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Chapter X. Memory

The gaze looking down at Psyche, who was sleeping like the dead, was persistent. It had been three days since Psyche had stopped waking up. Even flooding her with healing abilities proved useless.

Rezus’s eyes darkened as he looked down at her. The day he had taken her roughly to vent his anger. For some unknown reason, Psyche had been coming down to the first floor in the late dawn when she suddenly started dry heaving and then collapsed on the stairs.

Since then, Psyche had remained in this state.

After checking her condition, there was nothing wrong with her body. How could there be, after using so much healing ability? He had used enough to erase any existing problems, so surely she would wake up eventually.

But why did it bother him so much? She had always been an irritating presence to him, but this time it was particularly severe.

Was it because he couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t woken up yet?

Or was it…

‘You can be rougher, more… Until your anger subsides, take me as much as you want.’

Those words she had sobbed out that didn’t even sound like her.

He let out a bitter laugh.

Psyche was truly a woman born to manipulate people’s hearts.

Because from the moment she said those words, he could no longer be just rough with her.

With a darkly sunken gaze, he stared intensely at the sleeping Psyche. Over her clear sleeping face, suddenly the image of her childhood self overlapped, and he recalled their first meeting.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, the memories that had already surfaced refused to let him go. In the end, Rezus was helplessly drawn into the past.

That year’s hunting tournament was especially lively. It was because Psyche Rosebel, the beloved princess of Mathes, was participating in her first hunting competition.

As if blessing Psyche, who had just turned fourteen and was participating in the tournament for the first time, the sunshine was particularly warm that day. In the gently blowing spring breeze, she smiled brightly while receiving everyone’s attention.

Psyche seemed like someone born solely to be loved. No, she seemed born to monopolize the love of everyone in the world.

While some lived their entire lives in hatred and neglect, others received such affectionate gazes and love simply for being the only princess of Mathes. How unfair the world is.

The more he looked at Psyche, the more irritated he felt. Just as he was about to twist his lips and turn away his gaze.

Their eyes met.

Was it his imagination?

…It must have been his imagination.

Strangely, from that moment on, he felt something continuously gnawing at his nerves. So he killed every prey he could find.

Even though he knew victory was already certain, it wasn’t enough. Thinking that catching larger and stronger prey might quench this thirst, he was about to venture into deeper, darker, more dangerous territory.

That’s when he sensed someone behind him.

Turning around, he saw a girl with wheat-colored hair, her baby fat not yet gone.

It was Psyche.

She was carrying nothing but a bow, without any words or escort, and her quiver, slung over her shoulder, was filled to the brim with arrows, as if she had never shot a single one before. Seeing her tiptoeing and touching leaves or branches, it seemed she had little interest in hunting from the start.

Watching her, his brow furrowed. He was about to ask what she was doing here but stopped himself. As he began to walk forward again, it wasn’t long before he sensed Psyche moving as well.

‘Surely, she’s not following me.’

No, that couldn’t be. It must be his imagination.

There’s no way the precious princess of Mathes would follow someone like me.

Even as he thought this, he couldn’t shake the strange feeling that she was indeed following him.

That suspicion deepened, and when they entered a darker, more dangerous part of the forest, it turned into certainty.

Just to be sure, he deliberately ventured into an area teeming with ferocious beasts, yet he could still sense her presence, lingering not far behind.

He couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

If she were in her right mind, she wouldn’t have come this far. This was an area where even first-class hunters rarely ventured alone, yet she had fearlessly followed him here all by herself?

This is beyond reckless!

Just as he twisted his face into a scowl and turned his head—

“……!”