It felt like wandering in a dream.

The person who always smiled brightly while looking at her own face. The moment when she collapsed powerlessly felt so unreal.

“……Lea.”

Akiya’s voice, barely audible, split the air like dry soil cracking.

At that moment, when he looked at Lea, who had collapsed in his arms with a helpless gaze, people began to gather around.

“Oh my!”

“Goodness, someone collapsed…!”

People screamed at the pool of blood on the ground, but to Akiya, it felt like mere background noise.

Was this the feeling of blood draining from the entire body?

Akiya’s trembling hands started to caress Lea’s cold face, trying to hold onto his fading consciousness, and he laid her on his lap.

“No…”

This couldn’t be real.

Otherwise, Lea, who had blossomed like a fully bloomed rose just a short while ago, wouldn’t be so pale now. Akiya’s hands, trying to find warmth, touched Lea’s cheek.

“Your body is cold…”

The face that he thought must be warm was as cold as ice.

Akiya’s hands, initially comforting, started to move down. As they did, a warm and viscous liquid slowly stained his hands.

Akiya’s gaze, shaking helplessly, shifted. From Lea’s slim waist, red blood flowed out, trembling.

“No…”

As if denying reality, he tried to block the wound with his hands, but nothing changed. The red blood seeped through his fingers and dropped onto the ground.

At that moment, all of Akiya’s thoughts came to a standstill. The world that had sparkled just ten minutes ago lost its color for Akiya.

He had always believed that he would protect Lea at all costs…

Now that the feared event had occurred, he didn’t even think of seeking help from anyone.

In an instant, Akiya was engulfed by the growing anxiety. He touched Lea’s face with trembling hands.

As the red blood from his hands smeared Lea’s cheek, Akiya tried to wipe away the blood with his sleeve. But the more he tried to erase it, the clearer the red blood became.

“No, no.”

Why did thoughts of his dying mother come to his mind at this moment? His heart throbbed as if it would burst at any moment.

An unfamiliar sensation brought back dusty memories.

The collapsed figure of Lea in his arms overlapped with the memories of that day. His mother, wearing a white dress like Lea today, was as dignified as ever.

No, she was more beautiful than usual that day. As if she knew it was her day to die.

The voice of his thin mother, whom he thought he had forgotten, echoed in his ears. A woman lying on the blood-soaked ground.

Even her silver hair, which shone faintly like moonlight, was dyed red by the blood when it flowed down. At the moment, a merciless sword was ruthlessly thrust into her back, as if confirming the kill.

‘It’s okay…’

She said she was okay.

The dying mother seemed to silently urge him to close his eyes. Until the moment she died, she couldn’t take her eyes off the hiding place under the bed.

Akiya felt as if his heart had been cut out, just like the dagger piercing through his mother’s body. The blood squirting from her body like a fountain splattered in all directions.

He had to swallow his tears as he watched his mother, freezing to death. Making even a slight sound could expose him to the risk of being murdered by the assassin.

The empress scraped her fingertips against Akiya. His mother, who had been worried about him until the end.

The assassin approached the lifeless empress, pulled out the knife stuck in her back without hesitation. Once again, the blood spouting from the empress stained Akiya’s cheek. A warm bloodstain, as if his veins were pulsating.
I wanted to rush out and block my mother’s way.

“Don’t do this. The woman you are killing is the one and only empress of the empire, and this is a heinous crime of regicide,” I wanted to shout.

But Akiya was too young. He couldn’t protect his mother with his own hands.

Akiya wiped away the empress’s blood splattered on his cheeks.

In the warmth, as if she were still alive, Akiya bit his trembling lips. He would never forgive the one who had cruelly killed his mother.

“Ah, she’s dead. A tough woman, I must say.”

For the first time, Akiya felt hatred towards the assassin checking if the empress was dead, holding her by the hair. And at the moment he dropped her to the ground, a tattoo on the assassin’s wrist came into view.

Although he was young, that pattern was etched vividly in Akiya’s mind. It was the time when he was staring into space, recalling the nightmare of that day.

“Look at this!”

A stranger’s voice brought Akiya’s focus back.

“Get a hold of yourself! Now is not the time to be spaced out!”

“You are…”

“Is it important who I am right now?”

Akiya snapped out of his daze at the man’s thunderous shout. Finally realizing Lea’s cooling body in his arms, Akiya grabbed the man’s sleeve.

“A, doctor…!”

“Yeah. I’m a doctor!”

The man, tearing his shirt sleeves, used them to apply pressure to Lea’s waist.

Lea was precarious, like a person lying diagonally.