Chapter 139
* * *
The force of his sudden embrace crushed me so tightly I couldn’t even move my lips.
Dale’s heart pounded like galloping hooves.
He was holding me so hard I thought I might actually be crushed to death.
“Da—”
“……! Ah. I’m sorry.”
Startled, Dale quickly loosened his grip and helped my limp body upright, slipping his hands under my arms. He looked flustered.
His face looked like he was about to cry.
Now I understood why this face felt so familiar.
He looked exactly like he had when he was young. Astonishingly unchanged.
The way he looked at me was the same, too.
Which is why—
“Cancel the wedding. Right now.”
“……!”
His eyes widened in shock as I grabbed him by the collar.
“I came back alive, so stop the marriage with the Hexagon girl! Immediately.”
I expected him to say Yes.
Or at least Understood.
But his reaction wasn’t what I anticipated.
“Dale? Why aren’t you answering?”
“Are you… calling me Dale again now?”
He smiled faintly, as if happy—but he didn’t answer. Instead, he avoided my gaze.
Avoided it?
“D-Don’t tell me you’re already married?”
“Where were you? Were you safe? How did you hear the news and find your way here?”
“Did you get married?”
“I’m relieved you’re safe.”
“Answer my question first.”
I leaned closer, deliberately staring into his unsteady eyes.
“I came back alive. You’re not going to marry another woman now, right? The deal can stop. Break the engagement immediately.”
“……Marriage arrangements aren’t something that can be halted so easily.”
Thud.
It felt like I’d just been struck on the head with something heavy.
“……What?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t grant your request, Enya.”
“W-Why?”
I knew what he was saying.
He meant he would proceed with the wedding as planned.
But with a Hexagon daughter?
Even though I, the supposed hostage, had returned alive?
“Cough.”
Suddenly, he let out a dry cough.
Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he sighed deeply.
“Are you okay? You’re not better yet, are you? You’re still sick—”
“Thank you, but you don’t need to worry.”
He gently took my hand off his sleeve and lowered it.
“……”
He had rejected me.
Dale frowned slightly, staring at me with a sharp gaze—just like when he was young.
“The deal with Duke Hexagon wasn’t entirely irrational. Duke Lockhart is already my strong ally. I concluded it wouldn’t be a bad idea to settle old grudges with the opposition.”
“Are you serious?”
“It’s true I accepted because I heard you were captured. But now that you, Lady Lockhart, are no longer my fiancée and our contractual relationship has ended, isn’t it time to consider what comes next?”
“You expect me to accept that nonsense?”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
“You can never truly reconcile with the Hexagons. You know that. Have you forgotten that it was your uncle—the one who tormented you to the brink of death—who gave Duke Hexagon his immense power?”
“I haven’t for—”
Suddenly, Dale stopped mid-sentence and grabbed me urgently, as if burned.
His eyes trembled.
“You remember?”
He stared at me in disbelief.
“Since when?”
I didn’t miss the way he wavered.
“I remember now. And I understand. I understand why Your Majesty treated me like someone you loved unconditionally.”
“That’s—”
Cough!
At the same time, he shoved me away and broke into a violent coughing fit.
“Dale!”
He couldn’t stop. His pale face made it obvious—he wasn’t well.
“Dale? What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. Please… leave.”
“That’s not what it looks like to me.”
“Please…”
His voice trailed off. His eyes lost focus.
He looked at me—and collapsed into my arms.
“Dale! Aide! If you’re outside, call a physician immediately!”
“Medical treatment is useless.”
The one who entered was Casion Schultz.
He calmly supported Dale.
“Why are you here? No—more importantly…”
I looked at Dale.
“What happened to him?”
* * *
“I’m glad you returned safely. His Majesty would have wasted away rather than fallen ill at this rate.”
While Dale was being treated, Casion and I waited outside.
But the one treating Dale wasn’t a physician.
It was a priest.
Casion said Dale’s condition wasn’t something ordinary medicine could handle.
“Now that you’ve come, his condition will likely improve.”
“……”
“Lady? Are you listening?”
“He said he won’t cancel the marriage with the Hexagon girl.”
“Do you believe he meant that?”
I lowered my hand from my chin.
“No. I think there’s something else I don’t know.”
There was no reason to force a wedding while gravely ill—especially to an enemy family.
“How long has he been this sick?”
“A long time.”
“Even when we met in Grünwald, he was already sick?”
“To my knowledge.”
Casion answered honestly.
Which meant he knew things I didn’t.
“You said you’ve known His Majesty since childhood. Why won’t he tell me what’s wrong?”
I forced myself to ask what I had dreaded.
“Does His Majesty have an incurable disease?”
“……”
The silence was answer enough.
I hadn’t realized at all that he was ill. If he required a priest rather than a physician, it had to be serious.
“Is there anything I can do?”
For a moment, Casion’s eyes wavered.
“If you…”
He hesitated, then looked away, deep in thought.
“The Emperor has stabilized.”
The priest opened the door and let us inside.
Casion’s unfinished words were swallowed.
Dale looked as if he were merely asleep.
‘I hope he gets better like this… but he’s no longer the protagonist of the original story. He could die.’
The thought drained the color from my face.
A priest stood beside the bed.
Looking closely, I realized I had seen him before—in the greenhouse, when Father met him.
The priest smiled gently, recognizing me.
“You must be the young lady of House Lockhart.”
Casion bowed first.
“It has been a long time, Your Eminence.”
Ah—the High Priest.
“Your Eminence.”
I hurriedly knelt as Casion had.
“Please rise, young lady.”
The High Priest took my hand and helped me up.
Why was the High Priest—the head of the Order—here?
Had he rushed here personally to treat Dale?
‘Then Dale will live.’
Relief loosened my chest.
The High Priest was said to possess the greatest healing power alive. Surely he could accomplish what ordinary people could not.
“His Majesty will recover, won’t he?”
“I regret to say… I do not know.”
“What?”
Even the High Priest didn’t know?
“That’s impossible…”
His expression wasn’t joking. My lips trembled.
“Are you saying His Majesty could die?”
“……”
“There must be a way.”
Neither Casion nor the High Priest answered.
A dreadful thought surfaced.
‘Did he come to see me because he doesn’t have long left?’
I shook my head.
If that were true, it would explain why he pretended to comply with Hexagon’s demands.
“There is not no method.”
At last, the High Priest spoke.
“It involves something that belongs to you, Lady Lockhart. That is why I could not speak lightly.”
“Your Eminence—”
Casion tried to stop him, but the High Priest smiled faintly.
“In the past, when the former Emperor was deposed, one of the charges was losing a sacred relic.”
He looked at me with clouded eyes.
“In truth, it was never lost.”
He stepped closer, placed his hand gently atop my head, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he smiled with certainty.
“It was used for someone who truly needed it.”
