Cherry blossom petals were fluttering everywhere.

As soon as he opened his eyes and saw the scene, Herdin instinctively sensed it.

It’s a dream.

It was a dream he had countless times over the past decade, one he was sick of to the point where he could recite the next scene.

Probably next would be his father’s voice.

“Herdin.”

It was a voice he used to turn to with a bit of excitement and joy, but now it was not very welcome.

However, having no resistance in the dream, Herdin could only watch the scene unfold before him like a scripted play.

Before his eyes were Casion holding a sword stained with the blood of magical beasts, and a young Herdin kneeling in front of him.

“Herdin…”

Casion was in a state of berserk, overwhelmed by power while dealing with the incoming magical beasts.

His blue eyes, so similar to his son’s, were unfocused. Uncontrollable mana was seeping out of his body.

“…Father?”

The father who would usually have smiled sternly yet affectionately, now silently raised his sword.

The frightened son just stared blankly at the sight.

The current Herdin watched this scene, which he had faced dozens or hundreds of times before, with emotionless eyes.

Knowing that no matter what he did, he couldn’t change the past that had already gone by.

Next was his mother.

“No, Casion!”

The moment Casion swung his sword at young Herdin, Eloise, who had rushed over, embraced the child and was slashed by the sword instead.

“…Mother?”

The young Herdin’s palms were soaked with red blood as he held onto the collapsing Eloise’s back. The cherry blossom petals piled like snow on the ground were stained with blood.

The boy’s hands began to tremble. At the same time, his eyes also started to shake violently.

What filled those eyes in an instant was terror.

Next came the sense of loss.

And finally…

The young Herdin cast a spell. The boy’s eyes facing his father were no longer filled with fear.

What finally filled those eyes was rage that had lost all reason.

Herdin attacked Casion with magic.

Born with the power of the divine beast like Casion, the magic Herdin had learned from a young age was by no means weak, and Casion knew this as well.

Nevertheless, he did not avoid his son’s magic. He seemed to lack even the reason to do so.

Herdin took advantage of the moment Casion staggered from the magic hit, picking up a sword dropped by a dead knight nearby.

And when Casion swung his sword, Herdin barely managed to block it, deflecting the attack. But there was no way a child’s strength could match an adult’s.

Herdin confronted Casion using both sword and magic.

Although Casion didn’t directly use magic, the sharply honed mana swirling around him injured everything in close proximity.

Herdin rushed at Casion, not minding the increasing number of large and small wounds on his own body. He didn’t have the reason left to care.

Herdin momentarily cast a powerful spell, delivering a strike. In that instant, Casion faltered.

In that split second of opportunity, Herdin stabbed Casion’s heart. With the swordsmanship his father had taught him.

Then, the threatening mana that had been surging around Casion subsided.

Casion collapsed onto Herdin. His fading voice fell upon his young son’s ears.

“Her… din…”

At the same time, light returned to Herdin’s unfocused eyes. Only then did the child’s eyes begin to waver violently as he realized what he had done.

“Father…?”

He often wondered.

On that day, did Father recognize me before he died?

Or was it just a name called out of habit, unconsciously?

Some days he thought that his father must have regained his senses at the last moment and recognized him.

The Empire’s greatest magic swordsman wouldn’t lose to his young son, even in a state of lost reason and berserk. Surely Father must have recognized me and deliberately let me win.

That he must have wanted me to kill him.

That he would think it was for the best…

Then on other days, he thought that the idea of his father recognizing him was just self-justification, that his father must have died without regaining his senses until the end.

Because knowing the reality that he almost killed his son, killed his beloved wife with his own hands, and ultimately died at his son’s hands would be too cruel for Father.

After changing his mind arbitrarily day by day to whatever made him feel better, he finally stopped everything.

What’s the use of all that?

The fact that I killed Father with my own hands doesn’t change.

A select few of the closest confidants buried the truth of that day to protect Delmark and to secure the position of young Herdin as the head of the family.

Thus, it was publicly known that Casion had gone berserk due to Eloise’s death and committed suicide, but no matter how much it was hidden and concealed, one couldn’t deceive oneself.

“Ah, uh… Aaargh!”

Herdin, watching his younger self from ten years ago sitting in a pool of blood and wailing like a young beast with dry eyes, slowly closed his eyes as if bored.

The terrible dream always made him watch until the very end before letting him wake up.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling, and when he turned his head, he saw a familiar face. A woman softer and sweeter than marshmallow.

