Hamon gave her a questioning look, but now wasn't the right time for a long conversation with this stranger. Ara heaved a deep breath of exhaustion. This wouldn't have taken such a toll on her in her previous life, but she wasn't in peak condition anymore. When they managed to get to safety, Ara noticed Hamon's condition. His face was very pale, and she didn't know how he had managed to hang on this long in his wounded state.
"Your Highness, come down. Let's take a look at your wound."
Ara got off her horse and extended her arm. Hamon looked at her as if she were patronizing him, helping him off the horse like a child. Contrary to his piercing expression, Hamon quietly accepted her hand. He got off the horse and leaned against a big rock, pulling at his ragged clothes. His fangs and weird nails, along with his purple-like skin color, were back to normal. It was as if he had never turned into a monster a while ago. Now, the man in front of her was breathtaking, even with his condition.
Ara looked at his mesmerizing red eyes. He had shoulder-length silver hair, which was rare in their kingdom, a straight nose with high cheekbones, and a sharp jawline. By all accounts, he was handsome, but Ara wasn't so naïve as to mistake what she had seen earlier. Hamon immediately understood what her brief pause meant.
"You're wondering why I looked like that earlier, right?"
There was some bitterness in his voice. Of course, she was wondering why, but she knew that treating him was more important at the moment.
"I'll treat you first," she said while searching for something on her horse.
"You don't have to bother with my wounds; I'll heal in a wh—"
Ara cut him off. "No, I brought some medicine. I'll treat you with it, Your Highness."
Hamon wanted to tell her that the wounds would heal by themselves. His red eyes gazed cautiously at Ara as she calmly took out the medicine.
"This will hurt a little, Your Highness."
Ara examined Hamon's large and small wounds with concern. There were more than just a few wounds here and there. Hamon didn't make a sound as she touched his painful-looking wounds. This situation must be very familiar to him.
'Fortunately, the crown prince's achievements were not exaggerated,' she thought internally.
Come to think of it, this was the first time she had seen the crown prince. One of the terrible rumors had said he was a large, hairy, and fat monster. She hadn't realized he would actually be this handsome. As she treated his wounds, she couldn't help but notice his hard muscles peeking through the torn edges of his clothes. He looked more like an angel than the demon they said he was.
However, he had a dangerous air around him. Even though he was sitting on the ground, his presence was so overwhelming that she couldn't easily find a weakness. Ara glanced silently at Hamon.
Hamon, on the other hand, just watched the stranger treat his wounds. Although the wounds would heal by themselves, that could only happen once he changed back to his demon form. He didn't want to scare this person away. But something was wrong. This person wasn't part of his guard, given the color of the armor. So, who was this?
Hamon spoke with a sharper voice than before. "I don't think you're one of my men. Who are you? And why did you save me?"
Ara thought about how to answer this question. It hadn't been easy back on the battlefield, but now it was even more nerve-wracking to talk to him. Still, she was determined to give him an answer. Ara hoped that Hamon would stay in the kingdom long enough to become king and defeat Cornell. She was willing to risk everything she had to make him stay. The road to making him king would be difficult, and there was no way to know what other dangers were lurking. She couldn't let him know about it.
"Your Highness—"
"Tell me right now!"
Ara had seen Hamon's powers and accepted the fact that he was a match for Cornell and the throne. She remembered the people who said that Cornell would not have been able to take the throne so easily had Hamon been there.
Since Ara was born an aristocrat, she had to marry the man her father chose for her. In her previous life, her family was destroyed, and she was free from such duties. But that wasn't the case anymore. Ara now had to marry a man who would bring the most benefits to the Boxton family, and that man was sitting right in front of her.
She looked at him up and down. He had a sharp jaw, a high nose, fierce-looking red eyes, silver hair, and milky white skin. She remembered the scary long nails from earlier, but fortunately, they weren't present at the moment.
