Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 76

#76.

Roderick opened his eyes, his eyebrows arching at the unfamiliar ceiling.

After that night, the Knights had no choice but to relocate the King and Queen’s residence, doing so with haste.

The scene they encountered upon entering was simply too bizarre.

The faces of those guarding the King were grim. Especially the Captain of the Knights looked the worst.

As the King stirred awake, the Captain of the Knights rushed to his side.

“Your Majesty! Are you alright?”

“What do you mean? First, can you explain why I’m here?”

“You have been unconscious for several days.”

“…Me?”

Roderick asked, bewildered.

“The physician said there was no critical problem, but we were worried because you didn’t wake up. …You also vomited blood.”

At those words, Roderick immediately sat up in bed.

However, he felt fine. In fact, he felt strangely light, as if his sensitivity to energy had heightened.

Jade, who was watching him anxiously, said, “Your Majesty, I have something important to report. It’s something you must know.”

“………”

“Could you dismiss everyone? It concerns the Queen.”

Roderick gestured, signaling everyone to leave. All but the Captain of the Knights exited the room.

“What is it? Tell me.”

Jade hesitated, struggling to speak. That night, the Captain of the Knights, detecting a pungent smell mixed with a fishy odor, had begged forgiveness before opening the door.

The scene he found was chilling, even for a seasoned knight.

The King and Queen were both bleeding from the mouth. Yet, the Queen sat upright in the middle of the room, her clothes disheveled.

She was laughing while crying, her fingers tattered from being bitten, and the floor was covered in traces of something written in blood.

Jade struggled to find his voice. “The Queen visited you that night, Your Majesty. You were both fine until she went in. I confirmed it myself.”

“………”

“But when I smelled something burning and opened the door, you were both spitting blood.”

“The Queen spat blood again? Is Hailey alright now?”

Roderick, surprised, tried to rise and go to the Queen.

Even now, his only concern was for the Queen’s well-being.

However, the Captain of the Knights shook his head, dissuading him.

“The Queen has also been temporarily moved to another residence. I explained it as a matter of safety, but in truth, it was for a search.”

“…Search?”

Roderick paused. Jade held out an object he was carrying.

“I had no choice, Your Majesty, as you were unconscious. I will accept any punishment for acting unilaterally.”

“What is all this?”

Jade swallowed hard and began, “That night, the Queen locked the room and kept burning something. This is a remaining piece. And these were found in the Queen’s room and yours.”

“………”

“They look very similar.”

“………”

“They were hidden behind frames, furniture, and in jewelry boxes.”

It was a collection of amulets. Roderick’s face grew serious.

The King recognized the pattern. He had seen it on the handkerchief the Queen gave him and on her wooden bracelet.

Roderick understood what Jade was implying.

This could be the sorcery of the Daimon [ancient rulers of the continent with powerful magical abilities], who ruled the continent in ancient times.

Continentals considered it a fantastical story from the founding myth, but it was actually a real power.

Though the Captain of the Knights’ approach was different, the King harbored similar doubts.

“…How is Hailey? Is my wife very sick?”

“The Queen is fine. She was lying down for about a day, but she didn’t lose consciousness. However…”

When Roderick urged him silently, Jade, after hesitating, said, “Your Majesty, the Queen’s condition was very strange that day. Her clothes were torn, and her fingers were bleeding as if she had bitten them…”

“What does that mean…”

“The physician has already treated her.”

Roderick covered his forehead, ready to go to the Queen immediately.

But Jade strongly dissuaded him again.

Jade harbored a suspicion: that the Queen had tried to harm the King but changed her mind.

Her behavior that day was strange, and there was something the Queen said when he opened the door.

When Jade saw the King spitting blood, his face hardened, and she said with tearful eyes, ‘His Majesty is fine. The evil energy, no, the poison is leaving him, so it’s like that. He will wake up in a few days.’

Jade couldn’t know the exact circumstances.

But he couldn’t deny that the chaotic scene in the room was because of the Queen.

“Your Majesty, the Queen is a Duncan [a family known for their magical abilities]. And after she went in, your condition worsened, and the room was a mess.”

“………”

“Besides, the strange paper found in your room was burned directly by the Queen.”

The Captain of the Knights’ suspicion was valid and reasonable.

