194. Little Wish

2024.04.11.

Yuan quickly climbed onto the carriage.

Lancelot had apparently thought that showing Yuan the newly embellished Central Roxenhardt would make her stay there for at least half a day.

He tried to stop Yuan, hastily boarding the carriage, but seeing the firm determination on her face, he seemed disheartened and gave up.

The carriage raced forward at high speed, cutting through the snow unlike any previous journey.

As Yuan calmed her heart, choosing what words to say first when meeting Clade, Lancelot quietly watching her finally spoke with a heavy voice.

“Not long ago, we moved Oliver to the family cemetery behind the Black Mansion.”

“What?”

“I had intended to tell you later, but the late Emperor, the late Empress, and Princess Apollini have already been reburied. With your permission, we plan to bring Miss Louise Pelliese here to rest in this family cemetery as well.”

“Is this the Emperor’s wish?”

“Of course. He did it with his own hands.”

Lancelot answered with a somewhat melancholy smile.

Yuan was overwhelmed by a strange feeling.

It was hard to imagine Clade confronting the deaths of that poor dog and his family with his own hands.

Had someone cast a spell?

Just as Yuan had grown, had Clade finally found the strength to face the tragedies of the past?

“The sun is already setting. It will be night soon, since it’s winter. Clade won’t even know we’re coming so quickly—do you really intend to show up so suddenly?”

Lancelot asked again, feeling as if he were clinging desperately to the hem of his clothes, but Yuan didn’t flinch.

It pained her that she hadn’t been by Clade’s side while he moved his family members one by one to the Black Mansion.

Clade might have waited for her sake, but Yuan wished she had been there with him.

Her suppressed longing for the servants was also gradually reaching its limit.

She missed them.

She pressed her nose against the window, as if trying to cool her flushed face.

Her dark, sparkling eyes—like those of a child seeing snow for the first time—reflected the winter scenery.

She gazed at the forest, its white trees glowing amber and red from the sunset, as if admiring precious gems, until darkness fell and she sank into memories.

The carriage, racing hurriedly, suddenly jolted and tilted just as it reached the vicinity of the mansion.

Apparently, it had met an accident from speeding too fast over snow piled above the ankles.

Yuan, absorbed in the view outside the window, remained seated until Lancelot stepped out to check, but a moment later, as if enchanted, she stepped out of the carriage and walked forward.

Under a faint darkness where purple hues scattered across the sky like paint, a small yet bright light shone like a lighthouse over a dark sea.

Yuan moved her legs as if completely shutting out the world and herself, just as she had walked endlessly through the snow that day when words had spilled into the air.

Her untidy clothes, and even Lancelot’s distant voice calling after her once he noticed her absence, bounced out of her mind and rolled away into the snowy field.

Like a moth drawn to a warm light.

Yuan ran toward that light as darkness thickened around her.

Even as her breath rose to her throat and her feet sank deeply into the snow piled above her ankles, her legs moved on their own.

Finally, Yuan drew close to that bright light.

Her face, caught between darkness behind and light ahead, went blank and stiff.

She couldn’t believe the sight before her.

The source of the light was none other than the Black Mansion—or rather, the Red Mansion.

The mansion, neatly enclosed by a white-painted fence instead of its former black iron bars, had shed all its soot and now radiated a beautiful red glow in every direction.

Even as snowflakes gently drifted, winter didn’t feel cold, thanks to the smoke rising from chimneys atop the roof.

Lanterns mounted across the massive outer walls shone brightly, welcoming her, making it impossible to lose the way even in darkness.

Embracing the entire grand red exterior were vines and leaves, somewhat withered from winter but still preserving their greenness.

The cool wind unique to Roxenhardt brushed past her and the surroundings.

The large vine leaves clapped against each other like applause, striking the walls and creating a vigorous sound, as if welcoming her.

Along the wall of the Seobyeol Building she had erased, all the way to the main building and the Dongbyeol Building where the Emperor had once been welcomed.

The vast green wave embracing the entire mansion relentlessly beat against her heart.

And at the end of it.

Clade stood there.

Yuan paused her breath, staring at Clade standing at the far end of the Dongbyeol Building.

Just as she once had.

He wore a messy apron and held a brush made by stableman Mazarin, carefully wiping away the last traces of black from the walls.

Carefully lifting the leaves with delicate hands, he gently brushed off the old soot, afraid of harming the vines.

Seeing his concentrated face, lips tightly pressed together, Yuan fell silent and watched him for a long time.

Then she blankly watched him perfectly erase the very last brick, wipe the sweat rolling down his straight forehead, light the final lamp, call a messenger bird to immediately send a letter somewhere, then impatiently shove the brush into a wooden bucket, toss off his apron, roll up his sleeves, and immediately begin clearing the snow before him.

