Chapter 3: Reunion in the Forest (5)
“This is the place?”
“Yes. There’s no one inside. However, it clearly shows signs of being lived in.”
“…”
The house in the village had also felt lived-in. So it was strange that both were used simultaneously.
Unless someone had been hidden here.
As the thought struck him, Terian’s grip on the tiny blue garment tightened.
What is this feeling…?
Then, something unusual caught his eye.
This little shack perched on the mountainside backed up against a wild hill. The area should’ve been nothing but overgrown grass, but a faint path peeked through the brush.
It could barely be called a trail—more like a path worn by animals—but Terian found himself unable to look away.
A gentle breeze stirred the trees along the trail, their leaves rustling as if beckoning him forward.
“Your Majesty?”
When Terian suddenly moved, the captain of the guard followed in confusion.
Absentmindedly, Terian tucked the child’s clothing into his coat. The sun was still high—there was plenty of time to search the mountain interior.
“Two will follow me. Five, sweep the approach from the capital to this area. The rest, remain here and stand by.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“We’ll take the lead.”
Understanding his intent, the captain quickly moved ahead. One knight stepped even farther in front, beginning to climb the slope.
As they entered the verdant forest, thoughts of Larie surged through Terian even more intensely.
“We’ve found something!”
Before long, the knight who had gone ahead shouted out. The captain of the guard flinched, then turned to see Terian nodding silently.
The two of them swiftly ran down the narrow path. It opened onto a wide clearing where a man was being pinned down by a knight.
The man, who appeared to be a free citizen, suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Rahel! Run!”
Terian froze mid-stride.
The name was different, but something about it struck him as familiar.
Drawn by the presence he felt at the edge of the clearing, he slowly turned his head.
And there—emerging from a small shack, clutching something dear to her chest—was someone running.
The back he had seen countless times in dreams for the past two years.
“Larie.”
He had found her at last.
A strange euphoria rippled through him, electrifying every fiber of his being. Her name, which had been buried deep in his chest, spilled effortlessly from his lips.
She stopped suddenly, startled. Whipping around in alarm, the movement sent her headscarf fluttering to the ground.
Silver hair tumbled free, cascading down in shimmering waves.
Terian stared, utterly transfixed, not even breathing.
At last, their eyes met—her emerald gaze locking with his.
“Larie.”
A look of sheer shock spread across her face. It was a strange feeling. Larie, who was always so calm, wore such a raw expression now.
It was unfamiliar… but not unwelcome.
There she was—alive, vivid, and no longer a ghost—in the middle of a dense forest.
“…Hhk.”
Realizing who stood before her, Larie clutched what she held in her arms even tighter. Terian didn’t have time to see what it was before she turned and tried to flee into the forest.
“There’s something over here!”
But the clatter of armor rang out in the direction she was heading. Knights—ones Terian had sent earlier—emerged, blocking her path.
Biting her lip and staggering backward, Larie had no choice but to retreat into the small house she’d burst from—a frightened creature returning to its den.
“……”
The moment she vanished from sight, a fierce thirst surged through Terian.
As soon as she turned her back on him again, his body was already moving, almost flying toward the house where she had disappeared.
“Your Majesty, allow us to—”
“Stand down.”
The captain of the guard, who had just finished subduing the shouting man, hurried after Terian, but with a wave of his hand, Terian dismissed him.
Standing before the small, tightly shut home, he took a deep breath.
She was just beyond this door.
The shack in front of him was an odd structure. At first glance, it looked simple—almost makeshift—but there was something peculiar about it.
As he drew closer, Terian noticed that the building’s weight was supported by nearby tree trunks, almost as if the trees had grown there on their own, lending their bodies to hold it up.
This meant the house had been here for quite some time.
It had a strange, mystical charm—not shabby, exactly—but the thought of Larie hiding in such a place didn’t sit well with him.
“……”
About to say something, Terian only opened and closed his mouth a few times before slowly knocking on the door.
Naturally, no response came.
He entered, and the moment he crossed the threshold, he felt like an intruder.
A weighty stillness hung in the air.
His eyes quickly swept across the homey checkered tablecloth and the few dishes laid out.
There was a single fireplace, modest and suited to the small home. At the sight of it, Terian couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
Last winter, in the faint hope of tracing any sign of Larie, he had pushed for these very heaters to be distributed across the empire. Using that as a pretense, he had ordered an extensive census of actual residents—any anomalies would prompt a visit from his soldiers.
The narrow forest path leading here had gradually widened
The narrow trail that led here had gradually widened as it went. By the time it reached the clearing, it looked unmistakably like a path meant for human feet—as though someone had been deliberately concealing the entrance all along.
Whatever that house in the village had been, one thing was certain: this was where Larie had been hiding all this time.
Countless of Terian’s soldiers had combed the area around this village. The fact that it wasn’t far from the capital only made it more absurd.
Then, from deep within the small home—from the tiny bed at the far end, one just Larie’s size—her voice trembled out.
“……Your, ……Majesty.”
In that moment, a strange hollowness swept over Terian.
