Chapter 24

(Please take note: The author typically writes in Berylia’s point of view whenever she’s in the scene, but later in this episode, she doesn’t. It’s sort of from Rixus’ point of view, though the author still kept it in 3rd person.)

At the time, Deborah had just been married to the Duke of Douglas.

Naturally, she had not yet established a place in the social world.

Octavia was kind to such a political newcomer.

But the more she did, the more Deborah hated and envied Octavia.

She burst into anger, believing that Octavia was ignoring her and showing her pity as she was a peasant from a countryside baron family.

In the end, Deborah plotted a cunning scheme and accused Octavia of embezzling foreign funds, and handed her over to the Pan-Continental Tribunal.

Lucia had to watch her mother being dragged in a miserable way right before her eyes.

It was heartbreaking, sad, and unfair.

However, what the people in Aktoum could do to the verdict of the Pan-Continental Tribunal… There was nothing.

In the end, Lucia lost her mother to a prison in a foreign country.

Afterwards, Lucia realized who’s trap her mother had fallen into when she saw the maids of the Hermes family, who testified of her mother’s embezzlement, absorbed into the Douglas family as maids.

Who created that meticulously crafted ledger?

However, they were already on the verge of paying a huge fine.

There was little chance of finding evidence now.

Inevitably shedding tears of blood, Lucia gave up on the path of a knight and set out to earn a living.

Her sister’s life was in Lucia’s hands.

So this kind of insult… Still, she had to endure it.

“A young girl from a beggar family like Hermes has such a magic stone earring… If it’s not stolen, what is it?”

Blatant ridicule crept across Deborah’s lips.

“These are Her Majesty’s Earrings.”

“…….”

“I have the earrings by order of Her Majesty. So…”

Deborah’s eyes narrowed slightly when she heard that it belonged to the queen.

Lucia spoke as if she chewed and spat out the words.

“You wouldn’t dare to trample on her earrings.”

“……”

Everyone here understood the condensed implications of the word ‘dare’.

It meant that she ‘purposely’ trampled on the queen’s earrings.

Deborah’s eyes shook in confusion and conflict for a moment.

In fact, insulting the queen’s handmaiden was a challenge to authority, but destroying her belonging was a greater sin.

But to step back like this would only hurt her self-esteem.

Because it was indirectly surrendering to Berylia’s authority

However…

“…Such luck!”

What else could she do? After all, the opponent was the monarch of Spinel and she was only a duchess.

Deborah stepped back, it was clear from her expression that her self-esteem was hurt.

Lucia stared at her silently as she picked up the magic stone earring and dusted it off. The skin on the back of the hand that had been trampled on was red.

The arrow from Deborah’s broken self-esteem returned to Lucia.

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that your position has risen just by the fact that you’ve become the queen’s handmaiden.”

“……”

“Can’t you always follow in your mother’s footsteps?”

Deborah’s venomous tongue hit Lucia wildly.

“Because the ‘Blood of Thieves’ is flowing in you.”

In an instant, Lucia’s eyes went blank. Deborah spat out words that could pierce the opponent’s heart and left the place.

An indescribable sadness filled the eyes of Lucia, who was left alone.

‘One day I will surely repay this humiliation.’

There would surely be an opportunity to return this misery to her.

Lucia exhaled deeply and shed hot tears.

…However, there were times when such opportunity comes unexpectedly quickly.

* * *

This was a story about an old myth.

According to a myth that had spread across continents, the gods did not give humans two eyes in the first place.

The gods took away both eyes in return for giving high wisdom to humans.

This was because it was expected that humans would become arrogant if they even had eyes.

However, Gaara, the god of early summer sunlight, saw the world shining brightly whenever she exercised her power, and felt sorry that humans could not see this beautiful sight.

In the end, Gaara gave humans eyes as a gift, and the creator gods, who were angry at this, imprisoned Gaara in the prison of the gods, Titan.(T/N: In Greek mythology, the prison of gods is typically known as Tartarus. But I’m just going with what the raws state, 타이탄, which is Titan.)

Titan was an island perched on a sheer cliff, so high that even birds could not reach it.

The gods imprisoned here would usually go crazy with loneliness and lose themselves.

But a human male climbed up the sheer cliff.

He was known as the ‘Warrior of the Sky’ because his valor was rumored even to the heavens where the gods were.

Gaara asked.

“Heavenly warrior, why are you looking for me?”

The warrior answered.

“My God, Gaara, I have come to this place while searching for the most beautiful things in the world with the eyes you have given me.”

The warrior loved the god and endured the time of punishment together with Gaara on the sheer cliff.

The time spent together was no longer a punishment. The two fell in true love.

When the God of Mist, who had been covering Titan, learned of this news, he asked the God of Thunder to strike a lightning bolt on the warrior’s body and shatter it.

Gaara wept and hugged his remains.

And by breathing the breath of life into the heart of the warrior which had not yet cooled down, she wanted to be together forever.

The early summer sunlight shone on them, and the body of the god slowly oxidized.

Gaara whispered in tears.

《Great warrior, I offer you the breath of Gaara》

It was the meaning of the ancient words engraved on the oak wooden box that Rixus gave to Berylia.

《 Baren Lomoso Pretinas 》

Berylia thought while touching the intaglio with her fingertips.

‘The necklace he is giving me…’

It was crafted from artifacts from the Aktoum imperial family…?

It was a much more precious treasure than she expected. She didn’t expect this.

At that moment, Rixus slowly opened the chest made of oak that was older than them.

