I hurriedly set the tray down on the floor and curled up in front of the door.
"Ugh......!"
I tried to endure it, but a groan finally leaked out of my mouth. I felt a dull impact in my heart. The sensation that had felt like it was strangling my entire body soon disappeared, but maybe in exchange, the building’s vibration sped up even more.
Ching—!
I heard the sound of windows shattering all at once. Reflexively, I covered my head with my hands. Right after, the lights hanging from the ceiling shattered and fell.
Sharp cracking noises continued. The prince’s screams, too, didn’t stop.
How long had it been. I became aware that my breathing was loud and rough as it echoed. That was how quiet it was around me. Like the stillness after a typhoon passed.
Slowly, I lifted my head. The corridor that had been dark was bright now. Because as the glass windows broke out, the blackout screens had snapped off and flew away with them.
Sunlight pouring into a corridor wrecked like a typhoon had clawed through it was almost majestic. All over the floor, receiving that light, an even more brilliant radiance reflected back.
"What a waste......"
A sound of lament slipped out on its own. What scattered a brilliant prism spectrum in the sunlight were the shattered fragments of diamonds that had been set into the lighting fixtures.
After estimating the scale of the property loss in my head, I let out a powerless laugh.
"Pretty."
If I threw away calculations like how much it would sell for, it was simply a beautiful sight. It felt like halos of light were dancing.
When I was a child, I liked going to my parents’ shop. I used to hope school would end quickly. That place, filled with beautiful lights you couldn’t grasp with your hands, was dreamlike.
It was a time when I only marveled, without calculations about a gem’s quality and the price that followed, or its setting.
How long had I had my eyes stolen by this scattered light? At some point, the light settled. I grew bewildered, like someone yanked awake from a dream.
The light coming in through the windows dimmed. Because the sky had darkened under storm clouds.
I returned to reality. When the light the diamonds scattered vanished, what was revealed was a scene like ruins.
I slowly checked my body. My hands, my legs—clean, without a single wound. It was strange to the point of amazement that there wasn’t even a scratch from glass. There wasn’t even dust on me.
The floor where I stood, too, was spotless.
I looked around again. My mouth fell open without me realizing it, but I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t know how to describe what I only noticed belatedly.
Centered on the door I’d been leaning against, the floor within a certain radius was unbelievably neat. In a mess of scenery littered with glass shards, splinters of wood snapped off from the screens, and diamond fragments. Like a lone island.
If I hadn’t, in my panic, roughly slammed the tray down, there wouldn’t have been anything wrong with the food, either.
The glass still held the coffee just fine. The coffee that had been clearly separated into two layers was all mixed now into a muddy brown.
It had been an impact strong enough to shatter even diamonds, and yet the thin glass that could crack even from boiling water was intact.
I even wondered if there was some invisible Protective Barrier stretched out. I didn’t just think it—I acted. When I waved my arm around, of course, nothing caught in my hand. It was the moment I felt awkward, realizing how ridiculous I must have looked.
Huh......
At the sound brushing my ear, I turned around. It was a sound from beyond the tightly closed door. It sounded like laughter. It also sounded like someone swallowing pain.
Either way, one thing was clear: it was a sound spilled out weakly.
Knock knock. I knocked again. Silence answered in its place. Still, I couldn’t leave. That narrow, dustless radius was vivid before my eyes.
"Are you all right?"
"......I’m fine."
It was the first answer that came back in two weeks. The voice was so small and lifeless it sounded like it would go out, but the intent was obvious. It meant: go back like this.
I hesitated. I listened, leaning my ear, to see if another sound would come from beyond the door. While repeating to myself that it absolutely wasn’t a coincidence that not even the wind had been able to touch me.
Huu.
When I heard the sound the prince made again, I threw away my hesitation. What kind of busybody was I. I grumbled inwardly that, sure enough, my identity was Korean, but the hand that grabbed the doorknob didn’t stop.
"I’ll be rude—"
I couldn’t say an insincere, lip-service apology. The light entering through the opened crack in the door showed the wrecked room without filtering anything. The furniture that had looked so solid was covered in scars. Some of it was dented deep like it had been punched, and there were countless sharp marks like it had been scraped with a blade.
Even the thick, heavy curtains were torn to shreds, but the window to the balcony was clean without a single crack. Just like the flawless door.
The prince was sprawled in the middle of that bizarre room. Completely naked, on a torn carpet.
Shattered gemstones were scattered around him, strewn all over.
Even if every light fixture had broken, it was an excessive amount. Like remnants of magic. Probably what had been confining him.
"You’ve got guts, Jay."
The prince spoke in a voice completely worn out.
"You want to get pregnant with my child too?"
At that moment, it was the same color as the eyes I’d seen when I first saw the prince at the tavern. I hadn’t seen wrong. The prince’s eyes weren’t blue like usual, but a dark red like pigeon blood ruby.
