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Chapter : 13
This time, I’ll change the male lead
“Right now…”
I forced myself upright and glared at him. Heat surged through me so sharply it felt like my blood was boiling backward.
“Did you kidnap me?”
“Kidnap?”
Karl frowned, as though the very word offended him.
“I waited under that tree for you all night. How could you not look down even once?”
“So trailing me wasn’t enough—you decided to kidnap me too?”
“Phew, it wasn’t kidnapping, Kaella.”
Ridiculously enough, he looked more wronged than I was.
“I went out on business and saw Emma waiting in the square. I figured you’d grown tired at the salon you frequent and looked for you, that’s all. If I don’t do this, you’ll never give me a chance to talk.”
A dry laugh escaped me.
Was the original male protagonist always this pathetic?
“What magic did you use on me?”
“It was just a light sleep charm. While you napped, I went to find your maid and explain.”
His voice trailed off, confused that magic hadn’t worked properly on me.
“I don’t know how you fought the spell but…”
“Do we honestly have anything left to say?”
My hands trembled at the sheer absurdity—no, the horror—of the situation.
“Since when were you that close to the Crown Prince? Or is there some other goal?”
I wanted to grab him by the collar and ask why he insisted on crawling through the mud like this.
I was barely holding back, desperate never to be involved with him again.
“A goal?”
I was at my breaking point.
“There’s no way Leon—called a heartless monster—would pull something like this for love.”
“So why—do—you—care?”
I stressed each word one by one.
Come to think of it, he did have a hypersensitive reaction whenever it came to the prince.
“But once… once upon a time…”
Karl finally opened his mouth after a long hesitation.
“I was your lover.”
…What? Lover? Lo-ver?
“Pfft.”
Totally unfitting for the gravity of the moment, but I couldn’t help it.
“Kaella, just answer me one thing.”
The gray of Karl’s eyes grew solemn.
“Did you ever love me? No—you definitely loved me.”
What kind of nonsense was that? My head was full of far more urgent matters.
Emma must be waiting outside. Hyperion probably sitting wide-eyed, counting the seconds!
“Stop spouting nonsense and move.”
More importantly, I needed to stop that mining-share agreement before it reached the Ministry.
I turned my back on him and headed for the door.
“This is the last time I show you any courtesy.”
“Kaella!”
But he grabbed my wrist, stopping me cold. The magic haze must not have fully worn off—the dizziness hit again.
“Cancel the engagement to the Crown Prince.”
“…Haa.”
Holding on to me, Karl continued.
“You know how hard House Lutas has worked to make our only daughter the Crown Princess. From the Lutas Duchy that produced four High Priests!”
He looked legitimately desperate—but all I could think was how best to knock sense into him.
Maybe knee him in the shin?
“If you accept his proposal, you’ll make both the temple and Lutas your enemies. The current imperial family—bolstered by the present Empress—goes without saying.”
He meant the Emperor’s second wife and Leon’s stepmother, Empress Vaitas.
She too was born a Lutas, sister to the current Duke, distant kin to the High Priests.
“The Crown Prince is the only one the Empress can’t control. So she’s determined to install her own woman at his side.”
“……”
“Aren’t you afraid of her?”
Afraid? I wanted to ask Karl if he truly understood what the Empress’s life had been like.
A doll thrown away after dedicating her life to restoring her family.
Right. It was with the Empress’s help the Saintess awakened her forbidden power.
Twisted love and the Empress’s vengeance destroyed everything…
If Hyperion falls in love with the Saintess, maybe the ending changes.
If the Saintess—the heroine—actually achieved her love, maybe something would shift.
“Ella, staying by the Crown Prince is dangerous.”
“Well, it’s definitely safer than standing beside you.”
I snapped back to the current moment and faced Karl again.
“At least Hyperion doesn’t talk one way and stab another. Unlike you.”
“…Ha.”
Whatever. That all happened years later. I’d be gone long before it mattered.
“Right. It’s always like this.”
“……”
“When I’m next to you, I feel utterly useless.”
Karl bit down on his lip, as though hollowed out.
“Did the temple tell you to warn me?”
“Ella.”
“Worried you’ll lose the southern mines if I become Crown Princess?”
“……”
My words seemed to strike home—his eyes shook violently.
“Or is it inferiority toward Leon?”
“Kaella!”
His grip on my shoulders tightened.
“Yes, I dumped you. You were abandoned by me. So why does it not bother you at all? Watching you, I’m the one who feels tossed aside and it’s driving me insane!”
In three years, it was the first time Karl had raised his voice at me.
He was right—I was the one discarded. So why was he the one panicking?
“How can you not show even once that you were hurt?”
“So you wanted me to be hurt.”
“…That’s…”
His face froze, and a bitter smile escaped my lips.
“Fine. I’ll be honest. I wanted to be your family.”
“……”
“I believed that once.”
Believed—and hoped.
That this man could be part of a normal family, where we became each other’s everyday life.
That I could erase Jung Su-ji’s trauma and live as Kaella Veritas.
“But you were waiting for me to break.”
“Ella.”
“How stupid did I look dreaming of a future together?”
Even in the dark, I saw it.
The always composed face twisting. My truth shocked him more than anything.
“You must’ve spent all your time figuring out how to make me suffer more.”
And the more I spoke, the more hysterical laughter bubbled up—like I was talking about someone else’s tragedy.
“You wretched bastard.”
“…!”
Our eyes locked in midair.
Then—
“Who goes there?!—Urk!”
“Aaagh!”
Screams from beyond the door, cut short like snapped strings.
“No one should be coming. I gave strict orders.”
“……”
Karl called out. No reply from his men.
“That’s because it’s not a nobody.”
A bang—one brutal kick—and the whole building shook.
“You should have opened it sooner.”
Wait. That voice…
Why was it familiar?
“Ella, this window is a hidden exit. I’ll blow it open and you run.”
Judging he couldn’t handle it alone, Karl fixed his mask.
“Don’t misunderstand.”
He pulled something out of his coat.
“It’s not that I wanted to hurt you.”
Whatever. Was that an explosive mana stone?
Before I could focus—
BOOM—! A deafening blast swallowed the room.
“…Well.”
Through the shattered wreck of the doorway, someone stood.
“You said you were heading to the square.”
W-what?
Even through the thick smoke, I recognized him instantly and almost screamed.
“So this is what passes for a square, these days?”
Red eyes swept the room—then settled on Karl and me.
“Shall I call it that?”
The air froze—icy enough to bite bone.
“Your Highness?”
Why on earth was the Crown Prince here…?
“Ugh—”
“Gaaah—”
Karl’s men lay writhing, clutching their chests.
“Why are you here?”
“That’s my question.”
When Hyperion finally stepped fully into the light, I nearly gasped.
Hair gleaming, black uniform with gold epaulettes, a few undone buttons—
“I didn’t expect to meet Your Highness here.”
Karl exhaled shallowly.
I couldn’t see his expression under the mask, but his voice was dazed.
“What? Am I interrupting something?”
Leon stepped closer, a twisted smile on his lips.
His steps sounded like they crushed the floorboards.
Okay, that definitely looks bad.
Seen without context, nothing could be more incriminating.
An engaged lady and a masked man—secret rendezvous…
“What family’s sword is this?”
“……”
Leon was suddenly right beside him—smoothly drawing the blade from Karl’s belt.
