** Prologue**
*Thud-thud-thud.* The sound of hooves vibrating the ground echoed nearby.
As people began to murmur, Flora pulled the edge of the robe draped over her, hiding her face.
*Have they already found me?*
Moving nimbly through the restless crowd, she took advantage of the city gate soldiers peering toward the entrance and slipped her body toward the stairs leading up to the castle wall.
*Step, step.*
The sound of her hurried footsteps on the stone stairs resounded dimly through the narrow passage.
The moment she stepped onto the last stair, sunlight poured down. Her squinted eyes against the strong light caught sight of a black cloak fluttering in the bitter winter wind.
*No way.*
Flora’s eyes widened as she spotted a man who absolutely should not be here.
“Not an inch deviates from my prediction.”
The man, who had been staring beyond the castle wall, slowly turned around.
Following the swaying cloak upward, silver hair, shattered by the dazzling sunlight, fluttered gently in the faint breeze.
“You’re causing quite an uproar just to catch you.”
The Duke, Claude Heinster, scoffed at the speechless, frozen woman. His posture was remarkably leisurely, as if he had already anticipated where her footsteps would lead.
“……How…… did you…… here……?”
Her stunned lips parted first.
She had no idea what had happened. Once she passed through the city gate, she would be free, not only from the capital of Pashante but also from ever having to see that man’s face again.
“That’s quite a shocked expression.”
The blade of the sword the Duke had unconsciously drawn sharply pressed down against her neck, threateningly.
“I believe I commanded that leaving me is not permitted.”
The cold blade tip flipped up her hood, and the hidden platinum-blonde hair cascaded down. The hot, thick gaze that rose along her exposed white nape landed on the woman’s wary face.
A face so pale it was almost white. Lake-clear blue eyes. Even the platinum-blonde hair that used to crumble under his grasp.
He hooked a lock of her hair, which he had indulged in freely at night, around his finger and gripped it gently. He delighted in the feeling of it crumpling weakly in his hand.
*Clang!*
At that moment, a chilling friction sound tore through the air. It was the sound of Flora, having drawn her own sword with remarkable speed, deflecting the Duke’s blade diagonally.
Taking advantage of the distance this created, Flora turned her back toward the railing and put strength into her stiff fingertips.
“I have no intention of going back.”
The handsome Duke’s brow furrowed slightly. Sensing her next move intuitively, the Duke twisted one corner of his mouth.
“I admit you’re strong, but not in front of me.”
The man’s lips curved smoothly as he looked at Flora, clutching her small sword, with calm eyes.
He watched her like a small, wary kitten raising its fur, finding it rather adorable, then let out a sigh.
“Even if you unsheathe your claws, it’s only an itch to me.”
Flora bit her lip. Indeed, after just a single clash of swords, the back of her hand gripping the handle was trembling.
“Stop here. I know why you’re acting like this.”
The man’s arrogantly dropped tone was heavy. A dazzling smile graced the Duke’s face, as if promising to quell her repeated escape attempts once and for all.
“I gave up on the idea of sending you to the Emperor long ago.”
The man’s large hand reached out to her. Though the gesture seemed kind at first glance, Flora did not let go of her tension.
“So give up now and behave yourself.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Flora swiftly turned and leaped onto the castle wall’s railing. One of the Duke’s eyebrows rose in displeasure.
“What are you doing? Thinking of jumping from here?”
“Do you think I can’t?”
The man’s smoothly curved eyes narrowed in an instant. Her attitude—that she would rather jump than return to him—quickly soured his mood.
“You’re asking for too much of my leniency. Have you forgotten who you are?”
Claude Heinster, the head of the only ducal family in the Regentra Empire and the Supreme Commander of the Southern Front, was a man at the pinnacle of power, arrogant by necessity.
Thus, he had no reason to tolerate this woman’s escape act that so irritated his nerves any further.
If she refused, he would just drag her along. It was an exceedingly clear logic.
