Chapter 276: You can lean on me, idiot.

The carriage rolled along the quiet mountain road in the evening.

Inside the cabin, the steady rattle of wheels had lulled almost everyone into sleep. Emma’s head tilted back against the leather padding, soft snores escaping her parted lips. Norelia curled into a miniature ball on Eren’s left, her cheek pressed against his coat, while Aria dozed gracefully opposite them, the shadow cub draped across her lap.

Seraphina alone remained awake.

She sat with one slender leg crossed over the other; her -red eyes were fixed on the book balanced on her knee, yet despite her disciplined imperial training, her gaze kept betraying her.

Every few paragraphs, unbidden and entirely against her will, her eyes drifted across the narrow space to the sleeping guy opposite her.

She raised a delicate silver brow.

A sharp, violent twitch crossed Eren’s resting face.

At first, she thought he was merely dreaming of some degenerate things, but then beads of cold sweat began breaking out along his temples, plastering damp raven locks to his forehead. His brows knit into a tight knot, his jaw clenching.

The white-haired princess stared in quiet confusion. She tried to avert her eyes, forcing her attention back down to the book, but the uneasy rhythm of his breathing dragged her straight back. His chest hitched in shallow, frantic gasps, his breath turning raspy and thin.

Seraphina let out a quiet breath, snapping the book shut.

She leaned forward, intending merely to nudge his knee or shake his sleeve to break the trance. But as she watched him shudder, a flicker of unguarded worry pushed her hand further. She reached out, her pale fingers hovering just above his temple to wake him.

SNAP.

Before her fingertips could brush his skin, Eren’s hand shot upward on pure reflex.

His fingers clamped around her wrist like an iron shackle. Seraphina gasped in startled shock, but before she could yank her arm back, Eren surged forward with sudden, staggering momentum, hauling her straight toward him as his eyelids snapped open.

Seraphina tumbled forward off her seat, catching herself against his broad chest.

Their faces stopped barely two inches apart.

Her warm, trembling breath washed over his parted lips. Her wide red eyes locked directly onto his blue gaze.

For the first time since the day they met, she saw fear in Eren Volsver.

It wasn’t the ordinary, cowardly flinching. When she had held a blade directly against his throat in that restaurant, his pulse hadn’t jumped a single beat; he had merely smiled and offered a witty quip.

Yet right now, staring into his eyes, she saw terror.

Beneath his shirt, his heart was hammering against her palm.

Eren blinked slowly, the suffocating void of the system fading into the reality of the carriage. He looked down at the pale wrist pinned in his fierce grip, then up at the silver-haired princess leaning over his chest.

With a ragged, shuddering exhale, Eren slowly loosened his fingers, his hand dropping limply onto his knee.

Cold sweat clung to his jaw. He dragged a trembling palm across his forehead, wiping the dampness away, his chest heaving as if he had just run twenty miles without oxygen.

"Sorry," Eren rasped out, his voice hoarse and raw. "My apologies, Your Highness... bad reflex."

Seraphina slowly pushed herself upright, sliding back onto her bench. She smoothed her skirts, her wrist still tingling from the searing heat of his grip, her heart doing an uneven rhythm of its own. She studied the pale, hollow look in his face, her voice dropping into a quiet, regal murmur that carried an unmistakable edge of concern.

"What happened to you, Volsver?" she whispered, glancing at the sleeping girls to make sure they hadn’t stirred. "Did something from Rujgard follow you?"

Eren shook his head slowly, his breath hitching on an unsteady note of suppressed panic that he couldn’t completely disguise.

"No," he murmured. "Just... a nightmare. Something far worse."

Seraphina tilted her head.

"A nightmare?" she echoed, raising a single silver brow as the pieces began to click behind her cool gaze. "Or is it one of those terrifying glimpses of the future you always claim to possess?"

"Something like that," Eren rasped out.

He dragged a trembling hand back through his black hair, entirely slumping against the carriage seat. He buried his face in both palms, his shoulders curling inward as if trying to physically block out the suffocating realization.

"I thought I had it handled," he muttered, his voice muffled, thin, and dangerously frayed at the edges. "I thought it was under control. I broke the lines... I should have been more careful. I got cocky. I should have taken it seriously from the start."

He peeked through the gaps of his fingers, his bloodshot blue gaze drifting toward Emma, whose face was relaxed in peaceful sleep, and Norelia, nestled unconsciously against his ribs like a fragile bird. The dread clawed up his throat, choking him.

"If that trigger didn’t reset... if the carnival still happens... what the hell am I even doing out here playing vacation?" he blabbered, the rapid, spiraling panic unraveling the confident, untouchable rogue into an exhausted, terrified boy.

Seraphina watched him in stunned, quiet disbelief.

Every single royal instinct drilled into her since birth told her to freeze. An imperial princess did not cater to weakness. She should have scoffed, crossed her arms, and delivered a cutting reprimand about composure and discipline—the way she treated incompetent generals and faltering courtiers.

Yet, looking at the agonizing terror trembling in his fingers, every rule she lived by simply withered away.

She leaned forward across the quiet cabin. Moving with gentle, deliberate care so as not to startle the sleeping girls, she reached out and took his hand.

Her slender, porcelain fingers wrapped around his knuckles, coaxing one of his trembling hands away from his face.

Eren flinched slightly at the contact, blinking down in genuine astonishment.

Seraphina was blushing, but her expression was remarkably firm. She held his palm within both of her hands.

"Stop spiraling, Volsver," she whispered, her eyes clear, steady, and intensely focused on his. "You carry far too much inside that insolent head of yours. You always have."

Eren opened his mouth to deflect, but the words dried up under the weight of her gaze.

"I don’t know what kind of impossible burdens or futures you see behind those eyes," Seraphina continued softly, her voice dropping into a tender, grounded cadence. "I don’t pretend to understand how that chaotic mind of yours operates. But I do know this: you made yourself the anchor for all of these women. You pulled them into your orbit, you swore to protect them, and you take every solitary bruise upon your own skin so they don’t have to bleed."

Her grip tightened slightly, anchoring his hand against her lap.

"So stop sitting there trying to swallow a disaster entirely alone," she murmured, a gentle, understanding warmth softening the sharp line of her lips. "Talk to me. Tell me what happened. What has rattled you so badly?"