YMPDKMA Chapter 33

Rehan's head naturally tilted, following my gaze. I quickly moved my body to block between Rehan and Rupert.

"Nothing. I thought it was someone I knew but it's not."

I grabbed Rehan's shoulders and spun him around. As the sun set, the air from our mouths froze white. Through white breath, Rehan's rigid face came into view. I kept pushing my brother and moving my feet, but Rehan didn't budge from his spot.

He hadn't entered the academy for nothing, it seemed. Unable to overcome even a thirteen-year-old boy's strength—my power was truly pathetic. Nothing special. Just think a little and it was an obvious fact. Yet I became helpless even at Rehan's small rebellion. As my strength drained and my hands slipped down, Rehan caught my hand and held it again.

"Who is it?"

"Hm?"

At Rehan's question, I turned my head back toward Rupert—whom I'd stopped paying attention to while trying to divert his focus. With that fierce-looking man beside him, he was moving his feet very slowly.

"That person. Who is it?"

I turned my head again to face Rehan. My brother's eyes sparkled with curiosity, but I ignored it. I need to follow Rupert. Seized by a strange obsession, I shook off the hand Rehan held.

"Something came up. I'll go ahead."

Fortunately, Rehan didn't follow me. I practically ran to catch up with Rupert. Before I could grab him, the large man grabbed me—so it was as good as being caught.

"Your, Your Highness."

Rupert, who'd been looking at the other end of the alley, slowly turned his gaze toward me. He recognized me and frowned noticeably.

"What are you doing here?"

That was what I wanted to ask, rather. But I answered obediently.

"I came out to see my brother."

"Always brother, brother. You're completely obsessed with family."

"Because they're precious."

"Precious? Family?"

Rupert made a strange sound as if my words were the most difficult problem in the world to understand.

"Your Highness said yours were precious and that you cherish them. I love my family, so they're precious to me."

"First, put her down."

Instead of responding to my words, Rupert ordered the man. His raw voice—not artificially pitched high as usual—was like rough friction. The man set me down almost like throwing me. I approached Rupert and faced him, whose sight line was now higher than mine.

Knowing he was male and actually seeing him in male form were very different. Actually, Rupert wasn't that different from his appearance at the Red Palace. But just wearing the crude clothes working-class boys his age wore and tying up his silky, flowing blonde hair high made him look sufficiently like a boy. As if he'd always been that way. As if he should have been that way all along.

"Where are you going?"

"Why? If I tell you, will you follow?"

"There's nowhere I can't follow if Your Highness wishes it."

"I'll never wish anything from you, idiot."

Even while berating me, he kept checking both ends of the alley. That movement looked anxious, so I shrank in response.

"Max, when is Fassbender coming?"

"Soon."

"Is the trading company all arranged? I heard there was opposition."

"Forces led by Gorten, but they're just borrowing his name. They don't have power to be obstacles."

The man called Max used polite speech unlike his rough mercenary appearance. But it seemed clumsy. I widened my eyes at the familiar name Fassbender, then quickly lowered them. Fassbender. Tori's surname.

"Even if they can't be obstacles, clear them out. Fassbender must become the most powerful and largest trading company in Belnerny in name and reality. Understand?"

Rupert wrinkled his handsome brow irritably and bit his lip. The man only nodded obediently.

"Ah, Gorten. That's a familiar name to you too."

He turned to look at me while moving his feet. There was no need to lie, and he already knew of Bellua and Gorten's friendship, so I acknowledged it readily.

"Yes. His Grace and Father have long-standing ties."

"You said you'd do anything if I wanted?"

He raised the corner of his mouth in a sneer, making meaningless the words he'd just said about never wanting anything from me.

"You said you'd give yourself to me, right? That you'd become wholly mine, of your own accord."

"I did. I still will."

"Find out about the trading company Gorten's backing. What that bastard's preparing for by even creating a trading company."

"How, how?"

At my flustered voice, Rupert didn't withdraw his mocking smile. Having reached the end of the alley, he tapped the red brick wall a few times with his fingertips. Just tapping carelessly—yet instantly the wall bulged and spat out a small door.

