You, My Devil - Chapter 11

Each time the horse’s hooves struck the rain-soaked ground, the sound of splashing water echoed. How many hours had they been riding?

“If you fall asleep, you’ll tumble off,” Yuri’s voice snapped Heina back to her senses, which had been drifting away with exhaustion. She raised her weary face and asked,

“How much longer do we have to go?”

“Until we reach the camp. While I was busy returning to the imperial palace because of someone, my men likely kept moving without stopping,” Yuri replied.

Heina hesitated for a moment before finally summoning the courage to ask,

“Why… did you suddenly change your mind?”

Yuri’s gray eyes locked onto her face.

“I don’t follow.”

She couldn’t tell if he was feigning ignorance or genuinely didn’t understand her question.

“You said earlier that you were going to leave me behind.”

“I did.”

“Then why—”

“Because the thought of Nadine drooling over you annoyed me too much to bear.”

So he’d come back simply because he couldn’t stomach the idea of letting someone else have her. It was a response so typical of him that Heina didn’t bother to press further. The important thing was that staying with him meant she could return to Constance. That was all that mattered.

If she were lucky, she might even find a chance to slit his throat while he slept and escape. As she mulled over her options, Yuri pulled on the reins, slowing the horse. He was silent for a moment before throwing out a comment with an edge of mischief,

“You know, you look pretty indecent right now.”

A faint smirk played on his lips. It wasn’t until then that Heina realized her torn dress, ripped apart earlier by Nadine, had slipped lower around her chest. Her face flushed bright red as she glared at him.

“Don’t look!”

“Not much I can do about what’s in plain sight.”

“I said, don’t look, you devil!”

“Didn’t you already show me everything in the bath? And you’ve seen me naked too.”

“I did not!”

“Well, if you say so.”

Her face burned all the way to her neck, leaving her speechless. Yuri chuckled as he guided the horse.

The horse carrying them both now walked at a steady pace across the damp, sandy terrain. Heina couldn’t even tell which direction they were heading in anymore. It wouldn’t have surprised her if they were lost, but Yuri rode on with confidence, occasionally glancing up at the sky.

Unaware of the Nikain people’s knack for navigating by the stars, Heina found his calm demeanor puzzling.

“Then at least let’s change this position. I won’t fall off now,” she said.

“Wow, you’re bold, giving me orders now,” he teased.

“I’m feeling dizzy! Facing backward makes me nauseous!”

Yuri laughed softly but indulged her request. He lifted her waist effortlessly, turning her around to face forward. He pressed his body against hers from behind, pulling her close.

The warmth of his breath tickled the nape of her neck, leaving her feeling strangely unsettled. This new position wasn’t much more comfortable than the last.

“Could you…,” she started.

“What?”

“Could you… move back a little?”

“If you order me like that one more time, I’ll strip you completely,” he retorted sharply.

Heina flinched at his words, sensing that he might actually follow through on the threat. Yuri’s arm, which held the reins, wrapped firmly around her waist as he pulled her against him.

“The desert wind is colder than ice. Unless you want to freeze to death, stay like this,” he said flatly.

Only then did Heina notice the biting wind stinging her face. He wasn’t wrong—the temperature was dropping rapidly in the desert night.

His body, pressed against hers, felt unexpectedly warm. Yuri showed no intention of loosening his grip. Heina, determined to distract herself from the awkward closeness, tried to focus her thoughts elsewhere.

It had been a long time since they’d left Granada. Now, all around them, there was nothing but endless darkness and sand dunes. They were traversing the heart of the vast desert.

As she lifted her head slightly, her breath caught in awe. She inhaled sharply, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Ah…!”

Heina gasped softly. The pitch-black expanse of the sky was strewn with countless stars, glittering like scattered jewels. Some twinkled faintly, while others traced long arcs as they fell.

It was the first time she had ever seen so many stars at once. For a moment, it seemed as though the stars outnumbered the empty spaces in the sky.

