“Did you think you could run away from me?”
Kaiden’s words were not a question. He was talking to Evelina as if he were warning. Evelina was looking at him, unconscious of her fearful trembling body.
“Le, let me go.”
“I can’t do that.”
Evelina wondered how the hell he could come looking for her. She even pretended to be dead.
“Is it because of the child?”
Evelina said, recalling that he knew she was pregnant. But Kaiden only looked at her quietly and did not answer.
Evelina looked like she was going to break out in a cold sweat. She seemed to be blinded by Usher’s presence in front of her.
“Did you come alone, Your Majesty?”
Kaiden tried to come near Evelina. Then Usher took out the sword.
Usher thought it would be better to get rid of the Emperor and leave quickly. Luckily, the Emperor’s Queen, who he regarded as his life, was behind him. The Emperor didn’t even seem to have a gun there now. The Emperor ran here, so it was quiet all over the place as if his subordinates were following him.
“It’s not your child.”
Evelina said so imploringly. Then Kaiden laughed at her words.
“Ha.”
Kaiden’s eyes turned to Evelina’s belly.
“Stand back, Evelina!”
Kaiden laughed at Usher’s behavior. It was clear that Usher was hiding his gun in his arms. He had a knife in one hand and the other in his chest.
It seemed like he was ready to shoot at any time.
Kaiden found him amusing, but Evelina’s words denying his child were so painful that his eyes were watering.
“Then whose child is it?”
Kaiden was staring at Usher, indifferently resting his knife on the side of Usher’s neck.
“Is it his child?”
“Kaiden… I, I…”
Kaiden considered the child in her belly to be his child.
But then why did she run away? Didn’t she say she loved him?
Then he remembered what Hecate said as he died, strengthening the doubt.
“Argh!”
For a moment, he felt like Usher was the one chosen by Evelina. At that moment, he slashed Usher’s neck.
“Ah…”
“It doesn’t matter who the child’s father is. That child will be my child anyway.”
That’s how Evelina collapsed.
“Didn’t I tell you? Every single strand of my hair is yours.”
He held Evelina’s body, saying so as if he had sworn.
~~~~
Evelina’s memory of losing Usher from the shock of seeing him die came back at once.
The sound of horses’ hooves mixed with the clatter of her carriage.
She lost her mind again, listening to it blankly. It seemed like she was dreaming, but it was to find the memory she had lost.
“Go if you’re done with treatment.”
“You decided to take responsibility for me. You said you’d take responsibility if you saved me.”
Kaiden did not leave even though the wound on his shoulder healed. He still couldn’t hold the sword.
“What’s that?”
But they were not confined to the barn. He used to go somewhere and come back to the poorhouse’s barn.
“Your present.”
Evelina realized when she saw the memory of who gave her the goods from the poorhouse she had been carrying all her life.
“Are you crazy? Where did you steal this expensive thing?”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“You’re lying.”
Ordinary people did not own the silver music box. There was also a jewel embedded in it, so if you took it off and sold it, you could play and eat for five years.
“I’m telling you, this is my… My mother gave it to me.”
Kaiden handed her the music box he had brought when he came out of the imperial family. It was his mother’s only keepsake.
“Why are you giving me such a precious thing?”
“You promised to take responsibility for me.”
“It was the doctor who saved you, not me.”
“You’re the one who brought me here and called the doctor.”
“There are many children who get hurt in the poorhouse. I do that to everyone.”
“Still, I was treated specially.”
Kaiden said so, embarrassed that he said it. He never thought that the first favor he received was such a thrill.
“You treat me special. You changed bandages and applied for medicine every time.”
“Therefore.”
He told her in the name of her being treated.
“Thank you.”
With such an excuse, he came to see 10-year-old Evelina every day.
How long had it been? The burn on his shoulder had subsided a lot.
“Are you going to continue living as a mercenary?”
One day, Evelina asked Kaiden first. She was 10 years old, and Kaiden was 14.
She was so surprised when she found out he was only 14. She thought he would have been 17 years old because of his big body. Even when he passed out, she couldn’t bring him on her own and had to get help from others.
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you want to live, Kaiden?”
Evelina knew that Kaiden brought her flowers every day. He gave her peonies every time as if he had made a lot of money from mercenaries.
The flower in her hand now was also a peony. Previously, he bought them in bundles, so she told him to buy only one each.
“I want to marry you.”
Everything seemed fine for Kaiden when he was with her. Until now, no one had helped him, neither in nor outside the palace. He had never received even a small favor. His surroundings were full of people trying to exploit him.
