Chapter 22

* * *

After promising to become the girl’s home, Rixus’ condition improved more rapidly day by day.

This was because he did not skip medicine and managed himself while secretly training in swordsmanship.

He wanted himself to be a very strong, reassuring and secure home, if he was her home.

So that she would no longer hide herself in anxiety.

His life, which had just been focused on surviving, became dazzlingly hard when the goal was for a girl.

That night, too, Rixus was practicing his swordsmanship, drenched in sweat.

Usually, light was required to practice swordsmanship at night, but for him, who had become blind, day and night no longer matter.

His senses were becoming more keen, like a beast in the dark.

And right then.

A miracle happened to him.

“!”

Suddenly, the image of the things in front of him began to be captured.

As he blinked quickly a few times, his blurry eyes gradually became brighter and clearer.

In surprise, his sword-clenched hand loosened and the blade hit the ground.

“Is the curse gone?”

What the girl said quickly passed by his head.

It was said that it was a curse that reduced the function of the eyes, and the herbs could weaken the power of the curse.

“Then is my vision temporarily open?”‘

He felt it intuitively. This was just a short stroke of luck, and he would soon be blinded again.

As soon as this thought came to mind, Rixus threw his sword away and started running like crazy.

It could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance that he could use his eyes again.

If so, there was something he really wanted to see.

A face that he so desperately wanted to see until his heart was worn out.

It was the face of a girl he always only felt with his fingertips.

After almost falling several times, he soon reached the lavender forest with an urgent heart.

Breathtakingly, there were many stars in the night sky.

Below that, there are endless, barely visible, dazzling, light purple blooms… Wherever his eyes touched, there was beautiful scenery.

The soft and deep scent rushed into his nose, making his heart flutter.

‘Where are you?’

Taking a long breath, he looked around the dimly lit area. Then he found a small figure on the shore of the lake.

She was a girl with enchanting platinum hair, as if the moon was melted.

Her shoulders were small and her body was soft.

The girl looked much smaller and weaker than he could have measured with his fingertips.

‘Candy.’

Rixus licked his lips. If he called her out loud, he felt like she was going to break.

The boy’s heart jumped because he felt affection and that she was precious just by looking at her back.

Was she trying to see a bird flying by the lake?

The girl slowly turned around and showed her face.

Riksus stopped breathing for a moment.

This is because she found clear spinel eyes and diamond-colored odd eyes on her face.

Rixus narrowed his eyebrows and chewed his name inside.

‘Berylia Spinel…’

A long time ago, he heard about the princess of the enemy country who had the curse of odd-eye.

The story of a newborn child who was abandoned in a poisonous swamp as soon as she was born.

‘That’s why you didn’t tell me your name?’

She was afraid he would think she was cursed if he heard it.

‘That’s why you said there’s something terrible on your face.’

Had she lived like that all her life?

With the cursed odd-eye on her face, she didn’t even let anyone know her name.

Alone and lonely…….

Rixus recalled a rainy night when the girl’s shoulders shook as she cried.

At that time, he didn’t know where the deep sadness in her heart originated.

But now he knows it deeply.

Rixus’ face was distorted, neither smiling nor crying.

Even as she endured such a terrible life, the girl under the bright moonlight was calm and beautiful…….

Because she had a strong and calm gaze even though she carried a pitiful fate.

Rixus felt like his heart was collapsing.

He made up his mind at that moment. He would be by her side for the rest of his life.

He would embrace her loneliness and solitude and keep her warm all her life.

He would be her family.

Becoming a mother, father, brother, or husband, he would never leave her side for the rest of his life.

So that she would never feel again what it’s like to be abandoned forever.

The boy’s first love blossomed hotly, full of longing and affection and blind intense aspirations.

Rixus didn’t take his eyes off her.

Even if he went blind again, he would remember the girl’s face…… He carved her on his retina as if she was his retina.

Then it was at this time. His quick hearing caught some suspicious sounds.

“…….”

Rixus followed the source of the sound as sensitively as how a wild beast would.

‘It’s coming from the hut.’

He had a unique keen sixth sense that only humans who had lived through the dangers of death countless times throughout their lives had.

The sixth sense was warning. It’s a dangerous situation right now.

Rixus ran straight to the hut and hid himself in the deep grass nearby.

“He wouldn’t have been able to hide all the way here. I’m sure someone is helping.”

“But I’m a little worried. The Crown Prince, didn’t they say this little guy is a genius in swordsmanship? I heard that he cut the knights like demons… He cut off the knight’s captain’s arm, that little rat.”

“Pfft, are you just scared of a little child? Besides, he’s gone blind.”

It was unknown where the soldiers were from as they were all in black attire. But from the conversation, one thing was clear.

That they found him.

