He looked incredibly haggard from how much he had suffered in the last few days.
As if he had been sick, he barely smelled roses.
When he first opened the iron bar door and tried to enter, Asha backed away.
Behind her, it was already a cold wall and she had nowhere to retreat, making her look even more pitiful.
Karaf’s expression contracted even more painfully as he saw her avoid him.
After all his memories returned, he seemed to know that Asha was thinking of him even without saying anything.
But the next moment, Asha’s eyes widened.
Karaf slowly knelt in front of her.
It was as if a steel fortress that seemed never to collapse collapsed in an instant.
His face was right in front of her feet, and she could see the top of his head.
Asha looked at him, unable to breathe.
She couldn’t believe that this proud man was kneeling before her.
There would be no one in this empire who could see the crown on the emperor’s head, other than God Etzheim.
A major shock came before the confusion disappeared.
Karaf was now sadly begging for forgiveness with tears in his eyes.
“I was wrong……. really…… I’m so sorry…… I’ll make you happy. So please don’t leave me…….”
As soon as he finished speaking, he burst into tears.
His broad back trembled slightly, and hot tears fell like candle wax onto her feet.
Asha was startled by the incredible sight, and she froze completely.
She wondered if this was the first time the words ‘I’m sorry’ had come out of his mouth in his entire life.
Karaf was like a child clinging to his mother who is about to abandon him, pitifully grabbing her skirt and refusing to let go.
His appearance made her suddenly remember the story of his childhood that she had heard from Duran.
A rose that symbolizes love, even if he had everything, ‘love‘ was something he couldn’t have.
It was truly a tragedy and a curse for him.
Karaf said, caressing Asha’s foot with shaking hands.
“The day I left you here and turned around, all the memories came back to me. all the memories came back to me. I…I…… I was a really bad guy. You shouldn’t associate with me, I’m such a shameless person. You…… I was such a piece of trash that I didn’t even know what I was doing wrong until I took you to your death….”
He breathed heavily as if he couldn’t breathe well.
His back was shaking so badly it was hard to tell if he was crying or talking, and a mixture of tears, mucus, and saliva stained her feet.
To that extent, he was in a state of panic where he couldn’t even think about his own appearance.
“I…… I don’t know how to ask for forgiveness…… Asking for forgiveness doesn’t mean things I did in the past will disappear….…. All I can do now is ask for your forgiveness…….”
His body, drenched in a cold sweat, trembled as if icy water had been poured on him.
He laid down his position as emperor in front of her.
“I was really stupid. I was such an idiot who only realized how important you were after letting you go……. When you fell off the cliff, it felt like the world was falling apart…… You were really important to me…… And I broke you with my own hands…….”
He cried out loud now. It was a cry of lamentation.
At some point, Asha was shedding tears like him without realizing it.
Karaf couldn’t bear to look at her and kept talking at her feet.
“You don’t have to forgive me. You don’t have to try to make me blossom any more. You can curse me and hate me for the rest of your life. I don’t deserve to be an emperor or be loved by someone. But…… Please don’t leave me like my dead mother…….”
He seemed to have given up on everything now.
She doesn’t have to break the curse, or make him blossom…….
They were the biggest goals of his life. And yet, he was saying to throw it away.
Perhaps, after hearing what the minority spy said before he died, he may have made up his mind to some extent…
And now it was time for her to make a decision as well.
Asha slowly reached out a hand and placed it lightly on Karaf’s black hair.
He shuddered.
“…… Your Majesty.”
Asha gently stroked his frizzy hair with her slender hand and said calmly.
“Your Majesty can stand alone without me. Just like when you first ascended the throne, you are definitely someone who can do that.”
Those words sounded like euphemistic refusal, so Karaf looked up.
He still had tears in his big eyes, and his messy red face was dripping with sweat.
Even his face, ruined by crying, looked decadent and beautiful at the same time, maybe because he’s a rose.
However, Asha found it challenging to see his face as she remembered his childlike appearance.
