HEAVY silence fell over the office. Mia collected the ripped shreds of their Grand Plan and sighed loudly. The sense of profound despair in the room gradually permeated her body, weighing her down. Everyone was experiencing the same feeling. They all remained quiet, their expressions pensive.
After some time, Henrik spoke up, “It’s done.” He exchanged the ruined Grand Plan for one of their many copies.
“…Hm…?” Mia absently stared at Felix Keyserling’s signature. Suddenly, the doubts she’d shoved to the side for the time being crept back in.
Mathias didn’t call him Felix…Keyserling…did he?
A certain name repeated itself inside her head until she finally said it aloud. “Emil Felix Leonard Lohenstein…is the name Mathias said for his spell, but…isn’t that the name of Third Prince Emil…? Felix…are you…um…” Her mind raced to deny it even as she spoke. Unable to connect the pieces herself, she looked imploringly at Felix. He stared back at her with fear in his eyes.
Henrik gave a small exasperated laugh beside them. “Aaah, cat’s finally out of the bag.”
Mia looked at him in shock. “You knew?!”
“It’s weirder not to realize, being as close to him as we are. You lack perception. Even that vicious law student marked him because she sniffed it out. Plus, I can’t believe you still didn’t figure it out after going to the palace and hearing Mathias’ lame excuse.”
“Well, sorry it was so lame,” Mathias grumbled.
“The prince… Is that why you did it? Don’t you know how valuable your life is?”
All the pieces finally came together; she understood for the first time why he’d foolishly charged into the Sanatorium. Mia stared at him with eyes so wide she thought her eyeballs would fall out.
Every human being is equal—the ideology had grown proponents in Isea Kingdom as well. In their country, Isea Royal Academy was the forerunner of that idea. Mia did hope someday the world would truly abide by such an ideal concept.
But she knew reality wasn’t made of hopes. The world wasn’t a pretty place, and equality wasn’t the same in real life as it was on paper. Lives with different values still existed.
“I thought I could use it to our advantage because I know my value. I believed doing what I did would be for the best,” Felix sadly admitted.
He hadn’t charged into the Sanatorium and been let out scot-free because he was a noble. It wasn’t because he was rich. But because he was a prince.
They would have no choice but to develop a medicine if he’d fallen ill with Demon Claw. And that wasn’t all—through his actions, the unspeakable disease that the world was scared to even think of would be forced into public conversation if a prince was infected with it.
Once brought to the foreground of the world’s attention, it would no longer be relegated to the back of people’s minds. Curiosity would spread as fast as the news, and patriotic researchers would devote themselves to researching it.
And that was why, with no solid proof that he really couldn’t get infected—or rather, with the hopes of getting infected—he’d broken into the Sanatorium. To save Mia’s mother…and end things without her tears.
“Why did you go so far for me?” She needed to know.
“You saved me first, without even knowing who I was, Mia. I just did the same thing you did.” A warm, sunflower-like smile blossomed on his face.
“It’s not the same. Because saving someone who’s ill… I only did what’s natural?” Mia had asked him the same question since the day he’d started helping her, and she would continue to ask until she had a real answer. It was such a mystery to her and she couldn’t stand it. She hardly believed she was worth him going so far.
“What you did wasn’t natural to me at all. I've been dealing with these attacks for ages. People always pretended to worry about me on the surface without taking me seriously because it's not a threat to my life. It seems like all I ever wanted was just for someone to hug and comfort me like you did, but nobody ever did that for me.”
“Not even your parents or relatives?”
“My mom is gone. My dad and my older brothers dismiss my attacks as me being weak. So I came to believe it was my weakness at fault too. I was convinced I was a spare that had come to be by mistake, that there was no point for me to exist,” Felix confessed. “That’s why…do you understand how much you saved me by saying I was important? That I mattered?”
Mia frowned upon hearing the isolation Felix had endured. She’d grown up separated from her mom, but the letters had brought her loving words of support. And she’d gained confidence through Doctor Letts’ encouragement.
“Still…if you actually got infected, you could’ve died, you know?”
“Yeah, but I genuinely believed our theory. It’s not contagious.” He glanced at Henrik. Then he smiled wryly as he walked over to Mia and pulled her head against his chest. He squeezed her against him, then caressed her cheeks in both hands so he could look deep into her eyes.
“…My reasons aren’t logical. They won’t get through to you unless I clearly tell you. But if you make me put these feelings into words, I won’t let you escape anymore? For better or worse, I have that power.”
Mia frantically shook her head, a difficult gesture with his hands on her face, to stop him from saying more. She couldn’t deny the loud pounding of her heart, the heat in her cheeks, and her heightened consciousness of his chest so close to her. But…he was a prince and she was a commoner. She wasn’t so optimistic to believe things would go smoothly between them. The determination to make that decision was out of reach for her too. Most of all—
She deeply exhaled and opened her mouth to speak, the ghost of a voice coming out hoarse, “…Thank you. Your feelings mean a lot to me, Felix.” Hope lit up Felix’s face. She hesitated, seeing his boyish smile, yet continued, “But…when it comes down to it, I want to prioritize my mom and Demon Claw. I’m certain I’ll regret it someday if I don’t. I absolutely don’t want to experience a day where I look back only to realize I didn’t do everything possible to save her.”
His breath caught at her honest admission. But the instant after, his gentle smile appeared. He studied her face. “Okay. I also want to stay as just Felix in front of you for now. I kinda enjoy having fun with the team too.”
A hint of bitterness flashed in his sweet eyes, causing Mia’s heart to thud just as Henrik got a snide jab in, “Awww, he’s pretending to wait.”
Felix shot him an angry glare. “I plan to wait as long as I need to until Mia is ready to say yes, but I won’t let anyone else have her—especially you!” He thrust his index finger toward Henrik. Laughter escaped Mia at his childish gesture.
The various quirks of his silly personality ruining his image were so like him—and what she loved.
“Em—I mean, Felix…why’re you so bad at this…?” Mathias smacked his hand against his head.
The way he’d addressed him as ‘Felix’ and his informal attitude were pleasing to Felix’s ears.