Traces (1)
The secret chamber was so shabby it was hard to believe it existed inside the royal palace. A cold, razor-sharp silence hung in the air, making the skin prickle.
“…This woman.”
Kaiden Ram, standing in the center of the room, muttered in a low voice. He stared down at the woman kneeling before him with icy eyes.
“She’s the one I’ve been looking for?”
The woman’s appearance was ragged and unkempt. She kept her head bowed so low it nearly touched the floor, her hands clutching her skirt hem trembling faintly.
“We’ve confirmed the Uroboros mark on her body,” Aurell said from the doorway, shrugging lightly. “If she isn’t lying, then she remembers her past life as well.”
At the mention of a past life, Kaiden let out a short, derisive laugh.
“A past life, is it.”
He knelt in front of the woman.
“Raise your head.”
“Y-Your Majesty, this humble one greets—”
Though he had ordered her to look up, the woman seemed too terrified to obey. She only tried to offer a trembling greeting.
“How insolent.”
Kaiden lifted her chin with the tip of his scabbard.
“Did you not hear me tell you to raise your head?”
“How could a lowly commoner like me dare to lift my head before Your Majesty…”
“Then answer as you are. What was your past life?”
The sudden question made the woman’s body go rigid. She couldn’t meet Kaiden’s gaze and kept averting her eyes.
“I-I was once part of an assassin guild.”
“The name of the guild?”
“…Angel's Breath.”
“Your position?”
“The leader… I was the leader.”
With each exchange, Kaiden’s face grew increasingly expressionless. He asked in a flat voice,
“What is your name?”
“M-My name is…”
The woman barely managed to reply in a voice that had shrunk to a whisper.
“Kayla.”
Aurell studied his king. Kaiden sat motionless before the woman. Though Aurell couldn’t see his expression from behind, he instinctively knew.
Wrong again.
Aurell sighed inwardly.
“You claim to be Kayla.”
“Y-Yes. That is correct.”
“How absurd.”
“…Pardon?”
Kaiden’s lips curved into a languid smile. He withdrew the scabbard from her chin.
“You tried, at least.”
Her oddly green eyes and reddish-gold hair bore a faint resemblance to the woman he sought. “Though poorly executed.”
Despite her shabby clothes, her skin was far too pale and flawless—like that of a noblewoman who received regular care.
“If you’re going to act, you should have sent someone who could do it properly. Your master is far too complacent.”
Arrogant fools.
Kaiden thought of the newly sworn lords under his command. This woman was clearly a trap sent by one of them.
“Who sent you?”
“Y-Your Majesty, what do you mean…”
“Is the performance still not over?”
Madness flickered in his golden eyes. Kaiden asked with a voice laced with laughter,
“Then let me ask you just one thing, Kayla.”
His presence was so menacing it seemed he might kill her if she gave the wrong answer. The woman swallowed dryly as she stared at the king’s face inches from her own. He was devastatingly handsome, yet his aura made her feel she might faint.
“Back then, why did you leave me behind?”
Leave behind? Who left whom?
The woman looked at Kaiden in confusion.
“I begged you so desperately…”
Kaiden twisted one corner of his mouth. The madness in his eyes had shifted into grief and fury.
“Why did you abandon me and go?”
How could there exist a woman who would leave even when the Knight King of Adamant begged her to stay? Kaiden pressed the trembling woman who still hadn’t answered.
“Well? Answer me.”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
“If you were truly Kayla, you’d be able to answer this.”
His smile was unbearably mischievous. He knew perfectly well she couldn’t answer, yet he asked anyway. The woman surrendered to Kaiden’s piercing gaze.
“P-Please forgive me, Your Majesty! I only did as I was told! I truly know nothing! Marquis Sorel said if I followed his instructions, he would restore my brother’s title!”
Marquis Sorel. As expected.
Kaiden snorted as if he had known all along.
“Honesty suits you.”
It was fortunate the woman hadn’t been stubborn. If she had, he might have snapped her slender neck for daring to impersonate someone so precious to him. Kaiden rose without hesitation.
“Aurell.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Summon Marquis Sorel.”
At the king’s command, Aurell tilted his head. He glanced at the weeping woman and asked,
“What shall we do with her?”
“Handle it as you see fit.”
“Pardon? As I see fit?”
