Chapter 41

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖊 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

His eyes looked like gold from the middle of the sky, a shine that brings life, but also a flame that could burn any hope.

His every move floats like a reversing fall from the water of my birth, everything about him should forever be kept like a treasured box.

But my chest felt heavy each time he gazed at me, held my hands, and pulled me by the waist.

After gazing at the Ivy tree's blossoming flower, I tried to hold on to my vows but because of a familiar voice that suddenly whispered behind me, I got pulled away from the one who'd been holding me before.

"I never thought to run into you two here," Verfeil's eyes wandered from both of us before fixing them to mine.

"Since you already have your moment with my friend big brother, then might as well have her for half of that moment?" Verfeil didn't wait any moment for Caliere's words because right before he could open his mouth, Verfeil already grabbed me by the hands and pulled me closer to him.

Then we ran away with Caliere's hand extended right in front of us like he was reaching me, but I was already held by someone else, and that someone was his younger brother.

"Even if it's your engagement moment with my big brother, I would still snatch you away from his hold, that's what I always do with him," Verfeil chuckled, and I looked at the way he was smiling at me, it made me feel warm from this icy cold night's feelings.

His tight hold on my hand brought me to look at them, our hands intertwined, like a necklace's chain. But it wasn't cold, it was warm and cozy.

"Besides, he's not the only one who wanted to show something to you," his words reminded me of the past him which had already matured.

With his wide grin, his hand not letting go of mine, his eyes smiling like his, and his gestures saying sweet nothings to me, I felt like he was just not someone to me anymore, he's my friend but it feels like we're more than that.

"Could I hold your hand like this all the time?"

I don't know what to say.

I don't want to ruin what our moment feels like, because right now, he seems to be a dazzling, fragile, and soft human being.

After a long second, I smiled.

"If it's with you then it's all right, Verfeil," I heard him sighed that's when I chuckled.

After a few more steps, he halted, and I walked beside him. I drew the scenery within my mind and plastered it like I wouldn't be able to forget.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" I said feeling amazed by the twinkling fireflies running their courses around. I felt the water's sounding calm through its ripples, the grasses swaying with the falling leaves like puzzles in place.

"Yes, beautiful," he said. I wanted to look at him, so I turned but he was not even looking in front of us when he said that, he was looking at me.

"Vestia, can I tell you a secret?"

***

"Milady, careful," Anna said holding my hand as I descended the stairs.

My mind might not be mine for the moment, but Verfeil's words came like a piercing knife enough to strike my heart.

"Milady are you sure you want to go to the imperial family? It seemed that you were still not fine after that night"

"I'm all right, Anna. It's already been three days and besides, His Highness the crown prince sent an invitation to me for afternoon tea, wouldn't it be rude not to go?"

I looked at how Anna bit her lower lip and I touched his chin like what Caliere did to me.

"You're hurting yourself again, Anna," gently as I caressed her chin, she managed to smile.

"You trust me, right?" I asked her and she nodded

"Then don't think of anything else than me going back home earlier than expected," she chuckled but I sighed. I waved goodbye to her and my mother since my father had gone on a trip again.

While the carriage started moving forward, I leaned back and looked out the window. Everything seemed to be moving fast pace, like my life right now, I felt like it was going out of my control.

The grasses are green and the sky is blue but what if the colors swapped one day, would I still be thinking something logical if someday, the promise I made to myself broke?

I don't know.

I have always been afraid of the future, where I would grow older but never wiser. I would be terrified of the things that I considered out of my control. I will never forget how I almost lost the will to carry on living in my first life, just when Caliere showed me that he could never love me back.

I never did anything wrong, but if I do, was loving Caliere the wrong thing I have made in my mind? Was feeling abandoned also a sin that I have committed to end up in tragedy?

I want to know why and how everything changed.

I was a young girl who grew up believing in fairytales. That the ending would always have the princess marry the prince, or that they would live happily ever after forever.

