YED Chapter 157

Duke Adeo de Chasser of Ostein was crossing the red-carpeted corridor of Soleil Palace.

The summer heat had reached its peak and was raging, and the smell of smoke left by the flames still lingered throughout the palace. Despite the strict security, an absurd number of people were coming and going through Soleil Palace.

More magicians, new sorcerers, doctors who had mastered new medical arts, and now even military experts had joined. The Emperor was calling people in paranoia, but he wasn’t actually meeting them.

“This way, please.”

Count Horhen, the chief chamberlain, greeted Duke Ostein with delight in front of the Emperor’s bedroom.

Currently, there were no doors in the imperial palace that Duke Ostein couldn’t pass through. This was because he was the chairman of the Regency Council. He was drawn into the inner chambers that the numerous people lingering around Soleil Palace could never pass through.

“Your Imperial Majesty, the eternal sun of the Empire.”

The Emperor, who had collapsed again during the fire, was now bedridden.

If it were up to his temperament, he would be striding around Soleil Palace immediately, but his body wouldn’t cooperate with his temper. A wrinkled hand emerged from the bed where the Emperor lay and twitched. It was a signal to come closer.

Duke Ostein moved closer to the bed. The hand kept beckoning him to come closer.

Closer, even closer. And finally, when he got close enough, that wrinkled hand slapped Duke Ostein’s cheek. It was such a weak force that it didn’t even make a sound. But it was enough of an insult and rebuke.

“The Emp…ress……”

The Emperor, who could barely string words together, had run out of patience in urging Duke Ostein, his only half-brother.

“We are searching, Your Majesty. Reports indicate no movement has been detected in Lusenford. Didn’t I submit the report I compiled?”

Duke Ostein took on the important role of soothing and calming the Emperor while enduring all sorts of abuse.

He couldn’t let his son-in-law or daughter handle this task of dealing with the Emperor, whose temper had become even worse after collapsing. That was Duke Ostein’s sense of responsibility as the head of the family.

“Should we dispatch the Grand Duke?”

“That’s not… allowed…! You fool!”

However, the Emperor, who had lived a life far removed from such responsibility, had undergone some change in his twilight years and refused to let go of his stepson, holding onto him tightly.

The Grand Duke of Lusenford remains in Craine by imperial order. The duration is indefinite. Perhaps he’s being held in place of the Empress.

“Yes, I was wrong.”

Duke Ostein now felt deep fatigue rather than threat from the stream of insults being hurled at him – fool, bastard, and so on.

The Emperor who had calmly shown off his pistol and pulled the trigger at him in the Monster’s Garden at the end of last autumn had aged. He had aged so much that the servants trembled in fear, calling it the evil dragon’s curse, and now he only called for the Empress.

The old man’s words, thrown around with nothing but an oversized ego and stubbornness, didn’t hurt much anymore. The terror from last autumn was gone too. The Emperor no longer had that power.

While the Emperor lay here trying to push Crania into an absurd all-out war with the evil dragon, Duke Ostein was overseeing various areas of Crania – politics, culture, arts, national defense, and diplomacy.

General Luxsburg, Lord Yulan, and above all, his son-in-law the Grand Duke of Lusenford were capable. His daughter too could manage the cultural and artistic fields well if her health permitted.

However, the Foreign Minister was somewhat concerning, Prince Elkanan wandering around Craine was worrisome, and above all, the Crown Prince who kept trying to make contact with the Prince was the problem.

When the Emperor dies, the weak and indecisive Crown Prince will become Emperor.

“Brother. You must live long. You must stay healthy.”

Duke Ostein spoke with half sincerity. When the Crown Prince becomes Emperor, the workload will increase enormously. But there won’t be any recognition for the increased work. The new Emperor will be desperate to remove the regency.

At the same time, he wondered if the Emperor’s death would finally free him from the endless insults.

Duke Ostein actually missed Ostein terribly, where sunlight would be pouring down. Craine’s summer was torture. And being by the Emperor’s side, who only spewed insults while reeking of medicine, was even more torturous.

“His Highness the Crown Prince needs the proper education from you, brother.”

“That fool knows nothing…you…”

Though the word “must” wasn’t completed, nonetheless, the Crown Prince was now added to Duke Ostein’s shoulders. Not just education. It included coaxing and soothing the Crown Prince who watched carefully while showing his sharp edges.

