Chapter 88
It was not simply a dream, but a memory. After being forcibly torn out from his inner self, it was nothing more than a faint residue, scarcely even a handful.
No matter how vivid it was while dreaming, once he opened his eyes, it was always forgotten in the end.
Each time that happened, the prince would lie on his bed in a dazed state, staring blankly at the ceiling. Then, with a weary expression, he would close his eyes again and mutter inwardly.
“Have I not been sleeping deeply these days…? Why do I still feel so groggy even after sleeping this long?”
There was no one around who could tell him the reason. Because they, too, had all forgotten.
Prince Ellenen wrapped up his second semester without incident. It was vacation again.
He felt as though he had promised to go see the sea with someone once winter came, but he could not remember it.
Well, there was no need to strain himself to recall it anyway—his life was overflowing with appointments. With the vacation beginning and his free time increasing, he became busy going out with various upper-class friends.
In truth, he did not like those “friends” very much. Though they laughed and chatted warmly with him on the surface, he was convinced that inside they were steeped in calculations of gain and loss.
Still, it felt as though there had been at least one person around who regarded him not as a useful connection, but as a sincere friend. That person’s name was……
“…My head hurts.”
Ellenen suddenly frowned and rubbed his forehead. Strangely, whenever he tried hard to recall something these days, the space between his brows would throb as if pierced by an awl.
He lowered his hand from his forehead, and before long even the pain was forgotten. Enveloped in peaceful oblivion, his thoughts soon drifted elsewhere.
Time passed, and eventually the old year gave way to the new. To commemorate the turn of the year, the royal family held a grand ball.
Numerous dignitaries and wealthy magnates from across the country were invited, along with renowned actors and eminent scholars, as well as the children of traditional noble families who still retained their titles.
As a member of the royal family, Ellenen naturally had to attend. Yet he found himself longing for the days when he had been barred from attending simply for being too young.
“Back then, I was dissatisfied because it felt like everyone but me was included. But now…”
The youngest prince used to resent how the rest of his family would laugh, chat, and dance late into the night without him.
As time passed and he legally came of age, becoming unable to opt out of social gatherings even if he wanted to, he ended up missing his childhood instead. It was truly a contrarian instinct.
If he put his mind to it, Ellenen could put on a sociable mask and mingle energetically with many people. In fact, he had done so for almost his entire life.
But that was the result of immense practice and a sense of duty. Ellenen’s true nature was, in fact, closer to that of a contemplative thinker.
Sitting quietly in a comfortable place, reading a book or writing in a journal, and having cozy conversations with one or two like-minded people suited him far better.
Of course, there were not many people around him with whom he could converse so freely. For a while, it felt like there had been exactly one such person……
“Ugh.”
His head throbbed again. While pretending to be absorbed in cheerful conversation with distinguished guests at the ballroom, he reflexively furrowed his brow.
“Please excuse me for a moment. I think I need to wash my hands.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Please go ahead.”
“Thank you for your understanding. Please enjoy your conversation.”
Ellenen turned away with a polite smile still fixed on his face. After handing his half-empty champagne glass to a nearby attendant, he crossed the ballroom, making an effort not to walk too quickly.
“Washing one’s hands” was a roundabout way in high society of saying one was going to the restroom. However, Ellenen did not head for the restroom.
Instead, he went out to a quiet balcony where there were no people. What he needed was not a place to wash his hands, but the outside air to soothe a headache of unknown origin.
“Why does my head keep hurting these days?”
The midwinter night air was not merely cool but downright cold. Still, Ellenen paid it no mind, leaning his elbows on the balcony railing and clutching his head with both hands.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s anything else wrong with my body… but I’ve been constantly tired lately…”
Was it because he was not getting enough deep sleep? Ellenen lifted his head and stared blankly into the air.
At that moment, he heard the balcony door open and close. Startled, Ellenen turned around. A young woman about his age, with dark blond hair, stood by the doorway.
“Good evening, Prince Ellenen.”
She greeted him politely. Despite her respectful tone, her gaze was fixed on the prince so intently it was almost rude.
Rather than feeling flustered or displeased by the blatant stare, Ellenen instead looked back at her just as carefully. He examined the color of her eyes.
“That’s not the color.”
The woman’s irises were a pale green. The eyes of the person he saw every day in his dreams were a deep green.
“…Wait, what color?”
Dreams? What dreams?
Confusion suddenly surged up. At the same time, the pain boring into his skull like a blade intensified, and he unconsciously clenched his teeth.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I just have a bit of a headache…”
“I happened to notice your complexion earlier, and it looked very poor, so I followed you despite my impropriety. Forgive my presumption, but would it not be better for you to retire and get some rest?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not that severe.”
