While I was gathering information about the Dawn’s Eye, I suddenly encountered Sylvia and hurriedly returned to the accommodation with her.
I boiled some warm water and served tea. She, sitting on the bare floor without saying a word, carefully took the teacup and began drinking silently with a quiet “thank you.”
I didn’t want to pressure her, so I deliberately sat at a distance on the bed, looking out the window, waiting for time to pass.
After some time, Sylvia spoke first.
“I’m sorry, Prince Lyard. I heard a sound early this morning, and without thinking…”
“No, there’s no need to apologize. It’s my fault for making a sound, thinking you were still asleep.”
Naturally, I had assumed she was deep in sleep, so I hadn’t expected her to follow me. That was my mistake.
The barrier I had set up around the room only detects external intrusions, but it’s not polite enough to alert if someone leaves the room. So, it was understandable that I hadn’t noticed.
I didn’t feel the need to dwell on that.
What bothered me, though, was what she might have overheard from following me.
“How much did you hear?”
Without going around the question, I asked directly, and she looked at me sideways, biting her lip, lowering her head.
It meant she had heard everything.
This could be a troublesome situation.
Of course, I wasn’t particularly concerned if Sylvia was hostile toward me. That was part of the plan from the beginning.
However, the conversation I had with the informant, especially regarding my intention to join the Dawn’s Eye, wasn’t something I wanted her to hear.
After all, the Dawn’s Eye is one of the most notorious groups of traitors in the Empire’s history.
Who would leave a lunatic who intends to join such a group alone?
To be blunt, if she had used that conversation as a reason to report me, it wouldn’t have been surprising if I were immediately called in for interrogation and thrown into prison.
So, at the very least, I shouldn’t have let her hear that last part, but that was my oversight.
“…Prince Lyard, are you interested in a group called Dawn’s Eye?”
“If that’s the case, do you intend to report me to the Imperial Army?”
I replied with a deliberately cold tone, trying to keep my composure.
It might have seemed silly to ask, since it’s the natural thing for an Imperial citizen to do, but for some reason, she shook her head and looked at me.
“No, I won’t.”
Though there was some sadness in her eyes, there was also a firm will, which left me stunned.
If she had just been worried that I might harm her and was trying to act cautiously in front of me, I could have understood.
But she looked at me with eyes that seemed to say she couldn’t find any reason to do that.
“Why not? Are you saying you’ll let a rebel go free right in front of you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Maybe I am.”
Her actions, as she tilted her teacup with a wry smile, made it hard to read her thoughts.
Why was she so determined not to report me to the Imperial Army?
“I overheard what the old man was saying earlier.”
“What did he say?”
“He said there was no way someone like him, dying alone in a back alley, could have any patriotism left. And when I thought about it, I realized I wasn’t much different from him.”
As she said that, Sylvia pointed to the seat across from her and gave me a gesture with her eyes.
It felt uncomfortable facing her right now, but since she held the reins, I had no choice but to approach and sit down on the bare floor across from her.
Then, after a brief pause, her lips parted again.
“I guess I’m a witch after all. I feel more connected to you, Prince Lyard, who gave me back my freedom, than to the people of this country who were quick to throw stones at me without doing anything for me.”
“… Is that the only reason?”
It seemed she was saying she would keep quiet because I was the one who helped her escape her cage, which was understandable, but it wasn’t the kind of reason that would make me overlook the traitor right in front of me.
So, I frowned slightly.
Sylvia, on the other hand, chuckled as if she herself found it absurd and nodded her head.
“Yeah. I’m a narrow-minded and malicious woman, right?”
“I don’t think so. I was the same way.”
It was true that, from someone else’s point of view, my reasoning could be seen as hypocritical.
But even so, I couldn’t belittle her choice.
The reason I wanted to be with them before my return was similar to hers: seeking power and authority, disregarding family and the country.
I had thought she, being as pure-hearted as I knew her to be, would not love such a world. That’s why I was a little surprised.
