episode_0154

The infirmary, shrouded in shadows.

After a single flash of light burned away the darkness, brilliantly shattered fragments of shadow adorned the space.

A scene vaguely resembling a night sky without a single cloud.

Starlight is truly beautiful.

Before long, the ceiling was a celestial wonderland dotted with white jade.

In the flowing world, a pristine genesis breathed.

The landscape painting veered off course for a moment.

And so, time passed.

“……”

The Emperor opened his eyes.

His consciousness, which had been cut off during treatment, had returned.

Valkaros groaned, clutching his forehead, then slowly raised himself from the sickbed.

Only then did he realize he had been asleep.

How much time had passed?

“Ugh…”

“Your Majesty.”

While he briefly regained his breath.

The boy waiting beside him spoke.

“You’re awake.”

Juda Snakers.

He was still guarding the infirmary.

Seeing that the other children also remained in their places, he knew not much time had passed.

At most, perhaps 30 minutes?

It was a strange feeling.

Subjectively, it felt like he had been asleep for almost ten years.

He diverted his thoughts from the lingering stiffness.

Valkaros scanned his surroundings.

‘Was the treatment successful? What about the Second Princess?’

First, he needed to assess the situation.

The Emperor cleared his blurred vision and lifted his head, performing a dry wash of his face.

Just then, a strange sensation ran down Valkaros’s spine.

He involuntarily flinched his shoulders.

“……?”

Strangely, his body felt light.

To be precise, the process of waking up was not painful at all.

The headache that would normally have already appeared was nowhere to be found.

At first, he thought his senses were dulled right after waking, but as his consciousness became clearer, the painlessness became more vivid.

The Emperor was perplexed.

‘Why?’

Had this ever happened before?

Ten years ago.

Ever since he contracted the illness from Rose, he hadn’t known a single day of comfort from pain.

The shackles of the curse were a destiny that could never be broken.

For Valkaros, pain was both a chosen proof and a brand.

The fact that it had disappeared meant…

“……Surely not.”

The Emperor muttered softly.

He then turned to look at the boy beside him with a stunned expression.

Juda was gazing at Valkaros with a triumphant smile.

Had he read the question in the man’s eyes?

The boy, as if he had been waiting, casually tossed out a remark.

“Your Majesty’s thoughts are correct.”

“……”

“It concluded successfully.”

What?

Even adding such a question was meaningless.

The strange sensation swirling throughout his entire body supported the hypothesis.

For the first time in almost ten years, his body felt refreshed.

The sensation of every single blood vessel tearing with each movement of his body.

His consciousness, hazy due to excessively applied pain-relieving magic.

Muscles twisting every moment, a head throbbing as if it would shatter, and shimmering auditory hallucinations in his ears.

Despite all this, his fists were always tightly clenched due to the unbearable pain.

All of it was gone.

“Ah…”

Valkaros, who had been lost in thought for a long time.

He soon seemed to recall something and looked at the sickbed on the opposite side.

At the end of his gaze, a red-haired girl was situated.

It seemed she had regained consciousness before him.

“It really turned out well…”

“Hiccup… Your Highness is recovered, I’m so happy…”

“Both of you, stop crying. I’m fine.”

“But Elize is crying too.”

“This is just… ugh, because my sister and Tanya suddenly clung to me.”

Elize.

Charlotte and Tanya were clinging to her.

Had they already passed through a flood of tears?

The girls were leaning against each other, their eyes redder than autumn foliage.

Such a scene signified only one thing.

‘The end.’

A period had been put.

Even to the winter that seemed eternal, spring had finally arrived.

The world filled with curses had already been shattered.

Valkaros muttered to himself blankly.

‘Something I had dismissed as impossible.’

Contextually, he had entrusted the treatment to the boy.

As Emperor, he had held no expectations whatsoever.

There was a reason why a mere illness had been given the name ‘God’s Curse’.

Even after yearning for a solution for nearly ten years, the only conclusion reached was a few cold words: there was no way.

Therefore, he had abandoned belief.

But.

‘The mana circulation…’

The man circulated the mana throughout his entire body several times.

The meridians that had been completely blocked just hours ago.

Normally, pain from cutting, tearing, and twisting should have accompanied it, but now only a smooth flow continued.

