After Leticia treated the princess, the princess did not regain consciousness for a while. It was only after Leticia and the Wings left the palace that she finally came to her senses and ran to the emperor’s bedchamber.
“Your Majesty!”
“He has only lost consciousness. There is nothing wrong with his body. He will naturally wake up in time.”
Hearing this from the palace physician, the princess felt her legs weaken and she staggered. Barely managing to hold onto a chair, she finally sat down. She touched her throbbing forehead and closed her eyes tightly before reopening them. The events at the banquet were far beyond what she could handle. Just thinking about it again made her feel faint.
The princess tried to steady her mind by taking deep breaths several times. She was the only one maintaining her sanity in the palace at that moment. Therefore, she could not afford to collapse.
“I heard that His Majesty hit his head hard when he fell. Is he alright?”
“Are you referring to his head?”
The palace physician tilted his head in confusion.
“That’s strange. There were no external injuries on His Majesty. Not on his head, nor anywhere else.”
“No injuries? Is that true?”
“Yes. We found no bruises or bumps.”
The princess’s face showed disbelief, prompting the palace physician to stand up quickly.
“Would you like to check for yourself?”
“Yes, I will check…”
The princess hesitated as something flashed in her mind. She quickly shook her head while staring at the sleeping emperor.
“No, your eyes are surely more accurate than mine.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to check?”
“I have a headache and no strength to get up. Things were so chaotic earlier that the knights might have seen it wrong. I don’t want to waste energy on something uncertain.”
The princess waved her hand dismissively, then waited for the palace physician to finish his examination while pretending to be exhausted.
“You may leave now. I will take care of His Majesty.”
After the palace physician left, the princess naturally moved closer to the emperor. Seeing his healthy complexion, she bit her lip.
‘As I thought, he looks much better than this morning.’
Though faint, there was a healthy color in his face, which was usually pale from the medication. Only she, who constantly watched over the emperor, could notice this slight change.
‘The power of the queen consort is healing His Majesty.’
It was clear that Leticia had infused power into the emperor during the banquet.
‘Now His Majesty can be free from the medication.’
The princess clenched her fist and held back her tears.
‘I must not show it yet. Rehir is watching me.’
That cursed earring was still on her ear.
‘In a way, it’s for the best. Rehir still believes he is controlling everything.’
The princess smirked.
‘As expected, Josephina is no match for the queen consort.’
For the first time in a long while, the princess smiled. She felt so happy that she thought she could laugh even if someone cut off her ear.
“Your Majesty, sob, why did you provoke the queen consort? Regardless of the source of her power, the queen consort is indeed using a great power. You should have endured.”
After finishing her act as the pitiful princess, she left the bedchamber. She walked lightly as if she were flying. At that moment, a shadow loomed over her. Puzzled, she looked up, her eyes widening. Kun, Josephina’s new wing who arrived yesterday, stood there. The giant man grinned.
“Your Highness.”
A chill ran down her spine. The princess shivered involuntarily.
‘What is this?’
She felt very strange. It seemed like something that shouldn’t happen was about to occur. Instinctively, she turned her body. She tried to call for someone, but there was no one in the corridor.
‘Where has everyone gone?’
It was odd that there were no guards patrolling the corridor. In the end, she forced a smile and turned back.
“What is the matter…!”
A large hand grabbed her face. The princess’s eyes widened. Moments later, all strength left her body. Kun quickly slung the unconscious princess over his shoulder and walked away swiftly.
* * *
Back in time, on the day Dietrian met Sigmund and awakened the power of Gilead.
Amid the scenes rushing by in confusion, Dietrian continuously became someone else. It began with Julius, who laughed off the priests’ disdain at the banquet.
The scene then shifted to a night where the moonlight shattered into white fragments. Julius, drenched in cold sweat, was staring at something after waking from a dream.
“Was it a dream?”
With that word, Dietrian became his father, the late king, comforting his crying wife.
“Don’t worry. That child will return safely without any trouble. He promised you that he would definitely come back.”
“I don’t know why, but I feel so uneasy. I want to believe nothing will happen, but…”
“Has he ever broken a promise? No, right? Trust him. Please, stop crying.”
The scene changed again, and Julius carefully held a young girl in his arms, wearing a smile that seemed like it could collapse at any moment, and whispered.
“Finally, we meet. Now… we can save everyone.”
The scenes changed rapidly: Josephina sentencing Julius to death, his brother’s corpse hanging on the fortress wall, and Tenua delivering the news of Julius’s death to Leticia.
After that, Leticia became the focus of the dreams for a long time. The places, situations, and people with her constantly changed.
