Apply It Gently!
At the same time.
"Aghh..." Viola groaned as she stretched. The dark circles under her eyes had sunk all the way to her chin. She'd spent the entire night scraping together medical supplies from nearby fiefs and secretly forwarding them to the forward outpost, so she hadn't managed a proper night's sleep in days.
"His Highness is grinding my bones to dust. I can't tell if I'm earning money or selling off my lifespan."
Viola massaged her stiff neck and muttered to herself. She tidied the ledgers scattered across her desk, figuring things should be quiet for a while, and headed for the door to wash up and sleep.
Creak.
Just as she was about to close it, someone staggered through the gap.
"...Oh my!"
Viola flinched in surprise. In the doorway stood Kael, wrapped in a black robe and breathing hard.
"Your Highness? What happened to you? Did you pick a fight on the way here?"
"...Shut up. Just give me some medicine."
Kael groaned and collapsed onto the soft sofa in the secret room. Viola hurried over and pulled open his outer coat. Beneath the shirt soaked black with blood was a long, gaping red wound.
"Wow. You really took a solid slash. Still, why come all the way here in that condition? Isn't there a physician at the Grand Duchess's castle?"
"...Apparently not."
"Ugh, this is ridiculous. Take your clothes off first."
Viola clicked her tongue and examined the injury. "What kind of lunatic stabs the Empire's prince in the gut? Was it that Baron guy?"
"That pig. I cut his throat myself."
"How impressive."
Viola sighed. "By the way, Your Highness. As much as I hate to say it, I'm not exactly the kind of person you can just drop in on whenever you feel like it. Showing up like this is rude."
"I'm the prince. What's the problem?"
"Unbelievable. I should just stop talking."
Viola pressed her temples, then suddenly let out a small laugh as if something had occurred to her.
"Your Highness. Am I really your only friend?"
"......"
"Wait here. I'll get the first-aid kit."
A moment later Viola returned with a glass bottle of disinfectant, clean cloths, and ointment. Fortunately, though the wound was deep, it didn't require intricate treatment. If she applied the medicine properly and bandaged it tightly to stop the bleeding, he'd be back on his feet after a few days of rest.
"Haa, I was just about to wash up and sleep. What a night. Alright, Your Highness. This might sting a little. Bear with it."
Viola brought the cotton soaked in disinfectant toward his side.
Then—
"Aaaaargh!!!!"
Kael screamed at the top of his lungs.
"......"
Viola looked back and forth between her hand, frozen in midair, and Kael's face with an expression of utter disbelief.
"Your Highness."
"Wh-what? Why? Hurry up and put it on."
"I haven't even touched you yet?"
Viola's hand was still a good span away from the wound. Kael panicked. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away.
Viola let out a dry laugh, then pressed the disinfectant-soaked cotton firmly into the gash.
"Kyaaaagh! Hey! You crazy— Gently! Gently!!"
"Aigoo, look at our noble-blooded prince throwing such a tantrum."
When Kael began to thrash, Viola simply pinned his shoulder down with one hand and skillfully spread the ointment before wrapping the bandage. For a while, the secret room echoed only with Kael's groans and Viola's giggling.
"All done."
Viola neatly tied off the bandage and gave it a pat. Kael lay sprawled on the sofa, eyes even watering a little.
"Honestly, why go out of your way to get stabbed? You left that Knight Commander behind, didn't you? You could've just stayed put."
"...None of your business."
Viola looked at him and gave a small smile. She'd already guessed the reason. He was obviously creating an excuse. To avoid the imperial court's surveillance and help the North? Or was it to help the Grand Duchess?
Well, it didn't matter. She understood. And yet she couldn't understand.
Viola had spent her entire life struggling just to protect herself. She had always been far removed from anything resembling selflessness.
Eventually, Kael, blinking through his hazy consciousness, spoke quietly.
"Viola."
"What, you want painkillers? While we're at it, should I just knock you out completely?"
"That's not it..."
Kael stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes and asked, "The medicine... it reached Giselle safely, right?"
"......"
Viola's hands froze. The man who had just bled buckets from a stab wound and thrown every kind of tantrum over the sting of disinfectant had, the moment treatment ended, asked first about the well-being of the woman who treated him like the world's biggest piece of trash.
Viola gazed down at the hopeless man lying on the sofa with complicated eyes.
"Yes. It arrived completely safely."
"That's a relief..."
A faint smile spread across Kael's lips. As he slowly closed his eyes in relief, his face looked nothing like the infamous greatest playboy of the Empire.
Viola let out a small chuckle and gently pulled a thin blanket over him.
"Haa, what am I even doing right now?"
Though she grumbled, Viola's voice carried a strange warmth.
- By the time the morning sun had fully risen.
