A Blend of Romance and Fantasy Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The man standing before me was nothing like the typical “northern duke” you’d find in a romance fantasy.

His deep red eyes burned hotter than the rising sun, and his crimson hair looked as if it had been drenched in fresh blood.

More than anything—his gaze.

His eyes were cold and razor-sharp, as though words like kindness, consideration, or even basic etiquette meant nothing to him.

Seriously, what kind of sane person kidnaps a princess from another country and ties her up like this? No matter how handsome he is, there’s no way I can forgive this bastard!

…That’s what I wanted to say.

But I only have one life.

“Your Highness, please calm down. If you keep me tied up like this, it will definitely cause a diplomatic incident. Why don’t we resolve this through conversation?”

“Conversation, you say.”

He—Leonard, that bastard—slowly approached me.

Step. Step.

The sound of his heels echoed ominously through the empty space.

Soon, he bent down, grabbed my chin, and forced my face upward to meet his.

His features were sculpted like a masterpiece, but I had no room to admire them. His eyes were terrifyingly sharp.

“Princess, how did you decipher my code?”

“Ah… the code?”

“What’s written on this paper is encrypted information. Yet you recited it perfectly. Does Singcester possess some holy relic capable of breaking any cipher?”

“It’s not like that!”

“Then tell me how you know.”

Leonard tightened his grip on my chin and pulled me even closer.

The force was overwhelming—tears welled up in my eyes—but he didn’t seem like the type to care.

He looked down at me coldly, then reached toward his waist.

A dagger.

“If you don’t speak, then I have no choice. Your neck—”

“O-Okay! I get it! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!!”

For the record, I value my life very much, and my mouth is about a hundred times lighter than a feather.

“A code? Of course I know it!”

“‘Of course’? How?”

“Well… that’s because…”

I glanced around nervously and muttered in a small, shrinking voice.

“It’s not something you made… It’s a script created by King Sejong.”

Hangul.

He froze, and I let out a long sigh.

If you want to know how things ended up like this… we’ll have to go quite a bit further back.