Within the space of only three days following the incident — almost the entire aristocracy had heard of Prince Mikael's great feat, in protecting the treasured daughter of Duke Cherliann. As well as his sudden affinity for strong magic, the news spread like embers pullulating rapidly into a forest fire. And all it took, was three measly days.

Many of the mouths that scrutinised the bastard prince, were quelled into silence due to the spotlight finally landing on Mikael in a positive way. And out of fear of Duke Cherliann's wrath — not a single man could dare to insult someone supported by him.

Irene hadn't left the boy's presence once in the last few days. The whole time, she waited for Mikael to wake up, whilst also observing the phenomena of the awakenings up close. Thankfully, Mikael's injuries were treated and healing well due to all the medicinal magic that had been used on his body. All that was left was for him to finish adjusting to the newly-unlocked magic, but it was taking him longer than she thought to regain consciousness.

Albeit worried, Irene felt reassured when Sir River came to regularly check in on the prince's condition, to oversee his awakening and recovery.

Rayvis too, came by to visit in between his arduous studies. Although he got along rather well with Mikael now, seeing him in an unconscious, tormented state didn't seem to provoke the heir of Cherliann that much. Irene wondered if this was because he simply believed in Mikael's strength, or because he didn't care much at all.

The days they spent after Ms Cather's death felt long and went by in a blurry haze. Irene couldn't tell what was happening around her most of the time — her mind preoccupied with cogitations, worries, and a series of visceral memories. Everyone, especially Snow, could tell Irene was mostly affected by everything that had happened, and understandably so.

Moonlight shone with a warm and milky glow amid the starlight, painting the dark-blue hues of the sky in faint luminosity. By now, a week passed since Mikael had fallen unconscious — and it seemed his body was still in the state of its awakening. Usually, this process only lasted a day or two in humans. But because it was clear Mikael's affinity for magic was abundant, it made sense for him to be out cold for this long.

Irene stirred in her sleep, laid across the edge of the prince's bed. She had been waiting by his side, every day for him to wake up. And each moment longer filled her with worry. As the moon's dappled figure watched the sleeping children, it's light shine through the arched windows, and kissed Mikael's face.

In that moment, the prince's body stirred slightly. His healing injuries and the little bursts of pain throughout his body caused his eyes to flutter open. And just like that — he was brought out of his deep slumber.

It took the boy a moment to grasp his surroundings. Mikael's mind remained blank for a moment — but the memories of what happened before he lost consciousness, quickly came back to him. The old woman who tormented him, Irene who came and tried to save him, and the sudden burst of power which overtook his body. The fragmented memories came filtering back like raindrops returning to the sea.

A wave of relief flooded through his body, when he remembered that Ms Cather was dead.

She's gone...

Inhaling sharply, Mikael held the breath in for a long moment. As he tilted his head toward the window, his eyes glowed like sapphire crystals under the moonshine.

I'm finally free... He thought, breathing out at last.

Sensations of prickly pain gnawed at his body, and Mikael flinched slightly as his nerves began to return to his limbs. He could feel the bandages wrapped securely around his fractured leg and right hand - which had been stabbed. But the wound was closed and almost completely healed - thanks to the doctors and mages using strong magic to help his recovery.

Even Isabella Einfred herself had come by, using as much of her power as she could to catalyse his regeneration.

Mikael sat up slowly after collecting his thoughts, and glanced around at the unfamiliar room. The pale silver and white walls were different from the room he used to sleep in - but it was equally as resplendent.

As he took in his surroundings, his gaze landed on the sleeping figure beside his feet. Her familiar face sending a wave of warmth through his chest.

Irene's familiar snowy hair and milky skin was as healthy and beautiful as always — he was relieved to see her sleeping so peacefully beside him. As Mikael gently reached a hand out toward her, his fingers traced her cheek. He then gently started to poke at it.

"Irene, wake up," he whispered, and she stirred a little with a soft groan. Mikael sighed, touching her shoulder and shaking her a little more. "Irene."

Her eyes soon fluttered open, and those golden irises quickly widened in awe at the sight of him being awake. Irene jolted up immediately — startling Mikael as she suddenly burst into tears.

