
Loyal beyond reproach—but a bit too boisterous.
A knight who would do anything for his master, but not exactly the type for quiet investigation.
As knew this well; his complaint was half-hearted at best.
In truth, he liked being relied upon by his master.
“Go.”
“I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
He said that, but As would undoubtedly keep watch long after Kaiden drifted off.
For now, the Marquis’ people treated Kaiden with courtesy—but loyalties could change as easily as the wind.
With As’ help, Kaiden lay back again.
As the medicine began to take effect, his eyes slowly closed.
Images drifted through his mind—white snow, a black cloak, silver-white hair, and eyes so deep an amber they could be mistaken for gold—
—and then, with his consciousness fading, they sank into darkness.
