***

As Hazel stared blankly at Achilleon, he whispered in her frozen ear.

“So try to escape before then.”

Achilleon bent down and picked up a pair of shoes that were lying on the floor and put them on Hazel’s feet.

*Tearing sound*

Achilleon ripped one of his sleeves and began to wrap it around Hazel’s ankle. Hazel just watched the scene in a daze.

Before she had time to feel the pain from the tightly bandaged ankle, Achilleon stood up and left the balcony.

Hazel watched him disappear behind the curtain and slowly closed her eyes. Everything was like a dream, but feeling the pain in her ankle, it was never a dream or an illusion.

Achilleon found her.

Of course it wouldn’t be his past self, but the fact that he was so relentless in his search for someone meant that Hazel already caught his attention. He was not a man who would let go of something once he had it in his hands.

Why?

She was in the middle of rescuing a cat, and things suddenly got out of control.

‘Does he have a grudge against me?’

A few moments later, the curtains opened and Lorette and Sisef stepped out the balcony.

“Sister!”

“…”

Hazel looked at Lorette silently.

“Sister, are you okay?”

When Hazel was unresponsive, Lorette shook Hazel’s shoulders, then she carefully untied the string of her mask.

Inside the mask, Hazel’s soulless expression revealed, as if she had seen a ghost.

“Hazel?”

“I… I saw him.”

“What?”

“He recognized me. And just like that…”

“What?”

Lorette gave Hazel a big shake, and she came to her senses like she’d just woken up from a dream.

“Oh, Lorette.”

“I’ve been calling you for a while.”

“Oh, really?”

Hazel looked away with a hint of indifference.

“I’ve been looking all over for you. There are so many people here. I thought you’d be having fun.”

“I was resting because my feet hurt.”

“What’s wrong with your feet?”

Sisef quickly knelt down and probed Hazel’s leg.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“It’s swollen. I’ll call the court physician.”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

Hazel hastened to say, and Sisef hesitated for a moment, then rose from his seat.

“What’s that?”

“Hmm?”

Lorette’s eyes went to the bite mark left by Achilleon earlier.

“Oh…”

Hazel quickly covered her neck, but Sisef had already seen it too.

“It’s nothing. I must have been bitten by an insect.”

“Yes…”

The question still flashed in Lorette’s eyes, but she didn’t ask any more. A sharp light appeared in Sisef’s eyes as he looked at the red mark on Hazel’s neck, but Hazel pretended not to know and climbed down from the parapet.

Her ankle was still swollen and puffy, but it was easier to get to the floor than it was earlier. The pain hadn’t completely disappeared, but it wasn’t as bad as it was before.

Apparently, Achilleon knew first aid somehow.

She was in pain to the point where she couldn’t breathe properly earlier, but now it had subsided considerably.

“I’m going back. Help me. My mask, please.”

Lorette put the mask over Hazel’s face again and held out her hand. Hazel grasped her offered hand without hesitation.

“Lean on here.”

Sisef quickly stepped forward and held out his hand, but Hazel stared at it and ignored it.

“Let’s go.”

“Oh, yes.”

Hazel said as she held Lorette’s arm for support.

“Don’t tell anyone that I’m here today, as we agreed.”

“Yes.”

Lorette nodded hastily.

“Not even your mother.”

“…Yes.”

Lorette replied cautiously and looked at Sisef. Being rejected, he followed them quietly from behind.

“Why are you so depressed?”

“It’s nothing. I should go.”

Hazel, who was in the carriage that would take her to the Rose Palace, hurriedly pulled on the rope to get the carriage started.

“Call the court physician. Make sure your feet don’t swell up anymore.”

She nodded softly, trying to pretend that she hadn’t heard him.

As soon as the door closed with a bang, Hazel buried herself deep in the carriage couch and sighed.

Looking up, she saw Sisef through the carriage window as the carriage gradually moved away. He stood watching her, listening to Lorette’s words.

***

Heavy footsteps echoed in the dark hallway. There was a noisy banquet going on in the hall across one wall, but the rest was fairly quiet.

Two people’s shadows were walking in the darkness.

“They were all Westerners, flying in from Demophos. The Empress seems to be planning something unusual.”

