Chapter 2.5

Without her veil or the bride’s crown, Livie stared at the man and asked, 

“Who are you?”  

She clutched her disheveled hair and asked the bare minimum question in a situation where anger or logic had long vanished.  

A grave silence followed.  

Despite his rough gestures, the man’s face was excessively delicate and beautiful. It seemed as fragile as a glass dish that would shatter with even the slightest impact.  

And then it happened.  

“You… don’t remember me?”  

His violet eyes seemed to cloud, and then tears began pooling at the corners.  

Livie stared in disbelief as the tears didn’t just pool—they fell, one after the other.  

They were tears.  

The women seated at the front began whispering louder.  

“Oh my, he’s crying.”  

Even from afar, the man’s tears were shocking. So for Livie, who was witnessing them up close, it was beyond words.  

Dressed in black armor, tall enough to overshadow her, the man shed tears like drops of ink. Livie was struck by an uncanny sense of familiarity.  

That overly radiant smile, violet eyes, raven-black hair like crow feathers—and the habit of crying at the drop of a hat.  

A faint memory she had long forgotten floated to the surface, like mist clearing away. Slowly, a name came to her.  

“Boris…?”  

The man, who had been shedding tears endlessly, suddenly raised his head.  

When his name came from her lips, he smiled with overwhelming joy.  

“Yes? You remember, don’t you? You couldn’t have forgotten me, Livie.”  

He stepped forward.  

“Is it really you, Boris?”  

She repeated, not even noticing that he had grabbed her hand.  

“Yes, it’s me. I’ve returned as promised.”  

Livie instinctively stepped back, trying to avoid him. But Boris was faster.  

He grabbed her firmly and whispered in her ear.  

“As a Duke.”  

The low whisper froze her in place for a moment.  

“What…?”  

“I’ve become a Duke. So now you can marry me.”  

“…”  

She couldn’t say a word and simply stared at the man’s face with a blank expression. She barely understood what he was saying. 

What had he just said?  

“Boris, it’s nice to see you. It really is, but, you see…”  

Boris leaned closer, as if he didn’t want to miss a single word she was about to say.  

As a result, Livie tilted her head back even further to look up at him. That was the only way she could see even the tip of his chin.  

Thankfully, he lowered his face closer to hers.  

“Go on.”  

His whisper carried a strange sense of pressure.  

‘I’m in the middle of getting married right now.’  

Because of that pressure, she couldn’t bring herself to say it outright. As she avoided his piercing gaze, her eyes fell on the crown that had rolled away.  

Following her gaze, Boris turned his head and nodded as if he understood.  

“Is it because you’re attached to that? Forget it. I’ll buy you a new one—bigger and more beautiful.”  

Without giving her a chance to respond, he walked over and stomped on the crown with his boot.  

“I can have as many made as you like.”  

With a ting, ting, the embedded jewels popped out.  

Then, the villagers, who had been sitting quietly like corpses cursed in a tomb, suddenly sprang to their feet.  

They rushed forward, scrambling over one another to grab the jewels.  

One man, clutching the largest gem, had his hand bitten by a woman, while another woman snatched the jewel away. Soon, the crowd became a chaotic mass.  

“So come with me, Livie.”  

Boris returned and stood before her.  

Livie trembled as she looked up at him, sensing the ominous signs wrapping around her entire body. It was an instinctive reaction.  

Something was off. He kept repeating the same words over and over, like a broken clockwork doll.  

The view beyond his broad shoulders felt distant, like a dream from the night before—as if the two of them had been dropped into another dimension.  

“Huh?”  

His urging gaze brought Livie back to her senses.  

“Well… um, I have to get married.”  

“Alright, then do it.”  

He nodded as if he understood everything.  

“Do it with me.”  

Because of the shouts of people scrambling to pick up the scattered jewels, Livie couldn’t hear Boris properly.  

Even if she had heard him, she would have thought she misheard.  

“What do you mean… do it with you?”  

“Marriage.”  

His voice was cheerful. His expression was cheerful. It was as if he alone possessed all the brightness in the world, smiling radiantly.  

Livie suddenly wondered if Boris had a peculiar definition of the word “marriage” in his mind.  

“Boris, this dress I’m wearing… it’s a wedding gown. See? It’s white, isn’t it?”  

Livie raised her arm to show off the luxurious embroidered sleeves made of golden thread.  

“This was made with the fabric sent by the Duke who’s going to be my husband.”  

