Syd jumped inside in a blink of an eye and pushed down the robed man onto the floor. Having a dagger piercing his shoulder, the robed man didn’t resist that strongly.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Your Highness. Please punish me later.”

Apollonia didn’t say anything as she recalled what had happened just a few moments ago.

‘That man just…’

She wasn’t seeing things. She couldn’t believe it herself, but that tall, robed man had slashed apart the barrier with his sword and stopped right in front of her. He could’ve killed her in that short moment when their eyes met, but he didn’t, and now, he was getting tied up by Syd with the dagger still in his shoulder.

“Bring a chair over. I’ll interrogate him myself.” Apollonia gestured to Syd, keeping her eyes on the man. After Syd finished tied him up and brought him to his knees, he brought a chair in front of the man. Apollonia slowly walked over and sat down.

“Take his robe off.”

Syd pulled the hood of the assassin’s robe off using the sword he was pointing at him, revealing the assassin’s face in the moonlight. Apollonia’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at him, and Syd also seemed to shake in surprise. The man on his knees and wasn’t moving an inch turned out to be a boy who looked around the same age as Apollonia.

The boy was beautiful. His smooth silver hair was beaming as if each strand was made from moonlight and his distinct features and sharp jawline made him look like the perfect sculpture. His slightly frowning eyebrows looked delicate, almost as if they were drawn on with a brush, and they paired well with his bright red lips.

He looked like an angel who had all the good and beauty in the world. However, his dark eyes, which were as blue as the deep sea, had murderous intent floating in them. The murderous intent wasn’t directed at Apollonia or Syd though; he looked like he was simply born with such eyes.

“I can’t believe it, such a young boy…” Syd let out an exclamation of awe.

“Do you think he really is one of Saphiro’s Wolves?”

“I’m sure of it. That man’s the only one who could send a person to the Imperial Palace in less than a day. I heard there weren’t many of them left, but I didn’t know there would be someone so skilled amongst them.”

“…Saphiro’s Wolves.” A low, calm voice echoed throughout the quiet room. The boy’s eyes widened when he heard that the girl knew who he was, but he soon looked at her feet and shut his red lips tight.

“Did you come here to kill me?”

The boy maintained his silence, which Apollonia took as a yes. She couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

“I knew that Aunt Petra wouldn’t get attached just because we were related…”

He frowned as soon as he heard those words. Apollonia continued talking upon noticing his reaction.

“Do you know who I am?”

The boy shook his head and Apollonia gestured at Syd, ordering him to take his sword away, then, she reached out to grab the boy’s chin gently and lifted it.

“Look closely.”

As their gazes met once again, the angel-like boy’s eyes shook slightly. It seemed like he was about to say something, but he ultimately kept quiet.

“I see. You didn’t know that you needed to kill a young girl or the fact that it would be Petra’s niece, which would make her Gaius Liepherr’s daughter,” she continued, holding the boy’s chin with her thumb and index finger.

The boy’s deep blue eyes were trembling as if to admit her words were true.

“That’s why you hesitated, but…” she let go of him, “still, you had another chance, so why didn’t you kill me? My life shouldn’t be as important as yours, just as you said.”

Apollonia frowned and waited for the boy’s reply. However, Uriel had no answer for her; even he didn’t know why he stopped himself from killing her. When he broke the barrier, he was only thinking about hurting her pride; he wanted to see those red eyes trembling in shock, which led to him losing his composure and being unable to kill her.

However, rather strangely, Uriel didn’t regret his decision as much as he thought he would.

“Looks like you just didn’t want to do it, whatever the reason was.”

The princess seemed like she had more to say, but the middle-aged knight next to her interrupted as if to give her a warning. “Your Highness, it’ll soon be sunrise. You must decide what to do with him.”

“For now, lock him up for three days. Aunt Petra will kill Saphiro in case of any future trouble since the assassin she sent went missing. Make sure to give him medicine during that time since he has a wound on his shoulder.”

The princess knew a lot more than he expected.

“After three days, ki…” She bit her lip slightly before she could finish her sentence and he saw her blond eyelashes trembling.

“Kill me,” Uriel finished her sentence in her stead. The princess looked at him strangely when he did so.

“What?”

