Gravis watched the king’s back as he climbed the stairs and lifted his dazed mother off the floor.
“Gravis… I…” His mother, the origin of his own beauty, was thinner, and older than he remembered.
“…Mother.” A single tear escaped the man’s eye as he gazed at his mother. “I thought I understood your loneliness, but I now see I understood nothing…”
“Gravis…”
“You did everything in your power to keep me from seeing true hell.”
Adele let out a sob. Gravis’s old mother was helpless and light, her usual dignity nowhere to be found.
“I am guilty of living my life without knowing the truth.”
“Gravis… Forgive me. Forgive your mother.”
“Mother… Forgive me as well, for forcing you to carry all the anguish and secrets all on your own.”
Their starry-sky eyes met. Between them hung the unshakable bond between mother and child.
“I loved you. I still admire your strength, your nobility…and how you married into this country and endured the suffering throughout your reign, Mother.”
Adele sobbed and clung to Gravis’s neck. For the first time since he could remember, he felt the warmth of his mother’s body this close to his own.
“How I wish I could have held you…just like this.”
“Me too… Mother…I always wanted to make you happy…but…”
Gravis, too, buried his forehead in his mother’s shoulder.
“…But we can’t allow ourselves to be happy knowing what we know now.”
“Gravis… I’m aware. We…”
The mother and son, who looked very much alike, gazed at each other with tears in their eyes. Eyes aware of their sins. The sin of ignorance. And the sin of silence.
“…I don’t foresee us meeting again in this capacity.”
They were a mother and son who continued to suffer from one man’s madness.
But the other mother and son continued to live through a hell they couldn’t even imagine.
What is “blood” anyway?
What was the meaning of a throne that had to be inherited at the expense of someone else?
“…I love you, Mother. But this is our atonement to my brother, to Queen Emilia…and to Kyle, who have all suffered so much.”
Adele’s eyes seemed to be pleading with him. Her slender fingers clung tightly to her son’s shoulders.
“Gravis, my dearest son. Please be happy. Please find happiness with…that Cassieux boy.”
Gravis couldn’t help the single tear that escaped his eye.
Oh, this woman is truly my mother. The woman who was clumsily carrying immense love under a mask of heartlessness is, without a doubt, my mother.
“Please…forgive me for refusing to let you choose a life with that young man with the red hair that day.”
At his mother’s faltering words, Gravis closed his eyes tightly, tighter than ever.
They climbed the long flight of stairs and stepped out onto the ground.
They returned to the magnificent palace befitting the greatest country on the Agalean continent. But the royal palace, which he thought he had known since he was a child, had never felt more like an elaborate illusion than now.
He felt dizzy.
The dungeon, stale and filthy, must have been the true state of Fanoren. Was that hell, where the remains of countless tombless loves lay, not the most appropriate place for them?
Reality had not yet returned to Gravis’s mind.
No. Now that he knew that his reality had been nothing but an illusion, the world Gravis had believed in was destroyed forever.
He handed the queen dowager to her attendants who had been waiting at the entrance to the staircase. The attendants were dismayed to see her so exhausted.
“The queen dowager has had a very difficult day. Take her to her palace and let her rest.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Gravis nodded silently, then quickly stood and turned on his heel.
“Gravis…my son!”
Adele’s cry echoed through the corridor.
Hearts that tore at the seams cried out to each other, wanting to once again be mother and child.
Gravis stopped and bowed faintly. “I love you, Mother… No, Your Majesty the Queen Dowager. Please continue to take good care of yourself.”
Gravis walked away with the sobs of the queen dowager at his back. He did not turn.
Leorino was waiting for him as usual in his room in his palace. When Gravis returned, Leorino approached, greeting him with a joyous smile.
“Welcome home.”
He never got tired of the sight of that smile.
The irreplaceable life he had very nearly lost a few months ago.
It was a miracle to see this being more precious than life itself alive and smiling at him.
Why did this miracle happen to someone as cursed as me?
Gravis could not respond. Leorino’s face quickly clouded over. He saw the look on Gravis’s face and realized that something was wrong.
“What happened?”
Gravis wordlessly embraced Leorino.
“Vi…?”
He was so feeble and fragile.
His wounds had healed, but his body was still thin and his fingernails had not grown back.
Gravis swore he would protect him, but he had hurt Leorino so much, both physically and emotionally.
“…Why?”
But somehow, this pure, innocent soul was now in his arms.
Why was only he blessed with such a miracle?
With the cursed blood of Fanoren running in his veins, he did not deserve to be happy.
Gravis could no longer bear the weight of happiness.
“…What’s wrong?”
Leorino placed his arms around Gravis’s back as the man continued to hold him in silence. Leorino was clearly asking what had happened.
But the words would not come.
Gravis could not put into words the feelings raging in his heart.
“Vi, tell me. Talk to me.”
“Leorino…I’m sorry. I can’t tell you.”
This pain was something Gravis had to bear alone. Leorino’s violet eyes darkened for a moment. But finally, he smiled and said: “If it’s something you can’t talk about, you don’t have to tell me… There isn’t much I can do to help, but…