Translator: Nox

15 - Valentina's Paradise

Valentina eventually sighed and softened her voice.

“You may find it hard to understand. I had no choice. The only options I had at the time were to be dragged to the sick and old Emperor and marry him, or to marry a Wandering Knight right away and create conditions.”

“…Oh, dear, I misunderstood. I thought you chose him because my uncle was handsome.”

He lifted his head and laughed, taking it as a joke. She could feel his bones. It was clear that Edgar was a handsome man with a strong appeal as a man.

Thinking about it now, she might have made a different choice. Edgar's conditions were so poor that it seemed better to quietly become an Empress and struggle to give birth to the old Emperor's son. But wasn't the last weight that tipped the scales, which had been balanced, Edgar's appearance?

“Then, Dominella, if there had been someone else in front of you at that time who could fulfill your needs and conditions, would your choice have been different?”

Valentina sighed softly. She thought she wouldn't be able to avoid this question, but she was still embarrassed when it came.

“If I, instead of my uncle, had been in that position? If I, who am legally the legitimate heir to Nebulosa despite the strange rumors, and who would become the lord of the strongest Petronia Knights on the continent, had been in that position as your fiancé, wouldn't it have been much better than raising a penniless Wandering Knight from scratch?”

“Such questions are futile, Edeled. My eighteenth year has long passed, and the past cannot be turned back.”

In life, there seem to be special moments lurking like ambushes, moments that twist the direction of life. Moments when the god of fate flicks a point in life with his finger.

That's why life has unexpected ups and downs, and these ups and downs are what make humans human, humble, and passionate.

For me, wasn't the winter of my eighteenth year just such a moment?

“I see… But Dominella, is that age special?”

He asks. Black eyes, clear water pooled in a deep well where no light enters. Her own image trembles on it. Edeled of Petronia, the man who stands on that perilous moment I once had to pass, whispers.

“…It just so happens that I am too, right now….”

The voice that seeps into her ear is like the cool dawn, the night dew falling lightly on the ground. Perhaps it resembles a small fruit with a sweet scent beyond this fence, an evil and pretty fruit that intoxicates people with a stinging sweetness and eventually leads to death.

“Edeled, for me, eighteen years old is….”

Realization is intense, ominous, and has an irresistible power. Valentina felt the disillusionment towards herself rising and slowly opened her mouth.

“It's an age when you're not afraid enough to trust your emotions yet, and reckless enough to dream of a bright future….”

“……”

“It was an age when it was okay to be naive enough to fall in love recklessly, and foolish enough to swear eternal love.”

He silently turns his head and looks up at Valentina. His eyes, in which a huge despair has settled, are so clear that they sting.

“Dominella, do you think that such a brave, reckless, naive, and foolish moment… such a brilliant and beautiful moment, will not exist for me?”

It would have been easier to endure if what was contained in those eyes was a blazing anger.

Indeed, what would have changed? If the person who knelt before me and reached out his hand at the age of eighteen was not a knight of the brilliant sun, but a man with dirty rumors clinging to him like thorns. If it wasn't a cheerful man who confidently promised to pluck the stars from the sky and scoop up the seawater, but a refined man with deep reason in his clear eyes.

“I'm not being unreasonable, Dominella.”

“……”

“I lived with your portrait, which the Countess Fiona gave me, close to my body until I arrived here. As someone who has believed in and cherished the lady in the portrait as my spouse, that ‘what if’ cannot be unreasonable.”

Valentina paused. She didn't even remember that Lord Ricardo's mother was the matchmaker.

“It must have been when you were quite young, but you remember it in detail.”

“I don't forget any information about you.”

He replied in a calm voice.

On the other hand, Valentina had almost no information about him that she remembered. She didn't even bother to look at Edeled's portrait, and she didn't allow anyone to talk about him in front of her. She only clearly remembered that she would rather live as a nun for the rest of her life than serve a weak younger brother, four years younger than her, as her husband, and that she felt a deep sense of relief when the marriage proposal was broken off. Even the fact that her mother's rude notice of annulment almost caused a war.

And Valentina had completely forgotten about the ‘boy who almost became her husband.’

‘Almost.’ For Valentina, that was the only word that defined their relationship.

But what if she had met him in person back then? Would anything have changed if she had even bothered to look at the portrait?

“……”

The ‘what if’ that she thought had left her long ago had returned and was strangling her. Her throat ached as if it were being crushed.

Edeled smiles at her long silence.

“Don't worry about it. I'm just asking out of lingering feelings. Of course, I'm trying not to feel wronged, even though I feel nauseous every time I think about what I've lost.”

“Why? Isn't it unfair if it's unfair?”

