Cain pulled me behind him with his immense strength. I couldn't free myself from his iron grip. So I stumbled helplessly after him.
However, I was a bit puzzled when I realized that we were heading towards his room instead of the palace's dungeon.
Didn't he want to have me tortured or killed? Or at least get locked up? I was a traitor to the country in his eyes... wasn't I?
So what was he up to?
When we got to his room, he threw me onto his bed with a flourish. I landed half on the mattress, my knees painfully hit the floor. The impact was harder than expected, making me whimper a little.
I turned around hastily and pressed my back even tighter to the bed frame behind me while glancing up at Cain in fear.
"You know you've committed treason against our country, don't you? That's the death penalty." Cain said coldly, staring down at me in the darkness of his room.
Only a small ray of light penetrated through the open door gap. It made Cain look like an executing deity. As if he weren't scary enough already.
"Cain, please believe me I have nothing to do with Prince Leopold! I really lost my memory that day." I tried to explain myself. I sounded more than desperate - because I was.
"You don't think that I really believe you now, do you? And don't you ever think of calling me by my first name so carelessly again." He rebuked me with an unaccustomed severity that made me flinch.
He then closed the door completely behind him so that only the moon threw its dull, cold light on us from the window.
"Please listen, your highness … It… it may be that this body … no … that I was someone else before. But not anymore. I'm not a spy, please believe me!" I kept trying to explain desperately, although I was quite aware of the predicament I was in.
Suddenly Cain started laughing. And I no longer understood the world. I just stared at him with big eyes.
I was beyond confused.
Was he completely insane now?
"I know that, silly. I just wanted to tease you a bit." He said amused, while he lit some candles and bathed the room in a dim, warm light.
"W-what? How did you know?"
"Do you really think that I didn't let our blood magician examine you from the start? She is truly excellent in her field."
"B-blood magician?"
"Yes, the witch who always wears black clothes and is very mysterious. I am sure that you have run into her before. She found you quite interesting from the beginning when I brought you to her during your guard training."
"H-how come I don't remember any of this?!"
"Blood mages can see inside the heads of living beings or control them or whatever. It's pretty scary anyway. But because of that, she was also able to erase your memories, so you became my bodyguard unsuspectingly."
When I just looked at him questioningly he just sighed smiling and continued:
"I have every one of my bodyguards examined by her so no spy can get in my way. It's my own kind of … protection."
"Ah... I see..."
I couldn't help but feel relieved. I was so glad Cain understood me … somehow.
Even if it still struck me as bizarre.
"Anyway, she said she'd never met anyone like you. She said it was almost like you came from another world. At first I thought she was just being metaphorical, but then when I heard this weird fortune teller say the same thing at the summer festival, I really started to get interested in you and your past. I asked the blood mage for details, which she gladly shared with me: She said you came from a place beyond her wildest imagination. With glass towers even higher than sequoia trees and noisy moving carriages without horses. That everyone would wear strange clothes there and also that everything would be lit up with bright lights at night. Like in a fairyland."
I swallowed hard as Cain described my previous world in his own words to make it comprehensible. Somehow I got a little homesick. But I said nothing and continued to listen to him attentively…
"But she also said that you were also a different Chris at the same time. A Chris who came from this world. A Chris who should have died of his head injury on the day of the Guards selections. But you weren't dead. You were very much alive even. You just weren't the Chris you were before. You weren't Chris, the spy from Ildrega anymore. You were Chris, the girl who was reincarnated into this body. And judging by the fortune teller you could even have a purpose here. So answer me this question: what is your purpose here in this world?" Cain asked more seriously than expected.
"I...I don't really know..." I replied, unsure.
After all, that was one of the main questions I asked myself every day and to which I didn't know the right answer.
"What, you don't know?" Cain asked almost frustrated as he finally leaned down and came very close to me.
Now I realized for the first time that the left side of his face looked somehow swollen. His skin was very red and his left eye looked battered. Even his lip was split a little.
Surely he would have some bruises tomorrow.
"You... you're hurt..." I stated softly as I stroked his face tenderly, causing him to hiss out in pain.
"Yes... it's unusual for my father to punch me squarely in the face. He usually only hits me where no one can see." He replied hoarsely. I saw a fake smile curl his lips.
There was a certain kind of pain in his golden eyes that made my heart throb uncomfortably.
"He... he abuses you?"
"He would probably call it 'disciplining'." He replied and laughed derisively.
"Is that why you sometimes left your clothes on during sex? So I wouldn't see the bruises on your body?" I asked worried.
"You're sharp. Sometimes I forget that because you're so naive at the same time. You're a walking contradiction. And I can't help but find you interesting." He said as he stroked my hair with his big hands.
"So, and you were once a woman, huh?" He suddenly changed the subject in a mischievous way, just as I was about to reply.
"W-what? Uh...yeah..." I was very surprised at the abrupt change of subject.
What was he up to now?
I could see the playful gleam in his eyes, which before had seemed just dull and expressionless.
Somehow I was happy that he seemed to be the old self again. But at the same time I was a bit scared because it mostly ended in...
"Is that why you're so good at taking my dick, even though I'm your first partner?" He managed to take the entire previous conversation from something profound to something dirty in one single sentence.
"W-what?!
"Many men before you had refused for quite a long time before they let me get on them...if you know what I mean. Most of the time they weren't even aware that they might like getting railed by another man. But you hardly needed any persuasion. The problem with you wasn't that I was another man, but that I was the prince and you were just the guard. I found that interesting." He said as he bent over me even further and was now practically hovering over me.
His sharp eyes fixed first on mine and then on my lips, making me incredibly hot.
"It's going to be a long night Chris. So brace yourself." Cain said before he connected his lips to mine and pulled me into a deep, passionate kiss.