Chapter 5
After grasping the subject, Davit slowly rose from his chair and then plopped down onto his knees on the floor.
The coldness of the stone floor seemed to seep into his joints. An unexpected chill ran through his body.
“Your Highness Bi, please reconsider your words. At least allow me to live while preserving my pride as a knight,” Davit bowed his head deeply.
It didn’t matter if he appeared servile. He could be laughed at or mocked.
He never nurtured pride or dignity, but at the very least, he didn’t want to live a shameful life.
The sudden change in his attitude seemed to surprise the queen for a moment, but she soon regained her composure.
She stood up and came before Davit, placing her hands firmly on his broad shoulders.
“Oh, Sir Davit. As you said, you are the Count Bogdan’s knight, are you not? A knight must never kneel carelessly before anyone but his lord.”
“I do not wish to deceive the Count. I beg you, please withdraw your command, Your Highness,” Davit pleaded.
A transparent film welled up in his violet eyes, turning into clear tears that trickled down his pale cheeks.
As he bowed his head even lower, glass-like teardrops fell softly to the floor.
“I was entirely at fault. Please spare me this humiliation and disgrace. If you wish, I will give up my princely status. I only wish to live as an ordinary commoner.”
His desperate plea rose from deep within him, but the queen paid no heed.
“There is no need to go this far. I am not ordering you to your chambers tonight. You have a month to think about it carefully.”
“…My mind will not change during that time,” Davit answered in a low voice, still kneeling.
No matter what happens, he would never enter the countess’s chambers.
He painfully remembered the life his deceased mother had led.
His mother was a beautiful bird — silver wings broken and slender legs fractured, she lay helpless in a luxurious cage.
He was only five when he lost her, yet the memory was vivid. Every time the king entered her chamber, her violet eyes grew dimmer and more lifeless.
He did not want to live such a life.
Meanwhile, the queen bent down and whispered into Davit’s ear.
“As you know, your mother provided the spark that led to the downfall of my country, Dvorka.”
Her voice was horrifically elegant.
“Your Highness! How can you say such things!” Davit sprang up in shock.
The queen stepped back a pace, startled by his sudden energy.
“…Whether intentional or not, the result remains. Your mother bewitched the monarch irresponsibly and died, bringing ruin upon the kingdom. As her son, you must bear moral responsibility. Whatever you endure, consider it punishment — it will be better for your own sake.”
What nonsense was this…
Davit held his forehead, burning like a fire.
The king himself had imprisoned his freedom-loving mother, letting her fall ill and die. Consumed by twisted obsession, he lost his love and descended into madness, ultimately losing the kingdom.
Davit stared at the queen with empty eyes, speechless. The queen smiled as if in a painting.
“Davit.”
“…”
“Your birth was a sin, so your beauty will forever be a curse that binds you.”
The queen spat venomous words with a radiant smile. Her fierce green eyes gleamed with malice.
Davit trembled pale as death.
At this point, he could no longer hold back his words before the queen.
“Your Highness, you are acting as a pimp.”
A sharp rebuke, yet the queen remained unshaken, calm as ever.
“Indeed. Even if you liken me to a pimp, I have nothing to say. I am the queen who abandoned a fallen kingdom and fled. After my pride and dignity were shattered, I learned that anyone who wishes to survive must become a merchant.”
“…”
“From now on, when we meet, greet me. The countess seems quite offended by my coldness towards you, so I, a mere dependent guest, must try to appease the mistress.”
The queen spoke bitterly and self-deprecatingly.
Davit only gazed at her in stunned silence.
“My business here is done. You may leave now.”
Having lost the will to move, Davit didn’t even budge.
The queen curled one corner of her mouth into a cold smile and called the servants outside, who forcibly dragged Davit out.
The first private meeting with Queen Elizabeth left a strong aftershock.
Back at the knights’ quarters, Davit collapsed weakly onto his bed.
“…Ha.”
He rubbed his dry face with his hands, groaning under a helpless weight. Slowly, he realized that everything he had built over the past three years since joining the knights had been completely uprooted.
An impulse suddenly struck him. Should he pack up and run away from this island immediately?
No, that was an unrealistic option.
He was only a third-year knight, just out of apprenticeship.
