Chapter 155
"Let's go. Isn't this the moment you longed for so much?"
Valkaros moved forward in a daze.
Even amid the confusion, his steps didn't stop as if knowing what they desired.
Step-.
The emperor finally reached the rose's hospital bed on the opposite side.
Perhaps feeling the approaching presence?
The red-haired and platinum blonde girls were turning to look at their father.
Perhaps because it was after learning the full story about the curse, hostility no longer remained in their gazes.
But there was inevitably an air of unfamiliarity.
Of course, the man didn't mind.
"......"
Tears that wouldn't stop at all.
Valkaros couldn't even think of wiping away his shabby appearance.
He just met gazes with the children.
Several scenes brushed by before his eyes.
Even in the days when he had lost emotions, memories remained vivid.
His own footsteps that had always been cold, the children who had to be lonely because of him, the helplessness of not being able to protect them in the end.
Even his self from a few hours ago who had just disparaged the eventful ups and downs as 'futile'.
All emotions swept in like a storm.
As if making up for the blank of the past 10 years.
'I was the worst father.'
The mixed emotions had names.
Self-blame, relief, joy...
And love, love, love.
Though it was a shabby voice due to pronunciation that kept crumbling.
Valkaros spoke as if squeezing out with all his might.
"...Charlotte. Elise."
For a moment, the children's pupils wavered.
Something they couldn't hear for nearly 10 years.
Always using stiff titles like imperial princess or you, the names suddenly contained were enough to bewilder them.
On the other hand, it also became an opportunity for them to notice the emperor's change.
"Perhaps."
It was a symbol of a time lingering.
A scar that wouldn't return in the future, but also wouldn't disappear.
"Can I... hug you for a moment?"
Valkaros opened his mouth.
He knew it was shameless.
Because he was the incompetent father who had neglected them when the children were most lonely.
No matter what circumstances there were, it was an unforgivable sin.
But.
Overflowing emotions weren't something that could be controlled at will.
To the extent of thinking it was a miracle that he asked first before the feeling of wanting to embrace them right away.
The emperor was exerting superhuman patience while restraining his steps.
An instant passed like an eternity.
"......"
He was afraid inside.
Would they push him away?
Would the resentment piled up in past times return as karma?
All kinds of worries tightened the man's heart.
It was anxiety that wouldn't have existed before.
'If they refuse... I'll have to accept it.'
He had been nothing but a wound to those children.
He chewed his lips along with dilute emotions.
Silence sinking for a while.
What returned at the end of that was...
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
"It's no problem."
None other than the girls' nods.
Though they seemed to hesitate for a moment, they soon met gazes as if resolving.
Yuda watching from the side had secretly given a signal.
That it was okay.
"Ah..."
A quiet exclamation.
Valkaros spread his arms wide.
Wham-!
Warm arms embraced the two girls.
The emperor who finally crumbled lowered his head while leaning on the children.
The falling raindrops gradually increased in thickness and intensity.
Charlotte and Elise made unfamiliar expressions but soon reddened the corners of their eyes as if assimilated by the tears.
They responded to their father's embrace with timidly moved arms.
The awkward atmosphere melted away completely, mixing with the spring rain.
Valkaros kept whispering.
"Thank you... and I'm sorry."
Even while crying.
Fragments that couldn't quite be composed into words scattered in pieces.
The body heat felt after a long time seemed so overwhelming.
"Thank you for growing up so well... I'm sorry I couldn't be by your side..."
The father repeating several times.
The daughters in his arms slowly wrapped his back.
Outside the window, the sun was already setting.
The iron-clad winter that seemed eternal, painful, and sinful also met its end.
With a brilliant spring.
"Huhu."
The boy who had cultivated all that scenery just watched over them one step behind.
While holding a faint smile.
***
A hectic day passing.
Even complaints that seemed eternal became white jade in the night sky and blurred.
