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Chapter : 13
You’re Weak
A faint scent of medicinal herbs lingered in Aaron’s apothecary.
Aaron had seated Sharlope inside and stepped out, saying he would bring some tea water.
It had been a long time since she’d been here too.
The apothecary was simple—just a few drawers and a patient’s bed.
Just then, Aaron opened the door and came back in.
“Sit comfortably. There’s nothing fancy to drink, but I brewed some herbal water. It should be good for calming the mind and body.”
Aaron was about the same age as her maternal grandfather.
His white hair was slightly curly, which gave him a surprisingly gentle impression.
“Did you see your mother off properly?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, I was able to.”
“I wondered what had been going on these past few days. I thought you’d become a completely different person.”
“Oh, not at all. I’m the same as ever.”
To Aaron, only a few weeks had passed, but to Sharlope, more than a decade had gone by.
Aaron looked exactly as she remembered.
The old apothecary building and the deep frown lines between his brows still made him seem strict.
“I thought it was right to tell you about my mother’s passing.”
“Has it been three weeks already? When your visits suddenly stopped, I had a feeling. It seemed like your mother’s final moment was near. Still, hearing it directly from you feels strange.”
A child speaking so calmly about her own mother’s death.
Hadn’t it only been a few weeks since she lost her mother?
Yet she spoke as though it were some distant story from long ago.
As if recalling a memory from ages past, her eyes lingered in the far distance.
“What a strange kid you are.”
Aaron noticed Benjamin and bowed his head slightly.
“I greet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“A familiar face.”
“At my age, what connection could I possibly have with someone from the imperial family? You must be mistaken.”
Aaron bent his body awkwardly.
He was old now—his back hunched, his knees no longer reliable.
“No matter how much of an old man you are, working in a shack of an apothecary, you can still recognize noble blood.”
Grumbling, Aaron pushed on his knees and stood up.
“Wait here. This old man will get you something.”
Sharlope sat on the wooden floor of the shop.
The scent of herbs drifted warmly here as well.
“Don’t trouble yourself, old man. Just send us off.”
Aaron, hunched over, saw the two of them out.
“I packed some herbs for you.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t do it just to hear your thanks. Huh? Since when did you become so free with your gratitude?”
“Alright, Aaron.”
“And don’t go running around and scraping your knees like a child again. Take good care of yourself first. Only when your body is at ease will the path ahead be smooth.”
The herbs Aaron prepared were wrapped in a white envelope.
Though tied roughly with a rubber band, the envelope itself was spotless, without a single smudge.
“For Your Highness, I added some painkillers. Both of you, take good care of your lives.”
Aaron scolded them without hesitation.
Even before imperial authority, he stood straight, unbowed, as if saying he was old and close to death anyway.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
They almost forgot the reason they had come. Aaron gestured for her to speak.
“Do you know of an illness called Rupertic disease?”
“That’s an unfamiliar name, but I think I’ve heard it before. Why do you ask?”
“Could you look into it for me?”
Rupertic disease was the illness that had taken her life.
It would only happen more than ten years from now, so it wasn’t urgent—but that didn’t mean she could afford to be relaxed about it.
“You should head back now.”
Sharlope smiled smoothly.
It was around sunset.
After leaving Aaron’s apothecary, the two of them walked along the roadside as if taking a stroll.
“It’s been a while since I came here too.”
Sharlope walked ahead, with Benjamin following behind.
“Did you come here often?”
“When my mother was alive. I used to stop by on my way back from the apothecary, as a little walk.”
She passed through a familiar empty lot and reached the edge of the land.
A sheer cliff spread out before her, and she stopped in front of it.
The view opened wide below.
The sky was slowly turning red with the sunset as she looked down.
“Did you know?”
Benjamin asked.
“Know what?”
“That herbalist.”
He meant Aaron.
“It’s been a long time.”
“He was a familiar face, wasn’t he?”
“He was the apothecary my mother kept close.”
No matter how vast the empire, people’s connections were bound to overlap, even briefly.
“Did Aaron tell you himself?”
“Her Majesty the Empress was executed, and he escaped in secret to live in hiding. Of course he wouldn’t tell me directly.”
“Then how?”
“I happened to see his nameplate. He’s skilled, but it seemed strange he’d hide in a shack like that.”
She later learned of Aaron’s connection to the Empress.
She had once accidentally seen the imperial nameplate he kept hidden.
Back then, she pretended not to notice.
With her mother’s illness and everything else, she had no room to worry about the outside world.
‘Only now do I have the leisure to think back on it.’
Sharlope brushed back her hair and glanced at Benjamin.
“You must have been glad to see him.”
