Chapter 10 (1/2)

Oh my, Alice. Did you play a prank with the lady while on your way here? You’ve been such a tomboy since you were a kid······.”

“What are you talking about?! No, I’m not!”

Alice’s hysteric voice made me slightly laugh. I wiped the corners of my eyes with my sleeves and raised my head.

I smiled brightly as I faced each of the people who are looking at me worriedly.

No, I tried to. But my lips trembled and my smile shook.

The image of Calix when I last saw him at the train station was stuck in my head like a thorn. That’s why I couldn’t laugh properly.

His pleading voice still lingers in my ears, and a feeling of pity and regret continues to grow in my heart.

However, there was no turning back now.

Calix, I know you’ll be looking for me for a while, but as time goes by····· I’m sure you’ll eventually forget me.

Because Sia will be there beside you now.

And my disappearance was the best decision that I can make for all of us.

Trying to shake off the pain that was squeezing my heart, I smiled casually pretending to be fine.

“Thank you so much for accepting me. I will be in your care from now on.”

The edge of the world, a small town on the coast of the Jura Peninsula.

I descended here like a seagull tired of its long flight and rested.

It was the beginning of our long secluded life.

*         *         *         *         *         *         *

Calix suddenly came to his senses.

For an instant, it seemed that his consciousness had blurred. And he felt like his lips grazed over something······.

‘Was it just my imagination?’

He frowned and then grabbed the woman’s shoulder in his arms.

“······What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I suddenly felt dizzy·····.”

He feels like a bug was crawling all over his body at the moment and that he needs to hold on to something in order to stand still. Despite this, Calix struggled to politely push the woman away.

I can’t believe this woman suddenly jumped at me and hugged me. What the hell is going on······.

He strode ahead without hiding his displeasure, but the woman soon followed.

Regardless, he just looked ahead and walked inadvertently, then he suddenly smelled something acrid and frowned.

‘What is it?’

Are they burning waste nearby? But I couldn’t see any smoke or anything.

“Are you feeling all right? Your complexion doesn’t look good······.”

As the woman sneaked up to his side and tried put her hand on his shoulder, he stepped backward, avoiding the woman’s touch and replied grumpily.

“I’m okay. It’s just that there’s this pungent smell all of a sudden.”

“Come to think of it, I think I smelled something like that, too·····.”

The voice of the woman who calmly agreed with what he said somehow sounded strange.

In some ways, it felt quite suspicious. However, he thought it’s just because of his personal displeasure of the woman, that’s why Calix didn’t dwell on the thought too much.

“Did you know, somewhere in the world there is a place where the earth and sky connects.”

Then, the woman said, pointing to the sky.

Calix, who had been frowning, smiled unknowingly.

It wasn’t because of this woman, the Divine Lady who appeared after a hundred years.

But because he remembered his most beloved person, who told a story similar to what the woman had just said.

Laure.

– Imagine a lake full of salt. During the day, it reflects the azure blue sky, and at night, it is filled with stars and it sparkles dazzlingly.

“Where I lived, they call it a salt desert or a salt lake. Is there something like that here, too?”

Calix has not been listening to the divine lady. He’s thought was with Laure.

With her sparkling green eyes, she said that it was her dream to see the salt lake at least once in this lifetime. Like a child with a cheerful and lovely voice.

-Calix’s eyes are as blue as the sky. So I always thought that it was very pretty. I’m talking about it now, but…

He couldn’t erase the smile that’s on his lips. It was always the case when he thinks of her.

‘I can’t wait to see you. Laure.’

Stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.

A rare gentleness surfaced over the face of the man who thought of his lovely fiancée.

And the divine lady, who was watching him coldly, had a very sinister glint in her dark eyes.

*         *         *         *         *         *         *

“Why are we the ones who are supposed to do this train inspection? It’s not even related to us. Don’t you think so, Your Grace?”

Calix lightly ignored his knight’s grumbling beside him.

He couldn’t wait to finish this bothersome task and go see Laure. It drives him crazy when he doesn’t see her even for just a day, and he’s sick of her avoiding him these last few weeks.

‘If only that god-damn divine lady had not appeared.’

If it weren’t for that divine lady, I wouldn’t have been this busy. Then I must have been beside Laure by now.

Then the afterimage of the divine lady came to Calix’s mind. He frowned with displeasure. It seemed that she kept on talking about nonsense things just to get my attention.

‘I’m sure I’ve told you very clearly. I have a fiancée. Did you even understand me?’

I didn’t know what her intention was, but I don’t intend to just let it slide. Calix pressed his temple with his fingertips. Then the knight whined beside him.

“Can’t we just withdraw, your grace? It doesn’t look like there’s really any danger.”

“All right. Then the next time······.”

Calix was about to give his orders to his knights when······.

“Laure!”

He heard a name that he shouldn’t be hearing in this place.

Calix turned his head in the direction where the sound came from. And spotted her. The only person in the world he’s so eager to see, his one and only fiancée······.

‘Why is she here?’

That question came first thing to his mind. A simple inquiry that hasn’t developed yet into suspicion. Not long after, she turned around and their eyes met.

“Laure?”

Calix saw Laure stiffen. Her eyes gradually tinged with muddledness. Something was not right. Calix felt anxious.

‘Don’t tell me·······’

Doubts spread like paint.

No way, is she trying to run away?

No, it can’t be. Why is she······.

-I can’t marry you. I’ll say it again, Calix. Please, let’s get····· annulled.

His suspicions evolved into certainty in no time. Calix believes in his intuition. Realization flashed through him like lightning. Laure is······.

Trying to run away from me.

Now, on that train that’s just about to leave.

I could hear something breaking inside my head.