IYTTEPAAK Chapter 16

Winter sunlight broke and scattered across the man's dazzling golden hair. The man wore the pleasure of his own handsomeness openly, showing a slight edge of white teeth as he smiled.

But his shining red eyes held not a trace of amusement—only a cold, cutting light.

His navy-blue uniform was dressed to full formal standard, every detail attended to with obvious care.

An ornately embroidered half-cape wrapped stylishly around his left arm, announcing his nobility; gold cord epaulettes and tassels declared his distinction; medals of every shape and kind attested to his strength.

Even the countless ribbon bars pinned across his left breast made him look like a living monument to the empire's wars.

Regen knew this man very well.

Domynick Arondight.

Third son of the House of Arondight, and the strongest knight in the empire.

Sasha's shoulders stiffened faintly. It let him understand that Domynick using her given name wasn't a display of closeness—it was rudeness that overstepped every line.

Domynick closed the distance in a few long strides.

Sasha, with visible reluctance, allowed him to press his lips to the back of her hand under the pretext of etiquette.

"My greetings to Your Highness. Beautiful enough today to make a man want to drop to his knees and worship you."

"You've gone all out today."

"There was a decoration ceremony."

A medal shaped like a laurel wreath glinted against Domynick's chest.

"This one's for subjugating the Eastern Alliance forces. His Majesty knew how great a part my strategy and strength played in bringing down the Kingdom of Rohengrin, and awarded it to me himself."

Regen killed every trace of feeling with everything he had, and wiped his expression clean.

"What a lovely medal. Congratulations."

"Would you like it, if it pleases you? Wear it as a brooch."

"That's your honor. Why would I?"

"Offering one's honor is a knight's proper duty."

"You aren't my knight."

"Ha, so I'm not."

At the sigh, Domynick's gaze flew and lodged itself on Regen. What filled those blood-colored eyes was hostility, and killing intent.

Regen understood at once. Among the list of people Sasha had feared might do him harm, this man occupied a fairly high rank.

"I was actually on leave, but I used the ceremony as an excuse to come into the palace today. Do you know why?"

"......"

"I came to see what sort of thing Your Highness took on as a knight."

Domynick's eyes slid sideways to Regen, sizing him up like goods on a shelf.

"Weak, though."

"That's rude."

"Did you pick a knight for his face? I'm disappointed."

"I told you that was rude."

"Shall I show you what real rudeness looks like?"

Domynick's leather boot drew close enough to nearly tread on the hem of the princess's gown.

Regen moved to step in on reflex, but Sasha raised one hand and stopped him.

Sasha smiled like a flower the more her temper frayed. Eyes creasing prettily at the corners, she pressed into Domynick's space in turn—as if she might reach for his collar.

The man grew flustered, and delighted, both at once. No—closer to rapture.

"Domynick."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Try it. Then I'll show you what humiliation looks like."

"You even understand my tastes. Truly, only Your Highness can make my heart race."

The standoff—disgust colliding with mockery—showed no sign of ending on its own.

To pry the two of them apart from a closeness that had gone too far, Regen stepped in.

"Your Highness."

The resonant weight in his voice cut through the tension between them.

Sasha stepped back two paces first, widening the distance, and Domynick looked put out, as if something of his had just been taken from him.

Glaring irritably at Regen, Domynick seemed to recall something, and opened his mouth.

"Now that I think of it—you. Your face is familiar, somehow. That irritating eye especially—I'm sure I've seen it somewhere."

"......"

"Do I know you, by chance?"

"Yes."

Regen felt Sasha's gaze land on him, heavy and fixed. His reply, when it came, was unruffled.

"How could I fail to know an enemy commander."

"Ah, right. I don't have to know you—but you'd better know me."

"......"

"If you survived getting close enough to see my face, you're either fairly strong, or a coward. One or the other."

"......"

"Eh, I'll just call you the coward, then. I'm no good at remembering the faces of guys like you."

He turned back to Sasha and added:

"Women's faces, I remember well. Your Highness's face, and every face that isn't Your Highness's—two categories."

"......"

"Ah, well—it seems the mood here won't let me get another word in. I'll take my leave, having received my congratulations, and go while I still can."

"You already had your congratulations. Can't remember words either, on top of faces?"

"Not about the medal."

There was still more for the suitor to boast of.

"I was also given an earldom, as reward for my service. I'm no longer just the third son of the House of Arondight—I'm properly Earl Domynick Müjecal now."

"Congratulations, Lord Earl."

"It pleases me that Your Highness is glad as if it were her own achievement. Though—actually, there was something else I wanted, more than a title and land. So I brought a petition before His Majesty. He thought it over, and then turned me down."

"How unfortunate."

"Would you care to guess what I asked for?"

Domynick's red eyes flashed, dangerous—like a hand about to pull the string on a carefully laid trap.

Regen understood at once. Whatever was about to spill from that mouth would be an insult to the princess.

Unfortunately, Regen had no authority to stop the mouth of the Commander of the Imperial Guard. So he chose the next-best thing instead of the best.

The instant Regen's hands closed over Sasha's ears, Domynick spoke.

"Rosasia Trinite Magnalorde. I petitioned for you as my reward."

With mana woven into his hands, the sound was blocked completely. Sasha, startled by Regen's sudden action, lifted her head.

"Sir Regen?"

"Your ears will be harmed."

Watching only his own voice let through, Domynick's temper twisted, naturally.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Only my duty."

"......"

"......"

Domynick's eyes looked ready to tear Regen apart on the spot. It wasn't only that Sasha had been kept from hearing his words that was the problem.

That Sasha didn't seem to mind Regen's touch at all—that was what truly twisted his gut further.

Since things had already come to this, he made use of the princess's blocked hearing to lay out a genuinely menacing threat.

"That's an eye that makes a man want to gouge it right out."

"......"

"A warning. If you'd like to die easy, you'd best not covet so much as a single strand of the princess's hair."

"......"

Regen stayed still, as if he hadn't heard a word.

Domynick, who hadn't expected a reaction from the start, turned his gaze to Sasha instead. He spoke as if observing proper courtesy.

"Wait for me. And don't drag that bastard into your bed."

Only once Domynick's retreating back had grown distant did Regen take his hands from her ears.

"What did he say?"

"......"

"So bad it's hard to soften it into something you can repeat?"

Sasha sighed, and spoke.

"Shall I guess? He asked the Mad Emperor to give him me."

"You knew?"

"I threw out a guess, and it landed. If I'd heard it directly, my ears might have rotted. Thank you, Sir Regen."

Regen lowered his eyes for a moment before speaking.

"Your Highness."

"Why 'Your Highness' again?"

"There's something I need to say, as your knight."

"Go ahead."

"For the discourtesy that man committed against Your Highness today, I will make certain he pays for it."

"......"

Sasha fell silent at the resolve in his eyes.

A knight like this—one who guarded his honor like his own life, the sort fated to spend his whole life with his eyes turned up toward heaven—words telling him to just stay put and do nothing would never reach him anyway.

"So please don't order me in a way that breaks my resolve."

Even now, he was plainly telling her: don't use your authority to make him back down.

"Then—just don't get hurt."

"I'll try."

He seemed satisfied with her answer. As if resolving to be her brother again, he reached out and neatly straightened her coat himself.

"It's cold out, Sasha. Let's return the book and hurry back."

"All right."

Running into Domynick hadn't been the last of the day's bad luck. Just as they were nearly to the inner courtyard, Regen's senses caught something ominous and reacted.

"Sasha, one moment."

He stopped in his tracks, and covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief.

A foul, acrid smell was drifting over from the direction of the courtyard.