◆◆
Too dangerous.
When Go Chaeha said those words, I forced myself to calmly organize my thoughts.
Go Won never looked favorably upon him. His gaze always carried caution and judgment, and never once contained goodwill. If that was the case, there was no reason for me to obediently behave according to his standards. The card called Go Chaeha—the most inconvenient existence in the royal family. The more Go Won disliked it, the more effective that choice became.
As if crushing fallen rose petals, I slowly pressed him down with my shoe.
This was not an impulse. It was closer to a decision.
"Ah…."
A short groan escaped him.
The closer I stepped, the harder it became to breathe. Go Chaeha looked up at me with an innocent face. His eyes clearly knew what he wanted.
With a face capable of breaking me down in an instant, he said,
"Take me."
Was I the one who had gone mad? Confusion, and at the same time a strange excitement rushing in.
His gaze, unlike that pure face, swept openly over my reaction.
Dangerous.
I grabbed the tie around his neck and pulled hard. His upper body tilted toward me, and I pressed my lips against the faintly smiling ones.
I swallowed the sweet fruit that might well have been poison. The kiss was sweet, bitter, and poisonous.
I hated how obediently he followed my touch. I hated the way he tried to silence everything with shallow intimacy. I decided to release all that anger during the freedom this moment allowed me.
"You started this. So don't expect mercy from me now."
I climbed over his thigh and pressed him down completely.
My reflection in the large mirror behind him.
With my long black hair disheveled as I pounced on him, the image resembled a black jaguar that had lurked in the pitch-dark night for a long time waiting for prey. The instinct of a beast that had survived starvation in the harsh hillside slums burst out the moment it saw the most dazzling and appetizing prey before it.
No matter how unwelcome you are in the palace as an illegitimate child, you are still the late king's son.
Pretending to be pitiful. Pretending to be in the same situation as me.
To me, it is all hypocrisy.
Tonight, under the guise of this night's play, I begin venting my resentment.
I pressed down on the back of his neck with both hands as if choking him, then sharply bit his lower lip. Instead of the metallic smell of blood, hot breath burst out.
"Ahh…."
Go Chaeha's body flinched as he tried to wrap his arms around my waist, but I grabbed both his wrists and pinned them against the sofa as if binding them.
"You won't be able to hold me so easily anymore."
"That's too cruel for me."
Cruel? Just because you can't hold me with both arms?
Have you ever thought about how many women poured their sincerity into your careless actions only to end up in despair?
Despising people who act differently depending on the situation and viewing everything negatively—that was simply my nature.
Every time my contempt showed on my face, the thing beneath me twitched.
I pressed my lips close to his ear and whispered. My hot breath made even the fine hairs on his skin stand up.
"Today I'm going to punish you. Repent for everything you've done."
I captured his lips again. This time deeper, slower. While my tongue invaded his mouth and stirred inside, Go Chaeha had no intention of resisting. He simply let his body slacken.
They say that when a predator bites the back of its prey's neck, the prey feels a strange sense of relief instead of pain.
Completely subdued beneath me, breathing heavily, he looked pitiful and alluring—like a tamed cat exposing its belly in submission.
Tonight, the food chain inside this palace had been overturned.
◆
I was looking down at the eyes of a corpse lying on the ground.
Moonlight filtered through the dark forest and pointed directly at it. The eyes of the beast, still warm, trembled faintly before losing focus and turning dull.
Its limbs that had writhed in agony finally stopped moving, yet I felt neither pleasure nor guilt. I simply examined it like a mechanic inspecting parts after dismantling a broken clock.
"Still not good enough today."
Unlike before, as time passed only emptiness and hollowness remained.
Dark red drops of blood clung to the leather gloves. I slowly removed them.
Something like that could happen again, so it would be best to deal with it here in the forest.
At my gesture, the commander of the royal guards standing behind me approached.
Even when he saw the corpse and the pool of blood on the ground, he did not flinch. Compared to trivial matters like that, he valued me far more.
"Clean up the rest."
He pulled a clean linen handkerchief from his chest and handed it to me.
"Shall I wipe it?"
In response to his quiet question, I tossed the blood-stained handkerchief onto the corpse.
"Burn it. Leave not a single strand of fur."
"As you command."
In the small forest near the palace, I relieve my stress. Perhaps it is simply because I feel empty.
When I returned to the detached palace, everything was already quiet and covered in darkness. Only a small lamp on the wall cast a faint light.
Then I saw a young girl standing at the end of the corridor.
She ran toward me and shouted.
"Stop. This is a bad thing!"
Without hesitation she hugged my blood-stained body and began wiping it off.
"You shouldn't take lives. Life is precious."
Blood dripped from our bodies.
"A monster…!"
A scream echoed behind me.
I opened my eyes on the bed.
My hand trembled as I stared at my palm.
"…Disgusting."
◆◆
Low voices echoed from the end of the corridor.
"Your Highness, I hope you are well."
Crown Prince Go Won.
Before I even lifted my head, his presence changed the air.
His gaze landed precisely on me.
I bowed.
"Your Highness, I hope you are well."
The gaze that should have passed lingered.
Surely… he didn't know about that night with Go Chaeha.
"Looks like you have something to hide. But I never asked what you did."
I looked up at him.
"If you try to scheme inside the palace, it won't be easy. Everything eventually reaches me."
Then, after a brief silence—
"Remember this."
His voice was cold.
"I do not tolerate anyone who climbs over me."