By Zephyria 
I stared blankly at Aegis before turning my gaze to the Amir family’s young master sprawled on the floor.
I couldn’t recall his name, but I distinctly remembered having a bad impression of him. Why did I think so poorly of him? What was it…? What…
“Ugh…”
Just as the memory seemed to surface, a faint groan reached my ears. The young master, who had been briefly knocked unconscious by the blow to the head, seemed to be regaining consciousness, his eyelids fluttering.
Upon seeing this, Aegis immediately searched for the copper vase he had discarded moments ago.
“Wait, just a moment.”
“Ugh…”
“Aegis, calm down for now…”
“You bitch…”
I was trying to stop Aegis, but the words that slipped out between his groans forced me to frown.
“Bitch?”
I turned my head to see the man, now awake and sitting on the floor, clutching his battered head. And the moment I saw him, it all came back to me.
This young brat was a slave collector who gathered women with fair skin.
“T-This matter will absolutely not be overlooked!”
At that disgusting voice, Aegis raised his arm without a word. I grabbed her wrist to stop her.
“Where does some weakling girl from a hostage country think she… Ugh!”
Clang!
The copper vase flew and struck the man’s head again. This time, it wasn’t Aegis who threw the vase, but me.
I picked up the vase, which had hit the man’s head, rolled across the floor, and stopped against the wall. Approaching him as he writhed and groaned, I asked,
“Hey, am I not visible in your eyes?”
“Ugh… Ugh.”
“Not visible?”
Clang!
“Agh! I see you! I can see you!”
After another hit, the man finally seemed to come to his senses, shrinking back as he answered. But the anger that had surged to the top of my head wouldn’t subside.
“Touch her? You touched her? You wanna die?”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Ack! K-Kyle, ack! Just a! Ack!”
“Just a what, you son of a bitch!”
As I slammed the vase down on his head, someone grabbed my wrist. I turned to see Aegis. Thinking she was trying to stop me, I frowned, but she handed me another vase, saying,
“Use this one.”
“What?”
“That one’s all dented.”
Looking at the vase I was holding, I saw that the side was caved in from how many times I had hit him.
“Kyle, Your Grace. I think there’s been a misunderstanding…”
I handed the dented vase to Aegis, took the new vase, and raised my arm again.
“Kyle, Your Grace!”
Clang!
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
The young master, bleeding from the head, was escorted out, unable to leave the castle on his own, carried away by people from his Duke’s family.
If I were just a year younger, I would never have let him go like this, but now I had to restrain myself. Still, I didn’t kill him, so isn’t that okay?
Aegis, who had been giving me pointers from beside me—telling me to hit him there, hit him here—while I was bashing the young master’s head in until the vase was dented, sat down in front of me with a relieved expression.
“That’s the most I’ve liked anything you’ve done so far.”
“…”
I had definitely felt relieved just a moment ago, but hearing Aegis, of all people, give me a thumbs-up and say I did well suddenly made me feel like I had done something terribly wrong.
Was I too harsh? Should I have been more lenient? He’s younger than me…
As I hesitated, Aegis suddenly stood up, picked up the dented copper vase, and began toying with it, her eyes filled with a melancholic air.
I watched as the sunlight streaming through the window touched her, scattering into fragments. As if sensing my gaze, Aegis looked at me.
The sight of her raising the corners of her lips and smiling as our eyes met was so excessively sacred and beautiful that I felt a pang of self-reproach.
“I should have hit him one more time.”
Watching Aegis place the vase she was holding on the table, I belatedly came to my senses and asked to understand the situation.
“But what do you mean by ‘touched’? Did he touch you?”
“He grabbed my hand.”
“…”
Aegis said it as if it were nothing, but I was dumbfounded. When she said “touched,” she really meant physical contact.
“Really?”
“Yeah. But what is this made of?”
Aegis asked, waving the dented vase she was holding in the air, making me dizzy.
“Why did he grab your hand?”
“I don’t know. Can’t we make something like a bat out of this?”
“Why would he do that, seriously? Did he not want to live?”
“Or maybe something small enough to carry in my pocket…”
I was truly unable to understand, so I pondered with a serious expression.
Since Aegis had come to this country almost as if she were sold as a hostage, other nobles could naturally look down on her. But that was only possible if Aegis had literally just been sold and brought here.
Even if she was a hostage, she had married me, a member of this country’s Imperial Family. How could they treat her so carelessly? This wasn’t just looking down on Aegis, it was practically ignoring me.
