# 41
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“Evelyn.”
I raised my eyelids at the voice that called me sweetly. The first thing that entered my field of vision was a blurry, indistinct world.
It's a familiar place. My bedroom in the Crown Princess' palace. I blinked slowly and then turned my head.
Then another person entered my field of vision.
‘Cirtin…. '
His soft face smiles at me, his deep blue eyes holding a heavy warmth, a strangely hard expression and hardened cheeks. Extreme fatigue was evident around his eyes and his hair was disheveled. All of this constituted two biographies.
This is also familiar.
I don't know how to act. The contrast between the Duke of Spellman that I last saw and the Siren in front of me now was too great.
I felt short of breath.
“…Evelyn.”
Sirtain called me again, as if he knew what I was going through. He sighed as he said my name.
He placed his hand on my forehead, and the warmth of his hot body was transmitted to me through his palm.
“Your temperature has dropped.”
Did you have a fever?
“Sleep some more.”
Sertin did not seem to expect any answer from me. It seemed like he had found all the answers already.
What happened?
Have you been asleep for a long time?
What did the Duke of Spelman and Sirtain have to say? I feel confused. I will need some time to understand the situation.
In this palace, where no one is on my side.
I don't know what I should say to Sertin, or how I should react to him...
Ah, I'm tired.
This is what it is like when you don't find anyone to reveal what's inside you. It feels claustrophobic.
I wanted to rest. To sleep, as Sirtin said. No, if it were possible, I wanted to sleep for the rest of my life.
I bit my lip tightly.
At that moment, Sertin spoke as if reading my entire mind.
"decent."
His voice was low, imbued with warmth. He carried a tone that made me unable to think about anything else.
My eyes met his.
“Everything will be fine, Evelyn. Nothing will happen.”
Why did I feel comfortable hearing those words?
I ended up crying pitifully. I covered my eyes with my hands to prevent tears from flowing.
“Huh...”
The sound of my crying came out distorted, not beautiful at all. It wasn't fake or forced crying.
It was a cry that came from deep inside me.
The fear I felt when I was kidnapped instead of Veronica.
Duke Spellman's face as he stared at me like a ruler in the dark.
Those moments when I had to make many decisions in a short period, as if I lived in hell.
It all seemed to grab me and shake me hard.
My old memories intertwined with these new ones.
Evelyn...it was as if I was her, obviously. All the emotions I felt felt like they were mine.
"decent."
Sertine stroked my hair to calm me down.
His touch was like a whisper to me, as if he was telling me that he knew everything and that nothing bad would happen.
I curled up in a ball and let out my tears.
I'm safe.
Duke Spellman won't be able to hurt me anymore.
At least, at this moment, no one would be able to hurt me.
I felt a strange conviction about this.
At that moment, there was really only my hot tears soaking my fingers and Sertin's touches soothing me.
That moment turned into a feeling of relief.
Without realizing it, I had begun to rely on two biographies.
Please save me
Please protect me
I hope his warmth is real.
Please, don't abandon me.
It was a long night.
Evelin woke up before dawn, and cried for a long time before falling asleep again.
The image of her eyes remained in Sertine's memory, which reminded him of the eyes of a young deer, when she woke up and looked at him.
She seemed to be asking him silently:
“Are you going to hurt me too?”
At that moment, Sertain wished that Evelin could give up everything and rest for a while.
They were both running non-stop—either Evelyn or Sirtain.
But the difference between them was that Cyrtain had people to rely on.
He had Roger, who he could trust and he had Mortega, even if he wasn't entirely trustworthy.
Besides him, there were also many people who followed him.
As for Evelyn, she had no one.
“Haha.”
Certain laughed a dry, meaningless laugh.
He had always had that thought—that the ruler had abandoned the empire, and had abandoned him as well. Even though he didn't believe in it in the first place.
But there was someone worse than him.
Evelyn, who looked like a single drop of black ink falling onto a white page.
That woman was truly miserable, having nothing, so much so that she aroused in him a pity that he was not accustomed to feeling.
Sertin ran his hand over his face.
When his features appeared again, they were cold, as if immersed in darkness. His expression seemed to devour the sunlight reflecting on his face.
The long night had passed, and morning had come again.
Julia stood staring at Sertain silently before she finally spoke.
"……Are you well?"
Sertain replied, his voice cracking:
“Evelyn is fine. She regained consciousness for a moment at dawn.”
Then he added
“Her strength must have completely collapsed. Give her tonic food, and call in a trusted doctor to supervise her treatment. Please take good care of her for a while.”
Julia sighed as she replied
“What are you talking about? I was actually asking if you were okay.”
Julia hadn't slept well either.
Because Leah kept crying, she couldn't attend the ceremony.
She didn't know what had happened there until Demeter returned late at night, and before she could even hear the full details, she had to come here.
What she heard from Certain's assistant was so shocking that it left her speechless.
She spent the whole night worrying about both of them, Evelyn and Sertine.
Also, changing her sleeping place did not help her rest.
But despite everything, Cyrtain seemed more exhausted than she—as if he had been the one who had been kidnapped.
Sertin smiled coldly.
"Don't worry. I'm not about to die yet."
“Your Highness...”
“But there's someone else who looks like he's up to it.”
Some of the strength left his voice as he continued
“When a person is backed into a corner, he may commit actions that he should not do. Sometimes, he completely abandons himf. Watch Evelin cloy.”
“……Do you mean that Her Highness is in such a state now?”
"who knows."
Julia's eyes widened in surprise. She couldn't understand what he meant.
Did he see Evelyn differently from others?
Evelyn was purer and more pure than anyone else.
It is as if she is escaping from the darkness of this world into the depths of the subconscious, leaving behind only a pure, flawless part.
But why then?
Sertin gently placed his hand on Julia's shoulder and said
“It's really unfortunate. Sometimes, I miss the time when brutality was part of romance.”
That was his indirect way of saying that he wanted to kill Duke Spellman or someone.
Then he passed by her and left.
Julia stared at his back worriedly.
It's going to be another long night for Sertin.
All she hoped was for him to find even a moment of peace during this long period.
Duke Spelman was fiddling with the drinking glass in front of him.
He spent the night rethinking what he had seen and what he had realized.
Sertin appeared as if he was holding the most precious thing in his arms, then disappeared.
That scene remained stuck in his mind.
“……That idiot did something really tough.”
A cold smile appeared on the duke's lips.
He didn't know what was on that man's mind, but what was certain was that Evelin had become a part of his heart.
“Finally, I got paid to keep her alive.”
It was not unusual for him to send women to Sirtine.
There were several instances where the women of his tent were sent out on the battlefield, and there was even a case where a noblewoman was stripped naked and pushed into his bedroom. Hoping that, like his father, he will fall for the illusion of women and end up making mistakes and ruining everything.
But it did not happen that Sertin fell into the trap even once.
And now, Evelyn has done what no woman before them could do.
Without taking off a single piece of clothing.
“As expected, she is my daughter.”
It wasn't difficult to put the poison in her hand.
It wouldn't be difficult to put a dagger in her hand either.
“Oh, Dad... Evelyn was wrong.”
He remembered those pure eyes that looked at him as if he were a ruler, and those small hands that reached out to him.
That translucent crimson hair, which she inherited as proof of the mingling of the imperial family's blood long ago.
A hair that even Cyrtain did not have, but Evelyn did.
How satisfying that was.