1. I came to keep my promise.
In a dark night, Edelis was doing her final check. She would be leaving the house she had grown fond of tomorrow night.
‘I almost missed the most important thing.’
Then she remembered that she had not the most important thing, and that was her gold coins.
Gold coins were essential because she might not be able to exchange the jewels for gold coins right away.
Edelis bent down to take out the pouch she had pinned under the bed. But at that moment, the windows to hee room suddenly opened and a strong wind blew in.
The heavy curtains were shaking violently in the wind. Edelis’s wavy golden hair that reached down to her waist was also blown wildly by the sudden wind, blocking her vision.
When she swept her hair with one hand, a man’s figure appeared through the curtains. Edelis was startled and tried to scream, but she was so shocked that her voice didn’t come out properly.
She got up and reached out to pull the rope to call the maid. But a large hand grabbed her wrist faster than she could. It was the man who had appeared through the curtains.
Edelis couldn’t do anything, but she raised her head and looked at the face of the person who held her hand. It was dark and the moonlight was behind him, so he couldn’t be seen properly.
However, her eyes, accustomed to the darkness, soon discovered his red hair and his beautifully sparkling golden eyes. Edelis’s eyes opened wide as she confirmed the color of the man’s eyes and hair.
“By any chance, Lehan? Is it Lehan?”
“Do you remember me… …?”
“There’s no way I could forget you!”
He used to be similar to me, but now he was a head taller than me, and his shoulders were broad, and he was clearly a ‘knight’ to anyone who saw him. Edelis found his appearance very unfamiliar.
If he hadn’t had red hairs and golden eyes, she might not have recognized him. However, she hadn’t forgotten him enough to recognize him as Lehan with just that little clue.
“How have you been?”
When Edelis called Lehan by his now unfamiliar name, he smiled faintly and sat down on the bed where she was sitting. She had so many things to talk to Lehan about.
What he had been doing, how he had been, why he had not sent her a letter, and… … whether he could help her.
Edelis, unable to wait for Lehan to answer, quickly continued talking. She was planning to leave tomorrow, so she did not have much time. So rather than waiting for his answer, she had to say what she wanted to say first.
“Lehan, do you remember? The promise you made to me before you left…?”
Back when we were young, we made a promise. You said you would save me. You said you would protect me from anyone, no matter what.
“I have never forgotten it, not even once, not for a single moment.”
Edelis’s expression, which had been tense and stiff, brightened when she heard his resolute words.
“But, can you… … still keep that promise?”
“Of course, I can do anything for Edelis.”
In contrast to Lehan’s hesitant personality, Edelis happily sat up and hugged Lehan’s neck, who was sitting next to her. Lehan opened his eyes wide in surprise at the warmth of her delicate body, which he had not felt in a long time, and was unable to move his hand until he finally hugged her back and buried his face in her neck.
The sweet scent of perfume mixed with Edelis’s body scent filled his nasal cavity.
“Ah!”
Edelis smiled in relief, then remembered her own situation and pushed him away immediately.
“Why, what happened Edelis?”
Edelis, then spoke urgently, while placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Take me and run away!”
“Yes?”
“A person came a while ago. The emperor wants to make me his empress. I don’t want to be the empress!”
His eyes, which had felt like he had the world in his arms, shook slightly in confusion.
Lehan, with a dark face, opened his mouth several times before struggling to speak his mind.
“Do you hate marrying the emperor that much?”
No. Of course I don’t. Ever since she first learned that this was a novel and that she was ‘Edelis Bril’ in that novel, her goal has always been to escape from the Emperor.
To some, it would be an honorable position, but if she were to become the Empress, she would be stabbed to death by the Emperor’s sword. So she decided not to become the Empress, and to simply live a long life as the Marquis’s daughter.
“I want to be with Lehan, not the emperor.”
Before coming here, Lehan had to constantly worry about what he would do if Edelis had forgotten him. Even if he had never forgotten her for a single moment, Edelis might be different. It was too much to expect that she would not forget him, who was a mere commoner.
But now, Edelis did not want to be with the emperor, but she simply wanted to be with him… … Lehan was unable to continue speaking as some indescribable emotions welled up in him.
“You want to be with me?”
Lehan spat out his words as if he was chewing on something.
Edelis couldn’t help but cringe at the sound of his voice, which seemed to be holding something back.
