“Your Majesty?”
Then, a sharp voice rang out.
The Holy Maiden behind her was glaring at him as if she wanted to kill him.
“I apologize.”
Dietrian quickly bowed his head and pressed his lips deeply against Leticia’s hand once more.
“I was momentarily awed by your grace’s beauty and showed an embarrassing side of myself.”
He barely managed to peel his lips away and waited for her response.
His heart felt like it would explode. His entire nervous system was focused solely on his ears.
A moment later, a soft reply came.
“I’m thankful for your kind words.”
So this was your voice. Just as he imagined, no, more beautiful and lovable than he had imagined.
Then, Josephina approached and pulled Leticia’s arm.
“This child is quite beautiful, isn’t she?”
Dietrian held back his urge to grab her and pull her into his arms, taking a step back instead.
His fingertips felt so empty from the loss of her warmth that he clenched his fist. Nevertheless, his gaze remained on her.
Josephina wrapped her arm around her shoulder with an exaggerated smile.
“I’m glad that Your Majesty looks kindly upon my daughter as well. I was worried that you might be hostile towards her due to the unpleasant events that occurred recently.”
“There’s no way…”
Dietrian, who was reflexively responding, hesitated.
A fact that he had momentarily forgotten in his joy of seeing her came to mind. He had come to this place to meet the daughter of the Holy Maiden.
He unconsciously looked around the reception room. There were only courtiers standing quietly against the walls around him. There was no one who looked like the daughter of the Holy Maiden.
Only ‘her’, dazzlingly dressed in front of him.
“…Could it be.”
He barely managed to form the sentence, but he still could not understand the situation. What on earth was going on?
Why would Josephina call her her daughter?
Wasn’t Leticia, the daughter of the Holy Maiden, a bloodthirsty murderer?
But why?
Before his confusion could clear, Josephina smiled deeply.
“I can finally be at ease. You can imagine how worried I’ve been these past few days, to the point of living in the temple. I met you in the temple the other day because I was praying out of concern for her.”
His confusion only grew.
In that temple, Josephina had made the woman in front of him a mess. The image of her lying in front of him, covered in blood, was still vivid.
While worrying about her daughter, she had made her daughter like that?
“Because Leticia is my most beloved daughter.”
Josephina’s smile deepened as she wrapped her arm around the woman’s shoulder. Dietrian held his breath.
[Do you have the whip?]
[I’ll make her beg for death.]
The look in Josephina’s eyes as she looked at her daughter was exactly the same as then. Only one thing was certain in the tangled truth.
Josephina hated her.
* * *
“I’ve prepared some tea. Let’s sit and talk.”
Josephina led Leticia to the table.
When the two sat side by side, the courtiers came with a tray and set down the tea and refreshments. The room was filled with the fragrant scent of tea and colorful desserts.
Dietrian, who had been standing still, sat across from them after a moment.
His fingertips trembled slightly as he pulled the chair. His mind was still in disarray.
It was certain that Josephina hated her daughter. He had seen it with his own eyes, there was no room for doubt.
There was only one conceivable reason.
If Leticia was, as known, a bloodthirsty murderer. So cruel that even her mother, Josephina, couldn’t handle her.
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
Unknowingly, Dietrian shook his head.
He knew about her seven years ago.
She had been abused by her mother since she was twelve, or perhaps even before that.
There was no way that the young girl, who was too scared to even receive treatment from her mother, could have killed so many people.
Dietrian paused.
He realized that there was a major flaw in what seemed like an obvious assumption.
He had never doubted for a moment that she was the little maidservant his brother had met.
But if he was wrong. If the little maidservant was just an illusion created by his desperation, and she was merely the Holy Maiden’s daughter.
If all the feelings he had experienced over the past two days were due to a misunderstanding.
His heart tightened. He felt dizzy as if the ground was collapsing under his feet.
He couldn’t even breathe, he was so stiff, when he heard a grating voice.
“Leticia, this is Sterium tea, your favorite. I specially requested Kailas to pick out the best one. How do you like the scent, do you like it?”
Josephina offered Leticia this and that. From her actions, she seemed every bit the mother caring for her beloved daughter.
“Try the cake too. I specially requested it from the palace chef. I told him to prepare something that would suit my daughter’s taste perfectly.”
“…….”
“Go ahead. You haven’t had much of an appetite lately because of the preparations for the national wedding, haven’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Leticia, who was about to put down her teacup to pick up a fork, paused.
A sudden pain was shooting up her arm, tightly gripped by Josephina.
“Leticia, go ahead.”
“Yes, mother.”
Barely managing not to drop the teacup, Leticia put it down. Her hand trembled slightly as she picked up the fork.
Josephina’s laughter deepened. Soon she tilted her head toward Leticia. With her ever-beaming smile, she whispered as if grinding her words.
“Does it hurt?”
Her nails dug even deeper into the skin.
“My arm is a mess because of you. And you’re in pain over something as trivial as this?”
“…That can’t be.”
“Then smile, quickly.”
“….”
“Smile as if you’re very happy.”
Upon hearing that, Leticia slightly raised the corners of her mouth. Cold sweat broke out on her back as she held back a moan. Josephina, satisfied at last, let go of her arm with a content smile.
“My daughter. I wonder who she takes after to be this beautiful.”
At the throbbing pain, Leticia shivered slightly.
Even then, her attention was entirely focused on Dietrian. She was more concerned about him than about her arm’s injury or the pain.
‘He has… definitely changed since the regression.’
