Chapter 47
****
Time passed quickly.
The only time he could look at Euris in peace was when she was asleep, her face illuminated by the moonlight at dawn.
But even that was too precious.
Finally, after another few days, on an ordinary morning, a morning that felt unusually lonely, Chaint awoke suddenly.
There, beside his bed, was the empty spot where she had left her warmth.
He knew instinctively that Euris was gone. He stroked the empty spot for a long time. As if to feel the warmth that had long since left.
Maybe he'd known this would happen, from the moment he'd awakened from the past, and that was why he'd clung to her so desperately.
"But it's going to end up like this.”
He muttered to himself.
A small note lay on the bedside table. Instinctively sensing that it was from Euris, he picked it up with a gasp.
He tore open the envelope and pulled out the contents, which were scrawled across the page in a fluid, beautiful handwriting. He began to read.
[To my beloved Chaint.
By the time you see this, I’m already left. Can I ask you a favor? I don't want you to cry, because you're the most adorable when you laugh.]
After reading the first line, Chaint's grim expression quickly changed. The hand holding the letter trembled slightly as he quickly skimmed the rest of it.
[Honey, you know what, we've been married for six years now, and people still think you and I are blazing newlyweds, but we should have two kids by now.]
He let out a small chuckle at the playful tone of the letter. He sits up in bed, the back of his head bathed in the early morning sunlight.
His other hand, the one not clutching the letter, cupped his chin. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were crinkled.
[You're smiling now, and I'm smiling, too. I can't smile in your face, but I can imagine you reading my words, and it makes me smile. If you're not smiling, can you smile for me, and can you keep smiling for me in the future?
...............We had a tacit agreement, once we stopped the war, we would have children and start a nice family.]
There was a long pause, as if he'd thought about it for a moment, and then the ink was thick again, and the words came out in a more even handwriting.
[I promise you, Chaint, I will keep that promise.
I'm going to stop the war, and I'm going to come back to you. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm also going to see how much you've been smiling.
So please be patient, we're not breaking up, we're just going to be apart for a while.
I love you.]
When he finished reading the letter, he tilted his head back. He felt like something was going to fall out of his eyes.
"My wife, be strong..................."
He could no longer see her smiling lovingly through the door of this room. He could no longer see that pretty face smiling softly as she placed her small, pale hand on top of his large one.
He didn't want to think it was the last time, but the human brain has a way of highlighting scenes we don't want to see and forcing us to remember things we don't want to think about.
His touch, stroking the spot where she had left, gradually turned into a wild tremor. His long fingers curled into fists, and he clenched his hands as if to hold back tears.
The tendons protruding from the back of his hand flared. The sheets on the bed, clenched between his knuckles, grew taut, threatening to tear.
Euris, Euris, Euris!
He swallowed the name inside. He wanted to call it out loud again and again, wanted her to come back to him right then and there, but he swallowed it down.
'Are you really going to come back, but when..................? Am I just supposed to wait?'
He thought he was prepared for the breakup, but he wasn't at all.
A tear fell onto the sheet with a thud. The elegant white fabric soaked through and turned a slightly darker color. He curled up on his back and sobbed soundlessly. He had a long way to go.
He needed to catch up on the backlog of work he hadn't gotten around to doing, and he needed to figure out how to wrap up his wife's sudden absence.
'I can't do this...................'
He grumbled softly over the missing warmth.
"I can't do this, honey.”
He buried his face in the sheets. Then he caught the faint scent of his wife's scent.
He had a premonition that he would not be getting out of this bed today. He knew this scent, too, would soon be gone.
The soft autumn sunlight streamed through the window and caressed his back.
He felt alone for the first time in a long time............... or should he say abandoned. He was suddenly reminded of his dark childhood.
***
"Father, Mother is sick....................."
The boy's voice echoed through the large room, his voice small but strong as he spoke each letter over and over again. His clear eyes revealed determination but the father would not make eye contact with the boy. His small hands, clenched into fists as if he had the courage of his convictions, were white with exertion.
"You'll have to call the doctor, Chaint."
The sunlight from the window, reflected by the glass of the ornate chandelier, threw a shimmer across the young boy's bargeboard. It was a crisp fall day.
The voice was polite, but its owner's demeanor was anything but polite. The boy's father had his back to his son, clutching the woman's waist. The woman's shrill call rang out, and Chaint bit his lip and pretended not to hear.
The child didn't whine any more. Rather, as if taking that as the end of the conversation, he bowed formally and quietly retreated from the room. It was mature behavior for a nine-year-old.
When the giant Marquis's door closed behind him, the child stood still in the doorway, fighting back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
"Marquis!"
The woman's voice pierced through the room. His father's voice, chuckling loudly.
The child's pale cheeks flushed from holding back tears. He exhaled deeply and rubbed the tip of his nose with his index finger.
His face turned pale again. It was as if he was as adept at controlling his emotions as he was at breathing.
His nanny waited silently for him in the distance, his shadow lengthening over the clear marble floor.
"..................my son."
As a child, Chaint’s favorite time of day was when his mother read to him before bed.
That was, until his mother slowly lost the smile on her face, like a wilting flower.
It didn't take long for him to realize that the fairy tales she had so lovingly read to him at night were really fairy tales, and he realized at a very young age that there was no such beautiful world.
The Marquis of Eridov changed women every day. The mansion was filled with the laughter of strange women.
Having grown up in a noble family, Marchioness of Eridov was unable to accept her situation.
Depression was a terrifying thing. She spoke less and less, and later she didn't even step out of her room.
He was less than ten years old when he witnessed his mother's suicide attempt.
That day, too, he knocked on her tightly closed door. A small picture book in one hand.
"Mother, Mother!"
The child's voice echoed through the stately mansion. The day was quiet.
After a few knocks, she would have told him to go away because it was too noisy, but he wanted to hear her voice. That day, no matter how many times he knocked on the door, he didn't hear anything from inside.
The doorknob turned. Hesitant to be rude, he opened the door and stepped inside. Then he heard a strange sound.
"Mother?"
Chaint approached the shadow sprawled on the floor. The faint moonlight illuminated the shadow's face.
His mother's mouth, which sometimes whispered that she loved him, was open, spewing foam. Her eyes were squinted shut and her breathing was ragged. Beside her lay a vial of medicine.
"Mother? Mother! Somebody help me!"
No matter how many times he called, she didn’t answer. Her blue eyes stared into thin air, their light fading. Hearing his cries, the servants came running.
He stood still as his mother's body was carried out of the room on someone's back, feeling as if she were a piece of luggage.
***
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Write a comment
asagisora (Saturday, 09 November 2024 17:40)
I suddenly remembered Izek