“Since I’m the first person you’ve kissed, the first person you’ve spent intimate time with, perhaps that’s why you feel attached to me as a person.”
“……”
“The attachment one has to toys or dolls must be different from the attachment that forms between real couples. The emotion one holds for someone they love would differ in weight from the start.”
Cayden continued speaking.
“Someday, you’ll regret… having held onto me. When you meet someone you truly love, you’ll regret not having gotten rid of someone like me sooner. You’ll regret thinking that you had made a very big misunderstanding…”
Cayden’s gaze, which had been meeting Assad’s eyes, fell downward. The tip of his tongue, holding the truth, hurt.
He didn’t want to lie by saying he would never leave Assad no matter what.
Because he loved Assad, he had to leave him all the more. Cayden didn’t want to see Assad falling into real love. He didn’t want to face Assad resenting and regretting him because of that love.
If he were to leave the imperial palace within the set time, at least he could carry only Assad’s smiling face in his heart. That’s what Cayden thought.
“Toys? Don’t say such nonsense. I’ve never been obsessed with such things.”
“……”
“Whether you like it or not, you must return to the annex palace. You have to live facing me. You are, after all, my bride.”
Assad’s face contorted.
“The one and only companion given by the gods.”
“Your Highness……”
“For the rest of my life, I won’t ever, lie to you again.”
Assad’s hands holding Cayden tightened again.
“In front of you, I will never change my appearance. I won’t become Amun or anyone else, I’ll live only as Assad Mekerius.”
There was trembling in Assad’s voice. A fragile voice that didn’t suit him at all trembled.
There was a foreboding feeling that something that shouldn’t happen was about to occur. Cayden was afraid. His frightened heart beat loudly.
“Cayden, I know now. I……”
Assad tried to tell Cayden something. But he couldn’t complete the sentence he was about to deliver. Assad fell silent. He substituted the words he couldn’t say by meeting Cayden’s eyes.
“So……”
“……”
“Don’t leave me. Don’t go without me.”
“Your Highness.”
With a surprised face, Cayden called out to Assad.
“Your Highness, d-don’t cry.”
Restlessly, Cayden caressed Assad’s cheeks. He wiped away Assad’s tears that were flowing down with his hands.
The hand touched by Assad’s tears, as hot as his breath, trembled violently. All the thoughts that had been spinning chaotically in Cayden’s mind were submerged in Assad’s tears, melting away without any form.
“I was wrong, I was wrong. So please don’t cry.”
“Tell me.”
“……”
“Tell me you won’t leave me.”
Cayden embraced Assad, who was murmuring. Assad’s body, which was always high in temperature, was cool. For some reason, that was upsetting. The cold scent of wind that clung to Assad’s body was painful.
“Yes. I will. Until you tell me to leave the palace immediately, I will stay by Your Highness’s side all along.”
While caressing the back of Assad who was tightly embracing him, Cayden whispered the same words over and over again.
“…Promise me.”
Assad wanted a promise from Cayden.
Do you love me? Is that why you’re trying to hold onto me, showing tears like this? Cayden wanted to ask.
But Cayden didn’t ask. He chose to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t have the courage to utter a question with an already determined answer.
‘Assad doesn’t love me.’
Swallowing the answer he already knew inwardly, Cayden closed his eyes.
“I promise.”
“……”
“I promise you.”
Cayden said.
Someday, he would regret this current promise. Assad might also soon regret having asked for this promise. Even so… Cayden spoke the promise. Because he disliked facing Assad’s tears, he abruptly uttered nonsensical words.
Cayden wanted to cry along with Assad. But Cayden smiled. In Assad’s embrace, which gave a strange sense of relief, he raised the corners of his mouth to smile in order to reassure Assad.
Until Amina and the warriors came riding on horses. Cayden and Assad faced the cold sandy wind, holding each other.
The desert night was still more beautiful than the day.
* * *
The atmosphere of the imperial palace, which had been subdued throughout the rainy season, was regaining vitality as it welcomed a new summer. What also found vitality were people’s mouths.
From the lowest parts of the imperial palace to the dizzingly highest. Stories began to spread that Emperor Heset had a big argument with his successor.
The rumors circulating among people varied slightly in content and conclusion depending on the speaker. But everyone unanimously said the same thing about the cause of the quarrel between the Emperor and the Crown Prince, or more intimately, between father and son. That the reason the always relaxed Crown Prince had fiercely lost his temper at the Emperor was none other than the Crown Prince’s consort.
“Did he get angry because he wanted to separate? He finally exploded after holding it in?”
A man, who had lowered his voice significantly, muttered. He did so knowing that there was no one to eavesdrop on the servants gathered in the corner of the laundry room.
“No.”
Servant Assel solemnly shook his head. He was someone whose lover was a scholar belonging to the imperial magician corps who happened to visit the audience hall on the day that commotion occurred. To put it plainly, he was someone whose lover had to stay hidden in the corner with three or four equally tactless colleagues, holding their breath, as the man had no sense of when to leave the audience hall.
