Thud. Thud.

Walking down the corridor with heavy steps, Archiel’s gaze sank deeply.

The pale green eyes of the emperor he had just seen flickered before him.

Those were absolutely not the eyes of Michael Andor he had seen until now. Even considering that he had lost his memory, he was absolutely not Michael Andor. Whether one had memories or not, a person’s nature did not change. Then perhaps that was....

‘Andrea....’

Archiel moved his lips and silently repeated Andrea’s name.

A hope that had been frustrated countless times. But Archiel still could not let go of the thread of hope.

Even after confirming that Michael Andor was not the Andrea of long ago, Archiel was certain. No matter how many times he reconsidered it, ten times, a hundred times, the emperor was clearly bound by a powerful tie of blood to Andrea.

And not just as simple brothers. No matter how much siblings could resemble each other, they could not look that identical. To be that identical, there was no answer except identical twins.

It did not take long to reach that conclusion. Having made up his mind, Archiel secretly bribed people to dig through imperial records and investigated the people involved in the empress dowager’s childbirth.

But nowhere was there any related record left, and the people involved in the birth had all long since disappeared or died in unfortunate accidents.

However, the very fact that traces of the past had been so thoroughly erased was proof enough that the empress dowager had given birth to identical twins, something that would never be tolerated in the imperial family.

A gloomy mansion located deep in the forest of the northern territory. Andrea, who grew up there completely cut off from the world.

If the current empress dowager, who had been empress at the time, had secretly taken one of the twins away and hidden him to raise him, everything fit.

After the mansion burned down and was destroyed, Archiel obsessively dug into the former emperor and the house of Fernan. But from either side, he could not find any trace of contact with Andrea.

In the end, it was one of two things. Either they felt threatened by Andrea’s actions in making escape plans with Archiel, an outsider, and killed him to erase his very existence, or they moved him to a new place where he would truly be isolated from the world forever and kept him thoroughly imprisoned.

If it was the empress dowager or Duke Fernan, they would surely know Andrea’s whereabouts. But they would never open their mouths. The moment Andrea’s existence was revealed to the world, it would be no different from exposing their own flaw.

In the end, all Archiel could do was forcibly deal with Michael, who was obsessed with him, and subtly probe whether he knew anything about Andrea’s existence or location. Of course, even all of that effort had come to nothing.

Again and again, Archiel traced in his mind the emperor’s appearance from just a moment ago, so different from before.

The emperor, who had supposedly fallen from his horse while hunting, had been unconscious for quite a long time. The emperor’s safety had been thoroughly protected by Duke Fernan, with no exposure whatsoever to outsiders.

Then, after miraculously waking, the emperor had lost his memory and shown a completely different appearance from before....

No matter how much memory one lost, could a person, could a person’s gaze change that much?

And those calluses on his hand... the distinctive calluses that only someone who had never held a bow, but instead had spent a lifetime holding a pen, could have, were not something that could appear overnight.

What if.... if, just if, the emperor had actually died in that fall?

If the only emperor with mixed imperial and house of Fernan blood had died without leaving even an heir....

The empress dowager and Duke Fernan would surely have had no choice but to think of Andrea.

A twin brother who looked exactly like the emperor. If they had taken Andrea and made him fill that place....

Goosebumps rose all over his body.

Archiel rubbed his face with his hand again and again.

This hypothesis, bordering on delusion, was only possible when every possibility fit perfectly.

The possibility that Andrea was the emperor’s twin brother.

The possibility that the emperor might have died from the fall.

The possibility that Duke Fernan had taken the Andrea he had hidden deep away and was making him play the emperor.

Only when all of these possibilities, each with an extremely low probability, were combined did it finally become complete....

Archiel took a deep breath.

To confirm it, he had no choice but to make direct contact with the emperor, just as he had done several times before. Even if it ended in disappointment and frustration, he could not help but check again. So he gladly accepted the invitation. And with a hardened face, he asked the question.

‘Do you remember that boy?’

At that question, the emperor lowered his golden eyelashes deeply, hiding his eyes. And answered.

‘As you also heard, I have lost all my memory right now, so I do not even remember who the boy you are talking about is.’

Of course, Archiel did not believe those words completely. But he had no choice but to admit it. Even if the current emperor was Andrea, he could not be in a situation where he could trust him and reveal his true identity.

If he truly was the forbidden identical twin.... best case, he would be imprisoned in a cold tower and slowly die, and in the worst case, his head would be cut off in the name of religion.

So for Andrea, if he really was Andrea, it was a very wise answer.

If all of these hypotheses were true, then he was probably completely in Duke Fernan’s grasp. Duke Fernan would likely turn Andrea into his puppet and use him to manipulate this empire as he pleased.

Thinking that far, Archiel clenched his fist tightly beneath his sleeve.

When he was a powerless boy, he had not been able to save Andrea from that mansion. Then could he save Andrea this time from Duke Fernan and the shackles of a puppet emperor?

If he failed again, this time he would lose Andrea forever, with not even a shred of hope left.

The man in servant’s clothes walking toward him from the opposite side pressed himself against the wall and lowered his head. Archiel passed him indifferently, his sharp eyes flashing.

He was probably one of Duke Fernan’s watchers, scattered thickly throughout the imperial palace and the imperial capital. Presumably, he had been sent to keep watch after hearing that the emperor and Archiel had met alone.

Of course, that watcher would not be the only one. There would have been Duke Fernan’s eyes and ears inside the reception room where he had spoken with the emperor as well.

‘This time, I will definitely save you, Andrea. So... please, be the real you.’

Archiel raised his hand and gripped the pendant hanging hidden beneath his collar with all his strength.

***

After sending Kiel away, Andrea sank into a gloomy mood. Noticing that, the chief attendant held his breath, sent the musicians who had been keeping still away, and brought warm tea again. The other attendants, as if they were shadows, made no sound at all and only watched Andrea’s mood.

Andrea also noticed their demeanor, but he did not have the strength to tell them he was fine, or even to smile a little. He only floundered alone in deep melancholy.

At last, Andrea had met Kiel, but when Kiel subtly asked if he was Andrea, he could not answer yes.

In the end, his own safety had mattered more to him than reuniting with Kiel. Thinking that way, even the feelings he had long held for Kiel felt like a fleeting illusion.

As the glow of sunset began to fade, the attendants lit candles in every corner of the reception room. The soft light burning atop the beautiful candlesticks made the atmosphere of the reception room even more splendid.

Andrea, who had been sinking alone into melancholy for a long time, suddenly fixed his gaze on one candlestick lit nearby.

Unlike the cheap, sooty candles he had to use sparingly when reading through the night, the candles in the imperial palace did not even give off smoke, let alone soot. Looking at the candles, which must have been unimaginably expensive, Andrea was able to slowly push back the gloom.

Yes. At least the present him was not that Andrea, who had been isolated in the monastery, with no hope or future, waiting only for time to pass.

He might be Duke Fernan’s puppet, but he had a status. And he also had the chance to dream of limited freedom and a new future. So there was no need to remain in despair like this.

He had time, after all. So he would watch Kiel and slowly find out whether he would become his boy, or a dangerous enemy. That would do.

Looking at the candle on the golden candlestick, burning itself away to give light, Andrea steeled his resolve like that.