But Roderick, after careful consideration, shook his head.

As his friend said, the suspicion remained. But he refused to be a coward who denied his own heart because of that possibility.

What his heart wanted to say was clear.

“Jade.”

“…………”

“Don’t you still know?”

“…………”

“The Queen would never betray me.”

And the Queen might not actually be a Duncan.

More importantly, whether the Queen is a Duncan or not, it’s not a problem for me at all.

Whoever my wife is, wherever she came from, whatever she’s hiding… I don’t care.

“And I actually don’t mind if the Queen betrays me now.”

“Your Majesty!”

Jade shouted in despair, but Roderick’s attitude was firm.

“The Queen is the only person who can do that to me. Even if that happens, I will love and protect her to the end.”

“…Your Majesty.”

“Take me to the Queen’s room. I’ll stop by my room for a moment.”

Roderick patted the Captain of the Knights on the shoulder and headed to his room.

He could definitely feel it.

His body felt light. He could even sense the flow of air.

He had been gradually sensing energy more sharply since some time ago.

That fact was confirmed again when he arrived at the room.

The energy in the room had changed again.

The stable feeling had disappeared, but it wasn’t as ominous as before.

The King could now make more unrealistic but much more accurate judgments than others.

Something went wrong that night, and the Queen knew it and rushed over.

‘You must have good dreams today, too.’

Roderick said to the people following him, “She didn’t try to harm me; she protected me. Me.”

The people bowed their heads, and Roderick slowly looked around the room.

Jade had preserved the room almost as it was, except for the amulets.

It was because the King also needed to check.

Roderick approached the bedside and picked up the statue.

The totem pole had a slight crack.

‘It’s strange. I replaced all the wood because I was worried that something like that would happen again. How could it be like this again just a few days after carving it?’

Then this wasn’t just a statue.

He put the statue down on the bedside and stared blankly at the branch.

People couldn’t easily recognize it, but he, as a member of the royal family, recognized it at a glance.

It was a tree from Arthur’s Forest [a sacred forest with strong magical properties].

‘Did that little thing run all the way there? With legs that haven’t fully healed yet.’

The King seemed to know why the Queen did that.

She was sometimes impatient to send him to Arthur’s Forest.

She had told him to go to Arthur’s Forest when she was sick.

She looked desperate then.

She doesn’t know the history of the royal family, let alone the history of the Duncan family, but she knows something about the forest.

The ancestral kings’ legacy that the sacred power protects the royal family.

Roderick sighed and was about to leave the room.

Because he missed the Queen so much.

But Roderick stopped and looked at the floor.

The floor was covered in blood.

But it wasn’t just blood.

Roderick recognized the pattern.

They were the patterns that the Queen sometimes drew on the dirt floor with branches.

Realizing that even that wasn’t just playing in the dirt, he wanted to cry.

Roderick covered his eyes.

“How much of a pathetic bastard are you trying to make me?”

She wrote this by biting her own fingers all night, to protect him.

But if she did this, she must have been in pain. That foolish little thing.

He felt like he couldn’t bear it without seeing her face right now.

Roderick was about to go to Lee Jae. But then…

“The Queen is not in her room!”

“What?”

Roderick, his face hardening, ran out without asking any more questions.

Lee Jae was exhausted. She had destroyed a demon she had never seen before and drawn a circle in the room.

The reason she didn’t collapse was because of the numerous evaluation matches she had unwillingly endured.

‘Grandma, I guess life is a real battle. That’s the foundation for improving skills. But why? I’m not very happy with this practical experience.’

Lee Jae was disturbed, worried about Ham’s condition.

But the knights only repeated that she should stay here for a while for safety reasons.

Lee Jae thought there was no hope.

The demon was strong, and she had already spent too much time in the King’s room.

Lee Jae became depressed. Maybe this is confinement.

She had eaten quite a bit of humble pie, and that’s how it seemed to her, looking at the situation.

But she understood it too.

She knew very well how she looked to others that day.

She had no choice but to do it, knowing that would happen. She had no regrets.

This room has no barrier, no amulet, and no totem pole.

But Lee Jae had no motivation to do anything, so she just lay down.

‘I guess I’m mentally exhausted,’ she thought as she fell asleep.