Ellenen shook his head sharply a couple of times, like a soaked puppy shaking off water. Karnen Holby gazed at him earnestly.
“By the way, you are Miss Karnen Holby, correct? It’s a pleasure to see you again after so long.”
“The honor is mine, Your Highness.”
As someone whose father held not only a marquisate but also one of the largest businesses in the country, Karnen had long made frequent appearances in high society.
Though she had often been sent to the countryside to recuperate during her sickly childhood, as she grew older and her minor illnesses lessened, she gradually began to settle into the capital as well.
Her connection with the prince was exceedingly shallow. She had greeted the royal family as the daughter of a marquis, and he had merely become acquainted with the capital’s nobility as a royal.
They were little more than acquaintances who knew each other’s names and faces out of courtesy, so facing each other alone like this felt awkward.
“Are you really all right?”
Karnen Holby’s troubled demeanor only deepened the awkward atmosphere. Her persistently probing into his physical condition went beyond simple concern and even felt suspicious.
“Yes. It’s just a mild headache.”
Ellenen reflexively adopted a defensive posture and looked at Karnen Holby with suspicion. Sensing his sharp wariness, her gaze wavered.
“…So you really don’t remember anything.”
She muttered it suddenly, so softly it was barely louder than her breathing. The voice was so faint and low that Ellenen wondered whether he had heard her correctly.
“Please forgive my rudeness, Your Highness. I was worried after seeing your complexion and overstepped my bounds. If there is nothing I can do to help, I will take my leave now.”
“What? Ah, yes…”
When Karnen Holby abruptly changed her attitude by a full one hundred and eighty degrees and bowed politely, Ellenen was caught off guard instead. While he hesitated for a moment, she swiftly turned around and walked away.
Ellenen stood rooted to the spot, staring intently at the woman’s retreating back. Over the back of her tawny head, a memory overlapped—someone else’s figure, someone flickering within a dream.
“Wait!”
He shouted impulsively. It was unplanned. Just as startled as the marquis’s daughter who turned around, the prince himself was equally shocked.
Ellenen did not know why he felt such a desperate urge to stop her. He could not understand why the thought of letting her go like this felt so intensely wrong.
Still, one thing was certain. There was something he needed to ask her.
He could not remember exactly what he wanted to ask, but he had a gut feeling that there were mountains of questions he needed to direct at her.
It was maddening. It felt like being in an exam hall with time running out, unable to recall the answer to an obvious question, clutching his head in frustration.
“Um…”
He started with a single desperate syllable but could not move on to the next step. Ellenen clenched his teeth in frustration.
“What am I even doing right now? I’ve got nothing to say, even if I look like a madman.”
He was burning inside. He knew he had to explain to the marquis’s daughter—who was staring at him with wide, rabbit-like eyes—why he had called out to her, yet no words came to mind.
As Karnen watched his silent struggle, her gaze suddenly became strangely unsettled.
“It seems the effect of the oblivion is starting to wear off. Either that child didn’t handle it properly, or it has an inherent limit…”
“What?”
“You might be special. The others didn’t even sense anything strange.”
“What do you mean by—”
As Karnen muttered again, Ellenen hurriedly asked back. The more she spoke in incomprehensible soliloquies, the stronger his conviction grew that he was missing something crucial.
Karnen looked into Ellenen’s earnest eyes with a complicated expression. Then, as if making up her mind, she took a short, deep breath and spoke softly, gazing at the prince with a somewhat sad look.
“If, someday, you feel the need to have a serious conversation with me, please come and find me at any time. I will be waiting for you, Your Highness.”
With that enigmatic promise, Karnen bowed to the prince and turned her back on him for the second time. This time, Ellenen did not stop her.
The one who remembered and the one who had forgotten went their separate ways that day.
Several months earlier, in a foreign hotel far removed from Hermeon, a man and a woman entered together.
The woman wore a travel cloak, her expression indifferent, while the man, carrying himself with elegance, secured a room for the two of them in the lobby.
The hotel staff guided them to a special suite. It consisted of a living room, bathroom, and bedroom. Outside the window stretched the night view of a prosperous city, filled with even more high-rise buildings than Hermeon.
“Thank you for the guidance. You may take your leave now.”
“Yes, my lord. Please let us know if you require anything.”
When the man spoke in a gentle voice, the staff member bowed deeply in reply. Though he addressed the man respectfully as “my lord,” he did not even glance at the woman beside him.
It was not that the staff was deliberately ignoring her. From start to finish, the woman had not spoken a single word and observed everything with an indifferent expression, as if nothing particularly interested her.
Paying for the room at the lobby and communicating with the staff had all been the man’s responsibility. Naturally, the staff’s attention could only be focused solely on him.
