chapter 81
The death of his great-grandfather was enough to put the brakes on what existed between him and Solania.
A time when he could neither draw closer nor walk away.
Surprisingly, it was Solania who first proposed a contractual marriage.
“Actually… I think I’ll be getting married soon.”
“M-married? What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”
Ferdinand spoke as if he were on the verge of tears.
No tears gathered in his blazing golden eyes,
but his voice and expression were already those of someone crying.
“The elders of my family are rushing the marriage. Since it’s a marriage I have to go through anyway… I want to choose the groom myself.”
When Solania’s violet-colored eyes turned toward him, Ferdinand’s mind went completely blank.
So… what does this mean?
After agonizing for a long while—
Smack!
He raised his hand and slapped his own cheek.
Solania’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit.
She gently touched his reddened cheek, flustered and unsure what to do.
Even this situation felt unreal to Ferdinand.
Solania… touching his cheek.
“It felt too unrealistic… so if this is a dream, I thought it’d be better to wake up quickly…”
As he rambled on, a soft laugh slipped out of Solania.
“I always think this, but you’re really cute.”
“C-cute? Me? No one’s ever said that to me before…”
“Did I… offend you?”
When Solania asked cautiously, Ferdinand quickly shook his head.
“No. I’m not offended. I like it. No—since I like it, please keep saying it.”
With things unfolding like this, the marriage was settled quickly.
Though mostly formal, they even drew up a marriage contract.
The term was one year.
After the period ended, they agreed to part cleanly.
To be honest, there was nothing bad in it for Ferdinand.
“One year is enough…”
It was enough time to protect Solania—
from the damn bastards in her family who pressured her into marriage,
and from himself, whose own end had already been decided.
But one year passed, then two.
And even after a hundred years had gone by,
Solania remained by his side.
When he asked why, she only smiled bashfully.
“I told you—you’re really cute. You were tricked by me.”
“Tricked…?”
“There are things like that.”
It was only much later that he learned everything—from their first meeting when the blind date partner was switched, to the contractual marriage—had all been Solania’s doing.
For Ferdinand, it was his first time being completely outplayed by someone.
If asked whether he felt bad about it…
“Oh? That’s what it was? So you fell in love with me at first sight too?”
He felt nothing but happiness.
In time, they even had a lovely child.
A bright, fair-haired boy who looked just like Solania.
The old geezers of the family complained that it was a shame he wasn’t a Black Dragon, but Ferdinand didn’t even listen.
All he wanted was to protect this small child for the rest of his life.
And then—
“Thank you, truly, thank you! I’ll build you an entire temple!”
He offered three days and nights of thanks to a god he had never once believed in.
The thought that the child wouldn’t have to live in fear of meeting the same fate as him—
he couldn’t have been more grateful.
The child occasionally fell ill, but grew up strong and healthy.
What had once been barely the length of three and a half handspans soon grew tall, married, and brought children of his own.
A little girl who looked just like her mother, and a Black Dragon boy the elders had so long yearned for.
Holding the babbling infant in his arms, Ferdinand repeated the same words over and over.
“This grandpa will protect you, no matter what.”
At the same time, he thought of his late great-grandfather.
“I’ll protect you and the children, no matter what.”
That absurd promise about sending him a small angel—
the words he had once dismissed with a scoff—
had become this desperately precious.
Only then did Ferdinand’s eyes redden.
At last, he understood how his great-grandfather must have felt when he stopped by his room before leaving Black Dragon Castle.
I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I can protect these children.
He must have felt exactly the same.
Over eight hundred years.
The time he had always thought unbearably dull passed in an instant, like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Children who once could only crawl began to walk, and their speech grew clearer.
“Grandpaa!”
“Yes!”
Grandchildren trailing after him,
his wife holding his hand affectionately,
and when he turned around, his son and daughter-in-law smiling behind them.
Days when there was nothing more to wish for continued—
until one day.
They say life sometimes throws hardships at you without warning.
Ferdinand was no exception to that cursed rule.
The deaths of his beloved son and daughter-in-law.
Black flames spread through the palace where they were staying.
Flames he had seen once before.
Those damned black flames that consumed everything before finally dying out.
Please—just let them live.
If only that one wish were granted, he could give up his own life dozens, even hundreds of times.
He prayed to every god in the world and to his departed ancestors.
When he finally arrived—
only the children were there, holding hands tightly and crying.
“Grandfather… it’s all because of me, isn’t it…?”
Though their lives had been saved through their parents’ sacrifice, deep scars were left in their young hearts—scars that would never fade.
For the children,
and for Ferdinand and Solania, their parents.
Overwhelmed by grief, Solania ultimately couldn’t endure the sorrow.
“Don’t make that face. I was truly happy to have met you.”
“I feel the same, Solana. There was no greater gift in my life than you. Thank you for coming to someone as lacking as me.”
“Me too. That’s why I prepared a gift for you… I hid it in the sunset we used to watch together…”
With the same smile she had shown him the very first time,
Solania left his side.
“Snff—!”
After hearing all of Lord Ferdinand’s story, I blew my nose loudly into the handkerchief Jerad handed me.
No matter how much I wiped, the tears wouldn’t stop.
Seeing Lord Ferdinand’s calm expression only made it worse.
How much pain must he have endured to speak of it so composedly—
I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Jerad, who had been sitting beside me listening, seemed the same.
His entire face was soaked with tears, his green hair drooping limply like wet seaweed.
As a vassal family of Kreutz, he must have known the story of Lord Ferdinand and Lady Solania—
but it seemed this was the first time he’d heard it in such detail.
“The reason you have business in the south—sniff—was to find the item Lady Solania left behind… I never, ever imagined it… huuugh…”
Jerad continued, his shoulders shaking.
The irreverent gaze he usually aimed at Lord Ferdinand was nowhere to be seen.
“Good grief—anyone watching would think I made you cry!”
Lord Ferdinand cleared his throat repeatedly.
Then—
“All this time, I assumed Solana had hidden it in Sunset Town in the south. But yesterday, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.”
“Sniff…?”
What kind of thought?
“Maybe Solana hid that gift somewhere here.”
Lord Ferdinand’s gentle gaze turned toward the white marble building visible behind Black Dragon Castle.
The Hundred-Day Palace—where he had once lived with Solania.
