Favored By The Villain

A bird flew up from outside. Farid, who side-glanced the bed where Sheila laid, opened the window and brought it inside.

The bird sitting naturally on his arm bobbed its head up and down. It was a carrier pigeon, which he rarely used when contacting Hectile, the captain of the royal guards.

Farid softly petted the bird’s feathers and soon untied the string from its leg. As soon as its leg became free it flew to the window sill and sat.

When he unfolded the rolled paper, he could see the handwriting that revealed the nature of the sender. Farid imagined Hectile’s hand overlapping the slanted letters.

Farid quickly read through the content.

To Hannah, my dear beloved rose,

I don’t know how many days have passed since I left you. But by me saying this, I’m sure you’ll shed tears. Do not worry. Phillip and I are doing fine. If I tell Philip how much I miss you and how sad I complain, it will be enough to stay up all night.

It was clear that if a stranger saw this, it would be read like a letter from a sweet husband to his wife.

But Farid didn’t easily figure out the hidden meaning.

Is he fortunately unharmed?

When he had been organizing the shelter, he had received a letter saying that his tail had been stepped on, but fortunately, it seemed to have been handled well.

He continued reading, expressionlessly.

And Hannah, I say this since you are staying near the coast, but you are like a pearl in the sea to me. You shine brightly in the sea, leading countless people to you. But the beach where you are is too deep and dark, so I thought I couldn’t take you.

Farid was reading, when he flinched.

Deep, dark sea. That pointed to the Kraiden royal family, and to Vinhol, where the inspection team was staying. That’s why they were brought…

Hmmm, do you get it? That’s right. The truth is I am near you. I want to catch you by surprise, but I hope you aren’t too surprised. Phillip? Don’t worry about him. Because Phillip is also on his own now.

The head captain had left his royal guard to fend for himself. Farid’s forehead wrinkled as he continued:

…if I only write like this, I’ll sure hear your nagging as soon as we meet. The truth is I called a nanny. That boy. It was his first time in a while to see her, so I thought he’d feel awkward, but he was very happy. So be more concerned about your safety than Phillip’s. The seawater is not filling.

It seemed that Hectile knew that even the last princess from Kraiden’s castle had joined the inspection team.

So now he has to leave slowly, he was saying.

I will visit you not too late, so you brush the sand off your fine feet. Because you cannot wear the new dress and shoes I bought you with sand in between your toes. Of course, I may just brush off the sand with a handkerchief. But you would cower in embarrassment. If you don’t want to, remember. The fact that seawater will soon flood in and cover the sandy beach where you stand. The wet sand won’t come off easily and will dirty up your feet.

A wrinkle appeared on the paper. Not loosening the strength in his fingertips, Farid unknowingly caught the bottom of the letter.

And Hannah. I will be waiting at the bell tower before sunset.

Your one and only…

The rest, he didn’t have to read. He crumpled the letter in his hand.

A snort came out of his tightly squeezed lips. This was because he thought that Hectile was not very wrong to compare Levisia to sand.

With greed and regret for her, Farid felt guilty as if he had scattered sand in his heart.

And he was sitting, counting endlessly each and every grain of sand. All the while not even noticing the approaching wave. No, disregarding it.

Damn, there was no one stupider.

Did it show that much?

To say it was just a coincidence, Hectile had warned Levisia before too.