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103 Chapter

“…How did you know?”

Pepper asked guardedly.

The low voice imbued with the gravitas of a Sword Expert could have posed a significant threat, but to my eyes, he honestly looked like a fluffy cat with its fur bristled.

I shrugged.

“Honestly, it’s not hard to guess when someone’s been staring at me with such intense eyes.”

The fiery light in his light brown irises was far from friendly.

A peculiar look mixed with suspicion, wariness, and doubt. There was no way I, overly sensitive to such hostility, wouldn’t pick up on it.

“You’ve always looked at me like you have a lot to say, and today you want to spill it all, don’t you?”

Pepper Ellervine had often glared at me with that same look every time I met with Diego. It was so intense and cocky that I could have considered filing a complaint for defamation based on his gaze alone.

‘Can I finally escape from that gaze now?’

I chuckled softly, keeping my gaze on Pepper.

Apparently embarrassed at having been caught, Pepper bit his lip and glared at me fiercely.

I’ve always thought of his eyes as rather impertinent.

‘I get that I know what kind of person Pepper is, but… he really is annoyingly straightforward.’

In other words, Pepper Ellervine was someone who couldn’t hide himself. He could have donned a mask-like smile like most nobles and kept his true feelings hidden, but he was too honest to manage even that.

If he had suspicions, it was written all over his face.

‘Furthermore, he doesn’t have a pleasant demeanor at all.’

His sharply angled eyes looked aggressive, bordering on feral. Plus, his innate expression could easily be misconstrued as a glare.

It was evident he had the kind of face that would earn misunderstandings left and right.

‘But… it’s not so bad.’

Still, I was giving Pepper high marks. Even if he looked upon me with disdain.

In my previous life, I might not have liked him, but now, as a Prosecutor faced with a Prosecutor, I found him appealing. Honesty, integrity, and fortitude were qualities I held in high regard as a prosecutor.

“…Then I will be direct.”

‘Look at him now.’

Who would dare to speak like this to the Young Lady of the House of Crisis?

If Pepper valued his life, he should be very careful about his words and actions before me, but he appeared not the least bit concerned.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I gazed into his passionately fiery eyes.

“Alright. I’ll listen to you, so go ahead. Be direct.”

“Honestly, I don’t trust you, Your Highness.”

I chuckled awkwardly at Pepper, who had thrown that bomb of a statement straight at me. The light brown eyes looking directly at me were filled not with deception, but with sharp wariness.

I wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t trust me; I had anticipated it and could guess the reasons.

However, I tilted my head in a gesture of courtesy.

“Is that so? Why?”

“You’re someone with an unclear background. You’ve gotten quite close to the extremely suspicious Crown Prince in such a short time. It’s very suspicious. Moreover, you’ve even become the tutor of His Highness the Second Prince; could you be a pawn of Her Majesty the Empress?”

‘Does he really think I’m not scary at all?’

I couldn’t help but exhale a hollow laugh. Beginning from my background as a commoner to being accused of being a pawn of the Empress, I felt like I was facing someone unafraid of death.

‘But I don’t dislike him.’

Perhaps due to having become numb to insults while living as a mercenary, but above all else, Pepper’s words were not laced with sarcasm. He was speaking honestly and plainly his opinions.

I contemplated without showing any displeasure on my face.

Indeed, since Pepper didn’t know I was the prosecutor who saved Diego from assassins, he also didn’t know the reason for the closeness between Diego and me. In his eyes, I must have looked quite suspicious.

“So in short, you’re worried I might become a burden and want me to keep my distance, is that it?”

That must be the conclusion. Pepper was absolutely loyal to Diego, and all his attention was directed toward Diego’s safety. It felt oddly reminiscent of parents scolding their children to avoid bad company.

“That’s correct. Your Highness is too close to the Crown Prince. His Highness is showing you too much affection. If you were to poison the cup, how devastating would it be for him?”

‘Really, that blunt mouth… there’s probably no cure for it.’

I was tempted to point out his dangerous tongue for daring to imply that I might kill a royal, but I held back. Critiquing him wouldn’t change his manner of speaking.

‘After all, I heard Diego almost got killed a couple of times for speaking to him like this.’

If critiquing worked, Diego wouldn’t have mentioned wanting to shut Pepper up forever.

I tilted my head, pondering that if Pepper were to lose his life, it might just be due to that brazen mouth of his.

“How did you come to serve the Crown Prince?”

I posed a question that seemed rather abrupt. Pepper squinted at me.

“Why do you ask?”

“Out of curiosity. Quit stalling and tell me.”

Pepper’s unwavering loyalty toward Diego had been detailed several times in the original story. However, it had never been explained why he had become so blindly devoted to Diego, and I had always been curious about it.

Pepper hesitated for a moment, looking dubious, but eventually opened his mouth.

“…You might know. I am the illegitimate child of the Count Ellervine.”

