Chapter 16 · A Binding Masked as Tenderness

The next day, Isadel opened her eyes to a pain as if her skull were split in two.

“Ugh.”

She tried to raise her upper body with a suppressed groan, but the fatigue crushing her whole body slammed her back into the sheets.

Her vision swam and the ceiling spun.

It was because she had drunk alcohol on top of being utterly sensitive from days without sleep.

But something was strange.

Her stomach certainly burned as if scorched, yet her head had cleared quickly and her body felt light as a feather.

The hallucination that circled her ears chillingly every night, and the nightmare that always repeated in the same pattern, had not come last night of all nights.

It was proper sleep she had tasted for the first time in weeks—no, for the first time since the coup.

‘…How long has it been since I slept this deeply.’

Isadel blankly looked around, then shifted her gaze to her wrist.

Someone had carefully applied medicine and wrapped it in soft cloth, and over that, the shackle had been fastened again.

But perhaps because it was much looser than before, it did not feel like the suffocating restraint of old.

But her relief was brief; the memories that had been cut off began to surface one by one.

“…Ah.”

A short groan burst out.

What did I do yesterday.

The memory came back vividly: escaping this place, slashing the portrait of Erhan hanging in the hall, and running wild through the imperial palace with a wine bottle.

And when the most terrible memory of all brushed through her mind, her face flushed hot.

“I’m insane… I’m insane…”

Isadel clutched her hair in agony as if washing her face dry.

Having thrown away all dignity as a princess, the image of her clinging to Erhan’s clothes and sobbing drunkenly finally surfaced.

And the last memory was of collapsing powerlessly in his arms.

The moment the scene of being carried on his back to this place in that state was drawn in her mind, Isadel buried her face in the pillow and screamed.

“Ahhhhh!”

She would have been better off falling into the fountain and drowning.

It was while she was pounding her forehead against the head of the bed in futile self-reproach.

The door opened without warning and someone stepped in.

“Seeing you so full of energy, it seems the alcohol from yesterday has already worn off.”

At the mocking voice, Isadel’s head snapped up.

Standing at the door was a man whose silhouette was hazy as mist yet intimidating.

Ash-blond hair sunk coldly like faded silver coins.

Gray eyes that saw through everything yet were themselves utterly empty.

At that colorless gaze beyond fathoming, Isadel felt a strange sense of incongruity.

‘Who was he…’

As Isadel groped at the familiar silhouette, her eyes sank rapidly.

He was a figure she could never forget—no, must never forget.

The key player of that night who had brought down the Lacent family overnight.

“…You.”

He was not someone she could forget even if she tried.

“It seems you remember.”

Sis approached calmly and took a seat in the chair across from the bed.

Isadel glared fiercely at the uninvited guest who had entered without permission and asked.

“…It was you. The one who ordered my father killed that day.”

Sis laughed with a deflated sound, as if hearing a pointless joke.

“Let us leave the past at that. Clinging to what cannot be undone will change nothing, after all.”

Ignoring the killing intent Isadel radiated, he changed the subject as calmly as if dusting off his hand.

As their tightly locked gazes continued, Sis took a sheet of parchment from within his coat and quietly laid it on the table.

“What is this.”

Sis leisurely indicated the paper with his chin.

“Read it.”

Isadel picked up the parchment with trembling hands.

And the moment she confirmed the words at the top, she could not hide her shock.

[Declaration of Support for Erhan Karhilen, Nineteenth Emperor of Rastain]

It was a declaration densely stamped with the red seals of the central nobles supporting Erhan’s succession to the throne.

At the very bottom, only the space awaiting the signature of the Lacent family was left blank.

“Sign it. That is the only way to preserve your life.”

It was a high-handed attitude with not even the minimal effort to disguise itself as a request.

At that, Isadel burst into hollow laughter.

“You must know I would never sign even if the sky split in two.”

“In the end, you will. There are no choices left to you now.”

Before his words were even finished, Isadel crumpled the paper and hurled it at his arrogant face.

“Rather than defile my family’s name, I would bite my tongue and die.”

“……”

“Go and tell him that.”

Even at Isadel’s resistance, close to a desperate struggle, Sis did not blink an eye.

As if even this was within his expectations, he indifferently picked up the parchment from the floor.

The way he smoothed the crumpled paper with his palm was fastidiously neat.

“You seem to be under some misunderstanding.”

At last, he dropped his expressionless face and glared at Isadel with a look that chilled the spine.

“The sole reason even the state ministers tolerate your survival is precisely this single sheet of paper. Only when the seal of the Lacent imperial house is stamped can Erhan finally become Rastain’s rightful successor rather than a usurper drenched in blood.”

Sis pulled his chair closer and bound Isadel’s gaze head-on.

The murky eyes beyond his spectacles sank even darker.

“So if you wish to live, sign it. Even Erhan cannot protect you beyond this point.”

It was a final warning and an urging.

And yet.

“Hah, hahaha…!”

“…?”

At the sight of Isadel suddenly bursting into mad laughter, Sis’s brow twitched.

“For a strategist, you are quite the fool.”

Isadel glanced at him and wore a madness-tinged smile.

“I am a woman merely waiting for death. Did you think a threat holding my life hostage would work on me?”

“……”

“Not at all. Threaten me with death, cut off both my wrists—do as you please. Carving the Lacent name onto a declaration like this will never happen, even in death.”

“……”

Like a bowstring drawn taut, their fierce gazes collided in the air.

After a precarious silence, Sis gathered the parchment and rose from his seat.

“Very well. Try holding out to the end. What I bring next time may not be a mere light sheet of parchment.”

Leaving only a formal bow in an immaculate posture, he turned.

It was the moment Sis took a step to leave the room.

“Hey, Hwa-in.”

Isadel’s voice piercing his back stopped him.

“Come to think of it, it’s strange.”

“……”

“Forcing me to sign with your Hwa-in power would be no trouble at all. Why bother coming to argue with me in person?”

Even if a voluntary signature was needed for external justification, there were any number of ways.

Making people into puppets with Hwa-in power was as easy as lifting a finger.

Moreover, for a Hwa-in of Sis’s caliber—one who had controlled dozens of imperial guards to launch a coup—obtaining her signature would have been no trouble at all.

Then why had he come to her?

“Is it not because that is impossible?”

“…What do you mean.”

“The use of Hwa-in power within the imperial palace is strictly forbidden. Especially…”

Sis’s brow furrowed with displeasure for a very brief moment.

“Using Hwa-in power on you, the deposed princess, is absolutely forbidden.”

“What do you…”

“His Majesty has proclaimed that anyone who exercises Hwa-in power on you will be executed immediately, whoever they may be.”

“……”

“Even if it is a legitimate matter of state.”

Sis turned without regret.

The sound of his receding heels struck the corridor and scattered.

Left alone, Isadel blankly stared at the door.

It was behavior she could not understand at all.

Yesterday he had carried her—the woman who had nearly killed him—and carefully treated her wounds, and today he sent his subordinate to pressure her into signing a declaration of support.

And yet he himself had blocked the easiest path: using Hwa-in power to subdue her.

For what purpose did this arrogant man bestow bothersome mercy and cruelty at the same time?

“…That loathsome bastard.”

Erhan’s unfathomable attitude churned mercilessly through Isadel’s mind.