Love Me Just Once (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 172

Since that day, their relationship hadn’t changed much on the surface. Yet some shifts were only noticeable to those closest.

Ophelia began showing him things she had kept hidden.

Idren silently watched the woman slowly letting her guard down. He saw her cry, despise herself, and lie awake through the night.

Ophelia was infinitely softer than the stubbornness she had clung to until now. She bore countless scars that left no trace, and the memories etched into them crawled out at night.

Whenever she startled awake, Idren would feign ignorance and pull her close. Then Ophelia, after catching her breath, would close her eyes again.

“You’re here.”

Sometimes, with her hands resting on his arms wrapped around her from behind, she would whisper those words. Then Idren would nod, signaling he’d do exactly as she wished.

Fortunately, Ophelia seemed to trust him in this regard. Idren had heard her mutter a few times, half-asleep and relieved: “After all, you’re the strongest among everyone I know.”

So you’ll survive.

Naturally, he grew curious about the many people who had died leaving her behind—but Idren asked nothing. Acceptance mattered more than demanding truth.

Luckily, he was good at waiting, and Ophelia had granted him permission to wait for her.

Life seemed stagnant, yet it flowed on. Days changed without a sound. In Edegroon, where winter had already set in, snow began to fall—the usual harbinger of the heavy blizzards arriving around the turn of the year.

In Brinwell, war reparations started arriving in the originally stipulated amount. Prince Masaran must have believed there was room for negotiation if he sent Namie’s head, but Idren had no intention of understanding his motives.

The second prince, who had fled, still hadn’t been found. Yet Ophelia seemed to have half-forgotten him. She no longer fretted over him anxiously enough to chew her lips raw, though she hadn’t taken him back either.

Perhaps she simply no longer had the luxury to worry about him.

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