156. The Love I Learned

2024.03.04.

That winter was especially cold.

Though I did my utmost to save Emperor Alexei, who had been struck by several monster-hunting arrows, moment after moment brought only despair.

The Emperor, once fading day by day, began dying hour by hour.

Soon, he was dying minute by minute, second by second—Philip Pelliese clenched his teeth at the sight of a life flickering toward extinction, helpless against his own powerlessness.

“Philip……”

While Crown Prince Clade Euphris was briefly away, Alexei, who had done nothing but stare at the ceiling awaiting death, finally spoke.

Following the Emperor’s weak gesture, Philip Pelliese dismissed every royal physician nearby and stepped close to him.

“I…… was wrong……”

“Your Majesty.”

Emperor Alexei tightly grasped Philip Pelliese’s warm hand.

It was an unnaturally strong grip for a dying man—a testament to how crucial his next command would be.

“Protect…… the treasure of Pelliese……”

“Your Majesty!”

“Under no circumstances…… must it fall into Igor’s hands……”

Emperor Alexei revealed the location of the Pelliese treasure and called for his son.

It was the final judgment of a ruler sensing his end.

His voice, heavy with finality, finally moved Philip Pelliese.

The moment Emperor Alexei passed away, Philip fled the palace, joined his wife’s carriage—on her way back with their young daughter after hiding the treasure—and headed toward the estate.

Pelliese had long ago sealed part of their power into a legendary sword and offered it to the Imperial family.

No matter what records Igor might read, he would never think to search the Pelliese estate itself, having already given up its treasure.

Philip Pelliese alternated his gaze between Louise, excited at the thought of seeing Yuan, and his wife’s peaceful face, recalling the black blade hidden beneath the carriage floor.

His mind spun with thoughts of where to hide the sword once they reached the estate.

But he did not know.

Igor, who had long searched for the Pelliese treasure, had done one thing the moment his elder brother died—follow Philip Pelliese.

On a mountain road not far from the Pelliese estate,

the carriage was suddenly attacked and half-destroyed.

Igor asked no long questions.

He simply asked what the Pelliese treasure was.

Philip Pelliese remained silent, prepared even for decapitation—but when he saw Igor push his wife off a cliff, he could endure no longer.

After seizing young Louise by the neck and lifting her up, Igor aimed the tip of his sword at her and laughed as he asked,

“Will the pitiful husband who let his wife die now become the pitiful father who lets his daughter die too—?”

Philip Pelliese had no choice but to offer the black blade with his own hands.

He resolved that even if he had to leap from the cliff himself, he would save Louise and check on his wife, who might still be alive somewhere in the snowy field below.

But Igor, once he held the black blade, mercilessly shoved Philip Pelliese off the snow-covered cliff as well.

In the moment he fell from the cliff, the only thing Philip Pelliese saw was

Igor plunging the black blade straight into Louise’s heart as she struggled violently.

***

Yuan gasped, breathing heavily like someone awakened from a terrible nightmare.

How many times must she imagine and replay that day in her mind to explain it with the same calm face as Enoch Pelliese? Her hands trembled violently, while Enoch’s dark eyes, fixed upon them, remained deeply沉.

“When people rushed to where Igor had left and woke Louise. Louise realized she hadn’t died. Though the black blade had pierced her heart and she felt excruciating pain, when she awoke, there wasn’t even a single wound.”

“How could such a thing……”

“Louise only realized it wasn’t a dream when she was led by people to meet you at the Pelliese estate. And from that day on, the faint and feeble ‘Pelliese power’ began to manifest properly within her.”

“!”

“Yes. That black blade—the legendary sword Pelliese offered to the Imperial family as a pledge of loyalty. The contract in which Pelliese sealed their most powerful and cruel ability into the sword and gave it to the Imperial family, in exchange for eternal noble status without even an inch of land. At the moment that black blade pierced your sister, part of that sealed power transferred into Louise.”

During her occasional errands at the Pelliese estate, Louise exchanged letters with Enoch Pelliese.

She shared with Enoch not only the changes happening within her body but also her shifting emotions.

But she did not reveal the atrocities committed by Gerret Pelliese and his family.

After all, not a single word about Gerret Pelliese or his family ever came from Enoch’s mouth.

“Your sister said that ability frightened her. Her already frail body grew weaker and weaker.”

