Despite my efforts to hide it, the trembling seemed to have been transmitted through our touching bodies.
‘Shaking like a dog!’
I grimaced at his crude choice of words.
Then, losing the energy to be angry, I replied listlessly.
“...It’s not just because I’m cold.”
“Then what?”
The prince asked sharply.
“Just...”
“Just?”
Trying to brush it off, but it didn’t work on him.
I held his large cloak tightly, rubbing my cold, trembling hands and pretended nothing was wrong.
“...When I close my eyes, I keep thinking about what happened earlier.”
“Earlier?”
The prince frowned, pondering, then seemed to recall something and exclaimed, “Ah.”
“...When I fell off the cliff? Ah, you fainted right after falling, so that can’t be it.”
“...”
“Are you thinking about the time you almost got hit by a bear for being reckless?”
“Ha... Yes.”
I was too tired to react to each of his comments.
“Thinking about almost getting hit by a bear is making my body shake like a dog.”
I muttered, my voice unusually harsh for someone who was supposedly trembling with fear.
With a deep sigh, I exaggerated my admission, and the prince fell silent.
I thought he would sneer, saying something like, ‘Do mad dogs do that?’
But it was unexpected.
A peaceful moment found us in the cozy cave with the fire burning.
Indeed, as I gradually regained consciousness through our conversation, the cold and trembling that had overwhelmed me began to subside.
However, a heavy fatigue took its place.
I leaned my head against the thick arm that was wrapped around my ear.
‘Since he hugged me first without asking, he should at least serve as a pillow.’
Just as I was about to close my eyes.
“...When I was a child.”
A voice like a sigh suddenly came from beside me.
Too lazy to turn my head, I only moved my eyes to look.
The prince, with a subtle expression, looked down at me and continued.
“I think I was about nine or ten years old.”
“...”
“I once encountered a bear of similar size to the one you met today in this forest.”
“...A bear?”
“Yeah.”
I was surprised by the sudden story, which was eerily similar to what I had experienced today.
Noticing my interest, the prince continued without pause.
“I couldn’t shoot an arrow at the bear running towards me, unlike you.”
“...”
“I was terrified. I barely managed to dodge its front paws just before it hit me.”
“...But, Your Highness, you were much younger then, compared to now.”
I responded, noting his self-deprecating tone.
Even at the age of nine or ten.
How much fear must the young prince have felt facing a giant beast?
Somehow, I found myself offering words of comfort, but Calisto shook his head firmly.
“Age doesn’t matter for the one who will inherit the throne. The emperor must always be flawless.”
“But...”
“Besides, I didn’t completely avoid it. Stupidly, my arm was grazed by its claws. If I had been a bit slower, my arm would have been torn off. I was lucky.”
“Huh...”
He lifted his left arm, and I shuddered at his candid description.
The prince’s lips curled into a smirk, finding my reaction amusing.
“While I was running away from the monster, arrows suddenly flew from the opposite direction.”
“Were the royal guards there?”
“I thought so at first.”
The prince’s brows furrowed.
“But when I ran towards them, I realized they were assassins in black clothes shooting arrows at me.”
“Ah, assassins?”
“I was just a ten-year-old kid, and they were sent to kill me with such fervor.”
I gaped at his calm explanation.
It was hard to believe that sending dozens of assassins to kill a child in the hunting grounds was normal.
I recalled the twenty assassins I faced today.
‘...This must happen often.’
No wonder the prince was surprisingly calm and collected when he encountered the assassins in the middle of the hunting grounds.
The tyrant’s childhood, which wasn’t detailed in the game, was more unfortunate than I imagined.
“...Who sent them?”
“Who knows. The investigation was inconclusive, so the person who hired the assassins was never identified...”
He stroked his chin, then his crimson eyes flashed.
“But it was probably the empress or her relatives. At that time, the second prince was a struggling student who couldn’t even read properly.”
There was no affection in his voice as he casually called his only younger brother a ‘struggling student.’
I suddenly felt worried.
“But... is it okay to tell me all this?”
“What does it matter? You’re not going to side with the second prince now. Even if you did, I doubt it would be of any use.”
It was true, and it made me angry, but why did my fists clench?
‘Given his upbringing from a young age, it’s no wonder his personality is completely ruined...’
I nodded in understanding, then urged him to continue with a look.
“So what happened next?”
“Anyway, while I was running towards the assassins to avoid the bear, I was hit in the chest by an arrow and fell down the slope.”
“H-Hit in the chest?”
“Yeah. Fortunately, I didn’t die thanks to the late emperor’s keepsake I was wearing around my neck.”
I instinctively looked down at Calisto’s neck.
But there was only his bare, muscular chest, not even a scrap of cloth.
“It’s not here now. I couldn’t use it after that, so I stored it separately.”
The prince sneered.
“Are you now going to stop pretending to be close to me?”
“Ahem!”
My face flushed. I cleared my throat and quickly turned my head.
“S-So, what happened next? What about the bear chasing you?”
Trying to change the subject, the prince smirked but went along with it.
“Funnily enough, thanks to falling down the slope, the bear ran past me and attacked the assassins.”
He twisted his lips again, recalling the moment.
“It was a bloody fight. That bear was incredibly intelligent. It fought skillfully against over a dozen armed men.”
‘Roar-!’
It sounded like a bear was roaring somewhere.
I imagined the young prince watching in silence as the huge, rampaging bear swept away the assassins with its paws.
“...So who won?”
The prince answered expressionlessly.
“They both perished.”
“Both...?”
“The assassins had the numerical advantage, but they didn’t carry close-range weapons to minimize traces.”
“...”
“Conversely, the bear swept them all away and won, but it eventually died from the poison on the arrows.”
In the end, the only survivor in that gruesome scene was the young prince.
“What do you think I did next?”
This time, the prince suddenly asked me a question.
“...”
I moved my lips but couldn’t come up with an answer.
What could I have done?
If it were me, I would have fled desperately during the bear and assassins’ battle and escaped the forest.
“I cut off the bear’s head and took it with me.”
But the young prince, as described by the person himself, did something I never would have imagined.
“And I proudly won the hunting competition.”
“...”
“After the award ceremony, I threw the bear’s head on top of the pile of gifts for the second prince. The sight of the fresh blood dripping was quite impressive.”