“Have you met another man?”
"What?"
When she raised her head in surprise, Evan's eyes were blazing with indignation.
"No. That can't be."
"But what are you talking about? Is it that easy to break a couple's vow?"
A couple's vow.
Madame Cronach was breathless with unexpected sadness.
They could not be a couple in the kingdom of Oberon.
Evan of the Vermont family and Leonie of the village of Plogne.
There was a time when they believed that their true love for each other was more important than a marriage vow with their signatures scribbled on it. They believed that if they were sincere, their happiness would be protected.
However, their relationship was like an unrecognized illusion.
If there had been a piece of paper that was considered worthless compared to the shining covenant, Claudel would not have been taken away like that.
At first, she resented the Duke of Vermont.
He seemed to be a very inhuman and cruel person who had hurled abuse at her and driven her out of the territory.
A sharp stone meets a sharp point.
Leonie’s heart was dulled by rolling and rolling.
She was just a sinner, an incompetent mother who could do nothing for her young daughter.
However, her husband was buried in the castle crypt, so who would have thought that the person she had been looking at would be alive and well?
It brought great confusion to her mind.
“It was a marriage that could not be established within the kingdom anyway,”
Madame Cronach said calmly.
“Are you saying that our relationship cannot go back to how it was before?”
“...Yes.”
She was surprised by the hit but agreed.
“So that’s why you said that. We’ve lived very different lives for ten years.”
Evan chewed over the words she had just said with difficulty.
“When have we lived the same life? When we first met, you lived sixteen years, and I lived twenty-one years.”
Madame Cronach’s eyes widened.
“Are you saying something like that after only ten years?”
Only ten years.
When Evan said it casually, the thick wall of time that had been built up around Madame Cronach’s heart became nothing more than that.
“Madame Cronach. Yes. If you’re going to use that name, let’s try again.”
He knocked on her heart.
“You who have lived for thirty-eight years and I who am forty-three.”
“...That kind of thing.”
“Leoni.”
Every time Evan called her name, her frozen heart felt like it was cracking.
“Say anything, please.”
He spoke slowly and soothingly.
Until just a moment ago, she had felt unfamiliar and scared because of the rough feeling he had given her, but Madame Cronach finally managed to say what was in her mind when he seemed to be looking after her as before.
“I feel like all the misfortunes are my fault.”
“What?”
“What was that one prophecy?”
She had never said that to anyone before.
“I don’t even know if what I heard from Arbor was true.”
Maybe she had misheard.
Maybe she had misunderstood something.
Wasn’t it a pointless thought that the country would be miserable because of a boy who was not yet mature?
Arbor’s prophecy came true.
King Valquiterre started a war.
She came to know what the vision that had passed through her like a fantasy was through this war.
The scene of fire burning across the wide plain was the scene of serfs setting fire to wheat fields before the fall harvest.
If that were true, she must have heard the voice of the sacred tree.
As a result, it was she who told Valquiterre and caused the village to be annihilated.
‘Can I say this?’
She hesitated without realizing it.
“Why is that your fault?”
“If only I hadn’t said that.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Evan said firmly.
“Nothing happens in this world without a reason.”
“Damn.”
“Valquiterre felt inferior because he was abandoned by Temnes.”
His golden eyes looked straight into Madame Cronach’s eyes.
“That had nothing to do with Arbor’s intentions. It wasn’t because of that prophecy that I became crooked from then on.”
“But if only I hadn’t said that.”
“Leoni.”
Madame Cronach shed tears.
When she thought of her young daughter, she would cry just because she felt sorry. When she thought of the Duke of Vermont, she could cry with indignation. When she thought of Evan, who had left this world because she missed him, she couldn’t cry.
She was too sorry.
The butterfly effect of what had happened because of her was so heavy that she didn’t even feel worthy of crying.
“Was you so light-hearted that you made that excuse and left?”
...Light-hearted?
When she raised her head in surprise, Evan's eyes were blazing with indignation.
"No. That can't be."
"But what are you talking about? Is it that easy to break a couple's vow?"
