Chapter 157
The continuing dawn.
The cool winter wind completely dyed the sky.
Brilliant starlight fell on the surrounding background.
A garden where spring had not yet come. Nevertheless, fresh youthfulness lingered nearby.
Charlotte and I were walking side by side among such grass leaves.
Our steps left behind soft noises.
Crunch, crunch...
The season flowed calmly.
A gentle westerly wind blowing.
Golden and platinum blonde hair fluttered lightly as if disheveled.
I gazed to the side along with brushed back bangs.
"......"
Charlotte was sunk in silence.
Without saying anything.
She just crossed the scenery full of winter.
She had been in this state constantly since witnessing me coughing up blood just before.
Gloominess could be read in her eyes.
'Did I worry her too much?'
What was contained on her delicate features was an expressionless face.
It wasn't much different from usual.
But. As we had spent time together so far, I was now able to read the emotions reflected beyond her pupils.
The calmly sunken blue eyes were surely containing sadness.
Noticing that, I opened my mouth first.
"I'm fine."
"......"
"Though I overdid it more than expected, it's trivial to call it a problem."
"But you coughed up blood. While breathing as if in pain."
"I wasn't particularly in pain or anything..."
"Another lie."
"Oh my."
A somewhat sulky voice.
It seemed she was quite angry.
I spoke along with a bitter smile.
"It seems I made Your Highness worry."
"......"
"I'll be careful from now on."
"That's not what I wanted to hear."
"Pardon?"
Blue eyes gazing straight at this side.
Beyond the transparent surface, only the golden-haired boy was fully contained.
"Yuda doesn't tell me at all when he's having a hard time."
"Well, that's because I'm not having a hard time. I can't complain without any particular reason."
"That part."
Poke-.
A thin finger poked my cheek.
Brows slightly furrowed.
Nevertheless, because her expression was gentle, she only looked cute.
The characteristically unwavering blue expressed dissatisfaction.
Perhaps it was quite an accumulated emotion?
"There were many things that should have been hard."
"Nothing particularly comes to mind."
"Every time it's painful and hurts, you try to hide it like now."
"Everyone lives holding some secrets."
"Yuda has too many of them."
"Aren't I normal?"
Conversation running parallel lines.
As I avoided each clinging point one by one, there was one sentence that pierced my heart for a moment.
It was a short question.
"Are you perhaps afraid?"
"......"
Just a question.
A sentence not even specifying what to be afraid of.
Nevertheless, I couldn't answer immediately.
Perhaps it was because of the countless branches of yesterday and tomorrow?
Rusty memories stealthily bloomed in my head.
I
-Brother!
I shook off needless thoughts.
Afterwards, I smoothly deflected the girl's question.
"Is there anyone in the world without fear?"
"That's not what I asked."
"The right answer can't always come back every time."
"Yuda is mean. You always deflect words like this."
"Huhu... Isn't meanness my charm?"
"Maybe so."
Charlotte nodded plainly.
I stroked her head in thanks anyway.
The sensation of elegant hair touched my fingertips.
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"Mm..."
The girl silently accepted the touch.
'She's docile.'
It wasn't a bad feeling.
Because becoming someone's worry meant being that precious of an existence.
In fact, Charlotte often showed diverse emotions when with me.
Unlike her usual stiff and emotionless appearance.
-Yu, Yuda... don't die.
Last time when I was injured, she even shed tears.
It meant that though she looked blunt, she was still a tender child inside.
Though there were parts that couldn't be grasped because she was so four-dimensional, even that wasn't with bad intentions.
Swish-.
I carefully withdrew my hand.
Charlotte remained quiet.
Whether the person herself realized it or not.
Our relationship was deepening as much as the flowing seasons.
"......"
Silence sinking.
But, the gloominess wasn't lessened in the girl's gaze.
It seemed she had something to keep thinking about.
This time it was my turn to ask.
"Your Highness."
I quietly asked.
"What are you thinking about so much?"
"Hmm...?"
"Do you have some worries?"
"Well. I don't know either."
Charlotte answered carefully.
While doing so, her blue eyes looked up at the distant night sky.
As if chasing the fading starlight following the receding night.
"My heart is turbulent."
"Turbulent."
"It's empty... like there's a hole in my heart."
Was it because it was right before dawn?
The dawn was particularly dark.
'Emptiness' pronounced in pitch darkness holds a strange magic.
As if stepping into a void that can't be escaped if careless.
The girl's gaze just wandered without finding stars.
"Elise's curse was finally broken."
"You don't feel it much?"
"No. I'm extremely happy. I've lived my whole life thinking only of that."
"Your Highness was always desperate. To the extent of personally recruiting famous doctors, reading various books, and even chasing after heretics sometimes."
"Yuda doesn't know anything."
"I hear I have fairly sharp ears."
"Mm. Then the story will be quick."
Charlotte.
A child who always lived with the single-minded thought of saving the rose.
If it was devotion she had offered for her younger sister, it was no less than the emperor's, if not similar.
Was she confused because of that?
The girl's gaze was clearly wavering.
A quiet voice resonated.
"I don't know what to do now."
That's because.
"I always only thought about saving Elise. I've never imagined afterwards."
Purpose of life.
Charlotte had lived prioritizing that over herself.
Her sick sister was always first for her.
'But.'
Now it wasn't.
A miracle had found them, and the wish was fulfilled as it was.
She no longer had to cling to anything.
But, from now on the girl had to think about the future.
The tomorrow and future she would live herself, which she had never imagined because she was clinging to her purpose.
