In front of Vincent, there was only a chubby-cheeked little girl.

"...What on earth did you learn that kind of thing for?"

"Um, hide and seek?"

Vincent chuckled at the thought that this little girl also played hide and seek. He'd assumed she wasn't interested in such things. Perhaps she was more innocent than he'd thought.

The catch was that it was hide and seek with enemies where death was on the line. Vincent, who had no idea about the truth, looked at the adorable child before him and steeled his resolve.

"Alright! I'll definitely do it!"

"Laila, the kingdom will soon fall. Come to me."

"Vincent. Please don't say such things. I can't abandon Rohaid."

Adel, listening from a distance away from the secret meeting place, thought:

'They're playing around.'

In the end, it's the soldiers of both enemy and allied nations who die in their fight. Adel sneered inwardly and kept tapping the ground with her foot.

It was absurd that no one cared about what truly mattered.

If she told the Queen this, she would cry and apologize profusely. In truth, whether the Queen apologized or cried, Adel didn't really care. There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

The problem was the King.

The King, who cherished the Queen dearly, would be almost 100% certain to have Adel's head. Adel was absolutely necessary to win the war against the enemy nation, yet the King acted like a man maddened by 'love.' If he found out the Queen was secretly meeting Vincent here, he wouldn't care that the kingdom was in danger—he would execute Adel.

He had repaid anyone who touched his woman with death. Some said that kind of attitude from the King was cool and exciting.

Adel didn't think so.

What was the point of wielding power like that as a King? She wasn't even sure if he was a great lover... but he was certainly not a great King.

Adel had always thought that way. It seemed he hadn't always been like this, and she vaguely recalled dreaming of conquering the world in her naive days, but having tasted too much of the world's bitterness, she had let it all go.

She leaned against a tree and sighed.

If the King found out about this meeting, he would surely feel deeply betrayed by the Queen. He would probably be alone in his spacious room, drinking strong whiskey and setting the mood. If he broke bottles and rampaged as if seized by madness, it would be the maids who would die.

The King would throw the court into chaos and fall into deep contemplation about whether he should confine the Queen so she couldn't go anywhere. And after this profound deliberation, one thing would happen—Adel's head would be cut off.

If this meeting were discovered, not only the maids and Adel, but even the gatekeeper who had let the Queen out would suffer.

"They're really playing around."

It was such a sad thing to have no power. Adel's death would serve as a wake-up call for the Queen to be more cautious...

Just as Adel was clicking her tongue in thought, Vincent's voice came again.

"What's so good about such a pathetic excuse of a man?"

It was a pitiful, shabby remark full of jealousy.

But Adel found herself nodding involuntarily. As he said, King Rohaid was a pathetic excuse of a man. He was someone who would gladly behead a knight who had been forcibly dragged along by his orders.

For a moment, she wondered if it was right to agree with the enemy king, but whatever. After all, today's meeting was a secret one. Once the two parted ways, what happened today would become as if it never happened.

So Adel's internal agreement would also become as if it never happened.

Adel glanced behind her. They were far enough away that she could only occasionally hear snippets of conversation, so she couldn't see their faces clearly.

Nevertheless, the man standing in the moonlight looked quite beautiful.

The Queen Laila, crying and trying to dissuade Vincent, and the man wiping away her tears. In a way, they looked like lovers.

Did Queen Laila know that her lighthearted actions had Adel's life hanging in the balance? And that she was fueling Vincent's hopes?

Her head full of flowers, she would never know. Not before, not now, not ever.

Forever.

And what about that man?

Perhaps because Adel was staring so openly, Vincent raised his head and gave her a glance. His eyes signaled her not to stare.

But Adel responded with a defiant look that said, "What are you going to do about it?"

In the middle of the night, the strange psychological battle between the two continued for a while.

Adel woke from sleep and frowned at the strange content. Why had that moment suddenly appeared in her dream?

It was as out of the blue as her unexpected regression upon realizing she was a character in a story.

"What a stupid dream."

Adel concluded and shook her head vigorously.

What was the point of dreaming that?

It only reminded her that King Rohaid was a pathetic excuse of a man and that Queen Laila's head was a flower garden.

What were those love-crazed bastards up to about now?

Vincent Rogato was seven, so the two of them would be around the same age. She remembered Laila being about two years younger than Vincent.

Though they were still young, the King and Queen had likely been building their bond for a long time. The engagement between Rohaid and Laila was a sacred pact established even before the two were born.

So when a daughter was born into the Count's family, the entire kingdom was in a festive mood.

Adel had no memory of experiencing all this firsthand, yet strangely, the information was in her head.

It seemed to be because this was the backbone of the story's framework.

Then was it natural that Vincent would come to love Laila?

That was something that could only be known after time passed and Vincent became an adult and entered the academy.

"Let's forget the stupid dream and head to the training ground."

Adel rose from her seat. It had already been a week since she started training. In that time, Vincent had gained a little weight. His posture had also improved, and he looked taller.

Adel sniffed the air and found that the mage seemed to have finished preparing the meal.

Grabbing her honestly growling stomach and heading to the kitchen, the table was, as expected, laden with delicious food.

Without so much as a greeting, Adel sat down and began eating ravenously. She had no intention of being polite to her enemy's right-hand man.

Unfortunately, Adel could no longer earn money by breaking down walls. No matter how she thought about it, it seemed that hiring a child to do that work had indeed been a bad idea.

With her source of income cut off, she needed a guardian. So eating here was just a temporary truce. Adel thought so to herself.

But today was strange. The mage didn't go to work and instead sat across from Adel, watching her eat. Could it be that the mage had also been let go?

Unable to endure his gaze any longer, Adel spoke.

"My fist is not merciful."

"Hm?"

"Especially to perverts."

At her added remark, the mage's eyes went wide, and after a moment, he burst out laughing.

Was it because it was absurd to be threatened by a child of about six? But for something that absurd, he seemed quite amused.

Adel looked at the strange man and shook her head, thinking he really was a pervert. There was also a sense that a madman couldn't be understood by ordinary people.

"You're really fascinating."

"You're fascinating too."

At Adel's curt retort, the man laughed once more and said.

"In my life, I've never seen a soul like yours."

"How much could you have possibly lived?"

He looked to be in his early twenties at most, yet he spoke like an old soul. Besides, his tone didn't particularly convey any sense of experience.

"But... soul?"

The mage nodded.

"I'm studying the world. Observing people, observing nature. There are no limits to my research subjects."

His smiling voice was quite irritating.

"So I'm a research subject?"

Hearing that from someone who truly looked like a research subject didn't sit well with her.

Still, Adel exercised patience and waited for him to continue. The fact that she still hadn't punished him—she admired her own inner growth.

"People, animals, plants—every living being has a vessel for the soul. And their sizes are all roughly similar."

"So?"

"But your soul's vessel—I can't even gauge its size. It's like I can't properly see it."

"I am rather special."

The one who turned a kingdom into an empire—that was Adel. Hearing that her vessel was large made her forget her earlier irritation, and she curled the corners of her mouth as she ate.

The mage, watching Adel, propped his chin on his hand and murmured.

"It's hard to believe you're a human of this world."

"I didn't hear that."

"If you didn't hear it, then it's fine."

How anticlimactic. Had he been sitting here all this time just to say her vessel was large?

She wondered what kind of reaction he would have if he found out this wasn't real reality but a story.