Chapter 49

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“……Because I was sure you would never drink it if you knew.”

“…….”

Paris caught Shed urgently with trembling hands.

“My King.”

“Take it away.”

“…….”

“Does it mean that there would be no experiment if I didn’t drink it?”

”That’s not true, but ……. It could have been a little bit more groundbreaking. The Holy Land wants you back to safety faster….”

“Even if it’s eating away the body of the Princess?”

“…….”

Paris swept his hands across his somber face.

“The Emperor is a madman. One day he may change his mind and kill you …. Especially those eyes that will really go against the Emperor’s heart.”

Those strange eyes that Karzen del Harsa who had half the eyes of the heir could never have in his life.

How could he leave it alone?

“I told you to take it away.”

‘Master Shed……!”

Paris began to hang on.

“Please ……. Please think about the priests. You are caught like this and they haven’t been able to sleep properly. We are waiting for you to come back safely as soon as possible….!”

All of the people who entered the experiment were nobles or royalty from a country. They lost their families, homes, and loved ones in an instant because of Karzen.

Filled with vengeance, they were forced to crawl in and cling to the Holy Land. The Holy Land concluded that if the number of people Karzen killed exceeded the number of people born that year, they could no longer sit idly by.

So the experiment began.

“Isn’t the Princess the twin of that mad emperor anyway?”

Instantly, Paris’s mouth fell shut. Shed turned toward the door with sharp eyes. Someone was nearby. He noticed a beat late that the d*mn medicine he drank was stronger than he thought.

Raha had told him to meet the jeweler in the inner palace a few days before, and thanks to that, not a single person dared to come.

In other words, it meant that the people who could suddenly come here were extremely limited.

Shed got up and walked away. The moment he opened the tightly closed door.

Shed’s eyes inevitably shook.

“Raha…”

She was staring up at him. Those dark blue eyes. With those eyes that the emperor obviously couldn’t have and would covet until the day she died.

Raha walked quietly past Shed and went inside.

Then, looking at the pale-faced Paris, she said.

“I told you to adorn my slave with jewels, but did I tell you to adorn him with other intentions?”

“…….”

“You dare….”

“Ha, Princess……”

“Were you sent by the Holy Land?”

“……!”

Paris immediately knelt down. His arms trembled gingerly. Raha removed her gaze from him and stared at the medicine on the table.

One was empty and one was not.

Oddly colored potion.

Raha walked past the slumped and trembling Paris and sat down in the chair at the table. Sitting cross-legged comfortably, Raha tapped Paris’s arm with her shoe.

“Keep kneeling.”

“……Ha, Princess…I’m afraid…….”

Paris’s face was as pale as a corpse. Raha threw a glance at Shed, who until then had been towering like a giant tree. His expression was unknown.

It was that frequent blank expression.

“Is this a contraceptive?”

“No.”

“Then what kind of medicine is it?”

Paris’s body shuddered while listening to Raha’s voice. She didn’t even give Paris a glance, as if she wasn’t interested.

“Come closer.”

Just then, Raha gently beckoned to Shed. She grabbed Shedd’s wrists as he stood in front of her and pulled with effort as she spoke.

“Kneel down.”

Shed knelt silently and looked up at Raha. As if to say something, Raha, who opened her mouth a little, said nothing. She just looked down at Shed for a long time.

A long silence.

Then her hand slowly stroked his brow.

“I heard an interesting story the other day. They say your eyes are turquoise.”

Under the silver lashes, that color. Raha’s fingers pressed hard on Shed’s eyes. The light went out for a moment as the fragile skin pressed strongly against the cornea.

Raha slowly withdrew her hand.

“That’s a really interesting story, Shed. To my eyes, your eyes look blue-gray.”

Seeing his eyes reappear, Raha asked in a whisper.

“What are you hiding from me, Shed?”

The answer did not come back immediately.

But Raha was staring at Shed, and Shed was looking up at Raha as well.

Raha often thought the look in Shed’s eyes was deformed. So when he told a certain lie, she found it difficult to look long into Shed’s eyes.

She lowered her eyelashes.

“I see. I guess it’s not for me to know.”

“…….”

“You should be more careful, since you seem to be half-aware of me.”

