“I’m sorry, Eve.”

Her heart ached just from looking at the child’s face.

She felt sorry, deeply sorry, for making Eve go through so many hardships at an age when she should be filled with only joyful moments.

So Louise spent more time with Eve.

For the first time, she went out to the market in Parallel City with Eve.

Louise listened intently to Eve’s chattering voice, full of curiosity.

Wanting to take Eve horseback riding again, which she loved, Louise got permission from Giselle and had time for Eve to ride a small pony.

They did many other things besides that.

They baked cookies together and obtained expensive paints to draw pictures.

“Look at this, Mommy!”

Eve showed Louise the picture she had drawn.

It was a picture with crooked lines, but you could make out the round face, square body, eyes, nose, and mouth.

“This is Mommy holding Eve’s hand, this is Daddy, and this is the bad guy!”

In the child’s picture, there was not only Eclas but also Sched.

Eve drew Sched quite large.

Perhaps it was because his tall stature and fierce aura seemed overwhelming to Eve, but his presence looked as if he was protecting the family.

Louise stared at the family picture Eve had drawn for a long time.

She was also glad that Sched was in the picture.

Somehow she felt relieved that Eve had gotten close to her biological father.

Yet… she couldn’t tell Eve any truths.

Missing the timing to reveal the truth again and again, three days passed by.

In front of the child smiling brightly while playing, in front of the child rubbing her eyes from sleepiness, her lips couldn’t easily part.

Precious time flew by swiftly and relentlessly.

She tried to bring it up using Sched as a reason when she met him, but…

Louise was lost in thought as she looked at the sleeping child’s face.

Sched was nowhere to be seen since that day.

His last words echoed in her mind.

“I can’t end it like this.”

The replayed sound of his voice spread a burning sensation that stung.

She knew. That his words were nothing but a fleeting wind.

That even if she didn’t want to end it, she had to.

‘Sched.’

In the little time left, the person she wanted to spend the most time with after Eve was him.

But Louise suppressed her personal desires.

‘…I’m leaving, but he will continue to live on.’

She didn’t want to leave any lingering attachments.

She also didn’t want to leave dirty traces by clinging to him.

It would be improper to go looking for him first, saying she missed him, when she had insisted on leaving…

In a way, this too was a kind of preparation for farewell.

She simply looked quietly at Eve’s sleeping face that resembled Sched so much.

Above the still night air, the child’s breathing seemed to quietly breathe happiness into life.

However, pain soon engulfed her as if mocking the fleeting happiness.

“Ugh…!”

Louise hurriedly sat up.

Once again, a sharp force spread throughout her body from the curse engraved on her wrist.

Her whole body pulsed violently.

Dark blue veins protruded on her pale face.

Louise curled up her body and shivered, drenched in cold sweat.

Blood flowed from her lips, bitten so deeply it seemed the flesh would fall off.

She barely held onto her consciousness that was fading from the pain.

If she lost her mind, it felt like the uncontrolled power would burst out at any moment.

“Cough, cough…!”

She buried her mouth in her sleeve and coughed out.

Blood spread once more in a dark red color, and only after several large waves surged did the pain gradually subside.

Louise exhaled rapid breaths, leaning her exhausted body against the corner.

In the pitch-black room, the moonlight coming through the window flickered in her view.

Suddenly, she wanted to see Sched.

She wanted to hug him.

She wanted to hear his breathing.

Louise waited for the aftermath of the pain to settle, then staggered to her feet.

Fortunately, Eve was still sound asleep without waking up.

Louise took her eyes off the sleeping child’s face.

She had to prepare to leave. Prepare to leave Eve alone.

Louise fumbled through the darkness to the desk and lit a small lamp.

A small light that wouldn’t disturb Eve’s deep sleep dyed the desk.

She opened the desk drawer, took out paper, and picked up a pen.

Her hand trembled, so she put strength into her fingertips.

With the most attentive handwriting possible, she wrote the first line.

“To our beloved Eve.”

Louise had been agonizing over how to explain this farewell to Eve.

Eve was still too young to understand all of this.

Telling her that her mother would be trapped in endless death was too cruel.

At least until Eve could accept this long separation, Louise wanted to be by her side.

So she lied again.

“My daughter, are you doing well and staying healthy?

Mommy is traveling safely with the priests.”

Travel. It was a crude and clumsy excuse.

Louise hoped Eve would believe her excuse, at least for a while.

Since the child had experienced Eclas being out at sea for a long time, she would probably believe it even if her mother said she went on a trip.

“Eve, today Mommy ate a delicious crepe.

It would have been even better if I ate it with Eve.

Do you remember when we ate crepes together at the festival before?”

Louise wrote down her memories in the letter.

