The atmosphere made me drawn into an illusion, into the distant days of my youth.
The night shimmered under the gaze of twin moons…
The garden rippled in the scent of blooming flowers…
The world only had the two of us suspended in time…
…It was awfully vivid.
Was he remembering the same memory like I do? Could he see it now, the little girl from those forgotten days, standing grown before him?
I wanted to ask. At the same time, I couldn’t bear to. What if this memory was mine alone, foolishly clung to all these years? I had never cherished it hoping for reciprocation. But to hear and confirm it from his lips, I lacked the courage.
So I pulled myself from his touch and stepped back, putting distance between us. I couldn’t meet his gaze. My head hung low when a soft question drifted down.
“Your cheeks are flushed. Are you unwell?” A shadow passed over me. He tilted his face to get a better look at my face while his large hand came to rest gently on my forehead. My body froze, only my eyes daring to move. “You don’t seem to have a fever…” His deep, sharp eyes narrowed, as if estimating my temperature.
“…Someone might see us.” Only my lips moved, while terror rooted the rest of me from reaching for him.
The whisper barely passed between us. And he laughed low in his throat.
“There’s no one here.”
His crimson eyes deepened and glimmered brightly. The thick floral scents clung to the air, so heady, so dizzying, that it haze the moment into something dreamlike.
Yet the heat of his palm against my skin was too real, too paralyzed, made it hard to breathe.
“Wait.” With a gasp, his hand pulled away. I bit my lip, oddly disappointed by the sudden loss of warmth. “Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I chose this place to be alone on purpose.”
I forced down the yearning stirring inside me and my noisy mind. I held out the book with a brisk hand. I needed to leave this garden. Before something irrepressible poured out from within.
“I am very grateful for Your Highness’ consideration, I was able to read it first. I will hand it over to you now.”
But rather than take the book, he tapped the leather cover lightly with slender, pale fingers and asked, “How was it? Worth the read?”
“It was very interesting. There was a lot of content I hadn’t seen in other books.”
“No other book has a more detailed record of this extinct race so thoroughly.”
His words implied he knew the contents well, which only confused me. But he turned around and walked, forcing me to quickly follow half a step behind. My plan to just hand over the book and leave was heading in a different direction, but I didn’t mind.
No, I couldn’t mind.
Walking beside him again… was something I had longed for, dreamed of, for so many years.
“Are you adjusting well to life in the palace?”
“I’ve received a lot of help. I’m settling in fine.”
“You’d better. You were the most talked-about guest at the last banquet, they should be taking good care of you.”
His teasing cut through my tension, and I allowed myself a faint smile. This heart beat a little faster tonight.
“That day was refreshing in many ways. His Majesty’s behavior was one, but your boldness stole the show.”
“It was reckless foolishness, born of ignorance.”
“For someone called ‘The Woman Wreathed in Flower and Blade’ you’re quite humble.”
Bathed in moonlight, his handsome face held a hint of mischief.
“…You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”
“I am.” He didn’t even try to deny it. Then suddenly, he halted in his tracks. “And you promised to call me Kael. But you haven’t.”
In the Imperial Palace, calling a prince’s name so casually is forbidden. He knew that. And yet he pinned me with a stubborn insistence stare. I offered to bow my head deeply in return.
“I do not deserve to speak Your Highness’ name with such ease.”
“So now we’re hiding behind titles? I didn’t take you for someone so old-fashioned.”
“If upholding the laws of the palace is considered old-fashioned, I will gladly be so.”
A soft chuckle resonated in the air. I straightened my head as he welcomed me with a smile—a big one, definitely enjoying this.
“I see. That’s how you acted with His Majesty that day, too, wasn’t it?”
His crimson eyes, so contrasting in the dark, curved slightly like a smile. His lips murmuring, “So that’s how it was,” with a smile that reached his voice.
“If you command something else of me, I will follow the command as long as it is within my power.”
At my words, the corners of his mouth arched up again. His high cheekbones cast deep shadows on his smooth cheeks.
“Anything?”
His husky voice sank low into the shadows of the garden. A slow hand reached out.
“If that is truly your wish…”
His fingers swept my hair, gentle but firm. And yet it felt like it skimmed over my tender skin, arousing every sensation. His touch rooted me in place.
Then, from those sculpted lips came words that made me doubt my ears. When I realized I hadn’t misheard, I blurted out, panic rising.
