“Your Majesty, it’s Ren Cassius.”
At the familiar voice, Archel’s expression crumpled for a moment. Her knight, who had protected her until the very moment of his death. A man more trustworthy than anyone, who carried out her wishes without hesitation and guarded only her until the end.
“…Come in.”
Archel tore her gaze from the mirror and sat at the head of the sofa.
The door opened, and Ren entered with measured steps. His dark blue hair looked more disheveled than usual. His movements were calm and orderly, but the way his gray eyes immediately sought out and fixed on Archel betrayed a subtle unease.
“Your Majesty.”
“Ren.”
His eyes slowly swept over Archel from head to toe. After checking her condition, he quickly scanned the room before approaching and stopping beside her.
He was trying to determine what had happened, unsettled by Archel’s unusual behavior.
“I heard you had canceled your entire schedule today and were staying in your room, so I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion.”
He lowered his gaze with a slight bow, and Archel gestured for him to sit.
“Were you worried? It’s nothing. I was just a little tired. I only wanted to rest.”
Ren sat on her left and examined Archel’s complexion. Seeing the redness around her eyes, his brow creased faintly.
Had she been crying?
“…Has something happened, Your Majesty?”
There was an edge to Ren’s voice. The Archel he knew was strong-willed, proud, and formidable. No matter how difficult things became, she never rested, no matter how often he urged her to do so, and she went to extreme lengths to avoid showing weakness. She was someone who always believed she had to be perfect as the Empress. And yet someone like that had cried?
At his suddenly lowered voice, Archel turned to look at him. More precisely, she looked at his neck.
The neck that had been severed while he was protecting her. The neck from which his head had been cut and sent rolling across the floor by his hair.
Even in death, the eyes in his rolling head had been unable to close.
Of course, the neck in front of her now was clean, without so much as a wound, let alone a cut.
Archel gave a feeble, short laugh and turned away. Warm sunlight still filled the view beyond the window.
“No. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.”
All of that had not happened yet. Those events had vanished for now. It was true that nothing had happened.
But the sight of her weak smile made Ren grow even colder.
“Your Majesty. If you tell me what it is, I can take care of everything.”
When she looked back at him at the vaguely murderous tone, Ren’s eyes flashed from beneath a face gone frighteningly still.
“Pfft, Ren. You don’t have to make that face. Really, I just… wanted to rest a little.”
Because she knew he was the man who had guarded her to the very end, because she knew he was someone she could trust more than anyone, Archel showed him a languid, unguarded side of herself she had never once shown anyone else.
“…Your Majesty…”
At her words, Ren flinched and hurried to compose his expression. Then he stared blankly at her as her voice fell completely loose.
It was the first time Archel had shown him such an unguarded side of herself. Faced with this glimpse of intimate ease from the woman who had always been cold and businesslike, Ren could only stare. And for some reason, something in his chest tickled. He was worried by this unfamiliar side of her, yet pleased that she showed it only to him.
“Ren.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Meeting his gaze again, Archel spoke with a slightly stiff expression.
“Stay by my side for the time being. There are things I need to do.”
The order made no sense to him, and Ren fell silent for a moment, trying to read between the lines. He had served as Archel’s direct escort during official events or especially important engagements, but this was the first time she had assigned him to protect her at all times.
His eyes asked why. What had prompted her to give such an order, and why did she look so exhausted? But he did not ask. He could not.
“…I obey, Your Majesty.”
As always, his answer was quiet and unwavering. Archel smiled faintly and dismissed him, saying that she wanted to rest. Ren’s gaze lingered on her until the last moment, but he soon bowed and left the room.
Click—
When the door closed, Archel stared at the door he had gone through.
Ren Cassius had been the first talent she had taken under her wing.
He had shown a gift for the sword and received the patronage of a minor count’s house. But when the count’s house was defeated in a territorial war against the viscount’s house of a neighboring domain, he had been sold as spoils to the viscountess. Archel had rescued him just before he was hanged, if he refused to become a slave of the viscount’s house. At the time, Archel had only recently inherited the throne, and because she was young, she needed an example to show that she was not an Empress to be taken lightly.
The viscount’s house, having started an unauthorized territorial war, had happened to make an excellent target, and it was only natural that she would go there herself. That was where she first met Ren.
A young boy her own age, not yet fully grown, had been imprisoned with his execution date set. Yet his eyes and spirit shone fiercely. He reminded her of herself. So she took him in.
But Archel believed that all she had done was place him as a squire in the Imperial Knights. Rising from commoner status to Commander of the Imperial Knights had been solely the result of Ren’s own ability.
She had watched every road he traveled from his side. Whenever the weight of the imperial throne exhausted her, looking at him gave her the strength to carry on. His fierce, relentless will was admirable—and something she envied. She believed that to be the liege of a man like him, she had to be someone worthy of receiving his loyalty.
Someone who had been that strong had died because of her. Ren had paid the price for her ignoring the words of those who supported her. No, perhaps everyone had met the same fate. They would not have survived the day of that treasonous rebellion. That must have been why the rebellion had been launched on the day of the Privy Council meeting.
This time, she would never let that happen. To do so, she had to move first.
Archel retrieved the file Verosa had left behind and settled herself at the desk. First, she needed to understand the events of the present. She had to determine where exactly she was in the timeline and what problems needed to be dealt with immediately.
And after that…
Sofia.
An investigation into that woman had to come first. Kael, if she was the reason you hated me so much, then the truth behind what the Archel of the past—or rather, the Archel of the future—didn’t know began with this woman named Sofia.
Investigating Sofia would open the way to uncovering the clues to his betrayal and treasonous rebellion.
Though Archel trembled with betrayal at his actions, she bit her lips tightly, torn by her desire to know why he had betrayed her. It was probably because the remnants of the feelings she had once held for him still remained.
With both love and betrayal lingering in her heart, Archel repeated to herself again and again that she would never love him ever again.
“Kael… Kael Edelhardt…”
This life… Never. In this life, I will not love you.
Neither my love, nor your betrayal, nor anything else will ever give you power over me.