Chapter 1. The End, and the Beginning
“Do you think the curse has been lifted?”
It was Roa who spoke first. Even though he was right beside her, she missed Eijen. Tilting her head as she gazed at his profile, Roa rested her cheek on his shoulder.
“At the very least, time won’t rewind anymore.”
Eijen lifted his hand and gently caressed her long hair.
“So this time… if we die, it really is the end?”
There would be no more chances to alter their twisted fate. Roa’s mind replayed the countless moments of Eijen dying before her eyes. Just recalling them blurred her vision with tears.
“I don’t want to see you die again, Eijen…”
She threw her arms around him, holding him as tightly as she could. Against her skin she felt the solid warmth of his body—proof that he was alive. Yet, the fear that he might vanish at any moment gnawed at her heart.
“That won’t happen.”
Sweeping her hair back, Eijen placed his lips gently upon her forehead.
The soft touch, fleeting as it was, lingered warmly.
“Let’s hold the wedding before the imperial ball.”
They had no time to waste. They could not hope for a grand ceremony like the one from their first marriage. In a world where their lives hung in the balance, extravagance meant nothing.
“Don’t worry about anything.”
Eijen soothed her with a tender pat. Yet he too was far from free of fear—his heart mirrored hers.
“You’ve suffered so much, bearing everything alone.”
Just as he had been willing to lay down his life for her, she had been no different.
If only he could love her even more. Why did she have to mirror his own depth of love, sharing in his pain? She was meant to be like a flower in a greenhouse—always smiling, always cherished.
“From now on, leave everything to me.”
At his words, her heart, which had been pounding in dread, gradually calmed into a steady rhythm.
“No matter what happens, I’ll make you happy.”
She loved the sweetness of his whisper, the embrace of his arms, the gentle breath brushing against her skin.
Raising her head, Roa looked into his eyes.
“I won’t let you die. And I’ll survive until the very end.”
The crimson eyes fixed solely on her filled her with warmth.
“Eijen…”
She realized she had spent so long chasing after the events that had cursed them with misfortune, that she had never truly looked at Eijen—the man himself.
“Don’t cry, Roa.”
He wiped away the damp streaks on her cheeks.
“Let tonight be the last time you shed tears.”
Cupping her small face in his palms, Eijen leaned in and licked away the falling tears.
His lips, languid and tender, trailed down toward her sensitive ear.
“Forget everything else. Focus only on me, here and now.”
Roa nodded, letting her body sink against him, surrendering her weight entirely.
“Haa… ahh…”
His hot tongue grazed the rim of her ear, his lips enclosing it softly. The sensation was so overwhelming she couldn’t hold back a moan. His hands glided upward gently—never startling, but tender—tracing the curve of her waist until they rested on her soft flesh.
Her mind turned blank, overwhelmed by rising desire. At this moment, there was no room for thought of the future—only the act of loving and confirming each other’s existence.
“I love you. I love you, Eijen.”
The act alone wasn’t enough; holding him so tightly that their bodies became one, Roa confessed aloud what her heart screamed.
Pausing his kisses at her neck, Eijen lifted his head and looked at her. Her half-lidded eyes, hazy with passion, were utterly enchanting.
“Words like that… you should wait and let the man say them first.”
He gave her a crooked smile. But Roa couldn’t smile back.
“I can’t wait.”
This moment of confession had to be sincere.
“My heart’s too impatient. I keep thinking that you’ll disappear from my grasp any second…”
Her arms and legs tightened around him, as though she could bind him to her.
“I won’t disappear.”
He entwined his fingers with hers, interlocking their hands.
“Have a little more faith.”
Eijen gently laid her down on the bed, looming over her so that his shadow enveloped her completely.
“I love you, Roa.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it, never breaking eye contact.
“I love you. I love you.”
He wanted her to never doubt again, to etch his truth deep within her heart.
“I’ll never let you go. I’ll never leave, never vanish.”
Their bodies aligned fully, skin to skin. He slid down her thin chemise, baring her snow-white skin. The faint scar left behind from a broken necklace marred her flawless surface.
“Promise me.”
He kissed the mark tenderly, drawing a shiver from her.
Her body writhed at the ticklish sensation as his lips wandered from her neck, across her collarbone, over her rounded shoulders—each spot marked with crimson love-bites.
