| Chapter 4: An Unforgettable Touch

The beautiful illusion imprinted in the pain was something that Natasha would come to realize, days later, might not have been a dream after all.

“Ugh… Damn it.”

After several days of suffering, Alexei groaned as he slowly rose from the bed.

“What is this?”

After enduring such brutal lashings, he should have been covered in blood, with flies buzzing around him. But to his surprise, his body was remarkably clean. The whip marks on his body were covered with an oily salve.

“So this is what they mean by ‘even a dog in a noble family is better than the filth of a common slave.'”

He figured that perhaps another slave had been ordered to treat him without him knowing. Beside his makeshift straw pillow was a small jar of ointment.

Sniffing the jar, Alexei scrunched up his face.

“Of course, the ointment used by nobles even smells like a high-class product.”

Just by the scent, Alexei could tell it was something expensive. He knew that the healing balms used by nobles, especially those with healing properties, were incredibly costly. It seemed strange to him that such a thing would be given to a lowly slave like himself.

Looking back at Sergey, who had been whipping him mercilessly, Alexei felt a strange confusion. Sergey had seemed like he wouldn’t care if Alexei died on the spot. In fact, it almost seemed like he would welcome it.

“This doesn’t add up.”

He rose from the bed and glanced around the room, scanning it with a narrowed gaze. Then, at the corner of the room beneath the bed, he noticed something shiny. Slowly, he picked it up.

It was a single blue sapphire earring, sparkling in the dim light.

After staring at the glimmer for a long while, Alexei carefully tucked the earring deep into the straw pillow.

* * *

Since that fateful first encounter, nothing had happened between them.

One was the highest-ranking lady of the Duchy of Ivanov, and the other was a lowly gladiator slave.

However, Alexei’s daily routine had changed, however slightly.

After the exhausting days of training and fighting, he would collapse onto the bed and fall asleep almost immediately. But before he did, it had become a habit to pull out the blue earring from the pillow and stare at it for a long time.

Perhaps it was because he had never seen such a precious object before.

The earring, with its unyielding brilliance, seemed to hold something beyond just beauty. The transparent blue shimmer, layered in mystery, reflected light in such a way that it seemed to hold secrets. No matter how many times he looked at it, it never became tiresome.

‘It must belong to Princess Ivanov.’

That brief moment when their eyes had met in the arena came flooding back. He was sure that the princess’s eyes had the same transparent, sparkling blue as the sapphire earring.

And the earring that resembled her eyes now hung from her delicate, pale earlobe.

That meant…

“Ugh…”

Alexei remembered the sensation that had briefly crossed his mind during the pain-filled moments of being whipped. The soft, almost affectionate touch that had caressed his bloodied body. The way the fragrant ointment had been applied to his bare skin, wiping away the blood.

The ointment, which was so difficult to apply, had to be warmed and massaged in repeatedly with the palm of the hand to melt it into the skin. He had often found it tedious to apply to himself, sometimes just slathering it on in clumps. But thinking about how carefully it had been applied to his wounds while he was unconscious made his chest tighten with a strange, unfamiliar sensation.

‘Should I give it back?’

He didn’t want the expensive earring for its value; the thought of losing something that had become his only small comfort in the harshness of his daily life made him feel a sense of loss.

‘Perhaps, when I return it, I might see those eyes again.’

As that thought filled his mind, a new feeling replaced the regret. It wasn’t that he had other intentions, but he wanted to know if those eyes of hers—those blue eyes—shined as brightly as the sapphire. That was all. Nothing more.

* * *

The day after, before heading out for the gladiator match in the afternoon, Alexei hastily prepared himself.

As usual, he was about to go out wearing only his linen pants, barely covering his chest, which was his usual fighting attire. But then, he paused and turned back.

Out of laziness, he grabbed the robe he usually neglected to wear. Although it was called a robe, it was more like a tattered garment, full of holes.

Alexei looked into a rusted basin filled with water and, seeing his reflection, walked over to the ointment jar. His wounds had long since healed, but he took a generous amount of ointment and rubbed it onto the back of his hand. The pleasant fragrance spread in the air.

He then took the earring, which he had put down earlier, and left the room.

‘She was supposed to be walking in the garden this afternoon,’ he thought.

This information had been obtained from one of the slaves who tended to the castle, in exchange for some rye bread. He had waited under the large tree in the middle of the garden for hours, but Natasha had yet to appear.

‘Did I get tricked? I’ll break that bastard’s leg and use it as kindling.’

With the gladiator match approaching, Alexei was growing anxious, grinding his teeth when he suddenly heard a soft and elegant voice from a distance.

“Oh, it’s an Edelweiss. How is this flower growing in the cracks of the rocks here when it’s supposed to only grow in the mountains?”

Alexei immediately lifted his head.

Though she was hidden behind a group of noblewomen and bodyguards, he instinctively knew who it was.

The voice was unmistakable.

It had to be her. It could only be her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll apologize on my brother’s behalf. Please, bear with me for a little longer.”

The angelic voice he had heard in his dreams echoed in his mind.

That voice, which he had thought to be a dream, was now reverberating before him, vivid and real.

“Princess, I have something to tell you.”

With the earring tightly held in his hand, Alexei walked confidently toward her. His voice was not loud, but his presence was undeniable, and the surrounding noblewomen fell into an awkward silence.

“Do you know this man?”

The captain of the guards, holding his sword tightly, asked Natasha. Of course, Alexei was well-known, and no one in the room would be unfamiliar with him.

The most popular gladiator in the Duchy of Ivanov.

The best pillar of the arena.

The infamous slave from the Knulu tribe, Alexei Petrov. How many people in Ivanov would not recognize him?

However, among the few who might not know him, Natasha Ivanov was likely one of them. As a symbol of purity and elegance, she would have no reason to know the name of such a vulgar slave.

For a lowly gladiator to approach the noble princess like this was an insult. As the captain of her guard, it was his duty to stop such a disrespectful person.

The noblewomen around Natasha, who had once looked at Alexei with disdain, now stared curiously at Natasha, exchanging knowing glances.

‘The best pillar of the arena is addressing the princess?’

‘Do they know each other?’

Their meaningful glances passed between them, though they remained silent.

“Ah…”

Natasha’s eyes, wide with surprise, shifted from the noblewomen around her to Alexei.

The moment their gazes met, Alexei realized how foolish he had been to even consider comparing the sapphire earring in his hand to her eyes.

The expensive blue gem, which he could never afford in his lifetime, was nothing compared to Natasha Ivanov’s eyes.

And he, who had treasured the earring as if it were a priceless token, was now painfully aware that, in her presence, it meant nothing.

The earring that Alexei had held so carefully was nothing compared to the brilliant earrings already adorning Natasha’s fair earlobes.

“What… is this…?”

Natasha, hesitating, spoke softly, when suddenly Sergey’s angry voice came from behind her.

“Natasha! Where are you? Are you not going to watch the gladiator match with me again?”

Turning quickly, Natasha’s face flickered with confusion.

“Princess, what should we do with him? Do you know him?”

The captain of the guards asked again.

“No, I don’t know him.”

Natasha answered coldly, her expression hardening as she turned away from Alexei.