Chapter 1

Episode 1. Chapter 1. Prologue

***

My lover fell off the horse.

And he, who at one time was the most perfect man in the world, his personality along with his memory disappeared from his fall.

swoosh!

A flying dagger grazed my cheek and hit the wall on the other side, and fell down.

The blade of the sword grazed my cheek, making it sting and ooze blood.

“Oh, I missed it.”

I heard a voice, clicking his tongue in frustration.

I slowly looked up to see a handsome man who looked like he had just walked out of an ancient masterpiece, arrogantly smiling at me with his high cheekbones.

Theodore Leonne Albrecht.

He was the Lord of the most vast land on the continent and the brilliant Emperor of Albrecht. And my lover.

“It’s a shame, because I could have ruined a face as pretty as X’s.”

The man who was….

Theodore looked at the dropped dagger and me, and started laughing. Looking at him, I realized the rumors about him were true.

[I heard His Highness frequently targets those around him for his amusement.]

And the rumor was very old, over ten years ago.

I glanced down and saw my silvery hair that had fallen to the floor.

I felt a pang of sadness as I realized that those pieces of my body, cut by the blade of the sword, had fallen in flakes, just like my situation.

“What are you doing don’t pick it up?”

Hearing the crisp voice, I came to my senses and picked up his dagger from the floor.

“Here, Your Majesty.”

When I offered it nonchalantly, he raised one eyebrow as if he didn’t like something.

“Hmm…… .”

He stared only at my face, unwilling to take the dagger I offered him. Or more precisely, my poorly cut hair.

The confrontation lasted for a while, and my arms were about to go numb.

“….”

I opened my eyes carefully and stole a look at him.

He had lost his personality along with his memory, but his handsome face remained the same. Suddenly, I remembered what one extravagant man had said in praise of him.

[Beautiful Theodore! The most brilliant treasure of the Albrecht Imperial Family! Blessings of the gods be upon him!]

His dark hair was as enchantingly colored as any lonely winter night, and his golden eyes, like the sun, were like the most precious jewel in the world.

His features were as beautiful as sculptures, as if he had been created by the Southern God of ancient mythology, and his body was perfect, hidden under his ascetic uniform.

He was, after all, the most beautiful man on the continent in existence.

I loved Theodore’s handsome face and solid body.

But what I really loved was not his perfect appearance, which will always remain in history, but his kind and pure personality.

Theodore was a man who was always as warm as a spring breeze.

He was kind to everyone and as innocent as a child.

Of course, at night he was a bit like a fierce beast, but that’s besides the point.

Yes, Theo wasn’t like that in the beginning.

I thought of the warm, sunny smile he had shown me not long ago, and it was time to brace myself again.

“I don’t like it.”

With a voice that sounded terribly unhappy, he approached me with eyes filled with contempt beyond hatred.

“I would never have mistaken such a worm for anything else….”

A terrible swear word escaped from between his lips.

It was like a posthumous work, composed with the soul of a renowned musician.

The melody was so beautiful that if you listened to it for a moment, you would not recognize it as swear words.

At one time he whispered his love to me with that beautiful voice.

“Can’t you hear me?”

When I closed my ears, thinking that I could not hear his swearing, he opened his lips again.

“Get out of my sight right now.”

He gave me a stern, angry look and issued a dismissal order.

“…… I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

It was my fault for standing idly by and not listening to him, so I rushed to apologize and left.

On the way back from his office.

The clean wrist without any wounds was stinging more than the left cheek with blood.

I gritted my teeth and stepped outside, the knights who had been whispering in the hallway flocked to me.

“Are you okay, Sir Yves?”

“See, what did I say? His Majesty’s personality is a bit…”

“Not just a little, but a lot…….”

“It’s garbage…”

“Destroyed personality….”

“Can’t recycle ………”

“He is a tyrant irreplaceable in history…………”

“Albrecht’s future…”

The whispered talk was mostly snide remarks about the emperor’s personality.

“No.”

I took his side and spoke in a decisive tone.

“His Majesty is not well. That’s why.”

Yes, that’s because he’s very sick.

He fell off his horse and injured his head.

When he recovered and regained his memory, he would be back to his gentle self.

“So don’t talk carelessly about His Majesty.”

Do not speak ill of my Theo in front of me.

I stared at them and warned them fearfully.

But in spite of my protection and absolute trust, Theodore’s memory did not return.

He continued to persecute me and hurt me with his cruel voice.

