episode_0022

“Hah… Hah… Hah…”

Only after slipping into the alleyway did she finally manage to steady her ragged breaths.

She clutched her trembling legs with both hands, as if they might give out at any moment.

Eric didn’t remember her.

Yet at this very moment, Elia was certain that no one could possibly think of him more than she did.

At first, it had been nothing more than simple curiosity. The imperial princess, the most likely successor to the Perial Empire, and on top of that, a wielder of formidable magical power.

There were as many people vying for Elia’s attention as there were stars in the sky.

At her tenth birthday banquet, where it was announced that she would officially enter the empire’s succession race, every attendee had desperately tried to impress her with their talents. The ten-year-old girl had merely tilted her head and declared in a sweet, childish voice:

“Boring.”

Everything they showed her was unbearably dull. A prodigy like her could see right through the principles behind their tricks.

Too easily.

The flow of magic in the world was as clear to Elia as if it were laid bare before her eyes. All their so-called “miracles” were nothing more than flashy embellishments of that same magic.

It was tedious.

Learn magic, train accordingly.

A simple concept—yet no one could execute it as flawlessly as she could.

“A hardworking genius cannot be surpassed by mere effort.” A simple truth, but most hardworking people lacked talent, and most talented people didn’t bother to work hard.

As time passed, Elia grew increasingly weary of meeting people.

“I suppose this is how I’ll live my whole life.”

And just as she was beginning to grow accustomed to that boredom, years later, Eric appeared before her.

“If we keep going like this, we’ll all die!”

His eyes were wild, deranged even, as he unleashed an unfamiliar magic within the imperial palace—yet there was something strangely composed about him, as if he hadn’t completely lost himself.

Daring to use an unknown magic in the imperial palace?

Anyone would have called it treason. But Elia opposed his punishment.

Officially, her reasoning was that he was the legitimate heir of the Grave family and that he had caused no harm to the palace.

But her true motive was different.

Curiosity.

The magic he had used was unlike anything Elia had ever seen before.

Of course, she could tell it utilized mana and what its effects were—but the structure of the spell, the flow of magic, was something she had never encountered in her life.

So Elia spared Eric.

And Eric, as if living up to her expectations, continued to act outlandishly, chipping away at his own reputation.

Each of his antics was something new to Elia.

Even when he claimed to know the future, it was the same.

Everyone else—even Elia—had suspected him of being a fraud. But Eric predicted the future with terrifying accuracy.

To ordinary people, his predictions seemed distorted. But to those with sufficient knowledge, they were chillingly precise prophecies.

And yet, if that had been all, Elia and Eric might have remained on decent terms.

“Eric… I…”

Elia slammed her fist against the crumbling wall. If she didn’t, she feared she wouldn’t be able to bear the crushing weight of her own shame.

If only she had just accepted his kindness back then.

Now, she couldn’t even bring herself to look Eric in the eye as he stared at her with no recognition.

Their first meeting had been completely reversed.

Eric didn’t know her—instead, she was the one approaching him.

But Elia had nothing to pique his interest. The only thing she had for him was an apology.

Her arrogant questioning had been nothing more than a flimsy shell to hide her own shame—and that shell had shattered far too easily.

She had prided herself on being part of the Hero’s Party, the strongest mage—but that title was nothing more than a humiliating honor in the face of her own disgrace.

So she ran.

After asking so many questions, she didn’t want to hear the answers.

She had imagined countless scenarios where she begged Eric for forgiveness—but never once had she considered the possibility that he wouldn’t remember the past at all.

If he truly had lost his memories… how could she ever stand by his side again?

“Eli unnie!”

Elia lifted her head at the voice calling out to her from ahead.

“Chris…?”

“You’re unharmed?”

“Idiot!”

Starting with Chris, the others soon gathered behind her—Christine, Luciella, Cecilia, and even an unfamiliar woman with brown hair.

“Chris!”

Kang!

The spell Elia reflexively fired at the red-haired woman was cleanly sliced apart by Luciella.

