4 - Valentina's Paradise
1-2. Duke Edered of Terra Petronia
"Wow…. Pretty."
The small portrait of his fiancée, brought by the envoy from the warm country of Regio Florida, looked incredibly enchanting to eight-year-old Edeled.
<Valentina's Paradise>
In the small painting titled 'Valentina's Heaven,' a vast field of deep violet flowers stretched endlessly, and within it, a platinum-blonde girl in a white dress tilted her head slightly, looking straight ahead. With skin so white it was almost transparent, a prominent nose, full and distinct lips, and clear violet eyes, the girl, who was four years older than him, seemed a bit intimidating yet as mystical and solemn as a goddess due to her expressionless face.
The boy slowly read the neat, almost stiff letters written below the portrait.
Una tecum bona mala tolerabimus, Omnia vincit amor.
'If we endure good and bad together, love conquers all.'
It was said that the subject of the portrait had written the sentence herself. It was probably a 'proper bride's phrase' chosen by a teacher or her mother, but the boy wanted to believe that the beautiful girl had written it thoughtfully for him.
The boy looked at the girl's face and slowly read the sentence she had written. Repeating it just three times, the sentence was imprinted in his mind.
The word 'love' felt awkward at first, but the more he rolled it around in his mouth, the more he felt a subtle fragrance. A sweet and soft scent seemed to spread through his chest to his fingertips and toes.
That beautiful and mysterious girl and I are getting married?
It didn't feel real. His heart just pounded.
Whenever he thought of the girl, the boy went to the Bureau of Records and secretly took out the portrait to look at it. Each time he looked at the picture, his heart fluttered more, his toes wiggled, and his chest warmed. If he looked at it for too long, he would feel embarrassed and had to turn his gaze away.
He thought he would call this feeling 'happiness.' It couldn't be anything else.
When the boy asked what marriage was, his mother hesitated for a moment.
"Marriage is a vow to never separate, never betray, and live as allies until death."
She didn't utter the word love. Disappointed that the word he had expected didn't come out, the boy looked up at his mother. He knew the word love. But the boy soon realized that the word would never come out of his mother's mouth.
"So, is marriage about making the most precious and trustworthy friend in the world?"
"In principle, yes."
His mother replied in a somber voice.
'So, Mother is in so much pain because of Father, but she will never betray him, never separate from him, and live with him forever? Until death?'
Not liking the conclusion, the boy didn't ask any further.
But if he became a precious friend who would never separate from or betray the beautiful but cold and scary girl in the portrait until death, it wouldn't be so bad.
No, he was sorry to his mother, but it would actually be very good.
It was okay if she seemed cold and scary on the outside. His mother, who seemed scary on the outside, showed so much deep affection to her only son. The boy believed that he could have that with the girl in the portrait as well.
Valentina. My fiancée. My eternal friend.
He began to wonder about her. Curiosity led to more curiosity. He asked his teacher, servants, maids, vassals, and mother about her. He listened carefully to even the smallest news and memorized it like scripture.
When he learned that 'Valentina's Heaven' was the name of the flower garden in the Grand Duke's castle, he thought that maybe heaven would look like that too. When he learned that she had the nickname Ice Princess, he thought it suited her well. When he heard that she didn't smile often, a strange sense of challenge arose.
If she doesn't smile often, I'll make her laugh with funny stories!
The boy memorized several funny or amazing stories that would make the girl laugh out loud. He practiced muttering to himself, then burst into laughter and looked around, feeling embarrassed. He worried about being labeled a pathetic fool for doing such a thing.
However, his simple worries didn't last long.
The Grand Duchess of Florida secretly notified them that she would break off the engagement. It was clear that a nasty rumor had reached the Grand Duchess's ears: 'Duke Edeled is not the Duke's biological son but the son of the Grand Duchess's bodyguard, Lord Wallace.'
Enraged, the Duke of Nebulosa tore the letter to shreds and burned it, then locked his wife and son at the top of the tower. Because the reason for the annulment was so dishonorable and the succession of Nebulosa was at stake, the Duke could not protest to Florida. However, the order that anyone who spoke of the news would have their tongue cut out was chilling.
So the boy didn't know why he was locked up or what happened to the engagement with the girl in the picture. The boy just thought that his father's whim had been triggered. He believed that he would be released in a few days.
