“Hayden.”

“……”

“The princess…… No. Her Majesty the Empress must be happy now, right? Hm?”

“Frederick!”

Hayden, who had been quietly listening to what Frederick was saying, raised his voice. Princess? That was a word that should never be uttered, even by mistake, at this point. Moreover, his friend’s current state—if their lord were to learn of it, Frederick would meet the same end as his sister.

Concerned for his friend, Hayden frowned severely. Frederick glanced at him and then dropped his head.

“I know. I know. But……”

“……”

“……If I don’t speak, I can’t bear how stifling it is in here. D*mn it!”

A sudden rush of overwhelming memories. More precisely, memories with the princess. Frederick had known about them from what Hayden had told him. He also knew that he had shown great interest in the princess.

But once he regained his memories, he couldn’t control his feelings for the princess. Even without those memories, his heart had been endlessly filled with thoughts of her. Added to that were the feelings he had harbored back then, suppressed by his loyalty to his lord, and he lost his bearings in confusion.

‘……Just for today. I can’t be like this anymore.’

The fortunate thing was that his reason was still intact. Frederick planned to collect and organize his emotions on his own once the sun rose, just as he had done in the past. Having done it before, it wouldn’t be impossible.

But perhaps because it was an emotion with a set time, it was difficult to control at the moment. Right now, he wanted to be honest. Frederick looked up at Hayden and spoke his mind without reservation.

“Hayden. I envy you.”

“……”

“You got married a long time ago and have children.”

Hayden was not one who didn’t understand what his friend meant. He showed a hard expression to Frederick, as if telling him to stop.

“You’re not in your right mind.”

“Back then, you were unhappy about guarding the princess. But that was your luck. Otherwise, it would be you in this state today.”

“Enough.”

He could no longer listen. Hayden stood up. After briefly considering something, he informed Frederick.

“I’ll first notify His Majesty the Emperor by letter that you’ve recovered your memories. And when morning comes, I’ll depart immediately for the capital.”

“Yes. We should keep hiding it.”

Frederick raised the corners of his mouth, cackling. Hayden’s eyes grew fierce. But Frederick merely shrugged his shoulders, not intimidated in the least.

“Why? It’s not like I said anything wrong. You should hurry and find a way. A way to keep deceiving the princess.”

“You…!”

Thud.

The word “princess” came out again. Hayden, unable to watch any longer, bent down. He grabbed Frederick by the collar and swung his fist. It was advice that he should come to his senses now.

“Frederick.”

“……That hurts like h*ll. D*mn it.”

Had the punch been effective? Frederick’s voice became somewhat clearer. Hayden shook his friend’s collar to make him look at him and spoke deliberately.

“The princess is dead. Her Majesty the Empress is the daughter of Marquis Rockzenta. The princess of Sedas you guarded no longer exists in this world. Understand?”

“Don’t make that face, Hayden.”

“……”

“Now that things have come to this, I too hope to find a solution. I hope the empress doesn’t recover her memories.”

He meant it. Frederick didn’t want the princess—no, the empress—to recover her memories like he had. Here he was, acting like a madman, confused by memories that meant nothing.

“If she recovers her memories now……”

If the princess were to recover her memories, if she remembered the entire process…..

“Her Majesty the Empress would be too pitiful.”

She wouldn’t be able to bear it.

“Don’t you think?”

Frederick was certain of this.

* * *

It was difficult to breathe. The supreme emperor dismissed everyone and read Hayden’s letter over and over. After nearly memorizing it, he barely managed to stand, leaning against the edge of his desk.

‘Her memories are returning?’

It was something he had always imagined. Every day he looked at her face, unable to sleep, trembling with anxiety.

But he never thought it would actually happen. Or rather, he had thought about it but ignored and avoided it. He had comforted himself that nothing would go wrong with an object imbued with the power of that precious goddess.

But it had happened. Roshan tightly gripped Hayden’s letter and took it to the fireplace. Then, as if afraid, he threw it in violently.

The letter, just a single sheet of paper, burned away in seconds. Roshan, who had been glaring at it, turned around.

The sun had already set. Moreover, snow was pouring outside the window. But the emperor set out on the snow-covered path with just one subordinate.

* * *

“His Majesty?”

“Yes. Shall I find out what’s happening?”

