Chapter 70

“Hehehe.”  

Adelina, standing on the deck looking at the night sea, let out a sly sound and lifted the corners of her mouth.  

<Fraud. I’m taking the mirror. – Contract terminated, Wife.>  

Adelina had secretly taken one of the mirrors from that secret space and left a letter scribbled on very fine paper in its place.  

‘I finally figured it out! I discovered how not to break the mirror!’

The mirror, wrapped in the cloth Lexion had used, did not break no matter what Adelina said.  

Just in case, she didn’t dare change the cloth and stored it deep in her bag.  

In short, she could now freely enter the mirror!  

Of course, she still wasn’t sure how to come out.  

‘Can I just come out if I want to? Or… do I need Lexion?’  

Well, if she can’t come out, she’ll just live inside the mirror.  

Adelina hummed as she watched the white waves break against the ship.  

“Your Highness, aren’t you cold? The wind is much chillier by the sea.”  

Seyra draped a triangular shawl over Adelina’s shoulders and turned her head in the direction of Ernst, now out of sight.  

“I’m fine. It’s fascinating and nice since it’s my first time on a ship.”  

“Pardon? Didn’t you take a ship from Petrus to Ernst?”  

When Adelina took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sea breeze, Seyra looked at her curiously.  

Oops…  

“Haha. I couldn’t see anything back then because I was hiding. This is my first official voyage.”  

Adelina awkwardly patted Seyra’s back a couple of times.  

“Now that you mention it, it does feel a bit chilly. Could you bring me a cup of warm milk?”  

She turned Seyra, who was still looking at her suspiciously, away to another task.  

‘Phew… I need to be more careful from now on.’  

With a small sigh, she turned her body towards the direction Seyra had been looking, where Ernst lay.  

‘Lexion… you sly fraud!’  

By now, he would have read the letter she left.  

Would he be angry? Would he have torn the note to shreds?

Surely he wouldn’t be so dumbfounded as to cry.

“He didn’t even say that words… bad guy…”  

She hadn’t wanted much…  

Just that words everyone else had heard…  

‘Does a real confession make it real? Then, will I start glowing or something?’  

What does it mean to be real…  

Remembering the god’s words made her feel even more despondent.  

As Adelina grasped the railing and lowered her head, her silver hair, made more mysterious by the moonlight, slipped down on both sides.  

‘Even being reborn this beautifully, I guess I’m not worthy of hearing those words…’  

Words that others hear just by being born… she hadn’t heard them in two lifetimes.  

‘Is it a gust?’  

When a sudden strong wind blew, causing the shawl to flutter, Adelina crossed her arms to hold it tightly.  

Clack-. The unfamiliar sound that sent chills down her spine made her body freeze.  

A black-gloved hand approached from behind, tidying her wind-tousled silver hair.  

“You must keep your promises.”  

The glove that had brushed her neck transmitted its warmth as it held Adelina’s hand.  

“Lexion… how did you get here…”  

Creaking, Adelina turned her stiff body to face him, awkwardly smiling at the figure cloaked entirely in black.  

+++

‘Persistent guy! He followed me all the way here!’  

When Hailyn suggested departing today, she had silently cheered as they left.  

“I missed you.”  

“The ship has only been sailing for six hours.”  

She feigned a stern expression, softening her voice as if scolding a child.  

‘Should a king wander alone like this in such dangerous times?!’  

When she glanced up at the sky, a wyvern hid its body in the pitch-black sky, circling at a fixed distance.  

“Really?”  

Moving two steps under his guidance, the moonlight shone a bit brighter.  

‘Am I… seeing things?’  

The moonlight reflected in the waves against the ship shimmered mysteriously on Lexion’s face.  

“You left this behind.”  

The deep voice carried by the sea breeze wrapped around her heart.  

Lexion pulled his hand from his pocket and placed Rose’s necklace in her palm.  

“Lexion. This is…”  

“It’s yours.”  

Lexion gently folded Adelina’s hand, offering a lonely smile as he put the black whistle hanging around his neck in his mouth.  

“Lexion, wait a moment.”  

Adelina hastily removed the whistle from his mouth.  

‘Get angry instead! Drag me to bed instead!’  

She hadn’t written that letter to see such a smile.  

“Come back to me. That’s all I need.”

‘Why… aren’t you angry? Don’t you hate me?’  

Adelina, embraced by Lexion who spoke desperately, only nodded her head slightly.  

She accepted his lips full of longing.  

Holding Rose’s necklace tightly, she wrapped her arms around his neck.  

Even as the wyvern’s wings stirred up strong winds several times, she didn’t let go of his lips filled with regret.  

“I will definitely come to get you. Wait for me, my wife.”

Lexion lightly touched her swollen lips and vanished into the night sky on the wyvern.  

“Your Highness, you’ve moved.”  

“Huh?”  

At Seyra’s timely voice, Adelina, who had been staring blankly at the sky, turned to look at her.  

“Finish this and go inside. You’ll catch a cold.”  

Adelina accepted the milk Seyra handed her.  

Having been outside for quite some time, the milk was already cold.  

‘Was I enchanted by a merman…’  

Adelina clutched Rose’s necklace in her hand, pressing it gently against her left chest.  

+++

Adelina went on deck every day to gaze at the moon.  

Fortunately, the sea remained quite calm on the way to the Tiola Empire.  

Unlike the other maids who suffered from seasickness starting the second day, Seyra, unusually lively, stayed by Adelina’s side.  

‘Surely, there must be a way to return to the original world.’  