But the boy was not released even after several years. He was poisoned and vomited blood several times in the tower, and assassins broke in. Extremely stressed, the boy sometimes hallucinated or wandered the corridors like a ghost, unconscious at night.
"Endure, Edeled. Don't die. You are my son. The men of Petronia don't die from things like this."
Grand Duchess Margaret commanded during the day and held her son's hand and prayed at night. Unable to bear the stifled cries asking to kill herself instead and save her son, Edeled sometimes considered pouring candle wax into his ears.
"Believe it, you are Duke Edwin's biological son."
The boy believed his mother's words. He had to believe it. The bloodline of the Duke's family was the first condition for his marriage with that girl.
But surviving was extremely painful.
Unable to watch any longer, his teacher secretly gave him a puppy. He said that the puppy had a sensitive sense of smell and hearing, so it could detect dangerous food and movements in advance or die in his place. He also said that if he gave it a name and food, it would become a friend who would never betray him.
Edeled decided to give the puppy the name of 'a friend who would never betray him.'
…Tina.
It wasn't a name to be called. A name is inherently valuable when it is called, but some names are valuable just by existing, and they had the power to make something look lovable just because they were attached to that name. He whispered in the puppy's ear.
Valentina, Valentina.
The puppy whined and burrowed into his arms. It was ugly, but it was pretty and lovely.
Spring came outside the window.
Every tree was tinged with light green, and the yellow dirt floor was colored with colorful wildflowers. He could hear the sound of skylarks.
He was learning classical poetry. Poets sang of beautiful women, flowers, and birds. When he read it, an unknown warm energy floated inside him. It was, in short, a praise of spring.
"Teacher. If I ever get out later, I think I'll go to Regio Florida."
"What would you do there, Gongzi?"
"I would like to meet Valentina. I want to say hello, have a meal together, talk, and ask her to show me around the flower garden in the backyard."
Hearing those words, the teacher smiled strangely.
"Has Gongzi reached the age where he feels that flowers are beautiful?"
"Aren't flowers inherently beautiful?"
"There will come a time when you feel it not with your eyes but with your heart."
"Teacher, I have been feeling her beauty with my heart for a long time."
He showed the portrait that he had secretly brought from the Bureau of Records before he was locked in the tower. The portrait had almost no outline of the person left. The teacher smiled again with a flustered face.
The teacher couldn't bring himself to tell his student about the insulting news of the annulment, so he told the Duke instead.
A few days later, his father came up and searched the room. He didn't give up the hidden portrait until the end, so he was whipped with a belt. Sensing that there was a problem with his relationship with the girl in the portrait, he didn't ask why he was being beaten until the end.
However, seeing that the pain in his heart was much worse than the pain in his body, he knew that it was time to give his feelings a proper name.
That night, Edeled couldn't sleep. The emotion he had accepted head-on was too much to bear.
His reason told him to let go of the thread of expectation, but his heart said that the thread with her was his lifeline. Instead of facing the harsh reality and despairing, he chose to survive with sweet expectations.
He endured the hellish time by daring to imagine a future where he would meet her someday and share an amicable everyday life. It was a futile imagination, but it felt like a solid flagpole that held him, who was fluttering wildly in the wind.
Perhaps, is she thinking of me too?
He casually asked his new teacher if the noble lady of Florida was married or if she had any suitors.
He heard that she had 'refused the Empress's position because she was in talks with the Duke of Nebulosa.' In the circumstances, it was definitely a false rumor or an excuse to avoid marrying the old emperor.
But Edeled wanted to believe that rumor so badly. So he just believed it. He believed it while lying on the floor, overwhelmed with ecstasy and emotion, shedding tears. Edeled's pitiful support grew crookedly as his heart desired, filled with such fervent expectations.
The desire to go out into the world or the will to survive was paired with his longing for her. The two minds, which were originally separate, stuck together like leather and flesh at some point. It seemed like there would be tremendous pain if he tried to tear them apart, so Edeled left the stuck minds alone.
"When I get out of here, I have to go to Regio Florida."
Edeled raised his hand towards the sky. Light poured brightly between his fingers. Her hair, bathed in sunlight, was this dazzling too.
"I'm going to go and meet my beautiful lady."
Even with his eyes closed, the glare remained in his eyes. His eyes were so sore that tears came out. So Edeled left the tears flowing as well.
***
Blink, blink, blink.
Edeled slowly opened his eyes. The dazzling morning sunlight of Florida was pouring down on his face.