The reason she deliberately wrote about the happy times spent with Eve was because she wanted Eve to cherish and remember those moments for a long time.

So that only the moments when she was happy with her mother would remain for long.

Also, Louise asked the Eve of the future.

“What did you eat today, Eve?”

When you read this letter someday, what will you be doing and how will you be living?

What will you see, what will you feel, and how will you spend your days?

Louise raised her head for a moment to look at the child lying on the bed.

It was a very ordinary scene of daily life.

The thought that she couldn’t even watch over Eve’s trivial everyday life from now on made the pen tip gradually heavier.

“What do you play with these days? Who are your close friends?

You’re not sick anywhere, are you?”

Curious about the future Eve that she wouldn’t be able to see, the fingertips writing the letters trembled.

What games will you like when you grow up a little more?

How much taller will you grow?

Until you read this letter, will the temple keep their promise to me well?

Will you be treated poorly somewhere because you don’t have a mother?

Will there still be people by your side to protect you without me?

“Mommy wants you to always be happy, Eve.”

Will you… be happy?

Endless questions that couldn’t be answered poured out.

In the end, Louise put down the pen.

It was a letter filled with her lingering attachments, not a letter for Eve.

I don’t want to leave the child’s side.

I want to see you grow up more, see your daily life more.

I want to know what makes you happy and why you are sad.

When the world turns its back on you, I want to be on your side and lend you a shoulder to lean on, but…

She tore up the long letter she had written and threw it into the fireplace next to her.

The letter filled with attachments turned into white ashes, and she unfolded a new sheet of paper.

And she quietly picked up the pen again.

“I love you, Eve.

Forever.”

“Sir Hedrick. Where is our lord?”

At Carlyle’s question, Hedrick sighed deeply and shook his head.

“He gave a bunch of orders to prepare for Gelevan and disappeared to who knows where…”

Hedrick muttered, looking at the firewood piled up in the warehouse.

“I have a place to go for a while. Please take care of Parallel.”

It had been a week since Sched disappeared.

Without much explanation, he left Parallel.

Leaving only a promise that he would definitely return within five days.

“What in the world is he doing again with that body of his?”

It was almost immediately after Dietrich’s incident.

As soon as he came to his senses after the sun ceremony ended, he read Dietrich’s research journals and all sorts of materials all night and then suddenly vanished.

“Damn it. I should have accompanied our lord and gone with him then.”

Carlyle regretted not being able to attend to Sched by his side.

He recalled the anxious look on his lord’s face.

Sched looked unsettled, as if being chased by something.

Carlyle knew that whenever Sched made that face, he pushed himself to his limits.

‘For what in the world…’

Just as his firm fist was clenching.

“Is… His Highness not in Parallel?”

A soft and gentle voice was heard from one side.

Turning his head, there stood Louise Ideana.

The two knights simultaneously tensed up and straightened their postures.

Louise lowered her gaze, seeing the two stiffen upon seeing her.

Knowing the two didn’t like her, she regretted speaking to them on a whim.

But she couldn’t help but be drawn to the conversation about Sched.

Because she hadn’t seen Sched even once since that day.

“I’m sorry. I just…”

“…His Highness is currently away for a while.”

Just as Louise was about to run away, thinking she wouldn’t get an answer, Carlyle spoke.

At that, Louise unintentionally widened her eyes and looked at him.

It was a polite and respectful tone of voice she had never heard from Carlyle.

“He left three days ago and hasn’t returned yet. He didn’t tell us where he was going either.”

Hedrick also kindly relayed news about Sched.

“Ah… I see.”

So that’s why he was nowhere to be seen.

Louise grasped the fabric of her dress under her sleeves.

Ridiculously, she felt a sense of defeat.

The violet eyes that had gazed at her earnestly flickered painfully.

Louise knew what kind of wound she had inflicted on Sched.

So she didn’t have the courage to go find him directly.

Once deciding to part, she shouldn’t show any room for emotions by clinging on.

But for some reason, she desperately wanted to see him tonight. She felt like she couldn’t bear it like this.

So, even if cowardly, she thought she might run into him if she wandered around the mansion, but it was in vain.

“Um, Miss Louise.”

Then Hedrick called her name.

Louise lifted her head abruptly because her old name sounded unfamiliar flowing from someone else’s lips.

She gauged the reactions of the two knights.

“It’s all your fault.”

The accusation Carlyle had poured on her before came to mind.

She felt her lips going completely dry.

“We also have some… discomfort on our side… It’s a bit unfortunate, to say such a thing.”

The discomfort Hedrick felt was probably deeper.

Since a heretic was wandering around the household carelessly.

People might feel uneasy now just by her presence.

However.

“Thank you.”

The words that flowed from Hedrick’s mouth were the exact opposite of what Louise had thought.