Sorry 13

Chapter 13

    ***

    'Ah, Euris......'

    Collapsing, he struggled to turn over and lay facing the sky. Every time he moved, the shards embedded in his body created a terrible pain.

    Through the thick smoke, the blue sky glimpsed like a puzzle piece, and he knew death was coming.

    'At last,' he thought, 'you can laugh at something as insignificant as a feather in your eyelash.’

    The sound of a building crashing and something exploding rang in his ears. Concrete rubble rained down next to him, but his world was silent.

    ‘Every now and then she would stare at the sky with a blank expression, and then she would finally smile at me.’

    Life drained from his blue eyes. The pain was so intense that he felt numb.

    'I thought you might finally love me.’

    Even in his dying moments, he thought only of his wife; he wanted to live, for he knew that if she heard of his death, the slender, lovely woman would crash and burn again.

    "I'm sorry, honey.”

    But his eyes closed in silence.

    When he finally opened them, he couldn't believe he was alive.

    What surprised him even more, however, was that the time of his awakening was eight years ago, and the place of his awakening was Glamis House, the main residence of the Marquis of Eridov.

    "No way."

    For the first few days, he denied reality.

    "How does it make sense to go back in time?”

    But all signs and circumstances pointed to the fact that he had returned to eight years ago. His battered body was healthy and without a single scar.

    From the moment he regained consciousness, he thought of Euris. And as soon as he accepted the reality that he was back in the past, he made a promise to himself.

    "I will get her back.”

    But Chaint was well aware that before she married him, Euris had been half-crazy about a young man named Kylan Hebron, and how devastated she had been by him.

    Chaint sat still in his chair, trying to organize his thoughts. On his desk lay a small, polished stone he had once received from a young girl.

    He couldn't help but chuckle. It was the first gift Euris had ever given him, when they met at a childhood event. The man stroked the stone still.

    "I know the meaning of love now."

    It was important that they were back to where they were before all the tragedy.

    "Just a little longer, honey."

    ***

    It was a sunny weekend. Euris strolled through the garden of the mansion with her mother and father.

    They hadn't gone out on the weekend, but stayed home to discuss their daughter's affair with the Marquis of Eridov.

    "I would like to go ahead with my engagement to the son of Marquis Eridov."

    But Euris had already made up her mind, and she boldly told her parents her thoughts.

    "Are you sure? You can take a few more weeks to think about it, you just celebrated your adulthood."

    "Yes, Euris, there's no rush."

    The Count and Countess were amazed at their daughter's quick and sure decision. It even put them off.

    But Euris had already made up her mind to be engaged to Chaint, so she shook her head at them.

    "I mean it, I like it."

    "So, Euris, what about Kylan..."

    Her father said the name, earned a glare from his wife, and shut up. Euris smiled weakly.

    "Kylan and I are just friends, I guess."

    "Right. Don't worry about her relationship with the master of Hebron. Who are adults to interfere in what's between children?"

    The shrewd Count gave his daughter a reassuring look. Euris looked up at her father, a man with wheat-colored hair much like her own, and smiled.

    She kept her expression soft, her mind replaying the conversation she'd had with Kylan yesterday.

    In the late afternoon hours of her visit to the Marquis of Eridov, Kylan had come to her room.

    She took her friend's hand as he crouched guiltily before her, and announced her engagement to Chaint. Cruelly, she delivered her decision while holding his hand.

    "I'm getting engaged to Master Chaint."

    Her words stunned Kylan. Their hands had been intertwined word for word. When she'd finished speaking, she gently released his hand, feeling a tingling sensation of warmth linger, but her heart    was silent, unlike before. 

    "We'll be getting engaged in the near future, Kylan, so we can't see each other in private anymore. It would be fatal for an engaged woman to be rumored to have an affair.”

    "Euris, what's wrong with you, you've changed so much lately that............... I don't know what to do."

    "You don't have to do anything, Kylan. You'll get busy with your life soon enough, and I'll leave you to it."

    Kylan gave her a frustrated look.

    "Yuris......."

    She looked up at him. He'd always insisted on looking well-groomed, but now he stood there with his hair all messy and his shirt torn, and she could feel how desperate he was.

    Kylan's handsome, white face grew redder and redder, until his ears were the same color. He looked like he was holding back tears with all his might.

    Those red eyes, which she thought were so beautiful because they resembled rubies, were lost, staring somewhere in space.

    ‘I'll never see your smiling face again.’

    Euris took a small breath.

    "Goodbye, Kylan."

    Goodbye. She said farewell to the man who had held and shaken her life. As she watched him sink into grief, she felt a pang of regret.

    At the end of her last life, she had often wondered, "If I saw you again, would I be shaken?" And for the sake of her last life, and for the sake of her husband, she wanted to answer that question with a heartfelt no.

    She loved Kylan that much. It was hard to forget, and even when she thought she had, her memories would pop up and multiply her guilt about her husband.

    And even when she thought she was finally over it, there was no way to be sure she was truly over it.

    Euris was relieved to finally feel like she could put a stop to it.

    It didn't hurt to see him standing in front of her, looking like he was on the verge of tears, but instead, she was glad that she could push him away like a ray of sunshine.

    "I'm sorry."

    She apologized, sincerely.

    ‘You're innocent now.’

    The man cried. It was the first time she had ever seen him cry. Euris gently took the hand she had let go, and he sobbed until he could hardly breathe.

    Euris held his hand for a moment, waiting for him to finish crying. It was the last thing she could do for Kylan, the last thing she could do for the warm comfort he had always given her.

    "Euris, let me ask you one….question."

    It was a long time before he spoke again. His voice was hushed, his grip tight, but he didn't let go.

    Euris lifted her head and looked at him.

    "You didn't feel the same way as I do..........?"

    She was slightly surprised by the question, but quickly hid her expression and shook her head from side to side. Then Kylan lowered his eyes in defeat. He gently released his grip. Taking a step back, he added, as if for the last time.

    "...... Take care, Euris."

    With those words, Kylan stopped coming.

    ***

    As he processed papers in his office as he would any other day, Chaint accepted a telegram hand-delivered by his butler.

    The white envelope was covered in red sealing wax, showing off the seal of House Aether, and as soon as he saw the embossed symbol, his eyes lit up with anticipation and anxiety.

    He hastily tore the envelope open. Then he pulled out the contents and unfolded them.

    [The House of Either is pleased to accept the marriage proposal of Chaint Eridov, eldest son of the Marquis of Eridov.

    We look forward to sharing this joy with you in the near future............]

    Having read that far, he lowered the letter. There 

    was a bewilderment in his eyes.

    "We're getting engaged............so soon?”

    ***

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