A captive prince. A knight who never speaks. Two years of silence—until one night, everything begins to change.
Eighteen-year-old Lion Cardina, the first prince of the fallen Kingdom of Cardina, has spent two years imprisoned in the Iron Crown Palace of the Grandveld Empire. Stripped of his kingdom, his family, and his freedom, he clings to his mother's final words—*"Live"*—and watches the moon through iron bars, believing himself utterly alone.
Kai Wolfhardt, his silent watcher, arrives each
The Fallen Prince and the Silent Knight - Heat and Palms and a Small Rebellion
Morning light filtered through the iron bars.
Lion Cardina lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a long while. The stone ceiling bore faint, damp stains—leftover from last night's rain, perhaps. The air was cold, and the tip of his nose, poking out from under the blanket, stung a little.
*(He told me yesterday.)*
A low voice echoed in the depths of his chest.
*"Tomorrow, eat all your food."*
It was Kai Wolfhardt's voice.
Lion slowly sat up. He rubbed his arms through the thin nightshirt. His skin was chilled. This guest wing—a room in name only, on the third level of the Iron Crown Palace—grew astonishingly cold at night. The stone walls shed the day's heat all too quickly. The window was sealed with iron bars, and the wind that slipped through was always damp and cold.
Lion walked to the window.
Beyond the bars, he could see the courtyard. The stone paving was dark and wet from the night's rain. A few soldiers walked in silence. Puddles glimmered faintly at their feet. The sky was still overcast, and the morning light was a pale, muddy white.
*(It's cold today.)*
Lion touched the pendant at his chest. A small silver ornament, inherited from his mother. Engraved with a spirit's crest, it felt cool and familiar against his fingertips.
*(Mother. I ate everything yesterday.)*
He murmured it in his heart.
Last night, for the first time, Lion had eaten the dinner Kai left behind without leaving a single bite. Cold soup and slightly stale bread. Even so, he'd finished it all. Because Kai's words had pushed him forward.
*"Tomorrow, eat all your food."*
That hadn't been an order.
Lion understood that much.
If it were an order passed down from a superior, it wouldn't have been phrased that way. It would have been more mechanical, devoid of any fragment of emotion—just an instruction. But there had been something in Kai's voice then. Something real.
*(That person, to me...)*
He stopped the thought there and shook his head.
*(No. I shouldn't hope.)*
A supervising knight worrying about a prisoner's meals—that might simply be the natural duty of keeping a ward alive. Lion might just be projecting warm meaning onto something that had none.
And yet.
Somewhere deep in his chest, it was a little warm.
Lion left the window and stood before the desk.
The empty dishes from last night had already been cleared away. Kai must have come early to collect them. On the desk sat today's breakfast: steaming barley porridge, thin-sliced bread, and a small cup of herbal tea.
Lion settled into the chair.
*(I'll eat.)*
He repeated Kai's words once more in his heart.
*(I'll eat it all.)*
He picked up the wooden spoon. The barley porridge gave off a faint, sweet fragrance. Steam rose, spreading a soft warmth through the chilled room.
Lion took the first bite.
Hot.
The barley grains came apart on his tongue. There was almost no salt. Yet it was a gentle flavor, one that seeped slowly into the core of his body.
*(...It's good.)*
A second bite, a third.
Before he knew it, Lion was eating with abandon.
It seemed almost absurd that his food hadn't gone down for the past few days. His stomach was demanding food. His body was demanding to live.
*(I'm alive.)*
That simple fact struck him with strange force.
Lion finished the barley porridge down to the last spoonful. The bread, too, and the herbal tea—nothing left behind.
He stared at the empty dishes.
*(I ate it all.)*
A small sense of accomplishment spread through his chest.
—And then.
From beyond the corridor, he heard measured footsteps.
The hard sound of leather soles striking stone. An unwavering, steady pace.
Lion's heart gave a single, sharp throb.