He quietly murmured something—perhaps a curse—upon seeing the sky begin to snow, then forcefully pushed aside heavy snowdrifts, tendons sharply standing out on his bare forearms.

Yuan watched Clade diligently working without help from anyone.

She also saw him approaching, using a long, worn wooden snowplow to push away the snow from the entrance all the way to the gate where she stood.

The snow piled steadily before the plow surged forward and stopped, heaping up thickly at her feet.

Yuan noticed the man finally spotting her and dropping what he had been holding.

Clade Euphris, sweating profusely in the cold winter, his nose smeared with black soot.

“Hello, Clade.”

He was so startled that he widened his eyes and stared at her, transfixed.

A cool wind swept between them, and when the vines behind began their noisy performance once more, the man finally snapped back to his senses, stepped over the dropped plow, and strode quickly toward her.

He fumbled, as if trying to take off something to cover her, then realized he was wearing nothing but a shirt covered in soot, and wore a flustered expression.

It was unfamiliar to see him flustered—clearly, he hadn’t expected her to arrive so early.

“How—how did you come here? I was certain I’d—”

“I didn’t want to wait.”

He quickly lowered the rolled-up sleeves he had hastily pushed up, fastened the buttons, and wiped his forehead with the clean part of his sleeve. When Yuan stepped forward to embrace him, he hesitated briefly before cautiously pulling her into his arms.

His scent, faintly mixed with sweat, pressed against her small, rounded nose.

Instead of bursting into tears, Yuan buried her trembling voice in his chest and asked.

“Did you do all this?”

The grand, beautiful buildings constructed in Central Roxenhardt.

Turning the entire Black Mansion, which once had only the Seobyeol Building painted red, back to its original red color.

Diligently clearing the snow, just as he had once comforted her by saying snow could always be shoveled away.

Whether he understood all her muffled words, Clade slowly nodded.

Yuan buried her face in his chest for a long while before lifting her head.

“Why?”

She pressed her cheek against the man whose ears had begun turning red, whether from cold or emotion, and urged him for an answer.

“Why? Why did you do it? Leaving me behind and coming here alone.”

Once, long ago.

Even if she got lost in the white forest, which turned pitch-black at night.

They had promised to change the mansion together, so she could always find her way back, even alone.

To turn this mansion, covered in black soot like ashes, back to red.

To light lamps everywhere, filling it with light. To light fires in every chimney, sending smoke rising.

They had clearly promised to do it together. She was certain he remembered that day. The thought of him suffering alone pained her heart.

“Huh? Why did you do it?”

“…To make you like me.”

Clade answered, pulling her closer as she kept pressing.

“I’ve done a lot of bad things to you. From now on, I have to be good so you’ll want to stay with me.”

She stood startled by his sudden words, when Clade pulled something from the bulging pocket of his trousers.

A small case wrapped in red velvet opened.

For a moment, a glimmer flashed in her dark eyes, fixed on it.

Inside was a ring that looked extremely precious—a ring imbued with a deep, timeless beauty that no age could fade.

Yuan’s eyes widened as she guessed whose ring it might be.

Her dark eyes rapidly rippled as they turned to his face.

Facing his serious expression, all the words she had wanted to say upon meeting him vanished completely from her mind.

“I don’t have any abilities anymore. Even if I get injured somewhere and come back, I can’t—”

Yuan stood dazed, taking a moment to understand, then flustered as she replied.

His lips descended upon her moving ones.

A warm breath touched the space between their sealed lips, as if saying he didn’t want to hear it.

“You don’t need to hurt anymore.”

An endlessly warm and tender voice flowed from the brief gap between their lips.

“All you need to do is be happy here.”

His lips, feeling even hotter in the cold air, joined hers once more.

The warm breath gently caressed Yuan’s soul. Joy filled her chest tightly.

Yuan faintly smiled, her eyes sparkling. A moist voice reached Clade’s lips.

“…I’m back.”

“Mm.”

A low voice, hiding deeply suppressed emotions, tingled inside her mouth.

“I waited.”

A large hand strongly pulled her dark nape toward him.

Her arms, plump from thick padded clothing, wrapped tightly around his neck.

Again and again, they breathed each other in, then leaned their foreheads together, their smiling faces childlike.

His deep violet eyes gazed steadily at her.

Yuan, silently meeting his eyes, nestled deeper into his embrace, and after several pauses and restarts, Clade’s lips slowly moved.

As he whispered into her ear, Yuan’s eyes grew wider and wider, until a perfect light of happiness settled upon her face.

Behind the two figures clinging tightly as if never to part, the perfectly red and green mansion hummed a tune that slipped into the sparkling darkness on the wind.

Eyes softened and relaxed in the warm embrace, gazed with awe at the green wave before her.

And suddenly, she realized.

The beautiful mansion and a complete family.

Yuan Pelliese’s wish had always been, from the very beginning of her childhood, nothing more than that.

– Part 3: Wish Complete.