Chapter 82
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Kazaniel had finished his preparations. He could hardly sleep, anticipating the grand feast soon to come.
Late that night, Perry came to him, his expression troubled. It had been a long time since he had seen his guardian’s face—Perry had been so occupied guarding her.
“Your Highness, Edie is pitiful. She’s endured so much, and today she even wept. I think it would be best to tell the candidates that Edie has nothing to do with the consort selection.”
“No. Soon, she will. Edie’s place is here, in this kingdom.”
“Huh? What are you suddenly saying, Your Highness? That is her choice!”
“I’ll make it so.”
“Kazan!”
“Perry. I’ve considered you a brother since we were children. But if you intend to stop me, I won’t stand idle.”
Perry called his name, protesting. But Kazan’s voice was low, warning—and for a man who rarely showed emotion, the feeling bleeding into his words told Perry that something was very wrong.
“Bring Edie to the tea gathering.”
“And what… do you intend to do?”
“You’ll see.”
* * *
When all was done, Kazaniel found himself at leisure for the first time in days. Walking beneath the shade of the palace gardens to escape the harsh sun, his gaze drifted upward—toward the window of the room where she stayed.
As always, one of the consort candidates approached, feigning coincidence.
It was Tisha Almarjan. The merchant’s daughter the King and the council had preordained as his princess consort.
‘Is that the face of someone who wishes to be my consort?’
Tisha greeted him, then raised her head. Her haughty expression made no effort to hide the suspicion and hostility brimming in her eyes.
“Your Highness. I have ears and I have a mouth. I hear you declared to the council that you intend to make that Imperial woman your princess consort.”
“The elders do talk too much.”
So she had come to complain, just like the rest of them—aggrieved that her preordained position was slipping away. A scoff escaped him.
“Do you truly believe she will be content with life in this kingdom, Your Highness?”
“Why? Suddenly coveting the position of princess consort?”
“That’s not it. I am merely… concerned for her.”
Her unexpected words gave him pause. He looked at her. Tisha, realizing her slip, quickly wiped the unnamed emotion from her face and sealed her lips.
Now that he thought about it—she hadn’t been among those harassing Edie. Realizing this, Kazaniel recalled something he had heard before. A flicker of interest stirred.
“Ah, now that you mention it. At the banquet and ever since, you’ve been the only one without hostility toward her. And now you say you’re worried…”
“That is…”
“Though you entered the palace young as the first candidate, I am aware of what happened before you came.”
“No. It has nothing to do with that. I simply assumed I would be chosen, so I paid no attention to her.”
“Ambitious. Shall I tell you the truth, since you’re clinging to such a vain hope?”
He sneered at her transparent lie and looked toward Edie’s window—now hidden by the shade.
“What?”
“What if I told you… I made all of this?”
“What… Hah!”
Tisha stumbled back, her hand flying to her mouth—startled by her own raw, exposed reaction.
She had entered the palace as his consort candidate since childhood. There was no way she didn’t know what kind of man he was.
Kazaniel lowered his gaze to the ground.
The blazing sun drew a sharp line between them—two figures standing beneath separate awnings, facing each other across the scorched light.
“I will… pretend I didn’t hear that.”
She turned, frightened, and fled beyond that line. Kazaniel watched her go, then continued on his way, expressionless.
The next day. The tea gathering. All of them assembled.
In the center of the hall, Kazaniel waited. His heart pounded restlessly, anxiously, anticipating her arrival.
And then she entered—with Perry.
He had intended to corner her first. To speak to her after isolating her from the others. But seeing her now, he decided this was enough. His impatient, swollen heart could not be contained.
He changed the order.
He declared it first, to all of them.
“I intend to make her, this woman from the Empire, my princess consort.”
* * *
Caught completely off guard, Edith felt as if she’d been struck from behind. She couldn’t process what was happening.
A princess consort, suddenly decided? Even to her, it sounded absurd. The candidates’ protests and opposition grew louder—it was only natural.
“But Your Highness, isn’t the custom to select a consort from among the candidates? She’s not even a candidate!”
“That matter has already received approval from the council of elders. It is hardly the concern of the candidates…”
“How can that be… Miss Tisha! Shouldn’t you say something?”
Edith turned her gaze, searching for Tisha’s reaction. The woman who had warned her to leave yesterday—perhaps she had already known this was coming.
But Tisha sat perfectly still, watching the situation unfold with an unsettling calm, not a single hair out of place.
“So, if any of you do anything to harm her from now on… you know better than I what will happen, don’t you?”
His expressionless warning silenced them, one by one. Soon, no one dared speak.
The tea gathering ended in shambles. When everyone else had left the hall, only Edith, Perry, and Kazan remained.
Edith opened her mouth to demand an explanation for what had just happened. But Kazan was faster.
“No one will harass you now. It’s been hard on you, hasn’t it?”
“‘Hard on me’… So you knew?”
She had expected Kazan to explain, to make some sense of this situation. But instead, he spoke as if he had been fully aware of her suffering—and seemed almost relieved by it.
“Not everything, but I heard what reached my ears. Still, it worked out, didn’t it?”
“No, that’s not the point! You could have helped me… sooner… And what do you mean, I’m to be your princess consort?”
Even so, Edith wanted to believe that Kazan hadn’t deliberately turned away while she was suffering under their harassment.
She wanted to believe he had simply been too busy to notice. She wanted him to apologize now, belatedly, for not helping her sooner.
But perhaps she had expected too much.
The betrayal that washed over her made her chest so tight she could barely speak. And now—without a single word to her beforehand, without her consent—he was simply deciding she would be his princess consort. Another betrayal.
“Why? What’s not good enough for you? You could be happy here, in the kingdom.”
“I… have no intention of staying in this kingdom.”
“So you’re leaving? Even though the entire kingdom now sees you as my princess consort?”
Far from apologizing, he was behaving like a stubborn child. Edith straightened her posture, steeling herself against his influence.
“Yes. I don’t care. I was going to tell you I’m leaving earlier than planned anyway.”
“Leaving? I won’t allow it.”
“You can’t just decide what I do, Mr. Kazan.”
“There’s something you don’t understand. This is my kingdom. And you are inside it.”
“So what…?”
Kazan’s expression hardened—no, it turned cold. Lethal. She had sensed it since earlier, but now the doubt solidified into certainty: was this man truly the Kazan she thought she knew?
“Perry. Guard her from now on. Make sure Edie doesn’t leave.”
“Your Highness… what exactly do you mean…?”
Perry frowned, equally blindsided by this turn.
“I mean, until the consort selection, don’t let her run away.”
‘Haa… Just as I thought.’
It was the same. When Perry had first told her about the prince’s true nature, she had wondered: if that were true, then he was just like the Crown Prince.
And her suspicion had been correct.
Like Ellucian, who had locked her away, Kazan was now trying to do the same.
‘Tisha and Perry were right. I should never have trusted him…’
She pressed her hand to her forehead as the stress came rushing back, along with the memories of the Empire she’d tried to forget.
In the end, even after fleeing the Empire, this was still the world of a trashy melodrama. No matter where she went, it was a place overflowing with crazy bastards.
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