Chapter 55

At some point, Ophelia stopped speaking.

Ian thought that it was to protest against him.

So, he also did not bother to talk to her because she didn’t want to reply.

One day, when a situation like this happened—

Ian returned home and visited Ophelia just as he usually did, however she wasn’t there.

When he saw the empty room, Ian wasn’t surprised.

It wasn’t difficult to find Ophelia because the only places she went to were her bedroom, her office and the library.

However, he failed to find Ophelia even as he looked all over the castle, and so he was seized with a strange sense of anxiety and frustration at her absence.

He asked the castle’s servants about her, but as though it was natural, they answered that they didn’t know.

The problem now was that there was no one who knew where Ophelia was because there was not one servant who usually accompanied her.

‘I should tell her that she should bring a servant with her.’

Ian thought about this for a moment, but he soon gave up on the idea.

This was because he also knew how inconvenient it was to have attendants following him around all the time.

He also didn’t have to visit Ophelia often, and sometimes he shouldn’t bear the discomfort. This was what he thought.

Then, he came across a servant who gave him a clue to finding her. Thanks to that, there was also a reason why his heart rate became faster.

“The Grand Duchess? I’m not sure, sire. Shouldn’t she be in the peripheral tower? She’s always there.”

The peripheral tower was where the castle’s resident mage stayed for research.

As far as Ian knew, the resident mage was an eccentric woman named Yennit.

Was there a reason why Ophelia was always there?

‘She must have become friends with that mage.’

Ian headed to the peripheral tower without thinking about it deeply.

However, the moment he stepped into the peripheral tower, what Ian heard was an unexpected voice.

And it’s like he’s heard this voice before.

“Why can’t I make food through magic, wouldn’t that be so convenient?”

“It doesn’t work? But you can teleport and calm the ocean.”

“The difference is like heaven and earth when using magic to move things around compared to making something out of nothing. It’s only obvious.”

“Don’t you want to research magic formulas to make that happen?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any plans of receiving the wrath of the chefs if they get unemployed because of me. But if you want me to play the villain, I’ll consider it.”

The other voice was clearly Ophelia’s. But who owned the other one?

As he walked closer to where the voices came from, Ian felt like he was doing something wrong.

Beyond the open door, he could see a fire burning in the fireplace—and a man and woman chatting as they sat face to face on the couches.

As expected, one of them was Ophelia. She was holding a book that’s open in the middle, and the person she was talking to was a man with hair close to white.

“Just say that you don’t want to cook, Alei.”

And after saying this, Ophelia laughed.

Throughout the conversation, Ophelia looked comfortable and often broke out into a smile. Ian barely managed to recall that she had such a cheerful voice.

The difference between how she was in front of him and how she was right now made Ian laugh in vain.

‘Right. I knew this would happen.’

Just as he thought, Ophelia was doing really well. She neither sought Ian out, nor did she yearn for Ian in his absence.

He had always been anticipating it, but for what reason was his anger surging up like this.

From outside the door, seeing Ophelia smile like this seemed to prove that Ian was the only one filled with trepidation when it came to their relationship.

That’s why it irritated him more.

If he really loathed her, he wouldn’t be compelled to find her and be filled with annoyance like this. It would be fine if he had no interest in her.

At this time, Ian did not realize this, even though being so bothered like this was evidence enough that he could not let her go.

He kept an eye on that mage named Alei, and after confirming that the mage and Ophelia were truly just friends, he stopped monitoring.

The reason was simple.

No matter what happened, she was Ian’s wife. She would always come back to him.

Ophelia was still within Ian’s grasp.

Without trying to find the source of his annoyance, Ian thought that this alone was enough.

He never thought that Ophelia would ever go to a place where he wouldn’t be able to reach her.

As the place vanished every day, wind would blow through the wilderness again.

It was only after Ophelia couldn’t open her eyes that Ian realized what he had missed. However, because the other person was Ophelia and because he couldn’t even guess what shape that realization took form in, he just let it go.

Despite being immersed in a period of grief and confusion, Ian was still a monarch of this principality.

He still had to clear out the monstrous beasts and he had to participate in trading and commerce. It was another thing to deal with the nobles.

That was why Ian passed time as he usually did. If he kept his body busy, this unknown depression would briefly be forgotten.

But when he returned, that depression was there waiting for him, swallowing him.

“Ophelia.”

Now, rather than calling out like a habit, he would utter the name as though it was a plea, and it would swallow him.

Ian shed tears. And the day came that he abandoned any hope that Ophelia would open her eyes again.

Only then did he come to realize what Ophelia had taken away from him.

No, to be exact, she didn’t take anything.

It was just that Ian had reverted back to how he was before he met her.

It was futile for her to return it.

What Ian had always felt until he met Ophelia in their previous life.

And what he hadn’t felt since he met Ophelia.

When Ophelia disappeared, that returned to him—futility.

Ophelia was who Ian yearned for, who he loved, his reason for living.

Because after he drifted into the sea, after he thought he was going to die, it was her who met him.

To meet her again, he returned alive after enduring the heavy seas, to meet her again, he persistently hunted the monstrous beasts.

Even if he felt that annoyance, he couldn’t let go of this urge to return to where he should be.

But now. There was no place to return.

For three years, Ian’s body became riddled with countless scars and the moonlight in his eyes had disappeared.

Whenever he closed his eyes, memories of Ophelia while she was alive came to visit him.

In his memories, Ophelia sometimes cried, sometimes sat quietly with a desolate expression, sometimes clung to Ian.

Everything was caused by him.

And so one day, when he realized that Ophelia would not return.

Ian jumped into the sea.

But when he opened his eyes again, he found that he went back in time.

And the living Ophelia was right in front of him.

His heart, which had been filled with nothing but futility and emptiness, began to beat again.

Ian couldn’t let go of this chance.

No matter how much Ophelia denied him, it was alright.

Even if she cursed at him, even if she raised a fist against him, even if he went crazy because she didn’t want him.

He would endure everything. As long as Ophelia was by his side.

He would no longer be able to live in a futile world without her.

So, as he was on his knees, Ian held Ophelia’s hand and begged countless times.

Please, Ophelia. Please.

“Stay with me.”

I missed you so much. I realized too late that what I needed to do for you is beg for forgiveness and confess my love for you.

But overshadowing his pleas, Ophelia’s reply to everything he said was consistent.

“I don’t want to.”

With a gaze that looked as though she was completely exhausted of it, she shook off Ian’s hand.

“Ian, if you really love me, you have to accept my rejection.”

“I can’t do that.”

If that happened, he wouldn’t be able to live at all.

As though he was a man trying to stop a dam from bursting, Ian grabbed Ophelia’s arm and said this.

Perhaps it was because he couldn’t control his strength or if it was just too much, Ophelia couldn’t help but grimace.

And as Ian realized what he had done, he hurriedly loosened his grip. But he still couldn’t let Ophelia go.

“Ophelia, please…”

Tears fell from Ian’s eyes, from which countless tears had already been shed before.

He could pretend to be calm, but every moment he was with Ophelia, he couldn’t find stability.

Unlike Ophelia, who was detached no matter what Ian did.

Ophelia’s colder gaze was directed at him.

The man was crying while he was on his knees. His immaculate appearance did not collapse to that extent. It was just that there was a vast difference from how he usually was—sharp, above everything.

Ophelia couldn’t understand Ian. She still couldn’t understand even after hearing about what happened after she died.

If he was acting as though he couldn’t get past all these strong emotions, he should have realized earlier.

When she was alive, he despised her so much that he couldn’t stand her. But after she died, he regretted it all.

Just what kind of man did she love.