“Uh, yeah! It’s not bad at all! If I study hard in medicine, agriculture, and commerce, then I won’t have much trouble living as a commoner, right….?”
She thought so herself, but Lehan might think differently.
‘There is no reason for Lehan to be chased by the Emperor in order to save my life.’
As she thought about it, her voice gradually lost confidence.
If it had been the old Lehan, she would have said that she would follow him without even thinking about it… But… It had already been seven years since she had been separated from him. Just as his appearance had changed, his thoughts might have been different from the Lehan she knew before, so she was worried.
“I have also received a lot of jewelry and gold coins as engagement gifts from the Emperor, so we will be fine if I live without being greedy.”
Lehan lifted one hand and stroked Edelis’s cheek lovingly. Even though it was something he had always done before leaving Edelis, her face blushed in embarrassment. The calloused hand, much larger than before, felt unfamiliar. Lehan pressed his forehead against hers. Just like the day before he left.
“You can be greedy, I will do everything for you.”
“If I get greedy, my father won’t be able to handle it. I don’t want to be greedy without even knowing my place and just want to run away with you.”
“You really won’t listen… .”
Lehan smiled strangely and continued to brush her blushing cheeks. His actions were not much different from before he left her, but his aura was very different. So Edelis turned her head and continued talking while slightly avoiding his touch.
“Well, anyway! Don’t you think it would be easy for me to give up what I’ve enjoyed so far?”
Lehan, who was very sorry for her body temperature leaving his hand, stared at his hand and then hugged her waist, which was still in his arms.
“You don’t have to give up. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow without any delay, so please wait.”
“I was originally planning to leave alone today.”
Lehan let out a sigh of relief. He almost lost her while he was hesitating, wondering if she had forgotten him. Naturally, he tightened his arms around her.
“If you don’t come by tomorrow afternoon… … I’ll leave by myself. Then I won’t wait for you again. Do you understand? So you have to come pick me up, okay?”
Edelis held his arm tightly and spoke. The words she spoke to him sounded almost like a threat. But in reality, Edelis needed him, and her tone was quite desperate. However, Lehan, who was even more desperate than her, nodded and promised to come early.
“Don’t worry, miss. No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll definitely come pick you up. It’s going to be a long journey, so get some rest.”
Lehan laid Edelis on the bed and covered her with the blanket up to her neck. He told her to go to bed, but she couldn’t sleep because she was anxious and kept looking at him. She felt secure when she thought that she was going with Lehan, but when she was preparing to leave alone, the anxiety about the future that she had tried hard to ignore began to surface. If he didn’t come, it would be even harder than when she had originally thought of before.
“You must come tomorrow.”
“I will come and pick you up early.”
Lehan’s large hand covered Edelis’s green eyes. His warm body temperature, transmitted through her darkened vision, gave her a sense of stability. Even after that, Edelis heard from him several times that he would return before she finally fell asleep, seemingly satisfied.
* * *
Edelis was checking her luggage for the last time before going with Lehan, considering whether she should wear comfortable clothes when she ran away or clothes with lots of decorations that she could exchange for money.
“Oh, Miss!”
Hearing the urgent voice of the maid from outside, she hurriedly hid her bag under the bed.
When she pretended to embroider and told her maid to come in, the maid, who had been stamping her feet in a hurry, opened the door.
“Now is not the time to embroider! A message has come that His Majesty the Emperor is coming here in person to fetch the young lady!”
“What?!”
Edelis’s face turned pale. It had only been a week since she had heard that she would become the future empress. And it was still three days until she was scheduled to enter the palace.
‘But today, the day I was supposed to leave with Lehan, the Emperor is coming to pick me up… …!?’
Edelis quickly gathered her thoughts. She knew that blaming the Emperor and the current situation would only make the distance between her and the Emperor closer with each passing moment, and that the situation would not get any better.
‘Then what about Lehan? I finally met Lehan after a long time!’
Lehan, for whom she had been waiting until noon, was on her mind, but she had to escape before entering the palace. She tried to console herself that Lehan had not forgotten her, and that she would see him again.
She could already see the horses running at a distance, raising a cloud of sand. Edelis took out the bag containing the comfortable clothes she had hidden from under the bed, whether the maid next to her was surprised or not, she tried to leave the room. However, before she could push open the door, her father opened it and came in.
“Oh, father.”
