Special Story 1.4

“Argh!”

But Leila, who was so fascinated by the wonders of the northern market, had been looking around in a daze and lost track of me. In her hurry to catch up, she twisted her ankle.

The two men walking with me rushed to her side.

“Are you all right, Lady-in-waiting?”

“Oh, yes. I’m fine.”

Leila felt her face flush and tried to hurry on, but…

“Eugh…”

Startled by her muffled cry, I ran over and knelt to examine her ankle. Leila jumped back, startled.

“Your, Your Majesty, now…”

“What? I told you not to call me that.”

I glanced around and chided her gently, and she stopped her attempt to flee.

“It seems like a light sprain, but you shouldn’t move. There’s a teahouse here, so one of you two stay and wait. I’ll go buy the flower seedlings quickly.”

At that moment, Cedric, who was quick to grasp the situation, raised his hand like an elementary school student eager to answer.

“I will go with Lady Ianster to buy the seedlings.”

Leila looked so pitiful. If Owen were to refuse her with some useless words, their relationship would become irreparable.

A conflict between the empress’s most trusted lady-in-waiting and the emperor’s most trusted knight was like the queen’s chief court lady and the king’s chief eunuch being at odds. It was quite a tiresome affair.

“Then, I will stay and look after the lady-in-waiting.”

I let out an audible sigh of relief at Owen’s words.

“Yes, alright. Cedric, let’s hurry.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“It’ll only take about an hour, so don’t wait for us, just go straight to where the carriage is.”

I left these words behind and, with a satisfied smile with the vice-commander, hurried away from the two. I was a little worried, but the weather was too lovely to give up this rare, lighthearted, and free outing.

***

Owen stared blankly at his master and subordinate as they walked gracefully away. However, he couldn’t leave the injured woman standing there.

“Pardon me.”

He quickly draped her arm over his shoulder and pressed his closed fist against her waist. He was too embarrassed to use his open palm to support her body.

Leila’s face began to turn a fiery red from the moment Owen took her wrist to guide her. Since childhood, she had tried her best not to show her emotions because of this chronic flushing.

Fortunately, there was a well-decorated cafe near where she had twisted her ankle. For some reason, Owen was reluctant to go inside and chose a seat on the balcony.

The cafe owner approached the two and offered them a menu.

“You’re in luck today. It’s a beautiful day, so we opened the balcony for the first time in a while. It’s the perfect romantic spot for young lovers.”

“Don’t say such useless things.”

Owen reprimanded the owner a bit harshly, wanting to spare Leila any embarrassment. She had been looking down and hadn’t said a word to him since before.

He ordered an appropriate menu and sat across from her. He secretly checked her ankle and saw that it wasn’t very swollen, but sitting there felt so awkward that he stood up.

“I’ll go to a nearby apothecary and get some medicine.”

Leila looked up to say she was fine, but the knight commander had already turned and was walking away. It made her a little sad to think he was in such a hurry to leave, as if being with her was so terrible.

Feeling uncomfortable, she didn’t drink the tea in front of her but just rubbed the teacup with her hands when a long shadow fell over her head. Leila looked up in surprise to see a strange man smiling down at her.

“My lady.”

When the man spoke, Leila put on a cold expression.

“What is it?”

The man who spoke was dressed in commoner’s clothes. He took off his hat and bowed slightly, then extended his hand and pointed to the opposite end of the balcony.

“That handsome gentleman over there is Rodrigo Hector, the second son of Viscount Hector, my master.”

“And?”

Suddenly, Leila started to feel afraid. In the South, she wouldn’t be so scared or wary of something like this. But this was the North, and she had heard many times that Northerners were quite rough.

“Our young master would like to offer you a cup of tea. Would you be so kind as to join him?”

“No. I appreciate the offer, but I must refuse.”

Her quick refusal made the man look troubled, and he took a step closer to her. Leila was intimidated by his presence and stood up abruptly, backing away. At that moment, she didn’t even feel the sharp pain in her ankle.

“Don’t be like that, just come with me.”

