Revenge Alliance (5)
The door closed with a soft creak, and Kaiden’s eyelids slowly lifted open.
He remained lying perfectly straight, lowering his gaze. The person who should have been on the sofa was gone.
Rachel Brown, the Third Prince’s nanny.
From the very first time he saw her, his eyes had kept drifting toward her. Since she was the caretaker of his only nephew, he had finished his preliminary investigation on her long ago.
She doesn’t seem to be lying, at least.
As Rachel herself had stated, she truly was an adopted child from a count’s household. She lost someone precious to her because of Angel’s Breath.
He didn’t particularly believe those words. Humans possessed the innate talent for spinning lies that sounded exactly like truth. To Kaiden, any fact he had no way of verifying remained nothing more than a fabricated story until the truth finally revealed itself.
Even so, there was only one reason he had extended his hand to her first.
She resembles her.
Kaiden narrowed his eyes. That woman, Kayla.
It wasn’t their faces or body shapes that were alike. It was the way she always carried her neck and spine perfectly straight, the strangely elegant yet swift and flexible movements—those were remarkably similar to her. Even the unnaturally sharp perceptiveness.
She definitely realized it back then.
Kaiden recalled the sword dance the two princes had performed in the grand banquet hall. Edwin’s swordsmanship was beyond what I imagined. His sharp eyes narrowed further. Though the second prince’s malice was even more astonishing.
The ferocious spirit directed at humiliating his half-brother had been utterly repulsive. That was why he had thrown the fork. It was certainly not an impulsive act born from a sudden rush of affection for his nephew.
When the second prince’s attack was deflected, only two people immediately looked at me.
One was Duke Crowner. The other was the Third Prince’s nanny, Rachel Brown.
Yet when she came to see him, she never uttered a single word about the incident at the banquet.
An orphan adopted into a count’s family.
Kaiden lowered his eyes, sinking into thought. They say those brought back through the resurrection ritual take over another person’s body as a vessel.
However, the vessel had to have some connection to the deceased and had to be someone whose life was nearly at its end.
Is there any connection between the prince’s nanny and Kayla?
Kayla had no blood relatives. If Rachel Brown was an orphan, that meant she had none either. They look too different to be long-lost sisters. The only resemblance was that mysterious shade of their eyes.
Kaiden rested his chin on his hand and let out a sigh. She might simply be someone with a similar personality.
Just as there were parents and children who bore no resemblance at all, there were also people who resembled each other astonishingly even without any blood tie.
In truth, such trivial details no longer mattered.
She said she lost the person she loved.
Who would have guessed that the Third Prince’s nanny would turn out to be an enemy of Angel’s Breath. From Kaiden’s perspective, it was actually a fortunate development.
I was just wondering who to place beside the Third Prince.
He had not yet acknowledged Edwin as his nephew, but if he had to choose which prince he wished to see become the next emperor, it could only be him.
Should I call it audacious?
Asking him to side with the Third Prince as atonement. The remark had seemed to pierce straight through him, startling him for a moment.
I have never once been flustered even when surrounded by hundreds of enemies alone.
A small, fragile woman who looked as though she would shatter if grasped in his hand had managed to unsettle him. The fact that such a thing was possible unsettled Kaiden even more.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Kaiden raised one hand and spread his fingers wide. Through them, the ornate patterns of the ceiling shimmered. Among them, a vivid green caught his eye—a green threaded with the faintest trace of gold.
The color that evoked someone dear made Kaiden slowly close his eyes. Even if sleep would not come again, he could still recall that beloved face.
Kayla.
Kaiden repeated the name of the one he could no longer call aloud. All through the fading night and until the morning sun rose.
“Why does your face look like that? You look exactly like someone who stayed up all night.”
Sage Lil paused in the middle of scribbling on a large sheet of parchment and raised one eyebrow. “Weren’t you supposed to have switched careers to being a nanny? Don’t tell me you’re secretly moonlighting on the side?”
“Could you please be quiet? You’re being noisy.”
I leaned my head against the back of the chair and rubbed my temples. “Who was it that barged into someone else’s cabin without permission?”
Sage grumbled in a disgruntled voice. “During the founding festival, you told me to stay shut up in here and not even think about coming out. Yet you’re the one who came knocking first…”
“Sage Lil.”
