Chapter 4

“…As long as I’m in a place where you can find me, isn’t that enough?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you become such a scaredy-cat? Lord Diazi, how about dreaming a little bigger?”

Ophelia teased, raising her eyebrows playfully. Her effort to lighten the mood brought a faint curve to Nicholas’s lips.

It was already two years ago. Ophelia, unsatisfied with leaving her position and acting alone, had gone all the way to McFoy Castle by herself. Hearing about her outright desertion and solo visit to McFoy Castle had moved Nicholas to tears.

Literal tears.

There was one witness to that heartbreaking single tear: Von Bains. When Ophelia heard from him that Nicholas had cried, she had been struck by a dizzying wave of guilt.

She had caused Nicholas countless grievances. She blamed herself for his transformation into someone so easily scared.

And there was a guilt she carried that he didn’t even know about.

Back when she had given up trying to climb out of the pond before turning back time, Ophelia had secretly wished that the person who found her first wouldn’t be Nicholas.

But Nicholas had been unparalleled when it came to finding her. When that realization dawned on her, she had clung to him, crying all day long. He had comforted her without knowing why.

From that day on, Ophelia made a promise to herself: no matter what happened, even if it took thousands of years or countless cycles…

“Wherever I go, I’ll always come back to you.”

She would find her way back to Nicholas.

Nicholas suddenly stopped in his tracks. Normally, he would agree to anything Ophelia said, like a man without self-will.

But today, for some reason, there was no response. Ophelia tilted her head, puzzled, and looked up at him.

“Nicholas, why…”

Surprisingly, his brow furrowed gently.

“Liar.”

Nicholas muttered softly after a few beats. The unexpected reply made Ophelia’s eyes widen. A flicker of confusion passed through her blue gaze.

“Wait… are you saying you don’t believe me anymore? Even though we’re having a child together? And we’re getting married in a month?”

Did I just propose to him? Ophelia’s mouth fell open blankly.

“…”

Having spent over ten years with Nicholas, Ophelia could easily read his expression. His golden eyes, calm yet determined, seemed to say.

“That’s beside the point.”

“I’m serious! Should I make an unbreakable vow? Call a priest right now. I’m ready!”

Ophelia declared with unwavering confidence, her gaze firm. But the man, looking as though he were about to crumble, avoided her eyes.

Ophelia grabbed his face, firmly holding his cheeks to keep his wandering gaze in place. Then she spoke again, her voice clearer this time.

“I’ve told you before, but my love for you could never be less than yours. No, I might even love you more.”

Their relationship had always been a competitive one, built on rivalry, friendship, and affection. Ophelia’s win rate had usually been higher.

“That may be true for most things, but I can’t agree with you on this.”

Today, Nicholas was unusually stubborn.

“If Aisa McFoy were in danger, you’d run back to her again.”

As if ashamed of his own words, he closed his eyes tightly. Ophelia was momentarily at a loss for words.

“You… That’s so childish.”

After a few failed attempts to speak, Ophelia muttered without thinking. Her candid reaction made Nicholas’s black lashes tremble slightly.

“Dragging Aisa into this is unfair…”

Aisa McFoy was special to Ophelia.

Though their time together spanned barely eight years, Aisa had been a pivotal figure in Ophelia’s life from the moment they met.

Her first friend, her first family—thinking of her had been what kept Ophelia alive through the hardest times. Those long years when she couldn’t help but loathe herself and punish herself for ruining everything.

She had seen seeking happiness elsewhere as an unforgivable greed. That was why she had pushed away the love standing before her for so long.

 

“Live your life. It’s okay to do so.”

As Ophelia’s lips curled into a faint smile, she recalled Aisa’s whispered words to her from the McFoy castle walls.

“…Nicholas. Lately, I’ve been feeling incredibly greedy,” Ophelia said, her gaze fixed on the man who stubbornly kept his lips sealed and showed her only his profile today.

“I want everything. I want to see Aisa happy, I want to love you, I want to marry you, I want to kiss you, and I want to strip you down right now and—”

“Ophelia!”

Her voice echoed loudly across the garden, and Nicholas, thoroughly alarmed, clamped his hand over her mouth. Even so, muffled giggles escaped between his fingers.

“Lay you down, pfft, puhuhu.”

“…Ha.”

Nicholas, who had been carrying a serious air of gravitas, finally let out a defeated laugh at Ophelia’s childlike chuckle.

Seeing his expression soften, Ophelia’s eyes lit up. She quickly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him toward her. His eyes widened, caught off guard.

At a distance so close their noses nearly touched, Ophelia’s lips curved upward in a sly grin.