Next to her lay an infant’s cradle. The bundle she had been clutching so protectively since earlier… was far too small.
As her silver hair spilled across the air like moonlight through the forest canopy, the tremor that had invaded Terian slowly trickled down to his feet. His gaze, like a dropped leaf, fell gradually toward the floor.
In that distant, fading sensation, Terian had to ask her—as if reading from a faded page of an old book.
“How old is the child?”
At the sound of his voice after so long, Larie flinched.
She thought, for a moment, she must have misheard. But no—he was there, like a scene out of a painting, standing in the forest. Even after all this time, his appearance still defied belief. Perhaps he looked slightly thinner, but otherwise unchanged.
Clutching Rui more tightly to her chest, Larie felt her pulse throb. Rui, blissfully unaware of the storm around them, had been peacefully sleeping for a while now. That, at least, was a small mercy.
Terian’s face was rigid with fury as he looked at her. That cold gaze she remembered all too well—and angrier than she remembered.
She had heard rumors that he would soon marry another noblewoman. So why had he come looking for her?
She had fled the moment she heard someone was tracking her, but now that she stood before Terian, her mind raced. Perhaps… this wasn’t as dire as she thought. After all, whatever this was, he couldn’t have come to reclaim her out of longing.
There must be another reason.
Now she worried about Rui—his imperial blood—but by a stroke of luck, he looked much younger than his age. Above all, being found by Terian was still far better than being discovered by her family.
Swallowing dryly, Larie finally opened her mouth.
“……He’s six months old now.”
“…….”
At her words, Terian slowly raised his head to look at the child. The tiny face peeking from the swaddling cloth was unmistakably small.
She had disappeared two years ago. If the child were his, he should be at least over a year old by now.
Terian didn’t know much about child development, but even he could tell that the infant in her arms wasn’t that old.
Something crumbled inside him. A collapse that sounded like a scream from his very soul, unraveling him thread by thread.
He didn’t even know what he was hoping for, but he prayed anyway.
Please… let there be some explanation.
“……The child’s surname?”
“That….”
At Terian’s low, cracked voice, Larie reflexively flinched. She hadn’t reacted like this in years, but just having him in front of her threatened to drag her back into the past.
Still, even as she trembled, Larie forced herself to straighten her back. The small warmth in her arms gave her courage.
Rui didn’t have a surname yet. Larie had rejected the name Tromperie—she couldn’t pass it on. And Terian, the child’s father, had said he didn’t want Rui. She couldn’t give him that noble name either.
“He doesn’t have a surname.”
Judging by how he hadn’t immediately tried to drag her away, maybe he needed something from her—perhaps her signature on the divorce before an international marriage could be formalized.
The more she thought about it, the less threatening the situation seemed. Terian was always composed. And now that he was emperor, if he’d come to accuse her of a crime, he wouldn’t be speaking so mildly.
So if she could just get through this moment, she and Rui could finally live freely.
But Terian’s reaction was… strange.
“Ah.”
Letting out a quiet exhale, Terian found he couldn’t even begin to express the storm raging inside him.
It felt like he had been cast into the middle of a vast, empty sea. Or like he had finally climbed a mountain only to be seized by a god and hurled back down to earth.
The little house in the forest pressed in on him, as if threatening him. The scent of the woods filled his lungs with sharp coldness, stabbing at his chest.
There was no place for him by her side. Just like there was no place for him in this small home.
But then again, that had already been true from the moment Larie fled from him.
“I see.”
“…….”
Terian, steadily drowning in his own silence, finally lifted his gaze—eyes gone hollow, like something inside him had died. The look on Larie’s startled face pierced him like a spear.
It was as if she had never even considered he would come for her.
With clenched teeth, he spat the words like his very soul was being torn out.
“It’s been two years since you left me…”
He couldn’t—wouldn’t—lose her again.
“…….”
“Our child’ is six months old, then.”
Even if it meant becoming an intruder in her life.
“……What?”
Larie’s eyes widened at the unexpected phrasing. She had deliberately implied the child wasn’t his, yet the way Terian had referred to Rui was oddly… possessive.
She lifted her head in a panic to look at him—his expression was darker, more ominous than before.
And then, he growled an order to the knights, biting each word.
“Escort the Empress with care.”
Her heart dropped at the title.
As if the floor had fallen from beneath her, despair surged up from her heels.
“N-no, Your Majesty—”
The moment she addressed him, Terian’s brow furrowed in disapproval.
Even now—after two years apart—Larie still wouldn’t say his name properly. As if some invisible line still lay drawn between them.
Striding forward, Terian grabbed one of her arms and pulled her roughly into his arms. The trail behind him was dark with the weight of rage and self-loathing.
“Let us return, my lady.”
That damned distance she insisted on keeping—
That invisible line she had carved between them—
He wanted nothing more than to shatter it completely.
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sahari
Ella es el ser más consecuente entre sus pensamientos y sus acciones, pero él todavía no entiende porque Larie actua asi. Cuando cualquier persona con sentido común lo haría.