As if knowing Louise’s feelings, the boy slowly reached out to her. His hand, which seemed about to touch her platinum hair, carefully brushed the ribbon of her bonnet.

‘Wh-what if I suddenly change my mind and whip you! Why are you approaching me like this!’

Louise moved a bit away from the boy who was acting innocently, forgetting that he had been groaning in pain just moments ago.

Of course, she had no intention of harming him. She simply couldn’t believe that her family had abused the boy in front of her.

‘You’re pretty. He boasted that his daughter was as pretty as a doll, and it’s true.’

‘I… am family to the people who hurt you.’

But the boy showed interest in Louise, reaching out his hand to her through the iron bars. It seemed her family had talked about Louise herself while abusing the boy all this time, but why…

The wounded boy seemed completely fearless. He might have been a bit scared when he came in with her father, but not at all in front of Louise.

‘You’re the only one who has come here and said I was pitiful. Will you really whip me too, Princess?’

‘Absolutely not, but….’

The boy seemed to smile slightly. So Louise relaxed a bit and approached him again.

She wanted to treat the wounds covering the boy’s body, but the situation didn’t allow it. All she could do now was tear up her petticoat to stop the bleeding of recently inflicted wounds.

And she stared at the boy and the environment surrounding him for a long time.

It could only be described as devastating. She couldn’t understand what enjoyment her family found in doing this.

‘Could you possibly come to see me every day?’

The boy, who had been quietly waiting for Louise to stop his bleeding without making a sound of pain, pulled at the hem of her dress with a voice full of expectation.

She couldn’t understand why he would want to see her again, but Louise couldn’t refuse the request of the poor, pitiful boy.

‘I will if I can. But my coming often might actually be bad for you. Because my father wants me to treat you like they do.’

‘It’s still okay. Just, come to see me. This place is too… lonely.’

The boy was so expectant that she was cautious about giving a definite answer. Instead of answering, Louise folded the pieces of her petticoat, which were covered in red blood, small enough to hide them and stood up.

But the boy held onto Louise tightly like a child, not letting her go, and made crying sounds.

Louise found this sight too pitiful and heartbreaking. She couldn’t refuse the request of the boy who was crying to her, the daughter of his enemy, saying he was too lonely.

‘Do you pity me?’

Pity. Louise began to pity the boy as soon as she saw him. Anyone who saw the boy in front of her would find it difficult to harbor any other feeling.

But Louise deliberately hid her feelings.

‘I don’t pity you. I was told that’s not something to be done carelessly.’

‘I like pity too. I wish you would pity me.’

As if he already knew Louise’s heart, the boy smiled prettily and fidgeted with Louise’s small hand. His hands were dirty, but his touch didn’t feel unpleasant.

She had been told not to pity people carelessly. Because if you harbor such feelings, you might soon let that person into the deepest part of your heart.

Louise denied several times that she was harboring pity, promised to definitely come back next time, and then left the prison.

‘I told you to play with that toy, but what have you been doing!’

The emperor, who discovered that Louise hadn’t inflicted any harm on Rondimio, was furious. Then he went back into the prison and treated him more harshly than before, and Louise had to watch the boy’s painful appearance again.

It was so heartbreaking that she vowed to help him secretly from her family from now on.

The current her could neither protect Rondimio from her family nor get him out of prison.

The first emotion Louise felt toward him was gentle pity.

* * *

Louise smiled bitterly as she looked at the man lying beside her. She had worried that feelings that started with pity might end up embracing him deeply.

She had indeed come to love him sincerely, just as she had worried. Though she didn’t regret it now.

“As for what happened after that, as you know, those are miserable memories, so I’d rather not talk about them.”

Rondimio kept his eyes closed for a long while even after Louise had finished telling all her memories of their first meeting. He clearly wasn’t asleep, so finding it strange, Louise poked his cheek with her fingertip.

His cheek was still snow-white and soft, just like in her old memories. As if all that had happened between them until now hadn’t occurred.

“So, Rondimio, what was your first impression of me?”

Rondimio opened his eyes at Louise’s continued prodding.

She had been the one talking about past memories until just now, but it felt like he had gone back to that time as well. And he slowly gave his answer to her question.

“I fell in love at first sight.”