Leticia had sensed something off the moment Dietrian stepped into the reception room.
Unlike before the regression, his expression was stiffly frozen. He didn’t approach with a soft smile as before, nor did he courteously greet her.
As if he wasn’t interested in her at all, he tried to kiss the back of her hand without even looking at her face.
But just as his lips were about to touch the back of her hand, Dietrian sharply lifted his head. As if he had received a huge shock, he stared intently at her.
His gaze was so intense that she felt as though her breath had stopped.
She felt completely bound by his black eyes, unable to move.
Leticia was the first to regain her senses. She quickly turned her head away from his gaze.
However, the trembling in her fingertips didn’t easily subside. The joy of meeting him again was momentarily overshadowed by a surge of anxiety.
Why was he acting like this? Could it be that her mother had committed some evil act she didn’t know about? Is that why he was reacting so sharply?
While she was anxious, a warm breath touched the back of her hand. It was a kiss much deeper than an ordinary one on the back of the hand.
Where his lips touched, it was as if she was burning.
Leticia closed her trembling eyelids. She was breathing fast due to tension. The heat transmitted beyond her thin skin even made her feel dizzy.
After a while, his lips slowly moved away.
She wasn’t conscious of anything afterwards. She didn’t even know when he let go of her hand.
She was led to the table by Josephina’s hand, feeling as if she had lost her soul. She had been in this state ever since.
‘What exactly has caused Dietrian’s behavior to change?’
Leticia was afraid of change. Her power came from knowing the future. If the future changed, her power would inevitably weaken.
‘Is it because of Enoch?’
The future had already changed once after Enoch revived. It was when she met Josephina at the central temple.
‘But Enoch’s revival has nothing to do with this meeting.’
Leticia, who was unaware that she had already met him twice, was simply confused.
The atmosphere at the tea party was strangely flowing. Initially, Josephina excitedly chatted alone. Dietrian only responded in yes or no answers.
However, at some point, Dietrian also actively participated in the conversation.
Leticia only said what was necessary, highly tensed. She didn’t even dare to look towards Dietrian.
Every time her eyes met his, her heart felt like it would jump out from tension.
For some reason, Dietrian kept passing the conversation to Leticia, which made her even more tense. Just like now.
“Listening to the Holy Maiden, I can tell how dearly you cherish your daughter.”
Dietrian silently put down his tea cup. With impeccable etiquette, he smoothly lifted the corners of his mouth.
“I understand why Your Grace postponed the marriage a few days ago. It must have been very heartbreaking to be separated from your loving mother.”
“Yes, due to my youthful mind. I really feel sorry for His Highness.”
“It’s okay. I would have done the same.”
Dietrian chuckled and shook his head lightly.
“By the way, I can picture Your Grace’s childhood. Having received so much love from your mother, your childhood must have been very happy.”
“Yes. It was.”
“When I was young, I was also hit with a stick. My parents were very strict.”
Dietrian said this with a soft smile.
“A stick. That must be very foreign to Your Grace. Isn’t it?”
“Yes. Because I’ve always been cared for.”
While Leticia continued to give soulless answers due to her intense tension, Dietrian was silent for a while. Then he spoke in a slightly low voice.
“Always cared for, I see.”
Fortunately, after a few rounds of such conversation, Dietrian stopped talking to her altogether. Instead, he watched her with strangely subdued eyes.
Leticia, who had been looking only at her teacup, didn’t notice. As the seemingly cordial conversation continued, Leticia’s worries became reality.
“By the way, seeing the prince grow so splendidly reminds me of seven years ago. The deposed prince was also a very fine young man.”
Josephina suddenly brought up the story of Julios. It was an event that had never happened in the past, and Leticia tensed up once again.
“It’s still a pity to think about the deposed prince. If he hadn’t committed sins against the goddess, he could have become a great king like the prince.”
What?
Leticia was flabbergasted. She had been so tense that she was momentarily dumbfounded.
Who exactly was she blaming, in front of whom, right now? It was common knowledge that Julios had died innocently.
How dare she blame the person involved for the death of his brother in front of Dietrian.
‘I’m so angry.’
Leticia forgot that she needed to control her facial expressions and bit her lip in frustration.
The fact that there was nothing she could do at the moment, that Dietrian had to listen to those harsh words, was too upsetting.
Dietrian, who had been staring at her silently, had a deeply sunken look in his eyes.
Dietrian, who had been staring at his empty teacup, slowly raised his gaze. Then, he spoke softly.
“You’re right, Holy Maiden. My brother was rather clever, so he certainly would have made a decent king. But that’s all. He dared to deceive you.”
His voice dropped lower.
“Even if he were alive, he would have caused trouble at some point. With his reckless actions, he would have upset your feelings and put the entire empire in danger. I think his death is regrettable, but it was better for the empire.”
At his words, Leticia involuntarily lifted her head.
This was the first time their eyes had met, as she had been avoiding his gaze throughout the tea party.
Her green eyes shimmered darkly, as if she couldn’t believe it.
Dietrian quietly stared back at her. It felt as if time had stopped and only the two of them existed in this world.
After a moment, Leticia was the first to look away. Her tightly shut lips trembled with indignation. The corners of her tear-filled eyes sparkled for a moment.
Dietrian calmly lowered his gaze as he watched her. His heart was beating terrifyingly fast, even as he lifted the empty cup to his lips with a serene expression.
As expected, his hunch was right. He had never been wrong, not even for a moment.
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