From that day on, I went around the patronage whenever I could. However. I never saw him again until a large elm tree was planted in the place where the dying bird was found, and the humble backyard was filled with colorful flowers.
I felt a sense of loss, as if I had lost a treasure I had accidentally found. I wish I had ignored the nanny's call at that time..
My father, who was supposed to come to see me, did not show up that evening, and my mother did not look for me either.
I regretted the whole time as I ate a tasteless dinner surrounded by cold maids.
I was going to chase after him. If I had been sleepy, I would have taken him away as if I couldn't win. As I lay under the cold blanket, I became more desperate for the big, warm hands that had wrapped me around him.
Maybe he wasn't an illusion created by my loneliness. Just as I had fallen into such suspicions, the boy appeared in front of me again.
Do you know? It would be correct to say that I found him.
The seasons changed, and I was eight or nine years old, and the heat poured down from the sky instead of raindrops.
As I passed through the long corridor leading to the Emperor's Palace, I was drawn by the roaring sound of cheering and turned my head toward the large arched window. In a large clearing dyed white in the summer light, apprentice knights in black circots were wielding wooden swords.
Despite nearly thirty trainees, my gaze flew naturally toward him, like a moth to a spark.
His faded, flax-colored blond hair shimmered with silver in the intense summer sun. It was the first time I had seen him take off his hood, but I recognized him at once. It was the boy who had appeared in the early spring rain.
I leaned my upper body over the windowsill to get a closer look at him.
The blue-eyed boy was showing off his no-frills movements that made him stand out from the other trainees.
His long, flexible limbs moved gracefully and powerfully, and the sound of the wind seemed to cut through the air.
"That guy... Do you know who it is?"
The old servant who followed me to take me to the Emperor cast a nonchalant glance at the window.
"These are trainees who are training to join the Imperial Guard. They are all descendants of prestigious aristocratic families."
He didn't seem to be interested in who I was curious about.
The servant gave me a disapproving look.
"Your Majesty is waiting. Let's go."
Reluctantly pulling myself away from the window, I walked out the silent corridor like a tomb. It was to meet my biological father a few months after I entered the imperial palace, but I didn't get much of an impression.
In the past, when I saw the Emperor from a distance when he visited the Taren family, I did not think that he was my father.
The sullen-faced man didn't show much interest in me, and I just didn't like the man who was taking my mother's affection.
This was also the case after I was formally inducted into the imperial genealogy.
Entering the spacious, ornate room, I stared warily at the towering man standing with his back to the light.
There was silence as the man sat silently over the massive walled desk and spoke, his eyes fixed on the parchment document.
"From now on, you must learn the etiquette of the imperial court."
Then he put his seal on the paper.
I waited for him to look up and see me. But his eyes didn't reach me until a long time passed.
I couldn't understand it at all. Why does a man who loves Senevere so passionately not want to look at his own daughter, who looks just like her?
The man who was scrawling something on the table with his quill pen continued nonchalantly
"I have saved several excellent teachers for you. From now on, come to the main palace before noon and take classes. You'll have to do your best to catch up with your studies."
My answer didn't seem necessary. The man waved his hand as if to ask me to leave, and the father-daughter reunion that took place after one year ended like that.
I trudged back the way I had come, looking for the boy out the window. However, the training had just ended, and only the white summer sun was floating in the empty lot.
From that day on, every time I went to class, I would snoop on him as he was in the clearing.
I loved watching the light beads of sweat form on the boy's plaster-like face, and the faint blush on his pale cheeks from the Intense exercise.
Sometimes I even talked to him in my heart.
'Right... What happened to the bird? Did it die in the end? So you buried it somewhere? Or did you fly the healthy bird far away?'
I wanted to look into his eyes and talk to him just like I did on the day we rained together. I wanted to see if he still had a silver crown in his eyes.
That urge became unbearable.
As I was staring out at the theater, leaving my history class behind, a dark shadow fell behind me.
I turned around. My mother, who had not seen a peep for half a month, stood between the boundary of light and shadow.
It was a face I used to see every day. Still, I felt my heart stop for a moment.
Senevere, elaborately adorned to match the dignity of the Empress, seemed to have gathered all the beauty imaginable by man. Even the elven wizards who frequented the Taren family did not dare to touch her beauty.
"What were you looking at like that?"
Senevere looked down at her daughter and asked.
I looked up at her blankly, came to my senses, and quickly fell from the window. For some reason, I was reluctant to talk about the boy.
But Senevere seemed to immediately notice what was at the end of my gaze.
The Empress turned her head out the window and smiled meaningfully at the tall blond boy.
"He is the son of the Grand Duke of Sheerkhan."
I looked up at her, surprised. I guessed that he was a nobleman from a high-ranking family, but I didn't expect him to come from such a great family.
The deep blue eyes lit up meaningfully, as if the Empress could see through her daughter's heart.
"Do you want that child?"
My face was red, and I didn't say anything.
Just by looking at her daughter's expression, Senevere seemed to have gotten an answer. She laughed amusingly, bent down to kiss her daughter's cheek.
"I can give him to you if you want."
The whispers sounded eerily like the sound of the wind blowing in the dark woods in the middle of the night. Senevere straightened up and smiled on her red lips.
"If you want to get an award, you have to satisfy your parents' hearts first."
Sensing a faint hint of rebuke in her voice, I hurriedly hugged the history book I had left on the windowsill. Then I turned around and started running. I could feel Senevere's gaze tangled up in the back of my head like a spider's web.
She was the mother I missed every night. But why am I running away from her?
When I saw my mother, I was going to make a fuss about not studying. I was going to pour out all my accumulated anger and resentment on her for not staying with me.
However, Senevere, who had become Empress of the Empire, no longer seemed to be my mother. She seemed to have turned into something strange and scary, and I didn't dare to take a bite.
That night. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep until late in the day.
I wasn't very happy when I was in the Teren family, but I still had a comrade named Senevere. She was more like a best friend and comrade-in-arms than a mother. Even if everyone in the world pointed fingers at us, we could endure it together.
But now Senevere stood tall as the Empress of the Empire, and I was left alone in a strange place, among strangers.
I felt loneliness sink into my bones. I desperately wanted someone to be by my side. As long as he hugged me with warm arms and looked at me with gentle eyes, I felt like I could give him anything.
That was why. I decided to meet the boy I had only watched from afar.
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment