By Zephyria 
I blankly stared at the agitated Aegis, who seemed to have lost his mind for a moment, and told him a white lie.
“I was up all night then, too… and I lost so much blood that I don’t remember much. It’s all just a blur…”
Aegis’s crimson eyes gleamed as I vividly recalled his tear-streaked face right in front of me. The sight was so shocking that I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to forget it for quite some time.
“Don’t lie!”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“…”
“Seriously, I’m exhausted… Ugh.”
I sighed deeply, latched the window, and drew the curtains.
“You don’t remember?”
Aegis asked with a suspicious tone. I nodded, maintaining a blank expression.
“…”
“…”
“You don’t remember?”
“Barely.”
“…”
His voice was filled with desperation. Of course, I vividly remembered everything from that moment – his expressions, his eyes, everything.
“You weren’t in your right mind either. You would never have done that if you were. And I was so shocked then… You saw the dead people when you woke up, right?”
Aegis nodded slightly at my question.
“Do you know how much I suffered trying to save you from those people who were trying to kill you? You fell into the water, and I even went into the water to pull you out.”
“…”
“Anyway, when I pulled you out, you weren’t breathing, so I took off your clothes. They were wet and clinging to your body. I thought maybe you couldn’t breathe because of that…”
I diverted the conversation while simultaneously defending my actions. Aegis, who had been looking at me with an anxious expression, flinched. He seemed to remember that I had realized he was a man.
“Anyway, that’s that.”
“…”
There were so many things I wanted to ask Aegis. Why did he drink my blood? What was the intention of the Servant he brought with him in kidnapping him? What instructions did he receive from the kingdom to marry me, and was he in league with them?
“Who are you?”
“…”
But the first thing I had to ask was this.
“You’re not the princess.”
“…”
“The real Aegis…”
I paused, about to ask what his relationship was with the real Princess Aegis. Come to think of it, if Aegis wasn’t the real Princess Aegis, then of course his name wouldn’t be Aegis either.
I decided to start with introductions for the sake of smooth conversation.
“What’s your real name?”
“…”
“And how old are you? You’re not nineteen, are you? I thought you looked too young from the first time I saw you.”
In fact, Aegis looked younger than nineteen to anyone, though his unbelievably shocking appearance often obscured that fact.
I was sure I had thought he looked young at first, but every time I saw his absurd face, which made me want to laugh in disbelief, I never had time to think about anything else.
“How old are you?”
“…”
I asked again, but Aegis didn’t say anything. He looked like he was debating whether to speak or not. Seeing his confused face, I sighed and said,
“I’m telling you this because you don’t seem to understand what kind of situation you’re in right now, but you’re in real trouble.”
“…”
“Not just a little bit of trouble, but a whole lot of trouble.”
“…”
Aegis didn’t seem too surprised even at the vulgar language. Could it be that he really wasn’t royalty because he couldn’t read? As I was thinking that, Aegis, who had been looking down, glanced up at me.
“Twelve…”
“What?”
“Twelve years old.”
“…”
At the small, mumbled words, I stared blankly at Aegis before asking again,
“How old did you say?”
“Twelve.”
“Twelve years old?”
“Yes, how many times do I have to say it?”
“You’ve only been alive for ten years?”
“Twelve years!”
“…”
Aegis raised his voice irritably, but I didn’t hear a word of it. My mind was replaying the scene of me genuinely arguing with a child who had only been alive for about ten years.
Twelve years old? Twelve years old?
Was he really that young? I thought his behavior was childish, but really…
What on earth had I been doing with this kid? As the memories of fighting, stopping him, and causing chaos flashed through my mind like a dying man’s life, my vision blurred. Unable to support myself, I collapsed onto the bed.
“He’s just a kid…”
And I was… seriously fighting with such a young child…
As I laughed in self-disgust, Aegis, who had been watching me, flared up.
“What’s the big deal about a few years? Who are you calling a kid?”
“…”
If I hadn’t heard that he was twelve years old, I would have retorted, but I couldn’t now. Looking at his flustered expression, it seemed so childish that I had to search my memory to see what I had done to him and whether I had said anything bad.
“Then you’re a kid too. There’s only a four-year difference.”
“…”
I would have normally thought that he was just grumpy because of his bad personality, but knowing his age, it was as childish as it could be.
