Shulva spoke as she picked up the catalog.
“It makes my advice sound pointless, doesn’t it? I told you spending money every ti you missed Lady Rosie would at least fill the montary emptiness.”
A rare flicker of sympathy passed through her eyes.
“But you’re spending money every night.”
“I earn that much.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Shulva nodded dryly.
“But no matter how much you spend, you don’t seem happy...”
“Of course not. Rosie’s not here.”
Zahid murmured with his chin resting on his hand.
“Co to think of it, the last ti I was happy... was probably just before Rosie and I were separated.”
“You an right before the engagent was broken at the banquet?”
“Yeah.”
A faint, forlorn smile spread across Zahid’s face.
“I figured I’d just let ti pass like this, beco an adult, and sohow end up getting married.”
His calm voice echoed low through the quiet study of the duchy.
“Just like the countless Dyfenril ancestors who lived in this duchy, I’d marry when the ti ca, have children, raise them with love...”
In a way, there was nothing special about it. It was the kind of future any noble heir with a fiancée might expect.
“I thought that kind of future would co naturally, and that thought itself... felt really happy.”
“......”
“Now I have to work myself to death to make that future happen, but imagining it... that’s about the only thing that makes happy these days.”
Shulva conveyed her sorrow with silence.
A while later, they exchanged a dry goodnight and parted ways.
Zahid gazed out the window late into the night.
His eyes lingered long on the back garden, designed to look just like the rose garden they always used to et at in the Academy.
“Rosie.”
Perhaps he hadn’t made the pipe yet, for he slowly sipped a cup of sedative and muttered low.
“I miss you.”
His eyes wandered through the past as he fiddled with the two rings.
“...I miss you so much.”
By now it had beco so familiar, it felt completely ordinary—this daily routine of waiting.
* * *
I opened my eyes with a jolt, having lost consciousness.
As soon as I ca to, I sat up abruptly—and a low voice spoke.
“You’re awake?”
Tears welled up instantly.
That playful voice continued.
“Then how about getting off ? I’ve been holding back for a while and it’s getting really tough.”
Zahid was practically pinned beneath .
I looked down at him in disbelief.
His ssy black hair, that slightly pale, even more sculpted face, and those deep violet eyes smiling up at from below.
“Zahid...”
The shared warmth of our bodies was undeniably real.
I murmured in a trembling voice.
“You’re... alive, right? You are, aren’t you?”
Then, just in case he spouted nonsense, I imdiately warned him.
“If you dare say crap like ‘Why did you save ’ or ‘Why did you interfere,’ I won’t let it slide. I’ve already heard that line three tis since becoming the Divine Beast’s master. If you say it too, I’ll be seriously disappointed.”
At my threat, Zahid let out a faint, speechless laugh.
First, I pounded his solid chest with my fist.
“Are you out of your mind? No matter how insanely in love you are with , what made you think I wanted this, huh?”
Of course, it didn’t seem to hurt him at all, but I still hit him a couple more tis.
“How could you? How could you do that? Huh? How could you... how could you leave ...”
I gasped for breath, bursting with irritation.
“How could you leave behind and dare say you’d beco a dog! That’s the second most ridiculous dream I’ve ever heard!”
“Woof woof! Woof woof!”
“...Did you really have to use that expression right now, Rosie?”
Zahid, who had just quietly taken the hits while watching , spoke in a hoarse voice.
“There’s a perfectly fine, normal phrase like ‘lose one’s life,’ you know.”
Still curious despite everything, he frowned and asked,
“But what’s the number one most ridiculous dream?”
“My brother... said he wanted to be the Commander of the Holy Knights when he was little.”
“......”
“I found out when he’d lost his mory and didn’t know anything. Judging from how desperately he hid it before that, he must’ve known it was ridiculous himself.”
As we talked, I felt too embarrassed to stay angry, so I stopped punching him.
“Anyway, I’ll get up now. It’s not like you feel a thing even if I hit you a hundred tis—it’s not efficient...”
Just as I rembered his earlier words asking to get off, I started to move—when he wrapped his arms around my waist and whispered,
“Ah, wait. You don’t have to get up.”
“Huh?”
“If you want to make suffer, I think this is more in line with your goal.”
“What?”
“Now that I think about it, there’s no real reason for to hold back...”
The distance between us closed in an instant.
“Should I show you how well I’m alive while I’m at it?”
At the mischievous yet unmistakably desirous tone in his voice, my face flushed bright red.
“Let go of first.”
I said as I tried to push away Zahid’s arm wrapped around my waist.
“I look like a ss right now... I’m drenched in sweat and covered in dirt from crawling up here...”
“You look beautiful.”
Instead of letting go, Zahid pulled in tighter and kissed near my ear.
His warm breath tickled, and I squird as I ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) asked,
“...Since when have you been conscious?”
“Hmm.”
Zahid stared straight at and said,
“From the mont you said you loved . That’s when my consciousness fully separated from Fire.”
“...Ha.”
I let out a deep sigh and slumped my shoulders. The fact that I had confessed like that... made feel a bit embarrassed and defeated.
When I closed my eyes and made a distressed expression, Zahid whispered,
“I’m sorry, Rosie.”
“Good. Raise your hands and repent.”
Sohow our legs had gotten tangled, so I untangled them and gently kicked his calf as I said,
“You said you were loyal, didn’t you? Is this your idea of loyalty? How dare you die without anyone’s permission? Insolent!”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about that too. And... a lot of other things, actually.”
“Other things? I honestly can’t think of much else right now, but if there is, you better tell everything.”
As I pouted, Zahid hesitated slightly and said,
“...For making you rember everything alone all this ti.”
I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
I froze and looked into his eyes.
“While rging with Fire... the mories mixed.”
“Ah...”
They said that awakening a Divine Beast involved a process of rging with each other.
Fire had rembered even after regression.
That ant he carried the mory of being imprisoned with in the previous tiline. And Zahid had received all of it.
“You... then...”
I muttered in disbelief, and he smiled gently.
“That bastard told not to co find him... that it was enough if you were happy...”
At those words, tears that I thought had stopped began to fall again.
Until now, that had been a mory only I held. A mory I never shared with anyone. But now, it had co from Zahid’s lips, and finally felt real.
“So why did you co back just to be humiliated by that arrogant brat?”
The Zahid I rembered overlapped with the one before —the one I had promised myself I’d forget.
My tears kept falling onto the face beneath . He raised his large hand and gently wiped my cheek.
“Still... thank you.”
And then I started sobbing again, “Hic, hic.”
It didn’t feel like tears of the mont. It was as if years of bottled-up sorrow were finally pouring out.
“I was really happy, Rosie.”
“Hic... sob.”
“I got to have tea with you under clear skies, attend the Academy with you, and dance with you for the first ti.”
Zahid whispered softly as he patted gently.
“While I was happily ignorant... you worked so hard to keep our old promise alone...”
One of the wishes I had desperately made every birthday had finally co true.
Please, please let him rember .
I had always complained about how lonely it was having mories only to myself.
And now, after I had finally vowed to forget the him from my mories... a miracle had happened.
Reviews
All reviews (0)