But now, it seemed she didn’t have no hostility toward the world that rejected her.
She had called herself a witch, but in my eyes, it seemed like the typical sentiment of an ordinary citizen living in this era.
“However, Prince Lyard. Please understand one thing.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
As she took a step back, her voice grew serious, and I instinctively straightened my back and focused on her words.
“Even if I keep this secret, it’s only because I’m keeping quiet. I don’t blindly support your decision, Prince. If you decide to go down a twisted path, I will try to stop you.”
“Are you trying to make me repent?”
“Hehe, I don’t know the method. But unfortunately, I’m not a saint, and it might be hard to force someone to repent.”
She said this with her usual gentle smile, but to me, it was a rather cryptic response.
It’s fine if she’s showing a willingness to be with rebels, but what does it mean to head down a twisted path?
Is this some kind of paradoxical statement?
Does it mean that living among rebels might actually be the right direction?
I just wanted to understand what “twisted path” meant in her perspective.
“… I will keep it in mind.”
For now, there was nothing I could do but respect her choice, so I nodded and pretended to savor the scent of the tea I didn’t really know.
At least things hadn’t gone as badly as I had feared, so I suppose I should be thankful for that.
“Alright then. Shall we sleep now? I might sleep in tomorrow.”
“Indeed.”
Following her lead, I approached the bed and collapsed onto it.
My head ached so badly that I didn’t feel like going outside to gather information again. I just wanted to close my eyes and rest.
‘Was it the Drake family?’
Even as my consciousness sank, I recalled a part of the conversation I had with the old man earlier.
Drake family.
I thought I might need to reach out to them if the opportunity arose.
From the next position, Sylvia stopped pretending to sleep and quietly raised her body.
As she approached the bed opposite, she saw Kyle, deeply asleep, his face so relaxed she could carry him without him waking up.
At that moment, Sylvia’s true expression, which she had been trying to hide, surfaced, and a look of concern appeared on her face.
‘Kyle, are you really going to walk that rough path in this world too?’
Unconsciously, she reached out to touch Kyle’s face, which seemed a little thinner, but then quickly withdrew her hand with a slight start.
When she first returned to the past through reincarnation, she had hoped that maybe Kyle would have come too.
But alas, perhaps the gods didn’t grant a second miracle, and there was no sign of him.
At least Kyle seemed a little more docile and less cold compared to the first time she met him, but Sylvia guessed that it was only because he hadn’t fully gone astray yet.
When she accidentally overheard a conversation between Kyle and the informant earlier, she had been sure.
In this world, too, it seemed that Kyle, perhaps because of his resentment toward his family or some personal ambition, had plans to approach the Dawn’s Eye and join their ranks.
Just recalling the conversation with the person who had driven both of them to their deaths before her reincarnation made it clear that Kyle had been part of that group.
‘I must stop this.’
Her right eye gleamed as she looked at the peacefully sleeping Kyle, as if caressing the most precious thing in the world, sweeping her hand from top to bottom.
What she had promised Kyle was that she wouldn’t report this to the Imperial Army, not that she wouldn’t try to stop him.
Since the moment Sylvia returned to the past, she had one firm resolution.
It wasn’t to escape her family to regain her freedom, nor to escape the curse of the eye and live as a normal woman.
Her only resolve was to ensure that the man she loved would not meet a tragic end once more.
To do this, she had made up her mind to make Kyle fall in love with her.
She would become a treasure more valuable and precious than any wealth, power, or influence in his eyes.
She wanted him to never be able to abandon her, to never be able to leave her, to be the first to hold her hand rather than the hands of evil.
‘The Drake family, right?’
But she wasn’t the kind of woman who would simply make plans full of dreams.
As she recalled Kyle’s conversation with the informant earlier, she carefully stored the name of the Drake family in her mind.
Whether Kyle reached out to them first, or they contacted him, she would have to cut it off before it even started.
To do that, she would make sure to stay close to Kyle and make any excuse necessary after returning to the castle.