How far will I take you?
“Start preparing to leave.”
the eastern end of the second floor of the annex. Arriving in front of Riella’s bedroom, Herrhan said, pushing Riella into the room
“Ah. You’ve already thrown away everything I gave you, so there’s nothing to prepare.”
Herhan’s voice was cold.
But Herhan’s eyes weren’t just cold. At first glance, he seemed to have frosty eyes as always, but under the blue light, Riella could see the bitterness subtly rising.
Riella knew it was a scratch she had made. So none of the harsh words Herrhan said hurt her.
“What are those eyes? Are you hurt?”
Meanwhile, Herhan rather questions Riella’s feelings.
‘It’s not like that, it’s because I’m sorry, I made you say that because you gave me everything.’
Standing in front of Herhan, Riella bit her lip and swallowed her presumptuous feelings into herself. And then she remembered what Fabian had said earlier.
“Your Majesty, She may be one of the women you take for a night’s entertainment. but it shouldn’t be Riella.”
Riella had hated Fabian for quite some time. But the hatred was so strange that it made her miss him at the same time.
There were times when she ran away from Fabian and hoped to see him again.
‘I hope he misses me, he regrets it, and I hope he was desperately searching for me. There were many nights I fell asleep with such unworthy wishes.’
But not anymore.
She didn’t miss Fabian anymore, she only hated him. She was so sick of him that she couldn’t stand it.
‘How could you say that, Fabian, who do you think you are, to say that to this man?’
“Looks like Fabian keeps stepping on your mind.”
Then, at the emperor’s sarcastic remark, Riella raised her wide eyes to look at him.
“How did His Majesty know his name…?”
“You called that name when I pulled you out of the river. Even as you hugged me, you kept looking for him that night.”
Riella’s heart sank.
She didn’t know if that was true, because she had no memory of being hugged by Herhan that night. But if she really did, that’s really…
“Do you still love that man? So you’re going to stay here instead of following me?”
Herhan asked such a question but didn’t give her a chance to answer.
Was it because he didn’t need Riella’s answer, or was it because he was afraid to hear her answer?
“Not surprising. Because I already know that being foolish is your specialty. It doesn’t matter, Still, you’ll come with me. Hold on if you can.”
“I can’t stand it!”
So Herhan turned around after saying what he had to say, Riella responded quickly and grabbed him.
And then she went back and stood in front of him who turned his back to her.
“I will not stand it. I don’t love Fabian. I don’t even want to be foolish. Not because Your Majesty forced me to, but my heart….”
‘Your heart?’
Herhan’s eyes widened at the unexpected and bold plea.
Riella continued to speak steadfastly, even though her voice trembled.
“If that’s okay…If Your Majesty can do that….”
“.…”
“Please take me with you.”
Riella’s slender hand gripped Herhan’s sleeve tightly. It was the same hand that had once clenched into a fist and trembled in front of Herhan, trying to suppress her emotions.
At the sight of that hand, a deep sigh escaped Herhan’s lips, as if a knot somewhere in his chest had been loosened.
He pulled Riella into a hug.
“Don’t regret it.”
The lips of the two were close enough to touch.
“You don’t know how far I’ll take you.”
Despite the dangerous declaration, Riella didn’t avert her gaze from Herhan.
“I don’t care where, as long as I can get away from here.”
Tears filled Riella’s big eyes.
‘Did I really have to make her cry like this, I could have been so much nicer to her than this, what an asshole I am.’
Herhan clenched his teeth as he thought these self-deprecating thoughts.
* * *
The Emperor’s entourage returning to the Empire brought back more baggage than they had given to the kingdom.
Most of them were tributes from the king to the empire, and there were also tributes from leading nobles and foreign ambassadors in the kingdom of Liotta.
‘Riella Blinite’ was one of them.
The day before the farewell ceremony, the last meeting.
When the Emperor revealed his intention to take Riella to the Empire, Greta protested fiercely.
“why? Wouldn’t it be better for the royal family if I took Riella Blinite rather than her hanging around in front of you and holding your ankle?”
“your majesty! there are many ears to hear and such words are not appropriate here!”
Greta got up from her seat, taken aback by the emperor’s ignorance of the gaze around him.
Herhan didn’t give up and continued.
“Would it be good for the princess to put Riella away as far as possible? if only to keep that man safe.”
“….!”
What do you mean by ‘that man’?
The emperor’s incomprehensible words shocked the ministers around him. Everyone looked at the king as if seeking an explanation, but the king’s complexion turned blue and he just lowered his head pretending not to know anything.
Meanwhile, Greta couldn’t refute a word and just glared at the emperor.
Yesterday, when she had sneaked into the annex to watch Riella’s punishment, she had seen Fabian being tied up by the Emperor’s knights.
Greta immediately invoked her royal authority to rescue him, but since then he is no longer the same. He hasn’t stopped looking for Riella.
It was Greta’s miscalculation.
It was meant to make Riella suffer, but it was only Fabian who collapsed.
It’s all because of the emperor. If only the emperor hadn’t appeared on the spot and snatched Riella away.
“I understand what you were trying to do, but it was a very stupid thing to do, Princess.”
The emperor whispered in Greta’s ear as if he knew exactly what was going on, and left the meeting room.
In the empty room, the Emperor’s untouched teacup spouts hot steam.
Greta grabbed the glass and threw it on the floor.
The tea cups were broken, tea water was splashed, and the king and his ministers shouted, but Greta ignored them all and gritted her teeth.
She hadn’t won in the end.
To that arrogant emperor, and to Riella Blinite, who hid behind him.
