Chapter 76
-Dong.
With the clear bell sound ringing from the central temple, Einar appeared at the entrance of the hall.
“His Highness the Second Prince enters!”
Though his attire was so simple that one couldn’t tell he was a party to the engagement ceremony without being told, it wasn’t particularly strange since even the hall decorated for the engagement ceremony had only a few neat flowers rather than lavish decorations.
As he walked without hesitation, the invited guests came into his view.
The heads of various families and even princes.
The First Prince didn’t look particularly pleased but nodded toward him, while the Fourth Prince shrank his shoulders and bowed deeply.
And two empty seats.
Naturally enough, Smith hadn’t attended, and the youngest prince couldn’t come as he had fallen seriously ill since last night.
As Einar passed the empty seats and stood before the priest, the bell rang once more.
-Dong.
Immediately after, Riina, the other party to the engagement ceremony, appeared at the hall entrance.
And as she appeared, Einar’s surroundings became quiet as if by magic.
Everything around began to disappear as if only she existed.
His ears became deaf, and his eyes were no different from being directed solely toward her.
One step, and then another step.
With each step she took to approach and stand beside him, Einar’s gaze was fixed on her.
Centered on Riina, Einar’s world began to shine with an explosion of vivid, full-color brilliance.
How should he describe it?
A flood? A tsunami? A storm?
Blindingly—no, achingly—vivid, she embedded herself simply, terribly dramatically, and firmly in his heart.
Though he had lived a life ruled by ‘good fortune,’ never failing at anything in his tediously boring existence, the entire world hadn’t looked gray to him.
He had simply been watching a world where colors gradually faded.
But right now. Only one person.
Riina.
Only she had made his world this dazzling.
And in that moment.
What Riina had never hoped for happened.
Yes. Einar, meeting Riina shining vividly in the waterfall of cascading colors, finally became aware.
Ah, I have her.
In my heart.
In my chest.
I love Riina.
Someone with the same thing pressing down on their entire life—’luck’—though in opposite directions.
And someone who had a now-vanished future of being chased by the shadow of ‘misfortune’ completely different from his own, ultimately meeting death.
Just the fact that she was someone who could fully empathize with what no one else understood would have been more than enough reason to treasure her.
That’s why Einar was slow to realize.
That wanting to do just one more thing for her, wanting to cherish her endlessly, suddenly missing her, and feeling his heart fill up whenever he faced her.
The fact that it wasn’t simply because she was a ‘comrade.’
Though he had realized something was different, that it was love…
“Riina.”
At that single name that flowed out unconsciously, his heart contracted painfully.
The moment he realized he loved her, many things he hadn’t been able to answer until now found their proper places.
He didn’t know when it had started.
He didn’t know which moment it had been.
But was there a need to trace back and find such things?
It hadn’t been a fateful meeting.
No, if meeting by chance could be called fate, then it could be called fateful.
Nor had there been anything that would make one fall in love instantly.
She hadn’t saved him, nor had he saved her.
But such things didn’t matter at all.
She was before his eyes, and he was beside her.
Wasn’t that enough for now?
For now…
Einar was neither stupid nor oblivious.
And he was confident that Riina was the same.
So Riina would have noticed, however vaguely, his heart leaning toward her.
“Einar.”
At the indifferent call flowing between her red lips, his fingertips tingled.
Einar smiled with his eyes crinkling long as he kissed the back of her hand.
Now that he had realized it, wasn’t it all too vivid?
“Riina.”
Einar’s gray eyes sank deeply as he whispered with his lips still pressed to the back of her hand.
The moment he realized his own heart, Einar also realized hers.
She would not accept him.
Before her return, Riina had loved miserably and met catastrophe.
A catastrophe that was hers alone.
Hadn’t he already heard on the day they decided to make their bet what she would do and what her heart was like after her return?
‘I’ll leave the family and live freely. So that no one gets caught up in my misfortune, and so quietly that even my misfortune can’t exert its power.’
Yes. She had said she would be alone.
And even now, Riina’s resolve probably hadn’t changed.
For the first time in his life, Einar had hit a wall harder than steel and higher than any mountain.
