While standing there, she felt a constant tension in her heart. There was nothing to disrupt this marriage, yet she was inexplicably nervous. Dana Rowen stood with a firm expression, focusing on the priest to calm her nerves.

She believed everything would end well. Today’s wedding would conclude smoothly, the reception would proceed without a hitch, and everything needed to be wrapped up perfectly.

The priest indicated it was time to exchange rings, and the servants brought them forward. The groom, with a calm demeanor and eyes lowered, slipped the ring onto Dana’s hand. It reminded her of the day he had placed a ring on her hand before.

Dana, maintaining her composure, placed the ring on Kaiden’s hand. The ring Kaiden wore was crafted to match hers. She observed the tiny aquamarine set in the ring on his hand, concealing her peculiar feelings.

Next came the vow exchange. As Dana repeated the priest’s words and pledged her vows, she felt a slight pang in her heart. However, the divine beast that had granted her this opportunity was a creature forged from the breath of the gods, so she hoped the gods would understand everything that arose from the beast’s power. She internally vowed to use this precious opportunity to bring even a little value back.

‘Yes.’

This marriage was such a process. The man standing next to her would also lead a more meaningful life. Not a life where he would remain unrecognized despite his achievements or be ignored by his lord even if he risked his life in the face of war, but a life befitting his abilities. For him too, this marriage would be a step toward his future.

* * *

Throughout the wedding, Kaiden Leonas was lost in complex thoughts.

Except for the childhood he couldn’t remember, he had known from his earliest memories that he was different.

He only remembered the name Kaiden, having no surname or parents, and was discovered by a monk and raised in a northern monastery. Among the mischievous kids at the monastery, he was the best fighter.

To drain the troublemakers of their energy, paladins would periodically come to offer sword training as a service. It was called training, but it was really just using up energy to play. Thanks to a paladin who took a liking to him and recommended him, he got the chance to go to a larger monastery in the capital and properly learn swordsmanship. That’s how he first picked up a sword.

He was faster than his peers and even older kids, and soon there was no one in the monastery who could match him in sparring. The paladin who taught him regretted that Kaiden couldn’t become a paladin due to the lack of divine power.

Nevertheless, thanks to that paladin’s recommendation, Kaiden became a squire for a noble family near the capital. It wasn’t a particularly prestigious family, but it had many knights and many squires who followed them. Most of the squires were composed of affluent commoners or nobles, and some had been squires for a very long time.

In that process, Kaiden realized that those boys were no different from the other kids at the monastery. Even the knights were not much different.

He watched the knights spar and practiced with wooden swords with the squires, realizing that the whole process was meaningless. There was nothing more for him to learn from it, and it all felt like a waste of time.

‘If I want to become a knight, I can do it anytime.’

Therefore, he lacked motivation. There was no reason to do it now, and he could pursue it whenever he wanted, so there was no problem in delaying. He was confident he would be recognized whenever he decided to step up.

He didn’t fear failure or know the feeling of frustration, and even his humble origins were not a disadvantage. He was sure that if he wanted to, he could immerse himself and achieve his desired results at any time.

Thus, when a knight who disliked this arrogant squire tried to teach him a lesson, only to suffer a humiliating defeat, a noble who witnessed the scene with his master recommended Kaiden for a position at the royal palace. The master couldn’t overlook the squire’s defiance against a knight and let him go, but instead, the acquaintance helped him find a job.

It was a stroke of luck, but Kaiden attributed it to his abilities and wasn’t particularly grateful.

That’s how Kaiden ended up as a sentry at the royal palace. While guarding the palace, the day of the princess’s birthday banquet arrived, and he was assigned to guard the banquet hall. And then he saw the princess. She appeared like a shining star in his heart, which had been devoid of light.

When he thought about wanting the princess, he didn’t consider it difficult. Since he deemed it necessary, even though he was an orphan of humble origin without a surname, he believed he could earn a title by demonstrating his abilities. His life had unfolded very smoothly, even without wanting it, and he was confident things would go well.

