Episode 13
My Heart Beats
It was a problem that began to show as the boy grew up.
— “Young Master, please don’t be sad. Rocky has gone to a better place.”
— “What does being sad mean?”
— “Young Master? Rocky… the dog you raised… he died.”
— “Yeah. He died. So?”
— “My goodness…”
What Gabriel couldn’t grasp weren’t just swords or opponents—it was emotion.
He couldn’t feel emotions properly. He had no interest. Concern for others didn’t linger in his heart.
His mother would often sob while holding him. Even that, Gabriel could never understand.
— “Should we even consider this child to be truly alive? He’s never clung to anything. Will he ever desire, hope, or love anyone?”
— “Darling, please calm down.”
— “How can I? I don’t need this cursed power. I want my child’s heart back!”
Her words, spoken in sorrow, weren’t wrong.
Gabriel couldn’t tell what made people laugh or cry. Everything around him was painted in dull grey.
Though he wasn’t entirely devoid of feelings, they were muted—blurry. Emotions, like joy or sadness, were like things draped in thin cloth—vague and unclear.
Even smiling or crying felt awkward.
Love and affection were concepts that only belonged in fairy tales.
What he could feel best were anger and rage.
— “Never forget today, Young Master!”
— “Velkius is yours alone. Never forgive those low-born insects!”
That’s probably how he endured, even through the humiliating manipulation by his relatives and the shaky period that followed.
Eventually, those years of endurance ended.
At last, he became the head of his family—officially inheriting the position of Duke of Velkius.
Yet, even then, Gabriel’s heart remained calm. Still.
A knight watching him then asked with a sorrowful expression:
— “Are you… truly not happy, Young Master?”
— “What, you can’t understand me either?”
— “No, sir. I actually believe your calmness is admirable as a leader. But…”
— “But?”
— “…Personally, it saddens me.”
That was Gabriel.
He was surrounded by things he had no interest or attachment to. The marriage proposal with Healington was just one of those.
Something bothersome and troublesome.
Something that needed to be erased.
That’s why he decided to steal the marriage token and cut the troublesome tie himself.
After all, he would soon be deployed to the imperial frontlines. Once the engagement was broken, Healington would surely seek another candidate.
It was a simple plan.
Or so he thought—until the night before, when he entered the mansion.
— “Why is this place covered in so many layers of protective magic?”
Clicking his tongue, he barely managed to break through the defensive barrier and enter Healington.
He moved toward the place where the engagement token might be kept.
Gabriel had already reached a level where his movement was undetectable to the human eye. He could leap great distances as if folding space itself.
While moving like that, something shimmered in his vision.
— “What was that?”
It was someone.
If he had just ignored it, they wouldn’t have met.
But for some reason, Gabriel stopped. He forgot that he was sneaking in.
— “Why… why can’t I move forward?”
It was like his body had turned to stone. He couldn’t move a muscle.
When he sensed that person trying to run away in surprise, he panicked for no reason.
No—don’t go.
Gabriel was shocked at his own desperation.
— “Can I even feel something like this?”
Before he knew it, his body moved on its own.
He grabbed the person by the shoulder and turned them around.
A foolish act, considering he had broken in.
He even asked,
— “Who are you?”
None of this made sense, which only made him more suspicious.
— “Maybe she’s using some kind of magic or trick.”
But when their eyes met—
Between the flowing silver hair, he saw a pale, doll-like face.
And just like a switch being flipped with a “click,” something inside him changed.
In his heart.
She was just a normal girl.
She should’ve been startled, yet she quietly looked back at him with composure.
She had a pretty face like a porcelain doll. Gabriel had never cared about looks before—but somehow, she felt different.
The moment their eyes met, something pierced his heart.
Gabriel clenched his fists.
It was overwhelming.
— Ah…
What happens to a heart that suddenly experiences everything it’s never felt all at once?
His dull heart went into overdrive. It pounded as if it would burst.
— Urgh—
Like being struck by lightning.
And then—he passed out.
His heart pounded so violently it stopped his breath.
He thought he was going to die.
…
When he came to, someone was mumbling next to him.
Through blurry vision, he saw the girl with a worried expression—the same girl he had seen before he fainted.
He realized.
— “She… saved me?”
