Waking Dreams (A Gruvia fanfiction)

Chapter 12: Do You Remember?

"Come here. Let me tell you a story."
"What's it about?"
"It's about love and tragedy. Overcoming differences and how you cannot turn back time, however much you may wish it."
"That sounds interesting! Tell it to me!"
"Hahaha, all right. It goes like this..."

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, there was an earl who lived happily with his wife and only son. The earl's name was Akutagawa, and his son was named Konoha. the family lived a happy life, and their family prospered.
Across the moor, there lived a count with a wife and a daughter, but no son to inherit the land. And so, the count and Earl Akutagawa arranged a marriage between their children. For years, everything went according to plan. Their children, Nozomi and Konoha, became the best of friends and were always at each other's side. The arranged marriage looming above their heads didn't put a damper on their friendship at all. In fact, their mothers would gossip happily to each other about how one of them had confessed to being wildly excited to marry their best friend.
The romance between Nozomi and Konoha grew with beautiful passion. As they reached the age of 16, everybody who was anybody often found themselves gossiping about the romance between them. Nozomi and Konoha would often disappear off into a meadow full of spring flowers. They claimed it as their meeting place for whenever they wanted to be alone together, away from the pressure of their families.
In the fall, they would sit in the meadow and gaze at the trees in the distance as their leaves turned to fire. In the winter, if it was not too cold, Konoha would carry Nozomi to a nearly snowless patch of earth so that her feet wouldn't get wet or cold, with both of them laughing the whole time. In the spring, they would stand surrounded by blooming flowers, watching the birds fly. As they smiled and laughed, Nozomi made flower crowns, and though it was a little ridiculous, they both wore them for the rest of that day. The summer was the best season for them, though. They would sit as close as they could to each other, often with Nozomi sitting on Konoha's lap, and watch the warm sunset together.
One summer day, they were doing just that when Nozomi spoke. "Konoha, what's wrong? You've seemed upset lately."
"It's nothing. Just...things aren't going well for my father right now. It's nothing that you need to worry about though;I'm sure it will be sorted out soon."
Although Nozomi didn't find as much comfort in his words as she usually did, she decided to leave it. Affairs of the state were not something she understood, and it was not her place to understand them anyway.

Not too many years after that, the day that they had been looking forward to for so long finally came. On that day, Konoha and Nozomi were happily married. Their families were merged, and there was a rather large celebration. They both seemed to take on an Elysian glow. Not all arranged marriages end in sadness, regret, or rebellion.

However, Earl Akutagawa's political state began to decrease significantly after that. Nozomi wasn't quite sure what caused it, but she figured that it would die down. She hoped that it would.
After the earl died, she expected everything to be fine, but the people did not particularly like Konoha. Again, Nozomi did not understand. Why did the people not adore her wonderful husband as much as she did? Whenever she asked him about it, he blew her off with flattery or changed the subject. Nozomi decided that it would be best for her to leave the matter alone.
Their kingdom seemed to be going downhill. Although their king was trying to make peace with their neighboring kingdom, Fiore, it wasn't working out. The people of the country were not happy either. Talk of a revolution spread like wildfire. If a war with Fiore didn't break out, a civil war would.
Late on dark nights, Nozomi and Konoha would lie in their bed and discuss their future. He would stroke her dark hair and muse, "Maybe, if there's not a war, we'll move to Fiore."
Nozomi would smile and reply, "Yes. And perhaps we could learn magic and join one of those guilds that they're so famous for."
They often had conversations like this, and for a while, their life was almost perfect.