Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Between Those Who Share the Same Dream (3)

‘Then I got caught by a slave trader and sold to the organization.’

The organization the slave trader handed me over to was called ‘Breath of the Angel’.

It was the most famous assassination group on the continent, and the moment I was sold off, I started training to become an assassin.

‘At first, I was repulsed by murder.’

But humans are creatures of adaptation.

They say you get used to anything, and I ended up getting used to killing people too.

‘Was my first mission when I was twelve?’

Coincidentally, that was the same age as Prince Edwin is now.

After I received my first solo mission and succeeded, I went out alone on missions every day.

‘Everyone said it was bad luck to be teamed up with some girl.’

Back then, I was the only girl in the assassination group, and no one wanted to form a team with me because I was a girl. So I had no choice but to go on missions alone.

‘They clicked their tongues, saying a mere girl sure lasted a long time.’

Everyone laughed at me, mocked me, and clicked their tongues, but I came back alive every time.

Even if I came back half-dead, I always completed the mission and returned alive.

The harder the mission I completed, the greater the pay, so I volunteered to take on missions others didn’t want.

‘Thinking back now, I wonder why I worked so hard.’

In the end, was my dream simply surviving?

No, it wasn’t. Once I earned a certain amount of recognition from the others, I gained a clear dream.

‘…Ian.’

I recalled the first time I met Ian.

We first met when I was sixteen and Ian was thirteen.

He was one of the children the leader had just brought in.

‘My first impression was absolute dog shit.’

Ian showed up covered in blood, sweat, and filth, tense and razor-sharp, so sensitive he treated even a stone on the roadside as an enemy.

‘They said his family fell apart and he got sold at the slave market, and the leader bought him.’

Back then, the leader put me in charge of training Ian.

Ian also looked down on me at first because I was a young girl.

But after getting beaten senseless over and over, he came to his senses.

Before I knew it, Ian was trailing right behind me everywhere.

‘And I didn’t dislike a guy like that.’

It wasn’t strange for a young man and woman who stuck together like that to become something more than colleagues.

I quietly thought of Ian.

I hadn’t forgiven him, but somehow, now, even when I thought of him, my heart didn’t surge and shake.

‘Ian.’

I closed my eyes and pictured him.

Dark blond hair with a grayish tint, and low-saturation, pale blue-gray eyes.

Long limbs, a well-balanced body.

Slightly upturned eyes that used to curve playfully whenever he saw me.

‘I didn’t know how I ended up loving you.’

But there’s one thing I know very well.

The fact that I can draw the sight of you killing me this vividly even with my eyes closed.

I guess I really did love you with all my heart.

“Then take this chance to think long and hard about it. Why I’m doing this.”

The last words Ian whispered echoed in my head like a reverberation.

‘What is it?’

What on earth was it that made the man who whispered love to me every day, in an instant, drive a blade into my back?

I slowly lifted my eyelids.

‘Come to think of it, it feels like that bastard Ian talked about dreams before too.’

When was it?

I’m sure we talked like this then too, looking up at the night sky.

“Kyla. You know.”

Right, it was on the way back after killing some noble whose name I can’t even remember, together with Ian.

The trip back to headquarters was long, so we had to sleep out in the open along the way.

Lying there with the night sky as our roof, using Ian’s arm as my pillow, he asked.

“What’s your dream?”

“Dream?”

“Yeah, like your goal in life.”

“Is a dream and a goal the same thing?”

“A dream is more desperate than a goal. Something you want with your whole heart even though it’s hard to achieve, I guess.”

“Mm. If that’s a dream, then I can’t think of anything.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I already got everything I want.”

I pulled Ian into my arms with one arm and looked up at him.

“Including you.”

At my words, Ian laughed like he was genuinely amused.

He took a piece of jerky out of the pouch hanging at his waist and put it in my mouth.

“Haha, aren’t you getting too cocky? What if I run away?”

“Are you going to run?”

When I tightened the arm wrapped around his chest, Ian laughed even louder.

“Ahahaha, no way. Where would I go and leave you behind?”

“Right. If you run, you’ll be the one who ends up in trouble, so you’d better not.”

“Isn’t that a little too vicious for something you’re saying to your lover?”

Ian toyed with the short hair at the back of my head, cut like a man’s.

“Kyla, do you have any intention of growing your hair out?”

“I hate it. It’s inconvenient when I move.”

“It’d look pretty. That’s a shame.”

I chewed on the jerky he’d put in my mouth and answered.

“If you retire and live with me, I’ll show you my long hair.”

“Is that a proposal?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

After hearing my answer, Ian frowned like it was ridiculous.