“Edel, His Majesty the Emperor will be arriving soon. You must go to the entrance immediately.”
Her father grabbed Edelis’s wrist and pulled her towards him, then saw the bag in her hand.
“Are you going to make Her Majesty the Empress carry all the burden by herself? Take it down immediately and put it on the carriage.”
The maid felt wronged, but quietly followed the orders, and Edelis was suddenly robbed of the luggage that she had prepared. It was obvious what would happen if she left the mansion alone, without anything. In the end, she had no choice but to give up everything, and followed her father down the stairs, and stood in front of the entrance to greet the emperor.
Edelis desperately repeated Lehan’s name in her mind.
‘Lehan, Lehan… … Please! You told me yesterday that you would come to me on time!’
But contrary to her wishes, many horses and carriages were rushing towards her. And a horse that was more splendidly decorated than the others was coming far ahead. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the person, who was getting off from the horse. The person who walked in front of her with a slightly hurried and wide stride was… … the person she had been looking for so desperately.
“Lehan!”
Edelis had been desperately calling for Lehan, but had almost given up. But he came to her as promised.
She was so happy that she put her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, and Lehan’s strong arms hugged her back.
“His Majesty, the Emperor.”
She knew the Emperor had arrived only after hearing the hard voice of her father, the Marquis of Brill.
She was afraid of what the Emperor would do if he saw his fiancée embracing another man. Knowing his nature, he would be furious, saying that the pride of the Imperial Family had been trampled.
Edelis quickly pushed Lehan away from herself in order to defend her actions, and looked around for the Emperor. She was destined to die by the Emperor’s sword, but she didn’t want Lehan to suffer the same fate. However, all Edellis could see was her father bowing his head. The knights who arrived later also knelt on one knee and bowed their heads, as if greeting their lord.
“My dear wife, Edelis. I have come to keep my promise. From now on, I will protect you with my life.”
Lehan spoke with a smile on his face, not caring about his surroundings, but she was filled with confusion. The person in front of her was definitely Lehan, who had come to see her last night. It was Lehan, with red hair and golden eyes, who still had the same face that she saw since her childhood.
‘No, maybe not. Even if the person in front of me is Lehan, Lehan can’t be the emperor.’
How could she accept this? She still couldn’t accept this as reality.
“… … I’m just asking just in case.”
“Go ahead.”
Lehan smiled brightly and hugged her.
“Are you… the emperor?”
“Yes, my dear Edelis. Can I call you Edel now?”
“That’s not important right now! Are you really the emperor? Are you for real?”
Lehan smiled shyly and nodded. Looking at Lehan’s refreshingly smiling face, she felt all the blood drain from her body.
‘This can’t be happening, this is ridiculous… … ‘
Lehan returned after seven years. Now he became the tyrant who would kill me in the future.
* * *
That day was no different for Edelis. She received education on the manners of a nobleman from her tutor, and spent her free time reading books in her study.
She ordered the maids to bring her some light refreshments, and looked around the study, wondering which book to read. She thought she had read most of the romance novels in the study, but she found a book she had never seen before. Edelis was curious about the book’s spine, which sparkled as if it was asking her to find herself, and called the maid.
However, there was no way she would answer, as she had not yet returned from the kitchen. The fact that it was a book she had not yet seen caught her attention, so she took it out of the bookshelf.
“The fate of the flower… … ?”
The inside of the open book contained nothing but pure white paper.
“What? There’s only a cover?”
As she quickly flipped through the pages, while holding the book, she found some words written in it.
I was curious about what was written in this book that was nothing more than a sketchbook, so I looked for the part where the words were. When I opened the page and tried to read the contents, a bright light burst out and a clear image appeared in the air. Edelis dropped the book in surprise, but the image remained steady.
“Your Majesty the Empress!”
“Your Majesty the Emperor, how can you… …! ”
The elderly middle-aged men called the emperor and empress in agitated voices. A young woman was stabbed with a sword and was clutching her chest. However, the young man with a cloudy face cruelly pulled out the sword that was stuck in her chest. Then, a huge amount of blood spurted out from her chest. However, the man laughed as if he did not want to care about such things anymore and said.
『Ha! Why are you worried about the Empress? Don’t you know what Edelis Chronode, no, Edelris Brill, did while in office?』
Edelis was startled as she watched the video. The man was calling the woman writhing in pain as, ‘Edelis Brill’, the same name as herself. Even the face of the woman who was lying on the floor and spitting out blood looked a lot like her own.