“So beautiful…” she murmured unconsciously.

“The desert is even more beautiful when wet. The earth becomes a mirror, reflecting the stars in the sky. Like that.”

The scenery before her was so surreal that even Yuri’s voice, typically sharp, seemed to carry a strange softness. Following his gesture, she looked where he was pointing. Sure enough, pools of water scattered across the desert reflected the stars above, creating a dazzling spectacle.

It felt as if she were walking through the heavens themselves. On the back of the slowly plodding horse, Heina suddenly asked him,

“…I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you… leaving this place to go to Constance? You didn’t seem like someone who would ever leave Granada.”

Heina didn’t understand the situation forcing Yuri to flee. He had proudly proclaimed his identity as a Nikain to her countless times, boasting about his homeland.

The reverence in his expression when praising the desert’s beauty had been almost palpable, making her scoff at the time, convinced he was exaggerating.

But now, faced with the desert’s breathtaking splendor, she found herself asking a question she might never have dared otherwise. Perhaps the starlight had enchanted her.

“I’m not leaving. Just stepping away for a while,” he replied curtly.

“……”

“I will return to Granada. Without fail.”

His voice dropped, chilling as it brushed against her ear.

“The same goes for you. Even if you go to Constance, you won’t move a single step away from me. Nothing will change. So if you’re harboring any foolish hopes, you’d best abandon them.”

She didn’t need to see his face to imagine the cruel expression he must be wearing behind her. A shiver ran down her spine.

The dreamlike moment she had spent marveling at the starlit beauty was shattered by Yuri’s words. The fear that she might end up confined, as she had been for the past year, began to creep into her heart, spreading through her like ice.

As she furrowed her pale brow, Yuri tightened his grip on the reins.

“We’re almost there,” he said.

In the distance, faint lights flickered. The smell of smoke drifted toward them on the wind. Yuri nudged the horse into a faster gallop, kicking its flank. His sharp gaze glinted with a cruel light as they rode away from Granada and in the opposite direction of his homeland.

‘I will return. I swear it.’

The faces of those who had driven him out of his country burned in his mind, filling him with seething rage. His jaw clenched tightly as he replayed the oath he had made to himself hundreds of times.

‘Oh, Nike… When I return to the desert, it will be with a storm of blood and vengeance….’

* * *

Fessis wore a weary expression as he listened to Nadine deliver an impassioned tirade about Yuri’s latest atrocity. Even though Fessis had dramatically opened the heavy tome on the table with a loud thud and conspicuously picked up his pen, Nadine showed no intention of leaving. His unspoken message—I’m busy, don’t bother me—was completely ignored.

Nadine, uncharacteristically agitated, continued ranting.

“He killed a soldier right in front of me! In the palace, no less. How could anyone in their right mind slaughter a royal guard within the imperial grounds?”

Finally, Fessis set down his pen with an audible sigh and met Nadine’s gaze.

“Does Nike know about this?” he asked, his irritation barely concealed.

Privately, Fessis felt relieved that Yuri had finally left Granada, as if a rotten tooth had been pulled. The fact that the lunatic had killed a soldier on his way out barely registered as a concern. Nadine’s exaggerated outrage felt ridiculous to him.

“No, I haven’t reported it yet. The emperor is always covering for his youngest anyway. He’d just turn a blind eye to this, too,” Nadine replied, crossing his arms.

“Then why are you telling me?” Fessis asked, leaning back slightly and tilting his head. His dark hair, with its faint blue undertone, shifted smoothly along the sharp line of his jaw.

Nadine’s visit to him, of all people, could only mean he had some ulterior motive. Nadine hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

“Fessis… I still haven’t decided whether it’s right to tell you this.”

Seeing Nadine put on such a rare display of feigned seriousness almost made Fessis snort. Now curious about how far Nadine intended to go, Fessis straightened, giving him an expectant look. His gleaming hair brushed lightly against his shoulders as he moved.

