Unlike me, who thought otherwise, Heinley firmly denied my opinion.
"I'm sorry, but Princess. Unlike my younger brother, I had long held great interest in the young lady who might become my future betrothed."
"......Interest?"
Even before my engagement to Maxel, I had visited the Imperial Palace. To meet the Emperor and Empress.
I had exchanged greetings with the princes a few times, but we never spent time together separately. What mattered in the engagement between the Imperial Family and Roam was not mutual love or friendship, but certain power.
Naturally, at that time, I did not take notice of each potential fiancé one by one. The only person I needed to remember was the single victor who would emerge from among them.
I felt somewhat bewildered. Before the engagement, wasn't it a time when he would have been too busy pouring all his efforts into becoming Crown Prince? Yet during such an important period, he was casting glances at a woman?
"I suspected from your back view, and became certain upon hearing your voice."
Even to the extent of recognizing me this quickly through my back view and voice alone?
"I was unaware you had such great interest in me."
"She was my brother's betrothed, you see. Had I shown even a speck of interest, I would have lost even the life I barely managed to preserve."
That was true. After the Crown Prince investiture ceremony, Heinley had extremely refrained from external activities. The people he met, every occasion he attended—each could be interpreted as treachery depending on how it was viewed.
I frowned as I gazed at him in bewilderment. I understood his circumstances well enough. I understood, but so what was he trying to say by beating around the bush like this?
"Did you arrange this troublesome time to chew over old memories? Since you said you have no intention of reporting me, I'd like to get to the main point as quickly as possible. I'm rather busy."
Surely he wouldn't be angry anew about my lack of proper etiquette.
Despite my somewhat rude pressing, he didn't remove the smile from his face at all. Even his gentle voice remained unwavering.
"It seems your magical device is superior to mine. Mine doesn't hide my eye color."
What on earth is he trying to do?
"Did you acknowledge me because you covet my magical device?"
"Just once...."
Heinley, who had cut off his words and hesitated briefly, let out a long breath and continued speaking calmly.
"Could you undo that appearance alteration spell?"
"Right now, in this place?"
Was he perhaps trying to sell me out to preserve his position? Suspicion swelled in an instant.
Separate from his defeat in the power struggle, Heinley was still a prince. The Empire's First Prince.
Unlike his other siblings who were ultimately driven to death, he preserved his life and position. This meant that he possessed at least some capability, however small.
How could I know whether he had received an offer to grant him a territory in some remote region or even bestow a ducal title if he exceptionally captured a resurrected person?
"I wanted to see your true form. That is the reason I acknowledged you."
So that's it? He wanted to see my face? It was so absurd I laughed.
Is he messing with me right now?
"Are you filming a hidden camera prank?"
"As I said, I have no intention of reporting you."
"It's a world where I can't trust even my parents and siblings."
Reading the thick distrust in my response, Heinley smiled bitterly. After lowering his eyes in thought for a moment, he pointed to the book in my hand.
"You seem to like that book, from what I can see. I'll let you take it out."
"This?"
"Yes."
Of course it would be nice to take it, but the problem was that I still couldn't trust him.
The thing is, in his lifetime, he had never shown even a hint of feeling toward me. For someone who had lived indifferently, to the point where neither knew if the other existed, to suddenly recognize me and claim he had been interested in me for a long time—who would readily accept that?
Moreover, he says if I show my face, he won't report me and will even let me take this book out. It's not charity work, and he wants to show such favor just for seeing my face once?
"Why are you making such an offer?"
"It's a kindness."
That's impossible. He and I are not in a relationship to exchange kindness.
"Just tell me honestly. What do you want?"
"I already told you. Your true form."
So what I'm saying is, I don't understand why that has value as 'compensation.'
It wasn't just me who felt frustrated by the conversation going in circles. Heinley, who had been silent for a moment, swept back his slightly fallen bangs.
"When I heard the story that you came back to life, I couldn't believe it at all. The temple had hidden you so thoroughly that not even your hair was visible. I feared they might be performing some horrific sorcery with your corpse. So I was looking for materials here that could explain your resurrection."
To summarize, he wanted to confirm that I had indeed come back to life. Not simply convinced by the back view or voice he remembered, but wanting to see my face alive and breathing.
'I don't know what would change if he confirms that.'
