CH 129

Chapter 129: Tug of War

The practice ground in the palace was unusually very noisy. Sigren frowned seeing the chaos.

“What is going on?”

“Your, your highness.”

The knights were trembling hearing Sigren’s voice. 

Sigren ignored them all and went to the center of the commotion. 

There stood a girl and Kane Erez. The girl looked to be in her mid-teens at most. She had a doll-like appearance with wavy dark blonde hair and light green eyes. At just one glance, any person could notice that she was not an ordinary person. 

‘Who is it?”

The girl was not one of the noble ladies Sigren knew. However, he could see that Kane Erez was having a hard time talking to the girl. For a split second, Sigren could only think of one possibility. 

“Don’t tell me, is she his ex?”

But Kane looked, at least, ten years older than her. And if the assumption was correct, it would be better for the world if Kane Erez was simply buried. 

Then Kane and Sigren’s eyes met. 

“Your, your highness.”

“It’s time for training. What are you doing?”

The girl next to Kane looked at Sigren with her round eyes and then greeted him. 

“Hello, Oppa(1).” Then she tilted her head. “How do you do, Oppa?”

“Oppa?”

It was a very unfamiliar nickname. However, Sigren quickly realized it was a title that a little sister used to call older brother. 

The girl smiled while responding, “Yes that’s right. I am the first princess. Please call me Aria.”

“Ah…”

Sigren had been living in the palace for some time. Obviously, he was aware he had another half-sibling living somewhere in the palace. But this was the first time he saw her face. According to what he heard, the half-sibling was born to a concubine from a lower noble family. However, because this half-sibling was a princess, she was not in line for the throne. It was also said that her body was weak and was the reason she never came out of the princess’ palace. 

Only then did Sigren remember that Kane was originally a knight in the princess’ palace. It turned out those two were in a master-servant relationship. Sigren quickly backed off the plan to bury Kane. 

Sigren looked at the little girl. Somehow, when it came to his half-sibling, he felt nothing. Because for him, the only blood relation he had was with his mother. 

“I apologize for interrupting your morning training, Oppa.”

Aria looked at Sigren with a straight gaze, trying to overshadow her weakness. 

“However, I’d like to talk to my former knight, Sir Kane.”

“You can take him with you for a while.”

As soon as those words were out, Aria snatched Kane’s arm. 

It was definitely a bold act.

Sigren looked at the backs of the two for a moment. 

It was an open secret that the emperor was not one to shy away from women. However, it was also known that there weren’t that many direct members of the imperial family. There was only one reason for it to be like that. The empress disposed of the women and the child who was in line for the throne. Perhaps for the empress, it was a similar concept to cutting weeds in the garden. 

What was even funnier was that the emperor didn’t care whether those women died or not. He embraced a woman not because he had a special affection. He literally embraced a woman because he felt like it, and quickly forgot about the woman he had slept with. 

Sigren and his mother were among those people. Therefore, there was no way he would forget easily what happened to his mother just because now he was accepted and had ‘blood ties’ with them. He would pay everything back and with full interest, not in this current situation, but when the time came. 

The back of the two disappeared from Sigren’s view. 

‘This is interesting.’

Kane Erez did not play the role that Marquiz Erez, his father, wanted him to play. Was the relationship between the two the reason? 

Originally, among the five families, there are two families who did not take sides with the two princes. But now, it turned out the heir of the Erez family behaved ambiguously. 

Sigren’s lips twitched as he discovered some interesting possibilities. 

***

I blinked, feeling weird. 

Recently, Sigren has been frighteningly docile. 

“Because I made you cry twice.”

“I’m fine really. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Because crying did not always mean there was a problem.

However, it seemed that Sigren thought differently. He also somehow apologized for fighting with me and even became so docile. He became a pretty devoted lover.

It honestly still felt a bit unreal that he agreed to my request. ‘Be mine’ and ‘Okay, I’m yours now.’  Those words, no matter how much I liked the answer, somehow, also worried me. I felt satisfied, yet I felt a little weird. 

“Who are you writing to?” 

Sigren asked while looking at the letter I was writing. 

“Donna.” I responded in an obedient manner.

“Donna?”

“The academy researcher I met last time.”

“Ah.” 

It was the person who represented the research group. I’ve been interacting with Donna ever since. I mentioned the things I knew about the Darkness or monsters in the letter in a broad enough manner that it didn’t make me suspicious. I just hope that this could be a hint for the researchers and they could generate meaningful results.

I kept wondering whether I should write about the voices I’d heard in the Darkness or not. But in the end, I decided to not tell anyone. Because there was a higher chance that it was just a hallucination. Especially since I was half-corpse at that time. So I just thought that there was no need to confuse her with unconfirmed facts. 

Sigren looked at the letter I was writing with displeasure. 

“You’re not going to do that again, are you?”

“What do you mean? Sigren, you should, at least, have some pride in my nobles’ spirit of sacrifice. Though, don’t worry, I won’t do anything reckless anymore.”

From now on, I would not do anything unless I was sure it was safe. 

“Why are you so interested in the Darkness?”

“Is it important?”

The reasons were too complicated to explain. Because I felt a sense of responsibility. The Darkness I created turned out to be very threatening. Besides, it was also somehow related to Fiona. 

“Well, if not me, who could handle the Darkness?”

“If there’s someone?”

I grinned.

“Who is more powerful than me, then?”

Well, I doubt there was anyone else in the world who could do that but Fiona.

“I am the greatest magician in this world,” I said jokingly.

“But, I thought you were not interested in being that.”

“Right, it’s better to be modest.”

“I think you’ve passed the point of being modest, though?”

I murmured regretfully, “That’s something I really don’t want to hear from you…”

Sigren chuckled. 

Well, neither of us was in a position to speak about being modest.

The male protagonist, the final villain, the mercenary king, etc. 

Come to think of it, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that most of the world’s main forces were concentrated in Heilon. 

It might be a little late to say this, but was this okay? There was no way there would not be a balance patch. 

After worrying for nothing, I finally sent the letter.