Chapter 69
Leticia returned to the room and sat on the sofa. She stared at the wet letter in her hand but couldn’t bring herself to open it. She just glared at it, as if silently challenging it.
“…Why is a letter addressed to Seongha in my hands?”
She repeatedly touched the envelope and set it down before finally summoning the courage to tear it open with a paper knife. As she carefully unfolded the paper, she noticed that the handwriting was different from his usual style. There were parts where the ink clumped together, as if trying to suppress emotions, and some parts were written in a hurried, sweeping manner. Leticia read through it again to confirm if it was indeed written by him.
[If Arserion wishes to maintain a friendly relationship with Brivant, there must be no lies in the answers to the following questions.
Brivant also considers its relationship with Arserion positively. Since this is a matter of mutual trust before joining hands, I ask for your understanding if I appear sensitive.
Please note that this letter is an unofficial one and holds no legal power. Therefore, I kindly request that the Pope does not disclose this information externally for the sake of the kingdom’s relationship.
Time is valuable to everyone, so I will get straight to the point. Something precious has gone missing from Brivant.
Since it is the only one of its kind, we are trying to retrieve it. If it is in Arserion, I ask that you return it. If this happens, the relationship between the kingdom and Arserion will become stronger. It would be ideal if we could form a mutually beneficial relationship.
So, I will ask the Pope:
Have you seen the golden star shining in the night sky?]
There was no direct mention, but Leticia felt she understood what the golden star referred to. The golden star shining in the night sky—it was a reference to her.
Leticia dropped the letter onto the table. Why is he still looking for me? Does he know that I’m pregnant and plan to take me away to punish me? Or is he just worried about me suddenly disappearing?
Suppressing the endless stream of thoughts, she shook her head. He isn’t looking for me out of concern—he must be seeking me out of betrayal.
“Leticia, what would you do if it’s different from what you know?”
Why did the Pope say such a thing? Could it be that the cause of her death was something else? But she had seen it clearly. The mad emperor had started a war to claim her, and Arden had abandoned her for the kingdom.
There was no lie in this outcome. If it wasn’t the truth she believed, then what would change? If the emperor didn’t start a war to claim her, then she wouldn’t need to feel guilty. She wouldn’t need to feel sorry for the many who died because of her. But that was all.
What if Arden hadn’t abandoned her?
It was an absurd hypothesis, but if she thought everything in the opposite direction based on the Pope’s words, it wasn’t entirely dismissible. The hardest truth to believe. And the one that had tormented her more than anything else.
Arden had abandoned her until the very end. The look in his eyes, the tone of his voice, his actions—all of them were sharp and vivid, as if a dagger had been driven into her heart. None of it had faded. She would never forget those blue eyes that stared at her, unfocused, even as she was dying.
Without even a simple farewell, she had died miserably. With a sword plunged into her own chest. Could that not be the truth?
Leticia was confused. Her memories were so tangled that she couldn’t tell what was real and what was fake. She curled up and closed her eyes.
None of it was certain. What could she believe, other than the fact that she had died?
But was it even real that she had died?
If she stayed like this, she might go mad. As she submerged herself in a warm bath, her mind became clearer.
‘Why did Dandelion give me the letter without even reading it?’
This was a simple question.
Perhaps she hoped that by watching the king search for her, he would accept the offer. Writing “make a wise decision” was essentially a warning to Arserion.
If he were to pretend not to know while protecting her, it meant he should consider the consequences of what might happen later. Since relations with the Empire were not good, Arserion would likely find it burdensome if Brivant turned its back on them. It wasn’t entirely impossible that someone would be mad enough to join forces with the Empire just to find her.
But, thinking the opposite, would Arden go that far to search for her? No, that wasn’t it.
She lay down on the sofa, her thoughts tangled. Wasn’t he surprisingly crafty? He must have intended to solve everything without lifting a finger himself.
Now that she thought about it, from the Pope’s perspective, if he didn’t accept his offer, she would essentially be a burden. To make herself valuable, she had to return to Arden, as the Pope desired.
‘For what purpose?’
