She had truly been happy. This moment, neither too short nor too long, that she had shared with him.

“This is your last chance. If you do not conceive after today, I will dethrone you in accordance with the laws of Tolaite.”

The man with eyes deeper and bluer than the sea spoke with contempt.

Even through his cold gaze and words, Aeril’s attention went only to his damp hair.

“Yes. I know.”

She reached out, worried that the early winter chill drifting in through the window might run through his golden hair, intending to wipe away the moisture. At that moment, he harshly pushed her hand away, and it fell back onto the bed sheets, powerless.

“Do not do anything foolish. Nothing will change because of this.”

He spoke those cold words to the very last, then took his place above her as he always did. He ground his teeth, then fixed his gaze on the pillow rather than her, tearing into it with his eyes, and continued with his meaningless motions.

Aeril’s vision began to sway. She watched his hair scatter in a haze, then quietly closed her eyes.

The sensation that came without adequate preparation brought pain with it.

When she closed her eyes like this, every sense sharpened more clearly than usual.

The scent that was his own, hidden beneath the fragrance of the perfumed oil he used. Or his effort to keep their bodies from touching each other as much as possible.

Even the faint sounds the people beyond the thin canopy that concealed them made quietly drummed against her eardrums. For three long years, he and she had always needed others to confirm the nature of their relationship.

So of course you would be this weary of it.

The only ones who had wanted this marriage were the Duke of Ronz—her father—and the political factions of nobles who followed him to secure their own interests. The opinions of the two people actually involved, him and herself, had been reflected nowhere in this arrangement.

The elders who should have supported him in place of the king and queen, who had suddenly turned their backs on the world, sided with the Duke of Ronz for the sake of their own comfort.

And so you married a woman you did not love, and for years that were far from short, you did your best to honor the agreement.

He had said that if no child came during the three-year marriage period, despite enduring his duty, he would decide on dethronement in accordance with the kingdom’s laws.

In response, the Duke of Ronz had pushed observers into the marital bedchamber.

It was something unimaginable in any other time, but you had permitted it as well, to assert your own legitimacy. And so each month, we came together.

Yet it seemed heaven was on your side……

Now, with all three years nearly spent, still no child had come between them. Aeril was truly grateful for that.

“D*mn it.”

He had briefly set everything down, but now he took up his anguish again. The revulsion he showed with his entire body pricked painfully at Aeril’s skin. He rose from the bed, leaving her there.

“……”

Aeril gave a simple bow toward him as he did not look back. She had barely dipped her head when a servant approached and stood outside the canopy.

He drew back the thin cloth and stepped outside the canopy, and a servant draped a nightgown over his shoulders. He left the bedchamber entirely, and this time a maidservant entered the room to attend to Aeril.

The maidservant named Odelia, sent by the Duke of Ronz, examined Aeril’s body and the bed sheets with relentless thoroughness. Then, seemingly satisfied that her task was complete, she finally handed Aeril a thin gown.

This humiliation, too, would end today. If the next examination brought no confirmation of a child, she would naturally be dethroned.

When that happened, she could shed the hollow name of Lady of the Ducal House of Ronz.

‘Finally, to the sea.’

To the embrace of the blue sea where she had been born and raised.

It was time to return to that beautiful place where her mother had been scattered.

She would leave like this, but she sincerely hoped that he, who would remain behind, would find true happiness.

The memories she had shared with him—those, at least, she could hold deep in her heart and cherish forever.

* * *

1.

In young Aeril’s world, the largest part of it belonged, without question, to Edelin.

Trailing Edelin by a narrow margin in second place was Tiahi, which wrapped around a glittering stretch of sand.

A blue more dazzling than the sky. If she held her breath and dove past the white-crashing waves into the deeper depths, she could see Tiahi’s true face.

The deeper she went, the darker the blue space became, and it brimmed with the pulse of life.

Coral that grew however it pleased, and shells of every shape embroidering the seafloor.

If she followed the fish that slipped quietly past her, she would completely forget that the sun was setting. While she spent time in Tiahi’s embrace, her mother, who had left the house to work, would come back to her.

The time when Edelin, the mother she loved most, and Tiahi, the sea that was her dearest friend, gathered in one place.

Spotting her mother waving from a distance, Aeril filled her lungs and slipped down into the sea. She picked up a wave-shaped shell and let the waves carry her back to shore.

Where Tiahi had wrapped her body in coolness, Edelin now held her in warmth. Aeril threw her arms tightly around Edelin’s neck and showed off the shell.

“Mama! Look at this! It looks like a wave!”

The shell was covered in rough sand that had stuck to it at some unknown point. As Aeril busily brushed it off and spoke, Edelin stroked her hair.