He had returned to the north, where earning merit was easiest. With his experience at the royal palace, joining a noble family as a squire and distinguishing himself in monster hunts to become a knight wasn’t difficult. But…

Since he had desired the princess, his life had become a series of failures.

The year he earned the title of baron for his achievements in monster hunts, Kaiden learned that the princess was engaged to a prince from the Heinz Kingdom.

At that time, he thought it was still alright. He had time and plenty of opportunities to earn a better title in the future.

A year passed, then two. Time continued to slip by. Despite his achievements at every opportunity, King Taras never granted Kaiden another title. Glory and rewards were never his again.

Kaiden spent his days slaughtering crazed monsters, finding and destroying their eggs, killing the swarms that hatched, and being drenched in their black blood.

When he was exhausted and weary, he dreamed of the princess. He dreamed of tasting her lips and stealing her breath. In his dreams, he held her delicate body and felt her skin. He became a raging beast, crushing her white body beneath him.

In those dreams, he marked the princess’s body as his own. She accepted him, smiling with dimples and clinging to him with her pale hands.

When he awoke from those dreams, Kaiden was filled with unfulfilled desire. He couldn’t remember the expression on the princess’s face when he kissed her lips in the dream, or what it felt like when he took her breath away. He couldn’t recall how she looked when he entered her or what sounds she made.

Thinking about the princess’s body, which he couldn’t feel or even imagine, he grasped his *rousal. If he were to enter her, what face would the princess make? What sounds would she utter?

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember how the princess felt or cried in the dream. All that remained was the act of forcibly releasing his pent-up desire. Every time he saw the evidence of his solitary release, Kaiden felt emptiness. The ugly shape and smell, no different from a beast’s.

He felt like he couldn’t reach the princess because he was a vulgar man who couldn’t control himself. It seemed as if the king knew this and was preventing him from approaching her.

Nonetheless, his heart grew impatient, and his patience ran out. He couldn’t bear it any longer.

The desire, strengthened by time, turned into longing, and that longing became an obsession. By the time he was confused about why he truly wanted the princess and to be by her side, three years had passed, she had come of age, and another year went by.

In the spring, just as the cold was receding, Kaiden heard the news that the princess was marrying a prince from a neighboring country. He heard it helplessly through the mouths of other knights.

The princess’s wedding was celebrated grandly. Even with his insignificant status, he was still a noble, so he got the chance to attend the wedding. Quietly entering, he saw the princess standing beside the prince.

That day, Kaiden saw the princess for the first time in a very long while. She seemed to have grown slightly from the image he remembered, standing beside the prince with her cheeks flushed. Adorned with decorations set with bright red jewels, her shining blonde hair was beautifully braided, and she wore a vivid red dress. Standing like a picture with the blonde prince, they exchanged rings and vowed eternity as if it were the most natural thing.

Watching this, Kaiden realized.

It was defeat, frustration, and an insurmountable wall.

The image of the princess, embedded like a nail from just one glance, and the time spent yearning yet unable to approach her. The reality struck him harshly that for exactly two years and two hundred forty days after her engagement to the prince, the princess had been dreaming of and waiting for her marriage to him.

He imagined the princess, with her innocent face ripened to the color of mature fruit, waiting for her union with another man during that time. While he dreamed and yearned for union with her, she had lived with plans to be embraced by the prince.

His hands started trembling. Once this wedding ended, the princess would nestle under the prince’s embrace, just as he had only imagined in his dreams, and spend her future with him. She would bear what was called noble seed, build a family, and live in the splendid, magnificent royal palace…

In that dreadful imagination, Kaiden’s face twisted. He knew that once today’s sun set, she could no longer be his star. He realized she would be uprooted from where she was embedded, leaving that place empty. No, in truth, it had been that way from the beginning…

A wound came, as if a rough, unsharpened blade was forced in and tore his heart open. From the empty space, jealousy, anger, futility, and sadness poured out endlessly. Everything he had held back while yearning for the princess’s presence flowed without stopping.