This toy was created by her ex-husband to make playing with his beloved wife more enjoyable. Pluto took great pleasure in forcibly tying Rose up. He was the kind of man who enjoyed watching Rose struggle and cry as she begged to be released.

With the toy he had made, Rose was tormented and broken countless times. She often tried to cut her bonds and escape, but after being caught by her husband, dragged by her hair and repeatedly submerged in water, she gradually learned not to resist. No matter how short she cut her once long hair, it still became a trap that Pluto used to catch her.

When she realised there was nothing she could do under the man’s control, she surrendered and accepted it. Eventually, this toy became a real plaything for Rose as well.

Rose reached out to touch the water plants wrapped around her ankle. The soft water plants that followed gently when she pulled them seemed designed only to keep her submerged, but never to harm her.

Rose had long understood that this was part of her husband’s meticulous care. The more she understood, the more she felt a strange sense of joy and exhilaration. How many intense moments had Rose shared with her husband, bound by these water weeds?

But now Pluto was dead. The water plants, which could easily be broken with a little force, no longer held her as tightly as before. At any moment she could break the bonds and escape.

But for some reason, she didn’t want to. Silently, Rose surrendered her body to the water and floated to the surface. The embrace of the water that surrounded her no longer felt as warm as it once had. Gone was the comforting warmth of her husband’s arms holding her as they lingered together beneath the waves.

Her husband was dead. She had been the one who had destroyed his soul. She had shattered it in such a way that it could never be put back together again, or come to life in any form.

Why had she done this? She had thought she would feel complete satisfaction when she had done it. But that was not what she felt now.

The only thing she felt in her husband’s absence was emptiness. Rose smiled faintly as she stroked the waterweeds. 

On the day she carried Lucian, unconscious and limping, into the castle, Rose burned everything related to Pluto in the fires of hell. It was the only trace of her husband left in the castle. 

With that in mind, she couldn’t bring herself to remove her hand. Even though it was easier than breathing to uproot the thick waterweeds that covered the bottom of the lake, she didn’t want to erase the last trace of her husband with her own hands. 

The soft waterweeds that rose from the depths of the lake and enveloped her reminded her of Pluto’s gentle touch from the time she loved him. They seemed like Pluto’s desperate plea not to be forgotten, the earnest plea of a begging man. 

‘Ah, only after you died did you cling to me like this 

The begging, the crying, the desperate clinging had always been hers. Now, for the first time in three thousand years, the roles were reversed. And Rose didn’t mind. She wanted to savour this strange feeling even more. 

Silently, she watched the water weeds that wrapped around her ankle, not offering the slightest resistance. She stayed like that until the sun went down and night fell. 

* * * 

By the time Lucian awoke, darkness had set in and the sun had completely disappeared below the horizon. After a sleepless night, he seemed to have fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. He rose, but immediately felt a strange unease in the air that made him look around.

The usual scene he expected – the Demon Queen creeping into his bed and boldly disturbing him – was absent. The silence in the room was unnerving, like a lifeless room without a soul.

‘Impossible.’

Overcome by an inexplicable sense of foreboding, Lucian rushed out into the hallway. He ran to the window where they had been earlier and looked out at the place where he had last seen her. But everything outside was shrouded in darkness and he couldn’t see a thing.

The cold wind that blew through the slightly open window made the curtains flutter, bringing with it a chilling sense of dread. He stood frozen in the oppressive silence, staring at the pale moonlight reflecting off the dark lake.

‘No, it can’t be.’

He forced himself to ignore the creeping fear that crawled over his skin, but a part of his mind kept warning him. This is impossible, he told himself repeatedly, desperately fighting the irrational fear that was consuming him.

Surely it doesn’t make sense that the Demon Queen, someone so powerful, wouldn’t be able to break free from a mere water weed and remain bound there until nightfall?

But what if… what if it were true? What if she was still there, even now, under the water?

If the aim was to keep him on edge, to make him suffer until he lost all his strength, it was highly effective. Had it not been for the contract, he might have just left her there. But he had sworn, in his own words, to fulfil his role as the Demon Queen’s husband with the utmost sincerity.

Even though the terms of the contract weren’t spelled out in detail, he felt that any action that he felt was completely against the standard of ‘utmost sincerity’ would be a breach of contract.

And unfortunately, he had just refused the Demon Queen’s request for help.

Thunk.

As Lucian walked briskly across the courtyard, he stopped suddenly, as if his feet had been caught. Something had hit his foot. It was a wooden basket that the Demon Queen had taken out earlier that morning.

Lucian stared silently at the food scattered on the blanket. He hadn’t had a chance to check the contents of the basket earlier because the Demon Queen had suddenly dragged him out to ride in the canoe. He had assumed that the piece of cake he had eaten was all there was.

But it turned out that the Demon Queen had prepared much more than he had expected.

Bread cut into bite-sized pieces, thick cheese, ripe grapes and pomegranates, a delicious golden-brown fish pâté and perfectly boiled eggs… A golden goblet rolled over and stopped at his feet. Lucian could only stare at the food scattered on the floor, untouched, before looking up. 

In the distance, on the dark shore of the lake, a canoe still floated. 

The woman was no longer in it. 

In an instant, a sense of foreboding came over him, like a black thunderclap. Lucian stood frozen, his face pale as he looked out over the pitch-black water. 

What if – what if, by some small chance – 

What if the Demon Queen really couldn’t cut the waterweeds? 

‘No, that can’t be…’

But contrary to his thoughts, his legs were already sprinting towards the lake. 

Splash! 

Without hesitation, he jumped into the water and swam towards the canoe. As he reached the front of the boat, the things he couldn’t see from afar suddenly came into focus. 

She was there. 

The Demon Queen was leaning against the side of the boat, her arms draped over her, her eyes blinking in wonder. 

“Lucian?” 

Lucian didn’t answer. Instead, he dove under the water without a word. 

Splash! 

The surface rippled like waves and the surroundings fell silent. Lifting his eyes through the current, he saw two legs still underwater. 

Lucian froze as if struck by lightning, staring at the shifting currents. 

It really was tied down. 

The weeds from the bottom of the lake were wrapped around Rose’s ankles like shackles. In an instant, Lucian felt a crushing pain in his heart that left him gasping for breath. In anger, he reached out quickly and tore away the weeds that bound Rose’s ankles.

The weeds tore like rags and sank to the bottom of the lake. Without hesitation, Lucian wrapped his arms around Rose’s waist and swam up.

Shwaaak! 

Along with the rippling waves, the two drenched figures rose to the surface. Rose’s body was cold as ice.

Lucian quickly lifted her and placed her on top of the canoe before climbing in himself. Then he turned his gaze to her, who looked startled and disbelieving, her eyes wide and blinking, before she scolded him sharply. 

“It was the last memento my husband left me.” 

Lucian, who had been about to lash out, froze in mid-sentence. Rose added with a sighing laugh, “So this is a gift from my ex-husband… Pluto.” 

“…The water weeds scattered on the bottom of the lake?” 

“They weren’t there originally. He planted them for me.”

Lucian stared at the demon queen, his expression stiff, as she continued, “It would be cruel to cut them down. After all, it’s only clinging to me now that he’s gone…”