Herdin, who had been looking at Blair’s deeply asleep face for a moment, lifted his gaze to look out the window. Cherry blossoms were fluttering like snow.

Just like that day in the dream.

It’s because of those flowers. Dreaming that dream every year around this time.

After watching that horrible scene with emotionless eyes, he slowly got up. Getting out of bed, he put on a robe and headed to the table where he had left his cigars.

As he was about to pick up a cigar and lighter, he paused, noticing something next to them.

It was the bowl that had contained marshmallows.

There were still three unroasted marshmallows left in the bowl. Last night, Blair had left them saying she would eat them tomorrow morning.

‘If you want, you can eat two. You didn’t eat any.’

His wife had spoken as if she was giving out her own carefully saved rations.

Recalling her voice, Herdin chuckled. Then he put one of the marshmallows his wife had generously given as his share into his mouth.

The soft texture wasn’t quite to his liking, but the sweetness he tasted after a long time wasn’t bad. He smiled slightly.

Savoring the sweetness in his mouth that his wife had yielded, Herdin put the cigar and lighter in his robe pocket and left the bedroom.

* * *

In the afternoon, past lunchtime.

Blair was walking down the corridor, looking at the garden outside the window filled with cherry trees in full bloom.

Behind the fountain in the center, an artificial waterway stretched out, with cherry trees in full bloom filling both sides.

According to Mason, the current landscaping was personally designed by Herdin’s mother, Eloise.

He had said that now that there was a new mistress, she could change it as she wished, but Blair didn’t want to.

Partly because she didn’t want to leave her mark on the mansion she would soon leave, but also because she quite liked the current landscaping.

And above all…

‘It must be one of the traces of his mother for Herdin.’

She didn’t want to erase that trace arbitrarily.

Blair, who had unconsciously thought of him again, naturally recalled.

The memory of last night when she realized her feelings for him.

Blair sensed that she could no longer avoid or ignore this persistent and tenacious feeling.

Now, rather than denying and running away, she decided to accept it as it was.

‘I still love Herdin.’

Separate from acknowledging it, she had no intention of staying by his side. She planned to leave as he wished once their mutual goals were resolved.

But even if it was a relationship that would eventually end, she wanted to properly conclude her relationship with him in this life, which she couldn’t do in her past life.

I hope you don’t remain as a painful memory for me.

I don’t want to hate and resent you like in my past life, and be bound to you again.

So she decided to pour out all her remaining feelings. So that it wouldn’t become lingering attachment.

“Pipi.”

Blair called out as she entered the room where Pipi was playing.

“Pii!”

Then the baby marten jumped out from somewhere. It now looked as if it could be considered an adult.

Recognizing its owner, Pipi approached and gave an enthusiastic welcome greeting by leaping up.

When Blair smiled, bent down, and held out her hand, Pipi responded by gently biting Blair’s hand.

“Were you playing hide-and-seek alone?”

“Pii.”

“There are lots of flowers blooming today, and the weather is nice. Shall we play hide-and-seek outside?”

Blair went to get the walking harness from a drawer in one corner of the room. It was something she had asked the dexterous Mellie to make.

But Pipi, perhaps wanting to play more with Blair, avoided her approach and hid in a corner of the room. Even a small gap was enough space for a marten with its long body to hide.

“Hmm, do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?”

Instead of an answer, the sound of scurrying movement came from the narrow gap.

Blair approached the corner where Pipi was hiding. There were a few cloth-covered frames placed there. Looking through the gap, she could see Pipi hiding between the frames and the wall.

“Found you!”

“Pii!”

Then Pipi came out from behind the frames. In the process, the cloth covering the frame was stepped on and fell off.

The fallen cloth ended up covering Pipi completely.

“Pii?”

The cloth trapping Pipi moved up and down following its confused movements.

Blair burst into laughter at the sight. Then she stopped laughing when she saw the frame revealed as the cloth fell off.

Inside the frame was a portrait of a boy she had never seen before.

He had black hair like Herdin, but green eyes, so it wasn’t Herdin. It didn’t look like him either.

Herdin’s father, Casion, also had black hair and blue eyes like Herdin, so it wasn’t him either.

‘Who could it be?’

Just as Blair was wondering, there was a knock and Mason entered.

“My lady.”

He approached Blair but paused when he saw the portrait she was looking at.