“In situations like this, you shut me up with your mouth. I keep giving you chances, but you never take them.”

Nicholas obediently closed his eyes, and the next moment, Ophelia’s lips briefly brushed against his lower lip before pulling away. As if out of habit, Nicholas instinctively leaned forward to chase her lips, but no matter how much he tilted his head, he couldn’t reach her again.

Sighing, he opened his eyes.

“Now I’m filled with so many wishes.”

Their eyes met. Ophelia, who had already taken a step back, beamed brightly as though she had been waiting for this moment.

“I’m going to take all the happiness in the world!”

As her triumphant shout rang out, the sun emerged from behind the thick clouds, shining down on her. At the same time, time seemed to slow for Nicholas.

The green hills, the blue sky, her golden hair shimmering brilliantly in the light, and that dazzling smile, brighter than the sun—

They were things he once thought he had lost forever.

Even after Aisa McFoy had been miraculously rescued following her abduction during the Founding Festival, Ophelia had acted as though nothing had changed since the day they first met.

Nicholas, having finally found his long-lost older brother and believing the McFoy head to be safe, thought their unending misfortune had come to an end when Nyx was sealed in Baghdad, albeit temporarily.

But that was when he realized Ophelia’s nightmares hadn’t ended and that in her own life, she always placed herself last.

How could he break this cycle and help her live her life fully for herself? Nicholas had no answers. And Ophelia, it seemed, didn’t either.

Yet, she appeared to be slowly finding her balance, as if ready to write the next chapter of her story—a story truly her own.

“Do you think you can handle someone as greedy as me, Lord Diazi?”

Aisa McFoy. Well, these days, he felt more gratitude than annoyance toward that reckless woman. Perhaps a bit more jealousy, too.

“But in truth, none of that matters. I admire and love you simply for always striving to protect the things you hold dear.”

Nicholas, you’ve always been amazing. His heart swelled so much in that moment that it rendered his previous longing for affection utterly trivial.

“Absolutely.”

Nicholas replied, a charming smile gracing his face. He leaned down and kissed Ophelia deeply.

And just like on that sunset-filled day when they first connected, the two held hands shyly, as if they were a boy and girl again. They strolled slowly, hoping time would flow even more leisurely.

“Oh, right.”

Nicholas suddenly spoke. His thoughts had been so overwhelmed by his emotions that he’d completely forgotten the reason he’d sought her out in the first place.

“There’s a reply from my brother.”

“Oh. As expected, he declined, didn’t he?”

“He said it’s still difficult for him to leave McFoy for long.”

Images of her brother-in-law’s face from their last meeting flashed in Ophelia’s mind—a face that seemed to have lost everything and eyes that glared at her with a hostility she hadn’t even seen from Nicholas in his earlier days of wariness toward her.

‘I wonder if Aisa knows that angelic face of his could twist into such a demonic expression.’

Of course, she admitted she was partly at fault for kissing Aisa in front of “that Diazi.”

But Ophelia had her reasons too. In the heat of the moment, she had done what came naturally.

When Nyx had pierced Aisa’s abdomen and killed her for the first time, Ophelia had instinctively kissed her to share her divine power. That impulsive act had no grand justification—it was merely inspired by a folktale the two of them had once adored about a prince’s kiss reviving a dead princess.

Fifteen and desperate in the face of horrific bloodshed, Ophelia had simply mimicked the absurd story without much thought.

So, yes, she felt a bit wronged. But whenever she recalled Nicholas’s beautiful face crumbling in anguish, guilt inevitably settled in.

‘…I am a sinner.’

Feeling like a criminal all over again, Ophelia silently offered another apology to her brother-in-law.

“It’s a bit disappointing, but we should understand, shouldn’t we? It was a rather sudden invitation, after all,” she said, squeezing Nicholas’s hand to comfort him.

“Yeah.”

“And of course, the McFoy head and his wife are a bit… dramatic.”

“…True.”

Nicholas answered a beat slower, raising his eyebrows, and Ophelia let out a small laugh.

“Oh, but—”

“Hm?”

“The McFoy heir is coming instead.”

This time, it was Ophelia who stopped in her tracks. Nicholas looked down at her, puzzled. The smile had completely disappeared from her face.

“Ophelia?”

“…Archie’s coming?”

“…”

“And you’re telling me this just now?”

Nicholas had an ominous feeling that he had once again been demoted in Ophelia’s list of priorities—this time, beneath the McFoy heir.

And his fears were soon confirmed.

To prepare for Archie McFoy’s arrival, Ophelia, the future lady of Diazi, was swept into a whirlwind of activity.