Epilogue 2. The Day the Star Fell

On a pleasant night at the Imperial Palace, the Emperor with his beaming smile and Duke Bolshevik with his coolly composed demeanor faced each other.

Or rather, confronted each other.

“Duke.”

“Yes.”

“Are you busy?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t even pause a moment before answering?”

“I am busy.”

At the Duke’s merciless response, the Emperor chuckled and provoked him:

“Isn’t it too much to despise me just because your daughter married my son?”

“There’s no father in the world who would like a daughter-thief.”

As those blue eyes flashed ominously, the Emperor shrank his neck in an exaggerated manner and let out a dry laugh.

He had thought about teasing the Duke a bit more, but feared he might end up knocked out with a single blow, just like when they were young.

He quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, I had a rather strange dream last night.”

Though the Emperor deliberately tried to shift topics, the Duke cut him off without mercy:

“You should contact the temple. If that’s all you have to say, I’ll be leaving.”

“No, no, wait. In my dream, a star fell! A falling star—don’t you think that has some meaning? I wonder if something might happen to the Empire…”

Before he could finish, the Duke, creating a winding valley between his brows, asked:

“A falling star, you say?”

At the Duke’s unusually fierce expression and testy question, the Emperor grinned and nodded.

“Yes. A star fell. A very large one.”

“Where did it go?”

“Well, about that…”

The Emperor didn’t answer, but stared intently at Duke Bolshevik, who stared back without blinking.

Eventually, the Emperor sighed as if deflated and said:

“It fell on your estate. The Bolshevik estate. Duke? Duke, why that face? Wait, where are you going? Duke!”

The Emperor couldn’t hide his bewilderment as he watched Duke Bolshevik leave—practically flying—without even being dismissed, but the Duke didn’t stop.

He felt he could only be at ease if he saw his daughter as soon as possible.

This was because he too had dreamed exactly the same dream as the Emperor the night before.

A dream where a large star fell onto the Bolshevik estate.

“Are you cold?”

“No. I’m fine.”

Riina touched the edge of the shawl wrapped around her shoulders and unwittingly yawned.

“Oh my, you seem sleepy. Shall we just go back?”

“No. I’m not at the point where my eyes are closing yet. More importantly, have we arrived?”

As Riina felt the wind noise subsiding, she asked, and Einar stopped.

“Yes. We’re here.”

The moment he carefully set her down on the ground, Riina swallowed another yawn that was about to escape and took a deep breath.

This place, filled with the fresh scent of grass, was located on the outskirts of the capital—the place he said he loved most.

Looking up at the bright night sky, which seemed as if stars might pour down at any moment thanks to the exceptionally clear weather, Riina exhaled softly.

“It looks like the stars might shower down.”

Einar embraced her from behind, pulling her toward him, and his laughter transmitted as vibrations through her back, which was pressed against his chest.

“That would be wonderful. Stars pouring down from the sky.”

Then, as if by prior agreement, both looked at the distant sky simultaneously before turning their gaze toward each other.

As their eyes met, they burst into laughter at the same time.

“I was thinking of stars pouring down like a downpour, similar to that time when flower petals rained down.”

“I was expecting something like that too.”

Leaning her head against his solid chest while looking back up at the sky, Riina’s blue eyes were pierced by the stars.

For a while, the two said nothing, leisurely gazing at the night sky.

Then suddenly, Riina spoke.

“There’s the Big Dipper.”

“Is that a constellation from Bolshevik’s historical texts?”

“Yes. I used to look for it often with my mother when I was young.”

Riina, who until now had been unable to even mention “mother” out of guilt, could now reminisce about her with a faint smile.

“What about other constellations?”

“I was so young then. Hmm, I think that one over there is…”

Just as Riina looked to the left, trying diligently to connect the stars—

A single star streaked across the night sky, leaving a long tail.

“Just now.”

As Riina’s mouth opened in surprise, Einar exclaimed:

“Did you see that star falling with its long tail? Look, there’s a second one.”

Einar took Riina’s hand and traced the tail of the second star, and her eyes widened into perfect circles.

“Could it be.”

And a moment later.

The stars, which had been falling one after another, became a cluster that brilliantly colored the night sky.

