Choices
"Between past and present, loyalty and love, we carry the burdens we choose—and those chosen for us."
Medea gazed down from the palace's highest tower.
"Your Highness should have been there as well."
Neril sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"With all due respect, I still cannot fathom why Your Highness has so persistently refused to attend the ceremony."
Her voice grew louder, frustration seeping through despite her efforts at restraint.
She couldn't suppress the regret and inexplicable sorrow welling up inside her.
"The Regent's downfall, the rebellion's suppression, the victory over the plains—*all* of it would have been impossible without Your Highness's orchestration. The one who truly protected this kingdom was *you*, Your Highness."
'Do those people shouting for joy even understand?'
The Princess had staked everything—time and again—for today's triumph.
To strangle her enemies without a single misstep, the Princess had endured countless sleepless nights.
"Neril, I'm sorry I didn't recognize your worth sooner. I was foolish."
"Neril, where is your master now?"
"Neril, prepare my sword."
All the moments when the Princess had strategized, planned, and guided her movements flashed through Neril's mind like scenes from a vivid dream.
As though sensing what occupied Neril's thoughts, Medea reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
The Princess spoke softly, lifting the corners of her lips ever so slightly.
"That is not my place."
'I don't deserve it.'
She had only just now returned to her kingdom what had been stolen and torn from it.
Medea observed the triumphant procession below with distant, hazy eyes.
The lively, jubilant atmosphere of the palace intersected with memories of the Valdina from her previous life.
Gray smoke rising from piles of corpses—demons and humans alike. A landscape of ruins where no life remained. A curse she had brought upon herself.
'It's different. It's different this time. I... changed it.'
Her other hand—not the one resting on Neril's shoulder—clenched into a tight fist within the folds of her dress.
A fierce determination flashed through her emerald eyes.
'And it will remain different. I'll make certain of it.'
It was both a vow and a reassurance she repeated to herself like a mantra.
"The ceremony no longer matters. Neril, remember—we still have work ahead of us. Who has visited the prison where House Claudio is confined?"
At Medea's question, Neril suppressed her lingering frustration and regained her composure.
She must never forget that her most important duty was to serve the Princess with capable hands and unwavering loyalty.
In truth, Neril—who had accompanied the Princess through every step despite her sullen demeanor—instinctively sensed that Medea's plan was far from complete.
'Just how far ahead is Your Highness seeing?'
"Yes, Your Highness. Count Raju visited with medicine and a physician."
"Hmm..."
'So Raju managed to survive.'
'Even in my past life, he was a master at walking the tightrope.'
Count Raju, despite being despised by Emperor Perdiccas II, had supported Jason with everything he had from the shadows.
And once Jason's throne was secured, only then did Raju emerge into the light.
'He won't give up his daughter so easily.'
Medea turned her gaze in the direction where House Claudio was imprisoned, an inscrutable expression crossing her face.
Elsewhere in the palace, two people stood at an impasse, unable to bridge the gulf between them.
"Saya, you're being *deceived*!"
Theo and Saya were siblings.
Theo had come to the palace to see her.
Before they could even begin to celebrate their reunion after years apart, a sharp tension crackled between them.
"Do you understand what kind of person the woman you serve truly is?"
"What exactly am I being deceived about?"
Saya's tone was clipped, sharp.
Gone was the girl who had always smiled brightly, showered with affection from everyone in the Princess's household.
Now Saya regarded her brother with a dry, humorless expression.
Theo's face was markedly different from what Saya remembered. He had grown taller, broader, his features more defined.
His handsome face remained, but there was something worn about him now—gloomy, exhausted.
The eyes that had once brimmed with youthful passion and energy had long since lost their vitality, like a painting left too long in the sun.
Saya could surmise that Theo's time away from her had not been entirely comfortable either.
But that knowledge offered her no solace.
"Saya, the Princess *threatened* me with your life! She used you as bait to manipulate the rebels! That's why she took you in as her handmaiden in the first place!"
Theo struck his chest as though the frustration might kill him.
He believed his sister had fallen prey to the Princess's cunning schemes.
Once she learned the truth, surely she would be shocked—horrified, even—to discover she'd been helping such a ruthless manipulator.
But contrary to his expectations, Saya simply asked, her voice eerily calm:
"So?"
"What?"
"So, Theo—what do you want now? Are you dissatisfied that the rebellion ended prematurely? Are you upset that Her Highness personally petitioned the King to spare your life?"
"Saya, how can you *say* that to me?"
Theo stared at his sister with stunned eyes. Shock, betrayal, and disappointment rippled across his face.
"Do you have any idea what I've sacrificed to save you?! What I've given up?! Freedom, my beliefs, *everything*—"
"Don't you *dare* rationalize yourself using me as an excuse!"
Saya snapped back with venom.
They were siblings who had been born into the same hardship and grown up side by side. They knew each other's hearts with painful clarity.
"Theo, don't I *know* you? If you truly believed in them—if the rebellion had been genuine—you would have defended them to the death, no matter what Her Highness threatened. You would have done it regardless of the cost. Even if it meant sacrificing my life."
Saya's voice didn't waver.
"You would have told yourself there was nothing you could do, even if it tore your heart apart. You would have deemed it an inevitable sacrifice for the greater good."
Just as he had done before—when Theo abandoned Saya without hesitation, driven mad by resentment and fury.
"Should I be *grateful* that you valued a false rebellion over my life?"
"I..."
Theo's face drained of color.
Only after his sister struck him with the brutal truth could he confront his past.
Why had he assumed his sister would understand when he'd left her behind without a second thought, consumed by anger and resentment?
The rift time had carved between them ran far too deep.
It wouldn't be mended simply because Theo had finally returned.
"Saya. I was wrong. I know how much I hurt you... I'll make amends for everything. Come with me. Let's leave this place together, all right?"
Theo extended his hand toward her, offering a belated apology.
He believed that with time, his sister's wounded heart could begin to heal.
What mattered now was getting her away from the malicious Princess.
"I'm planning to go to the Holy Land. If I petition the temple, it won't be difficult for the two of us to make a living."
"..."
"I can't leave you beside that woman any longer. She's a villain who views people as nothing more than chess pieces. Who knows when she'll use you again—"
"Theo, you were so worried about me—but did you ever think about how I was supposed to survive alone on those streets after you left?"
Back then, Saya had harbored so many things she wanted to say to her brother.
So many grievances she'd wanted to voice, so much resentment she'd longed to unleash.
But at some point, those words—and her desperate desire to find Theo—had all vanished, sinking into the sand like water.
"Her Highness warned me."
"You might regret making me your master."
Saya could never forget what the Princess had said on the day she'd accepted her earnest plea.
Perhaps that was why she wasn't shocked by Theo's accusations—because she'd anticipated a day like this.
"My belongings are so insignificant! But they're precious to His Majesty. You look at them every night before bed!"
The King's bracelet that the Princess had insisted on keeping safe. The silent apology the Princess had tried to convey.
Now it all made sense.
'Your Highness... you didn't have to apologize to me.'
Saya understood the Princess now.
Someone who left no room for regret would never have spared a disloyal person like Theo...
'...unless it was for my sake.'
The Princess had made an exception for her—because Saya's heart would have shattered at Theo's execution.
Saya rubbed fiercely at her reddening eyes, fighting back the tears threatening to spill.
"Theo. His Majesty spared your life because you are *my* brother."
"*What?*"
Theo's eyes widened like saucers, shock rendering him speechless.
---