“Amir. Amir…”
I muttered the family name I had heard from the maid a moment ago a few times before recalling one fact: the Duke had a sickly son.
Fatima had told me that he had been frail since birth, so the Duke had raised him with great care, making him less mature than his age. Fatima had also told me the story about him only collecting slaves with fair skin.
I had beaten such a person until he bled and sent him back, so the Duke would come to find me with him as early as today, or at the latest, tomorrow.
“…”
Suddenly, Mahir’s words to me, that I lacked decorum, came to mind. When I heard him say that I had to maintain the dignity of a member of the Imperial Family, I had turned a deaf ear, but now I felt like I understood why Mahir had said that to me.
Until now, everyone had been afraid of me, so even if I lived as I pleased, my dignity was somehow maintained, but now, Actan had been experiencing an unprecedented period of peace for a long time, so…
As I was thinking that, my eyes met Aegis’s. It wasn’t that I was trying to look at her, but we just happened to make eye contact, and strangely, she didn’t avoid my gaze.
As I stared back with a puzzled expression, Aegis’s brow furrowed. She didn’t even blink, staring at me as if we were having a staring contest.
“…”
“…”
Is she really having a staring contest? What’s going on, all of a sudden?
I thought for a moment, then blinked once, just in case. Then, Aegis finally looked away.
“…”
She really was having a staring contest…
I was so dumbfounded that I forgot everything I had been thinking about until then. Then, something suddenly occurred to me, and I frowned as I asked,
“Were you doing that on purpose?”
“Doing what?”
Aegis blinked rapidly, as if her eyes were stinging from the staring contest, and retorted curtly.
“I told you to wear a veil when you meet other people.”
I couldn’t help but sigh. Seeing her like that, I belatedly understood why the young master had done such a crazy thing. It probably wasn’t that he was ignoring me or looking down on Aegis.
He had probably just come to say hello, but he lost his mind when he saw Aegis. Especially since that guy was a pervert who only collected women with fair skin, it must have been even harder for him to resist.
“Honestly, a veil isn’t enough for you. You should just cover yourself from head to toe. With something thick and draped like that carpet we wore when we got married.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. How am I supposed to wear something like that when it’s so hot? Or you wear it with me. Then I’ll wear it too.”
“…”
Does she not know what she looks like? Is that even possible? How could she not know? Does she not look in the mirror? Or are people who look like that common in Calderia?
As I was thinking all sorts of things, there was a sudden knock. Before I could even say to come in, the door opened and a maid approached with a pale face.
“What is it?”
“Kyle, Your Grace…”
“Why? What is it? Did someone else come? Tell them to come back later, I’m busy.”
I waved my hand to tell her to leave, but the maid suddenly said urgently,
“Your Majesty, he is looking for you.”
“What?”
“It is an imperial order to enter the palace immediately.”
“…”
It was like a bolt from the blue.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Unable to hide my nervousness, I trembled like a newborn calf as I earnestly pleaded with Aegis.
“You absolutely can’t talk back. If you act like you do with me, you and I will both die right there. Got it?”
“…”
“Don’t open your mouth first unless you’re spoken to, and if they ask you something, just answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ It’s unlikely, but don’t keep staring or anything like that. Especially! Especially! Absolutely no swearing! Never!”
“…”
“Even if you get angry, you have to hold it in. Don’t even clench your fists, just be like, ‘I am a stone.’ When you greet them, just follow what I do from behind me. Got it? Got it? Aegis, got it?”
Aegis nodded with a reluctant expression as I spoke urgently. But even that didn’t reassure me.
I finally understood Mahir’s feelings when he sent me to Sa Dillin.
“Aegis, please… Got it?”
“I got it.”
“Promise. Swear. Quickly.”
“…”
As I kept repeating the same words, Aegis’s patience seemed to reach its limit, and she took a deep breath. But perhaps because of my tearful expression, she sighed like a deflating balloon and closed her eyes.
“I promise.”
“Swear too.”
“I swear.”
Even her subdued words didn’t reassure me, but I couldn’t delay any longer. I swallowed hard and looked at Aegis, who had covered half of her face with a veil, before reaching out my hand.
“Let’s return safely.”
“…”
Whether she knew my desperate heart or not, Aegis looked at me with a pathetic gaze, but thankfully, she placed her hand on mine without complaint.
I held Aegis’s hand tightly and walked into the monster’s maw.