summary
The disgrace of the family, a bastard, the only Beta.
The Crown Prince’s s*ave, a mongrel dog.
They were all words used to describe me.
My family found me inconvenient, and the one I loved considered me nothing more than a chess piece.
So of course I thought everyone would be indifferent to my death…
At my funeral,
Brother Kayan sobbed with snot running down his face,
Sister Jane glared at His Highness as if she would kill him,
and Brother Darian struggled to reclaim my body.
But most unbelievable of all was that His Highness, who had laughed off my love even after knowing it, pulled my corpse into his arms and pressed his lips to mine.
Why are you all doing this?
“Tiel.”
It was a small voice I almost mistook for a hallucination. That faint ripple shook my heart.
The voice that turned me inside out did not end there.
“Tiel, you have to answer where you are so I can come find you.”
It was a gentle voice, at odds with the figure who looked as if he had wielded death and grief.
Spellbound by that honeyed sound, I answered before I could stop myself.
It was something I should not say, and even if I did, it would mean nothing.
“I am here.”
The rampaging movements of His Highness halted. In my blurred vision, a dim light flickered.
I extended my stiff hand and closed my fingers around the sword he held.
His Highness, who seemed ready to swing the blade at any moment, simply opened his hand.
The sword fell to the floor with a sharp sound.
“Tienas?”
His Highness breathed my name, light as the wind.
As if that were the only word he knew, I found myself nodding, drawn by something I could not name.
“Good. That is enough.”
The ever steadfast Highness collapsed into me without strength.
“As long as you are here, that is enough.”
His Highness’s eyelids, which had never once blinked, drifted downward, and stillness returned once more.
It was not a peaceful stillness. It pressed down on us like a weight.
