BXBX NOVEL Chapter 19: Illustration
A person dies. It happens every day. But why?
From the very beginning, she had planned everything on the premise of the 7th concubine’s death. When Charlize returned, the 7th concubine had already been poisoned and rendered unable to use her hands.
It was good that her suffering was minimized thanks to the ‘Heelu-herb’.
‘Before my return, Dylan couldn’t relieve the pain of the 7th concubine. Even on her deathbed…’
But this time, she let herself win it. It was a big stem that was acquired by Charlize handing Dylan ‘Heelu-herb’.
The guilt that he failed to be there when she died was the reason why Dylan was so desperate about the 7th concubine’s will.
At least it was fortunate that he seemed to have greatly relieved his guilt.
Unlike before her return, the 7th concubine died peacefully in bed.
As soon as she died, a mortuary was set up in the building.
Charlize watched Dylan become the chief mourner in a black mourning suit. The weight seemed too much for a young boy to handle.
But Dylan was brave.
‘Dylan never cried.’
She’d often seen his eyes turn red. In the end, tears never fell down.
A gaze that often got lost in the distance, just hovering in the air. A hopeless face. Clenched fists.
Excessively open and hazy breath.
Charlize burned incense and expressed her condolences to the portrait. Charlize, dressed in a courteous black dress, was greeted quietly by Dylan.
“May the deceased rest in peace.”
Surprisingly, there were no mourners.
There were only two of them.
Dylan lost his words. And Charlize next to him.
Dylan never spoke to Charlize first. No, actually she didn’t see him talking to anyone.
Dylan held the 7th concubine’s will in his arms throughout the funeral.
[Don’t get sick, don’t stand out, and survive by any means.]
‘Is the will the same as before my return? Dylan treated it so preciously that I couldn’t even think about taking a look.’
Charlize was just by his side. Sometimes words of consolation are of no use.
His heart’s already broken. He was shattered. How will it be soothed?
Charlize gave no advice or interference to Dylan. They had made it a perfect memorial service and just mourned.
Perhaps because there were no mourners, the mortuary was cold and chilly.
“… Ahh.”
Because she hadn’t slept for almost a week, drowsiness came and at some point, she fell asleep in the mortuary. She quickly woke up because sleeping leaning against the wall was uncomfortable.
When she opened her eyes, there was a soft blanket over her body.
There were few people in the mortuary, so it was obvious who had covered her with the blanket.
‘Dylan.’
She’d rather he cry, suffer, and let his emotions flow out, but Dylan was still.
Gazes met in the air.
It was different from the usual feeling.
The Prince’s blue eyes had always felt transparent and clear, but now they looked a little dark and violent.
“… How about eating something, even a little bit? Prince.”
The whirlpool of emotion vanished in the blink of an eye.
Dylan ate nothing throughout the funeral. She hadn’t seen him sleep either, even though he was at an age where growth is important.
Dylan, who stayed up all night, was feeling somewhat decadent and gloomy.
‘I know what it feels like to lose a family. How hard it is to get your emotions together in the face of the surging emptiness.’
Even now, he was managing his emotions well enough, but the boy kept having a dangerous atmosphere around him as if he had no energy to act.
‘His presence is so strong that it’s amazing that he’s been hiding it all these years.’
The sharp, cool chilling character of a ruler. It was surprisingly overwhelming.
To lead, suppress, own, and control. Perfectly equipped with the ability to have anything if one only desires so, undeterred by bloodshed.
“…”
Dylan shook his head. He didn’t seem to want to eat.
Dylan looked at her with a slightly complex look. His lips still remain tightly pressed together.
I could only see that he was thinking.
‘Why did she wish for ‘Heelu-herb’ as a wish to win the fencing competition?’
He seemed to think back to the time when she became Dylan’s teacher.
It was neither a search nor an adjustment. Dylan simply tried to thoroughly figure Charlize out.
Charlize remained silent. Because that’s all she could do? No. This was what she had to do.
It was Charlize who had said earlier that it was okay to doubt her.
***
“Charlize of the Ronan family, greeting you, the 5th Prince.”
Charlize treated him with courtesy. The 5th prince raised his head.
‘Is she the wicked woman that I’ve heard of?’
It was just that kind of face. The reaction was so familiar that it didn’t matter.
The 5th Prince came as a mourner. He was a member of the imperial family that had had no contact with the 7th concubine.
Charlize stared at the back of the 5th Prince entering the mortuary with strange eyes.
He was Dietrich II and the second-generation owner of Keira before her return.
The lucky man who finally won the throne war just because he attended the funeral of the 7th concubine.
‘The 5th Prince’s mourning. You came on the last day of the funeral service.’
She and the 5th Prince were the only ones who came to the mortuary to express their condolences.
She could vaguely understand what Dylan might have thought when he saw the 5th prince before she returned.
‘In this place where everyone abandoned the 13th Prince, the only person who found his traces and mourned him.’
‘I keep forgetting, but Dylan is still 14 years old. Too young to lose his mother.’
“No one’s coming, as expected.”