“If you’ve forgotten, let me remind you. You are my possession.”
The arrogant, heartless man flashed a brilliant smile.
“Shall I put it more simply? It means you’re a woman I picked up. Which is to say, you will obediently follow only my command.”
The cold reprimand pierced her heart.
Flora, swallowing down the ache in her chest, turned her gaze from him to the sky. Above the cloudless, clear sky, a white falcon with dark blue tail feathers was leisurely drawing circles.
Her sealed lips parted weakly.
“Master, my name is not Flora.”
A small ripple stirred in the man’s gray eyes as he slowly lifted his sunken lashes. Realization gradually spread across his momentarily distorted, handsome face. From that subtle change in expression alone, she knew her suspicion was true.
“……You already knew who I was, didn’t you?”
Her voice, enduring the throbbing in her chest, trembled faintly. The man with whom she had spent countless immeasurable nights sharing warmth no longer existed.
*I was foolish.*
She had fallen helplessly for a kindness she had never received from anyone. Without even anticipating the cruel plan hidden behind that gentleness.
In the end, the final destination for a dog that has served its purpose is inside a boiling cauldron.
“……Curse me as you like.”
The man, clamping his strong jaw shut instead of offering an explanation, took a step toward her.
But Flora also stepped back by exactly the same distance.
“Too miserly even for an excuse?”
Sand crumbled softly from behind her feet as she stood precariously on the edge of the castle wall. Sensing something amiss, the Duke grimaced and urgently shouted.
“Damn it. Get down from there first, and we’ll talk.”
“There’s no reason for me to stay by your side any longer.”
Flora, throwing her sword to the ground weakly, spread her arms wide.
The man who had been approaching cautiously had his feet frozen in place in an instant. Desperate anxiety flickered across his previously composed expression.
“Damn it! Stop your nonsense and come down right now!”
The leisurely composure of the man, who had feigned calmness, vanished without a trace in an instant.
Flora gave a lonely smile to the man she had once believed to be her savior and loved with all her being.
“Because you are no longer my master.”
The next moment, Flora’s small body, standing freely without support, began to tip backward. At the same time, the man, who had carelessly thrown down his sword, dashed forward urgently.
“Flora!”
Claude, running desperately to catch her as she jumped down from the high castle wall, stretched out his long arm.
But his hand, missing by a hair’s breadth, only grasped at the air. The moment he faced his empty hand, which retained only the feeling of the soft robe slipping through his palms, Claude felt his heart sink.
*He catches nothing.*
The man’s gaze, forcibly erasing the scene he didn’t even want to imagine from his mind, poured down the wall. Even as he leaned over and frantically scanned the area, he couldn’t see her.
Instead, beyond the view obscured by the thickly rising dust, the sound of a horse crying and hooves cutting through the ground rang out.
His sharp eyes snapped toward the direction of the sound. The momentary relief on his face was horrifically distorted in an instant.
Having dramatically found her, Claude, realizing that she had, in vain, finally escaped from him, clawed at the cold stone wall.
In contrast, Flora, having safely landed on the horse that had conveniently passed through the city gate, grabbed the reins with a calm face. The white horse, happy to see its owner, snorted and tossed its mane.
“Hurry, Flora. The knights are everywhere.”
As a voice urged her from behind, Flora was about to turn the horse’s head but changed her mind and stopped. She then turned her head and looked up with an expressionless face at the man on the castle wall who was staring at her in disbelief.
Their gazes locked intently through the air.
But it was only for a moment. Flora, letting go of the gaze from the man’s face that held a strange emotion without regret, pulled hard on the reins she held.
Immediately, the pure white horse kicked the ground and ran. Her platinum-blonde hair scattered freely in the bitter cold winter wind that stung her nose.
The horse’s speed, carrying her away from the man who was once her master, was fierce. She never looked back, even as his voice called her name.
*To my arrogant master,*
*As of today, I abandon you.*