"You've regained consciousness!" She cried, suddenly jumping onto him and wrapping her arms around his little neck. As Irene cried and nearly squeezed him to death, Mikael's cheeks burned red.

"H-Hey stop, I can't breathe!" He gasped, patting her shoulder desperately as Irene quickly released him.

"Are you hurt anywhere?! Do you feel dizzy— Or hungry? You haven't eaten in days!" She began to yammer on, her effervescence only eliciting a sigh from the boy, who was starting to regret waking her up.

"I feel fine—"

"Hold on, let me go and get the doctor!"

Just before Irene could go and turn to run to the door, Mikael caught her wrist, and she turned back to face him in confusion. His gaze darkened under the moonlight, and his eyes were like polished jewels. "Don't go yet," he whispered, a look of apprehension on his face. "Just... Stay with me for a bit."

Irene gazed at him for a moment in contemplation, before nodding her head with a small smile. Mikael's fingertips were cold again — and so was his body when she hugged him earlier. And so, since it had been a while and she was like a mother worried for her ill son for the past week, Irene swiftly snuck beneath the covers of Mikael's bed.

Her action caused the prince to blush slightly. "W-What are you doing?"

Giggling cherubically, she pat the pillow beside her. "Your body is cold, right? You can use me to warm up. I do this with Rayvis during winter nights."

He blinked, furtively averting his gaze. Irene noticed the blush going all the way up to his ears. "B-But I'm not your brother..."

She rolled her eyes. "Who cares about the details? Just come over here."

Mikael harrumphed, a petulant look on his face from her pushiness, but he listened to her anyways. As he laid down beside Irene, the warmth of her body wrapped around his own made him calm down. Familiarity came washing over him with this sensation, and the prince smiled wistfully as he reminisced about the times he spent sleeping with Daniel like this, as a child.

"You know... You're a lot like him, in a way." He whispered, and Irene blinked at the boy in confusion.

"Like who?"

Mikael sighed, gazing up at the intricately-carved roof. "Daniel."

Her eyes widened a little bit at the mention of the first prince's name. Although it had been a while now since they had gotten close, Mikael never did bring up his brother until now. In fact — she hadn't heard much about him for years now, other than the fact that he was living in Duke Atlan's estate.

"...I remind you of your brother?" She asked, slightly bewildered by this. Daniel as a child in her original novel was rather wimpy and quite the pushover — but he was still kind. Contrary to his strong appearance, he was a soft person.

"Well, other than the fact that he was a bit of a coward," Mikael smiled softly. "But he always took care of me... He's the only person who ever loved me in that house. Anyone else who tried to get close to me, would be killed by..." He paused, the smile on his face fading.

"You don't have to talk about her." Irene assured. These words left him quite relieved, and so Mikael decided to remember only the good things about his life.

"Once, when we were six years old," the smile returned to his face, as Mikael began to reminisce. "It was around the time the maids were beginning to abuse me in front of him. Daniel came to my room in the middle of the night with bags packed with clothes and food. He offered to run away with me."

"Of course, I told him not to do that. I don't think he realised that it was basically impossible for us to get away," Mikael sighed softly. "But it was nice... That he was willing to let go of all of his luxuries just so that I could be safe with him someplace else."

Irene smiled sadly, listening to Mikael's story. She couldn't help but feel responsible for putting the second prince through everything he lived through. After all, she was the author who created this world in her imagination.

But now that everything was somehow real — Mikael's life only seemed worse than she had written it out to be.

Now that I think about it, a lot of odd things have happened...

Mikael was tormented through dark magic and physical abuse, when in her original story — he was isolated and completely ignored by the maids. There was no one who would bother to even spare him a glance, much less hurt him like this.

Just what was Ms Cather's motive for sticking around Mikael? Why did she hurt him and torment him so much? Surely she knew nothing would come out of endlessly traumatising a small child.

"She did it out of revenge." Mikael said, and Irene flinched in total surprise. When she glanced at him, he was already surveying her tense expression.