The necklace he had sent her was laid on high-quality fabric.

Among the diamonds that glowed in hundreds of fragments under the soft lighting, there was the jewel.

A blue-violet artifact that radiated a much paler and more splendid light than the diamonds.

The warrior’s heart, it was a treasure of the imperial family that God had breathed into.

There was a legend that if you hold this, the power of the gods would be exerted when your life was in danger.

It was the pride of the imperial family and a symbol of fear for the enemies who wanted to destroy Aktoum.

Berylia said in a shaky voice.

“…I thought the Emperor would have it.”

Rixus smiled bitterly.

“If he had it, he would have been safe by now.”

Apparently, the emperor loved his son too much.

Considering that he inherited the artifacts of the imperial family so early.

This artifact would shatter once the force was exerted.

Ever since Rixus found out about it, he never had it on his body.

He cherished it and wanted to give it to his girl someday.

Exchanging his father’s spirit and his mother’s life… 

Because it was his most precious thing.

That’s why he jumped into the ice lake.

“…You can hang it yourself.”

Berylia slowly turned around, and Rixus quickly hung the necklace around her slender neck.

The necklace that finally found its owner shone brightly.

Berylia had a slightly difficult face as she touched the necklace with her fingertips.

“I got it because of a promise…but if you want it back, I’ll give it back anytime.”

“Don’t think like that.”

“This is too precious for me to receive.”

“That’s why I’m giving it to you.”

“……”

“I want to give only the most precious thing I have.”

Long ago, in an undelivered note, he had promised.

I will use my eyes, heart, and life for you.

That feeling hadn’t changed in the slightest. Rather, he swallowed his longing for as much as the time they were apart and it grew stronger and more affectionate.

Berylia was fiddling with the necklace containing those feelings.

“……”

Rixus’ heart burned slowly as he looked at her.

‘You said you forgot me all this time.’

If so, this kind of favor might be burdensome or overwhelming.

‘I wish she could accept it… If she accepted it, I would jump into the ice lake a hundred or a thousand times.’

At that time, while swallowing her nervous heart, Berylia asked.

“How have you been?”

“……”

“I wondered how you’ve been all this time. I was the only one talking earlier.”

“I…….”

After leaving Berylia, Rixius’ eyes soon went blind again.

In that state, while evading the pursuit of private soldiers, he was pierced by a sword and almost died.

While wandering through death, Rixus had a dream in which Berylia appeared.

‘You have to get up,’ she said. So he was able to open his eyes.

After that, it took two full years to find and defeat the curse magician… 

After returning to the Imperial Palace, it was the same as before.

The desperate days of struggle to survive.

In the murky life whereby there was only darkness, Rixus lived while thinking of the girl’s face as if it was a shining light.

On the days he felt like dying, he went back to the past, stroking the memories he had with her, and returned to reality.

Then he wanted to survive. He wanted to live diligently and keep his promise to her.

Then, when it rained at night… Rixus knelt down and looked towards Spinel all night long.

He wondered if she was crying, holding her breath alone with her small shoulders.

It was around that time that he hated the sound of rain.

There were times when he could not stand the longing and secretly escaped from the Imperial Palace and ran to the hut. There was no trace of her, but there he waited for her all night alone. Then the longing was relieved a little.

How many years had he been in love alone?

The news came from Spinel that an odd-eye king would ascend to the throne.

Finally, at the coronation ceremony held at Breathbridge, Rixus returned to see Berylia. 

From afar, she was the size of a fingernail, but when he put her in his eyes… He missed her so terribly that he couldn’t stand it for even a second.

He wanted to bring her back even if he had to wander through the poison swamp again and again, but his position in the Imperial Palace was very unstable.

But now there seemed to be a way.

He had been planning since then. A way he could be with her a little earlier.

It was for this reason that he took a risk and established himself in the Imperial Palace by force.

Thanks to this, Rixus could not live peacefully even for a single moment.

Without Berylia, his life was completely dark.

“I…….”

Rixus looked at her and smiled, his lips drawn into a comfortable arc.

“I’ve been well.”

There was a moment of relief in Berylia’s expression.

Rixus wrapped his hand around her cheek and patted it. There was a feeling of affection in every touch.

“I’m waiting for someone so pretty, there’s no way I couldn’t have been well.”

Berylia’s cheeks reddened slightly.

“Is that right, Candy?”

“…I told you not to call me Candy.”

As Berylia glanced at him and pushed him away slightly, Rixus smiled and brought his handsome face to her nose.

And with a polite, languidly low tone,

“Candy.”

He called again.

Berylia’s heart tickled.

“Why do you call me that…?”

“I have a small favor to ask you.”

“A request?”

“I don’t want you to draw a line in advance towards me.”

Rixus had been longing for her for a long time, but she must be unfamiliar with him. He could tell just by looking at how she sometimes flinched and tried to push him away and the expressions she made then.

So, Rixus carefully expressed only one very small part of his heart.

He was afraid that if he showed all his heart, she might feel burdened.

And he was afraid she would run away.

“Don’t run away. At least, please just stay still.”

Towards her, who was guarded like a sensitive deer, he gently kissed the back of her hand.

“Because I’m going to approach you”

Berylia’s gaze was quietly drawn to his dawn-like eyes.

“If you’re willing to give me a chance…”

“……”

“Please wear this necklace on the day of the high priest’s visit.”

Even as Rixus said that, he was not sure. Would she come wearing the necklace or not?

It was solely up to Berylia’s heart.