Chapter 7

I don’t know how much time has passed, but Argen and I were so tense mentally rather than physically.

To make matters worse, there was a loud noise coming from outside.

“you’re useless.”

“Your Majesty! Forgive me once, Your Majesty.”

In the end, the knight never found us, and the emperor seemed to be angry at him. I was wondering why he didn’t look at the frame when he looked over the bed.

I can’t believe they didn’t pay attention to the frame on the wall even though the room is half opened.

It was fortunate for us, but it was also strange.

“I won’t wait any longer when the sun starts to set.”

I thought it meant that he would go back when the sun went down, so I pulled my wet hair back as carefully as possible.

I felt Argen’s tension sitting across from me.

‘Why are they looking for us so hard?’

‘The imperial palace is very well guarded, but we are only 5 years old. Where would we go?’

The emperor stood in the middle of our room, spending so much time here that it seems to be really for the purpose of killing us.

‘First of all, let’s wait until the sun goes down.’

The emperor also said it was until sunset. Even if they can’t find us, won’t they go back in the middle of the night?

The space in this frame was always a place to hide from Lulahel, but I didn’t expect a day we would have to hide from the emperor.

However, unlike Lulahel, who only gave us wounds and pain, the emperor had a different kind of tension because he could take our lives.

The sweat on my long eyelashes made my vision blurry whenever I blinked.

If he had just left us alone as usual… We wouldn’t have been planning to run away now.

‘….. I feel like throwing up.’

‘Hold on.’

‘You’re fine, but why am I the only one……’

‘You stopped me from seeing her when she died. Thanks to you, I didn’t see anything.’

Argen said indifferently that it was strange to be in good shape when I saw such a sight.

I felt like I was a burden because I was the only one that was sick. However, as Argen said, it would be rather strange if I was fine after seeing the scene with my eyes.

Rather than staying still, I started a meaningless conversation with Argen because I thought that the time would flow faster if I did something.

Of course, it seemed like time was never going by.

The conversation lasted until nightfall before the emperor finally moved.

I thought the emperor of a country would be very busy, but I wondered if it was okay to stay like this all day. Just in case, even after the emperor and the knights surrounding him went out, we hid for a long time.

Until the sun sets and darkness came.

When there was no sign of anyone left, we lifted the frame and got out of the space we were confined in all day long.

Unlike inside, where it was hot and suffocating, the cold air outside greeted us.

“Let’s hurry.”

It was so small that I wondered if it could be heard.

Argen stretched out his arms and grabbed me because I couldn’t even move my body properly, I barely managed to move and nodded.

We didn’t say anything since our destination was already decided. A secret place only the two of us knew of and that it was difficult for adults to enter.

It is a place with fruits and water nearby to keep our throats moistened.

We planned to run away immediately, but we needed a place to fill our stomach and replenish our stamina first.

It was too overwhelming just to hide and stay still without taking a break all day.

So, avoiding the eyes of the knights, we escaped the castle on a path that only we knew of. We spent almost an hour trying to escape, but the problem was after we left the castle.

The knights were looking for us with swords in one hand and magic lamps in the other.

The path to our secret garden was blocked off.

‘I think they haven’t given up yet.’

The lights brightened up only as much as the fireflies gave off, so I didn’t even notice they were there until just before I went around the knights.

They were moving with the momentum that it didn’t matter if all the forest surrounding this place was removed.

We caught sight of the knights cutting down the trees and damaging the path to our secret garden. I watched the scene with breathless attention, but I couldn’t avoid the eyes of the knight who fought on the battlefield.

He quickly moved the position of his sword that was cutting the grass as if he had felt our gaze and breaths.

“Who is it!”

The knight’s sword was directed at us. At best, we only saw the kitchen knives used to prepare ingredients, so there was no way we could endure a sword made to harm and cut people.

The pale blade of the sword was pushed in front of my eyes and I felt the life squeezed out of my breath.

Trying to endure was an impossible measure. As if my neck was strangled and my breath was squeezed, I ended up falling on the floor in terrible condition and Argen fell down next to me as well.

The blade was even more horrifying shining in the moonlight.

There were long scars on my forearm and on Argen’s ankle. I can’t remember when, but it was a wound that Lulahel left for us when we were younger with a paper knife.