"Did you read my mind just now?? How did you know I was thinking about-"

"It's because you think so loudly, I could tell by the look on your face." He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. Irene blinked as he gently shifted to his side, to face her.

Revenge... She recalled Mikael mentioning this back when he killed Ms Cather. Something about her wanting to exact revenge on the previous emperor by hurting his child. But there was nothing about it that Irene could understand.

Emperor Theodore was renowned for being a kind ruler, with his flaws aside. Other than the fact that he was quite a flippant man who fooled around with women, not many people disliked him.

"Why did someone like Sophia Cather want revenge on the emperor...?" Irene wondered, realising she had asked it out loud when Mikael responded.

"...I don't really know the details, but her demons would show her memories to me in my dreams," he told her, laying the back of his hand over his eyes as though recalling some frightening thoughts. Irene could feel him shudder beside her. "I only remember hearing her screaming out for a man named George. I think he was someone important to her, and he was likely killed by my father."

Irene realised in that moment — Sophia Cather's actions weren't entirely baseless. There were reasons behind the things she did, and this George person who Mikael mentioned must have had something to do with it. But regardless of what she had been through, none of it could justify all the torment and trauma she used to hurt Mikael.

"The fact that she became a dark magician," Irene's gold-spun eyes glinted with a look of seriousness under the light. "Was she always like that?"

He remained silent for a moment, as though contemplating on that question himself. Mikael sighed, strands of his pale hair falling against his pillow. "I don't know... But it didn't start immediately. I think she gained the powers a few years ago rather than always having them."

Gaining dark magic... Irene wasn't sure what the plot of her story was coming to, but it strayed so greatly from the novel that new problems seemed to be arising. Could dark magic have always existed in this world, merely in the background without a single mention of it when she was writing as the author? Or was it something that only introduced itself because she entered the story?

Maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way if Irene followed the course of the initial plot. But of course — doing that was a definite no, considering she didn't want to turn into the cruel and calculative Irene from her original novel. Yet she couldn't help but wonder if she made the right choices, in pushing the story to go off on a tangent from its true course.

"You know Irene..." Mikael spoke up, breaking her out of her cogitations and capturing her attention. When she turned to face him again, her eyes widened at the sight of Mikael's cherubic face smiling gently at her.

"I'm glad that you didn't give up on me," he whispered, those sapphire orbs glistening like ocean waves under the sparkling moon. "I lived miserably until you came and kept forcing your way in. Thinking about it now, I pushed you away so many times and yet you still came after me."

Irene waited as his little bandaged hand gently took hers from beneath the covers of the bed. Mikael's fingertips were cold, but when he held her palm up to his cheek, she could feel the warmth of his face as he closed his eyes.

"You call me family, protect me and cherish me," Mikael sighed softly, his smile becoming slightly strained — and Irene could tell he was resisting the urge to cry. "Thank you, Irene."

She was silent for a few seconds, eyes wide upon hearing those unexpected words. Mikael's face flushed when he noticed how long she had been staring with those beautiful gold-spun eyes, and he quickly released her hand in embarrassment.

"S-Stop staring at me like an idiot." He grumbled, but quickly froze up when Irene suddenly wrapped her arms around his little body and pulled him into a hug.

"Um—... I-Irene...?"

She didn't say anything, and only hugged him wordlessly. With Mikael's face buried into her neck, Irene gently stroked the soft, wavy and fluffy tresses of his creamy-blonde hair.

It took him a while, but the young prince soon grew less restless at the close contact. The warmth of Irene's body, and the gentle way she stroked his head helped to calm him down. It wasn't long until he ended up falling asleep like that.

He thanked me for the first time... Irene smiled, taking this opportunity to gently kiss Mikael's forehead. This small child who had to mature earlier than all other youths his age. A stuck-up, rude-mouthed and antisocial child who deserved the world and more.

And that boy acknowledged all of her efforts. It was enough for Irene to feel reassured about all of the anxieties she was having. Perhaps Mikael really could read her mind.

As I thought, changing the story how I did so far... It was the right choice. Irene smiled, closing her eyes as she held Mikael closely in her sleep. No matter what hurdles come to face me next...

. . .