Gabriel blankly thought to himself.
— “That silver hair… she must be Healington’s eldest daughter.”
And that thought filled him with joy and elation.
— “So strange…”
The moment he saw her, his heart started to beat with a fiery rhythm.
He couldn’t understand it.
The dull, colorless world around him suddenly burst into radiant bloom, everything lit up with vivid color.
— “What is this…?”
Her shining silver hair, her pale face, her slightly flushed cheeks from exertion, her breath carried by the night air, her clear red eyes—
Without knowing why, Gabriel tried to memorize every detail.
He wanted to speak, but his tongue wouldn’t move.
And he had no time.
She shoved him into a dimensional portal without hesitation.
— “Not yet…”
Then—blackout again.
When he woke up, the scenery had changed.
— “Young Master! Are you awake?”
He was surrounded by knights with frantic faces.
— “What happened in there?! Were you attacked? What’s going on?!”
— “…Huh?”
Gabriel didn’t realize his face was red like a tomato.
He placed a hand on his chest.
His heart, beating like it would explode, felt unfamiliar. His hands and feet trembled. It felt like walking on clouds.
Her image lingered in his mind.
He used to think thinking about someone was a waste of time. But for some reason, he felt like he could watch her all day and not get tired.
He placed a hand on his heart and shook his head.
— “What… is this feeling?”
— “Am I going crazy?”
— “An angel.”
— “…Sorry?”
— “There was an angel.”
As he tried to calm his breath and piece his memory together, he mumbled to himself while glancing at his bewildered knights.
— “I need to change the plan.”
— “Change the… plan?”
Oddly enough, saying those words made him feel shy.
So this is what feeling shy is like, huh?
Gabriel rubbed his chest with a strange smile.
— “I’ll marry the eldest daughter.”
— “…Pardon me?”
As he snapped out of the memory, his adjutant’s confused face greeted him in the present.
— “This all happened so fast. Suddenly pushing for an engagement… Everyone’s bewildered, my lord.”
— “Yes, of course they are. But…”
His adjutant patiently waited for the answer. Gabriel chuckled softly.
— “Even I don’t know. Don’t ask for a reason. There isn’t one. I just… wanted to do it. So I did.”
It was purely impulsive.
His adjutant looked at him like he was insane.
— “My lord… You’ve really changed these past few days.”
— “Like I was struck by lightning?”
— “Exactly.”
Gabriel smiled.
— “Maybe that’s what it was. A lightning strike.”
After all, he almost died from it.
— “I beg your pardon?”
He wanted to know more about Healington’s eldest daughter. He wanted to be close, to approach her.
He didn’t know why—but he had experienced, for the first time, a desire.
The youngest-ever Duke, a man blessed with overwhelming power and ability—Gabriel von En of House Velkius—had made up his mind. And once he did, no one could stop him.
He even ran straight to the emperor and requested the engagement formally.
But when Gabriel declared it, the emperor was suspicious.
— “Why the sudden change of heart, Gabriel?”
— “Must I have a reason, Your Majesty?”
It wasn’t political. He saw no need to explain.
— “Proceed as I said.”
With that one sentence, he left. The emperor chuckled behind him, but Gabriel didn’t waver.
There wasn’t much time.
— “I’m about to be deployed to the battlefield…”
What was once a liberating journey now felt like a burden.
He bit his lip and overrode all opposition as he stormed into House Healington.
He knew he should’ve followed proper procedures—but his mind and body were moving on their own.
Gabriel was desperate to know—
What that night had meant to her.
Whether she had felt the same shock he had.
Whether her heart, too, had raced like his.
Whether she would want to marry him.
And if… she rejected him—
— “Just thinking about it… feels like I’d die.”
— “Pardon?”
He felt like crying.
The memory of Hildea’s cold expression today gnawed at his confidence.
He had expected everything to go smoothly. But in front of her, he had become small.
Recalling how her face hadn’t brightened once throughout their entire conversation, his heart ached again.
— “Does she hate me?”
— “This is a mess.”
— “My lord…?”
— “Let me say it again. There’s no reason. No benefit to my house. No hidden motive. I just want to marry her.”
— “…Oh my god. My lord… Don’t tell me…”
He wished he’d made a better first impression.
— “You’ve… fallen for her?”