It took me by surprise that a happy ever after is not easy to achieve and that there wasn't even an event called forever, the very purpose of a fairytale is to believe and hope that everything will get better.

But what if it doesn't?

What if it's just wishful thinking or mindless dreaming but someday, no one will come and save the one who deserves to be saved? Is there a fairytale in real life?

"Milady we're here," Jack, the horseman notified me as he opened my carriage. I sighed, shaking my head for having my thoughts consume my time.

I didn't even know that the entrance to the imperial household was just right in front of me.

The servants within the imperial household guided me, while I bid my farewell to Jack. While I followed them, my sight went over everything and how it remained the same even though I hadn't been here for years.

It was a brief thought for me about that engagement last month. I thought I had been captivated by the scenery within the Velm hall but what captivated me was the timeless elegance of the place.

The sweet aroma from the past mixed with the present, the ghosts of everybody dancing through the cold night, chatting with the nostalgic songs from the wandering orchestra, everything felt surreal but at the same time, I felt like that perfect moment was mine.

As if I had stolen it from someone who deserved to be in my place.

"There you are!" a hot breath of air caressed the back of my ears and before I could turn to look at who it was, the person hugged me.

"Can I borrow my friend for a while?" I heard him ask from the maids. That's when Verfeil surprised me.

I could even imagine the face he's making like he's pouting and it made me beamed.

"B-But Your Highness, Young Lady Vestia is the prince's guest----"

"Am I not even a prince here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Your Highness, but it was the crown prince's order that young lady Vestia should be directed to his office right the moment that she would arrive and----"

"Then just say to my brother that I have stolen her from him today, no buts, and that's an order since I'm also the second prince in this family..." he said and looked at me not awaiting the maidservants' reactions, he took me by the hand and run away from everyone else leaving the maids with horrified looks.

I wanted to say sorry for them since I couldn't say no to Verfeil, not when that night, he told me his secret that no one else knew, not even Caliere or his father.

I heard him chuckle as I looked at how his shoulders vibrated from his back. When I look at it, he's three years older than me but it seems that he's still in my years, enjoying his youth.

"Then we're here..." We stopped in front of a room. I don't know where we are, because even if I have stayed in the imperial palace for years, I haven't been able to tour around the rooms especially Caliere's or Verfeil's.

"Is this your----"

"Yes, it's my room. So let's head in. I have a lot of things I want to share with you..."

Being the same kind of person he was in my first life, made me reminisce about the things we have enjoyed and did, as well as the arguments we have over some petty things.

When he was about to open his door, I held at the bottom of his cloth, and he turned to look at me with both eyebrows raised.

"Verfeil when you said that every night you couldn't breathe, is that literal, or is that only a figment of your loneliness?"

I could see how the corner of his lips lifted but the way his eyes smiled made me think about how sad his life was and that I couldn't even see it from my first life.

The very first day, when I met him in the enchanting place, I became enchanted meeting him.

"I never lie, Vestia, not when it's with you"

For him to forget about that and for me to search for a way for him to be fine, I closed my eyes and tried to reminisce everything until I opened them again

"Then three days after now, would you want to go to the South Lake with me and our friends?"

***

"Doctor Brian, may I ask you about a symptom of not being able to breathe? You once said that the blue rose of the Clamorian clans could save anyone with illness except memory loss, right?"

"It's a common heart disease and it's a hereditary developing over time it might not appear after the person's birth but it might be a dangerous condition when it only appears when the person matures. About the blue rose, I'm afraid that the suppliers from the auctions had run out from it"

"Where could I get it then?"

"It might be a dangerous place, Milady besides I think I can prescribe some medicines to you to temporarily heal the heart disease"

"But's it not permanent, Doctor Brian," I heard him sigh and closed his eyes. He took his hands to his face as if he were washing it without any water.

When he finally looked at me, he seemed serious but his eyes couldn't stop from wavering

"Do you really want to know, Milady? As long as you can have someone go there---"

"I want to go there, Doctor Brian, for my friend"

"But the Belfore East is a very dangerous-----"