Chapter 43

There are times like that. When you don’t know why you’re crying, and there’s nothing particularly sad, but suddenly, for a very trivial reason, many things that have been building up burst into tears.

‘What’s left for you?’

Sian recalled the High Priestess’s voice.

‘Those who deny themselves can’t possess anything.’

For some unknown reason, those words remained intensely hot in her heart, bringing forth wails.

“…Are you alright?”

Suddenly, a low voice tickled her ear. Sian belatedly realized that she had been staring blankly into space, her tears already dried up.

A handkerchief was held out in front of her. Sian sniffled, the aftermath of crying still not gone from her nose, and took the handkerchief Carl offered.

“Thank you.”

When Sian spoke in a hoarse voice, Carl smiled awkwardly. Sian barely glanced at Carl’s expression and unfolded his handkerchief, blowing her nose with a loud “Krung!”

Carl’s expression distorted in a complex and subtle way.

“I didn’t give it to you to… blow your nose…”

She’s blowing it quite thoroughly. Carl wrinkled his nose with an expression full of other things he wanted to say.

“I’ll wash it well and return it, so don’t worry.”

Sian said, wiping away the last of her tears. Carl nodded with a much more relaxed face at those words.

Did he really think she would return the handkerchief just like that after blowing her nose so thoroughly? Sian looked at Carl with disapproval, then suddenly noticed that she could smell a familiar scent from the handkerchief she had used to blow her nose so freely.

It was Carl’s scent that she had unintentionally come to know.

“Uh…”

Sian realized this and opened her eyes wide.

“Did you wait for me to cry?”

“Huh? No? What are you talking about? I said I’d bring something to wipe with…”

“This is yours, isn’t it?”

Sian held up the crumpled handkerchief, pointing it at Carl who was feigning ignorance. It was clearly his handkerchief that he had been keeping in his breast pocket until just now. Otherwise, there was no way a person’s scent, not a perfume, could be so strongly embedded in the handkerchief.

If he already had a handkerchief in his pocket and intended to give it to her, there was no reason for him to leave to find something. Sian quickly realized that he had considerately left to let her cry comfortably alone.

Carl’s eyes shook greatly as if an earthquake had struck, hit right on the mark.

“Um… well…”

Unable to find other words, Carl scratched the back of his neck.

“It seemed like you needed some time alone too. It’s a bit awkward to have someone next to you when you want to cry, isn’t it?”

Sian sniffled at Carl’s answer for no reason. She felt embarrassed thinking about him waiting nearby until she finished crying.

But thanks to that, she had cried her heart out. Although she still didn’t understand what had triggered such an outburst of tears, she felt like a blockage in her chest had been cleared.

Sian, feeling much relieved, let out a long sigh.

“May I sit next to you?”

Carl, who had been silently watching Sian compose herself after crying, asked. He seemed quite cautious.

Instead of answering, Sian moved over to make room for him to sit. Carl hesitated for a moment before sitting in the space Sian had made.

“It wasn’t… because of the proposal to go to the capital together that you cried like that, was it…?”

He seemed to be treading carefully. Apparently, he felt guilty about something. Carl, sitting at an awkward distance of about two hand spans from Sian, carefully opened his mouth.

“…I don’t know.”

“If it’s too difficult, it’s okay to refuse. Even so, to cry as soon as you see someone…”

Carl seemed to think Sian had cried because she couldn’t bring herself to refuse the Crown Prince and Prince’s proposal. It was clear that he was saying things he didn’t mean, unable to hide his regretful expression.

But that couldn’t be it.

Even though she didn’t know herself why she had burst into tears as soon as she saw Carl’s face, she was certain it wasn’t for that reason.

It’s just, how to put it…

It was unbelievable for a moment that someone she had long thought to be out of reach was looking at her with such kind eyes.

“…You know, Carl.”

After thinking, Sian began to speak as if making a confession. Carl turned his head to look at Sian.

“Do you remember when we first met?”

Instead of answering Sian’s question, Carl tilted his head slightly. Sian also turned her head to face Carl. He looked as if he was wondering why she was suddenly asking such a thing.

“Back then, you asked me if we had met before, didn’t you?”

Soon, Carl let out a low “Ah” as he recalled the memory of wandering on the brink of life and death.

