Harriot and Judith’s Wedding
Even though there was no way my voice could reach him, Ricardo looked at me again.
“Farewell, Ricardo.”
Watching him prepare to leave naturally brought back memories of my childhood. That day when Ricardo left Count Fennel’s estate in a pitch-black carriage.
The child of the oracle whom I had protected with my life had now begun a new journey toward the highest heights.
From childhood until now, he has been engaged in an endless battle with nothing other than fate itself and the god who bestowed that fate.
I didn’t know whether this current situation was divine consideration or divine mockery, as Ricardo had said, but I waved my hand cheerfully just as I had when I was thirteen, on that day I sent him away, wishing for his well-being.
The child of the oracle who had fled from the oracle’s fate would no longer be swept up in that whirlpool of destiny.
He was leaving, leaving me behind, once again.
But now, even watching Ricardo’s departing back, I no longer felt abandoned.
I watched until Ricardo’s figure became a dot and disappeared, and even as the sunlight illuminated the empty space where he had left, I remained dazed and still for quite some time.
Then suddenly, I recalled Ricardo’s words that the door would always be open.
“The paintings!”
My heart pounded ceaselessly as I headed to that room to see the paintings. Even as I thought that if I saw our childhood again, the tears I had barely held back might burst forth, my steps had no hesitation.
As I grasped the cold metal handle, goosebumps rose on my arm.
Though I was merely opening a door inside a room, somehow I felt like a child walking a path I shouldn’t go.
“Hoo…”
I exhaled deeply and flung open the door, and the painting, no longer covered by a curtain, was the first thing to catch my eye.
On the hill where Ricardo and I had stood facing each other, I still stood alone with a tender expression. The tree was still billowing heavily in the direction of the wind, just as it had been then.
I, who had been immersed in sentiment for a moment, finally burst into laughter. It was because of the bright yellow wildflowers blooming beneath the tree that I hadn’t noticed when I first saw this painting.
[You… like me.]
The moment when he had finally extracted that confession from me was close to noon. The nameless flower blooming beneath the tree and the short shadow cast beneath my feet were scenery from that day that couldn’t be known unless seen from right beside us.
Seeing that made the fact that we had truly been together feel real. Even though he had deliberately erased his own presence.
I turned my gaze away from that painting and slowly looked around the room with leisurely eyes. Then finally, I let out a deep sigh and sank down in place.
The relatively sparse space was now packed full with new paintings. They too were of me.
If there was a difference from the original works, it was that I in the paintings was no longer a young girl.
Me standing with an egg in my hand with a dazed expression, me looking at him with my face flushed red inside a carriage, me standing before Ayphnetis’s painting searching for him, me stretching out my body on the balcony gazing at the sky, me glaring at him while sitting in a ferry boat.
And even my trembling figure standing face-to-face with him at the engagement ceremony.
I composed myself and got up from my seat, slowly approaching the paintings.
[Even now, my days begin with you and end with you…]
His first confession, pressing his hot lips to my wet lips, faintly spread through my ears. The reflection of me in his eyes looked happy in every instance.
In any moment, Ricardo had loved me like this at every moment, as I smiled like someone without a care.
[If you, who shared gazes with me like sharing food, who mixed laughter with me like exchanging words, who was by my side like breathing—if you disappear, then… then how will I live?]
Even while always keeping separation in mind, he had been with me every moment.
His past love must have always been somewhere between pain and sorrow, but now we could overcome all of that together.
After that, I looked around the room for quite a while longer before going outside.
Leaving the door, which had always been tightly closed, slightly open, I returned to the window and gazed in the direction he had disappeared, murmuring softly.
“Ricardo, my husband.”
The word ‘husband’ felt awkward and unfamiliar, making me chuckle. I repeated those words once more, driving away even the slightest fear remaining within me.
Even if death parts us, we would now die as each other’s companion.
If the things we hold dear become ruins, we could start over from there.
Not even once with reservations, without fear, embracing new hope.
An ending with nothing left to fear, nothing left to be painful—that was sufficient. Perhaps we were already in the midst of our happy ending.