“What are you doing?”

Just as Leila’s body tensed up with fear, a familiar voice reached her ears.

Owen immediately came forward, snatched her wrist, and pulled her behind him as if to hide her. She twisted her injured leg again in the process, but she clung to Owen’s back and hid herself.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had company.”

The commoner who had approached Leila ran away at Owen’s imposing presence. Before he could even get to his master, the so-called Viscount’s son stood up and left the balcony.

It was only after seeing this that Leila felt the pain in her ankle.

“Ah!”

In the sudden situation, they hadn’t realized they were holding hands tightly. Owen put his arms out and supported her as if carrying her, leading her back to her chair.

“What happened?”

“It was nothing. The Viscount’s son wanted to buy me a cup of tea, and I was refusing.”

This was the first time the two had a proper conversation after knowing each other’s faces.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No, he wasn’t that rude. I just panicked because it’s my first time in the North.”

Owen looked into her flustered blue eyes and then shifted his gaze to her ankle. It hadn’t been very swollen before, but it seemed he had injured her ankle again by turning her around so roughly. The sprained area was visibly swelling.

Owen knelt in front of her without hesitation and gently placed his hand on her ankle.

“Ah!”

She tried to endure it, but a cry escaped her lips, and Leila quickly covered her mouth with her hand. But Owen examined her ankle with a demeanor as if he were touching the most delicate and precious thing in the world.

He applied the ointment he had brought from the apothecary and tightly wrapped a bandage. Each time he put pressure on her leg with the bandage, Leila had to do her best not to scream. The shame of a man touching her ankle was harder to bear than the pain.

The sun was slowly setting, and the appointed time was almost upon them. Leila’s mind was much at ease, as she felt that this man, who was doing his best for her injury, was not a ruffian after all.

“Will you be able to walk?”

“Of course.”

She confidently tried to stand up. However, her overworked leg did not move as she willed it.

“I don’t think you can walk.”

Leila felt like crying at Owen’s words. But she couldn’t stay here forever.

“I can’t make the Empress wait.”

She tried to move using one leg. The pain was excruciating, but she endured it. However, a man who had been through countless battles for a long time could not have failed to notice her pain right next to him.

Moreover, to Owen, this lady-in-waiting seemed like the most fragile human being in the world.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll carry you on my back.”

“What?”

Behind her surprised voice, Owen went in front of her and knelt down.

Leila found it surreal that his fine hair was fluttering in the wind. She closed her eyes tightly, but her hesitation didn’t last long. A lady-in-waiting never makes her master wait.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to impose on you.”

Soon, the empress’s most trusted lady-in-waiting was carried on the back of the commander of the Quinze-Nouais Imperial Knights, First Division.

Once she was on his back, Leila felt more at ease. She had given up, thinking that nothing worse could happen. Owen was trying to avoid consciously acknowledging the soft woman on his back by recalling the day he recaptured the fiefdom of Penn.

“Am I heavy?”

Just as he was replaying the moment he put a knife to the enemy general’s neck, Leila spoke in a voice that tickled his neck.

“What? Oh, no. You’re not heavy at all.”

“Even if I were, it wouldn’t matter. It’s all over for me now anyway.”

It was surprising enough that she spoke to him first, but she was talking as if she were grumbling. Owen thought it was rather cute. So, he, too, mustered up the courage to speak to her.

“What do you mean, it’s all over?”

Her heavy sigh kept bothering Owen’s neck.

“Sir Commander, you dislike me, don’t you? So, how terrible must it be for you to have me clinging to your back like this?”

“What are you…?”

“But it doesn’t matter anymore. Even if you spread rumors about me acting so vulgarly, I can take it all. Even if you point fingers and say you’ve never seen a noblewoman with such poor manners, I can’t do anything about it.”

Owen stopped dead in his tracks.

“What are you talking about?”

By now, they had walked to the road where the carriages traveled. Owen gently set her down on the ground and turned to face her.

“I’m saying that one more rumor won’t make a big difference to a woman with as many rumors as me.”