I glanced at the book I was holding and took a slow breath. Then I turned the gem in the center of my necklace to the opposite side.
The smile that had consistently remained on Heinley's face as he watched me intently gradually faded.
And finally, when even the tips of my dull red hair turned silver, a murmur like an exclamation escaped Heinley's lips.
"It was true."
He neither came closer to me nor moved away. He simply stood there, unable to take his eyes off me.
"You really came back to life. By the gods' blessing."
And I found Heinley's reaction uncomfortable. Honestly, it was half bewilderment, half absurdity. There had been many who secretly admired me, but I had never even considered Heinley. For a member of the Imperial Family to have such childish feelings.
His persistent gaze that wouldn't leave me was burdensome. When I quickly moved the gem again to change my appearance, Heinley, who had been looking at me blankly, also came to his senses as if waking from a dream.
"You've confirmed it, so has all your curiosity been satisfied? May I leave now?"
"Princess."
Heinley lowered his gaze with a bitter face. His cheeks, which had been slightly flushed from seeing my true form, had turned pale. He spoke in a sorrowful voice, his eyelashes lowered pathetically.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry."
Was this a trap?
Surprised, I looked around the office, but nothing had changed. Of course, the firmly closed door also remained as it was.
"I've wanted to apologize all this time for not being able to help you in time, using the excuse of protecting my own life. I've regretted it all along."
Ah, that apology. I thought it was something else. I thought he was apologizing for selling me out.
While I calmed my startled heart by brushing my chest, Heinley continued to look down as if truly seeking my forgiveness.
Surprisingly, this was the first apology I had received since coming back to life. And not from those who had betrayed me, but from someone completely unrelated.
As I gazed at his shadowed face, I spoke indifferently.
"Let me ask in case I'm not remembering correctly, Your Highness."
His red eyes, moist as if about to cry, held me. Ah, the Imperial bloodline really is beautiful to look at. Only to look at.
"Did I ever, even once, ask Your Highness for help?"
"......You did not."
"Yes, that's correct."
As I smoothly lifted the corners of my lips, Heinley's pupils trembled.
"So I hope you understand that there is also no apology for me to receive."
That was enough indulgence from me.
I passed him and grasped the doorknob. Heinley didn't stop me. He simply continued to look at me pathetically.
I was about to open the door and leave when I suddenly stopped. Even then, Heinley had not taken his eyes off me.
Facing his earnest gaze, which I hadn't even received from Maxel, I wiped away the smile I had been wearing.
"If I could ask one last favor from Your Highness, I would like to make a request. I hope we never meet again, even by chance."
Wounded feelings showed through his red eyes. It's no wonder he lost the Crown Prince position, being so unable to read situations and bewitched by a woman.
Such cold thoughts arose, but fortunately they didn't escape my lips.
"I don't know how this will sound, but you resemble Maxel."
As Maxel's name slipped from my lips, Heinley's expression stiffened.
"I feel like I might hit you without meaning to."
Leaving behind the pale, frozen Heinley, I finally left the office. I was still bewildered, but since I got the book and wasn't reported, I could accept this amount of wasted time.
I don't know what it was, but since the ending was good, let's call it good.
* * *
"This is a library book! Are you committing theft now too?"
"I received it legitimately as a gift."
"That's nonsense...!"
Leaving Zenon to pace anxiously while checking outside the window, worried that trouble might arise, I sat on the edge of the bed. I opened the book, but its contents didn't register at all.
「I've wanted to apologize all this time for not being able to help you in time. I've regretted it all along.」
While becoming isolated, sensing my early death approaching, there were times when I desperately wanted someone's help.
When my family abandoned me, when Maxel abandoned me, when my close friends left me.
Coughing up blood alone in bed in the middle of the night, I had such thoughts. If only someone would help me. If only someone would acknowledge my grievances and resentment. Ah, anyone, please.
If Heinley had reached out to me back then, would something have changed?
As he said, if he had helped me in time. If he had risked his life for me without regard for his own precarious position.
If I had received that much love before dying, if I had even witnessed it, I would have....
"Lady Aneli?"
I suddenly came to my senses, having been lost in thought without turning a single page of the book.
When my eyes met Zenon's, who was looking at me with puzzlement, my consciousness, which had been floating in the distant past, returned.
"Are you alright?"