“Have you woken up?”
An old lady sat in a chair, smiling warmly at the old man in the bed beside her. She seemed fifteen years younger than he; though she was old, she was still a beautiful woman with an air of refinement around her.
“How long did I sleep for?” the old man asked in a hoarse voice, not sitting up.
“About two days... I’m so glad you woke up. Here. Have some water,” she said with a gentle smile.
“I had a dream...” he said softly after sipping the water.
“Oh? What kind of dream?” she asked, looking at him with a gentle gaze.
“I met you, we got married, built the grand duchy...and then the dream ended with you being pregnant.”
“Oh my, that was quite the long dream,” she said with a smile as warm as the sun.
“I’m so sorry to make you feel like this,” he said.
Though anyone else seeing her smile might have thought it to be a very gentle, happy one, he alone could see the sadness behind it. He’d spent almost an entire lifetime with her, and thus he understood her better than anyone else.
“I’d love to show you a funny dance, but...I don’t think I can get up,” he said as he tried and failed to push himself to a sitting position. Instead, he placed his index and middle fingers on the bed and began making them dance. Since he couldn’t stand on his own two feet anymore, he had his fingers dance instead. Despite the flame of his life reduced to mere embers, the old man mustered his strength to do this simple thing to make his wife happy. He wanted her to smile for real, with joy from the bottom of her heart.
“Thank you very much. I feel much better now,” she giggled, trying her best to smile for him.
After living a long life as a noble, she’d become skilled at hiding her true emotions, and with these skills, she summoned every ounce of will in herself to smile. Even when close to death, the man’s first thought was always his wife, and she did everything she could to hold back the tears that were threatening to burst out from his heartfelt kindness.
“Ana... Thanks to you, I’ve lived a happy life. It was so much fun being surrounded by our children and grandchildren during the lantern festival. Now, even as I approach death, there hasn’t been a single moment where I felt lonely or wanting. As long as I see you smile, that’s enough to fill me with joy. It’s all thanks to you that I was truly happy... That I could live the absolute best...possible life.”
“I, too... I’ve lived the truly, most joyous life by your side.”
“Ana... Will you kiss me?”
“Oh? You want a kiss from an old lady like me?”
“It doesn’t matter what you look like or how old you’ve become... Ana, you have always been and always will be cute,” he said, gazing at the old woman with all his love.
It was easy for anyone to see that he believed this from the bottom of his heart. She pressed her lips against his.
“Ana...let’s meet in the next life. I’m the Grand Duke of Miracles... I promise I’ll make a miracle happen... I promise we’ll be together again... When we meet once more...will you marry me?”
“Oh my. This is quite the early proposal, and one I will accept,” she said, tightly gripping his hand with a loving smile.
He squeezed her hand in return and gave her an adoring smile of his own. They simply looked at one another without saying anything further. After the long life they’d spent together, no words were needed.
“I think...it’s almost time for me to go.”
“Please wait for me there. I’ll join you soon.”
“Take your time... It takes a while to make miracles happen... A lot of preparation is needed.”
“Oh, my dear husband. I will certainly find you in the next life. I will never give up on my happiness. That applies to my next life as much as this one.”
“You’re going to look for me? How wonderful... We’ll definitely find each other again, then.”
“Yes, we will. If we find each other and you don’t recognize me, I’ll propose to you again, so please rest assured that we will be together once more.”
“It’s okay... Once I see you...there’s no way...I won’t recognize you...”
“Oh my,” she said with an amused smile.
“Ana... I love...” But his words trailed off before he could finish his sentence.
“I love you too... From the very, very bottom of my heart, I love you...” she said, returning his heartfelt declaration with one of her own. But as skilled as she was at hiding her emotions, she was no longer able to hold back, and her voice began to shake.
And then, the room fell into silence. A very, very long silence.
“Rest well, Sir Gino...” she said, continuing to hold his hand as the first tear trailed down her cheek.
Then the tears she’d desperately tried to keep dammed up in front of him in his fragile state burst out like a flood as she remained, now alone, in that quiet room.
And so, the life of the one called the Grand Duke of Miracles came to a close. As one who had received a divine message from the gods and was the husband of the child of the gods herself, he was seen as the one next closest to the gods. The only reason he hadn’t become a saint himself was because he hadn’t desired it, and apparently, according to high priests, he was firm about his stance, and stories about his virtuous nature were born.
The Grand Duke of Miracles was a title that the populace had given him; they would have given him a holy title, but they wanted to respect his decision for not wanting to become a saint. He was simply that revered by the people that they all gave him that little bit of consideration.
Though he’d been born as the fourth son of a viscount, he’d received divine ordinance from the gods and completed the enormous feat of creating his own grand duchy. He’d then brought miracles to it and proceeded to win four wars with said miracles. The turbulence of his life could not be understated.
Many of his retainers were impressed by his miraculous reforms of domestic, foreign, and military affairs, as well as the exchange market and regulations of financial institutions by a central bank. They revered him so much that the nobles would pull out their own healthy teeth in solidarity whenever he had to get his teeth removed.
He had an overwhelming amount of influence both domestically and internationally, but as soon as he handed off the reins of the grand duchy to his son, he had shut himself in the palace and refused to be involved in politics at all. The reason he retreated so suddenly was written in House Treves’ records.
He was quoted as saying: “I have something more important to do—spending the time I have left with Ana.”
After the grand duke’s retirement, his friend Anthony Treves shared this. As if to prove the truth of it, even in his old age, the grand duke was always with his wife, as if he were offering every last second of his life to her. He continued treasuring her in a way that nobody else could replicate. As he resided in his royal villa, he lived a life so peaceful that it made the turbulence of his younger years seem as if it’d been nothing but a mirage.