Chapter 94

“Lehan, may I ask you something?”

“Answer my question first.”

“But I already answered one, didn’t I? I just suddenly got really curious.”

“…Fine, ask it then. Just don’t drag this out—ask quickly and let’s move on.”

Lehan didn’t think whatever she was about to ask would be anything important. At least, not until Edelis furrowed her brows in thought and then voiced her doubt.

“Your Majesty said the first time you met me was when you came to fetch me as a candidate for Empress, right?”

“I did go to the Count’s estate to take you as my Empress.”

“Then… don’t you remember meeting me at the arena?”

“At the arena… I met you there?”

Lehan’s mouth fell open in disbelief. Edelis looked at him calmly and replied, “If you don’t remember, shall I explain it to you?”

“Yes. How could I have first met you there?”

There were only two possibilities. One, Edelis had merely seen his match from the audience. The other—that the girl he had been searching for all this time was Edelis herself. He told himself it couldn’t be, but his heart still thudded with nervous expectation.

“I saw you fighting from the spectator seats.”

Of course. A sigh of disappointment slipped out before he could stop it. He had told himself she couldn’t possibly be that girl, yet the sting of regret revealed just how much he had secretly hoped. Still, it didn’t matter. Finding the girl who had saved him and repaying her was one thing; building a new bond with Edelis was another.

“I thought I locked eyes with you in the arena… but maybe it was just my imagination? Do you remember that?”

“No.”

But the thought that Edelis had been just another face in the crowd, one of those countless strangers who had wished for his death, made all his goodwill toward her crumble for a moment. If his past self had known she had been there among them, he would never have looked upon her so fondly.

“Well, it’s a relief anyway. You were in such a dire state then, almost on the brink of death, but now you’re healthy like this.”

“Ah… yes. Back then, it wouldn’t have been strange if they had simply declared me dead.”

“Your bandages were soaked through with blood, and you were still bleeding all over. Yet you kept insisting you were fine, so stubborn.”

Edelis gazed at him with worry, recalling what she had witnessed. Her fingertips brushed lightly over the deep scar on his chest through his clothes.

“I would have died if I’d stayed there. I only lived because someone saved me.”

“Right? Whoever that was… they did something incredible, didn’t they?”

She laughed softly. Lehan looked at her, unsure how to respond. Then she noticed the shift in his expression.

“…Don’t tell me—you don’t remember that either?”

“What.”

“After the fight, when I went to the manager and asked to see you.”

Suddenly, a high-pitched ringing pierced Lehan’s ears and the world tilted. The ground beneath his feet seemed to collapse; he staggered forward, clutching himself. Edelis, startled, rushed to hold him up.

“Are you all right?”

“K-keep talking.”

“You’re not well right now!”

“No. Keep talking.”

His memory of the child who had come for him was still fogged, but snatches of their conversation surfaced.

– Why, out of all the gladiators, did you choose me?

– Because I liked you. I liked you more than the others.

– Fine. As promised, I recognize Lehan as your escort.

– Thank you, Father!

He had once believed those memories were simply buried beneath the chaos of his rebellion, or erased by the sheer weight of suffering.

“I’ll tell you later. Right now I need to call the court physician—”

“Keep talking! You came to me, and then what?”

His shout startled her. He hadn’t meant to raise his voice, but as the memories trickled back, anxiety gnawed at him.

“When I reached you with the manager… you were barely alive.”

“And then?”

“They hadn’t even treated you properly. You would’ve died like that…”

Her voice overlapped with the past.

– Well, he’s injured, so I can’t get the highest price. However, there were many eager to see him die… Quite a few lost money thanks to Lehan, you see…

– Whatever the price, I’ll pay it. Call out whatever number you want.”

Lehan looked into Edelis’s eyes. The voice of the child echoed again.

– First, let the count’s physician treat you.

“…You took me to the Count’s estate physician?”

“No!”

Not that? Then why did his memory say otherwise? The girl’s face remained blurred, but her voice grew clearer.

