He was definitely giving me hints while I watched him. He wants to see if I can guess who he is. What a scary man… she thought internally. Ahel lowered her hand from her mouth, feeling the goosebumps on her arm with her fingertips.

The carriage stopped its rattling and rolling; They seemed to have reached their destination. As they came to a stop, Ray rubbed an eye, saying, “Let’s get out.” Ray clambered out ahead of Ahel, who followed him out, stepping on the ground.

A magnificent building that she had not been able to see from the carriage came into her line of sight suddenly. The sheer scale of the Capital was so large, it made her jaw drop.

Ahel could see a dark blue roof if she tilted her head almost all the way back, and looked up. She passed through the ivory-coloured outer walls of the building.

The building emitted bright lights at all hours of the day, and was so beautiful it captivated your eyes, preventing you from looking elsewhere.

This is the Capital building… she thought to herself.

As Ahel was absorbed in both her thoughts and the grandeur of the building, Ray began to walk forward.

Belatedly gathering her wits, she carefully followed behind him as they entered the Imperial Palace. The interior is just as amazing as the exterior, maybe even better, she thought.

A corridor covered in a red carpet on white marble; a colourful three-column chandelier hanging from the flawless ceiling. Except for the occasional decorations and vases placed along the way, the walls were all the same colour as the floor.

As Ahel looked around, her eye was caught by a woman confidently strolling towards them from the opposite end of the hallway. Dressed neatly, she looked as if she could be a maid who worked in the Imperial Palace.

Ahel came to the conclusion that the woman had noticed her and Ray before she had noticed her, judging from the speed at which the maid was approaching.

As she got closer, all the blood drained from her face. She quickly stepped to the side and bowed deeply.

This strange behaviour confounded Ahel.

The maid’s bony shoulders shook so badly that Ahel could see it from where she was standing. All of her body languages indicated that she was in great distress.

Then, Ray did something to rival the maid’s strange actions; he walked right past the woman. He didn’t even glance at her. It seemed to Ahel like Ray expected such behaviour from the maid.

Ahel paused for a second. Her gaze alternated between Ray’s back and the woman still bent at the waist, trying to figure out what had just happened.

Turning around when he didn’t hear the sound of her soft footsteps behind him, Ray spotted her standing dumbfounded in the middle of the room.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Follow me. Don’t stop for anything”

Ahel quickly approached him, her thoughts fleeing her mind at his harsh tone.

“I’m sorry. I was thinking about something and got distracted for a second…”

“Stay behind me, do not stop,” was all Ray said in response to her.

Ensuring that she did not lag behind, Ahel followed Ray. But she could not help glancing back at the woman who still stood bowed at the waist; wondering who exactly Ray really was to elicit such a reaction.

***

Ahel quietly sighed to herself.  She didn’t know where they were going. All she knew was that she had been following him for quite a while. So long in fact, that she began to feel pain in her legs.

The man who walked ahead of her looked in better shape than her, even despite the wound on his back. His pink hair swayed in the air with every step he took.

He looks very natural, she thought to herself. Staring at him, Ahel, who laughed bitterly at herself, recalled the people she had encountered up until that point. As they walked deeper into the building, they encountered a few other people, who all displayed various reactions of respect.

Some bowed like the maid from earlier, others scurried away as soon as they greeted them, frantically disappearing off into the building. Some didn’t even bother to greet them at all, just darting off into side corridors.

But they all had one thing in common, they looked like they had seen a ghost. Like they had never expected Ray, whoever he was, to be there.

Ahel finally succeeded at remembering what had bothered her in the carriage.

“Oh, His Majesty’s pink hair… I wish I could touch it at least once!”

“Dream on! Touch him and you die!”

“No, listen to me. When I saw His Majesty at the banquet, his fresh green eyes noticed me.”

“Your eyes met? Did he stare at you like he was going to kill you?”

“Hey!”

Ahel recalled a conversation she had witnessed between two young aristocratic women. Not only had Ahel not been interested in their conversation at the time, but it was because so much time had passed. It was praiseworthy that she remembered.

As Ahel had stood in front of them to take their orders, she remembered the topic of their conversation had been the Emperor of Lobel Empire.

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“His pink hair, I want to touch it. Oh, those dreamy eyes,” the young woman had said, marvelling at the Emperor’s appearance.

Ray, who was walking ahead of Ahel, matched that description exactly.

The knight who guarded the gate; the reactions from the servants as soon as they encountered him in the hallway; the words of the young woman she’d heard at the dessert shop.

Ray is the Emperor of Lobel Empire, Ahel thought to herself, conceding all the clues. How could the man I rescued in that alley be an emperor? Ahel clenched her jaw shut, trying to suppress the sudden cough that was about to escape her throat.

Ray stopped suddenly in his tracks, and Ahel, who was closely following him, had no choice but to stop.