News that the emperor had gone outside reached the Ivory Palace. Yerena, who had been reading a fairy tale to the twin princes, entrusted the children to their nanny at this sudden news and looked outside while holding her swollen belly.

She worried about her husband in the heavily falling snow. But she pretended to be calm and said to her maid.

“……He must have some urgent business.”

“……”

“That’s fine. Let me know when he returns later. I don’t mind if it’s very late.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Yerena dismissed the maid with a gesture. Then, with one hand on the window frame and the other on her belly, she muttered to herself.

“What exactly is he hiding from me?”

Although she had told her husband earlier that she would wait, Yerena was actually curious about Roshan’s secret. She worried that he might be suffering alone from something bad.

The snowfall grew increasingly fierce. The longer she watched, the more anxious she felt. Yerena stepped back from the window. Then, stroking her now visibly swollen belly, she silently murmured a suspicion she had kept to herself for years.

‘Could his secret be related to my past?’

* * *

‘The pure white water no longer exists in this world. It cannot be made again. Therefore, I cannot give you an answer, Your Majesty.’

The emperor left around the time the bluish light of dawn began to brighten the world. The figure of the man returning through the accumulated snow looked shabby and anxious, unbefitting the highest person in the land.

“May the Goddess’s light reach you.”

The old cleric looked up at the sky, offering a prayer to the emperor’s retreating figure. And he thought of an old friend he had forgotten for a very long time, someone he had recalled while discussing the pure white water with the emperor.

A promising cleric who became a dangerous element at some point. One who was eventually judged a heretic and thrown into water, whose name was erased and now remembered by no one, a friend whose name he hadn’t spoken once in decades. His name was Ska.

‘Argen. Do you trust what we’ve studied and believed?’

Ska was a very intelligent cleric who pursued the path of a scholar within the temple. But the more forbidden books he was allowed to access, the more the temple disapproved of him. Those who associated with him also came under the temple’s scrutiny, so all the clerics kept their distance.

‘The more books I read, the closer my position gets to the Goddess, the more I wonder. Does the Goddess exist? Hasn’t she already left this world like the gods of other heretics?’

‘Ska. Stop it. There’s already too much talk about you. The inquisitors are watching you, linking you to heresy.’

‘Heresy? If that’s what they call researching the truth, then I’ll gladly become a heretic.’

Nevertheless, the old cleric often met with him in those days. However, on a night like today when snow poured all night and stopped near dawn, the old cleric had to end his relationship with Ska after their final meeting.

‘The wine is warm. Hey, Argen. Shall I tell you one more secret? Remember that stable boy we saw when we were young? Yes, that unremarkable old man who once had tens of thousands of followers, the king of heretics.’

‘……’

‘His granddaughter was hanged fifteen years ago. Under the false accusation of being a heretic.’

‘Ska!’

That day, Ska, who had been drinking heavily while looking outside at the accumulated snow, began to speak dangerously. The old cleric, then young, turned pale with fear and stood up.

‘I’ve never told any of the secrets that child shared with me. Because our relationship was secret from the beginning. But I think I’ll soon follow that child. So I want to tell you at least one thing, Argen.’

‘Enough. I won’t listen to your unnecessary talk. I’m leaving.’

It was an escape. He felt that if he heard more, there would be no turning back. But as the young cleric left the room, Ska’s words clung to his back.

‘Did the heretic king truly submit to the Goddess’s perfect power? Was he really reborn as a servant of light, forgetting everything?’

A few days later, Ska was dragged away by inquisitors and drowned alive. The old cleric deliberately forgot his friend. That was the only way to survive. The temple showed no mercy to those associated with heretics.

But now, one of the emperor’s close associates who had taken the pure white water had recovered his memories. The final appearance of the previous generation’s prophet, once considered a miracle, also came to mind.

As things turned out this way, the old cleric couldn’t help but remember Ska’s words that he had buried for so long. After all, Ska was the first to begin doubting the pure white water.

‘Ska. Even if what you said is true, what difference does it make now? Actually, whether the pure white water is perfect or not, what does it matter? Even that must be the Goddess’s will.’

The old priest, with complicated feelings, had many thoughts. But he soon calmed his mind by praying to the Goddess once more with folded hands.

“Goddess.”

The old priest turned around, calling to the Goddess. Behind him, the sun was rising with golden light, gradually removing the darkness.

* * *