A couple's vow.
Madame Cronach was breathless with unexpected sadness.
They could not be a couple in the kingdom of Oberon.
Evan of the Vermont family and Leonie of the village of Plogne.
There was a time when they believed that their true love for each other was more important than a marriage vow with their signatures scribbled on it. They believed that if they were sincere, their happiness would be protected.
However, their relationship was like an unrecognized illusion.
If there had been a piece of paper that was considered worthless compared to the shining covenant, Claudel would not have been taken away like that.
At first, she resented the Duke of Vermont.
He seemed to be a very inhuman and cruel person who had hurled abuse at her and driven her out of the territory.
A sharp stone meets a sharp point.
Leonie’s heart was dulled by rolling and rolling.
She was just a sinner, an incompetent mother who could do nothing for her young daughter.
However, her husband was buried in the castle crypt, so who would have thought that the person she had been looking at would be alive and well?
It brought great confusion to her mind.
“It was a marriage that could not be established within the kingdom anyway,”
Madame Cronach said calmly.
“Are you saying that our relationship cannot go back to how it was before?”
“...Yes.”
She was surprised by the hit but agreed.
“So that’s why you said that. We’ve lived very different lives for ten years.”
Evan chewed over the words she had just said with difficulty.
“When have we lived the same life? When we first met, you lived sixteen years, and I lived twenty-one years.”
Madame Cronach’s eyes widened.
“Are you saying something like that after only ten years?”
Only ten years.
When Evan said it casually, the thick wall of time that had been built up around Madame Cronach’s heart became nothing more than that.
“Madame Cronach. Yes. If you’re going to use that name, let’s try again.”
He knocked on her heart.
“You who have lived for thirty-eight years and I who am forty-three.”
“...That kind of thing.”
“Leoni.”
Every time Evan called her name, her frozen heart felt like it was cracking.
“Say anything, please.”
He spoke slowly and soothingly.
Until just a moment ago, she had felt unfamiliar and scared because of the rough feeling he had given her, but Madame Cronach finally managed to say what was in her mind when he seemed to be looking after her as before.
“I feel like all the misfortunes are my fault.”
“What?”
“What was that one prophecy?”
She had never said that to anyone before.
“I don’t even know if what I heard from Arbor was true.”
Maybe she had misheard.
Maybe she had misunderstood something.
Wasn’t it a pointless thought that the country would be miserable because of a boy who was not yet mature?
Arbor’s prophecy came true.
King Valquiterre started a war.
She came to know what the vision that had passed through her like a fantasy was through this war.
The scene of fire burning across the wide plain was the scene of serfs setting fire to wheat fields before the fall harvest.
If that were true, she must have heard the voice of the sacred tree.
As a result, it was she who told Valquiterre and caused the village to be annihilated.
‘Can I say this?’
She hesitated without realizing it.
“Why is that your fault?”
“If only I hadn’t said that.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Evan said firmly.
“Nothing happens in this world without a reason.”
“Damn.”
“Valquiterre felt inferior because he was abandoned by Temnes.”
His golden eyes looked straight into Madame Cronach’s eyes.
“That had nothing to do with Arbor’s intentions. It wasn’t because of that prophecy that I became crooked from then on.”
“But if only I hadn’t said that.”
“Leoni.”
Madame Cronach shed tears.
When she thought of her young daughter, she would cry just because she felt sorry. When she thought of the Duke of Vermont, she could cry with indignation. When she thought of Evan, who had left this world because she missed him, she couldn’t cry.
She was too sorry.
The butterfly effect of what had happened because of her was so heavy that she didn’t even feel worthy of crying.
“Was you so light-hearted that you made that excuse and left?”
...Light-hearted?
“You pushed me away for a long time, thinking that you would have to live like a priest all your life because you couldn’t make me understand the fruit of Arbor, an outsider.”
“Ugh. Hu hu hu.”
“Ugh. Hu hu hu.”