Enoch’s dark eyes shifted toward the leather pouch tightly gripped in Yuan’s hand.

“Even without reading all those letters, I know their contents. Louise and I exchanged letters frequently during her time in Roxenhardt and afterward.”

“What did my sister want to tell us?”

“After Louise began contacting Bollonico, she started investigating legends related to the black blade. The contract between Pelliese and the Imperial family I just told you about—Louise discovered it and informed me. Around the same time, she also learned about the Crown Prince who was wounded by the black blade and her own situation.”

Yuan trembled, silently absorbing the information, fully understanding.

Enoch narrowed his eyes, as if recalling a black blade he had never seen.

“If the Emperor had pierced the Crown Prince with the blade and witnessed its power with his own eyes. And if he later discovered that the daughter of the late Pelliese Count, whom he believed dead, was actually alive……”

Yuan focused on Enoch’s voice with trembling eyes.

“Wouldn’t he want to experiment?”

“……Experiment.”

“Wouldn’t he want to test what would happen if he brought together the Crown Prince and the daughter of the late Pelliese Count?”

Yuan recalled the oppressive feeling she had when she first met Igor.

His eyes, full of curiosity. The man who had openly said his niece-in-law looked delicious.

“The full story is probably inside that pouch.”

Yuan lifted her flushed, breathless face.

Enoch Pelliese nodded slightly, as if finding Yuan’s endurance admirable.

“The last letter I received from Louise said that Bollonico had ordered her to serve the Emperor. Louise didn’t explain to me exactly why she followed that order, but I suspect she realized that if she didn’t go, eventually Yuan—you—would have to go instead. And so, she must have decided she had to kill Igor first. She told me the legend that whoever holds the Pelliese treasure becomes Emperor, and asked me to look into whether there were other related stories. And then…… she disappeared.”

Enoch Pelliese, devastated by Louise’s death, secluded himself for a long time.

He blamed himself for Louise’s death—she had reached for a secret that should never have been touched.

He reproached himself for being powerless, for recklessly charging forward like an egg striking a rock.

He even blamed himself for having left the family—because, as a youth, he had stubbornly uncovered the secret of ‘Pelliese’s power,’ something only the family head should have known.

He endlessly regretted whether his knowledge, which had helped Louise, had instead become poison.

“I could try making various reagents to allow you to read Louise’s letters, but……”

His dark eyes, filled with regret, gazed at his niece—someone he was seeing for the first time today—overflowing with tender affection.

“You said you entered the palace wanting to kill Bollonico—the son of Igor. You probably already vaguely understand. If you truly love that Crown Prince and wish to save him, eliminating Bollonico alone won’t be enough. Whether it’s Bollonico’s power or anything else, ultimately, the one who must vanish from this world is the Emperor. But I don’t want you to do that. Louise wouldn’t have wanted that either.”

Awkwardly, Enoch moved closer and sat beside Yuan.

Then, with rough hands clearly marked by hardship, he gently took Yuan’s small hand in his.

“I don’t know if I, who left Pelliese so long ago, have the right to say this…… but what if you just ran away now? I don’t know what methods you have, but Igor will eventually seek to obtain all of Pelliese’s power. Though I am lacking in many ways, I know many hidden islands where one can live in secrecy.”

“But, Uncle.”

Yuan quietly spoke, her eyes regarding the warmth enveloping her hand with unfamiliarity.

“The only love I’ve ever learned is that path. If it means my beloved won’t be hurt or die, I will gladly throw myself into it……”

“Yuan.”

“That’s the love Louise taught me—the first love I’ve ever felt since I was born.”

Yuan pulled her hand away from Enoch, then instead reached out and firmly took his hand, locking eyes with him.

She gripped tightly, as if firmly holding and guiding him—someone who seemed ready to collapse at the sight of his niece stepping once again toward the path of death.

“You couldn’t save my sister, so you must understand.”

Yuan asked, her voice calm now, unlike her earlier intense reaction.

“Do I have even the slightest chance of surviving?”

Enoch could not answer.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life regretting.”

Yuan smiled faintly.

“I want the person I love to live in a better world. A world with no danger, no enemies.”

Her composed voice moved steadily forward, as if there had never been any other path from the beginning.

“So please help me. Help me live at least until that time. Help me die without regret when the time comes…… please help me.”