EIITAB - Chapter 17 < In This One Flower Petal, I Can Always Go Back To That Day >

EIITAB - Chapter 17 In This One Flower Petal, I Can Always Go Back To That Day

Even If It Is Trampled And Broken

The voice was a metallic sound, with the throat slightly cracked due to frequent coughing. At her answer, Aslan's face hardened even more and he immediately asked a question.

"Why?" 

"... I feel like I have no reason to live." 

His face was distorted with disapproval. The eyebrows narrowed and the dark eyebrows crinkled as if they were about to meet at any moment. 

Hestia lowered her head like a guilty person and mumbled. 

"My parents also passed away... I feel so lonely."

Tears welled up in Hestia's eyes again and ran down her cheeks. Aslan, who was looking down at her sobbing with his complicated feelings, suddenly opened his mouth. 

"You have to live. I'm living too." 

Hestia responded to those seemingly indifferent words by whimpering. She was a figure that had never been seen by others. 

"You and I...... different. You can meet your father when you return to the north. But there is no way for me to meet my parents... Except dying." 

"Do you think that if you go like that, His Majesty the King and the Queen will say that you did well?" 

"..."

"Live. One way or another. Set foot on this land." 

"Huh, huh. The reason, the reason... There is none." 

Hestia's shoulders trembled slightly as she could hardly stop crying. Aslan stretched out his arm to comfort her, but could not bring himself to touch her body and instead wrapped her hand and squeezed it. 

He continued, swallowing his deep sigh. 

"If you need a reason to live, I'll be that reason." 

"... Yes?" 

Hestia fixed her tear-filled violet eyes on him. He spoke bluntly, with a somewhat angry look on his face. 

"Live for me." 

Hestia's pupils trembled. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she heard words she had never thought about before. Meanwhile, Aslan swallowed his sighs. How should he now convey that he is truly sincere? Aslan, who did not know how, ignorantly repeated the same words several times. 

"I care about the Princess. So please live. I will be sad when the Princess dies." 

If he keeps talking, she might end up brainwashed. Even so, Hestia... She wished she lived. Sincerely...

"Make me your reason for living. Hold on like that." 

Looking at the tears filling her purple eyes again, he gritted his teeth and spoke again. 

"Then, I will come pick you up sometime." 

"Me... You're coming to get me?" 

She asked again with a look of disbelief on her face, and Aslan nodded his head as soon as she finished her question.

"Okay, certainly."

 That was the word Hestia needed most. A place where you can run away. Hestia now has someone she can rely on. As she couldn't hold back and lowered her head, tears poured down her face. Her voice was so choked that it was hard to hear, but she lifted her lips and spoke in a whisper. 

"Do I have to keep my promise?"

"Okay." 

Aslan was not bothered and nodded several times to the same question.

Hestia asked sniffling her nose, having barely stopped her crying. 

"Don't you want to see your parents?" Why not?

But Aslan could not answer easily. This was because he knew that just a few days later was the anniversary of the death of the previous King. Hestia, who did not know what interpretation of his consideration, took pains to convey her words of comfort with a smile on her face.

"I hear reports of Duke Kalati's victory very often. It must be because he was healthy and had no injuries. So please wait a little longer. I'm sure you'll meet again." 

Who is comforting whom? Aslan's lips turned white as he suppressed the urge to click his tongue at any moment. 

'That's stupid!'

Just one month before Hestia became a Saintess, Her parents, the King and Queen, died in a carriage accident while on inspection. At that time, it was possible to travel between the South and North.

Although the weather was cold, it wasn't so much that she couldn't survive. Those who could afford it moved south, but those in need could not easily leave their home. So, since there were a considerable number of people left in the north, Hestia's parents, King Butcher, released the relief supplies and went on an inspection trip to the north in the hope of appeasing the public sentiment and taking care of them. 

Then he got into a carriage accident and passed away without any time to do anything. At the same time as the state funeral, Yorgos, the King's younger brother, ascended to the throne. And Hestia's situation became quite difficult. She is a Princess who is only 11 years old. It would have been right for her uncle Yorgos to collect the money, but he did not want to do that. This was because he was a child who was of no help to his royal authority. That didn't stop him from sending Hestia to the monastery, and she couldn't handle the jeers she would hear. 

