Esa Promesa

“What are you doing? Get of—”

Diver’s face came so close that it was right in front of mine.

I couldn’t finish my sentence. His expression, one I had never seen before, made me stop. It was unfamiliar, so unlike the Diver I knew that it felt almost alien.

“Teian, I wish you’d stop answering me. It’s hard to hold back.”

Now I understood. He was truly angry.

Diver had never asked me about my past. No, that’s not quite right. He had asked, but only briefly before dropping the matter.

‘What kind of life have you been living until now?’

It was the second day after I entered the palace as Diver’s advisor. He had asked me that in a casual tone and posture that were hardly fitting for a king.

‘I’ve been studying.’

‘Then why didn’t you just keep studying instead of crawling into my palace? Hurry up and get out before you die. No, don’t even set foot in the capital again.’

I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at the memory of Diver’s sharp tone. Back then, he had been called the boy king.

It wasn’t because he hated me that he reacted so harshly.

At the time, Diver was a powerless puppet king with no allies and no way to protect anyone he cared about. I now understood that his words had been his best attempt at defense.

Since then, Diver might have secretly tried to dig into my past, but if he had, the only thing his network would uncover was my fabricated identity—’Teian, a bumpkin who grew up in the poorest part of Emar’s outskirts.’

Everything else was ordinary. There was absolutely nothing that could have connected me to a high priest of Ramanov.

Yet, the fact that I fainted upon seeing the high priest had made Diver lose his composure.

He wouldn’t harm me directly, but leaving or ignoring an angry Diver was never a good idea.

My mouth felt dry. How could I explain this?

‘So, actually, I come back to life when I die. In my seventh life, there was this crazy guy I briefly dated. Why was he crazy? Oh, because he decided to sacrifice me as a living offering while spouting nonsense, and I almost died. And then, well, the high priest’s face looks exactly like that of a lunatic’s, so I was shocked and fainted.’

Whether he believed me or not, Diver would eventually realize I had been deceiving him.

I didn’t want either outcome. It wasn’t the fear that Diver might call me a monster, like Reynold had, that scared me the most. It was the thought of Diver being hurt because of me that terrified me more.

“Teian.”

“I must have been mistaken.”

When avoiding an answer wasn’t an option, lying was all I had. But I didn’t want to pile on any more lies to Diver.

“Can’t this be enough for now?”

The longer Diver stayed silent, his expression unreadable, the more anxious I became.

“…Diver. I don’t want to lie to you.”

His continued silence made me uneasy. How I wished I could read his thoughts. When he was younger, it wasn’t hard to discern what he was thinking, even when he seemed expressionless. But now, as a fully grown man, it was impossible.

“It’s always been that way.”

His quiet murmur wasn’t loud, but I caught it because of how close we were.

“You make people misunderstand.”

This time, Diver spoke clearly, and I couldn’t help but reach out. My hand carefully cupped his cheek, which didn’t resist my touch.

“The moment I think we’ve grown closer, you pull away. Every time I believe that, as much as I trust you, you trust me too, it’s always just my misunderstanding. We’ve always been standing still.”

Diver was smiling, but somehow he looked like he was about to cry. I pressed my lips tightly together. He wasn’t wrong. I’d always tried to hide it, to ensure he wouldn’t notice. Whenever it seemed like we were getting closer, I’d step back, thinking I was doing so subtly. But now I realized it was only my own delusion.

Guilt made my hand weaken. Diver grabbed my wrist with his own hand.

“Teian, I’ll wait until you’re ready to tell me.”

Diver shifted his hand to cover mine, gently pressing my palm against his cheek. His expression and the way he leaned into my hand made my heart tremble.

I couldn’t shake the thought that if it were Diver, even if I told him about the curse binding me, he might still treat me the same. That thought alone stirred an overwhelming impulse I could barely suppress. I shut my eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

No. Keep quiet, Teian.

The same impulse had driven me when I confessed to Reynold, and I had been betrayed. Was I really going to make the same foolish mistake again? I couldn’t. Not with Diver. I could not bear the thought of being betrayed by him.