Livie shook the long sleeves and observed his expression.  

However, Boris’s face showed no reaction. He simply nodded as if he understood her words.  

“I told you before, didn’t I? At weddings, the bride wears a dress like this and makes a sacred vow of marriage.”  

“I know.”  

Boris finally smiled. His tear-soaked violet eyes reflected Livie’s image.  

“You look so beautiful, Livie. Like an angel. Or maybe a white butterfly.”  

He gazed at her with an enchanted expression.  

His eyes fell on the pearl necklace wrapped around Livie’s neck, and his gaze twisted slightly, as if he found it displeasing.  

“But Livie, doesn’t it feel suffocating? Like it’s constricting your body. Should I help you?”  

“Yes, of course… Oh, no.”  

Livie reflexively answered honestly but quickly covered her mouth. It was too late.  

Without hesitation, Boris grabbed the long pearl necklace and snapped it apart.  

Snap.  

The pearls spilled from the broken string, rolling across the floor. Once the string was broken, the pearls continued to pour out nonstop.  

“Oh, oh no…”  

Livie didn’t even have time to panic over the pearls spilling everywhere.  

The villagers rushed to collect the pearls rolling on the floor.  

Some slipped and fell while trying to pick up the pearls they had stepped on.  

“Oh dear.”  

Even Livie’s friends busied themselves picking up the pearls that rolled toward them, hiding them in their sleeves.  

Watching all this unfold, Livie turned sharply toward Boris.  

“What are you doing?!”  

“Isn’t it better this way?”  

He asked with a bright smile.  

Indeed, with the pearls gone, her body felt much lighter. But Livie tried to ignore that sensation.  

“Better? What’s better, you fool? This is a gift! Do you even know what it means to damage it?”  

Livie wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him. Of course, she couldn’t.  

Even if she managed to grab his collar, she’d end up like a cicada clinging to an old tree.  

“I’ll buy you something better.”  

He replied cheerfully once again.  

“…”  

At this point, everything was completely out of place. Livie calmed her racing heart and spoke firmly, one word at a time.  

“Boris, today, I’m having my wedding here.”  

“Yes.”  

“And because of you, the wedding has been interrupted.”  

“Yes.”  

“Outside the chapel, the knights of the Resette Dukedom are waiting for me. Once the wedding is over, they will escort me to Duke Resette’s castle.”  

She explained step by step, and he nodded obediently, like a docile ox.  

“I know, Livie.”  

Then, he tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear. When she flinched at his touch, Boris withdrew his hand.  

Livie tried to ignore the fleeting disappointment that crossed his face.  

It felt strangely like abandoning a puppy whining in the rain—something deep inside her chest kept prickling.  

“So go back now. I’ll finish the ceremony.”  

Livie deliberately spoke more coldly.  

“Alright.”  

Oh, finally, he understood.  

His surprisingly simple answer made her sigh in relief.  

He’s not as crazy as I thought. Yes, he’s Boris—‘that’ Boris.  

The Boris who would do anything she asked, who would die for her words.  

Livie’s nose tingled with emotion.  

“If that’s what you want.”  

It was at that moment that Boris’s voice took on an unsettling tone.  

He turned his gaze away from Livie and stared directly at the Bishop standing on the platform.  

The Bishop alternated his gaze between the two with a bewildered expression.  

In front of him, people fought over jewels, while right before his eyes, a man and woman seemed lost in their own world. Together, they created the most bizarre scene he had ever witnessed.  

Though he had officiated countless weddings, this was his first time experiencing something like this.  

“Please officiate the ceremony.”  

Boris turned toward the Bishop and hooked Livie’s arm around his own.  

“Now.”  

His violet eyes gleamed strangely. The Bishop flinched at the look in his eyes, which were entirely different from the way he had gazed at Livie earlier.  

“Boris? Why the officiation…?”  

Livie couldn’t immediately grasp the situation.  

“You said you wanted to get married.”  

“…What?”  

At that moment, a monstrous gem the size of an eyeball flew through the air.  

Boris quickly caught it and tossed it backward, as if throwing a coin into a wishing fountain.  

The people chasing it groaned like zombies who had lost their minds and tangled themselves together once more.  

Boris grabbed Livie’s chin and turned her face toward him, away from the bizarre scene.  

“Livie, you said you absolutely have to get married today.”  

“I did… yes.”  

“Then you can do it now, right? Isn’t that so?”  

With that, he turned his piercing gaze back to the Bishop.