She would never sacrifice her life for others. The situation was quite different now from before. Leticia tightly shut her eyes.
She needed to find out what he was really thinking.
Throwing her cloak over her shoulders, she left the room. She needed to tell Seongha she wasn’t going to do it.
“……Ha.”
❖ ❖ ❖
She couldn’t make sense of the situation. After finally cleansing herself and refreshing her mind, she had come out to meet the Pope, only to find herself drenched again.
Leticia blinked in surprise, her face dripping with water falling from above.
“Oh my, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
The voice was insincere, and the tone wasn’t apologetic at all, making her chuckle bitterly. Leticia lifted her head and stared at the priest who was looking down at her.
“What are you doing?”
“I didn’t know there was anyone walking this way. Maybe you should watch where you’re going?”
She felt an unmistakable hostility in the priest’s words. If he had been one of Seongha’s men, he wouldn’t have acted this way. As a guest, he would have refrained from actions that would dishonor Seongha’s name. Yet, here he was, behaving rudely. He was probably not one of Dandelion’s people.
‘As expected.’
The eyes staring at her were filled with golden light. Leticia shrugged off her cloak and stared back at the woman who had doused her with water.
The elf who had been saved by the Pope and was staying in Arserion.
“If you have something to say, say it. What do you think will change by being rude?”
“Rude? You dare speak to me, the daughter of that woman…!”
Once again, water splashed down over Leticia.
Did she do this childish thing just to exert some power? There was no water left in the bucket the woman was holding. It had already been poured over her head earlier.
Looking up, she saw the water dripping from the leaves of the wet trees. It seemed too deliberate to be a coincidence. The elf had said they drew power from spirits, so asking them for help wouldn’t be a problem at all.
Spirits were known for their curiosity, sometimes even delighting in playing tricks on others, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they had helped the elf play this prank.
“I don’t understand what my mother did to deserve this. She disappeared, and I don’t even know whether she’s alive or dead.”
Leticia was frustrated. She didn’t understand why they were doing this to her; their hostility and malice were beyond her comprehension. Was it really such a mistake to meet a loved one and start a family?
She had lived her entire life abandoned by her own kin. Her mother, who had hidden her identity and lived alone in the human world, had never once resented her people. She always said it was her choice. Occasionally, she would say something wistful, but she accepted it because it was her decision.
“She’s dead? That can’t be true.”
She frowned in confusion as she spoke. The words she said made Leticia’s heart drop to the floor again, as if she knew the fate of her mother. Even the Pope, who had been asked about it, said he knew nothing. Was there something different about these people, being from the same clan?
“Do you know whether my mother is alive or dead? If you do, please, please tell me.”
Leticia clutched the elf’s cloak tightly, pleading. If they knew even a little, anything at all, she would be willing to hear it. If she could learn where her suddenly disappeared mother was, maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t die this time without knowing anything.
“Let go of me!”
The elf slapped her hand away with an annoyed expression. Despite the sharp pain on the back of her hand, Leticia didn’t care and held onto the cloak again.
“Please, please tell me…!”
“Let go of me! How dare you, with your human blood mixed in! Yeah, this whole mess is your fault!”
Leticia felt a sharp pain in the back of her hand. A red mark was left on her pale skin, but she clung desperately to the cloak. No matter how many times she was slapped, she wasn’t going to let go.
“Ha! You’re persistent. Even if I told you, what would change? She’s already dead.”
“…Dead?”
It was hard to believe. What on earth were they saying? She had never once believed her mother was dead. She had always thought there was a reason for her departure and believed she would return.
“Don’t lie! Even if my mother betrayed the clan, she wouldn’t be… like this!”
Leticia bit her lip hard. She didn’t want to believe it. No, it was an unbelievable statement.
Why would her mother die? Wasn’t the High Elf supposed to be immortal? As far as she knew, her mother should never have died. That was why she and her father had held on all this time.
Because they believed she was alive. Because they hadn’t given up hope.
But now, even that faint hope had vanished before her eyes. With one sentence, everything crumbled. The hope she had held onto—was it just an illusion, no matter how much she built it up?