“He got angry, asking if it was his father who made his bride prepare to leave. His gaze was so vicious that my partner thought he would die of fear.”
Assel conveyed the story he had heard from his lover without any additions or subtractions.
“Was it really scary? Your lover screams at the sight of newly hatched baby spiders.”
“Prepare to leave?”
“Ah, I get it. They probably really did intend to make him leave? They would have had to pair them as a couple to respect Goddess Tara’s will, but since he’s not a suitable person to sit as Empress, they probably planned to drive him out eventually. Though it’s still… a bit early.”
An older servant interjected. She was a woman who had worked in the imperial palace for nearly 30 years. With that much experience, one could roughly see what the high-ranking members of the imperial family were thinking.
Several of those gathered in the laundry room gossiping also nodded in agreement with the older servant’s conjecture. People who had worked in the palace for a long time had been expecting that the Crown Prince’s consort wouldn’t stay in Acro for long. Since he was once called the ghost living in the annex palace… they thought the outcome was obvious.
“Then, what made him angry? Shouldn’t it be good if someone he dislikes leaves?”
“It seems it wasn’t good from the Crown Prince’s perspective.”
Assel, who had been silent during the other servant’s story, opened his mouth again.
“No?”
“Since I didn’t hear it directly, I can’t say with certainty… anyway, it seems His Highness has no intention of parting with his consort. That’s why that commotion happened, according to Lach’s memory, which is worse than a goldfish’s.”
Assel’s words, accompanied by a shrug, captured the interest of the other servants. They had thought it would be a predictable story, but this was quite an unexpected development. Even a servant who had been wearing a gloomy face all along drew closer, as if curious about what would follow.
“The Crown Prince got angry at His Majesty just like a pubescent boy, they say. What exactly was said, I don’t know either.”
Trying to recall, Assel continued.
“His Majesty said to His Highness… roughly, um, let me add just a tiny bit of seasoning to this… ‘Why aren’t you welcoming this with open arms when it’s what you wanted?’ He laughed, saying, ‘Wasn’t it you who has been tormenting and deceiving that person because you don’t like them either?’ And then, well…”
“Well?”
“After saying that, he asked His Highness… ‘Don’t tell me, have you fallen in love?’ That’s what he asked.”
Surprise spread across the faces of the servants who heard Assel’s words.
“It was such an affectionate question, they say. Enough to freeze the atmosphere in the audience hall. They didn’t even need magic stones to cool down the heat, apparently.”
“…And then? What happened next?”
A servant who had lowered their voice even more poked Assel and asked.
“Would that be wrong?”
“……”
“That’s how Crown Prince Assad replied, they say?”
Someone who heard this let out a single exclamation.
“Can the words ‘Crown Prince’ and ‘love’ even be placed together?”
“Exactly.”
“From that pretty minister’s son to the furry puppies and kittens, no, no, just everything in this world, he looks at them like they’re pebbles rolling on the street… how could such a person like anyone?”
“Enough. Let’s stop the nonsense, what happened next?”
Someone reminded the atmosphere, lightly slapping the backs of those who were each adding their own comments.
“Oh, after that… ‘Don’t interfere in matters between me and that person,’ with those words, he cut off the conversation, they say. Then he stormed out of the audience hall.”
Assel closed his mouth, playfully dusting off his hands. He was signaling the end of the story he had.
“That’s it?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
Eh. The servants straightened their bodies, which they had bent forward to focus on the voices. They shook their heads as if disappointed. They chirped like chatty birds.
“They say the Crown Prince treats the ugly Crown Prince’s consort so, so, badly. There’s not a single rumor to believe. Right?”
“Ugly? He’s quite handsome, they say. You know Sen? The small kid. She said so.”
“Really?”
“Yes! She failed the draw and followed the monster subjugation, then got into an accident and was isolated with the Crown Prince’s consort. Sen said she was surprised by how handsome the Crown Prince’s consort was. She thought he was a prince from some kingdom.”
More precisely, he was a prince with many stories from a fallen kingdom. At least, that’s what Sen had said.
“What? Hearing that makes me needlessly curious. And I never have a reason to go to the annex palace.”
“He might have looked even more handsome after giving that annoying Matan a taste of his own medicine.”
Matan. Remembering the face of the irritating royal who was now bedridden with both legs broken, Assel clicked his tongue.
“What’s that story about?”
The servants bent toward Assel once more. Curiosity rippled in the eyes looking at him.
“It’s about what happened during the monster subjugation.”
“I don’t know about it.”
“Ah, you ladies live with your ears closed. No, on the day the subjugation force left, monsters invaded the subjugation force’s camp…”
Assel, who had lowered his voice again, continued speaking with exaggerated gestures.
The rumors surrounding Helio’s Crown Prince and his consort spread far and farther, like riding the wind, as they passed from mouth to mouth.
It was a bit later that more people began to peek at the annex palace. All of them wanted to see the fine face of the Crown Prince’s consort who had captivated the Crown Prince.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