Evelina was the first person to save him without asking for a price from Kaiden. Besides, whenever he visited her, she accepted even though it was annoying. Now she got used to greeting him as if she had been waiting for him.
“You! Who told you to propose so casually?”
Evelina took the flower she was holding with one hand and slapped him on the unscathed shoulder with the other.
“This is the marriage proposal. All right. I’ll do it again. What should I do?”
“Oh, my god.”
Evelina’s face flushed with embarrassment when she saw him shy but unwilling to withdraw.
“You can’t refuse. You were supposed to take responsibility for me.”
“Who is saying no? But… who does it like this? Ah, really.”
Evelina sank to the floor in shame and hugged her knees. Her ears were too hot. She knew why he kept coming to her.
Evelina was lonely, too. Although she was possessed as an 8-year-old child, she had to work more than an adult in her previous life. She thought she would live in a secluded place like this, lonely, like everyone else.
“I like you, too. So… I want to carry roses at the wedding.”
At her words, Kaiden smiled happily and nodded.
~~~~
It was on the side of the Secreto pier near the capital, Chanter.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the drink of the mercenaries.”
What Kaiden brought was green wine.
“Can minors drink this?”
“It’s non-alcoholic.”
Kaiden told Evelina so and held hands.
“You know what? They say you’ll never be apart if you kiss at Secreto Pier.”
At Evelina’s words, Kaiden gently kissed her lips.
“We won’t break up anymore.”
“Huh? Ah… Oh… We won’t. Hehe.”
Evelina was embarrassed, but she was in a good mood. She grabbed the green bottle very tightly without realizing it.
But after a while.
Evelina had to say goodbye to Kaiden.
“I’m going to be adopted.”
“What?”
She was the first to tell Kaiden when she was told that the Marquis of Logias would adopt her.
“Why?”
“Somehow… Their daughter looks like me.”
Evelina spoke to Kaiden with joy.
“…then where are you going?”
“I’m going to an extensive aristocratic family.”
Evelina quickly grabbed Kaiden’s hand and said,
“I will definitely become a noble lady and come find you.”
Until that moment, Kaiden thought living the rest of his life as a mercenary would be okay. But not from that moment on.
“Congratulations, Lina.”
However, how she could be happy was much more critical for Kaiden. So he thought he should reinstate himself as a prince.
“You must wait for me.”
“Huh? That’s what I have to say…”
Evelina looked into Kaiden’s eyes as she held his hand tightly and talked as if she were holding back tears.
“I will go find you again. Be sure to find you. As you said, we’ll have a wedding, share a room… Stay together without a honeymoon.”
“…yes.”
“I will.”
“Yeah, then. please.”
Evelina’s heart was beating so fast that she could feel it all over her body.
“Let’s have ten children when we get married.”
When she said so as if she had sworn, Kaiden held her hand tightly and tried not to cry.
“I’ll wait for you, Kaiden.”
“Yes.”
That’s how they broke up.
Kaiden soon found out that her adopted family was the Marquis of Logias.
Evelina continued to lose her memory after taking medicine. Although the memory of Kaiden was a happy memory, the entire childhood memory was lost due to the hard life in the poorhouse.
Evelina looked at the past with her eyes closed like that.
Even the memories she had lost, the painful but not forgotten memories.
Looking for everything.
~~~~
Kaiden rebelled against the mercenaries after he was adopted to get Evelina back. He used his boots to drive out mercenaries to those who were being exploited.
He went to war as head of a mercenary army. The 15-year-old Kaiden, who had won a great victory with such resourcefulness, reinstated himself as a prince.
Dowager Empress Isabella used him to pressure the Emperor, and Princess Elsius recognized Kaiden’s talent and pretended to help, calling her forces.
16-year-old Kaiden was already as tall as an adult.
“Evelina.”
In front of a salon in the capital, Chanter, he saw Evelina again after he reinstated himself as a prince.
“Who are you?”
She was only 12 years old.
“Evelina? It’s me. It’s Kaiden.”
But she didn’t truly recognize Kaiden.
“Is it because my clothes changed? Then in the poorhouse barn… You saved me.”
“…what?”
He panicked when he saw the look in her eyes, the expression that she didn’t know him.
“It’s Lina.”
“Oh, father.”
The people to introduce Evelina to the salon were the Marquis of Logias and his wife. When they realized that the person Evelina was talking to was Kaiden, they frowned and took Evelina with them.
~~~~
Kaiden, who clenched his fist in memory of a long time ago, sighed and looked at Evelina, who was asleep in front of him, and fainted.
“Don’t think about running away, Lina.”
Saying it like a warning.
