Chapter 13

Aya had known that Yesili would act this coolly.

Yesili knew how to distinguish gain from loss.

If she had to weigh things up, Nahal was, by her standards, somewhere around a triangle mark—someone who had risen to a high position, but whose future could not be guaranteed.

He could become a source of trouble later. So even if Nahal truly was her benefactor, she would not have gone out of her way to involve herself.

Nahal must have realized that she was trying to run away from him, yet he did not seem offended in the slightest.

Rather, his voice sounded almost excited as he said,

“I will formally request an audience with the temple later.”

Yesili also appeared surprised by his attitude.

“I will hear your answer then.”

Yesili offered a suitable bow and left.

Nahal quietly watched her go.

“His Highness the Crown Prince is waiting.”

Despite the palace attendants urging him on, Nahal did not move.

“I will offer a short prayer before I go. Wait over there.”

Nahal waved a hand dismissively.

Although the palace attendants looked displeased, they did not argue with him and obediently moved aside.

There was no one in the kingdom who did not know of Nahal’s devoutness.

It was a small consideration they afforded him.

‘Phew….’

Once the attendants had moved away, Aya let out a small sigh of relief.

She was glad to have seen Nahal, but she had been anxious that the palace attendants might catch her like this.

Just as she was beginning to relax, she suddenly felt as though the air had become lighter.

It was as if something that had been weighing heavily upon her all this time had disappeared.

Before she could wonder about it, a shadow fell over her head.

‘Huh?’

Aya instinctively raised her head and drew in a startled breath.

“……!”

Nahal was standing in front of her.

She had no idea when he had come.

His gaze moved between Aya and the wooden cane lying at her feet.

In fact, Nahal had sensed someone’s presence in the courtyard even before Yesili appeared before him.

He had been interrupted by their conversation before he could investigate it.

Even with the more likely possibility of Yesili standing before him, for some reason, he had been more concerned about the presence he had sensed in one corner of the garden.

So when Yesili left after giving him an ambiguous answer, he had even thought that perhaps it was better not to have received a definite answer.

He wanted to check properly for himself.

Nahal’s gaze slowly passed over the hood pulled low over her head and the white cloth covering more than half of her face.

He already knew this strangely dressed woman.

“……Princess.”

Remembering what had happened before, Nahal murmured the word.

Regardless of their previous encounter, he had no trouble recognizing her thanks to the countless rumors circulating both inside and outside the palace.

She was Imrabel’s daughter and the Princess of Levar.

Yet within the palace, she was known by other nicknames rather than simply as the princess.

Remembering one of them, Nahal rubbed a hand over his face.

The defective princess.

It was one of Aya’s many nicknames.

‘So it wasn’t.’

Nahal let out a hollow laugh that was almost a sigh.

“My greetings, Your Highness.”

Nahal bowed at the waist.

‘Huh?’

Aya blinked her large eyes and looked up at Nahal.

‘He recognizes me?’

Whether from embarrassment or surprise, Aya’s heart began pounding noisily.

“I apologize if I startled you.”

At the low voice with which he spoke, her memories of before came back vividly.

He had saved her here.

Aya tried to cool her cheeks, which were threatening to turn red, and lightly tapped the arm he had lowered after bowing.

Twice.

It meant that she was fine.

“Do you perhaps need any help?”

Nahal raised his head and asked her that.

He thought that someone who would be sent to his death tomorrow had no business meddling in anyone else’s affairs, but the words had already slipped out.

This sort of interference was not something Nahal was accustomed to either.

Moreover, he had asked the wrong person.

The princess standing before him was the daughter of the king who hated him so much that he wanted him dead.

She was one of the few members of the royal family, and though he did not know the details, it was obvious that her circumstances were better than his, who was being dragged off toward certain death.

He had even experienced rudeness after helping her once before.

And yet, why?

Once again, there were no palace attendants anywhere around the princess.

For some reason, it irritated him a little.

What if something happened? Why had the people responsible for attending her not followed behind her?

It had been the same last time, too.

Nahal wondered what was wrong with the hierarchy in the royal palace.

No.

Was the problem this princess?

Nahal lowered his gaze until his eyes met the princess’s.

Her round eyes looked almost excessively innocent, like those of a young animal.

Aya merely blinked as she thought over what he had said.

‘Help?’

“Do you need any help?”

The words asking after her well-being slipped out naturally once again.

Nahal frowned as he looked down at the petite woman.

The delicate woman was sitting in a posture like a newborn lamb that had just been born and could not properly support its legs, collapsing helplessly onto the ground.

‘Why does she look like she’s always one step away from falling apart?’

Why on earth was she crouched behind a bush, hiding?

Just like last time, there was something unusual about her.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Could there be someone in the palace who meant her harm?

“Are you having trouble getting up?”

Aya, who had been sitting there blinking, slowly shook her head at his question.

So, Nahal had apparently asked whether she needed help because he wanted to help her.

He had recognized who she was, so he probably also remembered the rudeness she had suffered from her nursemaid that day.

Since she had not even been able to properly greet him before leaving, perhaps he thought her circumstances were no different from those of her nursemaid.

And yet he had offered to help her.

‘Why?’

“Your Highness?”

At the voice calling her, Aya belatedly shook her head again.

Then she gestured to show him that she was perfectly fine.

As if trying to understand what she meant, Nahal silently looked into her eyes.

After staring at each other in silence for a while, Nahal looked away and sighed.

‘What on earth am I doing right now?’

His own reflection in the princess’s glass-like eyes made him feel pathetic.

“If you are all right….”

Nahal replied as he glanced around her.

For the moment, there did not appear to be anything that might threaten the petite woman.

“I will inform the palace attendants. When you return, I think it would be best for you to go with them.”

Having finished speaking, Nahal gave a slight bow.

“Then, may you be at peace.”

After offering his farewell, he turned to leave.

That was when—

‘……!’

Aya hurriedly grabbed the hem of his clothes.

Nahal turned back and looked down at her.

Although she felt her ears grow hot beneath his gaze, Aya tightened her grip on his clothes.

At the same time, she reached around the ground with her other hand, searching for the ring.

‘If not now, I probably won’t get another chance to see him.’

But she could not find anything in her grasp.

‘Huh?’

She must have been so focused on the conversation between Yesili and Nahal that the ring had rolled somewhere else.

She frantically rummaged through the thickly grown weeds.

‘What do I do?!’

Nahal stared at the hand trembling as it clung to his clothes, and at the back of her head as she busily searched for something.

He did not know what it was, but it seemed the princess wanted to give him something.

Nahal glanced back toward the place where the palace attendants had withdrawn.

‘Well, it won’t be a problem if I’m a little late.’

There was the audience with the Crown Prince, followed by various trivial matters that would continue afterward, but he was not in a position where being a little late would cause any real problem.

Rather than coldly leaving her behind, he was willing to let her hold onto him for a while longer, especially when her hand was trembling like that.

Having made up his mind, Nahal dropped down in front of Aya.

Perhaps startled by the sudden movement, Aya’s body flinched violently.

She opened her round eyes wide and stared at him.

Nahal sat with his chin resting on one hand and casually shrugged his shoulders.

‘……Why is he doing that?’

When Aya looked at him anxiously, Nahal gave her a small nod toward the ground.

“What are you looking for?”