Edelis’s heart pounded with inexplicable anxiety as she watched the woman who had the same name and looked exactly like her bleed to death. Furthermore, even though it was just a video, the blood that ‘Empress Edelis Brill’ was spewing out was so vivid that it seemed as if it would soak all the carpets in the study.
“My empress will be …._. If anyone has any complaints, let them come out now.”
As the emperor spoke while pointing his sword at others, those who had just protested him by asking how he could stab the empress with a sword all fell silent as if they had eaten honey.
With that image, the book burst into a bright light like when the image first appeared. Then, as if nothing had happened, only the study remained as usual. When I picked up the book that had fallen at my feet and looked at it again, the book was no longer shining.
“What the heck is going on?”
Suddenly, a shiny book appeared, and it contained an image. And on top of that, her name was in the image. Edelis, who was unable to calm her surprised heart, spoke to the maid who had arrived just in time. With her heart trembling with anxiety, she opened the book and showed it to the maid, but nothing happened.
“Huh? That can’t be right? I clearly heard everything earlier… …!”
That couldn’t be true, so she opened the book and said, “Look here. Isn’t it written here?” But the maid asked what she was talking about and said that she couldn’t see any letters.
Edelis couldn’t believe the maid and took the book out. Then, she showed the book to the other maids who passed by as if she was possessed. However, contrary to Edelis’s expectations, no one was able to read any letters in the book. Edelis ordered the maids to keep quiet about today’s events and decided to think about it in her room.
When Edelis returned to her room, she sat at her desk and tapped the cover of the book with her fingertips. Unlike before, the book wasn’t glowing. Looking at it, Edelis muttered softly.
“Words that only I can see, a name like mine, a face that resembles mine… … . The faces may be similar by mistake, but the name and family crest was also same.”
Clearly, on the first page of the book that had been blank earlier, it said ‘Characters’. Edelis picked up the book as if she was going to get into it to check what had changed and read it closely.
There were a total of four main characters in the characters, and out of them, the only one whose name appeared was Edelis Bril. 『The only daughter of the Countess of Brill, she became empress after ____ ascended the throne as emperor. After that, she became jealous of ____ and committed all sorts of evil deeds before being stabbed to death by ____.』
Edelis was overcome with strange emotions upon seeing the description of ‘Edelis, the Countess of Brill’, who was like her. This was because the woman who had been stabbed to death by the emperor even had the same family relationship as her.
‘This is not true, it’s fiction. It’s nonsense.’
Even as I thought about it, my heart started pounding quickly because I had a feeling that something might happen.
‘What if…? What if it’s true?’
She took a deep breath and turned her gaze to another character who had appeared in the cast of characters to gather information first. The emperor was not named, there was only a short description about him. Edelis scanned the sentence with her fingertips and read it aloud in a small voice.
“He had red hair and golden eyes. He was kidnapped as a child and fought as a gladiator in the arena under the name ‘Lehan’, while being unaware of his past.”
There was only one sentence written. It was a pity, but her regret did not change anything.
“What should I do about this… … . I guess I have no choice but to check.”
Rather than living my life worrying about being stabbed to death like I saw in this book, I decided to do what I could first. Edelis closed the book with a thud and hid it under her pillow. Then she pulled the rope and told her maid to help her prepare for going out. After she finished preparing, she got into the carriage that was waiting for her.
Edelis gave instructions to the coachman after getting into the carriage.
“Let’s go to the arena.”
I had to go and check if the book was showing the future or it was just a fiction.
* * *
Arriving at the arena, Edelis followed the guide’s instructions with a trembling heart and sat down. Watching matches in the arena was a popular pastime for free nobles. Therefore, even though the special seats were reserved for nobles of count rank and above, many nobles filled them. In the arena, the staff grabbed the ankle of a gladiator who seemed to have already lost his breath and dragged him out. The floor was covered in bloodstains from before, and new bloodstains appeared where the gladiator had passed. Edelis, who cursed inwardly, wondering why she came to see something like this, while she barely managed to sit upright in the bloody scene.
“This match is between Lehan in red and Jacques in white!”
When the host called out ‘Lehan’, Edelis stood up from her seat without realizing it. Then, the person sitting next to her spoke with a look of incomprehension.