* * *
It was the most gorgeous spring day since the founding of the Kingdom of Liotta.
In front of the emperor’s entourage and the ministers of the kingdom, who filled the royal palace, Taran II constantly boasted of how much diplomatic achievement the kingdom and empire had achieved through Emperor Herhan’s visit.
It was a speech and congratulatory speech that lasted over an hour.
On the other hand, Emperor Herhan’s speech was concise. He came down from the podium and climbed onto his horse, wishing only peace and well-being for the people of the kingdom. There was no such common thank you to the royal family.
Meanwhile, Riella stood at the end of the entourage’s procession, far enough out of sight of the King and Emperor.
“You can get into this carriage. Hahaha… It’s pretty good, right? It’s a new carriage, and the cushions are great! Please sit down.”
Right before departure, Asion guided Riella to the place at the end of the entourage, a small, simple green-roofed carriage.
As if it was embarrassing, Asion added various excuses.
“You’re joining us at the last minute, after all. The entourage’s carriage arrangements have already been made, and we’re in a hurry to rearrange them, and.…”
“I am okay. I’m grateful you gave me a separate carriage.”
Riella knew that it was an order from the emperor.
She’d overheard the knights talking outside the palace. The last of the procession was supposed to be loaded with supplies and soldiers, but this morning the Emperor had chosen to bring the green carriage at the end of the entourage’s procession.
‘Did I cause trouble?’
Although the emperor said that he would take him because she was so pitiful, he would have been embarrassed to do so in front of so many eyes. That’s why they may have placed the carriage at the end, as inconspicuous as possible.
Whatever the reason, Riella knew she had no right to complain.
She owed the Emperor more than she could ever repay for allowing her to escape when she had nowhere else to go.
“Okay then let’s go!”
Finally, the farewell ceremony was over, and a command to announce departure rang out.
The attendants who stood in line got into the carriage, and the soldiers mounted the horses and took the reins.
Riella also climbed into the carriage with the help of the coachman.
The moment she moved her feet from the grass in the palace yard and stepped onto the carriage steps, she felt pain as if someone was squeezing her heart.
‘Now, here, I really say goodbye.’
The carriage carrying Riella began to rattle at the very end.
sound of horseshoes. The sound of wheels rolling. The sound of the trumpet of the palace and the sound of the final fireworks.
As soon as the ‘leaving’ became real, all kinds of memories flooded into Riella’s head.
So many days, so many faces, so many years of wandering this land.
“ah….”
Riela, who had been dazed, let out a sigh.
‘Can I not regret this? Could I really leave this place like this, and be okay?’
“Wait…Wait…”
As the wagon started running in earnest, Riella realized that there were still lingering feelings on this land that she hadn’t fully picked up and put away.
She tried calling for a coachman, but it wasn’t enough to stop the carriage.
‘Yeah, what’s the point of stopping the carriage, it’s not like I’m going back.’
‘But still….’
Riella kept looking back in a foolish and foolish mind.
It was then that she noticed that there was a curtain on the wall behind the backrest she was sitting on. A slight pull of the curtain revealed a large window at the rear of the carriage.
‘Was it a coincidence, or did all carriages originally have windows like this?’
Riella pulled back the curtain completely.
Then, through the open window with no obstruction, she saw things slowly moving away from her.
people who walk away. The view of the royal palace in the distance. The distant sky of Liotta.
Looking and looking at it over and over again, Riella slowly parted from the world that was surrounding her.
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn’t cry properly. She can’t let the sound out. It was too shameless to even see the person in debt crying even though she asked him to take her.
The carriage, which had been running so ceaselessly, entered a rough mountain road and began to rattle. It was about an hour after leaving the palace.
“There was an unexpected stopover, so I took a little detour.”
“eh…what?”
When the coachman suddenly came in to explain the situation, Riella hurriedly hid her wide eyes and cleared her voice.
“His Majesty has opened a route to Eldon Valley. The road is rough and takes longer…”
The coachman stepped back.
It was 30 minutes later that he put his head in front of Riella again.
“here…approach……again!”
“yes? What did you say?”
The coachman shouted loudly, but Riella couldn’t hear him. It was because the outside of her was so noisy.
“Here, in front of Rundell Falls, they rest, and in two hours they start again!”
The place where the huge procession led by hundreds of people stopped was in front of the famous giant waterfall of Eldon Valley.
It had never happened before that the Emperor would stop his horse in the middle of a forest path, not even a few hours after leaving the palace.
Perhaps the Emperor wanted to take a quick tour of the sights, that was all the bewildered attendants could guess.
But in the meantime, Riella sat alone in the carriage and had other thoughts.
‘I might be able to cry to my heart’s content here…’
‘Even if I scream and cry, they won’t hear me.’
Certainly, those who got off the horses and carriages began to rush in front of the cascading waterfall.
There, they laughed and shouted loudly, but their voices were all drowned out by the huge waterfall.
Riella looked at them through the window, and then calmly and quietly closed all the curtains on the carriage window.
Then, crouching in a small corner of the carriage, she burst into tears that she had been holding back all along.
At first, she sobbed cautiously, but soon the crying grew louder.
After a while, she rested her throat and cried out in a ragged sob again.
She thought this feeling that had been stuck in her throat since morning was all sadness, but Riella realized it as she cried out like a child.
She knew that what was pouring out now was not sadness, but rather feelings close to relief.
The sound of the waterfall still resonated.
It was a roar that drowned out Riella’s sobs.
As if to say, “Cry as hard as you can, no matter how loud or painful, and I’ll hug you.”
* * *