“What rumors… Surely you’re not talking about that incident where you had a crush on Cedric?”

When he directly mentioned the name, Leila couldn’t bring herself to look at Owen anymore. She answered irritably.

“What else could it be? Is that not why Sir Devrian dislikes me so much—because I had feelings for him? Is that not why you thought it was awful to even share a horse with me!”

It was true that he had lied to avoid having her on the horse with him. But to think that was because he disliked her… Owen was confused, but the lady-in-waiting didn’t give him time to think.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m going to spend my life serving the Empress by her side. So, whatever Sir Devrian thinks of me, I won’t care.”

“What do you mean? Do you still have feelings for Cedric—no, for Sir Duncan?”

Surprised by Owen’s words, she raised both hands and shook her head.

“What? What are you saying? Do you think I would have such thoughts about a man who’s already married? Do you really think I’m that unprincipled…”

But as they were talking, the carriage arrived in front of them, forcing Leila to stop talking.

“I also thought that…”

Just as Owen was flustered and about to reply, he saw the Empress and Cedric waving from a distance and approaching them. Owen, too, could no longer continue the conversation.

Cedric, who was carrying a bunch of things he had bought, sensed the strange atmosphere between the two as he got closer.

But the carriage door opened, and the Empress and Leila immediately went inside. The horses that Cedric and Owen would ride also arrived, so the four people heading to the ducal castle were each lost in their own thoughts.

***

For the past month, Adrian had pretended that nothing was different, but he felt that everything was becoming clearer. Now, he was certain.

The visions he saw every time he slept were not just simple dreams. No matter how much he tried to dismiss them as mere nightmares, such vivid and perfect sensations were absolutely not possible in the world of the unconscious.

In that place, he always had Claire’s name on his lips. He was clearly himself, but he was also not himself. The look in his eyes was something he, as he was now, could never replicate. A wounded, faded, and nearly empty gray-blue.

“Adrian.”

The Emperor was so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed Claire enter his office.

“What are you thinking so hard about that you didn’t even notice me come in?”

The Empress’s flushed cheeks were a lovely sight. So, the Emperor instinctively grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace. The faint sound of Claire’s laughter resonated through his head and chest.

“Did you finally get the flower seedlings?”

“Of course! Next time, you’ll see those flowers blooming all over the greenhouse. Let’s bring the kids next time too. I miss them so much.”

Adrian leaned against her and nodded. Thinking of the children made his heart swell with warmth. But then, Claire said something he hadn’t expected.

“I saw the sorceress in the market today. Do you remember her? The one we met on our first and last date in the capital. They said those people wander around like nomads, but I can’t believe she’s here in the North.”

“The sorceress?”

At first, the Emperor didn’t understand what she was saying. But he soon remembered the woman who had accurately foretold his and Claire’s destiny.

“She still finished her work early today. I was going to go say hello, but I just left. My lady-in-waiting, Leila, twisted her ankle.”

Claire continued to talk about the day’s events, but Adrian didn’t really hear the rest of the story.

‘A sorceress…’

***

Owen was constantly bothered by the fact that he hadn’t been able to finish his conversation with Leila that day. This was because he hadn’t been able to say that he didn’t dislike her. It was clearly his fault that she had misunderstood him all this time.

He had to apologize, but it wasn’t easy for a knight commander to privately request a meeting with the empress’s most trusted lady-in-waiting. And strangely, whenever Owen was in front of Leila, he couldn’t speak properly. Of course, he hadn’t met many women, but most women had a high opinion of Owen. He was a person who could deal with others naturally. Regardless of whether they were a noble lady or a commoner, he could maintain a smooth relationship.

At first, he had deliberately avoided her because he thought she might be uncomfortable due to the talk of marriage with Cedric. Since Owen was almost always with Cedric, this was a very natural thing to do.

But at some point, his heart would pound just at the sight of her shadow, and he felt a lump form in his throat, as if he had been caught stealing someone else’s food.