The girl's confusion originated from such a sense of dissonance.
I quietly answered.
"I think I understand."
"Really...?"
"Why do you think I don't know?"
I went through similar things too.
A younger sister given a terminal diagnosis.
Looking back on my past life, we had no time to imagine tomorrow.
Because even getting through today was a burdensome task.
"Being able to imagine tomorrow is a blessing. It means you're comfortable enough not to worry about today. I too once had a time when I couldn't imagine tomorrow. Though it's been a very long time ago."
"......"
"Your Highness is confused, right?"
Things children often worry about.
What to do in the future, what kind of person to become, or who to love.
The girl had no answers to all those things.
More precisely, it was her first time.
"Yeah... I think that's right."
"An unfamiliar path is always scary."
Duty and devotion.
Iron chains that had bound your limbs for a long time.
But
"Nevertheless, you must move forward."
Now nothing bound you anymore.
Because my light had broken the restraints.
A sense of liberation known for the first time.
You had come to live your life belatedly.
A life that could chase your own tomorrow, not chasing someone else's shadow.
It wasn't just the rose or emperor I had saved.
"Because you now have a tomorrow to step into."
My salvation reached your tomorrow.
Color was added to the world that had been gray.
Before she knew it, Charlotte's eyes were looking up at this side.
Soon a small question was heard.
"...Then. What should I do now?"
"You should find a new goal."
An answer without hesitation.
I added a faint smile to my lips.
"Your Highness should choose."
What to do in the future, what kind of person to become, or who to love.
Because you will have your own life and path.
Because now nothing binds you anymore.
You have finally come to have complete steps.
"Freedom."
"......"
"That's the name of the gift I gave you."
Swish-.
I lightly caressed the girl's cheek.
Warm body heat dyed my palm.
As I felt the soft skin, soon transparent blue eyes met my gaze.
The platinum imperial princess was in a daze with fluttering winter as background.
It was a beautiful scene.
"Just what are you..."
A voice unable to continue.
Dew gathered in blue pupils forming a pond.
That transparency soon shimmered some dawn.
I deliberately whispered mischievously.
"It's morning soon."
There are people who don't suit the night.
Charlotte was that type.
Apart from personal preference, she was a person who should stay in the morning.
Because she was too snow-white an existence to stay in such a gloomy place.
The role of despairing in the gutter was enough for adults.
Night is for them.
And for me.
-Answer me, Elise.
-Can I who couldn't even save you... really command the empire?
-I'm afraid I won't be able to save anyone this time either.
-I'm just infinitely small.
The girl from the original work who muttered like that wasn't here.
This time she didn't lose her sister, didn't lose her father, and wasn't deprived of her will to live.
I made it that way.
-Is this what it means to be an adult?
I wanted her to always be young.
I wanted her to remain a child who was quirky, pure, and sometimes innocent like now.
Moreover, I wanted the ending you would face to be complete happiness.
With such a wish, I had stepped into the story.
Breaking through countless bad endings.
"...Thank you."
Had emotions finally welled up?
Lines of water flowed down.
The paint drawn on snow-white cheeks was so straight without even a trace of brush, it fully contained overflowing emotions.
Joy, sadness, affection... at the end of various mixed emotions was a pronunciation that hadn't existed before.
Perhaps it was an emotion Charlotte had never experienced until now.
But for now she was busy shedding tears.
"For saving Elise, for saving father..."
Arms carefully extending.
The girl then fell into this side's embrace.
As if melting with her small body heat.
"And for saving me."
Thank you.
Though it was a short sentence, the sincerity was clear.
My heart softened at the desperate embrace.
Charlotte had buried her face in my chest, but soon raised her head and met my eyes.
The blue contained in the pond was no longer wavering.
Just calm waves rose.
"You saved my everything."
A throat gradually getting wet.
But, the girl continued speaking as clearly as possible.
"If I have a new goal, it's you. Yuda."
Only you.
The one I can believe in.
The one I can lean on.
The one I can give my heart to.
I
"I... will live for you from now on."
Charlotte's smile returning along with such words.
It wasn't a smile of faint brightness like usual.
She was smiling so brightly her mouth corners curved to become a crescent, her eye-smile about to become a waning moon.
It was a perfect smile that couldn't be seen even playing the original work thousands of times.
I answered with a quiet whisper.
"I'll be looking forward to it."
"Mm...!"
Our voices echoed resonating.
I too held a calm smile.
Whoosh-.
My bangs fluttered in the rustling winter wind.
As I briefly tidied my obstructed vision, soon a faint heat dyed the back of my hand.
It was sunlight.
"......"
The scene of morning dawning could be seen beyond the horizon.
For a moment, every instant passed slowly.
Rays of the sun rising over the clear night sky.
A platinum ecstasy brilliantly breaking along gentle swells.
Fragments of radiance advancing straight through the darkness of dawn.
That hot resonance illuminated the girl, making her platinum blonde hair that had been dark dazzling again.
Charlotte's steps no longer remained in the night.
She was now standing in the morning.
"Tomorrow has dawned."
I muttered.
Light was bright for everyone.
***
Like that.
All schedules at the imperial palace were completed.
Peace coming after a fierce war.
I intended to spend time leisurely until returning to the academy.
But...
"So, Young Lord Snakers."
"Did you call me, Your Majesty?"
"I have something to ask."
"If it's a question, I'll gladly receive it."
"Which of Charlotte and Elise do you intend to marry?"
"...Pardon?"
Marriage?
What is this sudden talk about?