As she watched the moon change shape each day, she fell deep into thought.  

‘A war will start… I don’t want to get caught up in a war… I’m not even truly from Ernst…’  

Above all, she was in a situation where she was about to graduate high school. She had already been accepted into college through rolling admissions based on her grades.  

• You’re going to college? You?  

That was the first thing her aunt said upon hearing she got into college.  

• Yes. I can use government scholarships or take loans for tuition… 

• That’s all debt.  

• Hmph. You’ve been living like a beggar in our house, so I guess you’ll continue living like a beggar.  

• Hey. Once you graduate high school, don’t even think about coming near us.  

Her aunt’s sons warned her not to even dream of getting tuition money.  

• ‘Hey! Once I graduate high school, I’ll leave this house for good! I’ll never come back!’  

In a few months, she would be able to leave her aunt’s house and live freely on her own.  

It would be tough, but she planned to work part-time, buy paint, and try painting.  

‘The moon was really strange that night. A super blood moon with a total lunar eclipse.’  

It was an unusually large and red moon.  

The news had been buzzing about it being the first perfect total lunar eclipse in three years, and observatories were live-streaming the cosmic show.  

‘… Total lunar eclipse!’  

At the sudden thought, Adelina widened her eyes and observed the moon more closely.  

“Your Highness, the night breeze is getting chilly. Let’s go inside now. You have such low body temperature.”  

Seyra took off the blanket she had wrapped around herself and draped it over Adelina’s shoulders, but Adelina, seemingly not feeling it, continued to stare at the moon.  

‘Yes! The total lunar eclipse! The super blood moon total lunar eclipse! That’s the day I can return to the original world!’  

She was convinced.  

Unless it was such a special day, when else would such a magical thing happen!  

‘I should ask the god! The total lunar eclipse was mentioned in the encyclopedia! It said it would be next spring!’  

Adelina, trying to suppress her excitement, turned to look at Seyra.  

She wanted to share the joyous news with someone, but it was unfortunate that there was no one to share it with.  

“Seyra, why are you shivering so much?”  

“No, I’m not cold at all.”  

“Not cold, huh…”  

Only then did Adelina realize that Seyra had wrapped the blanket around her shoulders.  

Even though she herself was sensitive to the cold…  

“Let’s go inside. You’ll catch a cold.”  

After glancing once more in the direction of Ernst, Adelina went below deck.  

Lexion wouldn’t come anymore anyway.  

+++

Adelina, wrapped in her blanket, turned on a light stone and unwrapped the cloth around the mirror.  

[Do you want to be real?]  

As soon as she lifted the mirror, the god spoke to Adelina with the same voice as before.  

‘God! God! I figured it out! I’m so smart, right!’  

Like a student eager to shout the correct answer and receive praise from the teacher, Adelina couldn’t hide her excitement as she called out to the god.  

[You figured it out?]  

What is this? Was the god flustered?  

‘Hmph. They say even a school dog recites poetry after three years. Maybe spending a year with the mirror made me as smart as the god! Outshining the master!’  

Adelina praised herself abundantly, even patting her own head.  

‘The total lunar eclipse! The total lunar eclipse next spring! If I enter the mirror then, I can go back to the original world! Right?’  

She awaited the god’s praise.  

But instead of the expected answer, the god asked something completely unrelated.  

[Lexion Ernst is quite handsome, isn’t he?]  

‘Pardon?’  

Why… is the god doing this? Did an error occur in the god’s system?  

[Ernst is nice to live in because it has distinct four seasons.]  

Excuse me… god. It’s actually hard to live with distinct seasons.  

You have to buy clothes for each season!  

It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter!  

[Ernst has a lot of minerals buried, you can make money just by digging the ground.]  

Excuse me… god… were you always this materialistic?  

Why suddenly talk about money?  

Where did the god who talked about true love go…  

‘The total lunar eclipse! The total lunar eclipse next spring! If I enter the mirror then, I can go back to the original world! Right?’  

Adelina repeated the correct answer.  

‘God?’  

The god neither answered nor asked any more questions.  

+++

The port of the Tiola Empire, located on the eastern coastline of the vast continent, was always bustling with ships coming from various countries.  

“There it comes.”  

As the ship from Ernst cut through the calm waves and entered the port, Prince Isya and Jaeyon stepped out of the carriage.  

To greet Adelina, hundreds of knights lined up on both sides, and maids from the imperial palace stood between them, holding baskets full of flower petals.  

“Lady Adelina. It’s been a long time.”  

Jaeyon ran to Adelina as she disembarked from the ship.  

The sun shining directly made him squint his eyes into crescent shapes, giving a friendly smile.  

Seyra, with a graceful yet stern expression, approached Adelina and bowed to him.  

“She is the Queen of Ernst. Please address her properly.”  

“Oh, I see. My apologies, Your Highness. I was so glad to see you that I slipped up.”  

Jaeyon, still smiling with his eyes, extended his right hand, and Adelina extended hers to shake it.  

“It’s been a while, Jaeyon.”  

At the changed tone and title, Jaeyon relaxed his eye smile, raising his eyebrows briefly before lowering them.  

“I will serve you during your stay.”  

Jaeyon, instead of shaking hands, lifted their joined hands in a different direction.  

As Adelina’s eyebrow twitched slightly in surprise, he raised the corners of his mouth and pressed his lips gently to the back of her hand.  

‘Adelina, you’ve become even more desirable. Coming to me, on your own.’  

In that case, he must not miss this opportunity.

This golden opportunity created by Hailyn must be seized.