But he had to apologize. Because she seemed quite upset by his awkward behavior. And it was right to tell her that he didn’t dislike her or have any prejudice against her because of that incident. So, Owen decided to write a letter.

“Are you challenging someone to a duel?”

“What?”

Owen was so engrossed in writing the letter that he didn’t realize Cedric was standing so close to him.

“Did someone upset you? Your tone sounds like you’re trying to pick a fight.”

“Is… that so?”

Owen read over the words he had written after much thought.

“Hah.”

“Did you just sigh? Wow, I’ve never seen you sigh like that, Sir Commander. What kind of duel is causing you so much trouble?”

“It’s not that.”

Owen knew it wasn’t a good choice, but he told Cedric everything.

“Then why did you say the horse was at death’s door…”

“Because I’ve never lied before.”

“But Sir Commander, why are you so reluctant to be around the lady-in-waiting?”

“Me?”

“Yes. It’s obvious to everyone.”

Cedric had a truly bewildered expression. But what was even funnier was that Owen also didn’t know the reason.

“Instead of just worrying like this, just go meet her.”

“Now?”

“Yes, it just so happens that the Empress has many appointments with the nobles of the Archduchy today. The people here know the maid, Jenny, better than the lady-in-waiting, so Lady Leila probably won’t have to stay there.”

When Owen hesitated, Cedric pushed his back.

“Instead of writing such an aggressive letter, go and apologize directly. Tell her you don’t dislike her. It’s simple, isn’t it?”

Owen nodded and left the room with a more determined mindset than he had when he recaptured the Penn territory.

And when he sent a low-ranking knight with his message, Leila, whom he had expected to refuse, appeared before him quickly.

“I actually wanted to see you.”

Leila opened her mouth first, making his worries about how to start the conversation pointless.

“You did?”

Leila was wearing a light-colored ivory dress that went well with her light blonde hair, making her look quite pretty. Owen stared at her for a moment before quickly looking away.

“Yes, I was bothered by how we left things that day.”

Owen couldn’t exactly remember what he had said last. He was just concerned that she had misunderstood him.

“You asked me if I still had feelings for Sir Cedric.”

When he looked blank, Leila continued.

“I was in the middle of saying no when the Empress arrived, so… Anyway, I wanted to make that part clear. I have absolutely no, not even a tiny bit, of affection for Sir Duncan.”

Her words that she had no remaining feelings for Cedric strangely made Owen feel elated.

“Did you come all this way just to hear me talk?”

When she gently chided him for acting even more foolishly than usual, Owen finally remembered the reason he had come to see Leila.

“I… came to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I seem to have caused you to misunderstand me.”

Leila waited calmly for his next words without pressing him. Owen took a breath again and slowly continued.

“I do not dislike you, Lady Leila, for having considered a marriage proposal with Sir Cedric Duncan. And I will absolutely not spread any strange rumors. You did nothing to be ashamed of.”

When he finished speaking, he looked into the woman’s eyes, but she showed no change in expression. But soon, Leila let out a small laugh.

“As people say, Sir Devrian is indeed a great knight. Did you come here to comfort me because those words bothered you? Then I should apologize too. I also thought you weren’t a very nice person. But not anymore.”

“No, I didn’t just come here to comfort you. I truly came to apologize and tell you the truth…”

“Sir Devrian.”

Leila called his name with a serious expression.

“If you don’t dislike me, then do you like me?”

“What?”

“If not, then why did you act that way? That behavior can only be explained by one of those two reasons. And no matter how I think about it, there’s no reason for you to like me, so from my perspective…”

“I like you.”

“What?”

When she looked up at him in surprise, his face was brightly lit.

“After hearing what you said, I understand now. I wasn’t acting that way because I disliked you, but because I was awkward, because I was constantly conscious of you and it felt overwhelming to get close to you.”

“So… you like me?”

“Honestly, I didn’t know. No, I still don’t know well. I’ve never felt the emotion of liking someone. But one thing is for certain. If my behavior was due to one of those two reasons, it was definitely not because I disliked you.”