Even if he left the island and set foot on the mainland, it was all Levantea’s territory. How could he possibly build anything on foreign soil?
He had too little experience for mercenary work and too little capital for business.
Perhaps even escaping the island unnoticed with his striking appearance would be nearly impossible.
Davit closed his eyes.
His mother’s words, uttered before her untimely death at a young age, came to mind.
“Having nothing but beauty is truly a misfortune. Look at me, trapped in the concubine’s quarters, unable to move. So, Davit, you must find another path. You must cultivate something to peel off this shell, this prison.”
The concubine Nadia had done everything for her son. She sweet-talked King Madilrof to obtain jewelry and jewels. She endured the exaggerated reputation that concubines squandered royal treasures.
But in reality, she wore only two or three pieces of jewelry. She secretly sold others to hire teachers for her son, hiding them from the queen’s eyes.
Foreseeing her death, Nadia left a large jewel case as her heirloom. Her friend and nurse Olenka slowly sold off its contents, allowing Davit to keep his teachers.
Disguised as a maid, the female tutor taught him history, etiquette, geography, and foreign languages. Davit absorbed these lessons thoroughly, learning about the world outside the concubine’s quarters through books.
To overcome the weakness his mother pointed out — his beauty.
“…Huh.”
Davit sighed deeply and got up from the bed.
More than anyone, the person he felt hostile toward now was not the queen who tried to sell him out, but his own face.
He wanted to take a good look at how his appearance caused all this trouble. But there were no mirrors in the knights’ rooms.
What could reflect his face?
At the corner of the room, there was a basin of water the servants had placed for washing.
He quietly looked down at the water’s surface.
A man who inherited his mother’s looks stared back at him: silver-white hair and violet eyes — a handsome man with a strong body, but a soul utterly lifeless.
“At least the way I’m seen is no different between my mother and Your Highness the queen,” he muttered.
To a pitiful prince without power, backing, or wealth, beauty that drew attention was almost a curse.
It attracted twisted obsessions no one expected.
Clink.
Davit opened the drawer of the bedside table. Inside was a palm-sized dagger. He drew it from its sheath and held it up to the lamp.
The sharp blade reflected the light with a dazzling flash.
Wouldn’t a big scar on his face make him less attractive?
With dull eyes like storm clouds, he slowly brought the dagger’s tip to his face. The cold steel touched his smooth skin sharply.
“Hey, Sir Davit! What are you doing?”
Sir Ilya, who shared the room, rushed in to stop him. Davit’s violet eyes, which had been vacant, finally focused.
“…”
What was I just about to do?
Davit belatedly realized how close he’d come to the edge. Small goosebumps rose on his pale skin.
“You’re bleeding! What the hell are you doing to your perfectly fine face?”
Sir Ilya jumped and handed him a handkerchief. Davit pressed it gently to the barely noticeable spot. Luckily, the blood drop was smaller than a fingernail.
“Ah, thank you, Sir Ilya.”
“Sir Davit, is something wrong? You look ashen… I thought a demon had sucked out your soul.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“If you’re going to treat your face like that, give it to me instead. And this dagger is confiscated. It’s scarier when people say nothing’s wrong but act like this.”
Sir Ilya took the dagger and quickly left the room, probably hiding it somewhere unreachable. A noble gesture but futile — Sir Davit also had a longsword and spear capable of far deeper wounds in his personal locker.
But Davit no longer had the will to harm himself.
He threw himself onto the bed. The moment he closed his eyes, darkness enveloped him.
He spent the night sleepless in deep despair.
No matter how he twisted his thoughts, all paths led to the same conclusion.
“…I want to die.”
If only he could turn to dust and scatter in the air. No, if he had never been born.
That would have made things easier for everyone.
But soon, Davit shook his head violently to scatter such thoughts and clenched his fists tightly.
“No. I must stop such nonsense.”
Right now, Davit couldn’t even throw away his own life at will.
There was someone he had to be responsible for.
The only blood ward he fled to Padon Island with, hand in hand.
The only person he considered family.
The reason he couldn’t escape Padon Island, the reason he couldn’t recklessly throw away his life — it was all because of that person.
As dawn light seeped through the window cracks, he headed to the stable.
“Let’s go, Ruby.”
He mounted his beloved horse and hurriedly left the lord’s manor.
