Chapter 6

She found it hard to understand what she had just heard. The words saying she should marry him and love Raon carried a contradiction. It was almost as if…….

“I permit it. When I become Emperor, I will recognize the two of you as a lawful married couple. So for now, marry me.”

Chris did not want to marry Bersha either. Not Bersha, and not anyone else. But he had no authority to overturn the marriage with her. What his father had permitted him was only the handling of matters related to Stella.

The Emperor was hoping that, even in this way, Chris’s heart might ease. He believed that then Chris would return to how he used to be. Perhaps it was also guilt over having failed to let him protect Stella at the end.

But what was already meant to happen had happened. Chris would never be able to return to how he was before.

“I’ll make sure to speak properly to Raon as well.”

If it was something that could not be overturned anyway, then he intended to help these pitiful lovers. He had lost the person he loved and his heart as well, but the two of them still had each other. So their love, at least, had to be protected no matter what.

Leaving only those words behind, Chris left the room.

* * *

As soon as Raon entered the room, Chris said as if he had been waiting,

“It seems the wedding will proceed as planned.”

There was liquor set before him. It looked as though he had already drunk quite a lot. Chris held out a glass filled with alcohol.

“You should have a drink too.”

He thought Raon was as pitiful a man as himself. Without even having time to mourn the sorrow of losing Stella, he had to go through a wedding. More than that, all the preparations had already been completed. There had been no need to find a bride.

“Have you greeted Bersha?”

Instead of answering, Raon frowned. Chris had not truly expected an answer either, so he did not care much.

“Still, at least she’s alive for you. Isn’t that so?”

Lovers who were forced apart would surely be sad as well. But he believed it was still better than never being able to see each other again, as in his case. At least they still had a chance. Whether by running away or with someone’s help. To Chris, what mattered was that they were alive under the same sky.

“If Stella had been alive, none of this would have happened. Isn’t that right?”

Chris, having downed the glass he had held out in one swallow, muttered those words. Raon frowned again, for a different reason than before.

“I heard you gave an absurd order.”

Raon’s voice, as he questioned Chris, carried anger. But Chris, taking little sips of his drink, pretended not to hear.

“There was no problem with the poorhouse event. You know that, do you not? Then why did you give such an order…….”

“Then whose fault is it?”

At Chris’s question, Raon did not answer. His answer would hold no meaning for him. Knowing how much Chris had loved Stella, Raon tried all the more to understand him.

But this was not right. They were children who had done nothing wrong. The poorhouse event had been one arranged by the Imperial Family to put on display for the people of the Empire, and all the preparations had been handled entirely by the Imperial side. So if blame were to be assigned, it should have been asked of the people of the Imperial Palace, and of the Imperial Family that had planned this event.

“I punished the attendants who failed to protect her. I punished the Imperial physician who could not determine the name of her illness. I punished the maids who failed to notice her worsening condition in advance.”

Chris’s voice grew louder and louder.

“Everyone who failed to attend Stella properly has been punished! Then is it not only natural that those who failed to properly carry out the sole event of that day should also be punished!!”

Chris’s face had gone red, and the veins stood out in his neck. It was as if he were coughing up blood.

“Then what about me, who was there that day? And Bersha? You know best of all, don’t you, since you were right beside her.”

In a calm voice, Raon stated the facts. Judged that way, there was no one without guilt.

“And who is there to punish you, Your Highness, who remained at her side every moment that day?”

All the arrows Chris called punishment were perhaps, in truth, aimed at himself.

Yet even knowing that, he was turning away from it. And instead he was pouring his anger onto others. In a way that could never vanish, no matter how long he raged.

“Release them.”

Raon had to try to correct his own wrongdoing. It was also a sin that, while someone close to him was falling apart, he had sunk into personal grief and failed to set him right.

“I’ll at least make it so you and Bersha can be forever.”

At those sudden words, as if a small crack had formed, the mask Raon wore to feign composure slowly broke apart.

“I’m not marrying Bersha because I want to either. But it can’t be helped because of that damned law.”

Chris clenched the glass in his hand tightly. And then he poured the alcohol straight into his mouth.

“As soon as I become Emperor, I’ll change that law, so endure it only until then.”

To Raon, Chris’s words were sweet like sugar. But it was conduct that deceived everyone.

“……I refuse.”

“What?”

“We cannot break a law that has existed since the very founding of the Empire.”

It would be a lie to say he had not wavered. But it was a law formed over a long time. So that the high nobles who had seized power could maintain their authority. And after enjoying that power calmly atop such a foundation, to then change it however one pleased?

It was deceit.

“This is a letter Miss Kina Sennet asked me to deliver to you, Your Highness.”

Raon stopped himself from thinking further and handed over the letter from Kina that he had been carrying. It was a clear act of avoidance.

“I hope there will be no more innocent deaths.”

“Are you saying a letter like this is more important than your love?”

“……Your Highness, you are to become Emperor. If you go further, you will surely regret it later.”

Raon bowed and was about to leave the room just like that. At that moment, a glass flew at the door and shattered with a sharp crash.

“Don’t be prideful—take it when it’s offered.

Chris barked at him in a voice lowered by anger.

He was enraged by the foolishness of this man, who could meet the woman he loved whenever he wished, unlike himself, who could not see his beloved no matter how much he wanted to, and who even had a way, yet still refused.

Half-turning his body, Raon met Chris’s eyes for several seconds, then left just as he was. Even after Raon had gone, Chris stood glaring at the door.

‘It may spread to you, Your Highness.’

Stella’s lips, as she had said that, had been dry and parched, and her face had been white and drained of color.

‘Once I recover, I’ll come see you first.’

Stella pulled her hand from Chris’s grip and pushed his shoulder as he had bent down to match her eye level. There had been no strength at all in her hand, yet Chris was easily pushed back. Until the door closed, Stella, with that pale face, had been smiling at him.

“……I too, I too thought we would be able to meet again…….”

He lifted the bottle itself and swallowed the alcohol in great gulps, then slammed it down with a bang.

“I won’t create a second regret.”

The distant look in his eyes had already vanished.