“I didn’t send you anywhere. I called the physician to come to you!”

At her words, his skull throbbed as if splitting apart. Edelis reached for the bell on the desk to summon the attendants, but before she could, Lehan clutched her tighter.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To call the physician! You look terrible—you might faint!”

His vision wavered, eyelids heavy as stone. He fought to stay awake, terrified of losing these fragile memories again.

And then, another image surfaced. The blurred girl holding back tears, staring at him. Her voice rang painfully clear.

– I will return. I promise

– No matter what happens, I will find you again.

That was his own voice—his younger, unbroken self, swearing an oath. He saw himself wiping away her tears.

– Edelis.

– I will come back.

Like a miracle, the fog over the girl’s face dissolved. Flowing golden hair, green eyes like fresh leaves—the same as the woman now staring at him in fear.

Edelis moved to reach the bell again, but he caught her hem.

“I came back, Edelis.”

His voice was swallowed by the frantic clanging she made to call for help. And with that final murmur, he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Lehan was seeing a memory he did not have. A dream, he soon realized. His younger self walked beside an unmistakably young Edelis along a lakeside, as she hummed a tune—the very song she always sang when things were hard. He hummed along, and the scene shifted: the two of them dancing under starlight on a terrace, hand in hand.

And finally, the memory of tearing himself away from her tear-streaked face, running without daring to look back, wiping his own tears as he fled.

When he finally pried his heavy eyelids open, a familiar ceiling greeted him. His body was sore, sluggish, unwilling to move. Turning his head, he saw Edelis asleep, slumped beside him.

“Edel—” His voice cracked, raw and broken. But she woke instantly, touching his face with trembling hands.

“Your Majesty!”

Her cry brought in the maids and the imperial physician in a rush.

“What in the world happened?”

“It’s been three days—three days you’ve been unconscious!” Edelis’s tears spilled as she spoke, leaving Lehan shocked. He had expected pain, but not to have been insensible for days.

“The physicians can’t even explain it. They don’t know why.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Sir Frache keeps saying maybe it’s because he struck you with his shield!”

“That’s… possible.”

His weak joke made Edelis strike his chest in anger.

“You can still joke?!”

She sobbed harder, scolding him, and Lehan stretched a trembling hand toward her. She grasped it at once.

“Edelis.”

“Don’t call me that… I can’t even be angry at a patient.”

“I remembered.”

“…?”

“Not everything. But enough.”

He had recalled the day they first met, and the painful day they parted. Clear as crystal now. But after marrying Edelis, no new memories had surfaced.

“Lehan… is that you?”

“If you mean the gladiator you saved—the one named Lehan—then yes.”

“Lehan!”

She threw herself into his chest. He, still weak, wrapped his shaking arms around her.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“…Edelis.”

“Yes?”

He looked at her, holding her hand tight.

“Back then, when you saved me… thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“I tried so hard to find that girl. To repay her.”

“You don’t have to.”

Her sharp reply made him shake his head.

“And then, I tried to forget. I wanted to love only you, so I forced myself to let go.”

“….”

“But it was you. The one I longed for all along—it was you, my wife.”

“You knew.”

Though she smiled, tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I knew even back then?”

“Of course. Don’t you remember that part either?”

He shook his head and drank the bitter medicine the physician handed him, grimacing at the taste.

“The night before… I was supposed to be taken to marry the Emperor, I planned to run away.”

The words nearly made him choke. The medicine burned his throat, but her confession burned hotter.

“…Run away?”

“Yes.”

She said it so simply, while his insides turned over. And the medicine’s potency was dragging him back into a haze of drowsiness.

“Until I wake up, don’t you dare go anywhere.”

“Stay here?”

“In the palace. No—inside Emerald Palace. Don’t even go to Ruby Palace.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She laughed, telling him to sleep, but his voice remained stern.

“Don’t disappear on me. Not again. Even if it takes ten years, twenty years—I will find you. Just try to run. You think I wouldn’t?”