“Don’t worry, Elia. She’s Christine’s vassal. The woman who took Eric away.”

“Wha…? Oh. Of course. My apologies.”

“Ah, hello, Princess Elia! I-I’m Anna, Lady Christine’s guard! I-I may be of lowly status, but—”

“Enough.”

For some reason, an inexplicable relief washed over her.

Eric and the brown-haired woman, Anna, were nothing more than master and servant. Her connection with Eric hadn’t been severed.

It hadn’t even begun before being cut off.

“But Eli unnie, why were you coming from that direction alone? We were all supposed to meet at the market. Did you… go to see Oppa?”

“Eek?! N-No! I just got lost—”

“Don’t lie, Elia.”

Cecilia’s sharp gaze pinned her down.

“At the very least, you shouldn’t lie in front of me, right? You know better.”

“Huh?!”

“Cecilia? Don’t tell me you used your eyes? But how—”

“Even without being some damned god, I can use them at this level. You couldn’t even wield that sword properly at this point, could you?”

Cecilia’s eyes, usually golden, were now filled with a pure, blinding white light.

Her pupils were indistinguishable—only perfect, all-seeing whiteness remained.

“The Eyes of Truth… Since when could you use them?”

“Do I owe you an explanation? Seems like you’ve got something to hide too. Why did you lie? Tell the truth.”

“…I can’t.”

She couldn’t say it in front of them.

“Tch—what kind of bullshit is that? You really wanna start a fight between us right here? We already know you saw Eric, so stop wasting time and spit it out. What did you talk about?”

“……”

Elia couldn’t speak. The moment she did, Cecilia’s eyes would discern whether it was truth or lies.

She had relied on those eyes more than once in the past—their accuracy was terrifying.

“Elia. I can’t say I don’t understand your position, but at the very least, we deserve a proper explanation about Eric.”

“Why don’t we just head in the direction that bastard came from? Doesn’t look like he’s been gone long—we’ll probably find something.”

“No!”

“Hah?”

She had misjudged the situation. Elia bit her lip silently.

Cecilia had already made up her mind not to listen. The fact that her lie had been exposed by the Eyes of Truth had shattered their trust in her.

Luciella, too, was silently gripping her sword, her gaze no less suspicious than Cecilia’s.

Only Christine remained expressionless.

Should she tell them about Eric’s condition?

That he had lost his memories? That he didn’t even remember who they were, let alone their sins?

There was no way she could say it.

Even she, who had faced him with confidence, had crumbled the moment she realized the truth. She couldn’t subject the others to the same pain.

“How shameless.”

After inflicting pain on Eric a hundred times worse, even thinking like this was audacious.

But Elia remained silent.

“Cecilia. Elia doesn’t seem willing to talk.”

“Yeah, figures. Typical of Her Highness—greedy as hell.”

“And you, Cecilia, for someone who hates gods, you’re quite devout, aren’t you?”

“Don’t joke around.”

Cecilia and Luciella began stepping forward.

No.

If they moved now, finding Eric would be all too easy.

“You can tell me, Eli unnie.”

“…What?”

“I can tell you already met Oppa. Cecilia unnie, Lu unnie, calm down. There’s a reason Eli unnie’s acting like this.”

Christine’s smile as she spoke was strangely distorted.

Almost as if she was flaunting some bizarre sense of superiority.

“I can tell you?”

“Mhm. I was shocked and confused at first too, but now that I think about it… isn’t this actually an opportunity?”

“An opportunity? What kind of nonsense—”

“Hey. Instead of keeping secrets between the two of you, how about explaining it to the rest of us?”

“I agree. Christine, given that you stayed in the same mansion as Eric, you must have far more information than the rest of us… May I ask?”

“You’re already planning to find out anyway, so why bother hiding it?”

Christine gave a small smile and gestured to Anna behind her.

“Anna, you can head back now. You’ve done well guarding Oppa.”

“Huh? But, my lady—”

“Do you think I’m in danger? With all these people around me?”