“Your beautiful eyes… they resemble your mother’s so much, Fessis.”

The mention of his mother—the current empress and Nike’s wife—made Fessis smirk. Nadine’s words were dripping with irony. Everyone in the palace knew how much Nadine had raged when his own mother, Nike’s first wife, had died and Fessis’s mother, merely a concubine at the time, had ascended to the position of empress. Nadine had schemed endlessly, but to no avail.

And now, he was calling her “Mother.” The hypocrisy was laughable.

“Ha! Brother, what exactly are you trying to say?” Fessis asked, his tone laced with mockery.

Nadine narrowed his already drooping eyes, as though preparing to divulge something weighty. His fingers tapped idly on the table. Finally, Nadine spoke with a tone of supposed gravity.

“He seemed intent on discrediting your mother. He planned to expose the empress’s ‘indecencies’ to Nike. He even asked for my support. When I refused, he killed the soldier in front of me as if to make a point.”

“What did you just say?”

The lazy movements of Fessis’s hand stilled as he stared at Nadine, disbelief evident in his gaze. Nadine suppressed a victorious smirk, knowing he’d struck a nerve.

Fessis’s devotion to his mother was unmatched. To him, she was more significant than even Nike himself. And the empress’s infamous affairs, known throughout the palace, had somehow escaped Fessis’s notice. Nadine was certain that if Fessis ever learned the truth and uncovered a list of her lovers, he’d hunt down and execute every last one of them.

That’s why you’re nothing but a grown child still clinging to your mother’s skirts, Fessis, Nadine mused to himself.

Feigning solemnity, Nadine lowered his voice, recognizing the importance of the moment.

“Exactly as I said, Fessis. Attacking your mother is no different from declaring war on you. Surely, someone as sharp as you understands that.”

Fessis chuckled coldly, his expression hardening.

“That fool must be eager to die. How else can you explain his desperate attempts to shorten his own life, Brother Nadine?”

Fessis’s lips were curled in a smile, but his eyes blazed with a deadly intent.

He had underestimated Yuri. He’d assumed that brute would come at him directly in a reckless bid for power. But now, the insult to his mother—a lowborn man daring to defile her name—was something Fessis found utterly unforgivable.

“So, what do you plan to do now?” Nadine asked casually, raising his teacup to his lips.

Though Fessis’s mouth maintained its smirk, his eyes glowed with fury, like blue flames licking at the edges of his composure. Nadine found it delightful to witness Fessis’s carefully constructed calm crumble into anger—it was always a sight worth seeing.

“What do you think? I’ll kill him.” Fessis’s tone was laced with derision. “You came to me precisely because you wanted me to act, didn’t you? And now I have more than enough reason to do so.”

He scoffed at Nadine, the sarcasm in his voice cutting. He had no patience for drawn-out games or indirect chatter. His desire to see Yuri dead was so intense it felt like it might consume him.

“Fine… but I have one request,” Nadine said, setting his cup down with deliberate care.

“What is it?”

“Bring me Yuri’s slave—Heina, the princess of Constance. Do not kill her. Deliver her to me.”

Fessis stared at him, incredulous. His disbelief was almost laughable.

“You’re serious?”

“Don’t you know me by now?” Nadine’s sharp nose wrinkled slightly as he smiled with sly amusement.

Finally, Fessis understood the full picture. Of course—Nadine, notorious for his insatiable appetite for women, would make such a demand. He was nothing short of shameless, lowering himself to personally seek out Fessis over a mere slave. The absurdity of it all nearly made Fessis burst out laughing.

“Ha! Hahaha… A simple enough request. I’ll grant it. But in return, Brother, what will you offer me?”

Nadine met Fessis’s gaze with a soft smile, his lowered eyelids giving him an air of mysterious charm. His voice turned low and deliberate as he made his offer.

“The throne. Would that pique your interest?”

* * *