However, contrary to Duke Ostein’s thoughts as he held back a sigh in the bedroom of Soleil Palace, the Crown Prince was already receiving education.

“First, you must become Emperor.”

And he was receiving education that was flowing in a very bad direction.

“Once you become Emperor, Your Highness, you can remove them all.”

Beatrice did the easiest work on Gregory. Everyone is weak to desire.

“No one will be able to tell Your Highness what to do then.”

“That’s bound to happen eventually…”

“Who says so? Do you think your position will strengthen if His Majesty regains his health?”

Gregory, who had always suffered from anxiety about possibly being replaced, flinched.

“Even now, His Majesty only calls for the Grand Duke of Lusenford, not Your Highness. Do you think you won’t be replaced even now? Don’t say it’s impious. This is both Your Highness’s crisis and opportunity. Anyone who doesn’t tell you these things isn’t truly on your side.”

Beatrice unhesitatingly blocked everything Gregory tried to say and kept talking.

“Use this time when His Majesty is at his weakest. A great monarch makes bold decisions.”

Great monarch! Bold decisions! These words that Crown Prince Gregory dreamed of but never dared to execute sounded especially impressive today. The Crown Prince had always wanted to become a decisive monarch.

****

The deserted beach where no one came was beautiful and quiet. A bright shout briefly broke out on that beach, then silence fell in an instant. Kaela’s eyes suddenly burned, and as she turned her head and wiped her eyes, she hesitated.

Suddenly the wind stopped. The flowing clouds stopped, and even the incoming waves stopped. With her feet in the unmoving sea, Kaela looked at the one capable of doing all this. She knew instinctively.

All of nature, from the sunlight to the air, was focused on her. Because Peon was staring intently at her, and no one else.

Why? Kaela hunched her shoulders.

‘Did I do something wrong?’

Was he upset that she said she liked him?

‘No. That’s not it!’

Kaela clenched her fists and straightened her shoulders.

She wasn’t that foolish. She had become withdrawn because others pointed fingers so much, but now she knew that was wrong. She dared to say it was wrong. She could even say she liked him.

“I… I like you.”

Though it was too great a sin to keep in her heart, such a huge sin that she didn’t dare speak it aloud, she hadn’t been able to hide it perfectly either. Rather, because it was such a deep and big feeling, she thought he knew and hated it even without her saying it.

“You know. Ever since I was very young…”

Ever since she was very young, so painfully and achingly. Enough to harm her body and drain her completely. Throughout everything, swallowing all insults and even while starving to death. Foolishly.

“I liked you.”

Or desperately.

“Even when others said I was shameless, that I had no right, I, I was so happy that you were my husband…”

Peon, his face white with shock, stood still and listened to Kaela’s words.

The wind must not blow, and the waves must not crash. Only then could he hear those words clearly. No, even hearing them without any interference, they were unbelievable words.

How could Kaela like him?

“Even now?”

His voice barely came out. Because he wanted to suppress and kill his voice so as not to interfere with Kaela’s words in any way, it came out mixed with his breath.

“What kind of question is that, really…”

Kaela somehow heard that whisper and closed her eyes then opened them with an expression of disbelief. Peon urgently reached out and grabbed Kaela’s hand. Then he staggered and sat down in the sea.

Kaela let out a small scream at the loud splash of water, but Peon’s face showed he didn’t even know if he was standing or if his legs had given out and he was kneeling.

“Are you still happy? Even now, even now?”

In this regression, she was a wife who had run away prepared to die rather than marry because she hated it so much, and had attempted suicide several times.

That was both a rejection of life and simultaneously a rejection of Peon. He had silently watched his wife who stubbornly denied his existence and come this far.

“Stand up.”

Kaela pulled on Peon who was kneeling before her with a tearful expression. Never mind their clothes getting all wet, she didn’t want to see him kneeling.

“It’s okay if you’re not happy. It’s okay, just, just tell me you’re okay too, please.”

But Peon didn’t budge an inch as he begged with trembling hands. This was an illness. A deep-rooted illness that Kaela could recognize right away because she suffered from it too. Unable to do anything while trembling in fear until an answer comes.

“Tell me I can stay by your side…, please.”