“No, I can’t. I’ll do anything, so please……”
“No. Your Majesty is a person who must stand upright even without a butterfly. I will do so. So… let’s make a contract.”
His eyes trembled at her incomprehensible words.
His trembling gaze, as if trying to read Asha’s thoughts, quickly scanned her face.
Asha, like a saint, wiped his tears with her thumb and continued to say.
“I will do my best to break Your Majesty’s curse and make your flower bloom. I have already made up my mind countless times and, above all, I came back here to do it. If I manage to do that… By that time, please, Your Majesty, listen to my request.”
Karaf just pursed his lips.
Although she had once died because of him, she said that she would stay by his side to break his curse.
He couldn’t blatantly tell her not to leave his side until the end.
Asha stared at him.
Her face resembled his mother’s, unflinchingly firm and gentle.
He immediately lowered his head.
Her touch, which was caressing his head, was so soft and warm that he was afraid of losing it all if he became more greedy.
“You once asked me what I wanted. There was actually one thing I really wanted. It’s something I’ve never had in my life.”
Karaf looked at her and Asha continued.
“It’s freedom. Your Majesty grant me what I was not given before, freedom. I can regress regardless of my will until I succeed in making Your Majesty bloom. Please, let us not repeat this long life in vain. Please do not imprison me.”
Karaf said nothing for a long time, then finally spoke a word as if letting out the breath he had been holding.
“……I need time to decide.”
“I’ll wait then.”
Just as he asked for time to think, she wanted to give him a chance.
Asha politely placed a hand on her chest and bowed her head.
It was an unspoken sign of respect for him as emperor.
Unable to show his ugly side anymore, Karaf forced himself to his feet.
Rising to his feet, he stumbled once, but then he opened the grate and stepped out.
Before leaving, he turned his head and looked at Asha.
He looked at her with eyes filled with many emotions and then he was gone.
Duran came immediately and stood guard, perhaps under his orders.
He brought water, blankets, and wet towels and handed them to Asha without a word.
After a while, Asha called out to him silently.
“…… Sir Duran.”
Duran immediately turned his head.
“Yes, Lady Vanessa. Please speak.”
Asha looked at him and asked with slightly sad eyes.
“Jackal…… Is he badly injured?”
“……”
Duran, who tortured him himself, did not reply, but bowed his head slightly and remained silent.
Asha looked at him and said.
“Please, let me go see Jackal.”
He showed his generosity last time and let her meet him. He was not as bloodless and tearless as Karaf.
Duran hesitantly said.
“But…….”
“I beg you. I know very well that Sir Duran puts your Majesty’s well-being first. But meeting Jackal now is also for His Majesty’s safety. Trust me.”
Duran was slightly taken aback by those words and turned around.
Asha looked at him and spoke seriously again.
“If you wish, you can watch us and listen to the conversation. I must say something to him. Please let me see Jackal one last time.”
* * * * *
Asha followed Duran through the long, damp corridors of the dungeon.
An unpleasant sound came from under his feet with each step she took.
Asha walked nervously, biting her lower lip, it was an even worse prison environment than the last time she went to see the spy.
As a notorious prison where criminals die without realizing it, there was no sunlight here, and the air was so soggy that it truly felt like being in the coffin of death.
Eventually, a huge iron door appeared at the innermost part of the dungeon.
As Duran unlocked several layers of chains and opened the door, a dark cell appeared with the heavy sound of the iron door scraping the floor.
Duran turned to her and said in a low voice.
“…… It’s just for a moment. I will quietly watch from behind, so please think of me as someone who is not around and have a conversation with him.”
Asha nodded.
She had no intention of conversing secretly as if she was conspiring.
She just… wanted to know if Jackal was okay.
Entering the dark cell, Duran illuminated the interior by hanging a torch on the wall.
But at that moment, at the terrible sight of Jackal illuminated by light, Asha covered her mouth with both hands with a short cry.
