The horse’s breathing was growing labored.
Lenny bit her lip as she entrusted her body to the galloping princess’s beloved steed.
It was a season when darkness came late, yet the banquet had started earlier than expected.
Even before switching clothes with the princess, the maid had said she needed to prepare for the banquet.
The sound of the pursuer’s horse hooves was already audible from behind.
It seemed the princess’s escape had been discovered too quickly.
“Go to the Luette Convent and find Mother Superior Erikanin. Show her the rose hairpin—she’ll help you.”
Perhaps she shouldn’t have obeyed Princess Kiabel so readily, even if it was too early.
The stable boy might have overheard.
They should have ridden somewhere else.
I have to hide.
Send the horse on alone and fool them.
But if I fall from this speed, I won’t get away unscathed.
While she hesitated, she felt the pursuer’s presence behind her.
Clop clop.
Just one horse.
Coming alone—how bold.
Leni placed her hand on the dagger at her waist.
It had been given to her by Kiabel for self-defense.
Stab and run.
Buy time until reinforcements arrive.
Take out this one first, then plan the next move.
The galloping hooves of the pursuer’s horse and her own overlapped.
A shadow chasing through the wind closed in from the left.
As their horses’ heads aligned, Leni steadied her breath.
The pursuer wore scale armor protecting his chest.
Should she strike or just hit him?
Would a blow even affect him?
No—he wouldn’t expect an attack.
A surprise might work.
Too many thoughts made her breath falter.
Attack now.
There’s no other way to shake him off.
She made up her mind and drew her blade.
The moment the blade gleamed, the pursuer’s hand on the reins moved.
Lenny swung her sword at his twisting body, but it sliced only through air.
A failed attack meant a chance for a counterattack.
A large, gloved hand struck her wrist mid-arc.
The massive blow knocked the wind from her lungs.
Her wrist felt like it was burning—she tried to grip the sword again, but her body wouldn’t respond.
The pain spread from her arm to her shoulder, making her hand tremble.
No—if I drop the weapon…
Gritting her teeth, she forced strength into her grip.
But at that moment, her body tilted sideways.
As she staggered, a dark figure closed in, and a rough hand wrapped around her waist and yanked her off.
“Hah!”
Her airborne body was swept into the wind and landed on the pursuer’s horse.
Leni aimed for the man’s throat, but his hand on her back pushed down on her shoulder blade first.
“Ah!”
A scream burst out from the intense pain.
Her grip loosened, and the moonlit sword vanished into the darkness.
The pursuer pinned her tightly to his chest.
Leni twisted her waist in resistance, but his body was hard as stone and didn’t budge.
He held her fast, as if he would crush her without leaving a gap.
Neigh!
Her horse, the one she’d ridden, cried out as it disappeared into the darkness.
The wind slapped her cheeks.
Her vision spun, and her breath grew ragged.
Leni gasped against the man’s heaving chest.
Haa, haa.
She opened her mouth to breathe, but her airway felt crushed.
I’m going to die like this.
Please, let me breathe.
She coughed and shook her head desperately as if pleading, and the hand pressing on her back loosened slightly.
Then, a deep voice fell from above her head.
“Is this your idea of acting?”
Lenny snapped her head up.
A gloomy face under the moonlight dominated her vision.
The Red Wolf.
How are you here?
“Did you think you could fool me by changing clothes and riding the princess’s horse?”
She was too out of breath to respond.
The wind slowed.
The horse began to reduce its pace and then changed direction.
As they retraced their path, Blayden muttered.
“Fool. You didn’t save the princess.”
“…What?”
The horse picked up speed again.
In the rough wind, shadows of leaves danced across Blayden’s face.
“Didn’t you think it was strange?”
What?
“If it were you, would you leisurely sit and chat with a kid while your brother was trying to kill you? Talk about truth and lies? Give gifts? Is that how someone who’s in danger for their life acts?”
“How do you know all that…?”
Lenny’s scalp tingle.
It was just her and the princess in the room.
How does he know what we talked about?
That path.
The passage of shadows.
He said we’d never meet again, but he watched me.
Just like I overheard the prince’s story…
He’s not on the princess’s side.
Just as a chill passed through her chest, Blayden’s firm jaw brushed her head.
“Not everything in this world is as it seems.”
***
Blayden’s horse entered the Forest of Forié.
The forest, shrouded in darkness, felt eerie unlike in the daytime, and Leni held her breath.
In front of a cabin, soldiers with torches stood in formation.
Blayden dismounted and roughly dropped her to the ground.
“Lenz!”
“Yes!”
Leni recognized the young man who ran over to Blayden.
He was the knight she saw earlier when Blayden pretended to be a forest keeper.
