“Yes. What you’re thinking is exactly right. Heka, this beautiful person has usurped both the body and heart of our twins…”
“No, Titi. First, we should tell them about our fateful meeting.”
“Why, why are there two of you? If I silence one, the other immediately starts talking…!”
So this was the accident Heka mentioned. Watching the three people bickering, Cayden finally understood. He was careful not to gape stupidly.
“Don’t talk nonsense in front of His Highness the Crown Princess.”
“Nonsense? You’re going to marry us anyway. Stop pretending.”
“W-what?”
“An omega with two alphas! You’ll become a unique existence in the empire. How wonderful!”
“…”
“Heka is lucky.”
“Indeed, indeed. Ah, how fortunate there’s a law for twin royalty. We’re reaping the benefits of being twins blessed by the gods. Though Nef and I aren’t physically connected like Goddess Tara.”
Titi’s bright smile looked pure and innocent. Quite surprisingly so.
Cayden pondered Titi’s words. Something had happened between Heka and the twins, and the twins had fallen so deeply for Heka that they were determined to marry him. Heka didn’t seem to dislike them either. He was just a bit more embarrassed.
But…
Heka becoming someone else’s bride, not Assad’s.
This fact seemed absurd. What about Assad? What would happen to the Crown Prince? Cayden’s heart suddenly sank.
“Are they having a lover’s quarrel?”
A familiar voice reached his ear. Cayden couldn’t bring himself to turn around to look at the man standing behind him, and awkwardly just blinked. His body froze as if it were a lie.
“After making a fuss about fate due to a mere one-night accident. It seems they’ve decided to stick like leeches, insisting on becoming a married couple.”
“…Did you know about this?”
“Those two came to me, begging to tell them everything about Heka.”
Assad’s voice was tinged with irritation. It was stress directed at the twin siblings who had been bothering him.
Cayden’s mind became confused. He couldn’t decide whether he should worry about Assad or comfort him… or pretend not to notice; he couldn’t choose any single option. It was also difficult to say anything.
“They’re the ones who caused the accident, so why are you looking at me cautiously?”
Assad’s whisper in his ear as he lowered his head tickled. To hide his startled heart, Cayden had to smile awkwardly.
“Your Highness… are you alright?”
Cayden asked, covering his reddened ears with his hand. He lowered his voice considerably, fearing others might hear.
“Alright? I don’t understand what you mean.”
Cayden, who had been moving his lips, glanced around briefly. No one was paying attention to his conversation with Assad. Everyone’s attention was focused on the noisy twins.
Cayden finally met Assad’s eyes as he looked down at him. Lowering his voice even more, he presented one sentence to Assad.
“Because you and Heka… had a deep relationship.”
“…”
“…”
“Who?”
“Pardon?”
“Surely not me?”
Assad’s face immediately crumpled.
“Are you really talking about me?”
It was a question with unclear intent. The confused Cayden quickly nodded. He was even more bewildered as he clearly felt the conversation heading in a strange direction.
Assad’s face instantly turned red. It blazed as if a spark had ignited thick firewood.
“How could you say such nonsense…”
“…”
“Who spouted such nonsense? I, I, such…”
Assad’s words scattered without ever being completed. Various emotions, difficult to name, rapidly flashed across his face.
Assad, who couldn’t hide his anxious appearance and was fiddling with his lips, suddenly came to his senses. He grabbed Cayden’s hand. He interlaced his fingers with Cayden’s, binding them tightly so he couldn’t escape.
Turning his back on the chaotic scene, Assad began to walk ahead. Cayden could only quietly follow him.
After leaving the banquet hall, Assad threw open the doors lined up in the corridor one by one, searching for an empty room. Eventually, he chose a guest room that was completely empty, with only the sound of rain lying within.
Assad entered with Cayden and closed the door. Facing the bewildered Cayden, Assad bit his lip and calmed his excitement. He remained silent. Like someone who had forgotten how to speak, he repeatedly opened and closed his mouth.
Finally, he managed to utter one straightforward sentence.
“A deep relationship? What are you saying?”
“Well…”
“That person and I, lovers? Did you think we had that kind of relationship?”
Assad’s eyes, focused solely on Cayden, were boiling hot like gold melted in a furnace. Just facing them made Cayden’s mouth dry. It felt as if Assad’s heat would burn him alive.