Even in the midst of his consciousness being clouded by pain, he had asked “Have we met somewhere before?” due to a strange sense of déjà vu, only to be chided with “What kind of outdated pickup line is that?”

Although it wasn’t that long ago in terms of time, it felt like a distant memory as if it had happened very long ago. Carl was blinking at Sian, wondering why she was suddenly bringing up that incident.

“…Actually, I had seen you a long time ago.”

Sian opened her mouth, maintaining eye contact with Carl with a strange look in her eyes.

Carl’s eyes widened.

“It was when I was wandering here and there with Reva. It was when rumors were rampant that a young prince, the master of Idelin, was coming to be the lord of Ivarid, which had nothing at all back then.”

“…That was already over 10 years ago.”

Carl searched his memories. Even without trying hard to recall, the memory of first leaving the capital and arriving in the barren land was quite vivid.

Carl was only eleven years old at that time. It was exactly 12 years ago from now.

“I was young then too. I thought Reva, who would go crazy at the sight of dragons, was just an amazing person who was pretty, smart, and strong. I wanted to be like Reva, so I followed her almost everywhere she went.”

It was Reva who suggested they go see Idelin, the pure silver direct descendant of Yggdrasil. Sian and Reva covered themselves with robes with thick hoods and waited for the prince’s entourage to pass by.

It was that day when Sian first saw Prince Carlston Klaus and Idelin.

‘He’s just a child?’

‘Yes, he’s a child. He’s only eleven years old.’

Reva laughed softly at Sian’s astonished murmur.

‘What luck. He’s so young, yet he’s a prince and surrounded by so many adults just because he’s Idelin’s master.’

As Reva said, the prince was in the midst of traveling, surrounded by lightly armed men. Fearing they might be noticed, Sian and Reva were hiding behind a tree trunk in the forest, far from the road.

‘You’re right.’

Sian and Reva conversed in very low voices. Idelin wasn’t nearby, but a dragon’s master shares senses with the dragon. It was a distance from which ordinary humans couldn’t possibly hear, but it was uncertain for the prince with a dragon’s senses.

‘What’s the matter, Your Highness?’

Despite their hushed conversation, the prince looked in Sian and Reva’s direction as if he had heard something. Sian hurriedly hid her body behind the tree trunk.

‘…It’s nothing.’

The prince’s young voice was heard. Then the sound of hooves, which had stopped, resumed.

The voice of a young boy who hadn’t even gone through puberty yet. But even so, there was a strange, majestic power in the prince’s voice.

Sian peeked out again out of curiosity.

‘Let’s go now, Sian. We’ll be discovered.’

Reva tried to stop Sian from looking at the prince’s entourage again. Sian nodded, but for some reason, her feet wouldn’t move.

The features of the prince, who already had a small face, weren’t clearly visible due to the distance. Only his pitch-black hair, like the evil black dragon Pegadrasil that the pure silver Yggdrasil had defeated over hundreds of years, and his clear blue-green eyes that momentarily crossed in the air, left a vivid impression, etching themselves into her mind.

Looking back, was it jealousy, admiration? Or had she already fallen for that young prince?

The memory of that day was so special to Sian that she recognized him as that prince from back then at a glance, even after 10 years had passed.

“…I remember.”

Sian, who had been absorbed in memories that felt as vivid as if they had happened yesterday, blinked at the prince’s low voice, quite different from her distant memory.

“Someone was hiding behind a tree on a hill, far away. So that was you.”

This time it was Sian’s turn to widen her eyes.

…He saw? It was hard to believe his matter-of-fact statement. The distance Sian remembered between them and the prince’s entourage was so far that they could barely be heard even if they shouted with all their might. At that distance, even though she was being cautious, he says he saw her.

Feeling incredulous, Sian stared at Carl searchingly.

Even if it were true that he had seen her, it was also questionable how he could remember such an old past from 12 years ago.

Could it be that he’s just lying, saying he remembers to go along with her gloomy mood? Sian was just beginning to doubt when Carl continued.

“After that, I definitely stopped the entourage and called for Idelin.”

Sian gaped blankly at Carl’s following words.

It was accurate. While Sian was lingering, unable to leave, the prince’s entourage soon stopped on his order as they were traveling.

And when the prince called “Idelin” affectionately as if calling for a lover, he appeared. Creating a brilliant silver trajectory, raising a gust of wind with a pair of enormous wings.

“…Then when you asked if we had met somewhere before…”