The Villain’s Aide Has Run Away

Kailos looked around the room.

The warmth was gone. At least, that was how it felt to him.

Only the sheets tangled in disarray remained on the bed, and cold air drifted through the room.

The dim atmosphere seemed to seep into his bones. It was not simply because he was alone.

“Leslun.”

The one who should have been here, sharing breath beside him, warming this space.

Even when he called the name, all that returned was the silence of emptiness.

The echo from the space only confirmed how utterly alone he was.

“Ha.”

A sigh escaped, stunned.

Until Leslun rose and left the room, Kailos had slept, completely unaware.

Since taking the position of Crown Prince, he had never let his guard down, always listening intently. Thanks to his lifelong sharp senses, he had survived by noticing the slightest movement of a blade before anyone else. And yet now, he was powerless, trapped in a deep sleep.

There was only one possible reason for this.

Kailos’s gaze sharpened and moved toward the window behind the curtains.

It recalled the moment when spirit beasts would pass through windows.

A foreboding certainty gnawed at his heart.

The reason I fell into such a deep sleep must be because of the spirit beasts.

“Blue.”

He called out, just in case, but there was no answer. If it were Blue’s doing, he would have come out by now and been mocking Kailos.

The guardian spirits that had circled Leslun were not just one.

“Ha.”

After the sigh came a hollow laugh.

It seemed that those who recognized Leslun’s true value were not limited to the Empire’s guardian animals. Blue’s warning—that if he failed to capture Leslun, there would be no throne—now returned to his mind.

He had been so absorbed in Leslun that he had forgotten that crucial fact.

While being with Leslun, he had forgotten even what he had been clinging to so desperately. What was the throne worth to him all this time?

He had not even received recognition from Blue, let alone the spirit beasts.

Kailos rose from his seat and pulled on the cord. Soon, the attendant he had brought alone entered.

“Did you call, Your Highness?”

For a moment, he impulsively wanted to ask where Leslun was. But Kailos’s instincts tilted in one direction.

Leslun had not just stepped away for a moment. He had left.

“Have you seen Leslun?”

“I am sorry, Your Highness. I have not seen him.”

It felt as if the depths of his chest had been emptied.

“I will go find him.”

Kailos strode forward in his disheveled attire.

The attendant hurried to drape a coat over his shoulders. Yet even that careful gesture was no more than a shadow before the sharp intensity of Kailos’s determination.

“Where is the carriage?”

His voice was cutting, like a blade.

The attendant, having already prepared the words, bent quickly in response.

“It will be ready shortly.”

“I will leave first. Follow quickly.”

The carriage was merely a means to bring Leslun. Not a second could be wasted.

He imagined how exhausted Leslun must be, wandering through the dark forest after fleeing from him.

Though betrayal tore at his chest, Leslun’s safety came first.

Kailos spurred his horse.

“He has probably not yet left the mountains. Search thoroughly.”

At his command, the soldiers scattered into the darkness.

Veins bulged on the back of Kailos’s hand gripping the reins.

Inside, betrayal and obsession, fear and anger, twisted together.

He closed his eyes briefly and opened them again. His pupils flashed as he pierced the darkness.

The sound of hooves cut through the night.

***

Leslun had been walking the mountain path for several hours.

It was so dark that it was difficult to even see ahead.

Thankfully, the hawk circling above guided him. Without its flapping wings showing the way, he would already have lost his path and been walking in circles.

Sweat streamed down his jaw. He roughly wiped it with the back of his hand.

“How much further… do I have to go?”

His voice trembled as he muttered, breathless. He could not be sure that the one waiting at the end of this path was truly there.

It was different from when he had fled from Count Camilo.

Back then, he had taken a shortcut, risking life or death, knowing roughly where the end was even if frostbite struck. This mountain seemed endless.

He had not realized such mountain paths existed when traveling by carriage. He painfully recognized how completely he had fallen for Kailos, how careless he had been, how complacent he had grown while by his side.