At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 108
“I won’t test you. I won’t live in uncertainty forever.”
Starting to test would only lead to demanding more, never being satisfied, doubting more, worrying, and suffering…
If she was to live an unchanging everyday life here forever, she’d rather choose the opposite of endlessly testing and doubting.
Bored?
She wanted to respond to Lanceil’s blind faith. She had to take care of Helkainis, who can’t live without her and keeps becoming a fool, learn about love as Callandein teaches, soothe Enciertes who often grumbles, and respond to Tevon’s enthusiasm.
She’ll gradually get to know the other twenty-five husbands who she was less familiar with.
With so much to do already, how could she possibly become bored?
So, there was no need for them to worry.
It’s because of you that I’ve been able to breathe.
If you remain unchanged forever, I’d like to anchor this happiness in me.
Jiwoo raised the white bird on her arm. Sensing her intent, the weightless bird flapped its wings once.
She swung her arm. The bird took flight.
“Go.”
As the bird circled around Ellandos and then paused in midair to look back, Jiwoo spoke again, firmly.
It was a farewell.
“You can go.”
My lingering attachment.
“Goodbye…”
My homeland.
My past.
My…
Jiwoo closed her eyes.
After taking a deep breath and reopening her eyes, the white bird was seen flying away into the distance.
Watching the bird fly off to a place it could never return from, Jiwoo murmured absent-mindedly.
“Goodbye…”
She watched the sky until the bird vanished completely. Sending off her last bit of attachment seemed fitting.
But when it had completely disappeared, something white like the bird streaked across the sky again. Surprised, Jiwoo rubbed her eyes and looked again, only to see the number increasing, adorning the sky like stars.
A scene she had never smelled before filled the surroundings.
Jiwoo caught one of the fluttering objects to examine it.
Soft, fragrant, warm, and vibrant.
“Petal?”
The buds on every branch of the pure white Ellandos had blossomed. The tree, bursting its petals, responded to the wedding ceremony with a snow-like blessing of white flowers.
“It was a flowering tree.”
Turning around, Jiwoo saw the men, surprised by her action of releasing the bird, standing awkwardly, caught between astonishment and joy.
Jiwoo walked back towards them.
No.
She couldn’t contain the rising emotion.
Her legs spontaneously broke into a run.
She didn’t care that the decorations and her attire were coming undone.
She didn’t know whether it was laughter or tears bursting from her.
All she did was shout when she reached them again.
The emotion she thought she’d never feel again.
Epilogue
The nation that built its glory on lies had lost its light long ago.
In a room darkened by blackout curtains to block out every bit of light, a man lay face down.
The desk was piled high with evidence of the man’s desperate attempts to save his fading country. Various ancient texts, crumpled books, stacks of documents taller than a man, an open ink bottle dried up, and pens worn down to the nib. Strong stimulants to reduce the need for sleep.
And rolling on the floor beneath the desk were signs of his torment.
Empty liquor bottles. Broken liquor bottles. Stains of spilled alcohol.
A sword carelessly discarded, its sharp blade stained with blood from cutting something… or someone.
And… bloodstains.
Blood had soaked the desk, dripping drop by drop until it finally ceased.
Then, a small light flew into the dark room, illuminating it brightly.
A lone white shining bird perched on the wrist of the prostrate man.
As the bird tilted its head a few times, the man lying there opened his eyes.
He blinked his blurry focus several times, the red eyes staring at the white bird before him, and he murmured unknowingly.
“A, Akarna…?”
No, that couldn’t be.
To think of Akarna at the sight of this was madness.
…But it resembled her.
The man’s exhausted voice continued.
“…How did you get in?”
The palace was already desolate enough. Not even a mouse could enter, let alone intruders. Especially his office, which should have been off-limits to everyone for a while.
And why today of all days?
Today was…
He had been unable to bear the heart-wrenching pain, attempting to distract himself with another form of agony.
No, he hadn’t hoped it would end there.
He wasn’t sure if he had wished for it all to end this way.
But when he checked his wrist, the wound he had inflicted was gone. As if it had never been wounded in the first place. Only Akarna could do such a thing.
“…I must have finally gone mad.”
Being in such a state, it wasn’t too far-fetched to feel as if Akarna had returned to him at the sight of a mere bird.
The man drew back the blackout curtains and let the bird fly into the dazzling light.
However, after circling the sky once, the bird returned.
“…Won’t you leave?”
The white bird hopped along the window sill and pecked at the man’s hand with its beak.
It seemed to want to convey something.
A voice was heard.
Like a hallucination.
…Don’t make me regret having loved you.
Tell me what kept me alive above all else.
So, Your Highness should be able to do it too.
The bird that climbed onto his hand wasn’t a living creature, yet it was incredibly warm. It felt similar to the warmth Akarna provided when she tended to his wounds.
“Haa…”
The man cradled the white bird and knelt on the floor.
A groan finally escaped his tightly closed lips.
“Hu, huuh, Akarna… Aahh…”
The prostrate man cried out like a beast.
No matter how much he prostrated himself on the ground and begged, no one was there to accept his excuses of actually wanting to protect, to tell him that his methods had been wrong all along.
Instead, the only thing truly being protected was himself. Even in this moment when he wanted to give up everything.
You were there until the end. Until the very end…
Yes.
That’s something he shouldn’t forget.
But yes, it was time to let go.
Even this heart that he still clung to as if obsessed.
“Goodbye…”
The man murmured.
Rising to his feet, the man covered his face with his hands for a long while. After several deep breaths, the man’s face that emerged was markedly different from moments before.
Life returned to his previously dull expression, and focus to his once vacant eyes.
The man stepped out of the dark room, the luminous white bird following behind him.
Someone would carry this feeling of liberation with him forever.
It was the end of his lingering regret.