Leila was left speechless by the unexpected confession.

“Yes, that’s right. My heart beats irregularly when I get close to you. I feel an unease that I don’t feel with anyone else. So, you are a special person to me.”

The more he spoke, the lighter Owen felt, and the heavier Leila’s heart became. He paused for a moment, but she had no idea what to say.

“I’ll be going now. I’m sorry that I came to apologize but only left you confused. But I am a person who believes that truth is the most important value in life. So, if my actions were rude, I apologize for that as well. Please forgive me.”

Owen gave a perfect, knightly bow, as if making a vow, and immediately left.

As he turned to leave, a long smile hung on his face. He hadn’t known all this time. The reason he wanted to be away from a woman as much as he wanted to be close to her.

The reason he had acted so unlike himself was because she was different from everyone else. Knowing this made him feel at ease and unburdened.

But Leila, who was watching Owen leave, was not in the same state.

She had tried so hard to maintain her composure all this time because of her severe blushing, but today, her face and probably even her toes must have turned red.

And strangely, the area around the departing Owen began to sparkle and shine.

***

The emperor went to the market with only Cedric in tow. He asked where Owen was, and since Cedric was unusually evasive, he didn’t press him either. The knight commander was weak at lying, so he was certain to blurt out where he had been today as soon as Claire asked.

“Cedric, have the other knights wait at the entrance of the market.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Cedric was also curious about the emperor’s intentions, but it was clear that having those burly men with them would surely interfere with the market vendors’ business.

In the market, with just the two of them, the emperor took Cedric to a certain tent in the center. It was a tent he had seen yesterday when he went to buy flower seedlings.

Adrian hadn’t even intended to come here. But in last night’s dream, he saw something he shouldn’t have seen. It was the same place again. And the black-haired woman was sitting on a chair, looking intently at something.

Now, she no longer felt like a stranger to the emperor. He didn’t want to admit it, but he even found himself looking forward to meeting her.

The emperor approached, but the woman didn’t notice. Feeling that she was unaware of his presence, Adrian gathered his courage and moved closer. And when he looked closely, he saw she was crying.

“Seyoung!”

He heard that man’s voice again, and the woman, called Seyoung, looked up. And the moment he thought their eyes met, the woman called his name.

“Adrian, what do I do… Leave!”

He wanted to think it wasn’t true, but it was definitely his name. And the woman tried to go outside to find the man who was calling her.

Adrian reached out, wanting to grab the woman who was going to meet him. But as she passed him and went toward the door, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw her in the mirror.

In the mirror, she had black hair, but she was clearly not the foreigner. She was Claire. Claire Quinze-Nouais, the woman who now bore his family name.

“What brings you here?”

Adrian was jolted out of his nightmare by Cedric’s voice. The emperor sighed with a determined expression and entered without answering. Cedric also followed him in silence.

Even in the middle of the day, a woman sat in the dark tent, puffing on a pungent water pipe.

The woman looked at him for a moment, then her eyes widened, and she prostrated herself before the emperor.

“How did Sette come here?”

The emperor, who had been called by a strange name, sat across from where the woman had been sitting.

“I came to find out something.”

She quickly sat back down on her chair and said urgently.

“I, I am not a great sorceress. How could a person who begs for a living by telling cheap fortunes like this possibly answer the emperor’s questions?”

“I don’t need such words. I will be the judge of that.”

“The only reason I could foretell Your Majesty’s fate is because of the blood of Sette flowing in your veins.”

“I know. So just tell me what you see.”

Cedric tilted his head. What in the world could the emperor of Quinze-Nouais seek to learn from a tattered woman in such a shabby place?

The woman nodded. Then, she habitually held out her hand.

When she suddenly held out her hand, Cedric reached for his sword.

“50 Sat.”

“What? What Sat?”

Cedric shouted in disbelief at the sorceress asking for money, but the emperor stopped him and ordered him to give her a coin.

