Past corridors of whispering, aghast servants, butlers and maids, with the help of Regica, I hadn't taken many steps, when my breaths started to come fast, rough again. Damn it, this weak body. In my own body this wouldn't even be an ordeal. I could run with this man on my back.

As I was trying to steady myself on my feet, Hyle appeared before me. He bowed low, and then knelt on on knee. "Allow me, my lady, to take him to where you seek."

"I can't have this man on his own killer's back." 

The aches, stabbing pains in my chest came again, harsh and persistent. It was like my airways were constricted. Exactly what kind of a respiratory condition did this woman have?

But maybe the pain wasn't just because of this woman's pain. My eyes grew hot and hands shook, not just from trying to support this man's weight.

The scene of the sword going through this man's chest did a cruel replay in my head. As did the scene of my colleague Jack Davis getting shot in the chest, not just once but thrice, by a culprit our team had been chasing down.

Would this Irennian Gretor have lived, if I had done something different? As perhaps Jack would have lived, if our team, if I, had been just a few moments faster? If our strategy had been different? 

Hearing the drips of blood from this man, scarcely hanging onto the remnants of my breath, I walked, and stopped in front of the carriage I had come in. The horse man, pale and horrified, stared at me with visibly bated breath, not knowing what to say or do.

Letting out a shaky breath, I put down the man from my back in a sitting position, so that his head was leaning against the seats of the carriage. 

"Put this man in the carriage, please. We're going... to bring him to my place," I said with some effort.

"My lady, you look very unwell," Regica cautiously piped in. "It might be a better idea for you to-"

A strong hand then gripped my hand, turning me around. Through the haze of my vision, I made out the face of Hanes.

"You're foolish," he hissed.

With ease, he carried me in his two arms bridal-style, and started heading back toward the entrance of the palace.

"Put... me...down," I barely breathed out, scarcely suppressing a groan of pain.

"Your kingdom abandoned you, and you still have such affections for your people?" His soft, low voice came, as my eyes started to close. It was uncomfortably comfortable to be in his arms, as the strength was leaving my body. "You're more naive than I conceived you to be, Lady Helena."

"...Bas...tard..." I muttered, and before my eyes fully closed, I swore I could see a hint of a smile on his lips.

~ * ~

I hope to not get accustomed to passing out so often in this uselessly weak body, was my first internal lamentation as I opened my eyes to the afternoon. Regica, who from her crouched position by my bed side had clearly been anxiously waiting for my awaking, brightened up.

"Oh you're awake, my lady! Thank goodness." She brought a familiar looking silver tea pot and poured a cup of tea into the china cup. "I wiped all the blood and changed you into new clothes. I will prepare a bath for you soon, since you are awake."

Lying on the bed, I scanned my surroundings. It was an almost completely bare room, save for the excessively big bed with crisp white sheets I was lying on, a wooden tea table and a dark blue sofa long enough for a grown man to lie down on.

A grown man. Hanes had lifted me off my feet with such ease, and I remember closing my eyes in his arms as he walked, my head resting against his arm.

After uttering as insulting words as I possibly could muster and walking out of that room, I'd come right back to this place. He must think I was a joke. Blood flushed to my cheeks. "What...happened to Gretor? Where is this place?"

"This is one of the guest rooms at His Majesty's residence, my lady. He, um, carried you up here," Regica mumbled, clearly disgruntled. "He ordered Gretor to be cleaned and changed into fresh clothes, and put in the basement on a 'nice bed'. He told me to relay these words to you: 'If you fancy carrying him back to your place again, I shall not stop you, Lady Helena. But I suggest training your muscles before making an attempt again. You seem to be overestimating yourself by quite a little.'"

From her pursed lips and unhappy eyes, Regica seemed to be resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Asshole," I muttered under my breath.

But Gretor cleaned and changed into fresh clothes, put on a 'nice bed'. That was unexpected. What was this incongruence? With a nonchalant gesture of a hand he'd had a sword through a man's chest in front of me, and now he'd carefully taken care of the man's body?

From the way he didn't bat an eye with the killing, I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that the poor Irennian's body would have been thrown to the hyenas- or something like that. 

What really was this man Hanes? 

"Pardon, my lady?" Regica blinked, quizzically.

"No, nothing. Um... I can go back to my place now, right?"

"Actually... Empress Mother Lady Narcia wants to meet you as soon as possible, my lady." Regica sniffed, not looking particularly pleased.

Gauging how advantageous a situation was for me was made much convenient from how Regica was such an open book. I smiled a little. "Empress Mother Lady...what a mouthful. Who's that?"

Regica looked at me like how a math teacher would look at a student asking a stupid question, while attempting to offer a cheery, encouraging smile. "The wife of the former emperor, Emperor Regentine, my lady. She is known as Lady Narcia."

"The...wife of the former emperor. So she's Hanes's mum?"

Pursing her lips as if suppressing a sigh, Regica took the tea cup from me, and offered the revolting black medicine. "Uh... partially correct, my lady. His Majesty's biological mother, Empress Estellia who was the wife of Emperor Regentine, passed away when Emperor Hanes was ten years old, from an illness. Due to this, the next in line, Concubine First Lady Narcia became Empress."

An illness. I looked down at my new reflection, the young woman with milk-white skin, clear light blue eyes and blond curls, peering back at me in the black medicine sloshing in the china cup. "Oh. So Lady Narcia...is Hanes's step mother."

Regica's eyebrows twitched. "Step...er...that term is reserved for commoners, but yes, my lady. That is why it would not be a good idea to keep her waiting. I will escort you for your bath, and after you are dressed and ready, I will visit Lady Narcia to invite her to this room. She is waiting for you in this castle."

I squeezed shut my eyes, emptied the cup in a go, and grimaced, "Just curious. Um. What kind of an illness did Empress Estellia pass away from?"

Regica, as she was putting slippers next to my feet, stopped short. I couldn't read her face with her head bent down, but I could very well imagine it, with the words that came next. "From a respiratory condition, my lady."

"...Something like mine?"

"...The same as yours, my lady."

Looked like I couldn't take as much time as I could trying to figure out a way out of this place. Especially, out of this body. Or I wouldn't have much left after all.

I tucked my feet into the slippers, and rose to my feet. "Well, I'm fancying a nice bath. Let's go. And actually- can I bathe on my own?"