Rixus hid himself and glared at them like a young beast preparing to hunt.

“If you find them, you’ll kill them both. The Crown Prince and even the damn pig who hid the Crown Prince.”

The boy’s eyes radiated a ghastly fire.

Then, the neck of the man who was talking to him swung back for a moment.

The skin under the uvula cracked open and blood poured out like a fountain.(TL/N: uvula – a fleshy extension at the back of the soft palate which hangs above the throat.)

The soldier, who was drenched in blood, raised his dagger like a fang and shouted at the rushing Rixus.

“It’s the Crown Prince! Find the Crown Prince…! Ugh.”

But before the shouting stopped, it became the same as before. The torches on the side of the hut approached all at once in an eerie dance.

“It’s over there! The Crown Prince is over there! Don’t miss him!”

In an instant, Rixus at the crossroads.

Would he kill them all and stay here, or would he use himself as a bait to elude them and leave?

The former was a viable option as he could see. But if he failed, Berylia would be in danger.

Moreover, even if he succeeded, there was no guarantee that more soldiers would not come.

As for the latter case, just imagining that he had to leave her behind was painful enough to make him want to die.

…But.

‘Berylia’s safety comes first.’

His worries didn’t last long.

Rixus hid quietly in the hut while the torches flew from side to side with excitement.

Then he scribbled quickly on a small piece of paper.

These were the words that he never knew he would be writing in such a hurry.

After taking several deep breaths as he couldn’t slow his pace, he closed his eyes tightly and thought of the girl’s face, then went out of the hut as if he had made up his mind.

He blew a long whistle.

“!”

The torches carried by the soldiers all started chasing after Rixus.

He ran far, as far as possible.

The hut, the only resting place he and the girl had been staying at, gradually moved further behind him.

But the note he left behind was mischievously taken away by a strong wind… 

After returning, the girl waited for him in the hut for several days.

Then, in the end, she worked hard to sort out her sad heart.

She knew she had to let the boy go one day, and he indeed left very well.

Consoling herself, she later completely forgot the days she had spent with her natural enemy.

Only in Rixus’ heart, the love that began at that time remained like a burn, and it grew painfully in size.

Until he proposed to her who became queen, kissing her feet. 

* * *

“Rixus…!”

A desperate voice echoed over the black lake.

The lake, covered with pure white ice crystals, swallowed him up at once, unaware of what it really did.

Why did I make such a provocation? Why did I tell him to jump into that dangerous lake and pick flowers?

No matter how much I blamed myself, there was no answer from Rixus.

I was about to cry.

The cold lake that swallowed him in an instant blew a cool breeze, scattering my fine blonde hair and the hem of my white dress.

Under the black sky where the brutally beautiful stars twinkled, my eyes trembled in disbelief.

Suddenly, the ominous feeling that he was going to die rose like a certainty.

My voice trembled in vain.

“You weren’t the kind of person who would do something so stupid…”

…There were days when I wanted him to die so that I could live.

But it wasn’t like I wanted Rixus to disappear in this way.

It was just because I wanted to live, it wasn’t because I hated him…

If Rixus died like this, I thought I wouldn’t be able to live the rest of my life properly.

The shattered anxieties were sharply lodged in my heart.

Once released, the ability of snow made the surroundings even more frozen as my emotions intensified.

Ah… There was no hope at all now.

As soon as I had that thought, my arms and legs relaxed and my head bent in resignation.

But it was then.

Breaking through the thick night fog, a figure appeared on the shore of the lake.

In an instant, my heart started beating frighteningly fast.

I ran towards the figure, who was walking down the water’s edge.

As I got closer, Rixus’ broad shoulders, dark hair, and blue-purple eyes looking at me with tenderness became clearer.

A terrifying sense of relief and an indescribable intense emotion swept over me.

“…Rixus, how could you do such a foolish thing…!”

Rixus, all wet, stopped in front of me and looked at me. He smiled and held out his hand. 

It was held in that hand.

The chilly blue flower that I asked him to bring as if to prove his heart.

I stared at the flower, then looked up at him.

“…….”

Why did he do that?

For a moment, looking into Rixus’ long eyes, I thought of the boy I had met a long time ago.

The boy who hugged me with his thin body and protected my night.

At that time, the young Rixus, who warmly comforted me with unseeing eyes… 

It seemed to overlap for a moment, and I just stared blankly at his face.

Then he rolled his long eyes and smiled like the sunlight of early summer.

That smile was so beautiful that my heart pounded.

As I stood stunned, he asked me quietly.

“Do you remember now? When we met.”

“……Huh?”

He slowly tilted his chin forward and brought his lips to my ear.

And called me. With a name I couldn’t even imagine.

“Candy.”

It felt like my heart was on fire.