Chapter 14.1 – Faraway Night, Clear Colors

Brienne walked the path of memory.  

The day she lost her first baby tooth, the day she learned to swim from Shylo, the day she sat on her father’s knee and read a book, the day she held her mother’s hand and walked in the garden.  

Memories retraced one by one, then flowed backward and repeated from the beginning.

There, she saw Herace.  

The young Herace, who always watched her but only ever ran away. The Herace who, hurt by a single word from her, would hide in his room and stare into the mirror.

And, after passing through those memories, Brienne saw the childhood of Kaiden Bannon.  

Kaiden was always trembling with fear.  

When that child, trying not to disappoint his father’s expectations, stayed up for three days without eating, Brienne retched on an empty stomach. 

On the same day, she had whined to her mother to be carried on her back.  

She had pestered her father and received new shoes as a gift.  

She and Shylo had snuck into the kitchen and stolen their parents’ tea and cookies.  

They had been caught and scolded, then held a tea party in their parents’ bedroom.  

Falling asleep in their embrace, she had dreamt warmly and happily.

She thought she could never forgive Kaiden.  

But……  

Every time Kaiden defied the path set by the Duke of Bannon, she saw him lose the people he loved, one by one.  

She saw the moment when the bright light in his eyes went out, leaving only a deep, abyssal fear.

Brienne cried along with him.  

He really was like a small boat thrown into the sea, struggling to stay afloat in the waves.  

Seeing Kaiden’s pain, which she had never known, Brienne finally understood him.

Why hadn’t she known?  

She never imagined Kaiden had lived through such times.  

She didn’t know, and every time she wanted to be swept away by his sea, she had blamed him.  

She hadn’t even realized that foolish Kaiden Bannon was actually hoping she would jump in for him.

‘……Why are you showing me these memories?’  

After wandering through those painful, hellish memories, one day she asked the void.

A voice, neither male nor female, answered from all around.  

-You chose the wrong soul. This is your chance to reverse your decision. According to the law of fate.

‘Even so…… I won’t choose again.’  

Brienne cried as she shouted at that ridiculous notion.  

‘I have no intention of reversing my choice.’

-No, you must not go against the thread of fate. Do you want to repeat the same penance in your next life?

‘My fate……’  

Brienne stared into the pitch-black void somewhere.  

She still didn’t know where Demekia god was in this place, but she wasn’t afraid at all.

‘I’m the one who chooses. Not you.’

Yes, maybe she really could go back to that time.  

Taking a nap with Kaiden, using the sound of rain tapping on the window as a lullaby, or sitting together in a tiny boat, drifting across the lake at Bannon mansion.  

Sharing a book found in an old bookstore in the capital square.  

She could return to those peaceful, quiet, beautiful days.

But in that time, Brienne’s life did not exist.  

The little girl who once fluttered at every glance from Kaiden Bannon had long since disappeared.  

Time had passed.  

Adolescence had ended.  

The child had grown up.

Brienne was now moving toward her dream.  

She had to leave those precious memories behind and look to the future.  

And the person who should be in that future was not Kaiden.

Herace.  

She would be with him.  

She would take his hand—the one who made her dream of the future, not the past—and walk in step with him.

As she said that, Demekia replied:  

-You will regret it. You will resent yourself in your next life for the choice you made in this one.

‘It’s all right.’  

But Brienne smiled.  

‘In this life, and the next, I won’t live according to a predetermined fate.’

After that, there was no reply from Demekia.  

There was only a deafening roar as the ground collapsed, and Brienne fell endlessly in the void where nothing could be seen.  

To a place she could not know.  

To an even darker place.

Then, at some moment—  

“Brienne, please……”  

She heard that voice.  

The voice guiding her soul.  

The love that had come to save her.

“……Herace.”  

Only then did Brienne slowly open her eyes.  

Her Herace was there, right before her eyes.  

His dazzling silver hair shone in the sunlight streaming through the window. Underneath, his calm dark gray eyes wavered as they looked at her.

Brienne reached out to Herace’s cheek, frozen in place.  

Even if this was a dream, it was enough.  

If she could see him just one more time, she wanted nothing more.

But this was reality.