“Raha.”

“It doesn’t matter. We aren’t married or lovers since the beginning.”

She smiled and stood up.

“It’s only a master-slave relationship. That’s all.”

“…….”

“I didn’t expect anything else. No.”

Raha chuckled. Her lips were smiling, but her eyes weren’t smiling one bit. Such a messed up expression. It was that kind of expression from the moment she was standing in front of this bedroom door.

“Even if I expected it, you broke it all.”

It was just that everything she had dreamed of was an illusion. As if it was one person who gave the illusion and he who woke her up, she laughed. Half of the empty smiles that seemed to wake up after walking from a dream for a long time were sincere. Raha got up from her seat.

“You shouldn’t have meant anything to me.”

“…….”

Shed’s expression was faintly twisted. However, Raha turned her head away heartlessly. Then she gestured to Paris, who looked pale and corpse-like.

“You come with me. Before I tear your limbs and drag them away.”

Paris barely got up, shivering. Before leaving the bedroom door, Shed, who had barely turned around, was still like a frozen old tree in his kneeling position.

* * *

Outside it was still snowing.

“Why did you dare say that?”

Paris said with a shudder.

“The Princess knows everything…certainly High Priest Amar said so….”

He said the Princess was also their helper. That person will help them a lot, so be honest and cooperate. Just keep this fact a secret from the others.

Yes. That’s why he didn’t tell Shed either. Shed probably didn’t know either.

But….

“Why are you hurting him so much…..” (Raha)

Paris could not understand the Princess at all as she walked quietly in front of him. She said as she walked without waiting for a reply.

“I want you to complete the experiment as soon as possible and take him away.”(Raha)

Paris gave a formless look. Yes, Shed would drink that medicine if Raha ordered him to. It’s better to take the suspicious drug and tell him it’s nothing than to let him know that all the intercourse was part of the experiment.

Even if the drug caused a high fever-like strain on the Princess’s body.

If she had any feelings for him, she would have to rip them off for the quick experiment. So it would have been a great way if the two had been emotionless pieces of wood.

But to Paris’s horror, they were both human.

Paris bit his lip as he recalled Shed’s expression earlier.

“…. Princess.”

“If I help this much, the Holy Land should show me their sincerity.”

“…….”

Paris’s expression sank like a dead man’s. The sufficient sincerity she was referring to was the fast success of the experiment.

She wanted them to destroy the eyes of the heir. To remove the protection of the Delo royal family.

The hatred this Princess has for the twin emperor and the anger for Del Harsa was greater and heavier than anyone imagined….

Paris could not say anything. He quietly bowed his head.

* * *

How much time had passed?

Raha sent Paris home. She did not forget to order enough blue jewelry and told the maid to pay for it.

It was still snowing outside.

Raha walked with a fast speed when she walked through the outer courtyard. Eventually, she ran to the inner courtyard. She knew Shed would be waiting.

Was it because she wanted to see him faster?

Or because she wanted to talk to him alone?

What was it?

Her steps, which were always filled with such anticipation, did not speed up this time. She felt inwardly strange that her steps were not faster, even though she was walking fast.

Come to think of it, before Shed was here, she always headed for the inner palace at such a slow speed.

With frozen hands, she opened the door to the inner palace and walked down the long hallway of the East Wing to open the bedroom door.

Her faithful slave was still kneeling. For a moment, she felt a foreign sensation rising to her neck then sank down. Slaves were supposed to be like that. It wasn’t wrong.

“…….”

She walked over to the bed and sat down. After sitting down with a thud, she finally opened her mouth.

“Get up and come here.”

Shed slowly got up. He must have been on his knees for almost an hour, but it was amazing that he didn’t stagger. Raha didn’t make eye contact with Shed as he walked towards her.

“Sit down.”

A heavy weight placed on the side of the bed. Raha said as she took off her shawl.

“I did not torture the jeweler.”

As usual, it was a calm tone that brought tears to his eyes.

“But he told me enough about the security of the Holy Land.”

“…….”

Even in the midst of all this, there were things that bothered her. How did Shed feel when he first learned that all this was an experiment?

Raha opened her mouth, pushing her strangely helpless heart far away.

“Since when have you been deceiving me?”