The only opponent against whom his ‘good fortune’ didn’t work properly.
Riina Bolshevik.
The only person who had made his entire world so dazzlingly brilliant.
“Do you swear to be faithful to your partner?”
To the priest’s question he had barely heard, Einar answered.
“Yes.”
And to the same question, Riina gave the same answer.
“Yes.”
But the two people’s answers would never be the same.
Riina had a time limit, but Einar did not.
Ah, yes.
Love that would be suffered through like measles and then disappear?
He had no intention whatsoever of suffering through and letting Riina go.
“The pledge kiss.”
Einar reached toward Riina.
His rough fingertips, which had been hovering near her cheek, eventually traced upward around her eyes.
The moment blue stars bloomed like flames in the gray sky, bursting like fireworks.
“Mmph.”
Einar swallowed Riina.
No, he devoured her breath.
The moment her breath was cut off, he surged in like a tsunami.
It wasn’t the first time their lips had met.
Though it had been an accident, hadn’t they head-butted lip to lip before?
But this was different from that time in every single way, from one to ten.
Riina’s scent flowing in from the tip of his nose, Riina’s very existence, swirled through the blood vessels just beneath his skin and gripped and shook his heart.
And Riina’s heart too.
Her chest must have ached because she couldn’t breathe.
The world beyond her closed eyes must have felt so distant because she couldn’t breathe.
Because she couldn’t breathe.
That’s why you, Einar, are so vivid.
And Einar became anxious.
Even though he was clearly pressing his lips to hers, even though their breaths were mingling.
She seemed like she would disappear from his arms at any moment, like a mirage.
“Riina.”
At the low call that made her ears ring, Einar pulled at the waist of Riina, whose legs had momentarily given out, and didn’t let her go.
At a distance close enough for their exhaled breaths to mingle, Einar slowly pressed his lips to her mouth and whispered.
“My rain.”
That day. That moment.
For the first time, Einar wished for ‘good fortune.’
To stay beside Riina, to keep her beside him.
After the main ceremony ended, when those who attended the engagement ceremony were gathering in small groups to chat.
Neither the engagement ceremony’s protagonists Riina and Einar, nor Lione and his prospective fiancée, could be found.
And in a prayer room of the temple, some distance from the hall where the engagement ceremony was held.
Whether it was intentional or not, with curtains only half-drawn, two figures faced each other in the dim prayer room.
His friend stood with arms crossed, gazing intently at the one who had called him out.
How much time had passed with suffocatingly uncomfortable silence flowing between them?
“Miss, what you wanted to say…”
Before his friend, who had moderately hidden his annoyed expression, could finish speaking, an answer came back.
“You said you fell in love at first sight.”
Though it was somewhat ambiguous to call it an answer, his friend obediently nodded.
“Yes. You’re still beautiful.”
Taken as just words, it was a compliment, but with that insincere voice and even the slight shrug of shoulders.
Even a passing peacock would have seen it as sarcasm, not praise.
Was she hurt or surprised by his friend’s attitude?
The other person closed her mouth again, and his friend sighed.
“If it’s about that matter.”
But once again, before he could finish speaking, the other party cut him off sharply.
“I’m grateful for your feelings, but I’m sorry. As you know, I’m already engaged. The young lord is in the same position.”
Though her expression couldn’t be confirmed as she stood against the wall shrouded in deep shadows, it was a perfectly clean rejection without any unnecessary words.
At this, an expression appeared for the first time on his friend’s indifferent face.
It seemed like mockery, or perhaps sadness—a very complex expression…
But saying it was twisted like a hideous demon would be the most accurate description.
A soundless laugh leaked from his friend’s twisted lips.
After laughing alone like that for a while, he spoke in a strangely elated voice.
“There won’t be anything to apologize for.”
“What do you…”
“There’s nothing to tell you, Miss. If you called me to have this conversation, then I’ll be going now.”
His friend turned toward the door as if he didn’t care about the other’s permission, but couldn’t actually leave.
“So it was a lie that you fell in love with me at first sight?”
shockinblue
His epiphany was well written by the author, and well translated. Thank you very much!