The next few days passed quietly in the west palace.

The silence felt unnatural, considering the main palace was still in an uproar over the new prophecy.

The palace grew emptier with each passing day.

Trays no longer clattered through the halls, and many of the rooms remained dark even after sunrise. A few doors stood open, their shelves bare where servants had already packed their belongings.

Yuan didn't mind.

He enjoyed Elara’s cooking, though part of him still thought of her as “the woman.”

He also found it easier to explore the palace with fewer eyes watching him.

If he left the palace today, he wouldn’t even know which road led out of the capital.

He had searched nearly every room in the palace.

There was nothing.

Yuan pulled a book from the shelf.

The Brave Rabbit and the Moon Princess.

He put it down.

Another.

The Adventures of Sir Lionheart.

Another.

The Golden Goose.

Fairytales.

Every single one of them.

Perhaps it would have been normal if Yuan was just a six-year-old boy, but he was also a prince of the kingdom.

Not a single history book.
Not a single map.
Not even a book on plants or animals.

It felt less like a child’s room and more like a cage.

Yuan returned the last book to the shelf.

If only there was a way to recover more of his first life.

Knock. Knock.

A maid entered carrying a tray with a single bowl on it.

She was one of the few servants who remained.

“Young master, I brought you your medicine.”

“Medicine? I don’t need it.”

“Lady Elara ordered me to make sure you take this. She said… the young master has been falling ill often recently, and is worried about your health.”

Yuan frowned. 

The woman again.

Yuan held back a sigh and walked over.

Steam rose from the bowl, carrying a bitter, earthy smell. The liquid was thick and muddy, almost like watered-down clay.

One of the first rules he learned as an orphan:

Never drink water you couldn’t see through.

He had broken that rule once during a dry summer.

He nearly died for it.

To think expensive medicine had the same color.

Yuan closed his eyes and brought the bowl to his mouth. The warm liquid flowed in.

‘Hm?’

The moment it touched his tongue, bitterness exploded inside his mouth.

A metallic taste followed.

His stomach dropped.

He knew that taste.

His fingers tightened around the bowl.

Yuan spat the liquid back into it before he could swallow.

Heat spread down his throat.

Then came a sharp, burning pain.

His fingers trembled.

“Cough!”

Red splashed into the brown liquid.

For a second he simply stared.

The medicine had turned crimson.

‘This is... poison!’

The maid backed toward the door.

All the color drained from her face.

“Y-you were supposed to drink it all…!”

The words slipped out.

Yuan threw the bowl at her.

CRASH!

The maid screamed.

He had aimed for her head, but the body of a six-year-old was too weak.

The bowl struck the door behind her and shattered.

The maid’s hands shook so badly she couldn’t keep them at her sides.

She wasn’t looking at the prince.

She was staring at the blood.

“I-I had no other choice…”

Yuan forced himself to stay upright.

Fire spread through his chest.

His knees almost buckled.

He had only let the poison touch his tongue, but even that was enough to make it burn inside. If he swallowed it… he wouldn’t be standing anymore.

The only reason he didn’t collapse was because he had died this way before.

In one of his many lives, he had died from poison.

He remembered the burning.

The helplessness.

The feeling of his body shutting down.

He wanted to fall down and give in to his weak legs, but he couldn’t give the maid another chance to kill him.

His nails dug into his palms.

“…Why did you do this? Who sent you?”

Even an orphan like Mud knew the consequences of killing a prince.

Someone had put her up to this.

The maid stopped trembling.

She raised her eyes to the young prince, who was just as young as her own son. 

“The queen has a message for you…”

The queen?

Why?

In his memories of Yuan, he had never even met the queen before.

“Thank you.”

”…?”

“Because of the prophecy… everyone will say she did the right thing.”

His fingers went cold.

Before Yuan could ask, heavy footsteps pounded down the hallway.

Then—

BANG!

The door flew open.

One of the patrolling knights stood in the doorway.

“Your highness! Are you alright?!”

Yuan wiped the blood from his mouth, but his hand still shook.

“I’m okay. That maid… she tried to feed me poison.”

The knight’s eyes widened.

He seized the maid before she could run, but she didn’t resist. Her face was strangely calm, like someone who had already accepted death.

She gave the little prince one last look before the knight dragged her away. 

Was it… pity? Yuan wasn’t sure.

“Wait.”

The knight stopped before closing the door.

“Don’t tell… my mother what happened. She’ll only worry more.”

The knight studied him for a long moment before closing the door without answering.

The moment the door shut, the strength left his body.

The room spun.

He collapsed onto the floor.

The cold stone felt strangely comforting.

Cough! Cough. Cough.

Blood dripped through his fingers.

‘…If I stay in this palace, they’ll kill me.’

He knew this wouldn’t be the last time. Once the queen finds out that the maid failed to kill him, she would send another assassin.

The woman with silver hair flashed through his mind, along with the warmth of her hands.

She would not hurt him.

But she would never let him leave.

Morning dew clung to the grass.

White lilies swayed in the breeze.

Knights stood near the paths, their armor glinting beneath the sunlight.

To them, the prince was simply taking a walk.

In truth, he was searching for a way out of the palace without alerting the knights.

He realized there was no ordinary way out of the palace.

His chest still burned whenever he breathed too deeply.

‘Do I have to dig a hole at this point?’

Just as he was about to return to his room, something dark near the back wall caught his eye.

He crouched.

Beneath a patch of weeds was a small opening in the stone.

Big enough to fit a dog… and perhaps big enough for a small child.

Before he could get any closer, a hand fell on his shoulder and stopped him.

“Your highness.”

Yuan nearly jumped.

His heart hammered against his ribs.

‘When did he get there?!’

Yuan calmed his racing heart and turned around.

It was the knight who dragged the maid away.

“…You’re…”

“My name is William, Your Highness. William Ashford at your service.”

He couldn’t have been older than seventeen or eighteen, with dark green hair and hazel eyes.

He carried himself with the stiff pride of a young knight.

“...William. Where did you take the maid?”

The knight’s expression darkened. He fell to one knee in front of the small prince.

“Forgive me, Your Highness. The maid was to be questioned in the dungeons… but she took her own life before saying a single word.”

“…”

Yuan studied the knight’s face.

She died before speaking a single word.

Too convenient.

Did this knight kill the maid?

Is he… one of the queen’s spies?

His stomach sank.

The queen was more dangerous than he thought.

He would escape.

No matter what it took.