Chapter 90
Dylan quickly shook his head, then realized once again that Sonnet could not see, and spoke in a hurried voice.
“I asked the High Priest to give her a proper funeral.”
The body, used as a sacrifice for a wicked dark magic ritual, was surrounded by malevolent energy. Even if he wanted to hold a normal funeral, he had no choice but to handle it like the corpse of a monster. Ashes that would never die out, or coal dust, were mixed with the remaining bones and buried deep in the ground. It was a method exploiting the weakness to fire, and symbolically, it meant the body would burn forever, even in hell.
But Dylan could not bear to see the sister of the woman he loved treated as if she were no different from a monster. He begged the High Priest to drive out the malevolent energy with sacred power and replace it with other bones, so that a proper funeral could be held. After that, the High Priest continued to keep Sabina’s remains.
Only then did Sonnet’s expression begin to soften, gradually giving way to grief. She had been manipulated by the dark magician and, on top of that, had tried to offer her beloved brother’s body as a sacrifice. She had been stopped midway, so the body had at least remained intact, only surrounded by the malevolent energy. If the ritual had completed, the body would have melted into ashes and soil, and Sonnet herself would have likely gone completely mad.
Sonnet pushed Dylan’s shoulder away once more, her eyes red as if on the verge of tears.
“Please leave now.”
“Sonnet.”
“I know what I needed to know, so there’s nothing more to see. Please go.”
But he could not leave. He did not want to let Sonnet go after finally being reunited, and he was afraid she might silently cry after he left. Dylan kept holding onto her.
“You resent me, don’t you? I’m sorry.”
“…….”
“I never meant to send you away like that. To treat you that way……”
He should not have obeyed his father’s command to stay away from her.
Even if everyone had opposed him, he should have at least prepared a safe place for Sonnet to live in peace. Foolishly, he did nothing. That guilt had haunted him for over ten years. Dylan watched Sonnet back away as if to keep him away, his legs giving out, and he fell.
He remembered the moment when Sonnet was exiled. He had watched helplessly from afar as she staggered out of the temple’s back gate, with no one to show her courtesy, and collapsed. He wanted to run and lift her up but could not, foolishly following that damned command.
What must she have thought at that time? Did it hurt? Did she suffer? As Dylan could not bring himself to look up, a soft, warm touch spread across his cheek. Slowly, he lifted his head. Sonnet, who had seemed about to flee, now pressed her invisible eyes against his cheeks, her hands on either side of his face. Dylan’s eyes grew red, mirroring hers.
“What expression is Your Majesty wearing right now?”
Sonnet’s touch was on Dylan’s face. It felt like sunlight streaming through leaves in a forest. He could not believe he was seeing the Sonnet from his dreams so close. When he grabbed her sleeve, she met his gaze and slowly sank to her knees. Her previous retreating actions faded, as she adjusted perfectly to him.
From cheek to eye, from eye to forehead, and back down to jawline, her fingertips traced as if measuring his features. When her hand brushed his lips, she flinched slightly, as if touching fire.
Dylan did not miss the moment. He held her hand and pressed his lips gently against it. When she did not pull away, he used the floor for support to move closer. His gaze was relentless.
“It’s hard to tell even by touching since you cannot see.”
“…….”
“Are you crying?”
Dylan whispered while pressing a kiss onto her palm.
“If you want to cry, then do it.”
“…….”
“If you want to curse me, go ahead. Hate me if you want. If you want to hit me, hit me as much as you resent me.”
If she wished, he would let her strike him. If she wished, he could make her cry. His love, buried in his heart thinking she was dead, had returned—what could he not do for her? Even sharp, cold words could not hurt him.
As Dylan had expected, Sonnet began to release her resentment through painful words rather than blows, pricking his conscience.
“Is the reason you are sorry because you didn’t come to see me that day?”