“…Thank you.”

I wish I had met Diver a little earlier.

No, if I had met Diver instead of Reynold in my seventh life, I wouldn’t have spent my time running away like this.

Diver, who had moved off me, extended his hand to help me up. It was an unnecessary kindness, especially since I was already someone on the verge of death.

It was his silent apology for being forceful earlier. Obediently, I accepted his gesture and rose as he wished.

“Now, Your Majesty, you must attend to your duties. Oh, and about the high priest, you must release them. You need to apologize as well. I truly have no connection to them. It was all just my misunderstanding.”

“I’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”

I could only hope his ‘handling it’ didn’t mean staging an accident to kill them or torturing them for answers before disposing of them. Nodding quietly, I chose to trust him.

“Take the rest of the day off. I’ll see you at dinner, Tei.”

“But I’d like to work.”

“If you’re intent on making me worry even more, then go ahead.”

His words implied that if I didn’t rest quietly, I’d be under constant surveillance. I quickly responded.

“Please, go attend to your work. I’ll just quietly read.”

Diver’s face took on an expression of regret, but I cheerfully saw him at the door, smiling all the way.

*

The Indoor Garden at the Center of Emar’s Main Palace.

Beneath the transparent dome at the heart of the garden lay a space reserved exclusively for royalty. Bathed in sunlight and the verdant greenery outside, the area sparkled like a jewel. The table at the center seemed almost divine, like a realm of the gods. Seated at that table, facing each other, were a man and a woman.

The man was the king of Emar, and the woman was Rudiena, widely regarded as the most likely candidate for queen.

Rudiena gazed at Diver’s face. The powerless, young puppet king of the past was now the perfect monarch who held all of Emar’s factions firmly in his grasp. Rudiena knew the face of the person who had shaped this man into the king he was today. At this moment, she smiled with genuine amusement.

“Do you think Lord Teian knows?”

With flawless poise, Rudiena poured tea into Diver’s empty cup as she continued speaking.

“That Your Majesty has been so fervently digging into their past?”

Diver, whose gaze had been fixed on the documents before him, finally looked up.

His glassy gray eyes, devoid of emotion, focused on Rudiena. The expressionless face, betraying no trace of human feeling, seemed almost like that of another being imitating a person.

It was a face Diver never showed to Teian. However, to Rudiena and the rest of the palace, this was a familiar sight. Instead of being intimidated, she responded with a graceful smile.

“If it’s Teian, they probably already know.”

“Lord Teian might have guessed what lies on the surface. But if they realized Your Majesty had been digging all the way to the bottom, they would have fled long ago.”

Diver, instead of responding, handed back the completed document. Rudiena, with a movement as light as a butterfly’s wing, accepted it and let it drop to the ground.

The papers, as if set Avlaze, quietly burned away without leaving even a trace of ash. Even after they had completely disappeared, silence lingered heavily between the two. It was Diver who broke it first.

“So, what’s the information you wanted to share directly?”

The document contained a meticulous summary of the tasks Diver had assigned to Rudiena. Yet, through years of experience, Diver knew that Rudiena often deliberately omitted certain pieces of information from written reports. And unless he asked her directly, she would never volunteer such details.

Rudiena smiled pleasantly, her sky-blue hair cascading over her shoulders, swaying softly in the gentle breeze that had drifted in from somewhere.

Her beauty was so exquisite that it seemed impossible to fully capture in a painting, yet Diver remained indifferent. To him, the only thing truly beautiful in the world was Teian.

In Diver’s worldview, humans were divided into two categories: ‘Teian’ and ‘everyone else.’ Beyond Teian, others were merely members of the human species, nothing more. This simplicity of thought was one of the reasons Rudiena liked Diver. Unlike his dealings with other people, this king, who reduced the world into such stark terms, made it straightforward for her to calculate her gains and losses with ease.

“As it turns out, the high priest of Ramanov has never met Lord Teian. As stated in the report, they’re complete strangers.”

“And?”

“A connection, shall we call it? I’ve uncovered something rather intriguing, Your Majesty.”