“That’s what she always does.”

Achilleon replied as he hurried down the corridor.

“Her Highness is already trying to be emperor, and she is devoting herself to it.”

“Nursing a sick person is a tearful effort for those who hate it to death.”

Achilleon chuckled.

The fact that the Emperor of Demophos was ill was a top secret. The emperor, who had been in good health, collapsed once, and after several seizures, his body had become quite weak.

“As long as this peace agreement is successfully completed and you return home, there will be no more shaking from Her Majesty.”

“..Is that right?”

Achilleon gave a somewhat hushed laugh.

“We’ve incorporated half of the continent into our territory, and we’ve signed an agreement with the key city of Land on terms favorable to Demophos. We can’t form alliances with other nations, so I’m sure that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

“Huh?”

The words thrown by Achilleon startled Count Burns.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well…”

“I don’t want a war.”

Earl Burns shook his head, drawing a large cross in front of his chest.

“I just want to go home and sleep.”

“Of course you do.”

With that, Achilleon smiled again, this time inwardly. Count Burns, who could not hide the awkwardness in his expression, lowered his hands and spoke softly to him.

“It’s strange.”

“What is it?

“Why are you being so hard on me?”

Count Burns looked at Achilleon curiously.

“I don’t think you’re hungry for a woman. You’re surrounded by women who will strip naked and jump on you at any moment.”

“I never did.”

“No, Your Highness, is there anyone?”

“No.”

Achilleon said decisively, and Count Burns said, “Yes, yes.”

“Just hold her gently and soothe her if you like, why ….”

“I am being gentle.”

“What?”

Count Burns asked back with a puzzled look on his face at Achilleon’s reply.

“But she still tries to run away.”

Achilleon said with a bright smile.

“So I had no choice but to snatch it.”

*TL: The conversation is very confusing. I couldn’t make it any clearer. I apologize.*

***

“It’s done.”

Rayburn said after bandaging Hazel’s ankle.

“I gave you some painkillers, so you should feel better after a good night’s sleep.”

The court physician was called in the middle of the night and treated Hazel’s leg without a single complaint. He didn’t even ask where or how she got injured.

“Thanks, by the way. …..”

“You have to be careful going down the stairs.”

“…”

Hazel looked at Mary, and Mary shrugged and looked at the court physician.

“Thank you. Rayburn.”

Mary said, “Ever since she was a child, she loved to play around and got scolded by the Queen. She told her to keep her nobility.”

“Every time I did that, Rayburn, you healed me, and that’s why I’m walking on both feet now.”

Rayburn sighed deeply at Hazel’s words.

“The pain in your ankle is less than it was when you were first injured, what is the reason?”

Hazel nodded.

“Someone gave you first aid treatment? The pain must have been tolerable because of the cloth wrapped around your ankle.”

“It was…it was.”

Goosebumps broke out all over her body as Hazel thought of the pain Achilleon had caused her when he grabbed her ankle. But in the end, it was also Achilleon who wrapped the cloth around her ankle that relieved the pain.

“I’m going back now. Please take your medicine on time.”

“Yes.”

When Rayburn left, Hazel was relieved. After Mary had cleaned up the bedding, pulled the covers up to Hazel’s neck, and spilled a few small words and left, her room became quiet.

It was late and the prescribed sleeping pills and painkillers were making her drowsy, but she didn’t sleep well.

“But next time, you will take it off yourself. That mask. This dress.”

Hazel couldn’t say anything when Achilleon revealed his naked possessiveness. It was because of the memory that meshed precisely with a point in the past.

“Why?”

‘I came back to try to change that past. To avoid a bloody future. But, why do I feel like I’m trapped in a predetermined wheel of fate?’

Before, Achilleon had shown a strange liking for her from the moment he first met her. He wanted her for himself, but he didn’t kneel down and beg for her love. He just waited for her to come to him. He acted as if it was a set procedure.

“You will come to be held in my arms. Hazel.”

He said to Hazel. Despite her refusal to push him away each time, Achilleon courted her relentlessly.

In the end, it was Hazel, who walked into his arms herself.

And she was his, just as he had said she would be.

And from that day on, everything began to fall apart.