*(Kai.)*
The footsteps stopped in front of Lion's door.
The sound of a heavy key turning. The bolt being drawn from outside, creaking low. Then the door swung slowly open.
Standing there, backlit by the corridor lamp, was the silver-haired knight.
Kai Wolfhardt.
A low-ranking knight of the Grandveld Iron Crown Knights, and Lion's supervisor. His short-cropped silver hair fell carelessly across his brow, and his sharp blue-gray eyes swept quickly across the room. His body, clad in the black-iron uniform of the knight order, had no excess flesh—only a supple, coiled strength.
Kai looked at Lion.
Then his gaze shifted to the empty dishes on the desk.
An instant.
Just an instant.
Kai's brow softened, almost imperceptibly.
On that face that was supposed to be expressionless, a faint hint of warmth surfaced. The corner of his mouth seemed to move, just barely.
Lion didn't miss it.
*(Just now, this person...)*
Something burst open in the depths of his chest.
*(Smiled? No, not a smile. But his expression changed.)*
For two years, they had faced each other nearly every day. In all that time, Lion had never once seen Kai's expression change. Always blank, as though emotion had been left behind somewhere and forgotten.
And now, that person—
—had softened, seeing that Lion's meal was finished.
*(I changed this person's expression.)*
The fact sent a tremor through Lion.
To call it joy felt too uncertain.
And yet, he could feel it—a definite warmth spreading through his chest.
Kai's face returned to its usual blankness at once.
As if nothing had happened, he began his inspection of the room. The window bars, the floor, the ceiling, behind the bookshelf. The same sequence as always.
Lion watched him intently.
*(I don't want to forget that one moment.)*
That was what he thought.
Kai placed the empty dishes on a tray. Then, as always, he looked at Lion's palm.
On Lion's right palm was a small, old scar.
Two years ago, on the way to this place, he'd fallen while resisting and cut himself. It had long since healed. Yet every day, Kai checked that scar. Tended to it.
From the small cloth bag he carried, Kai took out ointment and a clean cloth.
Without a word, he took Lion's hand.
Kai's hands were large.
Hands that had swung a sword as a knight. His fingers were long and knobby, his palms calloused hard. Those hands cradled Lion's gently, as though handling something fragile.
*(This person's hands are always warm.)*
That was what Lion thought.
The room was cold, yet only Kai's hands were warm.
Kai spread a thin layer of ointment over the scar on Lion's palm. His movements were practiced and careful.
Silence.
The usual silence.
But today, it was a little different.
"...The wound is shallow," Kai said quietly.
Lion raised his head.
Kai, still gazing at Lion's palm, continued.
"You don't need treatment anymore."
A low, quiet voice.
It wasn't a command.
Just short words, stating a fact.
Yet to Lion, that single sentence felt unbearably warm.
*(This person was really watching—watching my wound heal.)*
Two years.
Every day, he had looked at this wound and tended to it.
And now he was saying it was no longer necessary.
*(That means he's been really seeing me.)*
His eyes grew hot.
His vision blurred.
Lion hurriedly looked down.
*(No. I can't cry.)*
Crying in front of Kai would be embarrassing. And if he cried, this person would be at a loss.
Lion bit his lip and held back the tears.
"...Thank you."
His voice trembled slightly.
Kai said nothing.
He simply released Lion's hand slowly.
The moment those hands drew away, Lion felt a small pang of loneliness.
*(I want him to touch me more.)*
The thought startled even himself.
Lion lifted his face.
"Kai, why do you go this far for me?"
Kai's hand stopped.
His blue-gray eyes reflected Lion.
"...It's an order."
That was Kai's answer.
But in that moment, Kai's gaze flickered to the side—just for an instant.
Lion didn't miss it.
*(If it were an order, he wouldn't look away.)*
Lion was certain now.
What Kai was doing wasn't an order.
It was something beyond orders.
*(This person does things for me that go beyond orders.)*
Something frozen deep in his chest seemed to be slowly thawing.