“Miss, the last game is the most exciting, are you really going to leave?”
“……No.”
Edelis felt a cold sweat run down her back. There really was a gladiator named Lehan in the arena! She was sitting where she could see the match well, but since Lehan was wearing a helmet, she couldn’t confirm whether he looked the same as the main character in the book.
‘Please, not that guy… …!’
The gladiators, each wearing red and white cloaks, fought each other repeatedly, exchanging swords, leaving deeper and deeper wounds on each other’s bodies. Blood gushed from their wounds, and the audience cheered as they made deeper wounds. As the bleeding increased, the blood they made pooled on the floor.
‘Red hair and golden eyes right? Was it the same colour?’
As Edelis desperately tried to check the color of Lehan’s eyes, a bright light reflected in his eyes for a moment, causing him to close his eyes tightly. Then, Lehan fell to the ground, while bleeding profusely from his chest to his abdomen, being cut by Jacques, who had been waiting for that moment.
“No!”
I shouted back to Lehan, who was falling without realizing it. Her voice buried in the shouts, couldn’t have reached him, but Lehan instantly raised his body and stabbed back Jacques, who was smiling confidently in victory, with his sword in his abdomen.
And finally, Lehan lost consciousness and fell to the floor. Jacques, who could not understand what was happening, looked back and forth between the sword in his abdomen and Lehan several times, and then tried to pull out the sword in his abdomen and soon fell to the floor.
“Wowwowwoww!!!!”
“Lehan! Lehan!”
“Jack! Jack!”
The audience cheered with excitement, each calling out the name of the gladiator they had paid for. The announcer, who had come up to the arena, looked at both of them. Lehan was breathing faintly, but Jacques’ pulse had completely stopped.
“The winner is!”
The audience held their breath and waited for the host’s next words.
“… … It’s Lehan! Lehan is alive!”
As soon as the host finished speaking, the staff members who had come up to the stadium randomly pulled out the swords from Jacques’ body, grabbed both of his ankles, and dragged him out of the stadium. Lehan was no different. As the staff members dragged him away with both of his ankles and wrists each grabbed, it was hard to tell who was the winner and who was the loser.
The place they had passed was filled with fresh bloodstains from the day. The audience was excited by the horrific scene and screamed until their throats were hoarse. Edelis tried hard to hold back the urge to cover her ears, grabbed the bag she had prepared just in case, and spoke to the guide who was waiting on the special seats.
“Take me to the manager.”
The guide smiled brightly at the sight of the large pouch that Edelis was carrying and led her to the caretaker. As Edelis followed him, the name of the gladiator named Lehan kept lingering onto her mind.
‘There really was a gladiator named Lehan. So… I was really stabbed to death like I saw in the book? No, that can’t be true… … He could just be someone with the same name, right?’
As she repeated to herself several times that it wouldn’t be the case, she soon found herself in front of the manager’s office. Inside, a manager wearing a black mask that covered more than half of his face greeted her with a smile.
“Welcome, Lady Brill. Why did you seek for a a lowly being like me?”
The caretaker greeted her, trying hard to hide the excitement in his heart. The caretaker’s greedy smile gave her goosebumps.
“I heard there was a gladiator named Lehan.”
When Edelis brought up Lehan’s name, the caretaker cheered inwardly. If Lehan were sold to her today, then the cost of disposing off his body would be eliminated. But he was too clever to just give him off to her.
“Can I see him now?”
“Um, I’m sorry, but he’s an important ‘product’.”
“Are you planning to sell a defective ‘product’ without showing it to the ‘buyer’?”
The manager’s smile grew wider as the word ‘purchase’ came out of Edelis’s mouth.
“How could that be?”
They left the office and went down to the basement where a musty smell was coming from. The caretaker knocked on the door twice and opened the door without waiting for an answer.
As soon as the door was opened, a pungent smell of iron filled the room.
As the door opened, the caretaker and one of the gladiators who had been exercising in the room went out according to the guide’s instructions.
Two people were lying on the bed, both of them were unconscious as to what kind of match they had been having.
The caretaker guided Edelis to one of the inner beds.
On the bed in front of her was a gladiator with red hair. It was Lehan. The main character of that book. It was clearly someone who was directly related to her death. With this, Edelis could no longer deny it. What she had seen in the book was her future, that she would be stabbed to death by the emperor’s sword.
