It rained incessantly. Funny how the weather was the same as back then.
The time when she felt betrayed by the Crown Prince and when she endured it alone.
When she first headed to the outskirts, she thought she was alone with her mind in the carriage. She never thought she would go back this way with the person who complicated her mind in the first place.
It was quiet inside the carriage. The Crown Prince, who was sitting across from her, looked at her quietly and did not speak.
He only looked out the window.
Jiwoo thought it would be nice if the rain got stronger and put out all the fires that had clung to the forest.
“…Are you uncomfortable anywhere? Once your ankle gets treated, I think it will heal soon.”
“I’m fine.”
As Jiwoo kept looking out the window without showing any signs of caring for her feet, the Crown Prince started talking to her again.
He sounded a little bit nervous.
“As expected, I should have executed those lowly things, but you are very merciful.”
“What do you mean lowly things?”
The Crown Prince’s temper seemed to be belatedly boiling again.
“How have you been? They’re a disgusting bunch who take women who can’t resist them just to gang r*pe her.”
Gang r*pe. Hearing that, Jiwoo laughed.
“…Why are you laughing?”
Can’t resist… It was ridiculous to say that.
Did she not resist? Is it a culture he can understand as an imperial person, and even a man with power?
“Your Highness, the other race hate outsiders. They hate them so much they kill those outsiders as soon as they run into them. Would they really insult themselves by having sex with said outsiders?”
It meant that they weren’t the kind of people who would do such a thing.
However, after hearing those words, Jiwoo felt his heart grow cold because of the Crown Prince’s counterattack.
“It’s just a woman. How can I care about that?”
Yes. Just a woman. The Empire was such a country.
“Well, only the imperial people rape. Whether it’s a person from an enemy country they hate, or a slave who they think is not on the same level as them.”
Even though she has lived in this world for over five years, Jiwoo is not good at speaking in a noble way because she has a short vocabulary.
Still, five years was enough. The Crown Prince was used to Jiwoo’s way of speaking.
“…Can I take it as saying that nothing happened to you?”
“Yeah, nothing happened.”
“Then, that scoundrel…”
That scoundrel, it was clear that the Crown Prince was concerned about Tevon who was provoking him.
Jiwoo let out a sigh. Stupid. She shouldn’t have talked about this.
“Your Highness, it seems that you are worried about me.”
“Why do you think I wouldn’t worry? You won’t know what kind of despair I lived in until I heard you were missing, and until I found out that you were alive.”
“….. That was the Akarna’s duty.”
“Yes, it is. But how long do you think I could have endured it?”
At first, she thought that she would be by the Crown Prince’s side and help him in his work, and that she would dedicate herself to him. It’s safe to say that she exhausted her life because of it.
But that feeling couldn’t last forever.
In the first place, Jiwoo was a modern and free person on Earth.
How long till the love that made her forget everything would expire? Maybe it was longer than five years. It was the Crown Prince who shortened that expiration date.
“Yes. You can get away from such things now. Because you will become the Crown Princess.”
“Your Highness, as I said before, I don’t want to become the Crown Princess.”
Her words made the Crown Prince speechless for a moment. The red eyes were wide open, finding the surprise foreign.
The Crown Prince could have made that expression after all.
“Your Highness is engaged to another Lady anyway.”
With those words, the Crown Prince sighed as if he understood.
“It’s over now. Hearing that you were missing, I couldn’t go on with it. It’s… already over.”
The news of the Akarna’s disappearance due to a carriage accident reached the Crown Prince just before the betrothal was to take place.
The Crown Prince didn’t even go to the ceremony and went straight to the Akarna’s dispatch site.
The engagement was naturally broken.
The Crown Prince must have given the lady proper compensation, and if he said this to Jiwoo, it meant that the matter was truly over.
She did not know what words and rewards were exchanged between them.
Actually, that wasn’t a problem for Jiwoo. Jiwoo didn’t even care, her intention was excluded from the whole process in the first place.
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“Your Highness. You don’t love me.”
“…I love you.”
The Crown Prince’s expression looked painful, like he was chewing on something terrible.
Jiwoo looked at his face for the first time in a long time.
The sunken eyes, perhaps from not sleeping, and the darkened area around them. Even the sharper jawline that was thinner than she remembered.
It seemed that only the eyes glowed alive like flames on the ash-like complexion. He was big and scary until he burned the forest, but now he seemed small for some reason.
“Whether you’re dead or alive, if you’re dead, you wouldn’t have been able to rest properly. Even if you were alive, you would have been in the outskirts infested with beasts and other races. I was worried.”
“And then you’ll force me to do the Akarna’s duty again.”
“…Akarna.”
“Yes, it can’t be helped. I… I’m tired of Your Highness’s inevitable things now.”
“……”
“I’ll do my duty as the Akarna. As Your Highness said, I was caught in the forest for a while. I’ll go back to the temple and tell them my circumstances. I should be able to get back to my job right away.”
The Crown Prince immediately sighed.
“That can be worked out. Trust me. I’m not taking you for that.”
“The temple won’t give me up anyway. Your Highness knows that. I am the one and only Akarna of the temple…”
“A new Akarna will appear soon.”
Jiwoo was so surprised that she stopped talking and thinking.
“What did you say?”
Only one Akarna could exist in this world.
Through Enciertes, she learned what kind of existence the Akarna was, and how the empire and the temple made it so.
Just as Elandos of El Ragneil had several groups, there could originally be several Akarnas of Caranazion.
However, that fact was far from the common sense of the imperial people.
Summoning a new Akarna was an act of denying the worldview that the empire and the temple had built in advance.
It was the same as splitting their main deity in two, and the temple could be degraded if done wrong.
Jiwoo didn’t trust the Crown Prince. He was not the kind of person who would take such a loss.
“A new body will be searched after God judged that your body has run out of usefulness. For now, that’s how it was decided.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You… will become the person who was directly ordained by God to the Crown Prince. The most respected person in the Empire who has taken care of the people of the Empire as Akarna. You will become the Empress.”
Did he think she would be thrilled with that statement? Other than the facts he listed, Jiwoo was more startled.
“…Your Highness, Your Highness seems to already know… what an Akarna is.”
The Crown Prince shook his head.
“I didn’t know from the beginning. I was suspicious of the temple or the Emperor’s attitude toward you, who had gone missing, so I dug it up by myself.”
“…….”
She had nothing to say. What should she say? She hoped someone could tell her.
“You won’t go to the temple. You will go to the Imperial Palace with me.”
Jiwoo pursed her lips wanting to speak, but she just gave up.
That said, she wished he had done it at least two months ago. She could have taken it differently then. Why was he saying that now?
When she asked for an identity, he thought she wouldn’t even need it and said that things like Akarna were difficult, but she thought it was okay as long as she was with him.
What has changed his mind? Did he realize that the person he thought would always be by his side was actually an ordinary person?
“Akarna.”
He called her quietly. Jiwoo didn’t answer.
Not too long ago, it was the condition she so desired. No, maybe something more ideal unfolded than she actually hoped for. But why did she feel so terrible?
She turned her gaze to the window. She struggled to hold back her tears. She didn’t want him to see.
“…Akarna, I love you.”
Come now.
What’s the use of all that?