She's My Fiancée!
"Your Highness the Prince."
The man named Jork spoke while still kneeling on one knee. "Please forgive this sudden rudeness."
"......"
"After Your Highness went missing during your tour of the territories, the imperial capital has been thrown into chaos."
My head felt like it was going to split open. The spot where the club had struck me was still throbbing.
"Ugh..."
I pressed a hand to the pain and listened to what the man had to say.
"His Majesty the Emperor ordered a personal search. It has been one full week since Your Highness disappeared."
One week. So that was how long I had been in this village. It had already come to that.
The dawn when I first woke up with my hands and feet bound felt impossibly distant now.
"A wanted notice has been issued across the entire empire. Knights have been dispatched to every border territory. Our Maryeokche followed Your Highness's trail all the way here."
"......"
"Many people are worried about Your Highness's well-being. His Majesty has not been able to sleep."
Even while I listened, my mind was completely occupied by something else. The capital, the emperor, the wanted order—none of it mattered. The only thing my eyes could focus on right now was one single sight.
Across the campfire. Era, frozen in place with a kitchen knife in her grip.
Jork rose slowly and looked around. Me sitting on the ground. The thirty villagers encircling me. And the black-haired girl clutching a kitchen knife. His gaze grew ice-cold, as if he were piecing every detail together in his head.
"...Judging by the situation."
"......"
"It appears the people of this village kidnapped Your Highness and intended to harm you."
"Keeping you bound, dragging you out to the plains in the middle of the night, and even someone holding a weapon."
Jork slowly scanned the villagers. Their doll-like faces, sitting there and staring blankly into the fire.
"This is a serious crime involving the entire village. The crime of abducting a member of the imperial family. A crime punishable by the extermination of the entire clan."
"...!"
The villagers were all innocent people who had been manipulated and dragged here.
"These individuals will be escorted to the capital and dealt with accordingly."
Then Jork slowly turned his eyes toward Era.
"And. Most likely—"
The moment his gaze landed on the kitchen knife in her hand.
"-Tsk!!"
Era moved. She flung the knife away and sprinted toward me, hoisting me onto her back.
"...!"
"E-Era?!"
She shoved aside the villagers' hands, slipping through the gaps between their sluggish, manipulated bodies. With me on her small frame, she tried to dash into the darkness. A petite girl carrying a full-grown man. Without any idea where she was going. Only trying to get away from this place.
But in an instant—black-coated shadows closed in around her, as if they had anticipated it from the start. Without a single gap.
And then.
Thud.
"...Ugh!"
Era was subdued in the blink of an eye.
"Oof..."
I naturally rolled off her back and hit the dirt. My shoulder slammed against the ground.
"Ugh!"
"...Your Highness!"
Era, pinned to the ground, stretched her hand toward me. Scratching at the dirt with her nails. The knights twisted her wrist and pressed it down so she couldn't reach me.
"...Ugh! Your Highness...!"
Era struggled with everything she had. But a commoner girl could never overpower the elite of the Maryeokche. The sturdy knots that had kept me bound for days. That determined strength. The power that had held the entire village in the palm of her hand. None of it mattered now.
Jork looked down at the scene with cold eyes.
"...This witch."
"She appears to be the mastermind."
I lay on the ground, head spinning. Panic surged through me, but even then my mind raced like crazy.
How do I save Era?
Wait. She literally just tried to hurt me. She was about to slice my Achilles tendon...
Still... still, she's Era.
But what if the Era I thought was a good girl isn't real? She's been manipulating the villagers' minds completely.
No... that's not the issue right now. How do I send the Maryeokche away and keep Era alive?
Let's keep her alive first. I can figure out the rest later...
Thoughts chained into more thoughts. Dozens of paths opened in my head only to slam shut one by one.
The Maryeokche had come to rescue the prince. The villagers would be arrested as kidnappers.
"..."
And Era, both the mastermind and a Black Star Vein user, would have her head cut off on the spot without even being allowed a single excuse.
A way. Was there a way? A way...
......There is.
In that instant, something occurred to me. I bit my lip.
There's only one way.
But it was far too extreme. Too dangerous. The kind of method that would bind me for the rest of my life.
Do I really have to do this?
I slowly pushed myself up. My head spun, but I forced myself to stay upright. If I collapsed here, it was over.
A Maryeokche agent tried to support me.
"Your Highness, please don't overexert yourself—"
"...It's fine."
I brushed his hand away. Then, as if I had made up my mind, I spoke.
"...No."
"...?"
"This child didn't harm me."
Jork froze where he stood.
"...Your Highness?"
"She didn't kidnap me, either."
Word by word. Jork's expression shifted slightly.
"...Then."
He asked slowly.
"What exactly is this situation?"
