31

He was described as a pretty boy. Some said he gave the impression of a small puppy. Fabian didn’t mind such comments about himself. If prettiness was a type of beauty, then there was no reason such words should be negative for a man.

But that didn’t mean Fabian looked weak. Though he was thin enough that his bones could be felt, he was tall and his natural build wasn’t bad. He had no interest in training his body, so he lacked muscles like Divlik or his brother Joseph, but instead, Fabian suffocated Eva in a completely different way.

“It just wasn’t today. You’ve been in that man’s bedroom, haven’t you? Right?”

In that moment, the focus in Fabian’s eyes twisted unevenly.

The reason Eva couldn’t even breathe properly in front of Fabian, let alone speak, and avoided his eyes was because of this crazed face he revealed whenever something displeased him.

It was a distortion that appeared when common sense and reason didn’t apply, when he closed his eyes and ears, intoxicated solely by his emotions—it was Fabian’s evil nature itself, which Eva could never accept no matter how much she tried to open her heart.

Fabian reached out, grabbed the back of Eva’s head, and thrust his face in front of hers until she could feel his breath.

“They say the conqueror is like a beast. So, did you prefer that beast-like man’s embrace to a weakling like me? Did you?”

His green eyes with their misaligned focus moved back and forth within his horizontally stretched eyelids, revealing his persistence not to miss even a single expression that might appear on Eva’s face. Eva tightly closed her eyes, anticipating what would happen next, and Fabian covered her lips with his own.

“Mmph!”

Roughly pressing his lips over Eva’s, Fabian made obscene smacking sounds as he devoured her lips with all his might. Then he laid Eva back down on the bed, climbed on top of her, and said,

“I’ll have to teach you again. Which man you belong to, Eva.”

In one motion, he pulled down Eva’s nightgown straps, exposing her upper body. As Eva trembled helplessly, unable to resist due to the fear engraved in her body:

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Just as Eva registered the knocking sound, the door opened. The person opened the door without Eva’s permission but didn’t enter.

“I remembered something I forgot to tell you, former empress.”

Even if Divlik hadn’t spoken, Eva would have known who was standing in the darkness. Divlik’s presence couldn’t be hidden by darkness.

“Yes, Lord Divlik. Please speak.”

Eva exhaled her held breath as she answered.

“Your voice sounds hoarse…… Were you crying? So you are a person who cries too.”

Fabian also realized who was at the door without hearing the name. With a terrified face, he stared into the darkness, moving away from Eva with an obvious expression of trying to figure out how to escape. Eva had no time to pay attention to Fabian. If this scene were discovered, she might be suspected of conspiring with Fabian.

“If you try to escape this situation by running away or taking your own life, whether you succeed or fail, I will kill your people—remember that.”

“That won’t happen, Lord Divlik.”

Eva turned her eyes toward the invisible Divlik as she answered, and a sigh flowed from Divlik in the darkness at her response. After a long silence, when she thought he might have left, Divlik asked once more from the darkness,

“Do you…… worship God?”

In the Bern continent, where not worshipping God would immediately brand one a heretic, Divlik asked as if worshipping God was something extraordinarily strange and peculiar.

“……Yes, I do.”

At Eva’s answer, Divlik made no sound, but Eva thought she heard him laugh. Not mockingly or in disbelief, but an empty, hollow laugh.

Meanwhile, Fabian, who had backed toward the fireplace, had disappeared again without any explanation to Eva. His claim about risking his life to come get her ended there. At Divlik’s appearance, Fabian vanished without even thinking of fighting, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Eva wasn’t surprised. That was the kind of man Fabian was. Endlessly weak before the strong and endlessly strong before the weak.

“At least I don’t have to worry about you taking your own life.”

Divlik seemed to know that for believers, suicide was unthinkable. Somehow feeling reassured by his use of the word “worry,” Eva asked, knowing it was absurd,

“Were you worried…… that I might take my own life?”

“Did it sound like worry? Well…… yes. If it was worry, then it was worry. If you disappeared after I had given you a deadline, how could I sleep from the regret?”

Yes. That must be it. Worry is something you feel only for someone you care about.

“If you worship God, do you also pray?”

“Yes, I do.”

