A hollow laugh escaped between Axel’s teeth. His expression darkened into something rough as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Even now, in this very moment, he was thinking of her.
Was he in his right mind?
The way he couldn’t stop — it felt like an addiction. He was starting to wonder if he had truly lost it.
The woman who had been quietly watching him all this time opened her mouth with care.
“Um…”
Right. She was there.
Only then remembering her existence, Axel gave her a brief sideways glance and said:
“The exit is that way.”
With that, Axel turned and walked away without a second thought. Behind him, he heard her call out her thanks, but he didn’t bother to look back.
He continued down the corridor until he stopped at a particular door.
The place he had arrived at was a lounge he had visited many times over the years whenever there was a banquet — a quiet room that few people passed through, perfectly suited to gathering his thoughts or simply resting alone.
He pushed the door open — and strangely, sensed another presence inside. His brow furrowed slightly.
This was a room that even the servants rarely entered. There should have been no one here. So who could it be?
But the question did not linger long.
Because almost immediately, his eyes found the uninvited guest already inside.
“Oh, you’re here. You’re late.”
A familiar voice. Axel’s shoulders gave an involuntary jolt.
Golden eyes curved with a comfortable smile, and a hand rose in greeting.
Bjorn.
The Crown Prince of this country — and the very man rumored to be the one Judith genuinely cared for.
The unexpected encounter made Axel clench his jaw. The surge of anger that came with it was an unwelcome bonus.
He had been deliberately avoiding Bjorn until now. He didn’t trust himself to know what he might do if they met — and that uncertainty had been, in equal measure, for both their sakes.
And now he has the audacity to appear before me?
A heat rose deep in Axel’s chest.
But Bjorn, entirely unaware of what was burning through him, smiled pleasantly and addressed him.
“It’s so hard to see my little brother’s face these days. Come, sit down, Axel. I’ve had so much I’ve been wanting to say to you.”
The casual, unbothered ease with which Bjorn treated him — as though nothing had ever happened — brought the heat roaring back.
Axel crossed the room in fast, purposeful strides and, instead of returning the greeting, seized Bjorn by the collar and hauled him upright.
The force was such that Bjorn was dragged along helplessly. He blinked, startled and apparently at a loss.
“Isn’t this a bit much as a welcome, Axel? Or were you just so delighted to see me that—”
As ever, something light and teasing had been about to slip out of Bjorn’s mouth — but Axel cut it off.
“Close that mouth. Bjorn.”
The barely contained fury in the gesture made Bjorn’s startled expression settle into something more watchful, his eyes narrowing.
“Hmm. Why are you angry? Did I do something wrong? I can’t think of anything I’ve done that would be particularly offensive to you…”
Those words acted like a spark. Axel’s chest heaved in and out sharply.
“You genuinely don’t know why I’m doing this? After what you pulled, you have the nerve to stand there and—”
“What I pulled?”
Bjorn tilted his head, brow furrowed, looking for all the world like a man who genuinely could not comprehend what he had done.
He’s going to play innocent to the very end.
“That’s because you—!”
Axel lunged toward an outburst — and then stopped.
Because the rest of the words wouldn’t come.
When he actually thought about it, everything had been Judith’s plan, carried out by Judith herself.
So what, exactly, did Bjorn have to do with any of it?
Axel put the question to himself.
Bjorn had simply done what he always did — responding to Judith when she persistently sought him out. Could that honestly be called a wrongdoing?
Of course, Axel had also entertained the possibility that Bjorn and Judith were working in concert. The origin of the vision orb she had produced was unclear and suspicious.
But there was no concrete evidence for that. And unlike Judith, who had reason to bear ill will toward him, Bjorn had no motivation to act against him.
Looking at it from every angle, it was far more likely that Bjorn had nothing to do with Judith’s actions.
And yet here he was, behaving as though they were in it together.
Pressing someone this hard, fueled entirely by emotion and absent any actual evidence — that was one of the things Axel despised most.
He was confused.
So then why did I do this?
Had he, somewhere in the back of his mind, wanted to believe that Bjorn and Judith were in league? Wanted it?
That he had tried to make an innocent person the target of his anger simply because he had nowhere else to put it?
The moment that realization landed, the grip on Bjorn’s collar began to lose its force. The tension drained from his hand entirely, and Bjorn dropped back onto the sofa with a dull thud.
“Ow…”
After being held for so long, his neck was clearly stiff. Bjorn made a pained sound, eyebrows drooping, and looked up at Axel with an expression full of aggrieved feeling.
That look gave Axel pause. He felt, briefly, like the worst kind of scoundrel.
Bjorn produced a handkerchief from somewhere unidentifiable and dabbed at the corner of his eye. A mournful voice followed.
“It feels like just yesterday you used to trot after me calling brother, brother. And now you’re snatching me up by the collar, yelling at me, and calling me you of all things… Have you really forgotten how I used to feed you and wash you and play with you when you were small?”
“…Nonsense.”
“Honestly. They say raising children is thankless work, and they were right…”
As he had chosen to feel genuinely bad about the whole thing, Axel let Bjorn’s theatrical performance go without comment, looking away.
Axel redirected the conversation.
“So why did you come?”
“Oh. Axel, I wanted to show you this.”
Bjorn reached into his coat and produced something, holding it out toward him.
Axel stared at it — and, for a moment, could not quite believe what he was seeing.
What Bjorn was holding was none other than a photo card of himself — one of the ones Judith had taken.
Not just one, either. Several of them, fanned between Bjorn’s fingers.
The careful composure that had settled over Axel’s face moments ago shattered instantly. He demanded an answer.
“…Why do you have those? Explain. Bjorn.”
Could it actually be that Bjorn and Judith were in this together after all?
Just as that thought began to take shape — Bjorn answered, entirely at ease.
“Why? Didn’t the Lady tell you?”
He looked genuinely puzzled.
The Lady? Why is she being mentioned here?
Axel had the sudden, unsettling feeling that he was missing something.
And then Bjorn drove the final piece home.
“I thought you knew. About our trade.”
“…Trade?”
In that instant, everything Judith had ever tried to say to him came flooding back.
From the very first time she had attempted to explain herself — the vision orb she had pulled out.
“…So — it’s all a misunderstanding. All of it, Your Highness. The reason I met with the Crown Prince today — this was why. If you see this, maybe you’ll understand at least a little of what I was trying to say—”
And then, later:
“And I cannot deny that I met with the Crown Prince that morning. It’s also true that I intended that meeting to be kept secret from the start. But it was never intended to deceive you, or to further any relationship with the Crown Prince. The first time we met at the dressmaker’s studio — there was a trade we agreed upon. The morning meeting was purely to exchange what had been agreed. And the item at the center of that trade was this.”
“Right. A trade. She had photographs of mine, and I had a vision orb. We exchanged them. I assumed she’d told you. She hadn’t?”
Bjorn tilted his head with a look of perfect, guileless innocence.
The color drained from Axel’s face, slowly, as he absorbed those words.
Truly. It was just a trade. A meeting conducted only for that. Which means… what Judith said was true?
All of it…
No. …No. It can’t be.
He shook his head and desperately searched for something to hold onto.