I got up from the bed, smoothed out my wrinkled clothes, and said calmly,
“It’s different that there’s a four-year difference between you and me and that you’re twelve years old.”
“What’s different?”
“That you… that you’ve only been alive for twelve years.”
“What about you? You’ve only been alive for sixteen years.”
This was a problem. Now, no matter what Aegis said, he just looked like a child. Suddenly, my head was spinning, so I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and asked,
“Who told you to do this?”
“…”
Aegis, who had been chattering away just a moment ago, closed his mouth tightly again. I was about to ask if he was doing it against his will, but I changed my mind because it seemed too much like an interrogation.
“Take a shower first. Let’s eat something after you shower and talk again. Oh, and your injuries…”
I reached out to grab Aegis’s arm, which he had scratched up, but stopped. The black string-like Sealing Magic was still wrapped around his white, slender arm, but the scratches on it had all disappeared.
“What?”
“What is it?”
“Where did all the scratches on your arm go?”
When I asked with wide eyes, Aegis looked down with a puzzled expression. Then, he looked at his arm and was as startled as I had been.
“You didn’t know either? Could it be because of the blood…”
I stopped there, realizing I had said too much. As if he had remembered something he had barely forgotten, Aegis’s expression twisted terribly. His clenched fist, with bones protruding, trembled, so I quickly changed the subject.
“You still haven’t told me your name.”
“Why do you need to know?”
“I can’t keep calling you Aegis. You’re not a princess, and you’re not a woman.”
“…”
Aegis glared at me with narrowed eyes.
Aegis had often just glared at me without answering my questions before. Now that I thought about it, he wasn’t angry, but just scared because he didn’t know what to do in an unfamiliar situation.
I wanted to let him rest for a few days, but the situation didn’t allow it. I had no choice but to resume the interrogation disguised as questions.
“Who are you?”
I asked again, but Aegis still didn’t open his mouth easily.
“Tell me your name first. Your name.”
“…”
“I don’t know enough about you right now. Except that you’re a boy and that you’re twelve years old.”
“…”
I asked a few more trivial questions after that, but Aegis didn’t say a word, his lips sealed shut.
I didn’t want to say these things, but I couldn’t just wait, so I had no choice but to tell him about the ending that would come if this situation continued.
“The coroner is looking at the dead bodies in the secret passage. He’ll soon realize that they’re your Servants. Then, to find out the truth of the matter, he’ll naturally call you, but can you handle that alone?”
“…”
“It was almost a forced marriage, but anyway, outwardly, the purpose of this marriage is friendship between the two countries. But one of the Servants you brought tried to kill you. Even someone with half a brain would think, what?”
“…”
Aegis blinked slowly at my question. It wasn’t a question I expected an answer to, so I continued.
“They’ll think Calderia was trying to gain a pretext.”
“…What pretext?”
Aegis, who had been silent for a long time, asked in a small voice. Looking at his anxious face, I sighed.
“Whatever it is. The princess who came to get married was found dead as soon as she arrived, so they can’t ask to send another princess. They might have been aiming for that, or they might have needed a pretext for war.”
“…”
As I watched Aegis’s lips move as if he was about to say something, I recalled the first time I saw Mahir a long time ago. A long time ago, when I was much younger than Aegis, the day Mahir came to see me after returning from the battlefield.
“I hate war.”
“…”
“So, if you keep saying nothing, I’m going to kill all the Calderian people you brought with you in preparation for any possible situation.”
At my words, Aegis suddenly raised his head and looked at me.
“Then you won’t die, so Calderia won’t be able to create any pretext.”
“…”
“Of course, war might not be the goal. But I don’t want to take the risk just because it might not be. And there’s no particular reason not to kill the Servants and Jade you brought with you.”
Aegis, who had been looking at me with anxious, trembling eyes, clenched his fists and shouted,
“Why kill those people? They didn’t do anything wrong!”
“No one knew you were kidnapped in my castle. Not the knights who came to protect you, not the Servants.”
“Then the guards who were guarding your castle are the same!”
“That’s right. So, I’m going to kill all the people who were on guard duty last night for dereliction of duty.”
As I sighed and spoke, Aegis’s expression was filled with shock.