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Chapter : 20
This time, we’ll change the male lead
“Aile likes that young lady too, doesn’t he? I guess I really wasn’t enough.”
“Why would you say something like that?”
Aiden had known for a very long time—that even when the saintess’s grass-green eyes wandered, they always came to rest on Hyperion in the end.
“Even Babel likes her.”
“……”
“Babel is Leon’s instinct. You know what that means.”
Aiden could not refute that.
Babel was both the deepest feeling Hyperion hid away, and the instinct he could not suppress.
“Babel doesn’t like me. We’ve spent so many years together, yet he’s still wary of me.”
“……”
The saintess clenched her trembling fist in misery.
“In the end, it means that girl has things I don’t.”
Before they knew it, moonlight shattered across the woman’s shoulders. The sight was so dreamlike that Aiden couldn’t take his eyes from her.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“…Honestly, Saintess.”
Instead of answering, Aiden sharply changed the subject, as if something had come to mind.
“Why are there such rumors going around? Did something happen between you and Marquis Karl Bate?”
“Rumors?”
“People say… that you and Marquis Karl Bate fell in love and betrayed Veritas…”
He’d believed it was just one of the many stupid rumors circulating about Hyperion and Veritas’s engagement, but after today it felt strangely convincing.
Why would the always composed and proper Marquis Bate go so far as to commit kidnapping?
“What…?”
Phoebe bit her lip, flustered.
“Marquis Karl is about to become commander of the Holy Knights. I couldn’t bear to watch someone who had protected me suffer and hurt.”
“Suffer and hurt?”
“Karl and I are friends who understand each other’s hearts.”
Understand each other’s hearts? Aiden’s brow creased.
“Karl always yearned for Lady Veritas’s love.”
“……”
“But the young lady said she felt her sincere feelings were being used.”
Phoebe covered her lips with a handkerchief, her voice trailing off.
“Of course, he must have been so hurt that he spoke too harshly.”
“And yet you take her side too?”
Aiden sighed, pitying the overly gentle Phoebe.
“So, the short version is that Lady Veritas used Karl’s feelings and jerked him around.”
So to her, Karl was not a fiancé, but a tool to be used…
“She pretended to be well-behaved and went around doing such vicious things behind everyone’s backs.”
A noblewoman whose face was barely seen—he had wondered what kind of person she was. He hadn’t imagined she’d be so selfish.
“Karl was probably trying to confirm her feelings for him through me.”
Phoebe looked out the window sadly.
“But the young lady fell in love with His Highness the Crown Prince as if she’d been waiting for it.”
“…Ha.”
Aiden let out a hollow laugh.
He’d assumed she was just a foolish woman and hadn’t paid her attention—now he felt shock wake him up like a slap.
How many people had been hurt over that one woman?
“I felt bad for Karl. He’s in the same position as I am, begging for love.”
Phoebe forced a smile.
“I only wanted to help. I hoped his love would be returned someday… but somehow it even ended in a broken engagement.”
“So that’s what happened.”
“He seems to have been deeply hurt by your engagement.”
Cold air settled between them.
“My heart feels heavy. I feel like it’s all my fault.”
“So that’s why Marquis Karl Bate resorted to kidnapping.”
Aiden clicked his tongue, finally understanding.
“What a detestable woman. How can someone toy with people’s hearts so easily?”
“Aiden.”
Phoebe gently touched Aiden’s tense shoulder—the same soothing touch that always healed him.
“It’s already been twenty years I’ve spent by Leon’s side. You and I have been together almost as long.”
“…Phoebe.”
“I don’t even know my real name. From the moment I was born, I was deemed the Saintess of Ignis and Hyperion’s fate.”
Her soft voice tightened Aiden’s throat.
“Even the name Phoebe only means the darkness that lights the path for the shining ones.”
“Don’t say things like that, Phoebe.”
“Even so, you were the one friend who understood me.”
“……”
Her gentle fingertips brushed his cheek.
“So it’s all right. For now.”
She glowed in the darkness, alluring enough to enchant anyone.
“If it’s Hyperion’s will, I’ll support anything. That’s my role.”
“Phoebe…”
Aiden pressed his face into her hand and closed his eyes.
He had sworn loyalty in blood, yet sometimes his master’s heart felt unbearably cruel.
“I won’t forgive anyone who hurts you.”
Who was that woman, to wound someone so precious to him?
“Veritas will never become Crown Princess.”
“…What?”
Aiden’s sharp gaze cut toward the window.
“I’ve invited Countess Leita to the academy. You know what kind of woman she is.”
“……”
“Lady Veritas may hold that title, but she’s never once stood out in society. That tells you everything.”
He smirked.
“She won’t last a day. She’ll crumble.”
“But that’s too cruel.”
“Don’t worry, Phoebe.”
Aiden’s vow was unwavering.
“Even if she miraculously survives that gauntlet, she’ll never endure life in the crown prince’s palace. I—and everyone here—stand with you.”
The people of the Crown Prince’s palace adored their saintess.
Partly because Aiden governed them directly—and partly because of Phoebe’s own sacred grace.
Who could compete with twenty years spent beside Hyperion?
There would be no place in the palace—or the empire—for that woman. And if there was, they would erase it.
“You’re the only one I can accept as Crown Princess.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
Aiden met Phoebe’s tear-rimmed eyes and vowed once more.
“It’s such a relief that you’re here with me, Aiden.”
He would do anything to protect this woman’s happiness.
Thwack—!
A practice blade smashed a scarecrow clean through. It was the same training as always, yet today Babel’s strikes were far too forceful.
“…Annoying.”
It was because of all the voices he couldn’t avoid hearing.
“She’ll run off in less than a week.”
“A week? I bet she can’t even last a day.”
Ever since the engagement was settled, wherever palace servants gathered, they whispered the same thing.
“She’s not Lady Lutas, the Rose of Society, nor the revered Saintess Phoebe.”
“The long-awaited Crown Princess turns out to be that Lady Veritas, the one who got dumped by a marquis? Ridiculous.”
They did not think of Kaela Veritas as a new family member or mistress, but as an intruder.
A nobody like that becoming Hyperion’s partner? Hurting our saintess in the process!
Everyone seemed eager to watch Kaela’s downfall.
“She’ll be entering the palace this afternoon. I’m worried.”
Eile wandered into the training yards and collapsed beside Babel.
“And of all times, where has His Highness gone? He stopped caring the moment the contract was signed!”
“……”
It was bad enough the palace was openly hostile—why was Hyperion nowhere to be seen?
Enemies on all sides, and Leon’s indifference on top of it…
Could the lady survive?
Eile felt faint just thinking about it.
“There’s only so much I can do. And Aiden is being completely uncooperative.”
“……”
“What if she runs away?! Babel, what do we do?!”
Today, Babel stayed still long enough for Eile to vent—a miracle in itself.
“In this massive palace, I’m the only one welcoming her—gaah!”
Babel suddenly flung his sword aside and stood, making Eile shriek.
“No.”
“H-hey, sir Babel? What’s wrong?”
Eile clutched his toes—he’d nearly lost a few.
Did I say something wrong? If he was annoyed, he could just say so!
“No, that’s not true.”
“What?”
A breeze lifted Babel’s midnight hair, revealing fierce eyes locked onto something.
“She has someone waiting for her.”
“What are you—oh.”
Following Babel’s gaze, Eile’s jaw dropped.
Those eyes—so like Hyperion’s—were fixed on…
“The one waiting for that woman.”
A carriage of House Veritas rolled through the gates of the Crown Prince’s palace.