Hamon narrowed his eyes at the stranger who continued to look him up and down without answering his question. It was starting to annoy him.
"Didn't I just—" Hamon was about to speak when he heard something unexpected from the stranger.
"I want you to marry me."
"What?!"
Hamon's annoyed expression instantly changed to shock. Ara repeated herself. "Let's get married, Your Highness."
A look of shock flitted across Hamon's face at the unexpected marriage proposal, but it quickly faded. He chuckled for a while and then looked into Ara's eyes, speaking with a deep, serious voice.
"I don't know what the rumors say about me, but I don't like men. Got it?"
"P-pardon me?" Ara was flustered. Although she hadn't expected him to accept her proposal, this was an entirely unexpected response. Was there a rumor that the crown prince liked men? No, wait... Did she look like a man now? She had completely forgotten about her appearance; only her eyes were visible beneath the scarlet armor, so it was natural for him to think she was a man.
"Your Highness, you mis—"
"And even if I liked men, did you really think I'd marry you just because you saved me? You must be very naïve, young man."
Hamon's face twisted into a sneer. He was right; even if he had a taste for men, a marriage to a woman would be more beneficial for him. Love and marriage were different for him.
"I meant to say I a—"
"If you think I'm going to marry someone despite the curse, then you're mistaken."
Hamon was not that young, but there was a reason why he had not married yet. It was because of a curse that had been placed on him.
"If you haven't heard of the curse, then—"
"I know about it."
Yes, she knew about it. That the first person to marry the crown prince would spend their entire life in solitude. She would live an unhappy life before dying a miserable death. It was one of the things that made the kingdom politically turbulent before his death in the previous life. With such dark omens hanging over him, and with the rumors about him being a monster, no aristocrat wanted to marry their daughter to the cursed crown prince.
If the king were to pass away, there would be no relatives to support Hamon's claim to the throne, as his mother was said to be a maid and a bed warmer. The crown prince's fate was obvious if he could not keep the throne.
There had been attempts by the king to connect Hamon to a good family. Even if a princess from another kingdom who didn't know anything about the curse and the rumors were brought as a bride, the ominous curse would surely reach her. There was only one way to break the curse: once the prince married a woman who agreed to marry him willingly, even after knowing about the curse. Then he could marry any other woman on good terms. Ara was going to take a position that nobody wanted.
'Will I be lonely and miserable for the rest of my life if I marry the prince? Not only that... I'll die a miserable death?' Ara had already spent her first life alone and unhappy. Now that her second chance had arrived, she couldn't bear to lose it. As long as she could protect her beloved family from Cornell, no matter how unhappy she'd be in the marriage, she was willing to marry the cursed prince.
"How ridiculous! Just because you saved my life, now I have to pay you back by marrying you?" Hamon looked terrifyingly mocking as he laughed.
If he weren't already wounded, Ara might have enjoyed beating that laugh off his face, for her own peace of mind.
"Your Highness, if you keep laughing like that, your wound will open."
"Shut your disgusting mouth. Even your voice is disgusting." The muffled sound of her voice behind the armor irritated him.
"Your Highness, listen to what I have—"
"I'm going to say this one last time. I'm not going to marry you. So you can take your sorry self and leave this place right now while I'm being nice!"
Ara wanted to fume at him when he kept interrupting her again and again. 'He thinks I'm disgusting after I risked my life to save him? What an arrogant, pompous prince!' Despite her anger boiling beneath the surface, she said in a calm voice.
"Can you please just listen to me first?"
"If I don't die from this wound, I'll die from your stupid, useless chatter. Can you stop staring down at me like that?"
Ara quickly realized she was being disrespectful, looking down at the prince who was sitting on the ground. She hadn't noticed because of the overwhelming sense of power around him. Ara immediately stooped down.
A low sigh escaped from beneath her helmet. She hadn't thought Hamon's personality would be pleasant from the start, but he was worse than she had guessed. 'He has no intention of listening to me. I have to make him listen.'