“By the vow of Knight Eijen, I pledge myself to Lady Clarion.”
It was the promise he had failed to keep two years ago. Only now, after two long years, could he finally dedicate his knight’s oath to the woman he loved.
Two Years Earlier
It was a bright and beautiful day, sunlight streaming warmly across the land. Yet Roa still lay curled in bed, long past the hour of rising.
“Young Lady, it’s time to get up.”
“Mmm… just a little longer.”
“My word, you’re already eighteen. With your debut not far off, will you still act like a child and sleep the day away?”
The stern words of her nurse made Roa sit up at once. After a quick wash, she greeted her family and went out to the rear garden.
She strolled there for a long while, even taking her tea in the garden before returning indoors.
“These are letters addressed to you, my lady.”
Roa carried the tray piled high with envelopes up to her room. After changing clothes, she sat at her desk and began opening them, starting with one from her dearest friend, Bellanis.
“Oh my, Bellanis is already preparing for her debutante ball. How wonderful.”
Bellanis, who lived not far away, had been Roa’s closest friend since childhood. Receiving her invitation filled Roa with excitement as well.
“I hope she doesn’t go too far away.”
After her debut, Bellanis would soon find a fiancé. Roa couldn’t help but wonder who he might be—and whether marriage would take her beloved friend far from her.
But her own debut was fast approaching, too. Like Bellanis, she would soon leave her family’s estate behind.
Closing her eyes, Roa imagined who her future betrothed might be. Whoever he was, she hoped the garden of their shared home would be a natural landscape garden, like the one her second brother, Kylon, had designed.
Picking up paper and pen, she wrote prompt replies to each letter she opened, sealing them neatly. Finally, only one remained.
“…Eijen, Trone?”
The name ‘Eijen’ was vague in her memory, but the surname ‘Trone’ she could never forget.
Closing her eyes, she recalled: about four years ago, when her brother Kylon, a landscape architect, had designed the gardens of Duke Trone’s estate, their family had been invited to a banquet.
That was when she met Eijen—a boy her age, unacknowledged and rejected by the Trone household. She had comforted and encouraged him then.
“Ah… that Eijen!”
Eagerly, she tore the letter open. He wrote that since their meeting in the duke’s garden, he had found a dream for himself—and had now achieved it, being knighted.
“He really became a knight!”
Roa rejoiced as if it were her own triumph. That gloomy boy had clung to hope thanks to her, and at last fulfilled his dream.
In the letter, Eijen asked if he could meet her to thank her in person. Roa gladly agreed, replying that he was welcome to visit after she returned from Bellanis’s debutante.
Soon a reply came back: he wished to visit her on the very day she returned from the ball.
“Already?”
His haste startled her. But perhaps his schedule as a newly made knight left him little free time.
Time passed, and Roa attended Bellanis’s debut. Though it was a formal ball, Bellanis already had her betrothed chosen, so the event was more like a small, intimate party among close friends.
Roa also learned her friend would be moving far south, away from the capital.
On the carriage ride home, Roa couldn’t close her eyes for even a moment. Everything Bellanis had gone through that day would soon come to pass for her as well. The difference was, unlike Bellanis, she had no fiancé yet. After her debut, she would surely receive many proposals from noble families of her age. Her heart was restless—it truly felt as if she were stepping into adulthood.
“Young Lady, the bath is prepared.”
“I’ll be in soon. Just a little time in the garden first.”
Back at the estate, Roa did not enter the house immediately, but wandered into the garden.
This natural landscape garden, free of flowerbeds and topiary, was rare in the empire—only two such gardens existed: one here at the Clarion estate, and the other at Duke Trone’s.
Roa wondered how Eijen had changed. Closing her eyes, she let her imagination wander.
He had been tall even as a boy; training as a knight must have made him taller, stronger.
If, by chance, he became her betrothed, and they built a home together, they could create a garden as beautiful as this one. Since he had admired her brother Kylon’s work, surely their tastes would align.
The fantasy grew vivid in her mind until she jolted awake.
“What am I thinking…”
They hadn’t even met properly again, yet here she was imagining marriage.
Perhaps attending her friend’s debut had filled her thoughts with nothing but such ideas. Embarrassed by her own impatience, she shook her head in denial.
