Aline, who was picking clovers, turned her head and asked.
“Does mother know about this place?”
The man said.
“Your mother discovered this place.”
He looked around the lush green field with fresh eyes.
“She used to make flower crowns. She was about your age.”
“I don’t know how to make flower crowns.”
Aline made a bundle of clovers with a sulky expression, then threw it over her head as if sprinkling paper flower petals. Large and small clovers fell quickly or slowly, like an open bonnet.
“When you grow a bit more, your mother will teach you how to make flower crowns, so wait.”
“Can’t you teach me, sir?”
The man laughed.
“I cannot make flower crowns.”
He bent down and brushed the grass with his fingertips. Where his hand touched, it turned a dull gray, and the vibrant clovers instantly withered and returned to the earth.
Aline watched the scene with wide eyes. Only where the man had touched, the green disappeared, making it look as if someone had scooped out just that part with a trowel.
“Where did the clovers go?”
“They met an early winter.”
“Will they bloom again next spring?”
The man’s head tilted slightly.
“Well.”
He looked at Aline intently.
“It could be next year, or the year after. Maybe even ten years from now.”
“Why does it take so long?”
“When life is lost in vain, it’s not just humans who lose their will.”
Aline chewed on her lips, which were pointed like a baby bird’s. It was a difficult story. Much more difficult than what her mother occasionally told her.
“Are the clovers sad?” Aline asked.
“Well, right now they’re probably just bewildered. Surprised. Sadness comes after that. When the startled, pounding heart finds its rhythm again, that’s when sadness knocks on the door and introduces itself.”
“Have you ever been surprised and sad?”
The man’s eyes blinked. Aline thought his red eyes, identical to her mother’s, were incredibly beautiful. They were the same color as the rubies set in her mother’s tiara she had seen once.
“That was a very long time ago.”
The man answered.
“Now I’m neither surprised nor sad.”
“I don’t like being surprised. If someone startles me, I think I’d get angry. I don’t like being sad either.”
At Aline’s words, the man smiled gently and stroked her small head.
“All humans dislike those feelings. But no human can escape them.”
“Is it impossible to live without feeling sadness?”
“If that were to happen, you would become a monster.”
Aline blinked with a puzzled expression, then carefully plucked a lily of the valley at her feet.
One more step forward, and another flower, and another. The man listened as the child murmured something while picking flowers.
“I’m sorry. I want to make mother happy. See you again. Don’t be too surprised, okay?”
She was so focused that if left alone, she might have played picking flowers until sunset.
He watched Aline’s back as she crouched and picked flowers, thinking of the woman he once loved. And another child who was that woman’s distant descendant.
Laila Kristrad.
At first, he couldn’t understand why that child felt special. Was it just because she was a medium? No. There had been many witch mediums in the past.
They all lived in pain and died early after having children. The children left alone went mad or wanted to go mad, and Badin felt pain every time. Even though he wasn’t human.
But when he saw Laila, it wasn’t like that.
He didn’t feel pain. He watched her lonely and solitary life, but vague, absurd hopes that he feared to even think about, let alone voice, kept raising their heads.
And when Hyanmorik’s descendant appeared and took that child away, he finally realized that Laila was the child who would save him from the eternally enduring well of solitude.
“Sir, look at this. Do you think mother will like it?”
Aline held out a handful of lily of the valley. The man smiled in agreement and lifted Aline up.
“We should go back now. Before your mother and father run to the cliff at the end of the world looking for you.”
“Is there a cliff at the end of the world?”
“There’s a very deep cliff.”
“Who lives below it?”
The man’s red eyes flashed for a moment.
“No one. No one lives there. It’s a very quiet place where nothing exists. Will you tell your mother these words, Aline?”
“What words? About the world’s cliff?”
The man shook his head and smiled as he floated up into the sky. This time, he was holding Aline in his arms.
“Tell her this. ‘You will surely live a happy life. The pain you had to endure in life is over, and Lilith has also blessed you, so you will live a life learning what love is.'”
Can you remember that? The man asked, but Aline didn’t answer. She had fallen asleep, tightly holding an armful of lily of the valley in both hands.
[This is the timeline separator]When Laila and Eustar returned to the palace after buying all the flowers in the square, the palace was already in an uproar. Princess Aline, who had been in the playroom, was nowhere to be found.
“Aline!”
Laila ran up the stairs, not even having time to worry about the nanny who had fainted from crying. She searched everywhere – her room, Aline’s study, the playroom – but there was no trace of the child.
“Did you find her?”
Eustar, who had come back through another corridor, asked while tying his completely disheveled hair. When Laila shook her head, tears that had been clinging to the corners of her eyes scattered.
“She’s not here. Eustar, Aline…”
“Calm down, Laila. Don’t worry. Aline must be somewhere in the palace. She might have fallen asleep somewhere while playing hide and seek.”
“By herself? That’s impossible. This has never happened before…”
Just as Laila’s voice was about to rise, Eustar tightly embraced her.
“Calm down, Laila. It’s okay. Aline will be fine. If you get too startled, the babies in your womb will think something terrible has happened to their mother and be shocked too.”
“We need to find Aline.”
Laila sobbed, taking a breath.
“We need to find her before she loses me.”
Eustar said,
“We can find her. We’ll definitely find her, so don’t worry.”
The servants searched every corner of the palace for Aline. As the rumor that Aline had disappeared reached the ears of visiting nobles and officials, the commotion grew even worse.
Some people looked behind curtains, some inside every closet in the rooms, and others even opened shelves, all busy searching for the young princess.
Laila too, without time for rational thought, scoured every part of the palace. Neither Mel nor Eustar could stop her. She was moving solely to find her daughter.
Losing Aline was unimaginable. Suddenly, Milia’s face flashed in her mind, sending a chill down her spine.
What if Aline never found her way back? What if she had to spend dozens of winters and dozens of moonlit nights in a place where no one could see her, until all her memories and thoughts of when she was alive became blurry…
“Aline!”
Laila’s voice rang through the chaotic corridor with a clang! The maids followed her, constantly fretting that something might happen to the pregnant woman.
“Aline, where are you? Answer me!”
There was no sound, no answer.
Where could the child who was in the playroom have gone? Did she leave the palace? Even if she did, it would be difficult for such a young child to cross the entire garden. It was even more impossible in the palace where people were everywhere.
“Aline, mother’s here. Don’t hide and quickly…”
“Your Majesty, we’ve found her!”
Laila whirled around at the sound of Mel running and shouting from afar. The maids following her gasped and quickened their pace to keep up with Laila.
“Where? Mel, where is Aline?”
“She’s in the playroom. It’s really strange. We couldn’t find her no matter how much we searched, but it’s as if she’s been there from the beginning…”
Laila didn’t hear the end of Mel’s words. As soon as she heard “playroom,” she ran up the stairs, clutching her dress. Everyone was startled and made way as they watched her climb two, three steps at a time.
“Aline!”
Laila’s eyes widened as she pushed open the door to the playroom.
As Mel had said, Aline was sitting quietly in the playroom.
With a fairy tale book open on her lap, she was looking at a picture of a meadow full of blooming lily of the valley. And around Aline, there were still fresh lily of the valley flowers scattered abundantly.
“Aline, what’s going on? Where on earth did you go? Do you know how startled mother was?”
Only then did Aline look up from the book and stare at Laila, then rub her eyes with her small hands. Laila realized she was crying, but this was no time to worry about such things.
“Aline, where on earth did you…”
“I went to pick lily of the valley. I thought mother would like them.”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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