The Tyrant's Terminally-Ill Childhood Friend (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 50

The hour when the whole world is imbued with deep blue light. Peter’s footsteps passed one by one through the pillars of the corridor. The man’s long shadow, moving between rows of identically shaped marble columns, even created an illusion as if one of the corridor’s pillars had willfully broken rank.

Especially so, because his gait seemed utterly aimless—nothing like that of an ordinary person.

Ten years had passed since his return to the imperial palace. Peter often pretended to lose his way in his own home. Though he’d lived his entire life here—knowing as clearly as the lines on his own palm which building lay to the left, when the lights would go out—he always felt as if he had no place to stand, and thus perpetually lost his way within his own house.

Was it because of the Bonding? Or because love borne of dragon bloodlines was inherently mad from the start?

The presence of a destined partner, so desperately needed by the von der Leyen imperial house, sometimes felt like a curse when recalled. What could be more insane than making another person part of oneself? Those who inherited sacred blood—though far from sacred themselves—grew up crafting the very noose that would one day hang around their necks, only realizing it was their lifeline once they’d already thrust their heads through the loop.

A thread they must grasp to sustain their life. A thread that would inevitably sever their life someday.

Until madness began consuming his mind—until he erased Lowell with his own hands—Peter had felt his existence in this world solely through remembering Lowell.

No matter where he was or what form he took, the world remained unchanged for Peter as long as Lowell existed. He did not love the world, but the girl he loved had never once failed to love any of the four seasons in a year.

He could almost believe that everything in the world existed solely to bring happiness to that girl. She always had something to look forward to: flowers blooming in spring, green grapes ripening in summer, autumn leaves turning vividly red, snow falling in winter.

If the world turned merely to fulfill the girl’s expectations—if blossoms, ripening grapes, colorful leaves, and falling snow all repeated solely for her next anticipation—then even Peter could find this arduous life vibrant.

The girl who was his world, his colors, his everything. That was Lowell.

Yet without Lowell, Peter’s world transformed completely into something else. It was no different from showing a blind man a world bursting with color, only to snatch his sight away again. Ironically, Peter now understood every von der Leyen who had gone mad after losing their partner. They had tied the noose around their own necks, only to find there was nowhere in the world left to hang it.

For the von der Leyens, a destined partner was not merely a lifelong companion. They were the sole means by which the von der Leyens could remain connected to the world—their only channel to experience it as ordinary people did.

Their tragedy lay only in the fact that they realized this truth precisely at the moment they lost their partner.

Still, Peter envied them. After all, they had once possessed a complete partner.

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