A prince with clear marks of having been bound. A discarded kitchen knife. A campfire on the plains in the middle of the night. Surrounding villagers. To anyone, it looked exactly like a kidnapping scene.
I hesitated for a moment, then said,
"...The villagers."
"They were celebrating my visit to this village."
"...They simply threw a party."
"......"
Jork mulled over the words. A campfire in the middle of the plains. The middle of the night. A discarded knife. A bound prince. This was a party?
His eyes grew even colder.
"...A party, you say."
"...Yes."
I pushed forward shamelessly. "When a member of the imperial family visits the borderlands, isn't it natural for the village to hold a welcome banquet?"
"If it was a welcome banquet, why was Your Highness tied up?"
"......"
It was a sharp question. I paused briefly before answering.
"It's entertainment. A local custom of the borderlands. They tie up honored guests and serve them drinks and food."
It was complete nonsense. But the borderlands were vast, and Jork couldn't possibly know every custom. It would serve as a temporary excuse.
Jork remained silent for a moment, then probed from another angle.
"...Then who is this girl?"
Jork pointed at the subdued Era. The black-haired girl who had been holding the knife.
At those words, I—
"...This girl is—"
I knew I just had to say what I'd thought of earlier. But.
Do I really have to do this? This?
It was such an absurd method that the words wouldn't leave my mouth.
"...This girl is—"
My tongue stuck. While I hesitated, Jork's expression hardened further. The prince stuttering in front of a girl suspected of having Black Star Veins. To someone like Jork, that was far too obvious a sign.
"...Your Highness."
Jork spoke slowly.
"...Is it possible."
"......"
"...that you are currently being controlled?"
"...!"
Mental manipulation by Black Star Veins. The thing the Maryeokche feared most in the world.
Jork pulled something from his coat. It was a small crystal fragment. No bigger than a fingernail, with a dark sheen.
Fragment of a shattered star piece, hardened.
Disrupts the flow of all Star Veins.
"This is Star Dust."
He held it out to me. "It will scatter the flow of any Star Veins. If you hold this while speaking, you will not be affected by any manipulation."
I looked at the black fragment resting in my palm.
Damn it.
I understood exactly what this meant. Holding it and speaking would mean my words were unaffected by mental manipulation. In other words, whatever I said while holding it would be my own pure will, not something forced by another.
And that means it's entirely my responsibility.
If I lied, it wouldn't be the nonsense of a manipulated prince. It would be the truth spoken by a sane prince of his own free will.
But in that moment, Jork drew his sword with his other hand.
Shing—
He pressed the blade against Era's throat.
"While Your Highness speaks the truth, I will prepare for any contingency."
The cold blade touched Era's slender neck.
"This girl is dangerous, after all."
Jork looked at me, waiting for an answer.
"..."
At that instant.
"Hic—"
Was Era... crying?
"Hic... Sob..."
Tears streamed down Era's face.
"...Hic."
With a look of complete resignation, she closed her eyes while the tears continued to fall.
That face that always smiled at me.
With a blade at her throat. Crying. As if she had known this would happen. As if her fate had only ever been meant to end here.
The words Era had said to me earlier flashed through my mind.
"Living and dying here like this must be the fate the gods gave me."
Even in this moment, Era wasn't resenting her fate. She was accepting that her death was simply natural.
She didn't beg for help. She didn't ask to be saved. Not a single word.
That. That resignation. It drove me even crazier.
Fuck.
I looked down at the Star Dust.
Fuck. Era's about to die.
If I held this and told the truth, Era would die. If I held this and lied, that lie would bind me for the rest of my life. It would become an even greater crime—protecting a Black Star Vein user.
What the hell am I even hesitating for?
It was an insane method, but there was nothing to weigh. Standing here measuring the scales in front of that tear-streaked, closed-eyed face felt more pathetic than anything.
Compared to Era dying...
A thousand times. Ten thousand times better.
I reached out and gripped the Star Dust Jork had offered.
"Ugh..."
The black crystal dug coldly into my palm. A chilling sensation piercing my flesh.
This was now an irreversible choice.
"Hoo..."
I took one deep breath and shouted at the top of my lungs.
Silence blanketed the plains. The only sound that broke it was the crackle of the campfire.
"...? What??"
Jork froze, sword still raised.
"...Your Highness?"
The knights in black coats all stiffened at once. Even the captured villagers, despite being manipulated, looked at me with confused expressions.
And then.
Era slowly opened her eyes. With the blade still at her throat and tears brimming in her eyes.
"..."
She looked at me.
"...Yes?"
"..."
Her face said she couldn't believe her own ears. As if she were doubting whether she had really heard what she thought she heard.
She must have been shocked. It's okay. You won't have to cry anymore.
"You look best when you're smiling."