Giselle's warhorse, which had galloped through the blizzard all night, passed through the open main gates of the Grand Duchess's castle.
"......"
What spread before Giselle as she dismounted was a courtyard reeking of blood. Piled on the snow were the corpses of the private soldiers led by the northern rebel, Baron. And right in the middle of that mountain of bodies lay the fat, decapitated corpse of Baron himself.
"Your Excellency! You've returned safely!"
Knight Commander Hexion, who had been cleaning up the courtyard, rushed over and knelt.
"Report the situation. What are the casualties?"
"Thank the heavens, our knights suffered only minor losses. We detected Baron's forces just before they could seize the armory. From the vanguard to the main unit, we eliminated them all and suppressed the rebellion in its early stages."
"...Did you do this?"
At Giselle's question, a complex mix of emotions flickered across Hexion's face. It was the expression of a man who didn't know how to explain what he had witnessed.
"That is... No, Your Excellency. The one who noticed their movements first and took Baron's head was..."
Just as Hexion struggled to continue, a thoroughly annoyed voice drifted from the direction of the gates.
"Ugh, fuck. It's freezing."
Giselle and Hexion turned at the same time.
"......"
It was the Eighth Prince Kael, wrapped tightly in a black robe and staggering forward. His complexion was deathly pale and his steps unsteady. Yet he forced his back straight, desperately trying to maintain his usual arrogant posture.
Giselle's eyes narrowed. According to the messenger's report, this man had been at the center of the bloody incident inside the castle. So why was he appearing from outside this slaughterhouse? It was extremely suspicious.
"Where have you been?" Giselle asked in a low voice.
Kael, spotting her, seemed to flinch inwardly, but quickly curled his lips into a mocking smile.
"Where? This damn backwater castle doesn't even have a single decent physician. The medicine storage is completely empty too."
Kael waved his hand dismissively. "I, a prince of noble blood, was wounded, yet there wasn't a single person who could treat me. So I had to go all the way down to the fief myself to get medicine applied. Got it?"
"......"
"Seriously. How do you even manage your vassals? If I hadn't been here, those rats would've stolen the entire armory and opened the gates, wouldn't they?"
Kael kicked one of the corpses on the ground and added, "I even personally cleaned up the mess. You can't even say thank you? Instead you glare at me with those eyes?"
The same shameless, arrogant attitude as always. The infuriating way he claimed all the credit while disparaging the North. If it had been the usual Giselle, she would have gripped her sword hilt and silenced him immediately.
But Giselle said nothing. She simply walked straight toward him with heavy steps until she stood right before Kael.
At her sudden approach, Kael's eyes wavered.
"Wh-what? Why? Did I say something wrong? Where do you get off..."
The moment Kael instinctively tried to step back, Giselle's hand shot out and yanked open the front of his black coat.
"...!!"
Beneath the loosely fastened shirt, a white bandage was wrapped tightly around his side. But because he had pushed himself to walk here, the wound had reopened; blood had seeped through the white cloth and spread in a vivid red stain.
"......"
Giselle's red eyes trembled. It wasn't a fatal injury. But the fact that the person bleeding was none other than the Eighth Prince Kael was utterly shocking. The messenger's report had been true. The spy the imperial family had sent to devour the North had thrown his own body in the way of the rebel's blade aimed at the North.
Seeing the wound with her own eyes left her unbearably confused. Without realizing it, Giselle reached toward the blood-soaked bandage.
"This wound..."
Slap!
But just before her fingertips could touch it, Kael roughly knocked her hand away.
"Don't touch me."
Kael quickly pulled his coat closed again and looked down at her with the most disgusted expression in the world.
"Don't misunderstand."
He gave a dry laugh and whispered mockingly into her ear. "Did you think I protected this shitty castle because I thought you were pretty? Or because I felt sorry for the North?"
"......"
Seeing her eyes waver, Kael drove the nail in deeper. "Those rats squeaking and disturbing my sweet sleep at night were just really annoying. And since one of them dared to stab me in the gut, I got pissed and killed them. That's all."
Kael shoved past her with his shoulder and headed for the annex, carefully hiding his staggering steps.
Bang!
The sound of the annex door slamming echoed across the courtyard.
"......"
Giselle stared silently at her outstretched hand. The back of the hand he had brutally slapped away was flushed red.
'I just killed them because I was angry?' Was that really all?
The Empire's scoundrel. The Eighth Prince Kael. That would be more than enough reason for him. And yet...
Why had his retreating figure, so arrogantly held, looked far more precarious and desperate than her own after rolling through a blood-soaked battlefield?
"Hexion."
Giselle lowered her hand and called quietly.
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"Come to my office later. You will report every single thing that man did last night without omitting even the smallest detail."
So saying, Giselle stared at the door of the annex.