One thing remained certain. Leticia had never been happy. Continuously, endlessly, everyone around her tormented her. From girlhood to womanhood, no one treated her as a person.
“Respect that woman as the queen? No! Serve such a devilish woman as our superior? I’d rather bite my tongue and die!”
It wasn’t just the people of the empire who hated Leticia. Even Dietrian’s most trusted knights, comrades who would willingly turn their backs on the battlefield, despised her. Leticia was alone. She couldn’t even cry freely. Her body and mind became increasingly ill. Suffering from a deepening curse, she cried alone, writhing in pain.
“It hurts…”
Thus passed half a year. No, three years. In a small, narrow room unfit for human habitation, more like a prison—or even worse—a thin, emaciated woman was dying.
“Please, if only I could meet you once more…”
Tears flowed from her dull green eyes. Moments later, the life in her eyes faded away completely. And finally, in a humble bridal waiting room, Leticia, wearing a white wedding dress, prayed tearfully.
“Thank you so much. For letting me save him, thank you so much.”
From then on, the scenes were ones he knew well. The times he had come to love Leticia in this life. Flowing forward to the night in Heden, where Mano sat beside the sleeping Leticia, sobbing while holding his brother’s remains.
“Thank you, child. For keeping your promise to return…”
* * *
Dietrian finally learned the whole truth. Despite his desperate desire to know, he couldn’t feel joy. The shock of the truth was too great. But he had no time to remain in shock.
Gilead’s power did not just show him the past. It revealed the future, showing him what he must do. That’s why he sought Calisto upon arriving at the empire, not Leticia.
Before turning the doorknob, Dietrian paused. The distant lights of the capital sparkled like stars. The particularly splendid place he gazed at—the imperial palace—made his eyes ache.
‘Leticia.’
By now, Leticia would be attending the banquet. She would have to face those who did not welcome her alone. Just imagining it made it hard to breathe.
He wanted to rush to her immediately, to take the arrows of criticism aimed at her upon himself. But he couldn’t. Having seen the future, there was something he had to do here.
Dong, dong. The bells rang in the distance, signaling the time. It meant what he had been waiting for was near. Creak. He turned the doorknob with strength. At the same time, the door swung open.
Dietrian, who had just taken a step inside, hesitated. A completely different scene unfolded before him. It was clearly a dilapidated old mansion, but a luxurious living room, like a small palace, greeted him.
“I used an illusion spell to hide the true appearance of this place. It’s quite an effective way to keep out pests.”
Not far away, a young man sitting on an ivory-colored leather sofa closed his book and spoke.
“There’s no better place to concentrate. No one can enter without my permission.”
“You must be Prince Calisto.”
“You are well-informed. Let’s skip the formalities.”
Prince Calisto.
His first impression was very peculiar. His complexion was as pale as a corpse, but his eyes were not. His flickering gray eyes even exuded madness.
“Sorry for my appearance. I received a message from the Wing of Wind. His Majesty the King has something to say to me.”
Calisto nervously swept back his hair.
“Whatever it is, please finish it as quickly as possible. I need to deal with the mad curse. The solution I recently found ended up in the trash.”
Calisto’s voice was extremely fierce. Dietrian could easily sense Calisto’s hostility towards him.
‘He must really hate me.’
The reason was easy to guess. According to Ahwin’s message, Calisto already knew how to break the curse but just couldn’t do it.
‘He must want to kill me to save her.’
A bitter smile formed on Dietrian’s lips. He had heard that Leticia was the true master of the Wings. Being the one who was causing her to die, he couldn’t help but be hated.
‘I wish I could die instead of her.’
He would do anything to save Leticia. He could even give up his life.
‘But I can’t do that anymore.’
He had seen her past.
‘I can’t leave her alone in such a terrible world again.’
In his past life, he saved Leticia’s life by dying. What was the result? Leticia lived in hell for three years. Watching those three years from close by felt like his body was being torn apart.
‘I made Leticia like that.’
If only he had ended it, she wouldn’t have suffered so much. He blamed himself over and over again. And now, making her live in that hell again was unthinkable. Rather,
‘It’s better to die together.’
The king’s duty no longer mattered. Dietrian spoke calmly to the Wings of Leticia, who wanted to kill him.
“We should talk while we move. It will take quite some time.”
“Time?”
Calisto’s face twisted fiercely.
“Even at this moment, my master is dying, the damn curse is still unresolved.”
“…….”
“And you say we need time? Is that what you’re saying?”
“For Leticia, my wife.”
Calisto, who looked like he was about to strangle Dietrian, paused. Dietrian calmly continued.
“We need to go to the Imperial Palace right away. Your Highness must help us.”