In that way, Hestia's position was greatly undermined, and she almost became a problem for the royal family. However, it was the 1000th day since winter began. 

On January 1, 1089, Hestia received the call of God and was awakened as a Saintess. She noticed that the Saint had not appeared for a while. Everyone was delighted because she was a Saintess who appeared during a symbolic time when 'winter' continued. 

She was quite fortunate for Yorgos as well. Because for the first time, his cumbersome nephew, who had been giving him trouble as she did not know where to live, was of use.

Moreover, he was able to show quite a bit of condescension to the temple, which raised his arrogance to the highest level.

The situations surrounding Hestia changed rapidly every day as if riding a torrent, but she did not take care of anyone. She was the center of everyone, but she was marginalized and lonely.

"I meant what I said earlier." 

Aslan did not answer the question of whether he missed his family and ended up saying something stupid. 

"I will definitely come get you. But even before then, there comes a time when you want to quit everything." 

He took a deep breath. 

"Come to Kalathi." 

Golden eyes looked straight at the little girl. 

"Because I will become your family." 

It was an oath. He said that he would also protect this little girl who soothed his loneliness. 

Hestia looked surprised for a moment at his unexpected words, but then her eyes widened beautifully. Aslan, who realized that she was listening to what he had to say, felt like shouting. So he added to her words one more time. 

"Whenever." 

Hestia did not respond but just smiled. Aslan thought that that smile somehow smelled like a flower.

Since the day Hestia fell into the pond, the distance between Aslan and her has narrowed at once. 

On the surface, nothing had changed from before, but the psychological distance that only the two felt was quite close. It was as if the high wall that separated the two had been torn down at once. The two people exchanged feelings that went beyond friendship. He understood her, and she knew him. The time the two were able to meet was very short, but it was meaningful enough to each other that they were willing to endure the long wait. 

Aslan and Hestia realized through a series of events that the exchange and depth of emotions are never proportional to time. 

Then one day it happened. Hestia, who had visited Aslan's palace while avoiding other people's eyes, quickly stretched out her hands rather than greeting him. 

"Aslan, Can you take this?"

Hestia, who called him by his name, shyly offered him something. It was a pressed flower. It looks exactly like her eye color. 

"...This." 

"It's a flower called sweet pea." 

The flowers were dried and solidified in wax tablets with flavoring. 

"It was difficult to shape the stem because it was thick... Still, I bought it because I thought you would like it if I gave it to Aslan. It looks a bit weird, but it looks the best out of all the things I've made." 

"Wait for a second." 

Aslan's eyes slowly closed and opened at her words. 

"You thought I might like it?" 

There was a slight hint of bewilderment in the voice that asked the question. However, Hestia did not flinch at all and immediately nodded her head. 

"You like it. "Looking at flowers."

"..!" 

Golden eyes widened for a moment. Hestia, who was looking at that scene with a smile, couldn't hold back any longer and burst into laughter. Aslan cleared his throat and looked away as if he was embarrassed. 

"Who, who enjoys that?"

There was a shyness in his unusually mumbling voice. Hestia, who watched his actions with a little more laughter, added a small word.

 "Actually, the best thing is to admire fresh flowers. I think so too. But still......." 

Aslan hardly accepted the gift and only looked at it with his eyes. Hestia placed pressed flower wax directly into his hands and then continued speaking. 

"Isn't it quite romantic to keep a memory pressed into a single flower petal?" "

"Romance..." 

Asian rolled his wax tablet in his hand and pondered each word she said. 

"When I look at pressed flowers, I can always think of them again. With this one flower petal, I can always go back to that day."

"..." 

"Isn't that right?"

Only then did his golden gaze settle on her. Like her hair gently swaying in the blowing wind.

Aslan felt like his heart was shaking like that too. No, he was shaken already.

Long before the wind even blew. Like her hair gently swaying in the blowing wind.

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