Vol. 10 Chapter 57.1 - The Uninvited Guest

I have seen Karpel deal with the assassins before. Though it’s from afar.

So it wasn’t that I didn’t know what Karpel had to do to deal with the assassins.

Nonetheless, I was taken aback.

‘Ah… I thought the Krenberia’s mansion was an impregnable fortress.’

I was shocked to find that there was an attempted assassin in my house.

Thalia told me that it was because of her that the assassin penetrated my house, as it had never happened before. But long before she was here, Karpel stayed here all this time.

It couldn’t have happened just today.

I simply had no idea.

Karpel could have done it all by himself.

I didn’t even know that and every day I just whined to Karpel to look back at me.

Come to think of it, Karpel sometimes looked strange.

The distance I noticed between us.

The wall between us that I couldn’t understand at all was due to my ignorance.

I knew Karpel was being threatened with his life, but it still didn’t feel real to me.

I thought Karpel would be safe if he was tied to Krenberia.

When I saw him deal with the assassin before, I thought it was because we were out of my territory, out of this mansion.

I even persuaded my father to hasten my engagement to Karpel, believing that doing so would not endanger Karpel’s safety any further.

But was Karpel the only one in danger?

Was the assassin who broke into the mansion only after Karpel?

What if my father and I were the assassin’s target as well?

Following my grandfather, my mother also died suddenly.

Was there really no attempt to kill the next successor?

The employees, servants and maids, were frequently changed.

I assumed it was because Father or Karpel had fired the spies, but what if all of those fired weren’t simply the enemy’s spies?

Things flashed through my mind one by one. Aside from employee attrition, there was a story that was always kept hidden. The story of someone who has gone missing or a family member who has been found guilty.

There is also a subtle atmosphere that hangs around the mansion.

Father, who hugged me like he was a fool and whispered several times that he was glad I was there. And Karpel, who shut himself away in his room without making a sound.

All I did at the time was become irritated by my father’s excessive affection or forcefully drag Karpel to the dining table.

Because those stories had nothing to do with me, I ignored them all, so none of them reached my ears directly.

But none of those stories were unrelated to me.

Even within my house, which I thought was secure, there was a war that I was unaware of.

Karpel, Shabellel, Elsyum, and so on. My idealism, in which I wanted to get close and build a relationship in order to reach a peaceful conclusion, seemed to be collapsing in an instant.

It was embarrassing for me, who kept complaining about how difficult it was to figure out what Karpel was thinking and how to prevent the invasion.

I was protected by a silky gold needle. All whilst, this place was already like a slaughterhouse.

Maybe Karpel saw people around him die one by one from the day the emperor came to see him on his tenth birthday, and he left the noose with all his might when his turn came.

I thought I knew, but I was wrong.

No, I turned a blind eye.

My enemy is the emperor.

The Emperor, Velthda Kruet Iverox.

I didn’t think I could even kill him, so I didn’t want to think of him as an enemy.

Because it’s scary.

I thought it would be safe to hide my fear and hatred of him even before I remembered my previous life.

So, blindfolded, I pleaded with Karpel to abandon his vengeance and instead love me, hoping that the emperor would take his eyes away from us.

Even after remembering my previous life, I took a step back and assumed Karpel would not take revenge.

It remained the same even after I realized the emperor’s goal was Krenberia.

I even told Karpel proudly that Krenberia was also the emperor’s target, so his cruelty and coldness to me were pointless, and I kept thinking that Krenberia’s problem was separate from Karpel’s.

Even though I was correct, the tragedy that will befall me is only beginning, so I never considered what was truly important.

But how could I comprehend Karpel?

Surviving alone was not enough to get out of the emperor’s claws.

If he survives one ordeal, another will follow.

All I needed was the will to kill. A determination to kill my adversary.

The weight of the sword, which I had held for fun today, seemed to remain in my cold hand.