“Why does he keep eating with me?!”
Veyra hugged one of the cushions tightly against her chest, squeezing it as if it were personally responsible for everything that had gone wrong.
“Just eat by yourself!”
She gave the cushion a weak punch.
“I was forced to eat three meals for two days…”
Another punch.
“A-and he…” Her voice rose in frustration.
“H-he keeps looking at me like I’m some kind of foreign anomaly or something!”
She squeezed the cushion harder.
“He even keeps offering me things to eat, and I can’t refuse!”
Another weak punch.
“It’s even worse when he asks me how they taste!”
Veyra buried her face into the cushion and let out a muffled scream.
“Aaaah!
That is so frustrating!”
She dropped onto the sofa, kicking her feet against the cushions in pure frustration.
For a few moments, she remained like that.
Then she suddenly stopped.
She lifted her head.
Thinking about all the frustrating things…
Was that thing not in the room today?
“Hmm…”
Her eyes narrowed.
Slowly, she began scanning the room from right to left.
“I know you’re there~”
She glanced around.
“Where are you?”
She rose from the sofa and started moving through the room.
“Are you here?”
She circled one of the columns, stretching out her hands as she tried to touch the empty air around it.
Nothing.
She frowned.
But…
Had something shifted?
Veyra slowly pulled her hand back.
She stepped away from the column, pretending she had lost interest.
“Oh… so there’s nothing here today too?”
She tilted her head.
“Hmm?”
Then, without warning, her hand swept sharply through the empty space beside her.
Nothing.
Veyra narrowed her eyes.
“That is strange…”
She looked around again.
“I’m sure something was here.”
She finally returned to the sofa and sat down.
“Am I going crazy from all this loss of dopamine?”
Across the room, four Shadow Guards remained hidden from sight.
One of them had been standing near the column.
The moment Veyra had approached, he had quietly moved away.
Unfortunately, she had turned at exactly the wrong moment.
He had barely managed to bend his body backward when her hand swept through the space where he had been standing.
He slowly straightened.
Then glanced toward another guard.
A quiet sigh escaped him.
The other guard moved deliberately.
Veyra’s head snapped toward him.
“You…”
She pointed accusingly at the empty air.
“You…”
“I know you’re there, so stop this!”
She crossed her arms.
“It’s really annoying.”
The four guards exchanged glances.
None of them answered.
Veyra’s eye twitched.
“If you don’t stop…”
She pointed at the air again.
“I swear I’ll make your life a hell.”
The guards remained silent.
They looked at her with unmistakable curiosity.
Apparently, they were waiting to see exactly how she intended to do that.
Veyra took their silence as encouragement.
“I will catch you and monitor you while you’re sleeping!”
Nothing.
“While you’re just breathing!”
Still nothing.
“I’ll make your life a hell!
You won’t be able to sleep, and you’ll be stuck in the same killing frustration as me!”
The guards stared at her.
Unimpressed.
Then one of them deliberately moved.
Another followed.
Veyra’s mouth twitched.
They were doing it on purpose.
Before Veyra could say anything else, the door opened.
Eryndor stepped into the room.
His eyes immediately drifted toward a particular spot in the room.
For the briefest moment, his expression was completely unimpressed.
The four Shadow Guards suddenly found the walls, ceiling, and floor far more interesting than their king.
Eryndor’s gaze lingered there for another second.
So this was what they had been doing.
He had known they were observing her, of course.
Apparently, at some point, observation had turned into entertainment.
His eyes shifted back to Veyra.
And just like that, the unimpressed look disappeared.
A smile spread across his face—the picture of innocence …
Like the most unharmful creature in the world …
Veyra noticed his smile getting a shiver …
Eryndor walked toward her and lightly tilted her chin upward with two fingers, making her look at him properly.
His other hand caught a loose strand of her hair, idly twirling it around his fingers.
He couldn’t deny it.
Her reactions were amusing.
Veyra stared at him suspiciously.
She narrowed her eyes.
“What now?!”
Her gaze lingered on his smile.
“Wipe that smile off your face.
You look more suspicious like this!!!”
His smile only widened.
Eryndor gave the strand of hair another lazy twist around his finger.
“I have a mission for my lovely guard~”
Veyra’s expression immediately darkened.
“You’re going to do it for me, aren’t you?”
Veyra narrowed her eyes at him.
“What is the mission?”
Eryndor’s smile remained.
“You will question the scouts we captured.”
“Oh!”
Her expression shifted into curiosity.
“You mean the twenty-five who were caught throughout the week?”
Eryndor’s eyes rested on her for a moment.
So she had been paying attention after all.
Veyra, meanwhile, began going through everything she had heard during the councils.
Twenty-five.
Not seven.
The seven scouts at the eastern border were only one group.
The others had been caught in different areas, scattered across the kingdom.
She had never realized how many there were.
“Yeah.”
Eryndor’s tone turned matter-of-fact.
“I will give you full authority over the matter.”
His smile faded slightly.
“You are free to do whatever is necessary to get answers from them.”
He paused.
“But you must keep at least five of them alive.”
Veyra stared at him.
Then one question came to mind.
“But how did they even enter the kingdom?”
Eryndor’s smile disappeared.
His eyes settled on her.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then his expression changed again.
Not the innocent smile from before.
This one was different.
Controlled.
Businesslike.
“You are going to do it for me, right?”
Veyra hesitated.
“O-Okay…”
She glanced at him uneasily.
“But stop looking at me like that.”
The businesslike expression vanished.
That innocent, harmless smile returned as if it had never left.
Veyra’s fingers twitched.
She was beginning to understand why she sometimes wanted to pull her own hair out around this man.
“Come.”
Eryndor turned toward the door.
A guard stepped forward.
Everything about him—from his dark uniform to the way he carried himself—marked him as someone of considerably higher rank than the ordinary guards.
He stopped before Eryndor and bowed his head slightly.
“Your Majesty.”
Eryndor glanced toward him.
“This is Raveth.”
Vaelen straightened.
“He will accompany you on this mission.
He has full authority over the matter as well.”
Veyra looked between the two of them.
Eryndor’s expression remained calm.
The prisoners had already been held for some time.
Twenty-five scouts.
And despite all that time, they had obtained almost nothing useful from them.
That number was no longer reassuring.
If anything, it was becoming increasingly troubling.
Vaelen was not merely there to accompany Veyra.
He had been given enough authority to use harsher methods if necessary—anything short of killing the prisoners outright.
Eryndor’s gaze shifted back to Veyra.
“I expect good results from both of you.”