****
Several days passed after Ricardo left, and the Emperor still remained secluded within the Imperial Palace.
Occasionally reports came in that the Emperor’s closest aides were coming and going from his quarters, but there were no particular movements. One afternoon when those reports somehow made me more anxious, unexpected news arrived from the Imperial Palace.
“So it has come to this.”
The Duchess clicked her tongue as she read the letter brought by the imperial messenger. Soon that letter was passed to the Duke, who was leisurely drinking tea by her side.
“The wedding of Harriot Reid Schneider and the Saintess…”
The Duke, putting down the letter, showed no particular expression as if he had anticipated this situation.
“It’s an order for all those with the Rochester name to attend the wedding.”
“I don’t know how his actions never deviate even an inch from expectations.”
At the Duchess’s words as she frowned, I quietly nodded.
“The saintess has no choice.”
What Judith, whom even the Grand Priest had turned his back on, could do was predetermined. Though she was barely staying in the Imperial Palace under the protection of the imperial family, she was no longer Rochester’s companion.
For her, all that remained as an option was to become the new Emperor’s companion by relying on the ambiguous oracle given by god.
The Crown Princess had said such things before leaving Dermeier.
Before turning back time, even Paquin and Chaplin had turned their backs on Rochester, and as a result, Rochester had become isolated.
But now the situation was completely different.
Julian was engaged to Sabrina, and Walter had been willing to risk engagement with me knowing it would antagonize the imperial family.
“What will the Emperor, who still hasn’t properly accepted the situation, try to scheme now…?”
Most of the Demahen Knights remained on the island guarding the Stuart and Rochester estates in the Imperial Palace. Ricardo had left with only the elite of the Demahen Knights to find the labyrinth.
Since the Rochester ducal house also had a knight order, the Emperor, who couldn’t borrow the strength of Paquin and Chaplin, wouldn’t try to engage in all-out war with Rochester.
“I suppose he’ll turn his eyes outward.”
Now all the Emperor could trust were the royal family members and nobles from vassal states whom he had made citizens by directly bestowing titles, and the closest aides whose families had served the imperial family for generations.
“It’s his last desperate struggle, so he won’t prepare half-heartedly.”
In addition to the official letter from the Imperial Palace, the Emperor had even sent a handwritten edict to the Duke ordering him to definitely attend Harriot’s wedding. I looked at that letter with anxious eyes and asked the Duke.
“You won’t go to the engagement ceremony, will you?”
At my words, the Duke and Duchess nodded as if it were obvious. But then, Freddy rushed into the reception room.
“Your Grace.”
“What is it?”
Freddy was someone who maintained near-perfect etiquette in any situation. That he was moving while ignoring protocol like this meant it was a very urgent matter.
He approached with quick steps and whispered something in the Duke’s ear.
“Bring him in.”
When Freddy, having received the order, stepped aside, the Duchess asked urgently.
“What is it?”
“Actually, I had someone planted near the Emperor. I know you dislike such things, but…”
“Don’t say such things. You did very well.”
The Duke, having received unexpected praise, cleared his throat with a “Ahem,” then sent even the servants guarding the area outside. Not long after, a man entered the reception room.
As soon as he entered, he informed us of astonishing facts.
“So you’re saying Ricardo is heading to Micheela Cor right now, and the Emperor already knows this?”
“That’s correct.”
The man who conveyed the message was a tall, slender man who trembled while rolling his large eyes back and forth throughout the conversation, as if nervous.
“How could the Emperor know the location of the labyrinth?”
“I heard he planted a spy within the Demahen Knights.”
The Demahen Knights were veiled in secrecy, making entry difficult.
Though it was hard to believe he had planted a spy in such a place, no matter how formidable a force, it couldn’t be completely without gaps, so it wasn’t impossible.
“Micheela Cor…”
Only after hearing the Duke murmur softly did I remember that Micheela Cor was the name of an island located in the north of the Empire. The island, where ships rarely reached due to rough seas, received little news from the Empire.
This also meant they had no particular stance in political power struggles.
To the people of that island, which had become imperial territory 300 years ago, the Emperor’s word was law.