The mana, delivered to every corner, cleared his mind and simultaneously invigorated him.

There was no sense of foreignness even in his inner self, which was as calm as a stream.

Such signals proved a body condition that was nothing short of perfectly healthy.

Valkaros couldn’t close his mouth.

‘A miracle.’

Yes.

The man was witnessing a miracle.

The common sense he had accumulated was shattered.

The boy’s ‘lie’ was a complete contradiction of the laws of nature.

But the march of miracles didn’t stop there.

‘Remember, Valkaros.’

Suddenly.

The voice of a woman brushed past his ears.

The Emperor momentarily stopped breathing.

‘That I am always by your side.’

His heart was pierced.

It felt as if a sharp awl was piercing through his lungs.

It was unfamiliar.

It was a different feeling from the pain caused by the curse.

It was something far clumsier, more fundamental, and more emotional.

The man involuntarily stiffened at the unfamiliar sensation.

Even then, the auditory hallucination continued.

‘I was happy loving you.’

The Empress.

It was the voice of the Empress, whom he had long forgotten.

A tremor intensified in his heart.

‘Why?’

Something was strange.

His perfectly clear vision suddenly blurred.

Both his eyes pricked, and soon the world reflected in water droplets began to ripple.

The softly breaking foam turned into transparent watercolor and flowed down.

Drip drip-.

Raindrops were falling on his cheeks.

The repeated accumulation and overflowing of celestial waters was like suffering from an unknown high fever, and after the long streaks formed, they felt as hot as burns.

Words, broken into pieces, scattered.

His heart surged as if it might overflow and spill out.

The man felt dizzy.

Thump-thump-.

A wild pulse, crying out that it was alive.

His throat felt constricted, as if lukewarm dough was stuck in it.

Although he was clearly inhaling air, he couldn’t breathe.

It was the result of a swirling flurry of emotions.

‘Valkaros.’

It hurt.

Valkaros’s eyes hurt.

Therefore, rain continued to fall in his world.

His vision had no intention of clearing up.

Thump-.

His heart sank.

No. Was it his heart?

Perhaps it was something else entirely.

But to Valkaros in that moment, it didn’t matter.

His eyes, resembling blades of grass, trembled.

“……”

The Emperor’s gaze still lingered on the princesses.

Towards the platinum-blonde and red-haired.

‘Even if I’m not here… please take care of the children.’

The persistent chest pain.

Following the image reflected in his pupils, the formless pain became more vivid.

Nevertheless, Valkaros couldn’t avert his gaze.

‘They’ve grown so much.’

The children before his eyes were safe.

He didn’t know when they had grown so much, but both had become proper young ladies.

Why did such things weigh so heavily on his mind?

It was the reason for the continuous pain he had felt since earlier.

‘This is.’

His heart felt as if it had been pierced by a flame.

The reflected world was incomparably diluted.

The pupils filled with raindrops, the white ripples on their surface resembling a spring day.

His tightly clenched fists felt no pain.

Despite all these overwhelming sensations.

He was so stirred that he might have burst into tears.

Valkaros knew the name of this pain.

Moments from past years flashed by like pages turning with a swish.

His wrinkled lips uttered a language he hadn’t known for a long time.

He uttered a language forgotten from long ago.

‘……Love.’

Yes.

It was love.

Amidst the countless catacombs of characters, a buried word raised its head.

It was something he had thought was completely lost.

It was in his heart.

“How do you feel?”

A voice cut in at that moment.

The boy was giving him a faint smile.

“This feeling you’re experiencing after a long time.”

“……”

The Emperor couldn’t answer.

He merely hesitated, repeatedly opening and closing his mouth.

A complete thought couldn’t form.

The string of words rolling around in his mouth was so fragile that if he tried to place them on his tongue, they would shatter into tiny pieces.

Fragments that couldn’t quite form sentences flowed smoothly like grains of sand.

In his clear vision, the spring rain did not cease.

The chorus of winter and spring.

As he hesitated for a moment amidst the widespread petals, the boy behind him gently pushed his back.

It was a push devoid of any formality.

Thud-.

“Go on. Isn’t this the moment you’ve yearned for?”

Valkaros, caught off guard, moved forward.