Chapter 7

  Caged Bird

  "Then why have you interfered with my daughter?"

  "!?"

  "What exactly are you to her?"

  That question struck the room like a bolt of lightning.

  “…I’m just Miss Nora’s classmate, Your Majesty.”

  The Empress rose from her throne and shifted her posture, reclining slightly as she seated herself at the desk—but the pressure in the room did not ease.

  “There’s no shame in the emotions of two teenagers, Dan. But… if there’s one reason I had to summon you—it’s this simple question. A question for which I will grant you the opportunity to justify yourself: What did you say to my daughter?”

  Dan froze. Behind him, Nora stood with her head bowed, unable to meet anyone’s eyes.

  He was deep in the heart of Snowhaven. If he were to be "disappeared," this would be the moment. Game over.

  A glance left. A glance right.

  The throne room was packed with royal guards… ready to make him vanish at a moment’s notice.

  Dan closed his eyes.

  “…I simply gave Miss Nora advice—based on my perspective.”

  “What was it that Nora consulted you about?”

  “She didn’t want to go through with the engagement, Your Majesty.”

  Dan’s composure was flawless. Not a tremor in his voice. It was enough to raise one of the Empress’s eyebrows.

  “And what did you tell her?”

  “Mother!”

  “Silence, Nora. There will not be a second warning.”

  “…!”

  Nora could only bow her head.

  “That’s what she told me, Your Majesty.”

  Both Nora and the Empress: “!?”

  “…What did you say?”

  “If I may, Your Majesty, I’d like to tell you a story.”

  Dan changed his stance—no longer hands clasped in front, but now folded behind his back. His gaze met the Empress’s, steady and unflinching.

  “There was someone close to me…”

  The room listened. Even the guards stood quietly.

  “I knew him well. He had an older brother. Their father—he was a knight, a general. Extremely strict. He mapped out every step of their lives with military precision. He wanted his sons to follow his path without error. So badly, in fact, that he couldn’t see how his expectations crushed them. The father demanded absolute perfection… and if they didn’t live up to it, they weren’t his sons anymore.”

  “The older brother tried so hard. He trained every day until his hands were calloused and split. He fought on the battlefield. He graduated from the academy. Eventually, he was appointed to one of the elite knight battalions—an honor granted to only one in a hundred. It was an incredible achievement…”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Dan paused, closed his eyes, and continued.

  “I remember it was a Sunday afternoon. I had just come back from church with a friend. Normally, we’d cook and eat together as a family… But that day, no food was made. No prayers were spoken—not for a year, after that day.”

  “Because under the oak tree in their backyard… we found the older brother’s body. Hanging.”

  Nora’s eyes flew wide.

  “Beside the tree, there was a letter. A letter of apology. To his father. Apologizing for not being good enough. Apologizing for being merely one in a hundred—not one in a thousand. Or one in ten thousand. He had been carrying this weight for over a decade. And the worst part… was that he never blamed anyone but himself.”

  “He didn’t hate his father, cold and heartless as he was. He simply believed that if he couldn’t earn his father’s praise… then he didn’t deserve to live.”

  Silence.

  The throne room was deathly quiet.

  Dan turned to face the Empress of Ophilis once more.

  “When I saw Miss Nora pushing herself so hard in class… it reminded me of that boy’s brother. I saw someone in the same situation. I saw what could happen—I’ve seen the ending with my own eyes. And I didn’t want it to happen again. So I told her to fight—for herself.”

  The "justification" the Empress had expected was flipped into a story told with fierce, unwavering eyes—one only a seventeen-year-old with remarkable insight could deliver.

  “…My condolences for your friend, young man. But in the Ophilis family, things are different.”

  “That may be true, Your Majesty…”

  Dan looked around the room. Looked to Nora. Then back at the Empress.

  “But what I learned from that incident… is that this older brother—he was warm, always smiling. Even his father believed he was fine. But what happened taught me something: no matter how much you observe someone, no matter how sharp your eyes… you’ll never truly know. Never.”

  He had planted uncertainty.

  Dan didn’t refute the Empress directly. That would have cost him his head. Instead, he played the only card that no one—not even an empress—could deny.

  Yes, Nora might not end up like that boy.

  But the possibility wasn’t zero.

  And no one could ever be sure.

  That was the key message the Empress received.

  And she was surprised—deeply so—that a seventeen-year-old had managed to express it… without getting himself killed.

  “I’ve seen Miss Nora’s ice magic in Professor McClaff’s class. The sheer power of it… I don’t think anything could easily hurt her. So I just don’t understand why there’s a rush for her to get engaged.”

  “Nora isn’t strong enough yet. That’s precisely why she needs a fiancé—to consolidate military strength for the future.”

  The Empress Ophilis the Fourteenth had been forced into an engagement herself.

  And what she had received, she now passed down.

  Nora understood now… everything Mr. Fury had ever told her.

  “Miss Nora’s not strong enough? Then how strong is strong enough, Your Majesty?”

  “That’s not something you need to know, Dan.”

  “No… Dan’s right. I want to know too.”

  Nora suddenly stepped forward to stand beside Dan.

  And for the first time, she stood tall—eye to eye with her mother.

  She didn’t know why she was no longer afraid…

  But it had something to do with Mr. Fury.

  Something about his presence made her feel… safe.

  Made her feel completely fearless.

  “No… maybe I’ll never be strong enough in your eyes.

  How strong do I have to be, Mother, to not need a fiancé?”

  The tension in the room multiplied tenfold.

  “Nora…”

  The Empress narrowed her eyes.

  “I never expected my daughter to raise her voice at me like this.”

  But Nora didn’t back down.

  Even the guards looked baffled.

  She didn’t break eye contact.

  She waited for her mother’s answer.

  This… was the first step Mr. Fury had meant.

  The first step toward freedom.

  “My, my… such passion to defy my wishes.”

  “How strong must I be to avoid engagement, Your Majesty?”

  “…Iskaryx.”

  “!!!”

  Nora’s eyes flew open.

  “Kill it. And we’ll have no further obligations.”

  Iskaryx—an ancient ice dragon that lived in the Forbidden Valley to the far north of Snowhaven.

  It had ruled hundreds of square kilometers as its exclusive hunting ground for generations.

  A beast so powerful, none had ever defeated it.

  Its breath could freeze an army, its tail shatter them in an instant.

  Thankfully, it was territorial—never leaving its domain.

  Still, the kingdom longed to invade its land for resources.

  The Empress had just given her daughter an impossible challenge.

  Ten meters of scaled fury—entire armies had failed.

  And she knew it was impossible.

  That’s why she said it.

  Nora was about to protest…

  But then, she remembered who was standing beside her.

  She looked at Dan…

  Then turned back to her mother.

  “If I slay Iskaryx… I will be free?”

  “You would do it?”

  “I will do it.”

  “!!!”

  Dan, the Empress, the guards, Nora’s eavesdropping siblings—even Lord Glassner—were stunned.

  “P-Princess! This is madness!”

  The royal guards tried to de-escalate the situation.

  But—

  The Empress raised a hand.

  “Don’t. Let her go.”

  She said,

  “I’m curious…

  To see just how far she’s willing to push her limits.”