“Whether it's Nebulosa or Petronia, I didn't gain it through my own efforts, and I didn't lose it because of my own mistakes. It was just given to me because I was born, and taken away because I was powerless. It's no different from a simple arm wrestling match. I always keep that in mind.”

Too much consideration and insight is perhaps a disease rather than wisdom. Edeled has too many elements that cause him pain.

When they reached the entrance of the detached palace, passing through the long fence of ‘Valentina's Heaven,’ he lowered his eyes and said calmly.

“I was just curious. What if the person kneeling in front of Your Highness at that very moment was me instead of my uncle? What else would have changed if there hadn't been rumors about my birth? Don't you sometimes wonder about such trivial things?”

This curiosity was a large thorn that Valentina had planted. Now Valentina could no longer avoid answering.

“If that had been the case, we would be sitting face to face as husband and wife now.”

Edeled stops walking.

“……”

He stood there for a long time without turning around. The deserted corridor of the detached palace was hot and quiet, and only the afternoon sunlight coming through the window stabbed his face like a spear.

Valentina slowly passed by him and continued.

“If someone hadn't openly stabbed my mother with that rumor, I would have married you as planned when I was sixteen. Since it was a matter of joining hands with the Nebulosa-Petronia alliance, there was no reason why the marriage could not have been concluded. We would have had a few children too. Considering your age, it would have been somewhat delayed, but still.”

“You really would have? Your Highness?”

Valentina tilted her head and glanced at him sideways. It was the answer he wanted, but for some reason, he seemed shocked.

No, it was a little more subtle than shock. His face suddenly turned reddish, and his eyes wandered as if he were speechless. What was the problem?

He seemed to have imagined something quite specific, and Valentina was dumbfounded by his innocent reaction. Really, it was so out of place.

But what he said next was even more absurd.

“Then Dominella, putting aside my once-splendid background that has now flown away, how about thinking of me as just Edeled? Do I seem like a not-so-bad partner compared to your uncle four years ago?”

She was so dumbfounded that she couldn't even speak. What a pathetic and futile question. Valentina sighed and said soothingly.

“Edeled, you are attractive enough in a different way from your uncle. That charm will shine even more as time goes by. So don't bother to confirm such things with other ladies in the future.”

His face becomes even stranger. Valentina realized her mistake. Her clumsy consolation must have struck somewhere in his heart.

Some heart that had been tightly sealed and desperately suppressed.

“Then, Dominella….”

Valentina flinched as she looked at him. He was looking at her with sparkling eyes. A faint blush was on his pale cheeks, and his red lips, slightly curled up as if excited, were wickedly beautiful. A white frost was lightly placed on his voice as he whispered softly.

“Then… is there any chance you would choose me instead of my uncle, even now?”

Her head rang. Without realizing it, her voice became forceful.

“Are you making any sense! Where did you hear such nonsense!”

“Why doesn't it make sense? You said I'm attractive enough, right? Then why is that nonsense?”

He came close to Valentina and said. The northern accent bounced out quickly again.

“I'm not a bastard. My mother swore an oath with blood before God, and she pleaded innocence until the day she died. I believe my mother's words. In the first place, there was no disqualification for our marriage!”

“What's the point of saying that now. You know what kind of relationship Edgar and I have now, and you're saying that!”

Valentina retorted in a low voice. But he didn't stop.

“Oh, what kind of relationship do you have? Are you really married? Or do you just want to believe you're married?”

Now his voice becomes even more secretive.

“Then let me ask you one thing. Did you complete the secret wedding ceremony that day and officially consummate your marriage in front of witnesses?”

“…What?”

Her mind went blank. But Valentina knew better what he was trying to get at. She was speechless.

“Why can't you answer? Isn't that the most important procedure to be recognized as a formal marriage? Ah, of course, it would have been quite difficult for a virtuous lady to perform that procedure in the open forest without even a curtain to cover her body.”

“Edeled!”

Valentina shouted, grabbing his collar. If she had known she would be insulted like this, she would have told him to get lost without even talking to him. But Edeled's sneer became more and more blatant. His jet-black eyes were blazing with unfamiliar excitement and heat.

“Then how about this question? Did you formally register your marriage with His Majesty or pay the marriage tax? Is there a proclamation in Nebulosa or Florida that the two of you are officially married? Did you have a public wedding or even a wedding reception? Did you even leave a record in the Bureau of Records?”

“……”

Cold sweat ran down Valentina's back. There was no way she could answer. As she gritted her teeth and glared at him, Edeled bent down and whispered in a small voice, but with a voice full of ridicule.

“Ah, really… what is it…? You didn't go through any of the remaining procedures to become a formal couple.”