Until The Real One Shows Up​

“Anastasia!”

He reached out his hand desperately calling her name, but the carriage had already fallen off the cliff.

“No…”

Wilhelm paused his speech with a look of shock, and he remained motionless for a moment with a bewildered look on his face.

“His Majesty the Emperor!”

What woke him up was the voices of the soldiers coming from behind.

They hurried, dismounted from their horses, and knelt before Wilhelm.

“Oh, Her Majesty the Empress…”

“…”

The soldiers asked in trembling voices, but there was no answer from Wilhelm. The soldiers sensed the tragedy and began to weep all at once.

“Kill me, Your Majesty the Emperor!”

“Kill me, ugh!”

“… Punishing you.”

Wilhelm opened his mouth in a trembling voice.

“After finding the Empress and Prince safely. A carriage with two people…”

Wilhelm was unable to speak and bit his mouth. After a moment’s breathlessness, Wilhelm dismounted and walked to the edge of the cliff where the carriage had fallen.

“Your Majesty, it’s dangerous!”

The astonished soldiers deterred him, but Wilhelm ignored them and looked down the cliff.

“… Ah.”

Then suddenly, a startled sound erupted from Wilhelm’s mouth.

It was when the soldiers around him were looking at him with puzzled expressions.

“Perhaps… … She might be alive.”

“Yes?”

“The wagon fell over the tree. perhaps… … They may both be okay.”

Wilhelm’s eyes, who had found a glimmer of hope, blazed with fire.

“Go down the cliff now and find the Empress and Prince. Hurry up, come on!”

At Wilhelm’s command, the soldiers moved in unison. Wilhelm was also about to move down the cliff with them.

“His Majesty the Emperor!”

Colton was riding over there, calling for him.

Wilhelm frowned and said to Colton, in the midst of the urgent hour.

“Colton, whatever it is, later…”

“We’ve caught the suspicious ones!”

“What?”

Wilhelm was puzzled, and the soldiers who followed Colton threw out the men tied tightly in front of Wilhelm.

“They were hiding around the place where Her Majesty’s carriage was. I caught him because he was suspicious, covering his entire face with a mask.”

“Who are you?”

“…”

Naturally, the men who had been caught did not open their mouths. Wilhelm smiled as if he knew the reason why.

He was in a hurry, but these…

“Colton.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Hang them up and lock them up. Don’t go easy on them until I come and interrogate them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Hang them up? What?

The men were puzzled by the mysterious order for a while.

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

Soon, a terrible scream rang out like an echo through the terrible pain beneath his feet.

~~~~

Because the cliff where the carriage crashed was so steep, Wilhelm ordered the soldiers to go down different paths for efficiency.

He expected to go down the fastest of all of  them, but he took the dangerous path without hesitation.

‘Just a little bit… Wait a little bit.’

Wilhelm, who finally arrived at the bottom of the cliff with impatience, had to face a startling sight before taking a few steps.

“How dare you…!”

Where on earth did Olivia appear, she screamed at Anastasia and ran as if she was going to kill her.

The moment he witnessed it, there was no room for anything else.

Wilhelm quickly took the bow and arrow that the soldier next to him was holding and aimed at Olivia.

Immediately the arrow left the demonstration. Olivia, who was shot by an arrow, fell down in front of Anastasia, and Wilhelm hurried up to her.

“Anastasia!”

Wilhelm was frightened by Anastasia’s blank gaze staring at him.

Judging from the blood on the head, Olivia had already attacked her once.

When Wilhelm approached Anastasia finally, Anastasia had already fainted, and Wilhelm held Anastasia with his trembling hands.

Blood oozed from behind.

“No, no, no…”

Just before he panicked, just like when the carriage crashed down a cliff, Wilhelm struggled to make up his mind and held her tightly in his arms. And he gave instructions to the soldiers who followed.

“Find the carriage and bring the prince, and the Lady Fontaine.”

In his arms, her heart was clearly beating.

He was able to save her. He had to save her… by all means.

~~~~

In the last moments before the return, it was not her death that made Anastasia the most sad.

‘Wilhelm.’

 At the moment of parting, she couldn’t say goodbye to that man properly.

“I’ll be back, Asha.”

Calling her nickname as lovely as ever, he clearly promised.

I’ll be back. I’ll be back.

She believed it. She had to believe it. If she didn’t believe him… It was going to be terrible.

She thought he couldn’t die without her. So she never, she never said goodbye to him.

It was a childlike thought, like before the return.

‘I should’ve told you I loved you.’

I loved you so much.

