Florian silently looked at the remnants of a man who claimed not even his shell remained.

Blake said nothing was left of him, but Florian didn’t think so. Florian had memories of love left. And the mercy and life he received from Bella. Not simply that his illness was cured, but a life given by her that he could never throw away now. Surely something must have remained for Blake as well. He just hadn’t realized it.

Ninety-nine summers past and one final summer. Both Blake and Florian were unable to escape the two women who had dominated their respective periods. But while Florian treasured those memories in his heart forever and used them as fuel to illuminate his life like a lantern, Blake seemed to be living a life buried in those memories with no future ahead.

Of course, Florian had loved the princess too. It was just that for him, Natalie was like a pure first love from his boyhood, while Bella was a complete love to whom he had given his body. At least, that’s how he defined his love. Of course, it had taken him quite some time to reach that definition.

‘But it wouldn’t be the same for Lord Rowell.’

Florian couldn’t know how Blake would define his own love. However, the man before him, rigid to the bone and steeped in military law, knew how to break but not how to bend. Once he decided something, it never changed, and it seemed he refused to acknowledge that his pure love had leaked out and somehow made him love another woman as well.

How pitiful. Florian genuinely sympathized with Blake.

But what could he say when the man himself denied it was love? Blake wasn’t a child, and Florian had no obligation to explain his own definition of love. If he said it wasn’t, then it wasn’t.

Blake, who had been muttering something with his head bowed, suddenly raised his gaze. He spoke as if trying to change the subject.

“Why are you here? Why bother coming right into the middle of the battlefield like this? From the looks of it, your illness has healed, so you could find easier work now.”

“I can no longer enter ladies’ bedrooms.”

Florian shrugged and smiled.

Ah, he had said his member wouldn’t rise for anyone but Bella. Blake frowned.

This, too, was like a curse. For all of them, other women no longer appeared as women, yet she had disappeared from before their eyes.

“Above all, I have no desire to enter another woman’s bedroom now. In the past, medicine was too expensive, and I couldn’t survive just by singing… But now I don’t need to buy medicine, so I don’t particularly need money.”

He had no family to support. Florian, alone in the world, was content as long as he didn’t go hungry that evening. And if he could sing about his princess, his goddess…

Florian continued, almost singing:

“I’m happy as I am. My life has been full of love. Even though we couldn’t be together, I held her in these arms, and by her grace, my life was saved. How could I ask for more than that?”

Blake stared at Florian for a long time.

He could not possibly think like Florian. How could one be happy when unable to be with the person they loved? He would give his life just to kiss the princess’s hand once more. But to the princess, his life wasn’t worth even that brief kiss.

“So you’re going to live in the past? Even if you never meet her again? You’re saying the memory of meeting her… of holding her… is enough?”

Blake laughed bitterly.

By that logic, he could have been satisfied just remembering the sight of the princess from afar in his childhood, going back to their first encounter.

“That’s nonsense.”

That’s why he had spent his life choosing the most dangerous battlefields to impress the Emperor. He had dedicated his life for that one moment when he might meet the princess again.

But Natalie had chosen a life wandering in unknown places after leaving the palace, and Bella… Bella.

When he closed his eyes, he clearly remembered what he had heard at dawn today. It was a report from a spy planted to monitor the political situation in neighboring countries. The informant had added it almost as an afterthought at the very end, as if not considering it particularly important.

He had lost his mind the moment he heard those words.

A safe delivery of twins…? She even bore that bastard’s children? After accepting me like that, after being in my arms so many times…

What flashed through his mind at that moment were those gray-blue eyes, cold as the winter sky. In a small hut at the northern edge of the world, where nothing but snow fields could be seen, the woman who had faced him with eyes that burned quietly amidst the raging snowstorm. That gaze that had driven him mad.

He had felt like going crazy when he heard she had married, but hearing she had given birth was more than he could bear.

Blake cried out with the anguish of someone vomiting blood.

“How is that possible? Every time I close my eyes, her face, her wet eyes, the feeling of our skin touching appears so vividly!”

“That’s precisely why. She appears whenever I close my eyes. Because she lives in my mind, in my heart.”

At those words, Blake pressed his lips tightly together. The expression on Florian’s face that reflected in his eyes seemed both smiling and crying.

Blake looked at Florian for a moment, then turned his head away.

“Fine, there’s nothing wrong with living while comforting yourself like that. If you’ve heard all you wanted to hear, now leave. I want to drink quietly alone.”

As Blake frowned, looking at the bottle he had thrown away earlier, Florian took out his instrument and spoke.

“Instead of that, wouldn’t you like to hear my song? It’s about Miss Carta, and I just completed it a few days ago. I’d like someone who knows her to listen…”

“…If you appear before my eyes one more time, I’ll put a bullet through that tongue of yours.”

Refusing to share memories of Bella, Blake staggered away toward the barracks. Florian watched his retreating figure for a moment, then humming his song, turned and walked in the opposite direction.

T/n: This chapter offers a fascinating contrast between two men dealing with their past loves. Blake remains stubbornly in denial about his feelings for Bella, even after three years, still trying to convince himself that he loves only the princess. His emotional blindness makes him perhaps more dense than many female protagonists we typically see in similar stories. ┐(´～｀)┌

Florian, on the other hand, has truly redeemed himself and found peace. There’s something bittersweet about his situation – his physical condition means he’ll never have a family of his own, adding a poignant dimension to his character arc. ( ╥ω╥ )

What makes this chapter particularly compelling is how it illustrates two divergent approaches to handling loss and unrequited love: Florian accepts and embraces his memories, finding joy in reliving the good times, while Blake remains trapped in grief and regret. He’s unable to move forward precisely because he refuses to acknowledge how deeply his encounter with Bella affected him.