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Chapter 6
Theodore spoke with a pleasant smile.
“Actually, I was planning to tell you once you woke up. Compared to the place you stayed before, the environment here isn’t so good, is it? I worried your body might grow weaker… and now, with what just happened, all the more so.”
But then, as if biting down, a faint vein appeared on the woman’s jaw.
“How about returning to the Imperial Palace with the Royal Guard to rest and recuperate? I think it would be best to leave in about a week.”
“…What?”
“……”
‘What?’
Veladis rolled her eyes, glaring at Theodore with her silver brows knit tightly together in dissatisfaction.
‘Ah…!’
Then, as if she had just remembered something, she added:
“…sir.”
“Ha.”
A laugh slipped out of him, more scoff than amusement.
Her lips pressed tightly together.
After taking a deep breath, she straightened her back as though making some grand resolution.
Then, bypassing Theodore, she looked straight at the duke.
“I like it here. I want to stay here.”
The commander of the Royal Guard immediately chimed in.
“As expected, Your Highness! Then, according to your will, we too shall remain here.”
At those words, Veladis’s brows twisted sharply.
Theodore silently observed the dramatic change in her expression.
“No. You all should leave now.”
“Your Highness?”
“I think that’s more than enough.”
A curt dismissal, sharp and final.
Theodore interjected, watching her.
“Are you saying you want to remain here alone?”
The pink eyes that met his again sparkled like glass beads.
“Why?”
“Life here is—”
“You gathered all sorts of people here because that life was so unpleasant, and now you’re trying to say it’s comfortable?”
At his gentle but pointed probing, her pink eyes flickered in confusion.
‘Watching her fluster is amusing, but…’
Unfortunately for her, Theodore was the type never to let go once he had the advantage.
“Why?”
He asked again, but in truth, he had no intention of accepting any answer she might give.
He would make her leave.
So that Calypse would not be ruined any further.
Even if it meant their deaths in the end.
But then—her renewed resolve was suddenly cut short.
“Because here…!”
Her voice rang out boldly.
But contrary to her tone, her face twisted in hesitation.
Her lips clamped shut, as if desperately searching for the right words.
Because here…?
Just what was she about to say? Theodore wondered.
Veladis’s mind, meanwhile, was a battlefield.
[Repeat after me! Just say what I tell you!]
Opaniel had told her, “You don’t know humans—so say this, it’ll make him closer to you.”
[‘Because here… my darling is!’]
My darling is my darling is—!
Is that really right?!
Driven mad by Opaniel’s relentless urging, Veladis finally opened her mouth, resigned to whatever might come.
“M-my… darling…?”
[No! Cancel, cancel!]
“……”
If she never saw that bastard again, it would be too soon.
[Looks like Theodore doesn’t like the word ‘darling.’ Boo-hoo.]
She truly despised him.
As Theodore froze cold as ice at the word “darling,” Veladis felt only bitter disillusionment toward Opaniel.
I was the idiot for listening to him in the first place.
[Ugh, dig through her memories already! Look at his eyes—he’s about to kill you!]
But no matter how much she searched, there was no proper form of address to be found.
The deceased Veladis had only ever referred to Theodore vaguely, with awkward words like “um…” or “excuse me….”
Then, all at once, Veladis realized how absurd it was that she was even worrying about something like this.
Out of all things, I’m stressing over this?
Sensing something off, Opaniel suddenly shouted in panic:
[Don’t do it! For heaven’s sake, shut that mouth!]
Shut up, yourself.
“Theodore.”
Instantly, a silence colder than when she had said “darling” descended.
But Veladis only straightened her gaze, eyes firm.
What? So what.
Calling him Theodore—it was just his name. What was the big deal?
“Because here, Theodore, you are.”
You’re my 0.1%. Like hell I’d go anywhere without you. Where do you think you’re sending me?
Of course…
“…sir.”
“Ah.”
His reaction wasn’t exactly good.
A laugh—half scoff, half sigh—slipped from Theodore as he turned his head forward.
He looked straight ahead, then up toward the ceiling, before finally tilting his head askew to peer down at Veladis.
Their eyes clashed, and the silence between them grew heavier still.
“Little Duke.”
The silence broke only when the duke himself called out, as if to caution Theodore.
“So, it’s because I am here, you say?”
“……”
“I see.”
Veladis held her breath, afraid even to exhale.
Theodore murmured:
“In that case, so be it.”
After all, it was the command of the one holding Calypse’s lifeline.
Just then—
“Your Grace!”
The audience chamber doors swung open without warning as a knight rushed in.
“What is it!”
At the duke’s demand, the knight snapped to attention and reported.
“Word from Mount Valhalla! The Miasma is spreading rapidly—near the duchy’s water source, of all places.”
The Miasma that appeared sixty years ago.
At first, it had been called merely the “black fog.”
But it hadn’t taken long to realize that it corrupted everything in the world.
Humans, beasts—even water itself.
Nothing was safe from its taint.
Once water was corrupted, every land it touched would be ruined.
And all who lived, grew, and were born upon that land would wither.
Before the report was even finished, Theodore was on his feet.
“I’ll go.”
It was as though he had instantly organized everything he needed to do, and in what order.
The duke gave a firm nod, his gaze steady upon his grandson.
“Go, then.”
That brief exchange seemed sufficient between them.
Theodore strode out, his knights falling in line behind him one by one.
And then, her eyes suddenly locked with those of a knight of extraordinary build.
[That’s him. The body I originally meant to put you in.]
“!”
The one said to wield a sword as big as a child’s body with one hand—his forearms as thick as her thighs…!
“We should finish our conversation.”
A deep, heavy voice broke through Veladis’s spiraling thoughts.
Startled, she turned her head to see the duke watching her intently.
“Would it not be best to recover for a time in the Imperial Palace where you were born and raised? Are you saying you do not wish to go?”
It struck her then—she had spent so long speaking with Theodore that this was the first time she had truly faced the duke like this.
Was it her frail body?
How strange, to feel such weight from a mere human—an aging one at that.
Like an ancient tree weathered by centuries of storms, the duke’s enduring strength emanated from every fiber of him.
“You told the Royal Guard to return. Does that mean you no longer need them as your escort? Or…”
The eyes of a man who might not live even a hundred years seemed bottomless as the abyss.
“…does it mean you plan to summon another escort?”
“Your Grace! Are you pressing Her Highness so harshly? She is already unwell, and—!”
“Is it difficult to answer?”
The commander’s protest was easily drowned out by the duke’s voice, sharp as frost.
His overwhelming presence pressed down on the room, drawing every gaze to Veladis—the one who had to endure it.
She fell silent, as if carefully choosing her words.
And so it was.
The moment stretched strangely still, as though not only the air but time itself had ceased to flow.
All the noise fell away, leaving only the duke and Veladis in the hall.
The frail young woman, enduring the duke’s stern scrutiny.
The retainers stared at her, spellbound.
Silver hair spilled over her thin back like a glimmering tide, her translucent face harmonious and radiant.
Yet it wasn’t her beauty that held them so transfixed.
It was something else—something subtly, inexplicably different.
As if the princess before them was not the same one they had always known.