"...I see."
Lion gave a small nod.
*(Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you.)*
He repeated it over and over in his heart.
Kai said nothing more and began packing away the treatment supplies.
Lion gazed steadily at his profile.
Silver hair. Sharp blue-gray eyes. A small old scar on his left brow.
*(I want to know more about this person.)*
That was what he thought.
Kai left the room.
The heavy door closed, the bolt slid home, the key turned.
The measured footsteps receded into the distance.
Lion stared at the door for a while.
*(He'll come again.)*
The thought made his chest feel just a little lighter.
—
That night.
It was raining.
The rain that had started before noon hadn't stopped by nightfall—it had only grown stronger. Outside the window, the sound of rain echoed without pause. The drumming of raindrops against the iron bars reached even inside the room.
Lion lay curled up on the bed.
He was cold.
He'd felt sluggish since midday. As evening came on, the chills had worsened, and now, even with two blankets layered over him, his core was shivering.
*(Maybe I've caught a cold.)*
Lion thought vaguely.
This room grew especially cold on rainy days. The stone walls absorbed the moisture, and the whole room turned freezing.
*(I wonder if Kai is all right.)*
The thought crossed his mind.
Kai was probably out in this cold, patrolling the corridors or seeing to other duties.
*(I want to see him.)*
The feeling welled up from the bottom of his heart.
Lion closed his eyes.
Behind his lids, it was hot.
His body was hot.
And yet, he was cold.
*(That's strange.)*
His head was growing foggy.
His thoughts wouldn't come together.
Lion clutched the blanket.
His fingertips were numb with cold.
*(Mother...)*
Suddenly, his mother's face floated up before him.
A gentle smile. Warm hands.
*"Live. You, at least, must live."*
Her last words repeated in his mind.
*(I'm living properly, Mother.)*
That was what Lion thought.
*(But it's a little cold.)*
His consciousness drifted away.
The sound of rain seemed very far.
—
Kai Wolfhardt sensed something wrong.
When he visited Lion's room to deliver dinner, the room was strangely quiet.
Normally, Lion would be standing by the window, or sitting at the desk, or reading on the bed. At the very least, when Kai entered, there was some kind of reaction.
But today, nothing.
"...Lion."
Kai called the name low.
No answer.
At the back of the room, on the bed, Lion lay still.
Curled up under two layers of blankets.
Kai set the tray on the desk and walked to the bed.
"Hey."
He spoke.
Lion stirred faintly but didn't get up.
Kai peered at Lion's face.
—Hot.
Lion's face was unnaturally red, sweat beading on his forehead. His breathing was shallow and fast. Now and then he furrowed his brow in pain.
Kai pressed his hand to Lion's forehead.
*(The fever's high.)*
This was clearly no ordinary cold.
Kai hesitated for a moment.
His duty as a supervising knight.
That meant reporting the ward's condition to his superior and awaiting instructions.
However.
Kai glanced toward the door.
*(If I report it, a physician will come.)*
*(But that will take time.)*
*(And besides—)*
Kai stared at Lion's pained sleeping face.
*(I can't leave him alone.)*
That wasn't an order.
It was Kai's own will.
Kai took a clean cloth from the bag he'd brought. Then he poured water from the pitcher on the desk into a basin.
He soaked the cloth, wrung it out hard.
The cold sensation of the water spread across his fingertips.
Kai laid the cloth on Lion's forehead.
Lion let out a small breath.
"...Nn..."
A pained, fragile sound.
Kai pulled a chair to Lion's bedside.
He sat down.
*(This goes beyond duty.)*
Kai was aware of it.
Without reporting to his superior, he was beginning to nurse his ward.
If anyone learned of this, Kai would be punished for a breach of discipline. In the worst case, he'd be expelled from the knight order.
Even so.
Kai couldn't stand up.
Looking at Lion's pained face, his body wouldn't move.
*(Why am I...)*
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