"I can’t get pregnant, my lord Duke."
His hostile reaction made me want to step back. He glared like he could see straight through me. I forced strength into legs that were about to tremble. My instincts told me I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t come closer. I had to stand here.
Woooong. A ringing noise roared, like tinnitus, and the debris scattered on the floor lifted up.
"I have no claim to the throne. The one who birthed me was a recessive omega. You still want my child?"
He’d clearly called my name, and yet in this moment, the prince seemed to have forgotten the other person was me. The floating debris began to move. Toward me.
"I’m a beta who can’t get pregnant, and I don’t want to get pregnant either, my lord Duke. I can’t smell your pheromones."
It was the moment the focus in the prince’s eyes looked like it was about to vanish completely. I spoke with all sincerity.
"If I get hurt, you have to treat me, and you have to give me compensation money."
For something I’d called sincerity, it was obviously a ridiculous thing to say. Still, I thought it was the only thing I could say that would make him recognize that I was me.
And it really worked. To the point it shocked even me. The debris that looked like it was about to stab me hung there in midair.
The prince blinked slowly. Red and blue alternated each time he closed his eyes and opened them again.
Then he rose from where he was. Staggering like a newborn foal taking its first steps.
Slowly, he came toward me.
As if he wouldn’t give me time to run, he closed in tight, then lowered his head and buried his nose in the back of my neck. The prince, who I couldn’t smell at all, stubbornly chased the scent coming off me.
"It really is Jay."
Like that was his limit, the prince flopped down and sat.
The rasping sound of his breathing was like someone who’d just come out of a fierce fever. Only then did the smell of blood drift in. It was blood flowing from wounds all over his body. There was only him in here, so the only person who could’ve made those wounds was him.
"......Are you all right?"
I must have been pretty tense too. The moment I spoke, my throat stung.
"I’m hungry......"
A limp voice came back.
"I’m cold."
The prince sprawled out as if collapsing onto the messy floor. He stared blankly at the dark ceiling. The blood that had been flowing from his body began to stop.
"......I’ll be fine if I just rest a little."
The whining tone like a child’s got wrapped in a veneer.
Only then did I find the courage to move.
"Please wait a moment."
I cleared away the scattered pieces that could cause injury. With my strength, I couldn’t move the prince to the bed. The bed that had always been hidden behind a thick canopy was a mess too. I roughly gathered the torn blanket and spread it on the floor.
When I put my hand on his shoulder to move him, he suddenly burst out laughing.
After a short laugh, he asked me in a drained voice.
"Am I... not scary to you?"
What answer was the right one. I thought, and in the end, what came out of my mouth was the honest truth.
"I was scared. Just a moment ago. ......Honestly, even now, I’m still afraid."
At my answer, the prince’s eyes curved.
"You’re honest."
The wounds on his body were disappearing. The traces of self-harm, before long, vanished cleanly. Like nothing had happened. The only evidence was the dried bloodstains hardened like scabs.
The prince got up on his own and laid himself back down on the blanket I’d spread. I rose and stepped out of the room. I heard his sigh.
When I came back in holding the tray I’d left on the floor, he blinked blue eyes.
"I didn’t think you’d come back."
Even the prince showed a very honest reaction. Looking down at his bright blue eyes, I slowly sat by his head.
"Lean on me."
Instead of answering, the prince looked into my eyes. After a brief gaze, he moved and set his head on my thigh.
"I meant you should lean on my shoulder."
"I don’t have that much strength yet."
I lifted the glass and brought it to the prince’s lips. Smelling the sweet scent, he frowned. When I didn’t move my hand away, he reluctantly took a sip.
"......Sweet."
It was a disgusted expression, just as expected.
"I put condensed milk in it, so it should be able to ease your hunger."
I hadn’t made the cafe bonbon just because it looked nice. It wasn’t because I wanted to tease the prince, who hated sweets. It was because it was high-calorie. In this era, condensed milk was used as a tonic food. I hadn’t expected I’d end up feeding it to him myself.
As if he couldn’t help it, the prince opened his mouth. It was very slow, but he still finished the whole glass.
"Like you said, it definitely seems to have an effect."
The prince spoke with a face loosened considerably.
"But it’s still too sweet."
As he complained that he hated sweet things, the prince’s eyelids moved slowly.
Shaa. The storm clouds finally started pouring rain. The little light that had still remained faded away. The sound of rain grew steadily harsher.
Since all the glass had shattered, rainwater would pour into the corridor on top of it already being filthy. How much time and effort would it take to restore the main house again. Shouldn’t I tell the butler right now and at least block the windows first.
Realistic problems rose up, then vanished. The room became completely dark.
I couldn’t see anything, but the prince’s lowered breathing and the warmth of his body against my knee were clear.
A king’s bloodline with no right of succession. The king’s half brother. The Duke of Wesel.
I didn’t know this boy’s name.
I grew curious about his name.