Chapter 252 - 'Love'?

The first continent had reeked of destruction and death—

A magician with his round glasses cracked, had lied flat on the floor, crawling. He left a trail of blood behind as he crawled. Orwell Lotheringwood was defeated by a warlock general, Greed. 

The building was on fire.

Is this how he will meet his end?

Is this really how his life would come to be?

His head was bloodied and the red liquid had tricked down to his forehead. His green eyes darted towards the burning block of wood that was about to fall towards him, but then-

"Lotheringwood!"

A girl with a light-blond hair and was wearing a dress that had intricate patterns of gold amidst the white, ragged and half-burned edges, had come to rescue her. She cast a barrier around Orwell, and immediately she rushed towards him and then threw the burning wood away by the use of magic.

"Pries…tess…" Orwell murmured.

"We will depart soon," she said as she aided him to stand, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"You will get through this," Sheilalev said. "You will survive."

**

Faustina was looking at the king with dizzy, dim ruby eyes. He parted away from the kiss, but his hand was still exploring on her body. Faustina doesn't even know what she was about to feel, or what she was supposed to feel. What was he to her? She doesn't know. He… was the king. He was a person that was important to the empire.

And Faustina… was not just a mere Heilen.

She was the daughter of the one who murdered his family.

Faustina bit her lips, and then pushed the king away with her trembling hands. 

"Your majesty…" She bit her lips. "I…"

He drew away from her, and then lifted her chin to level his gaze.

"Faustina," he said. 

"I love you."

Faustina felt as if her heart had just skipped a beat, and then it painfully clenched. Even so, it still felt peculiarly pleasant.

The king… loves her?

Faustina parted her lips to answer, but the king claimed her mouth again with a deep and passionate kiss. His mouth moved gently and nibbled onto her. Her mana no longer seeps through him, but there was something else new that kept the two of them closer…

An una.d.u.l.terated, burning heat that sent Faustina's mind shrouded, unable to let her think clearly. The king then kissed her forehead. 

Love.

That is something Faustina had never thought to before. She only loved Eula because she was the one who was with her ever since she was a child… and now that she knew that Eula was a person who was more than just her 'master,' she realized that it was a familial bond they had shared. Faustina then stared at the king.

The king loves her.

But… "What… do you mean?"

The king then stared at Faustina.

"What do you mean when you said you… 'love' me?"

She honestly doesn't know. All along, she had thought that the king was someone who she had to obey, nothing more. 

Or… is it?

Gently, the king tucked a loose strand of hair behind Faustina's ear.

"When you saw me with Lilianne," the king asked. "What did you feel?"

Faustina stared at the king's sapphire blue eyes. That's right. She did weep upon seeing Lilianne and the king… doing those things. She felt her heart thump painfully against her chest. 

"I don't know." She said.

She really doesn't. All Faustina knows is that it hurt her to see the king being with Lilianne. But she doesn't really know why.

The king then leaned to Faustina, closing the gap between them.

He kissed her.

And she let him.

"Whenever I do this," he asked quietly the moment he parted away from her. "What do you feel?"

Faustina felt dizzy. Her heartbeat was erratic—and she was feeling as if she was floating above the clouds.

"I…" Faustina started, but the king kissed her yet again. 

"What about this?" He asked. 

Faustina couldn't answer, so she pushed the king gently and glared at him. "Y-your majesty!"

The king grinned sheepishly, and Faustina's heart skipped a beat upon seeing this. He looked like a child, who has no care for the world… an innocent child who doesn't have any problems…

Suddenly, a memory flashed in Faustina's mind.

In a wintry day…

--

The sun.

Her vocabulary wasn't that wide at that time, so Faustina could only recall her thoughts about the boy and the sun. She stared at the boy's hair—the distinctive color of the sun, and eyes the color of the sky in spring.

Faustina couldn't remember most of it, but she was certain she recalled the boy running back outside with her following behind. The memory was getting fainter and fainter, but she knew that she had fun at that time.

She remembered following him until they have reached a certain part of the forest. He was a child, just like her. Faustina, at that time, didn't even think twice about following him. He had eyes like that of jewels, and they gave off a warm feeling around her—like that of summertime. Maybe that was why she followed him blindly. It was because he looked like the sun.

Faustina did not like winter, which made it more viable for her to follow the boy. He smiled at her, "do you play here often?"

To which Faustina did not reply to.

The boy was her age, not older than ten. Faustina then noticed that she didn't put on a coat as she shivered. A snowflake then fell to her cheek as she glanced upwards to the skies. It was still cold, even if the sun was at her side now. It was odd, seeing another person again. But she wasn't scared because he was a child too. Faustina only feared a.d.u.l.ts, after all. But children, such as herself, did not impose any threat to her.

Not that she had seen one.

Which is why this boy she was with had fascinated her, to the point that she had forgotten about what Eula had said (whatever that was). The only thing in Faustina's mind is that she found what the children in the books called a 'playmate'. She breathed to her cold palms, trying to heat them up. Faustina knew her nose was turning red. Eula told her that she shouldn't stay long outside because she had a weak frame—which turned out to be another reason why Faustina disliked winter.

"Here,"

Faustina couldn't remember the color, nor the designs of the cloth. But she remembered the warmth that enveloped her small body as the boy wrapped his coat around her—it had the faint smell of lavender and a scent that belonged to the boy himself. Faustina tilted her head in confusion. Why is the boy giving her his coat? Won't he be cold instead if he did?

"Let's play again, every winter, in this exact spot," he said, leaning closer to her. He was three inches taller, Faustina's head reaching just his jaw.

His lips pressed gently against her forehead as he wrapped his scarf around Faustina's neck.

"Let's meet again," he said, "my fair maiden."

--

"Your majesty…" Faustina then dr.a.p.ed her palm around her forehead, as she feels her vision blurring.

"Have we…" She murmured, "have we met before… before all of this?"

The king stared at her, "I don't think we have." 

It was odd. Faustina knew that her memories are now unsealed, so she could remember bits and pieces about her childhood.

The king. That boy was certainly the king.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "How did you find me?"

The king looked confused momentarily, and then as a reply, he simply smiled at her.

"You know," he said. "We should have breakfast first." 

The king then patted Faustina's head. "After that, let's continue our talk."

Faustina nodded as the king exited the bathroom, and then closed the door.

For a moment, there was silence.

And then, realization.

Memories of the king kissing her and exploring her body flashed in Faustina's mind. Of course, Faustina saw these things—she learned it from books that Eula so 'skillfully' hid from her. She had read about how it happens and why. She only regarded the books to be fictitious, as they only are novels. Faustina just considered Eula lonely as she read that…

But now…

The king did those things to her. He kissed her, and his hands have touched the parts of her body that no other man dared to.

Oddly enough, Faustina didn't find it repulsive. Instead, she feels a strange heat. She feels like she was burning from the inside. He felt warm, but she felt like she was being scorched. Faustina stared dizzily as she turned to the large tub that was infused with rose petals and fragrant, soapy water.

She then took her clothes off, and as they fell to the floor, she noticed a sticky thread of a slick in between her thighs.

Faustina blanked out for a moment, 

And then the next thing she knew, she was already dying out of embarrassment.