The fact that Pepper was an illegitimate child was somewhat known in the social circles, so I merely nodded in silence. He continued.

“I desperately trained to become a Sword Expert, but being an illegitimate child, there were few places that would take me in. I couldn’t even dream of joining the Knights Order of the Imperial Palace. At that time, it was the First Prince Diego, who had not been proclaimed Crown Prince yet, who took me in when I was wandering.”

The light brown eyes of Pepper glittered with memories. A profound loyalty could be seen on his face as he gazed into the void.

“Now that he has become the Crown Prince, security has tightened… but at the time when he was just the First Prince, he was quite vulnerable. It was a struggle just to cope with the daily assassins. If it weren’t for the letters that came every day, both His Highness and I might not be alive today.”

“Letters?”

The sudden appearance of that word made me narrow my eyes. Realizing he’d said something he shouldn’t, Pepper promptly shut his mouth, glancing around furtively.

‘It seems this is something he shouldn’t speak about.’

I was curious about the identity of the letter that had saved Diego but didn’t want to make Pepper uncomfortable unnecessarily. I nodded for him to continue.

“Ah, anyway. At that time, I wasn’t really fond of the position of His Highness’s knight. It was an extremely exhausting position. But my mindset changed the day he solved the test set by the Emperor.”

“The Emperor’s test?”

“Yes. The Emperor frequently administers difficult problems to gauge his temperament.”

‘True enough. With his character…’

I couldn’t help but recall Helios, who abruptly brought monster blood during a tea party with a Young Lady, so it made sense.

“That day, the Emperor set forth an excessive problem. The test sent from the Emperor was… ‘If you truly wish to be loyal to me, you must kill your closest shadow and bring it to me.’”

“Huh.”

I let out a hollow laugh. That was indeed a cruel problem.

‘The term ‘shadow’ has historically referred to a noble’s knight.’

The meaning behind telling Diego to kill his shadow, his closest knight, was obvious.

The Emperor had commanded Diego to kill Pepper.

“On that day, I braced myself for death. I had already been prepared, for a noble’s knight is a dangerous position, and I wouldn’t last long in it.”

“…And?”

It was hard to believe that Pepper was speaking about the day he almost died so calmly. Instead, it felt as if I was the one burdened with heaviness, and I was urged to continue the story.

“Do you know?”

“Hmm?”

“His Highness has a distinctive scar on his left pinky.”

“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”

I blinked, caught off guard.

I had been aware of that. I had seen Diego’s hands more than a few times.

There was a faint scar etched at the tip joint of his left pinky. Even though it was faint, I could see it clearly enough that I had wondered how it happened.

‘This was… um, a minor accident.’

Back then, his answer had been somewhat vague, making me find it strange.

“Don’t tell me…”

“I offered my sword to His Highness. And I presented my neck. When he accepted my sword, without hesitation…”

“He cut off his pinky?”

At my incredulous question, Pepper nodded silently.

“For the Emperor’s sake, a shadow could be killed countless times, but he couldn’t tolerate the notion that the Emperor would suspect his loyalty… so he wrote a letter and, along with his own finger, sent it to the Emperor.”

‘Both of them must be out of their minds…’

I couldn’t hide my horrified expression.

Helios had likely not intended for such a cruel problem to be taken seriously. Although he might be overly mischievous, he wasn’t one to take someone’s life without cause.

Diego surely knew that, and yet he had still committed the insane act of cutting off his own finger.

“The Imperial Palace must have been in chaos.”

“Yes. The shocked Emperor, accompanied by a substitute, came to find His Highness in person. That’s when I realized for the first time that the Emperor curses quite well.”

Even a lunatic like Helios would have been stunned. It was one thing for him to pose a problem on a whim, but his son went and sent a severed finger back.

Just hearing it made my head ache; I let out a groan.

“The finger healed perfectly with the treatment of the minister, and once the incident was resolved, I asked His Highness why he went through such trouble when simply killing me would have sufficed.”

As Pepper gazed towards the sky, his eyes were deep and somber.

Born as an illegitimate child and prepared to be used as a tool, Pepper Ellervine had become Diego’s knight.

“His Highness answered me this way: ‘Whatever the circumstances, now that you are mine, I will not allow you to die in vain. I will repay your loyalty by showing you a better world.’”

His voice was heavy. It was indeed so Diego-like.

“That day, I resolved. I would ensure that His Highness became Emperor. I vowed that the sun for me is only His Highness.”

His determined gaze was fixed on me.

Those eyes that appeared somewhat lifeless would shine only when talking about Diego.

I could understand why Pepper was so blind in his loyalty towards Diego.

“That was the case.”

“I resolved to eliminate anything that poses a threat to His Highness as his shadow.”

His eyes sparkled.

“Therefore, I have no intention of leaving this suspicious Young Lady alone.”

Pepper lowered his voice threateningly.

‘Hmm…’

It felt like I was being threatened by a baby badger.

 

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