Though it felt like three days had passed since arriving at the imperial palace, a complete morning hadn't yet come outside the window.
It meant they had spent such a dense day.
Dawn still far from brightening.
"......"
Elise couldn't sleep.
She just tossed and turned sprawled on the bed.
Green eyes only looked up at the innocent ceiling.
It felt fresh.
It had been a long time since sleeping in the separate palace.
Until just a few months ago, she had spent her daily life here.
As she blinked her eyes for a moment, a voice was heard.
"Can't you sleep?"
It was none other than Yuda.
He was sitting on one side of the bed, watching over the rose.
It was because of her request to stay together.
Elise muttered quietly.
"Yeah... it's strange that my body doesn't hurt."
It was strange.
Should I say it felt like the shackles that had followed her whole life were loosened?
Simply not having pain... beyond that level, it felt like the gravity weighing down her body had lightened overall.
In the cut-off past, only cool phantom pain existed.
The girl clenched and unclenched her fist, then soon turned her head towards the boy.
The surroundings were infinitely quiet.
"I'm a little confused."
Particularly deep green.
Her pupils were clearly wavering.
"The feeling of being cured is faint, and I'm not sure about His Majesty either... I guess I still need time."
"I understand. It was sufficiently sudden events."
Too many things happened in just one day.
A fate liberated from the curse, a twist about her birth father, even stories she didn't know about herself.
It was content with a wide volume to accept in just a few hours.
Elise with a strange expression.
As if understanding such a reaction, Yuda calmly stroked her hair.
Feeling her inner self gradually stabilizing, the rose came to think anew.
That it was all because of this warmth.
"It's strange."
"What do you mean?"
"Since meeting you, it feels like my whole world is changing."
The girl remembered.
A few months ago.
Until then, she had been glaring at the boy in this room as if to kill him.
Every night she cut her arms and neck with a knife, spent dawn with blood and tears, hurled abusive language at her loved ones, and just waited for death to come soon.
But.
'My self from half a year ago would be shocked.'
Now she was just being gently stroked by the hand he extended.
It had changed since meeting the boy.
The briefly reminisced past left traces on the rose's heart.
Putting the needlessly rising flush behind her, Elise grasped the hand that had been stroking her hair.
And then she rubbed her cheek against that wide palm.
The warm heat calmed her breath.
"You know."
The preface dropped afterwards.
What was reflected in the leaves was deep emotion.
"I... was afraid of dying."
Words remembering past times.
Honest fear.
It was also true feelings she had always turned away from pretending to be strong.
"I didn't want to die."
No matter how numb to pain she had become, she too was just an immature girl after all.
She resented life.
Why did it have to be her?
With happiness so far away.
She waited for a lonely, desolate death alone, feeling wronged.
The Elise of that time hated all of herself.
-I should die quickly.
-If you're going to meddle in everything, you should disappear too.
-Please just give up already.
She disliked herself for hurting Tanya with harsh words.
She felt guilty for pushing away her sister with words she didn't mean.
Nevertheless, terrified.
She couldn't stop self-destructive behavior.
It felt like she would struggle in pain to the end, then go out like a tiny spark.
Because she feared such an end, the girl always lived while holding onto suicide.
If someday the depression of her life surpassed the critical point.
Along with a resolution to leave so as not to be shabby anymore.
It was the last thorn the pitiful rose held.
But.
"Then... you appeared."
You came like a star.
To the dawn not allowed even a trace of sunlight.
You gave light for the first time.
-I will give you a miracle.
-I can promise everything.
-I can fulfill the hope you had to give up.
-You just need to take my hand.
A hand extended into the abyss.
Hope that made her correct resignation.
A voice whispering she didn't have to be in pain anymore.
Your smile that waited without getting annoyed even once until her despairing self accepted.
Thanks to that, I grabbed you at the edge of the cliff.
My world greeted morning because of you.
Breaking through the terrible dawn.
"Thank you."