Spotting the formation drawn before the door—too small for the man called Max to enter—I gasped nearly like a scream and stumbled backward.

"An alchemical formation! Your Highness, alchemy is forbidden! You might be cursed!"

Alchemy—pushed aside and forgotten by various sorceries, magic arts, and spells—was an ancient taboo unused for hundreds of years. Though the origin of recently developing chemistry, unlike pure science or sorcery, alchemists were condemned by the mages and sorcerers of the Sullavi Tower as well as the people, known for borrowing demonic power.

Arrogant alchemists tried to overcome death and treat people like beasts.

A group called 'Krunaruka'—vulgarly known as the Black Hand. Unable to think for themselves, possessing only reverence for the imperial family—slaves of the imperial house. Emperor Grimoalt III, who created such false servitude with alchemy's power, was said to wander neither heaven nor hell even after death.

I didn't believe in ghost stories, but I thought there was no reason to practice unnecessary forbidden arts.

Rupert mocked my alarm.

"Do you believe in curses?"

"No."

"I do. And I've already been cursed. Then there's no need to be careful, is there?"

Creaaaak.

He opened the door without hesitation. The shadows that slipped past the doorframe seemed to writhe, ready to swallow him whole. I approached the door he'd opened for me, hoping he'd be cursed deeply for it.

"Are you sending me to His Majesty?"

"No."

"Then may I go on my own?"

"No."

Rupert crammed Max into the doorway like stuffing ill-fitting clothes into a chest, then lightly grasped my wrist and gave it a weak tug.

"Follow me."

The door guided us onto a well-maintained path. Oil lamps hung along it, glowing faintly so passersby wouldn't lose their way. Flicker, flicker. I stepped into the dark passage, following Rupert and the lights that beckoned me like a gesturing hand.

Max stepped aside and closed the door. Rupert immediately turned on me, shoving me against the wall. Though gentle yellow light flowed through the space, the overall dimness of the corridor made my confinement between his arms terrifying. I bit my lip in fear. Rupert was young, but so was I.

His tightly bound hair spilled over one shoulder and brushed against my forearm. I smiled to hide my fear.

"Why, Your Highness?"

"Why aren't you surprised to see me?"

"Should I be?"

At my dull response, Rupert narrowed his eyes and slowly lowered his head. The distance closed enough for me to count his eyelashes. Clean skin, well-groomed handsome eyebrows—clearly he was well cared for. Yet Rupert looked strangely exhausted. Mentally exhausted, if one had to distinguish.

"Who else knows I'm male, besides you? Your brother?"

"No one knows, Your Highness."

"Going to make excuses about your intuition again?"

"It's not an excuse. In an age where magic, curses, science, alchemy, guns, and wands coexist, won't you believe in human intuition?"

Soon Rupert and I stood close enough for our noses to touch. He frowned as if trying to read my mind, then pulled back as though he'd seen something he shouldn't have.

"I don't believe in anything human."

"Don't believe, then. I'll believe for both of us."

"Shut up and follow. If you're a hindrance, I'll abandon you."

His threat to abandon me was the same as claiming he owned me. I smiled brightly and followed him as he walked ahead.

The cave-like passage was well-worn, clearly used by many people, and stretched quite long. When I looked around curiously, wondering who had built this secretive passage, when, and for what purpose, Rupert glanced back at me like I was pathetic.

"Cominternin."

"Pardon?"

"We're inside the Cominternin."

Cominternin had once been the wall separating the Red Palace from the royal capital, but now it had expanded into a high stone barrier dividing Champagne into four large districts. It made sense if the passage we were walking through was inside the Cominternin. Guards would need to use it for patrols.

But how did Rupert know this maze? Judging by the structure, even low-ranking soldiers probably wouldn't know about it.

"Do you know this path well?"

"Of course."

"Why 'of course'?"

"Because I made it."

Rupert casually dropped that tremendous statement and stopped walking, leaning his back against the wall.

"Come here."

"You made this passage, Your Highness? With alchemy?"

"Tsk, don't make me repeat myself."

A short affirmation would have been more comfortable than that irritable answer, but Rupert deliberately chose the long route to scold me.