“Mmm…………….”
“Lady Sierra?”
“D-Duke…………….”
Not long after he carried her into his arms, Sierra suddenly closed her eyes. Perhaps from tension, the body that had remained stiff ever since he lifted her suddenly went limp, as though she had lost consciousness.
Not that it made much difference—she was so light she barely weighed anything at all.
Still, before closing her eyes, she had murmured something… “Duke,” perhaps? Wondering if he had misheard, Eain tilted his head slightly.
“She fell asleep.”
Thinking her health might have worsened, he was about to quicken his pace, but Sierra soon let out soft, steady breaths and burrowed deeper into his embrace.
Fast asleep, she truly looked like a fairy.
“…Lady Sierra.”
He had seen her sleeping countless times before.
In fact, he might have spent more time watching her asleep than awake.
Yet today somehow felt different from before.
‘Something about her has changed. I can’t explain it, but definitely.’
Suddenly sensing a strong light overhead, Eain lifted his head to see the morning sun rising.
An entire hour had passed while dealing with the gentle intruder who had appeared before dawn.
Normally by now, he would have long since finished training, cleaned his blade, and begun joint exercises with the knights at the training grounds.
But for the first time in his life, he had completely failed to notice even the passing of time itself.
“Commander!”
“Eain!”
Because he was so late, the knights who had come looking for him arrived just then from behind. But the moment they saw Eain in such an unusual state, both men froze in place as though rooted to the ground.
“…Good heavens.”
“Don’t tell me… you kidnapped the Imperial Princess?”
Mate covered his mouth in shock while Lakashi pointed accusingly with utter disbelief.
Both men were Eain’s closest aides, his academy classmates, and longtime comrades serving together in the First Imperial Knight Order. Naturally, this kind of kidnapping scene(?) was something they had never witnessed before.
“Eain Haver, no matter how close we are, I cannot overlook a crime. I’m reporting this to the Imperial Palace, so forgive me.”
“So the rumors about Her Highness taking a lover were true? Is that why you did this…?”
The two men hurried closer, glancing around anxiously before demanding an explanation with grave expressions.
Eain, who had quietly been looking down at Sierra, suddenly smiled faintly.
“You’re too loud. Lady Sierra is sleeping, so shut your mouths.”
The gentle tone sounded almost melodic.
The moment those words landed, Mate and Lakashi instantly clamped their mouths shut.
After spending so many years around Eain, there was one truth both men had learned beyond doubt:
‘He’s pissed.’
‘Definitely furious.’
Whenever Eain smiled that kindly while speaking, it meant something had thoroughly irritated him.
Though they had no idea what.
Contrary to public belief, Eain was not a man who smiled often.
His smiles existed purely out of necessity.
In reality, it was almost impossible to witness him genuinely smiling.
If a situation required smiling, he smiled. If not, he didn’t.
At first, they had wondered how someone could separate emotions so cleanly and perform them so flawlessly.
But Eain had lived his entire life that way.
For him, selecting the proper emotion and acting it out when needed was easier than breathing.
Smiling when nothing was funny.
Offering comfort without feeling sadness.
Those things were hundreds—no, thousands—of times easier than training with a sword.
“Handle today’s training yourselves. I’ll stay by Lady Sierra’s side.”
“…Wait, Eain. Why is Her Highness dressed like that?”
“Yeah… It almost looks like you two had a sparring match—”
“…No way, right? You know how frail Her Highness is—”
“You lunatic! You fought the Princess?!”
Ignoring the horrified shouting behind him, Eain calmly entered the mansion with Sierra still in his arms.
He ordered the maids to change her uncomfortable knight uniform into warm pajamas before laying her gently upon his bed.
“By the way… how long do you intend to keep watching?”
Carefully brushing Sierra’s silver hair across the pillow aside, Eain spoke emotionlessly while turning toward the window.
Upon the bare branch of a tree at winter’s end sat a pitch-black crow, its crimson eyes blinking slowly as it stared directly at him.
“Tower Master. This is rather troublesome. You were never interested in the Princess while she was alive.”
So why now?
Curling his lips slightly, Eain approached the window and mercilessly shut the wide crimson velvet curtains.
Yet even with his vision blocked, he could still feel the crow lingering there.
That unpleasant presence pressed against his back like residue impossible to erase.
‘So curtains alone can’t block it.’
He had expected as much, but it was still unfortunate.
Nothing could stop that frivolous gaze.
“Lady Sierra… it seems you’ve made a rather bad friend.”
Leaning against the wall, Eain quietly looked down at the sleeping Sierra.
He had spent his entire life believing there was nothing about her he did not know.
Yet recently, the number of things hidden from him seemed to be steadily increasing.
“This feeling… is new to me.”
When Sierra first arrived near the training grounds, and he remarked that an uninvited guest was rude, he had not been referring to her.
Unlike Sierra, who had carefully deciphered the barrier and entered quietly somehow, that suspicious crow had shattered the barrier outright and strolled in openly.
As though proudly declaring it had no intention whatsoever of hiding its intrusion.
Thanks to that, a crow-shaped hole now remained in the security barrier.
So in truth, the real intruder had been that creature all along.
Though the bird itself seemed unconcerned.
“You coming all the way here to comfort me… was a mistake. You’ll only spoil me.”
As though hearing his voice, Sierra shifted in her sleep with a soft murmur.
For a brief instant, the corner of Eain’s lips twitched upward.
“Lady Sierra, it seems that thing wants to take you away. Though you probably don’t realize it, you came here together with it from the beginning.”
Eain raised a finger toward the curtain.
Beyond it, the red-eyed crow still remained.
“So sleep peacefully. Until that gloomy, pathetic bird runs out of power and falls from the tree.”
The birds controlled by mages as familiars could only contain a limited amount of infused mana.
Eventually, they would lose consciousness once their power was exhausted.
He wondered how long the mana of the Tower Master—a great mage bearing the same title of youngest genius in history as himself—would last.
Gazing toward the unseen window, Eain let out a low laugh before quietly leaving the bedroom.
“Lord Kanak, should I kill that bastard?”
“That guy’s supposedly known as an angel to the public? What angel? He’s got three times worse manners than you do, Lord Kanak. Honestly, that’s impressive—”
While babbling nonstop as he watched through the crow’s shared vision, Robel was suddenly hurled straight out the top window of the Magic Tower.
His desperate scream echoed downward as he fell.
“A swordsman who isn’t even a mage noticed my presence. Impressive.”
“Is it because he’s a magic swordsman? Talented in both fields?”
Kanak stared with amused interest at the place where Eain had disappeared.
Honestly, he had figured it out long ago.
Ever since Sierra began taking various ingredients from the Magic Tower claiming she was “making potions.”
The materials had all been ingredients for enhancement potions.
After all, what possible use would a princess protected by everyone have for such frightening power?
‘“I’m going to train my stamina tomorrow. I’ve been lacking energy lately, so I can’t focus on research.”’
‘“What kind of training?”’
There had been no lies in those conversations.
She simply hadn’t told the whole truth.
‘Though I clearly said I wouldn’t accept the same excuse twice.’
That was probably why she omitted the part about meeting Eain Haver.
Honestly, for someone with such a small head, she sure was clever with schemes.
“Leaving your fiancée alone and going away… that’s something you’ll regret.”
If it were me, I wouldn’t do that.
Looking toward the quiet bedroom where Sierra’s soft breathing peacefully filled the air, Kanak smiled lazily.