“I don’t know if he felt the same.”
“We can visit him again later.”
From behind, Benjamin lightly touched the slender nape of her neck.
“Did you wear the necklace again today?”
His gaze landed on the chain.
It was the ice-stone necklace prepared for their engagement—ice that never melted, they said.
Transparent with a bluish glow, unlike any other gem.
“It’s cold, though. Don’t wear it too often.”
“Pardon?”
“They say it’s not good when your body gets cold…”
His fingertips brushed the gem, and a chill seeped into his fingers.
“It’s cold.”
“You said it should be flashy so it would catch our enemies’ eyes.”
“I did say that.”
Splendor bewilders the eye. Beauty draws attention—and breeds malice.
Thanks to that, she had made herself thoroughly hated.
“Anyway.”
Benjamin stiffened his fingers. Then his thick hand wrapped around her shoulder.
“Did I lose a few from our group?”
“You told the guards to stay back so we could walk alone for a bit, didn’t you?”
“No. Not that.”
He tapped her shoulder.
“I mean I feel some presences following us.”
He cast his gaze into the distance.
“Thought they were strays… turns out they’re someone else’s dogs?”
“That’s annoying.”
Benjamin moved Sharlope behind him.
“Wait here, Sharle.”
She looked up once more at the empty sky and pulled her robe tighter.
The sunset was slowly fading. Watching his back, she asked,
“Is someone there?”
Benjamin licked his lips before answering.
“I’ll have to find out who.”
His steps slowed, languid and bored, until he stopped.
“Might be three? Four?” he muttered, then tilted his head with a faint smile.
Looking at one spot, he whispered,
“Found you.”
His voice was low and monotone, almost as if he were pleased—so you were there.
He reached out and grabbed them by the napes of their necks, as though uprooting tree roots.
Three men in shabby clothes.
“Ugh! Ack!”
Benjamin rolled his eyes in bewilderment. What now?
The clumsy fools tangled among themselves and fell over.
They curled up on the ground, faces pressed into the dirt.
“Too sloppy to be assassins.”
Clicking his tongue as if examining strange creatures, Benjamin held them by their necks.
“I let you go since there was no killing intent… but did you really think I wouldn’t notice just because you shoved your faces into the dirt?”
“Y-Your Highness! P-Please wait a moment!”
Though his tone was gentle, Benjamin carried killing intent plainly in it.
‘Pretending to be gentle doesn’t make you gentle,’ Sharlope thought, ruffling her hair as she stepped forward.
“So it was you.”
How could she forget those faces?
“Did my father send you?”
They were servants of the Tuter family. She walked over calmly.
“What are you doing here?”
“M-Miss? Please spare us! W-We were just…!”
She stopped near their heads.
“Did Father get fixated on something strange again? Why are you lurking around here?”
“We j-just came on the lord’s orders!”
“So why?”
“Well, we just… it’s not for any other reason…”
Sharlope rubbed her stiff neck. She was tired—starting to get fed up.
“Something useless got tangled up with us, Sharle.”
Benjamin dismissed the Tuter family as “useless” without hesitation.
“Let’s set aside the dirty business for now.”
With a simple gesture, he released them.
“I can’t let them keep lurking like this.”
Being followed isn’t exactly pleasant, after all. In a languid whisper, he looked down at her.
“Shall we get rid of them for now?”
“What should we do?”
“If it were me, I’d just push them off the cliff.”
He trailed off.
“You’re weak.”
“Pardon?”
“Wouldn’t that be hard for someone as weak as you?”
He dusted off his hands and wiped them with a handkerchief.
“I held back because I thought I should be careful in front of you.”
“……”
“But I should’ve taken care of them secretly after all.”
He’d thought they were petty thieves.
It would’ve been fine to fold them up and toss them off the cliff. Lowering his head, Benjamin met their eyes.
“Sharle.”
Turning back to her, he asked,
“Do you know why they’re doing this?”
They wouldn’t be lurking here without reason. She had a guess.
“They were waiting for me to be left alone.”
They were servants sent by her father from the Tuter family.
Nothing could happen unless Sharlope was alone.
“Then they probably planned to drag me back to Tuter, or something like that.”
Suddenly, a sense of emptiness washed over her.
What had the past years been like? In her previous life, Sharlope had died alone.
No one came to see her. She met her end alone.
The woman who cried out in her final moments died that way.
She had died once, and only now had she been cast out—yet only now did they come looking for her.
In such a pathetic state.
Benjamin blinked, looking surprised.
“So if you were left alone, what would you do?”
He crouched before the men’s heads.
“Go on, then.”
“……”
“Try dragging her away.”
His monotone words fell, one by one.