“……You stayed with me all this time.”  

Brienne, cherishing the warmth at her fingertips, finally smiled through her tears.  

Herace Belif was alive.  

Right before her eyes.

“Herace, I…… saw memories from my childhood in my dream. And I was a little surprised. I never knew the ‘potato head’ was you.”  

Brienne, continuing slowly, gazed at Herace with half-closed eyes.  

He only looked at her, as if he didn’t understand what she meant.

“You liked me from the start, didn’t you?”  

“……”  

“I’m sorry I realized it so late.”  

As she whispered, Herace gave a sad smile.  

He gripped the back of Brienne’s hand, which was cupping his cheek, tightly.

“……I wish this weren’t a dream, Brienne.”  

“It’s not a dream.”  

Smiling softly, Brienne pulled Herace toward her. The bed wobbled a little under his weight.

But he followed her hand willingly.

“Just as I love you.”  

“……”  

“Thank you.”  

‘Thank you for staying alive, Herace.’

At those softly added words, Herace, looking down at Brienne with reddened eyes, finally let out a laugh. That was the moment. Brienne wrapped her arms around Herace’s neck and kissed him, then pulled away.

“Herace.”  

Looking at Herace, who had frozen stiff again, Brienne smiled happily.

“I didn’t make you wait too long, did I?”

Only then did Herace, with a joyful smile, whisper softly.

“……Normally, I’d say no.”  

Herace lifted his large hand and brushed aside the hair tickling Brienne’s cheek.

“But now, I want to say—please don’t ever make me wait again.”  

His gentle hand loosely wrapped around Brienne’s nape. With those words, Herace kissed Brienne again.

As if to make up for all the impatience he felt while waiting for her, he hungrily sought her lips, again and again.  

Brienne, entwined with his movements as he explored every corner of her mouth, clumsily held him close.

With the slow kiss that slipped through the gap, the reality that had slumbered in Brienne’s body for so long began to awaken.

“Mm……”  

The deepening kiss sent a tingling, shivering sensation up her back.

Feeling the heat spreading through her whole body, Brienne hurriedly grabbed Herace’s hair and gently pushed him away.

“……W-wait, Herace.”

Then Herace unwound Brienne’s hand from his hair and held her hand tightly.

“Yes, Brienne.”  

With a low laugh, Herace pressed small kisses from Brienne’s lips to her cheek and jaw, then went lower to tickle her neck.

At his cautious yet playful gesture, Brienne squirmed.

“I-I said, if we come back… but doing this as soon as I wake up is a bit sudden……”  

Brienne, panting, freed her hand from Herace’s grip.

Herace paused for a moment at her words, then laughed lightly as if amused.

“Brienne……”  

Herace’s hair, drooping helplessly as he lowered his head, tickled Brienne’s collarbone.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t even keep in mind the promise you mentioned. What matters most to me is you, Brienne.”

“……Really?”  

Brienne, stretching out her curled toes, turned her head to escape the tickling feeling on her neck.

“Yes. I don’t know what you were imagining just now, but I was only desperately waiting for you to come back, Brienne.”

Herace’s breath and the sound of his large heart were felt directly against her body as he smiled faintly.

It was then that Herace, seeing Brienne’s slightly embarrassed expression, lifted his head.

“…But, now that I think about it, it’s a bit unfair. It seems you were the one who kissed me first again this time, Brienne.”

And at the same time, her view flipped.

“Ah…!”  

In the blink of an eye, Herace embraced Brienne and leaned against the head of the bed, looking up at her.

Brienne’s long golden hair dangled, almost brushing Herace’s chin.

A mischievous glint appeared in his narrowed dark gray eyes.

“It seems you were the one trying to pounce on me first, Brienne.”

Herace softly kissed her, then whispered in a low voice,

“Maybe this is more your preference?”

A dazzling smile bloomed on Herace’s face as he looked up at flustered Brienne.

Preference, he said.  

How could he say something like that……

Brienne’s lips parted in stunned silence, her pale green eyes trembling slightly as she looked at Herace.  

“Herace, you really…!”  

Brienne, her cheeks flushed, clenched her fists tightly on his shoulder. But Herace, as if expecting it, gently caught her wrist.