Melissa begged while crying like a sinner.
Then suddenly she looked up. She was holding Reizen’s large trembling hand silently. When their eyes met, a tear drop from his blue eyes fell onto the back of Melissa’s hand.
He frowned deeply and forced a smile.
“It’s okay. Really, it’s not your fault… Melissa.”
Only after hearing these words did Melissa realize.
She had desperately wanted to hear these words. Through all the time she had endlessly endured.
Reizen faced Melissa with an expression of holding back tears that was pitiful to see. The Melissa reflected in his eyes wasn’t a perfect being. Even if we share our hearts now, someday we might grow disappointed and drift apart.
But why? After being so hurt by humans, she still desperately yearns for the warmth of another human. Though knowing she’ll get hurt if she has someone precious, she keeps wanting you.
She’s scared you’ll leave.
Our future is uncertain and variable so it’s scary to start. And yet… she needed you enough to want to be together even if it meant enduring all the pain.
This time Melissa moved first to embrace Reizen’s head. The man awkwardly held in her small arms laughed with a deflated sound.
But seeming not to dislike it, he held onto her arms without moving for a while.
Reizen’s voice rang out choked up.
“Let’s go back. Let’s go to our home.”
Our home. How joyful it is to have somewhere to return to.
Melissa hazily nodded.
Reizen lifted her up blanket and all.
After wrapping her tightly in a black robe on top of the blanket, Reizen carried her into the carriage. The entire journey he kept her on his lap, never letting her go.
Melissa liked this warmth.
It had a soft and gentle fragrance.
She fell into a deep sleep like a baby in Reizen’s broad embrace.
* * *
That night, she had a long dream.
Mel.
Fifteen-year-old Melissa peeked her head out wearing a yellow dress. The girl who lived in the rose garden on the path to the temple greeted her.
Unlike Melissa who was clean without a speck of dirt, that girl was shabby. Without even one proper piece of clothing, she wore a tattered dress full of holes.
That girl introduced herself as a commoner living in the rose maze.
Melissa nodded. It was the time when she would pack food in a picnic basket to bring for her every day.
The noble ladies advised that one should never enter the rose maze alone since vulgar commoner stock lived there.
But to Melissa, it seemed the noble ladies were the ones using vulgar words.
While they mocked and disliked the people living in the rose maze, they were also disgusted knowing their husbands frequented there.
To Melissa, it was quite ironic.
The men who cheated on their wives seemed to live just fine, enjoying hunting and joking with her grandfather, while everyone else writhed in pain.
And their wrongdoings became arrows aimed at those living in the rose maze, painfully piercing only the roses that were tied down like targets unable to move from their spot.
Selheim trampled his siblings from the rose maze whenever he could. The nobles kept visiting while despising the place, and their wives were desperate to snap off the heads of the roses that had bewitched their husbands.
Ridiculously, the rose maze was near the temple. So they were all on their way to pray at the temple.
Their bright faces acting as if committing all sorts of sins in the rose maze would be washed clean by praying at the temple started becoming uncomfortable at some point.
It was also why Melissa began speaking less after coming of age.
Mel. You don’t have to come here anymore.
That girl whose face she couldn’t remember smiled hazily as she spoke. But Melissa knew she would starve during harsh winters, so she deliberately visited more often.
And she witnessed that scene.
A noble lady pushing that girl into the lake.
It was a cold winter. The large lake in front of the rose garden wasn’t completely frozen, but was half frozen. Moreover, that girl was malnourished from not eating well and would cough up blood from illness. It meant she didn’t have the strength to struggle enough to save her own life.
Melissa took off her dress right there and jumped into the lake.
In her childhood years, she would sneak off to play by the river avoiding Miss Miellin.
She would catch fish or swim secretly with Rael there, getting whipped when caught, but she never knew those mischievous acts would help save someone.
Melissa frantically swam and reached her hand down into the lake. That girl was sinking in the water without any strength.
Small air bubbles rose pitifully surrounding that girl’s face.
Melissa grabbed her hand.
From then on it required all her strength.
Though she tried hard to kick her legs and rise up, it was overwhelming to handle two bodies alone. She was running out of breath. The air bubbles that had been around that girl now bubbled up around her too.
She felt like she would lose consciousness.
As she desperately reached out her hand like that, someone grabbed Melissa’s arm.
She couldn’t see who it was.
After regaining consciousness in front of the lake, there were only that girl and Melissa.
Melissa listened to that girl’s heartbeat as she lay there. Though her whole body was frozen stiff and cold, her heart was beating faintly.
“No, don’t die…”
Melissa knelt before that girl crying.
That girl’s small chest moved with wheezing breaths. She smiled gently and brought her hand to Melissa’s cheek. Her hand was so cold like ice that it was impossible to think she was alive.
“I’ll call someone, I’ll get someone to help! I’ll get, someone…!”
That girl shook her head and smiled while lightly stroking Melissa’s left arm.
You are such a kind child.
No. That’s not true.
Melissa shook her head. But that girl quietly spoke while placing her hand on Melissa’s chest. That girl’s voice spread through Melissa’s whole body like vibrations becoming deep resonance.
Child with a tragic fate. You are destined to be torn apart by numerous beasts.
The fifteen-year-old Melissa had somehow become her twenty-three-year-old self. That girl said.
I’ll give you a gift. So the beasts won’t tear apart your heart…
Melissa drew in a sharp breath and shook her head. No. Don’t die. She pleaded to the commoner girl whose name she didn’t even know. That girl whispered one last time.
Now, wake up.
Melissa.
That voice made her whole body tingle. A huge wave passed through Melissa’s entire body. Pain arose throughout her body.
Melissa’s eyes flew open.
Strangely, her eyes were clear after waking from the dream.
It was early morning. She could hear unfamiliar birdsong. The tone was clear and pure.
A gentle breeze blew through the slightly opened window. As she took a deep breath through her nose, she realized for the first time how soft air could be.
It felt like the impurities floating in her head had disappeared. As she turned her head to the side feeling refreshed, there was a man lying in the same bed.
“Reizen…”
It was unfamiliar seeing him sleeping peacefully with his upper body undressed. She had never seen him properly asleep before when they slept together previously.
Had the side effects of the stigma healed? Or had he really found another alternative to replace the side effects?
“…”
His blonde hair fell messily over his straight forehead. The golden hair swaying gently in the breeze was finer than she expected.
‘I want to touch it.’
Below his long eyelashes lay faint shadows.
This face that seemed only frightening even when smiling due to the subtle pressure he gave off when his eyes were open.
But like this with his eyes closed, he wasn’t scary.
Below the disheveled blonde hair was a high bridge of his nose. Like a sculpture deliberately exaggerated by an artist trying to express ultimate beauty. Every line of his face was delicate and beautiful.
Without realizing it, Melissa carefully reached out her finger.
When she brushed aside Reizen’s hair as he slept deeply, his clear forehead was revealed even more.
His skin was extremely white without a single flaw. Following down his nose, his lips were moderately full and red. When he wasn’t making any expression, the corners of his mouth formed a straight line.
‘I didn’t know.’
Unlike his beautiful features, his jawline was manly and firm, and his protruding neck muscles caught her eye. It was somehow a part that showed his wild charm.
Come to think of it, while this man looked slim and tall from afar, up close his body was thick and good in a way that showed how much he had trained.
Sometimes when she touched him, she would think how strange it was that his whole body was like stone.