Chapter 2.1
Besides, it wasn’t fair to blame only Eleanor. The place she had stayed was the imperial palace of Lezan. The imperial family also couldn’t avoid responsibility for not properly guarding the palace.
So, there was no one to complain to about the frustration.
“…What does it matter if we can’t find her? She already left.”
Edgar answered calmly to the emperor’s bitter muttering.
“We can’t leave the duchy alone for too long. I’m sure you’ll slowly give up too, brother.”
So, she only needed to endure until then.
There was nothing dangerous in the report Edgar had secretly received.
Except that she was a little sick.
It didn’t seem serious enough to keep her from moving, but since she had stayed in the same place for months, it was clear it wasn’t something minor.
Not knowing the exact illness made his chest feel heavy, like a lump of lead was pressing on it.
‘I wish she had gone far away… maybe across the sea to the eastern continent…’
Edgar sighed deeply. His departure for Jenaire was scheduled for fifteen days later.
Time passed helplessly.
Even by the time Lezan’s delegation, including the crown prince, left for Jenaire, Ines had not been found.
Three more months went by without any sign of her.
“Child, you won’t live long.”
A heavy voice filled the small, peaceful herb room.
Ines looked up, surprised, while coughing softly. She had been organizing food ingredients in the cupboard.
“Ah… how did you know?”
She asked absentmindedly, and the old man let out a deep sigh. His wrinkled face showed mixed emotions.
Ines realized too late that it had been a silly question. The old man, Robert, had studied herbs for over fifty years.
He probably knew from the very day she arrived at this house in the small seaside village.
After neatly placing the spice jars she had been holding, Ines stepped down from the ladder.
“Sorry. That was a pointless question.”
“…That way of talking again.”
Robert clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
Ines smiled brightly and walked over to him. When she peeked her face into his view, he got annoyed.
“Go away. What’s so funny that you’re smiling like that?”
“Hmm, but since you already know, there’s more I want to ask.”
When Robert moved over to the herbal preparation table, Ines followed and sat down across from him.
“Robert, how long do I have left to live?”
There was no despair in her clear smile and clean eyes.
She had none of the bitterness, cleverness, or world-weariness that poor young women often had.
Robert felt a painful squeeze in his chest and answered in a deliberately harsh tone.
“How would I know that?”
“But you do know.”
“…You never gain any weight, so how can you live long? I feed you the best foods, but your body just won’t take it…”
“Really? But if I try harder from now on, maybe I could live for ten more years?”
“…”
“Then… five years?”
She didn’t look like someone trying to guess how long she had left to live.
Robert’s eyes softened with pity as he looked at Ines. When someone is calm about their death, it’s usually for one of two reasons:
Either they don’t believe it… or they’ve already given up on many things.
Ines was clearly the latter.
The pale-skinned, skinny woman had arrived in this village half a year ago.
Robert had found her in the grass near the seaside. She looked both taken care of and not—an odd sight.
She wore a white dress stained with dirt, and her black hair was loose and messy, yet strangely shiny. Her nails were clean and neatly trimmed.
She was alone. All she had was her body, trembling between the dry grass in the salty sea breeze. He had brought her home.
Once he brought her in, her condition was clearly serious.
She had suffered from malnutrition for quite a while, and her immune system was very weak. The blood flow in her body was strangely tangled.
Her heart wasn’t functioning properly, unable to pump blood with steady beats.
It took a full month of medicine just to untangle her blood vessels enough for her to get out of bed.
“Today’s medicine.”
“I took it. Thank you. But Robert, you still haven’t answered my question.”
Robert couldn’t look straight into her clear blue eyes and avoided her gaze.
Even with the best care and medicine, no stress or shock, it was hard to say she could last even ten years.
Right now, he was caring for her sincerely—but the problem was Ines herself.
No matter how much he scolded her, the girl just didn’t know how to take care of herself.
“If you keep wasting energy at the herb room like this, you won’t last until next year.”
“But…”
Ines gave a troubled smile.
“I can’t just stay in bed for half a year. I want to give back at least a little of what you’ve done for me…”
“I told you, you don’t need to.”
“And you said a short walk is okay. This little work is fine. I mean it.”
“You never listen, really.”
“If you tell me how many years I have left, I’ll listen.”
She had a gentle face but a stubborn heart.
Robert glared at her strictly, and Ines’s eyes drooped sadly.
Seeing her like that made his heart ache helplessly.
“…If your body were as strong as your personality, you’d be fine. Fine. At most, ten years.”
“Ten years…”
“That’s only if you don’t overwork, take your medicine quietly, and rest. Do you understand, child?”
“Hmm, yes. I understand.”
Ten years. Ines whispered that number to herself a few more times. Then she smiled brightly.
“Ten years sounds better than I thought. Thank you, Robert.”
Saying “thank you” and “sorry” had become her habit. Robert let out a long, heavy sigh.
He had brought home something that wouldn’t leave his heart, even though it was clear she’d die before him…
“…Don’t carry heavy herb boxes and things, child. Go to the mill and place an order. We’re out of flour.”