“What?”

Louise blinked her eyes, wondering if she had misheard. Their first meeting was in a cold, dark underground prison.

Rondimio had been in a situation where he had been abused by Louise’s family for a long time, and Louise had felt sorry for him and pitied him. She even felt guilty about harboring feelings of pity.

“You fell in love at first sight then? Really?”

Could falling in love at first sight make sense in such a situation? Of course, their love was deep and intense. She knew it was very different from other people’s love.

But she never thought he would have felt love from their first meeting.

“My love deepened later, but you were the first person to show interest in me, Louise. And you were so pretty that day.”

Rondimio kissed a strand of her long platinum hair with a peck and then lifted his head slightly.

Come to think of it, Louise also clearly remembered how his gaze hadn’t left her that day.

Still, learning for the first time today that he had fallen in love with her at first sight, Louise burst into laughter. My goodness. She really hadn’t known.

Time had turned back once, and quite a long time had passed since then, so she could let go of some guilt and laugh off the memories of the past.

“I still remember. That day you came to see me wearing a bright pink dress and a bonnet of the same color.”

“Really. That’s impossible.”

“It’s true. You were the first girl so pretty and kind that I fell in love at first sight. To the point where I couldn’t remember who had locked me in the underground prison.”

Rondimio began to speak more seriously about that day, afraid Louise might take it as a joke.

And this seemed like a completely different memory from what Louise had just described, with only the place and time being the same.

Unlike Louise, who felt deep guilt toward him, Rondimio was talking as if he had received salvation from her.

“But I was the daughter of the person who imprisoned you.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe his words. She simply couldn’t fathom how great his love for her was.

Even after the day they first met, Rondimio had surprised Louise for numerous reasons. Louise felt that she needed to love him even more than she did now.

She hugged him tightly.

“What’s wrong, Louise?”

“I just suddenly find you so lovable. From now on, I’ll have to love you even more wholeheartedly.”

Louise looked up at Rondimio with a face full of smiles. Even though quite a long time had passed since they got married and they had two children.

This feeling didn’t fade with time and remained as tender as newlyweds who had just gotten married.

“Haven’t you been loving me all this time? Don’t tell me I’ve been the only one loving you?”

“How could that be? They say love is never enough no matter how endlessly you express it.”

The two began to share their different memories while embracing each other under the pitch-black sky and twinkling stars.

And those memories no longer troubled them.

* * *

The next morning.

The two, who had shared memories from the past after a very long time, hurriedly went inside the house only when the morning sun was rising.

Perhaps because it was a topic they had deliberately avoided until now, once they started talking, they became so engrossed that they lost track of time. So much so that they even forgot to take care of the children.

While Rondimio quickly prepared breakfast, Louise woke up Dallin, who was sound asleep with the blanket pulled over her head. She wanted to have breakfast with her lovely first daughter.

“Mmm. I want to sleep more. It’s not a school day today.”

But Dallin showed no intention of waking up, with only her long silver hair sticking out from under the blanket.

It was true that today was a holiday, so while Louise was wondering what to do, Delphin, who had been sleeping beside her, suddenly opened his eyes and tugged at Louise’s collar.

“Mom! Give me food!”

“Our Delphin. Wait just a moment, Mom will give it to you right away!”

Louise smiled and took the lovely child who had grabbed her collar into her arms.

Their second child, who came to them after they had left the imperial palace and become completely forgotten by the world, was a son with platinum hair like Louise and red eyes like Rondimio.

“Rondimio. Prepare Delphin’s meal first. Dallin says she wants to sleep more.”

Louise sat on the living room sofa with her son, who had just turned three, in her arms.

Actually, when they first started wandering, Louise had prepared the meals, but that soon became Rondimio’s responsibility.

It was partly because Louise had struggled with morning sickness while pregnant with Delphin, but also because Rondimio discovered a talent he hadn’t known he had.

Rondimio had a great aptitude for cooking.

He was even better than Louise, who had taken pride in her cooking skills from her experience of cooking and living with Dallin in the village, so meal preparation became his domain.

“Delphin. Let’s eat. Ah.”

Louise, who had been reading a fairy tale book with Delphin on her lap, immediately fed the child a spoonful as soon as Rondimio brought the baby food.