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Chapter : 05
Inside the Serpent’s Mouth
Sharlophe slapped her own cheek sharply. Seeing that, Benjamin frowned.
“What are you doing?”
His gaze was sharp.
“Are you drunk?”
He even reached the conclusion, Is she acting like that because she’s drunk? Sharlophe smiled awkwardly. Heat gathered on her cheek.
“I’m not drunk.”
“Then you’re sober?”
Benjamin reached out. It was a casual gesture, yet his attitude was polite and restrained.
“It’s red.”
“Pardon?”
“Your cheek is red. Someone from Windsor wouldn’t have their cheek flush just from a little wine. And self-harm is a no. Especially if you’re staying in that house. Even if Duke Leandro looks indifferent, he worries a lot—if you did something like that in front of him, you’d get all kinds of attention.”
Sharlophe brushed his hand away. The friction as the backs of their hands collided stung more than she expected.
Why did I even come here again…? I almost forgot my original purpose after getting swept along like this! While she glanced at his hand with a dazed expression, Benjamin added in an offhand tone,
“I said it because you seem to avoid their attention.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“Did Aster let you come alone?”
“I slipped out without my family knowing.”
“Oh dear. As if they wouldn’t know….”
Benjamin trailed off, muttering something, but Sharlophe was lost in other thoughts and didn’t hear him. What did he just say? Why do I keep spacing out?
“Sharl. Where’s your mind at?”
Benjamin withdrew the hand he had extended and shook his head.
“You look like you didn’t hear a word.”
“Huh? I was thinking about something else.”
“Never mind. It was nothing important.”
Benjamin crossed his legs and looked down at her.
“Why do you look like that?”
“I feel like Your Highness is toying with me.”
Benjamin idly fiddled with the armrest of the sofa, bored.
“Sharl.”
He called her by the nickname again. The distance between them kept shrinking.
“I told you to stay on guard.”
Benjamin warned in a low voice.
“Don’t let me sway you.”
“……”
“Didn’t Aster warn you too? He told you not to get close to me.”
Benjamin was now openly exposing his own intelligence agents. Yet he remained relaxed, weaving a web around Sharlophe, who had come to him herself. Entangling. Slowly tightening.
“Are you crying?”
Sharlophe covered her mouth and laughed.
“No? Are you smiling?”
Benjamin reached out. His hand touched her eyelid.
He wiped away a tear with his fingertip, then touched it to the tip of his tongue. Then, rubbing at the corner of his mouth with that finger, he frowned.
“…Salty.”
“Benjamin.”
“Yeah?”
“Tears aren’t something you eat.”
Benjamin straightened up from the sofa as he replied.
“Sharl.”
“Yes?”
“The one who should be on guard here isn’t me. It’s you.”
Benjamin crushed something under his foot.
It felt as though what lay beneath that foot was the distance between the two of them.
“Your Highness seems to have forgotten that I’m from the Tuteur family. The Tuteurs support the Empress.”
“You’re a Windsor.”
“No. Half of my blood is Tuteur.”
“I wondered about that too. How did someone like you get born there? You don’t resemble them at all. If you look at you separately, you’re much closer to a Windsor. The way you speak, your gestures, even how you use your eyes.”
Sharlophe knew it well herself. She resembled Windsor, not Tuteur. That fact had provoked her biological father’s inferiority complex.
“I don’t resemble them.”
From a single strand of hair to every little detail, she resembled Windsor. It seemed that what dwelled in her blood was not Tuteur, but Windsor.
“That child looked like his father, though.”
“Was there another child in the Tuteur family besides you?”
Her biological father had another son.
“Ah, maybe it’s time I started looking….”
“For whom?”
“The people who should be taken to the Tuteur family instead of me.”
“Write down their names and details. I’ll find them for you.”
“Why?”
“Just returning what I’ve received.”
Benjamin handed her a blank slip of paper. Sharlophe jotted down some rough information and gave it back. Benjamin took it.
“Only these two?”
“Yes.”
“Then it won’t take long.”
Benjamin brushed his lips with his fingers and narrowed his eyes. Only then did he withdraw the gaze that had been fixed on her.
‘Boredom.’
Right now, everything seemed bothersome to him. His lips moved.
“Why is it?”
Benjamin touched his lips again, seized by a strange feeling.
“It feels like you’ve stuck your head into my mouth.”
“So did you catch your prey?”
“If you really had put your head into my mouth, I’d snap you up just like this.”
If you see me as prey, like a serpent, then I’m willing to become prey. I’d willingly let myself be eaten by that mouth.
“If you did catch that prey…”
What dwelled in her dark eyes was emptiness.
“Then hide me behind Your Highness’s shadow.”
Benjamin was the serpent type. The serpent opened its jaws and drooled.
“Where? In my mouth, or in my belly?”
“Either is fine. Your mouth or your belly. But if you put me in your belly, don’t digest me. You’ll get a stomachache if you eat me.”
As if offering her a final path of escape, Benjamin asked,
“Does Aster know you’re like this?”
“Don’t misunderstand. My uncle doesn’t know.”
“I know that much. Aster wouldn’t be sane if he brought you before me himself.”
Benjamin closed his lips. He swallowed the prey whole.
“What kind of downpour is this, so vicious?”