The most troublesome order in the world.
Aurell scratched his cheek with a troubled expression.
“You mean… I shouldn’t kill her, correct?”
There was no reply. Kaiden had already left the chamber.
“Haa…”
He must be in a foul mood after another dead end.
Aurell sighed and extended a hand to the woman still sitting on the floor. She looked up at him in bewilderment.
“I thought your acting was rather poor, but are you also slow-witted?”
“Pardon?”
“Offering my hand means you should take it and stand. Must I explain even socially agreed-upon gestures?”
“Ah, I-I’m sorry.”
The woman apologized in a fluster and took Aurell’s hand to rise. The moment she stood, he pulled his hand away and wiped it with a handkerchief.
“I will provide an escort, Lady Schumitz. I hope you return home safely.”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“W-Wait! You knew who I was?”
“Of course I did.”
“But when? How…”
“Do you think I’ve only seen one or two people like you? Honestly, after witnessing what happens to those who get caught, the fact that foolish nobles still attempt impersonation…”
“Then why…!”
The woman asked with wide eyes.
“Why did you pretend not to know?”
“Why else?”
Aurell frowned as though it were the most idiotic question imaginable.
“To catch the vile flea daring to exploit my lord’s weakness.”
A vile flea.
Lady Schumitz stared at him blankly.
“Don’t tell me… you deliberately summoned me to catch Marquis Sorel, even though you knew I wasn’t the person His Majesty was looking for?”
“Fortunately, your comprehension is average.”
Aurell smiled as if relieved and clapped his hands together.
“Then, if you would kindly return home now? I must go arrest Marquis Sorel on His Majesty’s orders.”
He turned away with a bright smile.
“Just a moment! If that happens, our family will—”
“Ah, right.”
Aurell’s eyes widened as though he had just remembered something at Lady Schumitz’s plea.
“As of today, the Schumitz family will be granted the title of viscount.”
“What? But our family was originally a count’s house!”
“Lady Schumitz.”
His long, narrow eyes curved languidly, carrying a different air from the people of the western continent. Unlike moments before, Aurell regarded her with coldly sunken eyes.
“Be grateful you survived after uttering the name ‘Kayla’ today.”
Kayla Angel.
The only name the King of Adamant longed for, hated, and loved all at once. Not a single person who dared impersonate that name had ever been spared. That was Kaiden’s unspoken rule.
“Consider it an honor that you chose to oppose His Majesty yet still receive a noble title once more. Restoring titles to nobles of fallen houses is quite rare, you know?”
His tone left no room for argument. In the end, Lady Schumitz could only leave the chamber in silence, still not understanding who Kayla was or why she had offended Kaiden.
* * *
“Rachel has been acting strange lately.”
Edwin, the Third Prince of the Ventrum Empire, wore a deeply worried expression. He stirred the still-warm soup with his spoon.
Something’s changed.
Ever since the day he returned from the knight order’s training camp, Rachel seemed different somehow. She had grown strangely colder than usual—or perhaps more coldly rational.
“Did something happen on the day I came back?”
“W-Well…”
Catherine gave an awkward laugh and tilted her head at the prince’s question.
“If something had happened, wouldn’t Nanny have told you herself, given her personality?”
“That’s true. Then why has she suddenly become so curt?”
Edwin sighed again. Catherine quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, right! Maybe she’s still thinking about what I said?”
“Huh? What did you say to her?”
“Well… I told Nanny that I wanted to get closer by bathing together.”
Edwin’s eyes widened at the unintended revelation that the two had bathed together.
“You two bathed together?”
“Yes!”
“Just the two of you?”
“Yes!”
The prince’s face flushed red at the mention of them bathing alone.
“That’s… that’s something only married couples do!”
Imperial nobles and royalty considered bathing an extremely private affair. Even among blood relatives or same-sex friends, sharing a bath without attendants was exceedingly rare—unless they were spouses.
“Huh? Ah, you wouldn’t know, Your Highness. We commoners have bathed together in the same tub since childhood. Water and soap are both precious, after all.”
“I-Is that so?”
“And more than anything, bathing with friends makes your bond even stronger, you know?”
Just as Catherine proudly puffed out her chest and declared this—
“Whose bond is getting stronger?”
The nanny, Rachel, appeared before them with her arms crossed.