“I told you that I’m going to die anyway since I failed my task. I’ll endure for three days if you want, so just kill me however you please after that.”

Uriel was telling the truth. Saphiro had lost many of his assassins and he would eventually be dealt with after repeatedly being assigned tasks that he didn’t want to do. All of Saphiro’s Wolves shared a similar demise.

He didn’t have any lingering attachments to this world since the life Saphiro let him live wasn’t that delightful in the first place. He simply kept on living because he didn’t have any reason to die. His life was always intense but also boring in a way.

“Looks like you don’t have any affection towards your master.”

“Saphiro’s not my master, nor is the Liepherr family,” he interrupted, no longer having any reason to hesitate.

The knight next to Apollonia glared at him, but he wasn’t fazed in the slightest.

“I just wasn’t lucky enough to get away from him.”

He was telling the truth. He was actually rather happy that he could screw Saphiro over before dying.

The princess widened her eyes when she heard Uriel’s reply and got up to grab and lift his chin again. This time, her hold wasn’t as soft as before.

“Grandfather told me that Saphiro, the villain of the central region, kidnapped young children and transformed them into warriors by torturing them.”

“Your Highness…” The middle-aged knight called out to Apollonia once again, but she kept her eyes on Uriel.

“He told me that their minds, souls, and the look in their eyes would break and they would be controlled by Saphiro. Just like how wolves can’t defy the leader of their pack, the ones he trained could never betray him.”

Uriel laughed and using his uninjured arm, pulled down his robe to expose dozens of wormlike scars on his shoulder. The princess and her knight each took a deep breath in as they saw him.

“You’re rather well informed, but not all of them are like that.”

“…You endured everything,” she said in awe.

The pain in Uriel’s other shoulder was getting worse, but he didn’t feel all that bad.

“How old are you?” Uriel looked straight at the girl who was looking down as if observing him and something other than a sense of pity seemed to fill her eyes.

“Seventeen.”

She grabbed Uriel even tighter and pulled him closer to her, intensifying the pain in his shoulder which made him shudder and squirm. The princess’ lips curved into a smile.

They looked at each other as if they were assessing one another, and neither one of them looked away, even after a long moment of silence had passed. Eventually,

“I changed my mind, Syd,” she ordered in a tranquil voice, “We’re going to raise the young wolf that Aunt Petra abandoned.”

* * *

Uriel Viche was lost in thought, locked up in a small room in the detached palace. He knew this assignment was different from the ones he usually did, but he didn’t think that his task was to kill Petra Liepherr’s niece, i.e. the princess.

He closed his eyes again and remembered his conversation with the Princess.

“Did you come here to kill me?”

She seemed to be speaking calmly, but there was a strange sense of sadness in her question.

The girl, who didn’t act her age, sat down like a queen and looked at him sharply. She monitored even the smallest movements of his with those eyes to make the perfect judgment. However, those eyes of hers shook for a moment as she was sentencing him to death.

“How old are you?”

She looked straight at Uriel and took in every expression that crossed his face. He could see her manner of superiority, her pale face, and her eyes, which were cold as ice even though they were the same color as flames. However, he also caught a sense of sympathy and she smiled right after.

Uriel realized what the expression on her face meant and couldn’t believe his eyes.

Many people took interest in him from when he was born in the slums until he was raised to be one of Saphiro’s Wolves. All of them wore different expressions on their faces but the feelings expressed in them were limited.

“Go away! You filthy thing!”

Disgust

“This is our turf! Get lost and go over there if you want to beg!”

Wariness

“How dare such a dog like you steal bread! Ptui!”

Anger.

“How beautiful. Would you like to come with me? I’ll give you good food every day.”

From some nobles who had seen him after he grew up to be a pretty boy around ten, lust.

“The only master you serve is me, Saphiro. You right now are a dog.”

Or disdain—and even a little bit of glee—from the eyes of Saphiro, who forcefully took him in and branded him when he was eleven.

However, none of these feelings and reactions matched how the girl looked when she tied Uriel up and smiled.

“We’re going to raise the young wolf that Aunt Petra abandoned.”

It was only for a second, but he could tell that a sense of hope passed by on her face, and that was the first time he ever saw such a thing.