Yes. That was exactly why Dylan felt such sorrow and guilt. Beyond not being able to see her when she was exiled and mourning her as if dead, he had failed to keep his promise to her, making him a great sinner. Dylan’s face twisted in grief.
When Sonnet was exiled and imprisoned in the temple’s underground, Dylan had secretly visited her. She could only take a few clothes with her, so he had given her gold for lodging and promised to meet elsewhere.
Near the capital’s square was a small, artificially landscaped Moriel Forest. Originally ornamental and off-limits, they had watched the spring festival lights and crowd there. It was a secret place only for the two of them. Dylan had promised to meet her there, no matter what happened.
But he had broken that promise.
“Why didn’t you come?”
“……!”
“You said you would see me. I waited through the night until dawn in Moriel Forest, but Your Majesty didn’t come. I thought maybe something happened, so I hid and checked the forest every midnight for days.”
Dylan could not speak out of guilt. Yet he had reasons. Now, though late, he had to tell her so her wounds could heal, and her eyes would not redden further. Every blink of her water-colored lashes was weighed down by tears.
As he opened his mouth in panic, his body froze.
“And then I met a villain there, and I lost both my eyes.”
Dylan could only stare at her helplessly, speechless. Though he knew how she lost her sight, he did not know where or how she had been injured. The fact she had been harmed waiting for him in Moriel Forest made his heart wrench as if being crushed and torn.
“This… this cannot be… impossible……”
Before the tears fell from Sonnet’s eyes, Dylan’s scream tore through the air. He clutched his chest, sobbing intermittently, gasping for air. His tears blurred his vision, hiding her face, but he could clearly see the single tear streaming down her pale cheek.
Even as she cried, she looked down at him with resentment. Dylan understood the meaning in her empty golden eyes and grabbed her shoulders urgently. His face had turned pale, almost blue. He shook his head violently.
“No.”
His voice trembled as if he were dying.
“No, I didn’t send them! Sonnet, I’m not the one who sent them!”
Desperate to clear the misunderstanding, Dylan poured out his thoughts as best as he could.
“My father locked me in my room expecting I would come to you. Then, his illness suddenly worsened, and even after being freed, I couldn’t leave the palace. Moreover, Marquess Tania pushed Cattleya to be Crown Princess… But if you had been exposed to danger, I would have abandoned everything to come to you. I swear!”
The day he returned after promising to meet Sonnet, the former emperor had locked him up. Dylan tried to escape but failed. A few days later, he heard that the former emperor had collapsed from his chronic illness. Marquess Tania used the opportunity to push Cattleya as Crown Princess. Even the former emperor seemed to think the Crown Princess had to be appointed quickly, so Dylan had no chance to intervene.
It had been a chain of events. If it were trivial, he would have chosen Sonnet, but he could not. There were unavoidable reasons why he could not go to her. He had not completely broken his promise either.
By the time the situation was somewhat resolved, two weeks had passed since the promised date. Yet Dylan visited Moriel Forest every midnight for nearly a month, hoping she might come back. But she never did, and over ten years passed. He never imagined she would meet an assailant and lose her sight there.
Had he not promised the meeting, perhaps Sonnet would not have been harmed. If he had tried to keep his promise in any way, maybe this tragedy could have been prevented. Regrets swirled in his mind. How terrified she must have been, facing those sharp, blue blades…
While Dylan suffered, Sonnet silently took out an old, faded pendant from her chest and dropped it on the floor. His green eyes fell weakly on the pendant.
“Sonnet, that is……”
Dylan wiped his tear-clouded vision and reached for the pendant, trembling. His eyes widened as if they would tear.
“It fell from the body of the one who tried to kill me.”
Sonnet touched the scar on her chest, now hard and healed. Though it did not hurt, touching it made her instinctively close her eyes.
“It burned like fire, and it hurt as if my flesh had been cut, yet I could see only this. The emblem of the Tania family, held by the woman who occupies Your Majesty’s companion seat.”