“What the hell is that? What kind of proposal is this? So unromantic.”

“If you don’t like it, you should’ve done it.”

“No, I was waiting for the right moment. Who knew you’d steal the lead like this?”

He deliberately spoke in a grumbly tone.

“My god. I thought I’d propose someday, but I never dreamed I’d be the one getting proposed to.”

“So do you hate it?”

“No.”

Ian answered without hesitation.

He kissed the back of my head.

“But I don’t think I can give you a definite answer yet.”

“Why?”

“We’re assassins.”

Assassins are people who never know when they’ll die, or when they’ll be killed.

So we couldn’t casually promise a future.

“Then don’t die.”

When I replied like it was no big deal, Ian snorted.

“Easy to say. Then again, maybe it really is easy for our angel.”

“I told you not to call me angel.”

“I don’t want to. I’m going to.”

“Ian Angel.”

“So what? I’m the only one who calls you that.”

Ian held me tight and whispered.

“Then, if we both survive in one piece until the day we retire, I’ll accept your proposal then.”

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

I looked Ian in the eyes and said,

“Then I’ve got my dream now.”

“Oh, you just got one? What is it?”

“From now until the day we retire, my dream is to survive in one piece and leave this place with you.”

After hearing me, Ian tilted his head like he didn’t quite get it.

“That’s a dream? Isn’t it too modest?”

“Why do you think it’s modest?”

I brought my palm to Ian’s face.

The blue-gray eyes that looked cold at a glance always chased only me.

“I only need you, Ian.”

I meant it.

In this filthy hellhole, Ian’s existence was my only comfort.

“…It’s an honor.”

Ian answered with an ambiguous smile.

In that moment, I suddenly grew curious about Ian’s dream.

“Ian, then what’s your dream?”

“Me?”

Ian asked back, his voice faintly surprised.

For a split second, it felt like his expression darkened, but because of the darkness of the night, I didn’t notice then.

“I….”

My memory ended there.

That day, I didn’t get to hear Ian’s dream.

It seems the conversation couldn’t be finished because we had to shake off the pursuers who showed up at just the wrong time.

‘If you put it that way, my dream, Kyla Angel’s dream, is basically dead.’

Because I didn’t survive until the day I retired from the organization, and I didn’t marry Ian.

Looking back now, what a pathetic life it was.

“…A pathetic life is enough to live once.”

I thought again of Edwin’s eyes.

Something that’s hard to achieve, but that you want more desperately than anything, with all your heart.

For that kid Edwin, that’s becoming emperor.

Clack.

When I used the recoil to push myself up, the roof tiles knocked against each other.

I dusted off my clothes and jumped down toward the window frame.

‘Yeah, dreaming the same dream as someone else might be okay too.’

Since I’ve got no dream left that I want to achieve, maybe it wouldn’t be bad, this time, to share someone else’s dream.

***

“Nanny, what’s going on at this early hour?”

Catherine looked at me with eyes still heavy with sleep.

Well, I called her to the head maid’s office before sunrise, so of course she wouldn’t be thrilled.

“Seriously. You even dragged this old man out too.”

Sage was sitting on the office sofa as well.

Sipping warmed wine, he glanced at me sideways.

“Ky- no, Lady Brown, don’t you ever sleep in? I’ve got lessons to prepare too….”

“There’s something I want to discuss with both of you.”

At my words, both of their eyes widened.

“Something you want to discuss?”

Catherine blinked her big eyes like she fully woke up.

“What is it? It’s not something bad, is it…?”

“What is it?”

Sage cut Catherine off and looked at me steadily.

Feeling their gazes, I opened my mouth slowly.

“I think His Highness Edwin has taken an interest in the throne.”

“…What?”

Catherine gaped at the words that came out of my mouth, like she couldn’t believe them.

“T-the throne?”

“Pfft.”

Unlike Catherine, who looked dumbfounded, Sage burst out laughing, as if he’d expected it.

“Well, well. This is going to get interesting!”

“No, wait a second, Nanny!”

Catherine ignored Sage cackling and covered her mouth with both hands.

“What do you mean by that…?”

“What do you mean? It means His Highness Prince Edwin has finally found a real goal. Now it’ll finally be worth teaching him.”

Even after hearing Sage, Catherine still looked like she couldn’t wrap her head around it.

“I-it’s just so sudden. To say His Highness Edwin is interested in the throne all of a sudden….”

Catherine seemed to want a more concrete explanation.

But there wasn’t anything more to explain.

“His Highness Edwin said he wants to become emperor, and I intend to help him with everything I’ve got so he can achieve that.”

I looked back and forth between the two of them.

“So, in that sense, I want to ask for your cooperation too.”