“Yes!”
Ines nodded and stood up. She seemed happy to have something to do.
Robert watched the girl—standing between a young woman and a girl—step out into the sunlight with a bright smile, for a long time.
This place, a port city located in the eastern part of the continent, was called Hyran.
Hyran was a fairly well-known city in the Kingdom of Apael, southeast of Lezan. Since it was far from Lezan and Jenaire, and faced the sea that led to the Eastern Continent, it was the perfect place to run away to.
Ines walked along a narrow path by the sea, holding a basket full of potatoes and corn.
The salty sea breeze messed up her neatly cut black hair, which reached her shoulders.
“I’m glad we came here, Kian.”
She whispered to the presence that was always by her side, though it could not be seen.
Running away to this place, even at the cost of half her lifespan, was the first decision Ines had made on her own in her entire life.
Each day here was like a peaceful dream. Robert, the herbalist who took care of her, was kind, and the neighbors were also friendly toward her.
They didn’t know anything about her. Not that she was an illegitimate child born with a curse, nor that she was a fugitive who had dared to escape from the imperial palace of Lezan.
A dull throb rose from her left chest. Kian, who had been silent for a while, spoke.
[Don’t trust anyone, Ines.]
“I know.”
She still believed that no kindness came without a price. That was why Ines always helped out at the herbal shop on purpose.
It felt uneasy to only receive. She had to prove her worth somehow.
It wasn’t that hard. No matter how much she moved around in this warm place, her body never felt as tired as it had when she was rolling around in Jenaire.
Ines took a deep breath.
“If I could live like this… even just for ten years, I think I’d be so happy.”
It was the first time in her life she realized that the air outside the palace was this fresh and clear.
She felt more at ease now than during the luxurious days she had spent in Eleanor’s room at the Lezan palace.
‘…Eleanor.’
As that name suddenly came to mind, the smile on Ines’s lips faded.
To be honest, sometimes… she wondered what would have happened if she had stayed in Eleanor’s room.
What if—just what if—
She had chosen Rayan Eleanor as her husband…
If she had become his wife…
Every time she thought of that man, one memory came back to her.
The day he gave her the emerald necklace. The kiss where their breaths and saliva had deeply mixed.
Even though she knew that moment meant nothing to him, she couldn’t forget it.
After she left, did that man ever try to find her?
Ines slowly recalled their first meeting. It was eight years ago, on an autumn night during a masquerade ball in Jenaire.
She had been going down to the kitchen of the annex, hoping to find even a piece of dry bread because she was hungry. That’s when she saw him in the small garden in front of the annex.
<What’s your name?>
<It’s Ines. What’s the name of the handsome man in the white mask?>
<Ah, my name, right. Since I know your name now, I should tell you mine too.>
The old conversation came back faintly.
<Rayan. Rayan Eleanor.>
The first person who had ever asked her name and told her she was lovely.
Ines, I don’t know why, but I feel like we’ll meet again someday.
After so much time had passed, she couldn’t clearly remember his face, voice, or build from back then.
All she remembered was the name he had spoken and their short conversation.
That man, who had left a deep mark on her young heart in that brief moment, left a new trace in her heart again, eight years later.
Ines shook her head and walked faster. He was someone she would never meet again anyway. It was better to leave him buried in her heart.
But as she entered the village, her peaceful life cracked.
“Die, you crazy bitch!”
Slap. The sound of the slap was painful just to hear. Ines stared blankly at the scene unfolding before her.
The woman who fell was young.
“You dare lie to me? Do you know how hard I’ve worked, thinking I was raising my own child?”
“T-That’s not…”
The one beating her mercilessly seemed to be her husband. Slap, slap, slap. The woman’s face kept turning left and right without pause.
Ines’s body froze.
Barely managing to move, she grabbed the sleeve of the person next to her and asked,
“W-What’s going on?”
“Oh, you’re the girl from the herbal shop.”
A warm-looking middle-aged woman who ran a fruit stall shook her head.
“Don’t even ask. He raised her thinking she was his daughter for ten years, but it turns out she’s an illegitimate child. She was a maid working for a count’s family and hid her pregnancy before remarrying, it seems.”
Tsk tsk.
“…”
“There’s a lot of noise these days about illegitimate children, both in and outside the country, and now we see it here too.”
Ines barely moved her lips.
“When you say in and outside the country… did something happen?”
“Seems like news came here a bit late. You know, Jenaire in the central region and Lezan in the northeast… They say it’s a tense situation. Oh, and that Eleanor from Lezan too.”
Familiar country names came one after another.
“Why are those countries…”
She didn’t need to ask. She already knew why those powerful nations were on the brink of conflict again.
It was because Ines—the symbol of the truce—had run away.
The woman’s next words weren’t much different.
“They say they’re searching the whole continent for the missing royal from Jenaire. They’re strangely obsessed with finding her. Lately, even Eleanor sent a request to Apael asking for help.”
