SBTMK Chapter 3

Flora stared at him.

She'd pegged him for an innocent son of some noble house. His face hadn't promised anything else. But the boldness was unexpected—the way his eyes moved across the bodies, the way her death threat landed on him like mild weather.

Most noble sons she'd encountered in her years crossing the continent were brave right up until their own lives came into it. Then they wet themselves.

People with a lot to lose fear dying. Nine nobles out of ten were exactly that kind.

This young lord was different. Remarkably little fun to tease.

"...If I don't try to find out, you'll let me live?"

"Yes. In exchange for your clumsy attempt to rescue me. But keep the fact that you saw me here secret."

Flora said it quietly as she placed the last arrow into her quiver.

The man smiled again. It carried something like mockery—as if she'd said something elaborately ridiculous—but rather than irritating her, her eyes kept finding their way back to him.

His smiling face was annoyingly beautiful.

"Alright. I still have too many things I haven't done to die, so I'll hold off for now."

His voice had shed its weight somewhere along the way. It came out almost playful.

There was no more time to linger. Flora slung her bow across her back.

She'd cleared every knight she could see, but she didn't know how many more troublesome ones might still be hiding in the trees. She needed to leave before they converged.

"...You. Go straight home without wandering. If you don't want to die."

She gave him the advice and turned her back—

"Your Majesty! Where are you, Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

A voice boomed out of the distance. Flora stopped walking.

'Your Majesty...?'

"Yeah, I'm here!"

The man had heard it too. He waved his hand and called back.

He'd clearly said Your Majesty.

'...Then why are you answering?'

No.

Shit.

The curse came out of her mouth low and flat, the situation clicking into place all at once.

"What are you doing? Shut your mouth."

Flora moved fast, closed the distance, and covered his open mouth with her hand.

"You're the Emperor?"

A nod.

"This is the Haenkan Empire."

A second nod. Her vision tilted briefly. The rigid expression she'd maintained for years twitched against her will.

The sun of the Haenkan Empire had changed roughly two years ago. It coincided exactly with when Flora had made her decision to escape from Cenkan.

Cenkan hadn't assigned her to missions touching Haenkan, and her attention had been entirely consumed by the escape. She hadn't cared about continental affairs. She knew little of it properly—but a few rumors she'd picked up along the way had lodged in her memory.

The new Emperor was young and handsome, they said. The faces of female knights who had made their little jokes about him—casually, without shame—surfaced unbidden.

The man in front of her was undeniably handsome even with half his face concealed.

He outshone the jewels he wore. She'd lost herself for a moment when she first saw him—and she didn't lose herself. But appearance alone confirmed nothing.

Why had she assumed noble son in the first place? She wanted to open up her own careless mind and take a hard look at it.

The reasoning had been simple: someone wandering around like a layabout in broad daylight needed no profession, needed leisure—probably a son of some house. Easy thinking.

Too easy. That was the problem. His bloodstained thigh drifted into her mind.

She had become, in an instant, a criminal against the crown.

"Ha... Hey."

She still half-doubted it. But she called out to the man with a voice that was already half-resigned. Instead of answering, his gaze landed on her.

"I can't let myself be seen by many people. If that happens, I'll have no choice but to kill everyone who's seen me. If you want to keep your retainers alive, stay quiet. Understood?"

The threat was there, but the desperation behind it was real. Fortunately the man nodded. Only after receiving his answer did Flora lower the hand from his mouth.

"You."

"..."

"Not a mercenary. A fugitive?"

The question followed.

"..."

Her lips hesitated, twitching. The man watched her eyes without looking away.

Again, it was Flora who was rattled. Emotions once cracked don't fill back in.

At this rate, she'd visibly fail to hide it. The pounding gripping her chest spread outward until her whole body felt it.

How long had it been since she'd held someone's gaze for this long? The last had been an old innkeeper woman who had shown her a small kindness.

Even knights who had undergone brutal emotional suppression training flinched from Flora's eyes.

Her face drew looks automatically—it was that kind of beautiful. But when eyes actually met hers, they said the whole body went cold, as if a curse had settled in. Her pupils were too black. Eyes that carried death, they called them.

This man appeared to feel nothing of the sort. It might be ordinary to someone else.

For Flora, it was new.

Looking into his crimson eyes—which glittered more brilliantly than any jewel—she had the unsettling sense of being drawn steadily into his game.

'This isn't some kind of trap, is it. Magic, or...'

Haenkan had magic, so it was conceivable. Making her confess things. Putting her to sleep just like this.