That’s how happy she had been, and even if their story ended in tragedy, she would rather be sorry for loving him than regret it.

The first regret came the same way when she told Louis she loved him.

She couldn’t tell him that she loved him, and right before he died, even at that moment, it hurt so badly that it pierced her chest.

Even if she turned back time, she knew it wouldn’t do for him, but apart from that, her heart seemed to break.

She… She couldn’t tell him her true feelings and she was breaking up with him forever.

But the moment she thought it was over.

“Anastasia!”

When Wilhelm called her name, Anastasia was surprised and delighted by the unexpected situation.

Still, she thought it was a better end than before.

“I’m dying to see you.”

Seeing him running in a hurry and not taking his eyes off her, she thought it was enough.

Even if she didn’t tell him her true feelings, she was glad she could see him like this.

Be happy, Wilhelm.

Before returning to Korea, she closed my eyes while making the last wish that had been consistent throughout her life.

“Empress…”

A familiar voice was heard, and Anastasia moved her eyes slowly.

At the end of her gaze, there he was.

“… Your Majesty.”

“…Ah.”

Wilhelm, who heard Anastasia’s voice, finally burst into a choked breath.

“Thank god, you woke up…”

“…”

“What a relief.”

At first glance, he looked relieved, but his voice was shaking so much that he couldn’t hide it.

Anastasia smiled and responded.

“Yes, I’m very glad.”

Thanks to him, she got to see his face once more. She’d see him a few more times in the future.

It was a happy thing beyond a relief.

“Where are we…?”

“Your room.”

Wilhelm answered calmly.

“You were immediately taken to the Imperial Palace and treated. For a week… You were knocked out.”

Anastasia then looked at her own condition. There were thick bandages all over her head, of course, all over her body.

After waking up, she felt as if nothing had happened, but seeing her body wrapped in bandages like this made her feel strange.

Suddenly, the bandage seemed to hurt… 

“According to the palace doctor, first of all, there was no major problems with the head. He said that you had a trauma, but the injury was not serious, so you could recover quickly as long as you rested well. There were no other injuries.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“And again… … Oh, Louis is safe. We found him and he was rescued immediately.”

“Ah, that’s really nice too.”

“How are you now? Are you okay? Where are you uncomfortable? Doesn’t your head hurt?”

He asked in an uncharacteristic hurry.

It was almost the first time Anastasia had seen him like this since her return, so she stared at Wilhelm with somewhat strange eyes.

 “Oh, first of all, the palace doctor….”

But he couldn’t make up his mind and stiffened. It was because Anastasia held on to his collar when he was about to go out to call the palace doctor.

Despite the feeble force she was, he was immobilized like a man in chains. He looked at Anastasia with trembling eyes.

“… just.”

Anastasia asked him, trying to suppress the feeling that she was about to cry.

“Just stay. I’m fine.”

“I’m glad.”

She went to the threshold of the underworld and came back to life, but Anastasia was so happy now that she felt like she was about to cry.

To see him so worried about her again… She felt as if she had just received a present.

So she wanted to hold on to this precious moment for a little while longer. As long as she could.

“…”

Wilhelm looked at Anastasia holding him with his face, not knowing what to think, and eventually sat down.

Then he asked in a voice mixed with doubt and concern.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. I’m really good.”

“You were hit in the head with that big stone.”

An angry voice continued to ask how that could be alright. Anastasia laughed softly in response.

“If it weren’t for Your Majesty, I would have died without making a move. Thank you for saving me.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t too late. If it had been   only a little bit later…”

“Besides it wasn’t too late.”

As Wilhelm’s face was about to contort as he recalled the worst, Anastasia quickly spoke to him.

Her Wilhelm looked at her with her slightly dazed face, his face. Anastasia spoke to him with a faint smile as if she was alright now.

“So, don’t torment yourself with your imagination.”

“…”

Wilhelm’s expression changed strangely when he heard that. His eyes remained on Anastasia.

Somehow she felt embarrassed to receive such a look from Wilhelm, so Anastasia quickly changed the subject.

“But I never imagined I’d see Your Majesty there. I was really surprised.”

Wilhelm was unconsciously nervous when he heard her.

‘Would she ask why I was there?’

The situation was strangely similar to when Anastasia was crying in front of a rose.

‘I made an excuse of an inspection last time…’

This time, the situation was too exact to make an excuse that it was a coincidence.

Did she think he was there to see her?

If she thought so, what should he say?

Wilhelm felt his heart beating fast and thought about how to respond when he heard such a thing.

“By any chance…”

As Anastasia stared at him and began to speak, Wilhelm’s heart began to beat faster.