Sorry 22

Chapter 22

    **

    Chaint bowed his head heavily, his hands covering his face. Tears and breath dampened his palms.

    Euris’s heart ached once more for his love. Until the last moment of his life, he worried about his unfaithful wife, who had never given him any love.

    When she heard what he had died thinking, it was like her heart broke.

    The memory was so traumatizing to him that he apologized, even though he didn't realize she was also back in the past.

    Euris suddenly understood his behavior. Why he'd suddenly asked for an engagement, why he'd seemed so uneasy all this time, and why he'd hidden Kylan's letters.

    She'd spent years in her past life thinking only of that lover, and she didn't want to have any contact with him.

    "......But are you just going to take my word for it that I'm from the future?" (Chaint)

    A puzzled look crossed his crimson eyes. It struck him as odd that Euris had listened so calmly without a single question. It made her look like a docile retriever.

    Euris suddenly let out a small laugh. This caused a puzzled look to cross Chaint’s face.

    "Euris?"

    "I laughed because you're so adorable."

    She watched his bewildered expression, and he became even more curious. It was now completely dark outside, and the gas lamps inside glowed dimly.

    The air no longer felt stifling.

    She watched him for a moment with smiling eyes, then finally spoke.

    "Chaint, do not be alarmed, but listen."

    "What? What......?"

    "I'm back from the future, just like you."

    Her words stopped him in his tracks. He looked quite shocked. His blue eyes were fixed on hers, unmoving. For a moment, the room became very still.

    "What, what did you say?"

    There was a hint of surprise in his voice, and he thought he'd misheard her, but a certain anticipation rose in the back of his mind.

    His heart began to beat wildly. Euris answered him again.

    "I came back from seven years in the future, just like you."

    "But you were alive, obviously......!"

    Having said that, Chaint blinked, as if a thought had suddenly hit him hard in the head.

    "Were you, too, dead?"

    "..."

    "Were you dead too, Euris, ohhhh!"

    He cupped both of Euris’ cheeks and squeezed. Because his heart sank at the thought of her death.

    He had been thinking about stopping the war, but now he was determined to do it with even more urgency. The last thing he needed was for her to die.

    Euris patted his hand briefly to calm him. It's okay now, she murmured.

    " Was the city all bombed? Or before that, you came back from the same future as me? God, that's ridiculous."

    He mumbled something almost to himself, like a child who didn’t know what expression to put on his face. He seemed pretty shocked.

    "So, you're saying that all of this actually happened."

    After a few moments, he asked again in disbelief, and Euris nodded. His expression turned serious.

    "This can happen....... I thought I'd lost my mind."

    "So did I."

    "Can you tell me everything that's happened to you since I died?"

    Chaint asked softly, after he'd gotten over his shock.

    ‘I can't believe the day comes when I can tell him this story in person.’

    Thinking it was an unbelievable blessing, Euris carefully spoke. She began to recount the events that had transpired since his death.

    He held her hands dearly and listened to her voice.

    She told him of the war, of the days after Chaint had gone off to fight, of seeing his cold corpse, of giving him a shabby funeral, and of falling to her death while climbing into his office.

    How she was sorry she didn't know how he felt, how she regretted hurting him all through their marriage, and how she loved him so much now.

    When she was done, his eyes were wet again. He had cried several times as she recounted the past. They held each other for a moment.

    Then Euris asked the question that had been on her mind.

    "By the way, how did you know that a letter would come from Kylan? Has he ever written to me in the past?"

    Then he threw up his hands and said.

    "I didn't know! I swear, I just......."

    He left it at that and clamped up. He didn't look happy. Euris waited, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to say.

    "But I know there's something he wants to tell you."

    "Something he wants to say?"

    "Yes."

    It was a vague answer. Euris wanted to ask, but Chaint didn't seem to want to talk anymore.

    "I don't think it's for me to tell you,  you’ll have to write to him and ask him yourself."

    "...... Okay."

    Considering how much he'd been hurt by Kylan in his last life, Euris couldn't probe further.

    "I just need you to focus on me today."

    As he said that, he pulled her into a hug. In his embrace, Euris felt a sense of security.

    They talked for a long time. Their five-year marriage was still intact.

    ***

    Over the course of the fall, Kylan wrote numerous letters.

    All of them were addressed to Euris, but not a single one was answered throughout the season. Still, he didn't stop writing.

    'Euris......'

    He wanted to know how she knew about his situation.

    Would it make a difference if he heard the answer?

    He laughed at himself. It made no difference at all. It was inevitable that he would have to leave the Alton Empire and go to the Lepallon Empire. But what he wanted was.......

    'What I want to hear from you is..... is that you didn't push me away because you hate me, Euris, because you can't stand the sight of me anymore.'

    He felt like he needed to hear that to survive.

    So he went back and forth to the empty mailbox every day. He even asked the mansion's butler several times. But no reply came.

    The seasons continued to pass. Kylan still wrote.

    Time had passed well past fall and into the early days of winter. The weather was now chilly enough that the people of the capital were wearing thicker clothing. There was also a heavy snowfall that turned the world white. Kylan thought of her as he watched the flakes fall. Euris, who had so innocently loved snowy days.

    "Kylan, come here!"

    He remembered the girl who always called out to him on snowy days. Kylan grinned and looked out the window at the capital city.

    Little kids were rolling snowballs around. The pale smile on his young face was quickly replaced by sadness, for he hadn't heard from Euris, not even a single reply.

    The Count of Hebron's condition had grown steadily worse. He spent fewer and fewer hours in a sane state, and sometimes cried out as if he were seeing things.

    The doctor shook his head in despair. He said, with the same old clichéd words, that he would have to prepare himself.

    ‘Son of a spy.’

    The words rumbled in Kylan's ears as if they were curses. No, it was a curse.

    Because in an instant, his life had been torn apart, endangering everyone he touched. All the places he could lean on had been seized.

    As his father's condition worsened, Kylan was certain. Euris had chosen to hurt him because she didn't want to be hurt.

    Over time, he'd come to believe that he could do her a favor by disappearing from her life. He knew now that he was a dangerous man, the son of a spy.

    It would be selfish of him to insist on staying by Euris’s side despite that knowledge. If he could just disappear on his own, everyone would be safe.

    ‘Yes, if only I could get away.’

    He could feel the bittersweet feeling of being an unwanted guest from the beginning.

    The mailbox he used to open dozens of times a day. Gradually, the frequency decreased to once a day, then once every two days, then once a week.

    As the winter wore on, Kylan's heart gradually shut down.

    Thought after thought, he finally made up his mind.

    He would no longer entangle himself with everyone here. So he stopped writing his unanswered letters. It was winter, and the snow was falling hard and covered everything in white.

    ***

    To donate for extra chapters for my series or to tip me visit my personal kofi page 

    https://ko-fi.com/doradora 

    Join my discord to get notifications for updates     https://discord.gg/MKWnASzDFB

    (If the link is expired please message me for a new link)