Chapter 6
“Ugh!”
Her back hit a hard weapon rack. Shaken by her weight, several swords clattered to the ground.
Instinctively turning her head, Katie felt a firm forearm wrap around her waist. The man pulled her sharply against him, then caught her small chin.
Before she could react, her face was turned toward him.
Their gazes tangled in midair. A fleeting, eerie brilliance flashed in those disturbingly clear golden eyes before vanishing.
“Ha…”
A sigh laden with complicated emotions escaped him, and Katie froze, unable to even breathe.
Helion was undoubtedly human. Not a beastman like them, nor an animal. Yet, in his breath, she caught the thick scent of a male predator.
Those eyes—this breathing—belonged to a beast that had spotted its prey.
The animal instincts mixed in Katie’s blood screamed in alarm.
“W-what are you doing?! Let me go!”
She slapped his hand away and wrenched herself out of his hold. Helion’s lips parted as if to say something, but she had no mind to listen.
I’ll be found out. If I keep facing him like this, he’ll discover the truth.
Some inexplicable intuition kept warning her—she had to run. Now.
With a speed unbelievable for a mere mid-rank knight, Katie swiftly fled the scene. She had no presence of mind to dwell on the fact that she’d dared to shove a royal, nor to remember basic courtesy. She simply ran forward, as if chased by something.
* * *
Inside the Warehouse, Where the Woman Had Disappeared
Helion stood still, staring fixedly at the door through which the woman had vanished.
“Unbelievably fast.”
A sigh escaped him, as if he were genuinely impressed. He already knew she hadn’t willingly indulged Damian’s harassment. Even in the midst of sleep, his ears were always open.
“Step back.” Exactly three times—that was how many warnings she had given Damian.
Yet, despite the bastard’s persistent groping, she hadn’t dared to shove a member of the imperial family away. But the moment Helion tried to see her face, she slapped his hand aside, her own face pale with terror, and fled without a second thought.
His gaze shifted to the empty space where her face had been just moments ago.
It had been mere curiosity. What kind of face does the woman who caught the attention of that damned Damian have?
He’d expected something plain. Patchy, unevenly cut black hair. A uniform one size too big for her. That shabby figure had only reinforced his assumption.
Come to think of it, it has always been like that. Whether it was art or talent, everything Damian took an interest in turned out to be worthless.
But this time was an exception.
Helion ran his tongue over his parched lips.
“…Quite the sight, wasn’t she?”
A face so small, yet dominated by strikingly large features. Beneath the long bangs that seemed meant to hide her face was skin as flawless and pale as fresh milk.
A high, elegantly curved nose. The only splash of color on that monochrome face—her vividly red lips. Everything was perfect, but what truly captured his attention, without a doubt, were her eyes.
Grey irises—a rarity even in the Empire, possessed by only 1% of the population. Eyes as hazy and damp as ink diluted with water.
And the way she had looked at him—wide-eyed with fear—was so obscene that it instantly made him understand why Damian had gotten that thing up for such an insignificant little creature.
In short, it was a face that could drive a man wild with lust.
Helion pressed his palm firmly against the taut fabric of his thigh. But no amount of pressure could hide the swelling beneath.
Over three years had passed since the war entered a ceasefire. The moment blades stopped being drawn, Helion had sent spies into the Kingdom.
“Find the white cat.”
The woman who had saved him was the first to make him want to live. She was the one who gave him the will to survive.
Helion, who had merely existed without truly living, endured the long war by clinging to thoughts of her. He fought tooth and nail to survive, desperate to show her—The child you saved has grown into a man this strong.
But the news brought back by his spies was devastating.
“They say she’s dead. Caught in the war and killed…”
It wasn’t uncommon for innocent people to die in the crossfire of war. But why did she have to be among them?
He had been certain she was alive. Even as a child, she had been brave enough to outmaneuver an Imperial knight.
Yet the evidence his spy presented was undeniable—an official death record from the Kingdom.
From that moment on, Helion’s world faded into monochrome.
Nothing held meaning anymore. No delicacies brought him joy, no thrill-seeking games satisfied him.
Longing for the living fades with time. Longing for the dead is eternal.
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