Outside, rain was pouring down. Aster set aside his monocle and opened the window. Perhaps because of the damp, his hair drooped languidly as if soaked with rainwater. The moisture felt bothersome. Rainwater pooled by the front gate.
“Sharl is late.”
As if reacting to that, Leandro turned his gaze outside.
“She’ll come when it’s time.”
“Aren’t you being too indifferent toward the child?”
Leandro closed his eyes and pressed at his eyelids.
“Then what should I have done?”
“It’s very late—tell her to go out once morning comes….”
“Don’t force her to stay. If you do, that child would cut off her own ankle and walk out.”
“She really takes after her mother, even in that.”
When told to cut ties with that family and return to Windsor, Cosette had cut off her own ankle without hesitation and bound herself to the Tuteur family.
‘If I let that child go, what will happen to her?’
Was that the last time?
Only the sound of rain continued. The Windsor house sank into stillness.
“She’s too much alike.”
That child was still difficult. Cutting through the rain, a private carriage stopped in front of the gate. Someone holding an umbrella got down.
“Isn’t that His Highness?”
“You mean the Crown Prince?”
“Why would His Highness be with that child…?”
“They must have run into each other somewhere.”
“At this hour? It’s true that the Windsors are close to His Highness, but that’s only for the Windsor family, isn’t it? That child only met him for the first time a few days ago….”
For a long time, the Windsor family had stood by Benjamin, maintaining a balance between the Empress’s faction and the Crown Prince’s faction.
Though Duke Windsor outwardly kept neutrality, the weight had already tilted toward the next emperor.
Leandro rubbed his eyelids, saying he was tired.
“That’s enough. You should go get some sleep too.”
“Yes. It’s late, so I should turn in.”
Aster followed Sharlophe’s back with his eyes. Her slow steps continued, then her presence disappeared.
“But isn’t it strange?”
“What is?”
“Why does it feel like something odd has gotten tangled up?”
Aster frowned at the unpleasant premonition. It felt like some strange bastard had gotten caught and rolled into the household.
‘I told you to stay on guard.’
‘The one who should be on guard here isn’t me. It’s you.’
Sharlophe slowly blinked as she took off her outing clothes.
“Was I really not on guard?”
It was true—only in front of Benjamin did she lose her wariness.
Why was that?
She had torn down her walls, defenseless instead. Even before her maternal relatives, she’d never been that unguarded.
Before him, she felt a strange sense of presence.
It was as if he was making her realize once more the presence carried by the name “Sharlophe.”
Right.
It was Benjamin who saw her as a Windsor, not a Tuteur, and awakened that sense of being.
Sharlophe brushed her lips and murmured,
“So this is what ‘harmful’ feels like?”
Her eyelids felt dry, her shoulders ached dully.
She had just changed into her nightclothes and was about to go to bed when someone knocked.
“Sharlophe. Let’s talk for a moment.”
Aster cleared his throat outside the door. It was late—why was he looking for her? She draped the shawl she’d tossed over a chair around her shoulders and opened the door. Aster stood there with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Did I call you when you were about to sleep?”
“No. Were you still up at this hour, Uncle?”
Aster glanced around the room.
“Don’t just stand there—won’t you sit? Sit here.”
“No, no. I just came up to see you once.”
“You said you had something to tell me…?”
“Did I? Yes, I did. Well, it’s this. I saw you coming back from going out a little while ago. Um, it looked like His Highness was seeing you home. Where were you coming from?”
His words were broken and roundabout, showing how careful he was. There was no need to be that cautious,
and it was obvious where that caution came from—guilt. Guilt stemming from her biological mother’s death. It made her feel bitter for no reason.
“I felt stifled, so I went out for some air. Um, I ran into His Highness on the way, and since it was late, he saw me home.”
“Is that so? Right. Well, I suppose you know what you’re doing. Sharl, it seems like you’ve gotten a bit close to His Highness. Is that just my imagination?”
He’d been so careful—this was what he wanted to say.
“If that’s the case, does it make you uncomfortable, Uncle?”
“No, no! It’s not that I’m uncomfortable. I was worried you might be. Don’t misunderstand.”
Sharlophe covered her mouth and smiled faintly. Ah, what should she do about that naked guilt? I’m fine, really. I truly am fine now.
“Do you know that your biological father is close to the second prince?”
“Uncle, do I really need to consider his position too?”
“……”
“Do I have to?”
Let’s review.
The Windsor family chooses Crown Prince Benjamin.
The Tuteur family chooses the second prince, Rodence.
“Benjamin Visenov—he was born a ruler.”
Aster spoke calmly, as if stating plain fact. Even so, every word carried weight.
“Don’t let him take an interest in you. Cut it off. Don’t make a situation where you walk into his mouth on your own feet.”
Aster was wary of Benjamin.
“He’s dangerous to you.”
Sharlophe smiled faintly and asked back,
“Do you remember when the former Empress passed away?”
“That was sixteen years ago.”
“And how old was His Highness then?”
“Seven.”
“Yes. Seven. Sixteen years. He was young, wasn’t he? He went through his mother’s death, and with those eyes he even witnessed the execution platform himself.”
One of the reasons Benjamin had no power base. The supporters who would have built one for him were executed one after another along with the former Empress.
“He stands before death.”
And in the end, he would wield the blade himself.
“I’m the same.”
The two of us are very much alike.
