* * *
“Stepped out?”
“…Yes.”
Kaindel raised an eyebrow. Isa had never gone out without notifying him before, so this was concerning.
“Why wasn’t I informed earlier?”
“My apologies.”
“I’m not asking for an apology.”
No matter when Isa had left, there had been plenty of time to inform him while he was at the palace.
The journey by carriage would take at most two hours, and even sending a messenger pigeon would take no more than a few minutes.
The fact that he was only finding out now meant the butler had deliberately withheld the information.
Handing his cravat to the butler, Kaindel strode swiftly down the hall.
He planned to wait in Isa’s room until he returned—not patiently, of course.
“Summon Jerome,” he ordered.
Jerome was the knight Kaindel had assigned to guard and monitor Isa.
Quiet and reliable, Jerome would surely know where Isa was and what he was doing.
The knight appeared not long after, smelling of the outdoors.
Kneeling, he bowed respectfully before Kaindel.
“Jerome,” Kaindel began, picking up the newspaper on the table, “where is Isa?”
“He went to the city.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Was he with anyone there?”
“He went alone but met with Lord Sehir in the city.”
Kaindel processed Jerome’s report: Isa went to the city alone but was now with Sehir.
He tapped the newspaper against the table, irritation evident in his movements.
The odds of Isa and Sehir meeting by chance in a crowded place were low, and yet here they were.
Especially since Sehir had openly criticized Kaindel’s past actions of excluding Isa from the group of “heroes’ companions.”
Even though Isa had been under the influence of a strange drug at the time, Sehir had been visibly displeased with Kaindel’s repeated delays in resolving the issue.
Kaindel pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, glaring at the newspaper in his hand.
“Understood. Return to your post,” he said curtly.
Jerome saluted before retreating, careful not to turn his back to Kaindel.
Once the knight was gone, Kaindel gripped the newspaper tightly and let out a long sigh.
“Ha…”
Isa, Kerelona, Heron, the king, the newspaper—all these names and events swirled in Kaindel’s mind, their connections unclear.
The frustration only grew.
“Damn it.”
Even after removing his cravat, he felt suffocated.
Everything seemed to be slipping through his fingers like grains of sand, leaving him feeling powerless and small.
As Kaindel stared at the newspaper in quiet contemplation, he suddenly noticed Isa running toward him.
Seeing him, panting and rushing to his side, Kaindel couldn’t help but smile.
“You ran all the way here? You could’ve just walked.”
“You… ha, you were afraid I might wait for you.”
“My lover is truly, so kind.”
So kind that he’d let himself fall victim to something like that drug.
Kaindel pressed down the sharp words that nearly escaped his tongue.
At the same time, the scent of roses from the shattered perfume bottle of Kerelona that he had broken still clogged his nose.
The anger that had been building against the princess who failed to uphold her end of their deal and the king who spread rumors without consent began to ebb away.
“Did you enjoy your outing?”
Kaindel eventually pulled the corners of his lips into a smile as he looked at Isa.
In any case, he was back now, and that was enough.
The matter of him leaving without a word could be addressed later.
“Haa…”
A faint light seeped through the dense darkness.
His consciousness, adrift in a distant space, gradually returned.
“Ha… ugh…”
The underside of his back, pressed against the bed, was damp.
His clothes were soaked as if he’d been running for a long time.
It seemed he had been tossing and turning in his sleep, breaking into a sweat.
Kaindel exhaled and swallowed several ragged breaths before his eyes snapped open.
As the remnants of sleep faded, a tangible sense of reality settled into his mind.
For some reason, his mouth tasted bitter, as if he’d consumed something foul in his dreams.
Staring at the ceiling for a moment, Kaindel slowly propped himself up.
His sweat-soaked hair clung to his forehead, and as he brushed it back, he felt a slight sense of relief.
He then ran his hand over his face.
…Come to think of it, it wasn’t that dream today.
The memory of today’s dream surfaced in his mind.
It vividly replayed the moment he welcomed Isa back after hearing through the papers about his supposed marriage to Kerelona.
It was the day after.
Usually, his dreams involved chasing after Isa as he disappeared into the darkness, but for some reason, this time, an old memory had come to visit instead.
“Ugh, my head…”
Lost in thought about the dream—neither particularly good nor bad—Kaindel furrowed his brows at the familiar throb in his head.
Lately, even without smelling perfume, he would experience sudden headaches whenever his mind went blank.
It happened while working, eating, conversing, or even reading—a relentless interference that disrupted his daily life.
Still…
“I need to get up.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Kaindel got out of bed.
The air that greeted him felt chillier than the night before.
The fire in the hearth had long since died out.
Tossing a few logs into the fireplace, Kaindel moved to the window and gazed at the snow-laden garden below.
Spring had passed, summer had come and gone, and now winter was here.
It meant that nearly a year had passed since Isa vanished.
“….”
Kaindel leaned against the wall and glanced at the bell cord.
Pulling it would summon the maids, who’d bring in a basin of water and towels and ask what he wanted for breakfast.
The same morning ritual as always.
A day no different from any other would begin again.
Yet, perhaps because of the dream, his stomach churned uneasily.
It was in spring—on the day of the kingdom’s founding festival when they returned from the temple—that he had asked Isa not to abandon him.
That night, he’d even considered revealing the deal he’d struck with Kerelona.
Originally, he’d planned to stop helping her, but the thought of ending everything more quickly had changed his mind.
However, with the news of their “marriage” spreading faster than expected, he had agreed with Kerelona to move the plan forward.
Still, seeing how weary Isa looked that night, he couldn’t bring himself to speak and resolved to tell him the next day.
By then, Isa had disappeared.
At first, Kaindel thought he had merely gone out.
Jerome had reported seeing a man resembling Isa boarding a carriage bound for the city.
But the man, though similar in appearance, wasn’t Isa—not even his hair was silver.
When Jerome realized the mistake, Kaindel immediately deployed knights to search for him.
He couldn’t understand how Isa had slipped past Jerome, but surely, he couldn’t elude the knights as well.
While continuing with the princess’s plans, Kaindel quietly searched for Isa.
Yet after a week of searching, not a single trace—not even a strand of hair—was found. It was as if Isa had vanished into thin air.
The longer the search yielded nothing, the more Kaindel’s patience wore thin.
When it was finally confirmed that Isa was no longer in the capital—
“Find him. Now.”
Kaindel, having lost all composure, earned himself the rumors of having gone mad.
* * *