Madame Kronach cried, her shoulders shaking. All the adults in the village had left under the wings of death. The two children who survived didn’t know much about the village. No one could understand and comfort the shock and sadness Madame Cronach felt, so the incident remained as a lump in her heart. The fact that she had put a shackle on herself as a sinner festered from the inside and slowly ate away at her.
“I can’t live well.”
She had been crying for a long time, wiping her tears with her sleeve.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”
“That’s stupid.”
Evan grabbed her shoulder with his hand.
“Do you think that’s what they want? The people of Plogne?”
It was a life where neither of them had their own. They could be happy about other people’s business as if it were their own. They were Arbor’s children born from the same family.
“Leoni.”
“Sob.”
Evan carefully wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks.
“You had a hard time alone, didn’t you?”
“Sob.”
She had been thinking that she had to punish herself the whole time. She shouldn’t have anything positive or good, like happiness or joy, for the rest of her life. She was going to take revenge on the Duke of Vermont and King Valquiterre. She tried to fill the void with emotions that she would have originally avoided.
“But I met Claudel.”
Claudel, whom she had only seen once from afar, recognized her as her mother. She had thought that she would never hear her daughter’s voice calling her “mother” again. It was such a great fortune that Madame Cronach decided to let go of her hatred for the Duke of Vermont. Because she was not worthy of such joy, and since something good had come to her unexpectedly, she was afraid that if she did not let go of her desire for revenge, the scale would tip in the wrong direction.
However, she held her lovely Julien in her arms, even helping Hannah give birth, and Kain, who treated her like a mother-in-law, her peace grew. So she even let go of her resentment toward King Valquiterre. The daily life surrounding her was so unbelievably good. However, when Evan appeared alive, fear came next.
'Is this the beginning of something very bad?'
It would be hard to be this lucky. Aside from getting close to something she thought was out of reach, something she believed she had lost had returned. Madame Cronach was afraid of the further tilt of her life. She might lose everything again, which was a very scary thing. But Evan would not leave her alone.
While Madame Cronach was in confusion and crying helplessly, Evan carefully held her and consoled her.
“I lived in hell enough while you were gone.”
Evan seemed to briefly recall the past.
“It was an endless hell. I only thought about wiping out Temnes without a trace.”
“Temnes is not at fault.”
“I saw it clearly. But you were alive and I was able to escape from it.”
Evan assured her.
“Our misfortune is not the only answer to life.”
“Evan.”
“You’re finally calling me by my name.”
Madame Cronach looked at him with a messy face.
“Leoni.”
She felt like she could live with the name she had lost once again.
***
The next day, after the three-day celebration, many of the guests hurriedly left. Many men were still feeling regretful even after drinking heavily, but since the water banquet was about to begin and the farming for the year was about to begin, they were dragged away by the women by their ears.
At a time when the afternoon sun gently tickles the babies' cheeks, Evan, Leonie, and Hannah are waiting in the living room while the toddlers are deep in their naps.
I, who arrived late with Kaian, glanced at my parents.
'Have you two reconciled?'
Until yesterday, they had seemed awkward, but today, my mother did not seem to be avoiding my father.
When I sat down anxiously, Madame Cronach said.
"The reason I called you here today is because I wanted to talk about the village of Plogne."
Hannah had once said that she and Claudel were already adults and were old enough to know the village's secrets.
"The village of Plogne?"
When Kaian asked, she looked bitter.
"I thought it would be okay to know now."
She had faithfully kept her promise with the tree that had disappeared from the world.
However, it was true that she was very drawn to Evan's words.
'If the happiness I felt for a moment were a sin, I would pay the price in hell.'
If her decision to stay by his side could be someone's salvation as he said, she wanted to try to do so.
Everyone who heard Leonie's calm explanation of the truth about the village burning incident kept their mouths shut.
What could they say?
Everyone sitting there knew about the existence and secrets of the sacred tree.
However, it was hard to believe that the conversation between the Queen and Valquiterre had caused such a huge spark.
The first one to speak was Kaian.
"Valquiterre hated me since I was a little kid."
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment