Chapter 205
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 205
“Why do you call my mom a Saintess?”
“It’s a term often used in the Summer Continent. The Guardian of the Divine Tree is called a Saintess. …What’s with that look?”
Reflexively, I looked up at the space above my head.
Today, as always, Kim Ddong-byul was circling me with a gentle air, like a star following its natural orbit, blissfully unaware of anything.
A star…
And what my mother had to protect was the Divine Tree of the stars…
As I stared blankly at Kim Ddong-byul, a frown suddenly creased my brow.
It was a vague thought I’d had once before, all by myself.
‘If there are two gods, couldn’t there be two Saintesses?’
Information that had been surfacing in fragments, never quite connecting, suddenly coalesced all at once.
Like a bolt of lightning, I reached a single realization.
‘What if my mother was the only true Saintess?’
The Spring Continent believes in a single, absolute God. They worship only one.
But the heretics worshiped an unknown god called ‘Animus.’
If a Saintess of their own had been born during that process…
‘Wouldn’t they have wanted to kill the existing Saintess?’
Furthermore, the fanatics I had seen were incredibly exclusionary.
They were beings steeped in a madness that refused to tolerate any divine existence other than the strange god they served.
For the Saintess of such fanatics to encounter the sacred Saintess passed down through the continent’s history…
‘There’s no way they would let her live.’
A sudden chill ran down my spine, making my shoulders tremble.
‘…It must have been the fanatics who killed my mother.’
Hadn’t Dad told me?
He said the man who came to take Mom away had a star mark on the crown of his head, exactly like the ones the fanatics had.
It was just my intuition, but I was certain Mom had intentionally grabbed that man’s hair in front of Dad.
There was no proof, but my gut told me so.
‘Which means…’
Mom already knew they were fanatics, or at least closely linked to them.
Even so, the reason she followed them must have been because of the Divine Tree.
‘A Divine Tree without a Guardian withers and dies.’
And there was a high probability it was because of me, too.
If Mom didn’t go, I, as a young child, would have had to return as the Guardian.
‘Mom probably felt she had no other choice.’
Then, a sudden question occurred to me.
‘Wait.’
‘Then does Corico, the other “Saintess”…’
‘Could Corico be connected to the fanatics?’
No way.
Surely not…
“Aaaargh!”
When I suddenly clutched my head and let out a scream, Klaus jumped in surprise.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?!”
“It’s too hard! It’s just so complicated!”
“What exactly is so complicated?!”
“Everything!”
I didn’t sign up for a mystery game!
I was just playing a dating simulation!
That’s all it was supposed to be!
So why on earth are these massive secrets being revealed to me one by one?
As if the Main Quest wasn’t already enough, constantly binding and pressuring me until I felt like I was suffocating!
“Is the necklace safe?”
Klaus suddenly changed the subject, like throwing a pebble onto the surface of a still lake to break the tension.
Only then did I stop cursing Kim Ddong-byul in my head and answered while still holding my temples.
“You mean the blue diamond necklace you gave me?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s safe. Well, as you know, it’s the hottest topic on the continent right now, so I can’t exactly wear it. I’ve hidden it away very deeply.”
“When do you think you can wear it again?”
“Maybe around the time the business with the fanatics is completely settled?”
“That’ll take years.”
Klaus shrugged.
“That thing is incredibly expensive. You know that, right?”
“Anyone with eyes would know. I feel a bit bad that I can’t use something you went to the trouble of gifting me.”
“Just ‘a bit’? Typical.”
I scratched my cheek. I wasn’t sure why the conversation had suddenly veered this way, but I did feel a lingering sense of guilt toward Klaus for letting such a pricey necklace gather dust.
“I’ll pay you back later.”
“Pay me back? How?”
“Sigh.”
I thought he’d say he didn’t need anything.
“…Is there something you want?”
Since Klaus didn’t give a straight answer, I eventually had to be the one to make a suggestion.
“The salon developed a new color recently. It has a beautiful iridescent shimmer that shifts like waves of nacre with the slightest movement. How about I have a cloak made for you with that dye? I’ll even make you four—one for each season.”
“A pearl-colored dye?”
“Mhm, mhm.”
Klaus immediately looked like he wanted to gag.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“When I was traveling back and forth across the continent, I had to eat shellfish three meals a day. Thanks to that, I’m sick of even hearing the word ‘pearl.’”
“Fine, then. What color do you want?”
“Pink.”
“Pink?”
“Tulia.”
In that moment, the reason my mood turned strange must have been because of the look in Klaus’s eyes. And because of his answer.
When asked what he wanted, he chose pink of all colors, and then…
He called my name, Tulia, right after.
A brief silence fell. It was only for a moment.
The tips of my ears felt like they had been scorched by fire. It was because Klaus’s fingers had brushed against them.
Everything around us was glowing in the moonlight. The various fresh flowers arranged in pots exhaled a fragrance so lush it made my head spin.
Anyone seeing the two of us standing there alone, lingering in the garden on a late spring evening, would have taken us for a pair of young lovers.
“Tulia.”
“Yeah.”
“I have something to say to you.”
“What is it?”
“Come with me.”
Klaus’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly.
“Come with me to the kingdom.”
His voice was like a deep, deep well.
It was a single sentence that seemed to have been born from long deliberation, agonizing thought, and a suppressed confession—so heavy that just uttering it left him breathless.
“I don’t care if you never wear the necklace I gave you for the rest of your life. It’s fine even if you keep it buried in the deepest place. I already gave it to you, so it doesn’t matter what you do with it.”
“……”
“However.”
Klaus’s fingers, still touching my ear, trembled slightly—a rare sight for him.
“The truth is, there’s one more thing I want to give you.”
Not something he wanted to receive, but something he wanted to give. Klaus’s cheeks were growing redder, until I felt as though my entire vision was being stained a hazy pink.
“…What is it?”
“The Spring Flower.”
“The Spring Flower?”
It was a name that carried a rich, fragrant weight.
“It’s a necklace passed down only to the Queens of Lupinus. It would look incredibly good on you. That necklace is also made entirely of pink diamonds.”
“……”
“So, Tulia Frezier.”
Perhaps because I was ‘just a human,’ I lacked the wild instincts of Klaus Rocheva, who carried the bloodline of the great Wolf King.
I had no idea when Klaus had plucked the flower, or where he had been hiding it.
Nor did I realize the exact moment he had produced that small, bouquet-like bloom.
However, just as I had once painstakingly taught him—the procedure a man must follow when courting a woman…
“In the Spring Continent, you don’t just drop to one knee for no reason! You do it when you’re proposing! A proposal! If it’s not that, then you’d better get on both knees and beg!”
I stared down blankly at Klaus, who was looking up at me from one knee.
“Tulia.”
His smile was as deep and clear as a lake reflecting the moonlight.
It felt as though his feelings for me were just as deep; I even had the dreamlike thought that if I took one wrong step, I might fall in and never be able to escape.
“Will you…”
Marry me.
Become my Queen.
There are moments like that. When you can predict exactly what the person in front of you is about to say.
Since I am not the other person, being able to foresee their words is, in a way, like becoming a god for a fleeting moment.
A divine grace. A divine blessing.
That miracle, shorter than the space of a single breath, was wondrous and beautiful—but because it could not last, it felt somewhat sorrowful and hollow.
So, I felt a little sad, and my heart fluttered just a little.
Because just now, for a brief moment, I had reigned as Klaus’s god.
Because I had realized what he wanted to say.
Because I had sensed that a confession and a proposal, the kind that makes the heart stop, were about to follow.
And then…
Instead of my heart, time stopped.