“There must be someone better suited than I. Please, if you would—”
“No. There is no one else.” His voice was final. But then he softened his voice. And in a more gentle voice he coaxed me as he leaned in and planted a kiss on my hair, “My one and only command is… you, the fairest among the proper, the loveliest of all the so-called old-fashioned women to accept my wish.”
Those eyes, a shade of deep red, red as forbidden wine, stared straight into my soul.
There must be something in them no one can resist.
“—Len. Len!”
My vision shook. I dragged my gaze back from the distance it had wandered to find Sylvia shaking my shoulders.
“Can I close the window?”
“Oh… ah, yes. Go ahead.”
“What’s wrong with you these days?” Her pretty eyebrows were narrowed, a mixture of disapproval and concern etched her face. “Something happened, didn’t it?”
“No, nothing.”
“Oh, yes it did. You think I don’t know you?” Her voice was sharp, certain she wouldn’t let this drop.
However I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I just shook my head awkwardly, and as expected, her eyes narrowed.
“Wait. Did you…?”
“Did I what?”
“Met him?”
“…”
“You know, that man. The one from the palace. Your destined man. You finally saw him again, didn’t you?”
My destined man? When had she ever come up with a name like that on her own?
When I failed to deny it, Sylvia’s face lit up with confirmation. She hopped closer, peppering me with questions.
“You never told me who he was! When, where, how did you meet again? No, back up. Start from the beginning. How are you two even connected?”
“Sylvia—”
“No, before that! Just tell me who he is, at least, like his name! Please?”
There was no real reason to stay silent. I wasn’t deliberately hiding him. But I’d never spoken of this to anyone so I didn’t know where to begin, or how. More than anything, I was shaken. The fear that I had vaguely felt had returned, now in a physical form, on the night I had reunited with him. What if it happened again? Like before. When I was just a little girl, trembling in a shabby inn, asking the same question over and over again.
“…Okay, okay. I won’t push. So, stop looking miserable. You’re not cute when you’re serious.”
Noticing the heaviness in my face, Sylvia backed off. She always did. As always, she let me win in the end. I was grateful and guilty at the same time.
“But I won’t wait forever, alright? Let’s see… Prince Rodelwyn’s welcoming banquet is in two months. I’ll get my answer by then, got it?”
Her knack for lightening the mood always made me smile, even now. So I played along, shifting the subject.
“By the way… how long was the third prince away again?”
“Hmm, about a year? Not that long.”
“He’s returning quickly.”
That casual remark made Sylvia’s expression stiffened with implication. In a hush voice she responded, “That means the Crown Prince selection is finally starting.”
“Really?”
“With the third prince coming back, and even the second prince, the one obsessed with military campaigns, is staying in the palace. It’s definitely happening.”
Now that I thought about it, the selection was the main topic of conversation everywhere in the palace.
This unprecedented national event had begun preparations even before the princes were chosen, but nothing had ever been officially announced, even though the princes had been in the palace for over a decade and were now grown men. For a long time, people could only guess. Only the Emperor knew the timing and method, as he had the final authority on all procedures related to the selection.
So the court was rife with rumors, but Sylvia believed the palace’s unusual tension this year meant something had changed.
“Once the selection begins, the lines will finally be drawn. The noble houses are evenly split right now. No one’s ahead, no one behind. It’s impossible to tell.”
“…”
“But, I’d like to vote for the first prince. What about you?”
I gave no reply. I turned my head toward the window, where night fell deep and quiet, and finally rose to my feet.
“Going for another walk?”
“I’ll be back.”
“Want me to come with you?”
Sylvia’s voice edged with worry from behind my back. Consciously I hid my face and let the darkness beyond the room swallow me whole. “No. Go to bed without me.”
The forest path behind the Empress’ palace lay quiet as ever, cloaked in shadows. Though there wasn’t a single torch lit along the way, I’d grown familiar with the trail over time, taking advantage of the soft gleam of moonlight overhead.
After walking for a while at a slow, steady pace, at last the outline of the outer palace came into view. Beyond a small footpath, tucked into the stone wall, sat a discreet side door. The room at the end of the long corridor was my destination.
I knocked lightly, twice.
Moments later, the door creaked open, and golden light spilled into the dark hallway through its narrow gap.
“You’re late tonight,” he said. “If your intent was to make me wait, you’ve succeeded.“
Standing with his back to the light, tall and still, his frame cutting a dark figure against the glow of the room behind him.
The first prince of the Imperial Palace,
Prince Kaelzeno.
Comments