No Regression for the Victor - Chapter 28

The next day. Marcel stood guard at Mikhail’s door to make sure he wouldn’t get up early and run off to the Duke again. But as is always the case, when someone is determined to find an opening, it’s much harder for the defender—and while Marcel was briefly distracted talking with the caretaker, Mikhail knocked on the window of the bedroom.

Startled by the sudden sound from outside, Hyun turned toward the window. Was it a bird pecking at the glass with its beak? Puzzled, Hyun looked out—and was so shocked he nearly had a heart attack.

Misha, wearing a thoroughly pitiful expression as if he’d been bullied by someone, was dangling from the balcony railing.

“That’s dangerous, what are you—!”

Startled, Hyun hurried to open the window, and Misha sniffled as he spoke.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye properly, since we’re leaving so suddenly.”

Well, of course, having someone leave unexpectedly could leave an empty space behind, but Hyun had tried not to give it too much meaning, since it was unavoidable. Still, he was stunned.

“Even so, coming here, of all places…”

“You know I’m sturdy. Climbing walls is nothing to me.”

“That’s not what I meant. Your master won’t like this.”

“It doesn’t matter. There’s something I really wanted to ask, so I snuck up here.”

What on earth? Hyun, both flustered and feeling generous—since it’s said you should grant even the wishes of the dead—thought there was no reason he couldn’t grant a request for a pure-hearted young man who had helped him for free.

“So now you finally tell me what you want to ask.”

“Well, I might not get to see you again, so I have no choice…!”

“So, what is it you want?”

Mikhail was quite annoyed at the way Hyun looked at him as if he were a much younger child, but now was not the time to complain about that.

“Please send word when the seasons change. If you send a letter addressed to my master, it’ll probably get passed on to me.”

At that, the Duke let out a light laugh.

“I want to make sure you really understand why I’m here. Are you aware of the reason I’m living here?”

He was asking if Mikhail realized that receiving a letter from a traitor could get him accused of being an accomplice. But of course, this wasn’t really a question—it was a clear rejection.

But Mikhail wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Then you could just send it under a pseudonym! Don’t you have a pen name?”

Nobles commonly used aliases when exchanging secret letters they didn’t want discovered. Hyun was speechless. Was he really asking him to go that far just to send a greeting?

But the greenhouse Misha had built was sturdy enough to withstand a typhoon, and thanks to Misha, Hyun had managed to fill it with a respectable variety of crops and plants that could survive at the Ice Lake. If all it took to repay that was to send the occasional update on the greenhouse, it was a bargain.

“All right, then…”

After a brief moment of consideration about what pseudonym to use, Hyun gave Misha the name he had used while studying abroad—a name he’d ended up using in resignation after people kept mispronouncing ‘Hyun’ no matter how many times he corrected them.

“Just say it’s a letter from your close friend, Henni.”

For a moment, Mikhail was overjoyed at the words ‘close friend,’ but then the grip he had on the railing loosened. He tumbled backward and fell toward the garden—but fortunately, there was a soft patch of grass below, so he wasn’t hurt.

“Honestly…”

As the Duke looked down at the garden with a wry smile, Mikhail waved to assure him he was unhurt.

At this rate, it was less like a master and more like a dog that followed the local shopkeeper on his morning walk.

Hyun hadn’t even noticed that Misha’s hair, once a dull brown, now shone with a bright golden hue. It wasn’t just the prince whose vision was clouded.