“So it does. It looks like Aeril’s curly hair, too. Were you having fun again today?”

“Yes! I played with Tiahi again today! I told you about the baby fish I met for the first time the other day, right? Well, I saw it today and it had grown this big! Looking at the fins, it’s definitely that same fish from before—last time it was the size of my thumb, but today it was the size of my fist. Really!”

Aeril spread out her tiny hands as she explained eagerly, her eyes shining like light on water.

Her sky-blue hair, soaking wet and hanging limp, also resembled Tiahi, the sea she loved.

Aeril carried more of the sea she loved within her than anyone else.

“Is that so, little miss. Mama told you not to go into the deep water, didn’t she?”

“No……! That part wasn’t deep. Aeril behaved today! Really!”

Aeril’s eyes, unable to meet Edelin’s directly, kept sliding off to the side.

Edelin knew that Aeril could not make eye contact when she was telling a lie.

“Hmm. Look at this. Aeril’s hair is saying otherwise.”

Edelin lifted Aeril up and gathered a handful of her wavy sky-blue hair.

She held the ends up in front of Aeril’s eyes and furrowed her brow.

“Tiahi’s blue water has soaked right into it. The color has gotten darker, which means……”

“It really didn’t……!”

Edelin had explained that Aeril’s hair had its unusual blue color because it had absorbed the sea. The deeper the water she went into, the bluer it would become.

“It really didn’t……”

It was not the truth. It was a lie born from Edelin’s worry over having to leave her young daughter alone by the sea.

As Aeril grew older, she came to understand it was not true, but when she was small, she had believed it completely.

Aeril covered her hair with her palms.

“Mmm…… I’m sorry……”

“Aeril, let’s just play right out front here tomorrow. Alright? Mama worries.”

“Okay……”

Edelin pulled the downcast Aeril into a tight embrace.

But the next day, it was not Aeril who failed to return—it was Edelin.

No matter how long Aeril waited by the sea, Edelin did not come back.

Even when she stopped going into the deep water. Even when she listened endlessly to Tiahi’s bubbling song.

On some days, she did not even glance at the sea she had loved so much. On others, when the rain grew fierce and she threw herself into Tiahi’s furious embrace.

No matter how many times she entered the blue sea, the color of her water-blue hair did not change.

On one ordinary day when the sunlight stabbed at her eyes, Aeril lay on the sandy shore and understood.

Her hair had not absorbed the sea, and Edelin, who had kissed her cheek and promised to come home early, could no longer hold her hand.

Unable to believe it, she sat down helplessly and wept. The waves of Tiahi that had rolled up to her toes swept the sand clinging to her skin and pulled it away into the deep sea.

It seemed to comfort her, but it brought no comfort. The grief did not lift—it only layered and accumulated. Like the salty tears that had made her cheeks swell and burn.

She had no more strength to cry, and she simply lay collapsed on the rough sandy ground. She slowly closed her salt-heavy eyelids, then opened them. Her vision was growing blurry when the man appeared.

Completely out of place here.

A stranger had stepped into the world that had held only her mother, herself, and Tiahi. The man with jet-black hair and sky-blue eyes like her own—even his sharp gaze felt threatening.

Aeril had never seen a person this large before. The man’s gleaming coat shattered the brilliant sunlight at will.

“You are Edelin’s daughter.”

Having said that, the man looked at her disheveled state and clicked his tongue.

The man gave a slight tilt of his chin, and a row of other men came rushing over.

They carefully lifted Aeril and set her down inside a carriage.

“Your mother is dead.”

It was not particularly surprising news.

“So forget Edelin. From today, you will become a member of the ducal household.”

The man who had appeared without warning told her to forget the only mother she had, thrust a new family upon her, and raised her as a product suited to his own tastes.

After the name Ronz, which she had never wanted, attached itself to the pretty name Edelin had given her, she lost every bit of her own will.

She had grown into a quiet ornamental flower cultivated by the man, and before she knew it, she had reached marriageable age.

“Now, look over there.”

Standing in the direction the Duke of Ronz pointed was a man whom the word ‘beautiful’ did not do justice.

Beneath neatly groomed, dazzling golden hair, sharp and distinct features sat in clean lines. His unhurried movements and gaze carried a natural air of weariness.

Lyden Bruhail. A man of exalted standing, soon to become Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Tolaite.

The Duke of Ronz looked at him with a dismissive eye and murmured low.

“Winning the Crown Prince’s heart is your task. I will handle the preparations, so you need only do as you are told.”

Once again, something was unfolding with no regard for her own will.

As Lyden’s fresh blue-green eyes fixed on her, Aeril had no choice but to lower her head.