“Tie up this brat. Make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish.”
Blayden gave the order in a firm tone and asked,
“The princess?”
“She’s inside.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
At Blayden’s signal, the knight twisted Lenny’s arms behind her back and bound them with rope.
Lenny didn’t even think to cry out in pain—she just stomped her feet while watching Blayden walk toward the cabin.
Princess, why didn’t you go farther away?
You’re still this close to the palace…
Blayden opened the cabin door and stepped inside.
The door closed quietly, and silence fell over the surroundings.
It was as if the standing cabin had absorbed all the sounds of the world.
Even the flow of time seemed to have stopped.
Then a beam of light flickered from inside, followed by the sound of a struggle, and then a woman’s sharp scream pierced the night.
Princess!
Lenny tried to run forward, but someone grabbed her shoulder.
“Staying still is safer.”
The knight’s voice was disturbingly gentle.
Just as her body trembled, the cabin door opened.
Blayden, backlit by the fire, stepped out into the darkness.
In his gloved hand, he held a head, blood dripping from it.
Lenny collapsed to the dirt ground.
The flickering torch light cast shadows across her face, half-covered by her long blonde hair. Princess Kiabel’s eyes were closed.
***
Kalian looked down at the paulownia box placed on the floor of the Great Hall.
Inside, the severed head of Kiabel lay with her eyes open.
Her complexion was pale, and blood stained her neck, yet her large gray eyes still gleamed as if she were alive.
The intelligence once brimming in her gaze now glinted with venom.
Shaking off a sense of unease, Kalian asked Blayden, who stood on the other side of the box:
“Did you forget my order to bring her back safely?”
“The Princess took her own life.”
“How?”
“She slit her own throat with a dagger she kept for protection.”
There was no way Kiabel would have taken her own life.
From the moment she was freed from captivity and during the entire journey back to Claville, she had been seething with rage.
She resented not only her captors, but also her father and brother who had prioritized the kingdom over her.
“I’ll grow stronger. So no one will ever dare treat me like that again.”
That was what the maid planted as a spy had reported about Kiabel’s state of mind.
It was not the mindset of someone who would easily give up their life.
“She slit her own throat, you say?”
“Yes. It happened so quickly that we couldn’t save her.”
Despite telling an obvious lie, Blayden remained calm.
Kalian had told him it was acceptable to kill her, but he hadn’t expected Blayden to actually go through with it.
Has this man truly become a hound to the bone?
I could use this as justification to have you executed—what are you really plotting?
Kalian had never been certain whether Blayden would carry out the covert order.
He’d assumed Blayden might fake losing Kiabel and come up with an excuse to rationalize it later.
After all, he’d need to secure his own survival in the palace, caught between the power struggle of prince and princess.
And yet, here he was, parading the severed head as if to prove a point.
More than satisfied at eliminating Kiabel, Kalian felt stunned—like he’d been outmaneuvered by a rival.
“The infamous Red Wolf couldn’t even save one woman. What a shame. Where is the body?”
“Outside the castle.”
“Why did you sever her head?”
Because you told me to bring back proof—his provocative gaze seemed to say just that.
“I couldn’t allow someone carrying the enemy’s seed to disgrace the royal palace. Isn’t this a sacred place, celebrating the unification of the continent?”
Despite the unimpeachable logic, Kalian felt a deep discomfort.
“Understood.”
With a slight nod, he turned around, doing his best to mask the turmoil within as he surveyed the banquet hall.
“Kiabel Olaus, Princess of the great Ekillium, purified herself through suicide after bearing the enemy’s child. From this moment forward, anyone who questions her honor or the glory of the kingdom shall face death.”
The calm threat silenced the murmuring nobles.
“Others who carry the enemy’s child will also be punished without exception. The royal physician will examine all returning captives. Since the Princess has set the example by giving her life, the rest shall be dealt with accordingly based on their condition.”
The physician bowed deeply and stepped back.
Kalian cast a glance toward Kiabel’s old nanny, standing in a corner of the hall.
“Those who served faithfully shall be rewarded in due time. But punishment must come first.”
His gaze shifted to the guards at the entrance of the hall.
“Bring in the traitor who aided the Princess’s escape.”
Leni was dragged into the banquet hall, her arms held by soldiers.
The vast Great Hall, lined on three sides with noble guests, erupted into a storm of eyes like arrows shot at her.
The soldiers pressed her shoulders down, forcing her to kneel on the cold floor.
In front of her was a wooden box—crudely made from paulownia wood—containing the severed head.
Her waxed face above the bloodied neck was chilling.
Princess…
Lenny’s body was covered in goosebumps as the prince, standing next to the box, stepped forward.
In the tense silence of the hall, only his slow footsteps echoed.