Flora woke up to a dull, suffocating pain in her chest.
It felt as if her entire ribcage had been forced deep into her body. Every breath was like tugging on a fragile thread, sending the pain burrowing 1 inch at a time along her nerves.
When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurred for 0.5 seconds before she gradually made out the ceiling carved with a star map.
Then, she froze.
This was… her private chamber.
She was back.
She had not escaped; she had been brought back.
Flora’s chest felt as if it had been suddenly filled with cold water. Her fingers gripped the covers tightly, her fingertips turning white, and her breathing was as short as if she were being strangled.
Just then, a slight but steady presence approached. She turned her head stiffly.
Ilya was sitting quietly by the bed.
She wore a dark outer robe. In her silver eyes, there was exhaustion, suppression, and endurance… there was even a flicker of an emotion she could not understand.
It was not anger, nor was it scrutiny, and it did not belong to the gaze of a calm Queen.
It was more like… a certain pain from staying awake all night.
Flora’s heart trembled, but she quickly pushed her emotions down deep.
“…How did I get back?” Flora’s voice was as hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
Ilya looked at her, her tone light, yet it made Flora’s heart tighten. “I found you, and then I carried you back.”
Flora took a sharp breath.
Echoes of her escape suddenly rang in her ears. The vines, the fall, the running, the suffocating scent, the moment her vision went black… and the sound of the wind when that final shadow rushed toward her.
She tried her best to restrain herself, but her voice still shook. “Why did you save me?!”
“Because you were dying.”
Ilya spoke calmly, but it was like a knife stabbing into her deepest, softest spot.
Flora’s throat felt blocked. She struggled to lift her eyes, her sockets as wet as if they had just been soaked in mist.
“If I die… then I die.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she herself was stunned, but her emotions were like a rolling stone that could not be stopped.
She raised her hand to wipe away her tears, but the sudden movement agitated her wound. She gasped in pain.
Ilya quickly supported her. “Do not move recklessly.”
“Don’t touch me!”
Flora pushed her away, her voice so sharp it even startled herself.
“Why did you save me?! Why won’t you let me go?! I don’t owe you anything! I haven’t hurt you! I just… I just want to go home!”
“I know.”
Ilya’s voice remained steady, but there was too much suppressed within it, like a string about to snap.
Flora glared at her with red eyes, anger, grievance, and fear mixing together without concealment.
“You don’t know at all! You have no idea what I’m thinking!”
“I know… better than you think.”
Ilya looked at her, and that gaze made Flora’s chest twitch. “Flora, you don’t know how much you — “
She stopped abruptly, her throat tightening as if she were speaking of a secret that should not be leaked.
Flora was stunned.
“How much what?”
Ilya remained silent. She only took Flora’s wrist and gently lowered it, preventing her from moving further.
This silence was more terrifying than any answer.
The string in Flora’s heart tightened instantly. She could almost suffocate.
“You save me, you watch me, you control me… but you never tell me why! Why must you make me stay? Why?!”
“Because you belong here for now, and you cannot die.”
“I’m willing to die!”
Those words were like a sharp blade.
The air chilled by 0.5 degrees in an instant.
Ilya’s gaze visibly trembled in that moment.
It was as if an old wound had been violently torn open by Flora.
Flora, however, continued to lash out with red eyes. “My sister is waiting for me! My friends are waiting for me too! They think I’m dead, they’ll be sad… they’ll be heartbroken…”
She cried harder and more painfully as she spoke, her sentences becoming choked.
“I don’t belong here! I’m not Flora! I’m not part of the demon race! I don’t want to be your princess… I didn’t even choose this name…”
She covered her face, tears falling through the gaps between her fingers. Her shoulders looked as if they were about to fall apart in the wind.
Ilya looked at her, and the emotions in her eyes finally cracked into complex layers.
That emotion was heartbreak, anger, and helplessness. There was also a pain too deep to express.
“Flora.”
She called her name softly.
Flora did not look up, her voice so hoarse she was nearly out of breath. “You might as well just tell me that you turned me into this just to imprison me…”
“I’m sorry, there are some things I cannot tell you for now.”
Ilya closed her eyes, and in the next second, she pulled Flora into her arms.
Flora froze. “Let… let go of me… *whimper*… let go of me — “
Ilya did not let go. She held Flora as if she were afraid she would slip from her arms again.
Her voice was so soft it was nearly broken. “You don’t know… you have no idea what you are to me.”
Flora was stunned, her crying stopping for 1 second.
Ilya buried her face in Flora’s trembling shoulder, her breathing slightly ragged.
“You don’t know why your name is Flora… you don’t know why I personally take care of you… you don’t know why I’m afraid to see you lying motionless on the ground…”
Her voice was low and husky. “But I cannot tell you right now…”
Flora looked up sharply. “What?”
Ilya did not explain. She merely raised her hand and gently wiped the tears from Flora’s face, but as she looked at Flora’s reddened eyes, she was too heartbroken to speak.
In that moment, Flora vaguely realized one thing. Ilya was not simply “controlling her.”
There was some kind of massive shadow and secret surrounding Ilya that she knew nothing about, and she… seemed to be at the center of that shadow.
But she did not know, she did not understand, and she did not want to admit it.
She could only cry, crying out all of her grievances.
“You make me so miserable… I really don’t want to stay here… I’m afraid…”
Ilya’s hand paused.
She looked truly hurt by those words.
She took a deep breath and finally spoke. “Flora, I don’t expect you to understand me now. But I cannot allow you to leave like that again.”
She released her embrace and looked at Flora, her gaze turning cold and calm.
“From this day forward, you are not permitted to leave this room.”
Flora’s chest suddenly tightened. “What… no!! You can’t!”
“Until I say you can.”
“Ilya!!”
“I cannot see you lying motionless in the snow again.”
Her voice was cold, but she was clearly suppressing her emotions. “If you run out, you will die. If you die, I — “
She bit her lower lip, forcibly swallowing the second half of the sentence.
A sense of panic rose in Flora’s heart, but she was still struggling. “You have no right to lock me up! I’m not yours — “
“You are.”
Flora’s mind went blank for a moment.
Ilya did not continue. Instead, she tilted Flora’s face up, forcing her to look directly at her.
“This is a punishment. It is not to imprison you, Flora.”
“It is so that you might live.”
Flora cried until she was breathless. “I… I don’t want this… Ilya… please don’t lock me up…”
Ilya gently pulled her back into her embrace, her fingertips stroking Flora’s damp hair.
“I know you are suffering.”
“I am as well.”
Flora was stunned. She looked up and saw a flicker in Ilya’s eyes, like a string about to snap.
“You cannot see my pain, Flora.”
“I will not allow you to see it.”
She held her tightly, her voice nearly pressed against Flora’s ear.
“But I cannot lose you again.”
Flora was completely dazed. Her crying gradually ceased, but her breathing was erratic and her heart was racing.
‘Why?’
‘Why is it me…?’
Ilya did not answer.
She just held her, carefully yet firmly, as if she were holding the only thing that allowed her to keep breathing.
Vulnerability, suppression, complexity…
All of it was hidden in that embrace.
Flora closed her eyes, and tears silently slid down again.
She still did not understand.
But for the first time, she sensed it —
Ilya was not simply forceful, calm, or gentle… she was a person who was extremely lonely and burdened with too many secrets.
And she, for some inexplicable reason, had become one of Ilya’s few obsessions.