Then he might be able to believe she said she was jealous. He might finally earn the right to breathe and live.

“I’m jealous! Very much! I want to be the prettiest in your eyes!”

“The prettiest, the prettiest.”

Peon stammered in surprise.

“No one is prettier than you. You’re the most lovable in the world.”

“Okay.”

Kaela, who was about to shout that she wanted to be the prettiest and loved first, just nodded since she had already received the answer.

“I love you.”

The handsome face that had been desperately looking at her twisted painfully. He couldn’t help this feeling either.

“Yes.”

Kaela nodded obediently again. She had always been docile since childhood.

“I’m not asking you to accept it…”

“I’ll accept it.”

He staggered even while sitting at the quick response. Is this really reality? Has someone bewitched the Light Dragon? Even while knowing such power doesn’t exist on earth, Peon started examining his surroundings piece by piece.

Whether this sandy ground he was standing on was real, whether the sea he had stopped was definitely the southern sea of Ostein, and…, whether Kaela wasn’t an illusion.

Kaela was his fatal weakness that he would gladly be deceived by. He knew. He checked the hand he desperately held several times. He carefully touched and checked Kaela, unable to dare deconstruct her even if she was an illusion.

Peon grew increasingly pale as checking repeatedly led to the conclusion that she wasn’t an illusion. Strange. This couldn’t possibly not be an illusion. It couldn’t be.

Kaela couldn’t possibly accept his feelings.

“How…?”

After committing such a terrible sin.

“Why…?”

Why someone like me, why? When it’s enough for me to receive contempt and hatred by your side.

“You’re asking that after sticking around until now even when I told you to leave?”

Kaela, the ‘real’ Kaela, asked back as if dumbfounded.

“I didn’t even want to breathe. It was too, too bothersome and painful.”

But now she was breathing normally.

“I wanted to die quietly, without doing anything. When I ate the ferenco.”

Immediately his purple eyes trembled and shook.

“While eating it, I thought it was fortunate to die this way.”

The shaking eyes shattered mercilessly.

“I who wanted to die so quietly am now shouting, crying, and getting angry.”

Her tearful voice was clearly heard despite the wind that had started blowing again.

“I was going to die right away in Lusenford in winter, but I saw spring, and summer, and the sea.”

Peon clearly saw Kaela’s drooping shoulders as she cried and smiled.

“How can you ask why I’m accepting after bringing me this far? It’s so obvious.”

A man who had split himself apart to raise, feed, bathe, and show a different world to her who had lost her will to live.

“I want to see autumn too. They say Kerniola is beautiful in autumn. I’ve never been there. Have you been?”

Peon shook his head. The places he had been to were far fewer than the places Kaela had been. That’s the kind of life he had lived.

“Let’s go together. I want to go together, just the two of us.”

Ah. His vision finally blurred. How long had he waited for this moment? He had hoped to witness, even from afar, the moment when Kaela would say she wanted to do something, express a wish. But she was asking him to join in her wish.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

This was too great a blessing for him. However, he didn’t even have the right to refuse.

“I love you…, I’m sorry, Kaela, I love you, I…”

Peon apologized while pouring out feelings he could no longer hide between rough breaths. Even this love made him sorry and ashamed.

“You living is my reason for living. There’s nothing else.”

She knows. Kaela knew. She knew how poor and lonely a life the man who loved her was living.

“I love you.”

It was a feeling that had more sordid, gloomy, and dark parts compared to the pure and absolute love Kaela had once shown.

But Peon wandered the Northern Tower of Lusenford sleepless every night because he didn’t know what else to call this if not love.

Even now, no matter how much he tried to suppress it, it was a feeling that broke through his self-control and came out on its own.

“I’ll do all the loving, so you, if you feel like it, just accept it.”

That was enough for him.

“Okay. I’ll accept it. I’ll just accept it.”

Kaela just sat down in front of him, making the dress he had carefully lifted up meaningless. After nodding and answering sweetly, she faced his wet face with an equally wet face and smiled brightly.

“Good.”

While saying she would only accept, she ended up giving him a brilliant paradise he would never forget in his lifetime. Waves pushed between them. They would see the autumn leaves, pick red ripe apples, and discuss what kind of winter they wanted to see.

The next season was waiting for them.