I had barely slept while keeping watch at Kaiden’s side, so my nerves were raw. Even to my own ears, my voice came out chillingly cold.
“Wh-what is it, you brat! Do you think I’ll suddenly get scared just because you call me by my full name? What does an old man who’s going to die soon have to fear…”
Sage shot up from his seat and thrust his bony fist forward. Seeing the old man preemptively cowering exactly as he described made me feel rather uncomfortable.
“…I simply had something I wanted to ask.”
“What?”
Sage’s expression went slack as if the fight had gone out of him. He plopped back down and grumbled again. “Then say that from the start. Why create such a terrifying atmosphere?”
“You were the one creating the terrifying atmosphere. It looked like you were ready to swing a sword if I called your name twice.”
“That’s because you’ve never been threatened with your life! When you call my name in that voice, it sends chills down my spine.”
I had never been threatened with my life, but I had had my life taken from me.
I swallowed the words that rose to my tongue and changed the subject. “Do you happen to know anything about Kaiden Ram?”
“Kaiden Ram? You mean the King of Adamant?”
Sage’s already wrinkled face scrunched up even more at my question. “Why are you asking about him?”
“Because I’m curious.”
I turned my gaze toward where he sat. “I heard you gave Prince Edwin an assignment to research how to attack Adamant Castle.”
He would not have given such an assignment for no reason, especially not while the King of Adamant himself was a guest at the Third Prince’s Palace. Sage was wiser and more cunning than anyone.
“Didn’t you assign it because you also wanted to learn more about Kaiden Ram?”
“Well, it would be a lie to say I’m not curious.”
Sage crossed his arms and gave a small nod. “He’s famous enough that I heard his name several times even while trapped in the plague village.”
A mysterious figure about whom almost nothing was known despite his fame. That was the King of Adamant, Kaiden Ram.
“You’re the one who’s been staying beside Edwin. You must have run into him more than a few times. Haven’t you found out anything about Kaiden Ram?”
It was far more than simply running into him a few times.
I narrowed my brows and spoke. “What I’ve found out…”
Even in such a short time, I had learned quite a lot about him. I recalled the facts about Kaiden one by one.
First, Kaiden Ram has a clear obsession with eye color.
The first thing he said when we met at the imperial palace was that he liked my eyes.
Second, Kaiden Ram cannot fall asleep alone.
It was as if he suffered from an illness that prevented sleep unless someone was beside him.
Third, Kaiden Ram is incomprehensibly strong.
And the most important final point.
“It seems Kaiden Ram knows who I am.”
“What? The King of Adamant knows you?”
“Yes.”
I murmured quietly. “He called me Kayla.”
“Insane!”
Sage shot to his feet, his face drained of all color. “Then we’re in serious trouble! If he’s figured out that you’re the prince’s nanny…”
“He was crying while calling my name.”
“Huh?”
Sage’s expression went utterly blank. After opening and closing his mouth like a stranded fish, he asked in a surprisingly grave voice.
“…You didn’t try to collect a life debt from Kaiden Ram in the past, did you?”
“Of course not.”
If I had, I would remember. The people from whom I had demanded life debts back then were all quite famous even at the time.
“…I don’t know.”
I had uncovered many things about Kaiden Ram and had even heard talk of an alliance, yet I still couldn’t grasp what kind of man he was. The more I thought about it, the less I understood—even what sort of relationship he might have had with the original me.
“I really don’t know.”
“Hup!”
Edwin stood in the rear garden of the prince’s palace, swinging his wooden sword. The handle was so darkened by constant use that it gleamed with a polished sheen, evidence of how diligently he had practiced.
Every swing cut through the air with a low whoosh. After repeating the same motion dozens of times, sweat poured down his forehead like rain.
“Heuk… heuk…”
Breathing hard, Edwin lowered the wooden sword. The young prince’s mind was filled with the sword dance from the banquet hall. Every time he remembered the murderous glare in his half-brother’s eyes, his stomach churned. No matter that it had been part of the performance, the memory of himself collapsing to the floor in the end only deepened his shame.
“You’re working hard.”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind him. Edwin quickly straightened his clothes and spun around.
Someone was leaning against a pillar in the corridor beside the garden. It was the King of Adamant, Kaiden Ram.