Staring blankly at this magnificent sight, Riina whispered:

“Our luck is really disappearing, isn’t it?”

“At least the small bits of luck are gone. Large-scale luck like this is still present. But your small misfortunes have disappeared too, haven’t they?”

“That’s true… yaaawn.”

Unable to suppress the yawn that kept trying to escape, Riina now began to blink her eyes languidly.

No, her eyes were almost closing with each blink.

Truly unable to resist the suddenly overwhelming sleepiness, she leaned her head against his chest and whispered with slurred pronunciation:

“I’m going to sleep for a bit…”

“Riina? Rii…”

Einar’s voice, calling her name in apparent concern, felt distant, and the sight of the falling star clusters became blurry as Riina fell asleep right there.

Carrying Riina, who had fallen asleep as if she had lost consciousness like a puppet with its strings cut, Einar urgently returned to the ducal estate, where he encountered Duke Bolshevik with a formidable expression.

“Duke…”

“Where were you?”

“Behind the capital…”

“Examine Riina.”

At the Duke’s command, which cut off Einar’s words before he could finish, the Emperor’s physician, who had been dragged from the palace in the commotion, began to examine Riina.

Meanwhile, the Duke stared at Einar with piercing eyes that looked as if they could stab him to death, but Einar, though aware of this gaze, focused solely on Riina.

Perhaps because this was the second time he had been summoned in such a manner, the physician thoroughly examined Riina with practiced ease before suddenly offering congratulations to Einar.

“Congratulations.”

“What?”

Einar, who couldn’t understand what was happening, immediately asked, and the Duke, who had been about to question as well, closed his mouth.

“What do you mean…”

Because he intuitively sensed what the physician was about to say next.

The physician then added with a vigorous nod:

“I offer my congratulations. Your Highness, the Princess is pregnant.”

Not long after the Emperor’s physician completed his duties and returned to the palace, Riina’s eyelids slowly opened.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes. I’ve… come back.”

Answering with slightly slurred pronunciation from just waking up, Riina looked around and fully opened her half-closed eyes when she spotted an unexpected person.

“Father?”

“Yes. Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. Nothing hurts. I’m just sleeping a lot.”

The Duke, who had been watching Riina with somewhat reddened eyes as she visibly tried to suppress a yawn while speaking, reached out his hand.

After stroking her drowsy eyes, he said:

“Your mother also slept a great deal when she was carrying you. She would fall asleep anywhere and at any time, and I was so anxious every time I had to search for her.”

Riina’s mouth slowly opened as she tilted her head at this sudden statement.

“Don’t take your eyes off her. Unless you want to be consumed with worry.”

Though his gaze was on Riina, the Duke threw what might have been either a warning or a request to Einar, then carefully embraced her before turning to leave.

Various indescribable emotions were piled high on his back as he departed.

With just the two of them remaining, a thin voice flowed from Riina’s parted lips.

“E-Einar, what Father just said. What he just said was…”

“Yes. It’s true.”

“So…”

Unable to continue speaking, Riina instinctively covered her belly with her hands, and Einar, briefly kissing her forehead, smiled with his eyes curved.

“We’re having a child. They say it’s a very large star.”

“A star?”

“It seems both His Majesty and the Duke had the same prophetic dream. A dream where a large star falls upon you.”

Einar looked down at Riina’s belly and added:

“Neither of them anticipated it was a conception dream, so they were quite worried that something might have happened to you.”

If the Imperial physician hadn’t quickly proclaimed it was pregnancy, he would likely have received a severe scolding from the Duke.

“A star, it’s a star.”

Riina murmured quietly as she caressed her belly.

There was a star inside her. No, the sky and stars, wind and moon, even the earth. The whole world was there.

“My little one.”

Her faintly trembling voice was completely soaked in joy.

Neither Einar nor Riina worried about whether their child might be governed by absolute misfortune or luck as they had been.

There was no need to sigh in advance over things beyond their control.

Neither of them had the habit of borrowing worry about whether the sky might fall.

Because of this, they could focus entirely on their baby.

As Riina whispered “my little one” over and over again in a small voice, Einar covered her hand with his much larger one and whispered:

“Little one, we love you. Welcome to this world.”