“Yes. I… misunderstood that way.”
Cayden answered Assad. It was partly an answer given in a daze. And partly a less than honest answer. He hadn’t misunderstood that they were once lovers, but rather had speculated that they still had some strange relationship.
“That’s absurd.”
“I’m sorry.”
Cayden quickly apologized to Assad, who was muttering. Assad looked so wronged. Even though he still hadn’t properly grasped the situation, he felt as if he had done something wrong.
“…”
The excitement that had been heating Assad instantly melted away at Cayden’s single sentence. The heat that had settled in Assad’s golden eyes also gradually subsided.
What remained in those eyes as the heat faded was a sense of hurt. Assad just silently looked at Cayden with a face full of disappointment.
Faced with the man covered in fragile disappointment, Cayden became restless. It seemed to be more than just a simple mistake. He felt as if he had done something terrible to Assad.
Not knowing what to do, Cayden carefully took hold of Assad’s clenched hand.
It was an act committed while pondering how to soothe Assad’s heart. Hadn’t Assad said he liked Cayden’s cold hands? He hoped that some of Assad’s remaining heat, that warmth, that bewilderment, would transfer to him, even a little.
“…Cayden.”
“Yes.”
“Devoting one’s body and heart only to one’s spouse is the calling that the Crown Prince of this empire must fulfill. Even if it’s a political marriage following human will rather than divine will, it’s the same.”
Assad said, meeting Cayden’s eyes. It was a somewhat urgent statement.
“I am innocent. I can swear to heaven.”
Sin? Cayden inwardly sighed upon hearing the unexpectedly heavy declaration. The thoughts that had filled his head bounced around helplessly.
“I know that the kingdom people sometimes commit the eccentricity of having children through lovers rather than spouses, and make those children their heirs. But for you to think I would be similar to such people…”
Assad muttered with furrowed brows. Though his words faded as he became lost in thought, his gaze remained intense. His eyes showed no intention of leaving Cayden.
Cayden quietly observed such an Assad. It felt as if a hazy veil that had been blocking his view had been peeled away. Things that had appeared blurry, thoughts, seemed to be regaining their original clarity.
Come to think of it, he had never directly heard about Heka from Assad’s mouth. He had never even properly mentioned Heka’s name. Cayden thought this was because Assad held Heka in his heart. He had believed that Assad was hiding it to protect him, that it was natural.
But that was only natural by his own standards. Cayden belatedly realized this fact.
If it was the Assad he had seen for nearly a year, the honest Assad who didn’t hesitate with his words… At least before his heat cycle, he would have confessed if there was someone he had promised a future with. He would have asked for understanding, saying it wasn’t Cayden but that person he wanted to meet. How much did he really know about Assad to make such assumptions?
Before being attacked by the twins, Heka had told him that he wasn’t desperate for marriage to Assad. Even afterward, he had shown his honest feelings. In his gentle voice containing stories, there was no love felt for Assad. It wasn’t that love had cooled; there was no love to cool in the first place.
Cayden felt astonishment.
‘I… had been under a misconception.’
Why had he made such a foolish misunderstanding? It was so embarrassing that he almost laughed out loud. He chastised himself out of embarrassment.
Even if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t be able to ask Assad about his relationship with Heka. Yet, right now, he felt that way.
Then…
“When you leave, Assad will remarry immediately. Because the position of Crown Princess cannot be left vacant for long. The man who was previously promised in marriage will become his true bride.”
Jahan’s words had turned into a half-truth. A man promised in marriage. That part should be excluded.
Cayden didn’t think Jahan had lied to him. Only the story about the bride was wrong. Just by looking at the quiet life in the detached palace and the medicines that came to him every day, he could tell that Jahan’s words were not lies. The gazes of people he unavoidably faced were like a bonus. Cayden had already faced the truth, heavier than a few words, several times.
Besides, hadn’t he also sensed that the time would soon come when he would have to leave Assad’s side?
There must be things that Jahan, who doesn’t reside in the imperial palace, doesn’t know. Cayden simply thought that.
Heka had come to connect with other imperial family members, not Assad. In two years, a new bride unknown to him would seek Assad.
In the end, nothing would change. But…
‘Why do I feel so good?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