“Well, the price is fixed, so even for the emperor…”

“Your Majesty, why on earth are you here…”

As he placed the coin in the sorceress’s palm, Cedric couldn’t contain his curiosity and tried to ask the emperor. But as his finger touched her palm, a chilling sensation made Cedric flinch and take a step back from the sorceress. And he noticed that her eye color had changed.

“Sorceress’s blood. The blood of a sorceress flows in you.”

Even though she was speaking disrespectfully to his lord, Cedric was so startled that he could only blink.

“Wait outside.”

When he heard the emperor’s voice, he barely managed to collect himself and obey. As Cedric lifted the tent flap to go out, a light that didn’t match the darkness inside filled the space and then disappeared. Left alone with the sorceress, Adrian looked into her eyes and spoke.

“My mother was the last descendant of the sorcerers.”

The sorceress Adrian was talking about was different from the woman in front of him now. She was the last descendant of the sorceress family recognized by the temple of the Quinze-Nouais Empire, closer to a saint than a sorceress.

“Dream… reality. One soul, two bodies. A love that crosses boundaries… Ugh.”

The sorceress, who had been muttering incomprehensible words even as Adrian spoke, rolled her eyes back and returned to her original state. Then, she bowed her head before the emperor again.

“Your Majesty, this is not something I can handle. Please retract your command.”

“Han Hyuntaek.”

Her face was filled with terror at the name that shouldn’t have come from the emperor’s mouth.

“H-How did you know that name?”

“Black hair, black eyes, a foreigner. A world beyond the boundaries.”

“Your, Your Majesty.”

“But that’s not what I want to know.”

As the emperor’s silence lengthened, the pitch-black fear on the sorceress’s face slowly faded. And she slowly looked at the face of the strongest man in this world. The man she met again was an absolute ruler, but also just a young man hungry for love.

“Then what do you want to know?”

It was only after meeting the sorceress that Adrian clearly realized what he wanted.

He was just anxious. The fact that she might one day leave him again and go back to that world. And he was beginning to vaguely realize it.

The feelings he felt when he looked at the black-haired woman in his dreams were the same as the feelings he had when he looked at Claire. So, he couldn’t pretend not to know that the black-haired foreigner was the woman he loved so dearly, even if he wanted to. And that the soft voice with which she called that man was the same as the one with which Claire called him.

He was deeply afraid that Claire would leave him.

When the emperor didn’t answer, the sorceress straightened her face and gave him a calm look.

“Even if it were, would anything change?”

“What?”

“Even if Sette came from beyond the boundaries, could you harbor any feelings for her other than love, Your Majesty?”

Adrian couldn’t say anything. Could his feelings for Claire be anything other than love?

“By the same logic, you are also a person who came to her from beyond the boundaries.”

Suddenly, the emperor realized. The thing he thought hadn’t happened might have actually happened.

“The world is never on a parallel line. You, as a descendant of a sorceress, should know that best, Your Majesty.”

She reached out and boldly took the emperor’s hand. And then she brought it over her crystal ball.

“Don’t wait for time that will never come again.”

When he touched the sorceress’s transparent ball, he heard his late mother’s voice as if by magic. His heart crumbled at the sound of her voice. It was the very sentence she used to repeat and read to him as she stroked his head while he lay on her lap until he fell asleep. And then, a multitude of realizations flooded his mind.

Claire, who had suddenly changed one day. Her actions, like a puzzle with missing pieces, had a reason. She was so afraid of him that she would try to run away. All these things began to fit into his life.

“Oh, Adrian and Claire. How pitiful.”

In his realization, the black-haired foreigner was looking into a glowing, rectangular box and feeling sorry for them.

“Seyoung, where are you, Cha Seyoung?”

Then, the man’s voice came, and the woman put down the box and disappeared from in front of him.

Everything rushed into Adrian’s mind like a storm, neatly piling up in order.

Adrian then realized he was crying. It was because all the stories that Claire had to endure alone were so pitiful.

The emperor took his hand off the crystal ball and stood up. As he left the tent, tears no longer flowed from his eyes.