Snow was a bit taken aback by the words “I can’t trust you,” as she hadn’t expected them. Elios smiled wryly. It was as if he was saying, “You brought this on yourself.” Snow had once promised by the goddess Amir that she wouldn’t put Arianne to sleep like she had done with Martadia, only to break that promise the very next moment.

Though Arianne didn’t say it, she must have resented Snow a lot. Yet now, she was endlessly expressing gratitude that Snow had awakened again, saying thank you over and over.

Arianne chattered away all night about what had happened during Snow’s absence. It wasn’t until dawn broke that she finally stood up, seeing Snow nodding off and regularly bumping her head against Elios’s shoulder.

“I’ll come back this evening. To make sure Snow doesn’t run away, I’ll come every day.”

Snow, blinking sleepily, smiled brightly.

“Yes. Come again. I’ll wait here and won’t go anywhere.”

From Elios’s perspective, he couldn’t be more grateful for Arianne’s departure. Now he could finally be alone with Snow again.

Elios laid Snow on the bed and patted the blanket until she fell asleep. Although he hadn’t slept at all either, he didn’t feel tired at all. He was so elated that he felt he could stay awake for days without sleeping.

Soon, regular breathing could be heard. Snow murmured “Mmm” in her sleep. She had finally returned to his side. Unlike before, she was truly just “sleeping.” Her cheek, which he gently stroked, was warm and rosy with life. Occasionally, her lips would purse or her fingers clutching the blanket would twitch.

Though he wished to sit beside her like this for 100 or even 1,000 years, he couldn’t. Reality was reality. Elios rose from his seat.

Snow, the one who had been called the Saint, had awakened. Besides the mansion staff, only Elios, Arianne, Ceres Martadia, and Emperor Crusis Riman Akelan knew that Saint Bernadette had been sleeping in this estate. That’s how it had been until now, and that’s how it would remain.

There were no longer any positions or duties binding Elios. He was no longer the Emperor, much less a Prince. This was the life he had obtained for himself. Therefore, the right to decide how to live it was also his.

He decided to act solely for Snow from now on.

♣ ♣ ♣

The first thing Elios did was send messengers to two places.

One went to Crusis, who was on his way to the imperial palace. Even riding at full speed, it would take several days to reach the capital. Since Crusis had been traveling with a large entourage, he probably hadn’t even made it halfway yet. He would likely receive Elios’s message today and respond in some way.

The other was sent to Ceres Martadia at the Grand Temple. Having paid a substantial amount, the message would reach Ceres within days, and if Elios’s thinking was correct, she would somehow make her way to this barony.

After sending the messages, he summoned all the mansion staff. Elios dismissed them. He ordered them to work only until the end of the week and then not to return.

Of course, he didn’t just throw them out thoughtlessly. He wrote letters of recommendation for each staff member to help them find new jobs immediately. He also agreed to pay their full month’s salary as compensation for the sudden dismissal.

A recommendation letter written by His Former Majesty himself was valuable enough to secure a good position almost anywhere. Although the staff were puzzled by the sudden dismissal, His Former Majesty’s stern expression deterred them from daring to ask questions.

Snow woke up in the late afternoon. She understood very well that she shouldn’t be seen by others in the current situation, so she quietly waited in the room until Elios returned. Since Elios came to check if she was awake whenever he had a moment, she didn’t have to wait long.

Elios explained that because the staff would be moving around the mansion during the day for the rest of the week, she would only be able to leave this room at night. Despite it being unavoidable, he was visibly apologetic.

In truth, the Saint wasn’t such a familiar figure to country folk. Almost everyone in the empire knew that she had snow-white hair and snowflake-like eyes, but there was no rule saying someone else couldn’t have the exact same hair and eye color somewhere. If Snow wanted to blend naturally among people, she could.

However, if a rare young lady with that silver hair and silver eyes was seen by the side of “His Former Majesty,” it would be a different story. Even something that could be dismissed as an insignificant coincidence would be viewed differently by people. They might wonder, “Could that young lady be…?” and become suspicious.

It was precisely this kind of situation that Elios was guarding against. He couldn’t confine Snow to the temple again when she had just regained her freedom.

For Snow to live as herself, “His Former Majesty” couldn’t be by her side.

