Two-Faced Princess

Before his words were over, he could feel the strong heat that was familiar to the two of them.

“Move!”

The last word didn’t come from his mouth. At the next moment, Apollonia’s hand pushed him hard.

The unexpected force pushed him into a huge crater in the middle of the mountain. It was the heart of Calt that Tan was talking about.

At the same time, a terrible flame began to burn just where he was sitting before.

“Apollonia!”

Shocked, he called out her name. But the fire didn’t care about that. In front of his eyes as he rolled into a huge pit, flames swallowed Apollonia’s slender body.

“Apollonia!”

He had inhaled too much smoke and he couldn’t see well. None of that mattered.

He failed to protect Apollonia. In his mind, he already accepted her as his master, and he couldn’t afford to lose her.

An uncontrollable sense of anger and loss enveloped him. Hot lava seemed to flow in his stomach. He stopped his rolling and stood up, stumbling toward the flames that now seemed to be burning the entire mountain.

He wouldn’t be able to bear it unless he jumped into the flames right after her.

Too late, his body didn’t listen, and his eyes were blurry. He gathered strength as he tried to run toward the fire, ignoring the pain in his legs and lungs.

“No way…?”

Like a miracle, Apollonia walked out of the blazing, raging fire. Her hair flying in the heat was nearly indistinguishable from the fire itself.

It looked like the sun.

As if the flames around her were invisible, she looked for Uriel and ran toward him.

Swish-!

Then before he could even react, she hugged Uriel’s body and jumped right into the heart of Calt from which he had escaped.

“Apollo….?” he mumbled, soft as a prayer, falling into the pit.

***

The mountain kept rumbling.

Apollonia and Uriel slowly woke up. Unlike the steep slope they first rolled into, now they stepped on even ground.

True enough, the heart of Calt didn’t burn. The crater wasn’t that deep but it was very wide. It might not have been well known outside the mountain, but there were only a few trees inside the heart, giving it a desolate feeling.  Around them, the land burned.

“Alive… how are you still alive?” Uriel grabbed Apollonia’s wrist. His eyes scanned her up and down. She was fine except for the clothes inside her robe being slightly scorched here and there, as well as the blood flowing out from her shoulder wound.

It was more strange that her clothes were fine.

He knew the answer as soon as he looked at her. The witch made the robe with fire-resistant material. Uriel was worried, but she seemed to have no problem walking and talking.

“Yeah, it’s better than I thought.”

“How the hell…?”

“That’s how my body works. My wounds heal quickly and I don’t get too cold or hot.”

“Isn’t the blood of God just a legend?”

“I also didn’t know that I’d be this unharmed. I’ve only tried it with candles at the palace.”

Among the royal family members, those born with the characteristics of God were rare. And among them, there were only a few people in history who couldn’t burn. Apollonia also wouldn’t have known if the previous emperor didn’t spill boiling hot tea water at her when she was a child.

“I thought it was only a useless ability, but it was very useful today.” Apollonia smiled as if nothing was wrong.

Uriel leveled her with a serious look. “Then… is that why I had to kill you?”

“Yes, unfortunately Petra found out.”

Uriel nodded slowly.

“That’s why you went up the mountain alone. You thought you’d be safe because you couldn’t burn.”

“Yes, although I didn’t expect the monster. It’s…” She brushed the ash from her hair and looked straight at Uriel. “I misjudged you. You saved my life.”

At Apollonia’s acknowledgment of her mistake, his pretty eyes trembled slightly.

Uriel’s lips, which had been unmoving for a while, opened. “You have a lot of secrets, Your Highness. The Leifer wouldn’t even imagine it.”

“Everyone in the palace has two faces. Neither the Emperor, my aunt nor I are an exception.”

She said so, but in Apollonia’s head, Paris and Gareth, who were simple-minded and couldn’t hide their temper, came to mind one after another.