“You are tenacious. How much longer can you endure?”

How long can I endure?

Theodore did not give up looking for me even after ten years had passed. Finally, he found me alive and not dead.

I could not estimate his ten years, but I knew that the months I waited for his memory was only a short time compared to the days he spent searching for me.

So I could keep waiting longer. Until my Theo would remember me again. The scar on my cheek that he had left the other day was faint and did not disappear.

People were making a big deal out of it on my behalf, wondering what to do, but I didn’t care. There was only one thing that worried me.

Theodore, the genuinely kind man who ached for my small wounds instead of me. What if he cries when he sees this when he gets his memory back?

That’s it.

That was all I was upset about.

“I told you not to stand out. I don’t want to see your face.”

It’s okay.

“How ugly are you going to look?”

It’s all right.

“It makes me sick to look at you. I wish you would just disappear forever.”

I can stand it.

“Theo…!”

I can put up with it…

I raised my head at the voice I suddenly heard.

“Theo” was a nickname that only I could call him.

But now it was a woman other than me who called him by that name. He was walking side by side with another woman.

He looked at the woman with a look and a smile that he had showed only to me.

This is…….

It hurts……

“….”

He gave a gentle smile as he locked eyes with the woman.

No.

Please don’t look at her like that.

Look back at me.

I’m right here, Theo.

I wanted so badly for Theodore to look back at me, but it didn’t work.

[I am not so foolish as to be unable to remember the woman I love. No matter what you looked like, I would have recognized you at first sight.]

That’s what I told you when we met again.

He was stroking the woman’s cheek with an affectionate touch, and gradually tilted his head towards her.

This was the moment when his lips touched the woman’s forehead.

“Hehehahha.”

A happy laugh erupted.

Theodore laughed with her, as if she was adorable.

He wrapped his hands around the woman’s head and left a few more fine kisses on it. My wrist, which shouldn’t have been hurting, throbbed again at that seductive smile that he showed the woman.

I lowered my head and looked at my clean wrist. When I raised my head again, he had those alluring eyes, and I knew exactly what kind of moment he had those eyes.

Unlike earlier, the atmosphere was a bit more tense and the woman stood on tiptoe towards him.

I didn’t dare to look any further.

Just before they kissed, I turned around.

So, this was a bit….I couldn’t stand it.

****

I had to admit it now.

The Theodore I loved in the past will never return.

The man who looked at me with contempt every time he saw me was not the same man I loved in the past.

[You’re pregnant.]

If it hadn’t been for the doctor’s words, I might have waited for his memory to come back a little longer.

But if I stay like this, that woman will kill me.

She will kill me and the child in my belly.

Wouldn’t it be too cruel to die because of the fiancée of the man who whispered his love to me?

So I’m going to let go of that love first.

“No, I’m not the one who let go of love. You let it go first, Theodore.”

There was no longer any trace of our love anywhere.

There was only one.

Except for a small trace that will disappear with me.

I stroked my flat lower belly in disbelief that I had a child.

“I still don’t feel anything………”

I’m going to leave now.

It’s two days later, before their engagement ceremony begins.

He has ordered me to escort the woman to the engagement ceremony, but I will not be protecting her.

Thinking about it again, I was a little angry.

Before he said he did not want me to ever hold a sword again.

“And after you said so, you want me to carry a sword again for that woman? You are a tyrant…”

I was chewing on a violent swear word, and suddenly I was worried that the baby in my belly would hear it, and I gasped.

“It’s okay, baby. You misheard everything. Forget all the bad words.”

I lightly tapped my lower belly and finally left him a short, angry letter.

<Goodbye, Your Majesty.

There will be no more x’s like x’s that displease you.

Think of it as an engagement present.

You looked like X when we met, and we should never meet again.

I wish you all the best and a long and healthy life. >

I stopped writing and stared at the letters on the paper. I’ve had to grow up among bad knights for the past ten years, and I’ve never been one to hold back because I couldn’t say anything bad.

I was worried that if he saw this and got angry and came to kill me…

“It’ll be fine.”

I wouldn’t be seeing him again forever anyway. The Emperor’s close knight, Yves Llewellyn, would officially be a dead person. Considering all that has been done to me, I wasn’t sorry to leave. So I lifted my fountain pen again.

<By the way, do you know this?

You have the most X-like face. XX>

I scribbled two more sentences without regret and left him.

****

*X=cursing