“Listen carefully, Snow. I plan to quietly leave this place.”

Elios lowered his voice and revealed his plan to Snow without hiding anything. Snow occasionally nodded or offered different opinions. She also understood that from now on, they needed to rely on each other.

“Snow. I will no longer be a Prince, nor an Emperor, nor ‘His Former Majesty.’ I will become nothing but simply ‘El.'”

Elios murmured as he tucked Snow’s hair behind her ear. His tone was soft and gentle, like reciting a poem. Yet even as he spoke, he couldn’t hide a trace of tension about the unknown world that lay ahead.

“Even so, will you stay with me until the end?”

In the past, when “Bernadette” had confined herself to Santarium, Elios was her only connection to the outside world. So, whether by choice or necessity, she had to rely on Elios for many things.

But now it was different. Snow would head toward a wider world, and Elios wasn’t the only one there. Elios had come to realize that whether Snow cried or laughed, it no longer affected the weather. It meant that Snow had been freed from the curse that had bound her.

Things were different from before. Snow had more options than just Elios. For instance, she could live with Arianne and gradually adapt to society, or she could receive help from Ceres Martadia or the imperial family. Or she could choose not to be with Elios and say she wanted to live alone.

But he desperately hoped that Snow would choose him.

“Elios.”

Snow called his name softly. It was evident that he was tense. He was waiting, hoping that Snow would say she would stay with him.

She felt unbearably happy to be such a significant person to Elios.

“I’m no longer a Saint. I don’t know what will happen later, but at least right now, I’m just a person who can’t even stand on her own. And until recently, I was even unconscious. I was almost like a dead person.”

Snow rested her head on Elios’s chest. She could faintly hear the thumping of his heart. It was warm and comforting.

“Yet you waited for me for four years.”

Elios carefully embraced Snow’s small head leaning against him. Snow lifted her head from his embrace with a bright smile. Her sparkling silver eyes met his pitch-black ones.

“So how could I possibly make any other choice but you?”

Snow blushed shyly.

“I love you, Elios.”

With those final words, Elios completely crumbled. “I love you.” The first time he had heard those words from Snow was on the snowy field just before she collapsed. Those words had sounded so painful, so cold then.

Those words, which he thought might be the first and last, were whispered again by her in his arms.

‘Snow, you may love me.’

‘But without you, I would die. No, I wouldn’t even be able to die properly. I would wish I were dead.’

Since he couldn’t express his feelings fully in any words, he simply said, “Yes, me too. I love you too. I love you, Snow,” over and over again.

♣ ♣ ♣

Though he thought Crusis might return to the mansion, he didn’t expect him to come back so quickly. Crusis arrived at the mansion the very next day after Elios had sent the messenger.

The reason he could come so quickly was that he had left his grand procession behind and rushed here with only a few close aides.

“I greet Your Imperial Majesty, the Sun of Akelan.”

Snow rose from her chair, slightly lifting her skirt and curtsying like a butterfly. Elios was anxious that Snow, whose strength hadn’t fully returned, might fall.

“I greet the… Saint of Amir.”

Crusis’s demeanor as he greeted Snow seemed much calmer than Elios had expected. Considering that Crusis had collapsed when he first saw the sleeping Snow in the capital, this was a significant improvement.

Well, in truth, Crusis felt like he was looking at a vampire rising from a coffin, but he had grown enough not to show it too much. After all, he was the Emperor, above all others in this country.

“To be honest, even as I returned after receiving the telegram, I couldn’t believe that the Saint had awakened.”

The way Crusis addressed Snow was different from how the previous Emperor, Ikanel, had addressed her. From Crusis’s perspective, Saint Bernadette was not only a resurrected Saint but also his brother’s lover. Crusis showed more respect to the Saint.

Crusis glanced at his brother Elios. It was unbelievable. He had left just the day before yesterday, thinking it would be nice if his brother could smile like he used to someday, but he never imagined he would see that smile just two days later.

His brother was indeed wearing that warm, sun-like smile from the old days all over his face.

The purpose of Elios calling Crusis was to discuss what he planned to do from now on.

Crusis listened silently to Elios’s story until the end. However, his expression gradually darkened.

“…So you’re thinking of leaving this place? Abandoning your position as former Emperor and everything, to go somewhere far away where no one knows you?”