If he intended to continue the conversation, he could have come inside, but Divlik, perhaps accustomed to darkness, continued speaking from beyond the door where not even moonlight reached.

Eva’s gaze, which had been directed at the door, silently turned toward the window. Though it couldn’t compare to the “Day of the Moon,” today too, a large moon shone brilliantly in a cloudless sky.

Prayer. The content of her prayers varied from time to time, but since leaving her homeland, Eva had offered only one prayer without fail.

“Do you still pray after my appearance?”

Divlik added another question in the silence.

“Yes. Every day without fail.”

“Until I conquered the castle, you must have prayed for the imperial army to win this war. But what a pity. That prayer wasn’t answered.”

Divlik said it was unfortunate. That he had become the opposite response to that prayer. Sitting on the bed, Eva gently stretched her body as if leaning against the air, and facing the blue moon, she gave a confident answer:

“No, Lord Divlik.”

It would be ridiculous for someone who was an empress not to pray for the empire, but Eva had never offered such prayers. She had only wished for the war to end quickly so fewer people would die or get hurt.

The one prayer she never let go of, even in her dreams.

“My prayer was answered.”

That prayer was answered the moment she had given up hope. In a completely unexpected way.

* * *

There would be no deaths in this castle. Thanks to Eva firmly instructing Hannah to keep quiet and pleading with her almost desperately not to hear any more about the embroidery, daily life in the castle flowed peacefully.

“Lady Eva. Your hands are a mess. If the deadline is too tight, why don’t you ask for more time?”

In her hurry, her hands became increasingly damaged, and as she had to redo sections when the pattern became distorted, a vicious cycle of making no progress repeated, but Eva did her best.

“You’re embroidering today too, former empress.”

“By whose order? I’m working hard to meet the deadline.”

She deliberately went out to places where he could see her. Instead of saying from the start that she couldn’t do it, she thought that if she was always seen embroidering in conspicuous places, even if she couldn’t complete it by the deadline, he might understand her sincerity.

During the day, Eva always sought the shade of the newly planted large trees, and each time, she could encounter Divlik.

“Lady Eva. Today you should leave your bedroom early.”

“Is something happening today?”

“Spring Day is coming soon. We’re planning to do a thorough cleaning.”

“I see.”

Regardless of Eva’s anxious heart, the days grew warmer with each passing day. Today, at the small stream on the west side of the castle, formed by water flowing down from the northern mountains, the castle maids had set up and were busily moving about. As the weather suddenly cleared compared to before, the spring cleaning had begun, and all the fabrics in the castle had been brought out.

“Step on it properly over there! How do you expect the dirt to come out?”

“I’m working hard!”

Thin pillowcases and small blankets were washed by hand, sitting by the stream and soaking them in water, but bulky items like comforters and bed sheets were placed in large wooden tubs and trampled by several people working in pairs.

The laundry area overflowed with the maids’ laughter and vitality, making it hard to believe this castle had recently been conquered by an invader, as they seemed to enjoy holding hands and trampling the laundry on such a sunny day.

“Lady Eva, how did you come all the way here?”

“You’re working hard, Jane.”

Jane, who had been busily giving instructions to the maids at the laundry area, greeted Eva, who appeared with Hannah carrying bedding from her bedroom. Jane was the oldest among the cleaning maids and was also responsible for managing them.

“I thought a festival had broken out. It looks nice. It feels like spring has already arrived.”

Eva’s face broke into a rare worry-free smile, finding the young maids adorable as they chatted and laughed over trivial matters. It was fortunate she had told Hannah not to tell anyone that there was nothing to worry about. Otherwise, no one would be laughing like this now.

“Everyone seems to be working happily because the weather is so nice.”

“It would be good if the same work could always be done this way. But do the people here have to do all this laundry?”

There were barely ten maids, including those sitting by the distant stream. Eva, who was looking around at the maids in the laundry area with Jane, asked Jane with concern, seeing the mountain of laundry compared to the few maids.

“Many maids quit and left before the castle fell, so we have fewer hands. But the children who remained here are working so hard that there’s no need to worry.”

Jane smiled, saying it was fine, but Eva rolled up her sleeves and offered to help. Though her mind was urgent with thoughts of completing the embroidery, she couldn’t ignore this either.

“I’ll help too.”