“Honestly, no one dares to come over. If someone comes, the 2nd concubine would hold a grudge against them.”
“But still, a person died….”
Charlize face hardened when she heard the maids talking.
It were not the voices of the prince’s maids and Mary, but the employees who worked in the 7th concubine building.
The maids who were chatting behind the wall were frightened and shut up when Charlize appeared.
“Don’t talk carelessly. The prince is in mourning.”
“Sorry, I’m sorry. My lady.”
When Charlize warned them, the maids bent back and forth in surprise. They soon ran away from Charlize.
The 5th prince did not stay long and soon left the mortuary.
Charlize lingered outside for a long time because she was frustrated and wanted to feel the breeze outside.
The departure of a funeral procession was already finished in the morning. Soon the funeral would be over.
Dylan had eaten this morning for the first time since the death of the 7th concubine.
Yeah. Dylan would be fine. It’ll be alright. As it was before her return.
‘I have to go back to the mortuary. I have to stay by his side until the end.’
Thinking about it, she couldn’t stop walking. The rain began to fall.
‘Oh no. I don’t have an umbrella.’
When she tried to call the maids, she remembered that the frightened ones had already fled into the mortuary.
‘Well, it doesn’t mean I’m going to die just because I hit some rain.’
It was drizzling rain. The black dress slowly got wet. The sensation of it sticking to her whole body was not very pleasant. She let it go.
She was grateful for the cold night breeze and the rain that cooled the inexplicable heat she’d felt.
Charlize’s footsteps stopped. It was because Dylan was standing right in front of her.
The night sky behind Dylan’s back was dark. Like his black hair. Dark and flat.
Dylan looked straight at her standing in the drizzling rain. The water went down to his temple. Dylan handed the will to Charlize.
“…”
Charlize hesitated for a moment, then opened the will and read it.
The handwriting of the 7th concubine was as clear and neat as her mood.
[Do whatever you want to do and live. Though it may stand out, live according to your own will. I want you to live your life freely.]
“…!”
‘The content of the will has changed.’
Why?
‘Because I twisted the flow of fate?’
Charlize was in a daze. Before her return, the 7th concubine died in pain.
She might have hoped that Dylan would never suffer the same pain as her.
But this time.
Thanks to Heelu-herb, there was no pain. People can be more cautious when they are not sick.
What she left to Dylan was received very positively by Charlize.
“She said that it wasn’t a will that was left only for me.”
“…?”
“She said it was something she wanted to say to Master as well.”
Dylan’s voice felt firm and deep. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t heard his voice properly, her arms had become itchy for nothing.
A sense of wanting to scratch off the feeling. Her heart was pounding.
Charlize, who failed to control her strength, crumpled up a bit of the will.
“What I want to do. I don’t know what I want to do yet. But I’m sure Master has one.”
“…Yes. I do.”
Charlize answered breathlessly. She became Dylan’s teacher in the summer, and the 7th concubine died in the fall.
As the seasons changed, Charlize taught Dylan hard in her own way.
But they knew. It was a class close to the formality.
Dylan acted as if he were an ordinary student, and the progress of the class was mostly smooth.
But at that moment. Charlize and Dylan looked straight at each other.
All external values were meaningless. Age, gender, and status. Even public opinion did not matter.
“Please teach me.”
“Prince.”
Charlize suppressed her joy. She lowered her head and then saved the will.
Charlize, wet with raindrops, was still dazzlingly fascinating. She knelt in front of Dylan.
The dress fluttered down. Charlize lowered her gaze in a calm manner.
When a knight decides his lord, he must have a proper ceremony. But what’s the use of the procedure in this situation?
It was an oath without a sword to offer, but Charlize’s expression was elegant.
“Please be my lord.”
Charlize’s voice pretended to be as slow as honey.
“As the first knight to lead and rule this country in the future, please allow me to be chosen.”
According to tradition, the lord put his hands on the head of the knight who had knelt down and carried out his oath.
But Dylan didn’t want to. How dare he do that to his Master.
Dylan followed Charlize and knelt down to put them at eye-level. It was on the dirty ground that had been muddy by rain.
A little embarrassed Charlize’s gaze followed him.
“…”
Dylan followed the tradition a knight follows with a Lady.
He gently grasped the back of Charlize’s hand, and he put his lips on it.
A light sensation of lips brushing against the skin of her hand. The feeling of tickling the body with feathers.
“Please be my lady.”
While Charlize had sworn knight’s oath to Dylan as her Lord…
Dylan carried the knight’s oath to the Lady.
Charlize looked at Dylan strangely. Dylan thought the inside of his chest was numb.
“What’s left for me…”
Now,
“Is only Master.”
It was a desperate and gruesome voice. Like tearing out one’s heart. A hot voice like vomiting blood.
That night, Charlize finally realized that the boy’s wall had been completely torn down.
‘White drawing paper with nothing drawn’ came into her grasp.
Charlize became the person who could inject her desires into Dylan.
Dylan stared blindly at Charlize as if the tamed beast groaned at its trainer for her affection.