But seeing a more dangerous blade than a paper knife, we couldn’t be fine.

The knight who belatedly confirmed our identity quickly pulled his sword away, but we were already in a panic state.

“His highness the prince, her highness the princess!”

The voice of the knight who had kneeled in front of the emperor was heard from the back.

It was so loud that we could not hear the knights who aimed their swords at us.

“How come they are here? What are you doing not quickly helping them!”

It sounded polite somewhere, but the situation we are facing now was a little bleak to distinguish it. Without a word, a knight reached out to us.

“Let go!”

Argen spit out what Lulahel used to say to her servants. The knight reached out, but just before making contact, he waved his hand with all his might.

The knight shook his hand with all his might just before it reached.

But that was only for a moment.

I heard someone walking and everyone shut their mouths to the sound of the footsteps quieting the noisy scene.

I lifted my trembling pupils while falling on the floor and saw a man approaching me.

A man with blond hair and green eyes I’ve never seen before…..

“Bring them back.”

Our father, the emperor, gave orders to the knights.

*****

At the moment the world seemed to have stopped.

Argen and I were most afraid of dying at the hands of the emperor.

As a child, the maids said countless times. It is said that illegitimate children are killed as soon as they are born. The higher the status, the more secret and quiet the family.

But they said it was by his grace that we, the illegitimate children of the imperial emperor, were alive. We didn’t think it was grace, but it seemed strange that we were still alive to others anyway.

I knew that running away was the worst choice because an adult man’s feet could catch up to me in a few steps no matter how hard I run with a child’s body.

‘What should we do?’

Argen asked me, but I couldn’t answer.

It was because I was so dizzy and my body floated into the air the moment I tried to answer.

Now that the emperor’s order has fallen, the knights easily held us without any hesitation.

It was as light as lifting a cat by the nape of the neck. It was so stable that I didn’t know that my body had been lifted if my vision had not suddenly changed.

“Uh.”

I wanted to talk, but when the emperor’s cold gaze touched me, my body became so stiff that I didn’t know what to do.

“Bring them.”

Argen kept trying to shake his hands off, but now that the emperor’s order was given, he was forced to be caught by a sturdy knight.

The way I was held was stable and not uncomfortable, but my heart continued to ring with tension.

Two knights took us before the emperor. As the Emperor ordered.

The ironclad armor touched my body and shared the coldness. The armor was so cold that I had hiccups.

I held my breath so that the sound wouldn’t leak out.

We couldn’t easily predict how scary it would be if 5 year old children, who had only met the people in Derolina castle their entire life, were among the knights with swords.

Wouldn’t they run away crying?

Unfortunately, we couldn’t do such stupid things because we weren’t ordinary 5 year olds. I could only hold my breath in a situation where I could die in the arms of the knights.

‘Are you okay?

‘….. I’m okay.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

Argen angry asked with clenched teeth.

‘Are you all right?

‘You take care of yourself.’

Can’t he just let go of the sword in that hand?

Whenever he moved, it shone in the moonlight and magical lights.

A cruel thought came to mind that he might stab us right away with the sharp sword. At the same time, Lurahel, who died last night with a gruesome appearance, was also drawn in my mind.

She was the one who left us an indelible mark, but no matter how much I hated her, It was an illusion to say I would be fine after seeing someone die.

Blood spattered and a groan of pain filled the screams between Lee. What was even more sad was that all of them easily got over this terrible situation.

Blood splattered and painful moans filled in between the screams.

In the end, it’s over when you die.

No one mourned the death of Lulahel because she was an adopted commoner who had been wasting money and who knew nothing else but to be pretty.

It was a virtue that she had accumulated, but in other words, it was that we too had no one to mourn for us when we die.

We were given no time, opportunity, fate, or meeting.

“It’s small.”

It was the emperor’s words that brought Argen and I, who were lost in thought, back to reality.

It was a cold, low voice that seemed to tell you to kill it right away. He was looking at us with languid sunken eyes.

He looked down at us for a long time so we couldn’t even breathe properly.

“Take them away.”

“As you command.”

Our opinion was a missing conversation.

The emperor turned away from us. It wasn’t until I saw his back that something that was holding on to my neck seemed to loosen.

But the composure was brief. We were still helplessly held by the knights and we were young children who couldn’t even resist.