Her mind snapped alert. With effort, Flora broke away from his gaze. She couldn't afford to be caught in needless tricks.

"...Yes."

"You're not a subject of the Haenkan Empire?"

Flora nodded, calmly.

Better to give condensed answers—just enough to satisfy his curiosity—than risk being pulled into some manipulation and handing over anything classified.

"Oh ho. Interesting."

"..."

"For now, wouldn't it be better to hide yourself before the retainers arrive? I want to talk more. And I do have dignity... looking like this is a bit..."

He gestured to his own leg and let the corners of his eyes droop. He looked like a wounded puppy.

From the perspective of someone who had survived by hunting whatever she could catch, she didn't feel much sympathy...

'He wants to talk more.'

Flora hesitated at the proposal, working the inside of her lip.

If he was truly the Emperor, not just her life but the safety of the entire Empire was threaded through this situation—and he seemed entirely unconcerned about that danger.

'Is he just an idiot who can't read the room? I think I heard something about the new Emperor being a little... lacking.'

He'd either decided this strange foreigner posed no threat, or he believed the situation—multiple attackers in the forest—had been completely resolved. Either way, it was too careless.

Or perhaps he truly wasn't the actual Emperor.

'Still... this place is too dangerous.'

She didn't know how many more enemies might still be in this forest.

It was almost funny to think it, given she'd threatened him and put a dagger in his leg—but Flora did not want innocent lives lost here.

Whether he was truly the Emperor or not, she wanted his life preserved.

The Cenkan knights showed no mercy. They were the type who needed to stomp everything in their path before they'd feel satisfied. A mission obstacle wasn't a person; it was a problem to be eliminated.

That was what she hated. People dying because of her.

And if they knew one of those obstacles was the Emperor of Haenkan—they'd want to kill him even more, eyes going red with it.

These were people conditioned through years of indoctrination to see Haenkan as the enemy. An unprotected Emperor was an opportunity they would not waste.

"...Before anything else, show me proof that you're the Emperor."

"Hmm? Proof?"

She needed just a little more certainty. Whether, if a truly dangerous moment came, he was a person worth prioritizing above her own life.

"Right. You thought I'd just take your word for it? I don't know what the Emperor of the Haenkan Empire looks like."

"A suspicious young lady. But usually when going out hunting, everything one might use as proof gets left at the castle, doesn't it?"

"..."

"Or shall I call one retainer? All I have on me right now are these jewels."

The man suddenly thrust his midsection forward and pointed to something. Flora's gaze dropped.

"Magnificent, isn't it? What do you think? Doesn't it look like something only an Emperor could possess?"

A finely crafted belt. An ornate scabbard. Gems set into the fabric of his clothing.

Ha. Flora clicked her tongue.

She picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground. The man held his breath.

"You're going to kill me? Ah, that's a bit difficult—"

"The Emperors of Haenkan have a demonic servant passed down through generations, it is said. Their mark..."

Slash.

"Is engraved here."

According to Haenkan historical records, when the Emperor blessed by the gods faced danger, a demonic servant in the shape of a black wolf would appear to protect him.

It's real... damn.

For better or worse, on the man's shoulder—at the collarbone—a black pattern was engraved.

Flora let the killing intent leave her eyes and immediately knelt on one knee before him.

"I greet the Sun of Haenkan. May infinite glory and blessings dwell upon Your Majesty."

Her heart beat loudly the moment certainty arrived.

She was looking at someone she had only ever thought of as the enemy. Not a single thread of killing intent rose in her.

It felt like proof—tangible, physical proof—that she had truly broken free from Cenkan's conditioning.

Goosebumps.

The thrillingly good kind.

"...For someone who isn't even a subject of the Empire, you know quite a lot about Haenkan."

"I have read history books."

"Then that establishes that I'm the Emperor. And you? Do you still have no intention of revealing your identity?"

He was smiling. The sharpness in his voice, he did not bother to hide.

"...That is correct."

"You'll kill me if I try to find out?"

The threat she'd made before knowing he was the Emperor—returned to her now, lightly, like a joke. Cold sweat ran down her back.

Every word. Every action. Every rude thing she'd done to the Emperor until now.

She had threatened his life. She had put a wound on his body. It would have been entirely warranted if he'd had her torn apart on the spot.

Flora pressed herself flat to the ground.

"...Please forgive my rudeness until now. Your Majesty."

She had no reason to show loyalty to the Emperor of Haenkan. But she had reason to keep her life—so she stayed flat.

She still had reasons she could not die yet.