Gerard exchanged brief greetings with the leading nobles in Hernia. However, soon he cut off those who held him back from talking and headed to his family.
He didn’t have much time.
In the distance, he spotted his wife standing with her back turned to him. Gerard hurriedly walked up to them when he sensed a deep sorrow from her back.
“Father!”
“Abel.”
Gerard called Abel and pulled the child, who stretched out his hands, into his arms. The child rubbed his face against his father’s lovingly.
“Father… How many nights do I have to sleep to wait for you to come back?”
Abel asked with a pout. He heard from the adults that his father was going to save the country.
The child was proud of his father, who was titled the sword of the Empire. However, parting with his father was
difficult for him.
For the first time, Abel wished that his father was not the sword of the Empire.
“Well, I’ll be back after you sleep fifty nights times seven weeks.”
Gerard spoke complicatedly in a way that was difficult for his son to understand. He couldn’t tell his son the exact date because he didn’t know how the war would progress.
“If I sleep fifty nights times seven weeks?”
The child didn’t understand and tried to use his fingers to calculate it. Chloe, who was listening to the conversation as if she was pretending to look elsewhere, had to control her bubbling emotions.
“Yes. So, if you want to know when Father will come back, you have to study hard, got it?”
“Yes…”
“Work hard on training your sword skills, listen to Mother, and…”
Gerard stopped nagging Abel and held the rest in. He didn’t want to just nag the child when he might not see him for a while.
“However, you don’t have to do as Father says, Abel. If you want to play, play as much as you want, and don’t hesitate to try something if you want to do it.”
It was completely different from his previous remark. However, he couldn’t help but say it because he thought the opposite.
He would nag his son when thinking of his future. However, he also didn’t want Abel to live his life following his words.
He hoped that his son would be able to live more freely and experience more things in life, not just within the boundaries he had set.
To do so, what the child needed was not boundaries, but a fence. A fence that prevented his child from danger so that he could have a healthy and happy life.
“I’ll be back to protect my dearest Abel and Mother.”
Gerard intended to guard the fence now. He placed a kiss on his son’s forehead reverently.
“I love you so much, Abel.”
Gerard, who finished talking with his son, called his wife.
“Chloe.”
Chloe had been paying her husband zero attention since earlier. It was partly out of resentment for her husband, who ended up participating in the battlefield, and the other part was because she didn’t want to let him go.
“Are you going to keep looking away like that?”
Gerard asked his wife, who only stared blankly at the ground. Noticing her husband’s trembling voice, Chloe couldn’t look away any longer.
She didn’t want to think about it.
That this might be the last time she saw him.
“…”
Chloe lifted her eyes and stared straight at Gerard. Tears had already welled up in her eyes.
Gerard swallowed bitterly at the sight. Even though he intended to stop making her cry, he already made her cry again after making such a decision.
“I’ll return safely. Don’t worry, my Lady.”
However, despite Gerard’s words, Chloe’s frown didn’t break. She was not reassured by what she heard from Catherine and the current state of war.
“I won’t step forward. I’ll flee as soon as I think it’s dangerous.”
Gerard lightly spoke words that others would consider cowardly. There were many people around who were listening to him, but he didn’t care.
That wasn’t the point. He didn’t care because he didn’t have time to bluff. Whether someone else heard it or not. Whether his honor was lost or not. It didn’t matter.
He thought reassuring his wife was more important than anything else.
“…Really?”
Chloe asked at the childish remark. She wanted to hold on to his words even though she knew her husband was just saying it to reassure her.
“Chloe.”
Gerard rubbed his wife’s cheeks with the hand which wasn’t holding his son.
“I’ll come back to you and Abel no matter what it takes.”
He swore.
No matter what happened. No matter what got in his way. He would come back to her.
“Here…”
Chloe handed a handkerchief to her husband, who was going to war. However, it wasn’t a handkerchief with ordinary embroidery on it.
She couldn’t calm down upon hearing the news that he was going to participate in war and she couldn’t bring herself to stop embroidering. Of course, she could have asked a maid to embroider for her, but she didn’t want to do that.
“My Lady.”
Gerard frowned slightly after checking the handkerchief. He did it to suppress the emotions rising inside him.
At the corner of Chloe’s handmade handkerchief was a small and sloppy painting of the Blanchett family.
-I hate my eyes, but…
-I grew to like them because you like my eyes. You’d sometimes look into my eyes as if you were staring at the prettiest thing in the world.’
-I do?
-Yes, so I wonder how my eyes look from your perspective, my Lady.
-Oh…
-So, promise me that if you draw again one day, the first thing you draw is me.
It was the conversation Chloe had with Gerard a few days ago.
When she opened up about her reason for not painting anymore, he asked her to draw him first. He said he’d be jealous if she drew something else because he was greedy for her.
Gerard seemed to take the thought that Chloe would paint again for granted.
She brushed it off after he said so. He suddenly thought that that day might never come.
‘I don’t have enough time to paint, but I have enough time to embroider.’
She wanted to grant her husband’s wish to draw him if she decided to draw again. And when she thought that he would miss her and Abel, she thought it would be great to draw them together.
The drawing was similar to a doodle, but it wasn’t easy. She had to throw away so many handkerchiefs to make his green eyes look pretty.
“I really like it. Thank you, Chloe.”
Noticing his wife’s efforts, Gerard carefully tuck his handkerchief into his chest pocket.
“Oh, it’s not this one.”
However, what Chloe said was unexpected.
“What?”
“I didn’t fulfill that promise with this. You know I’m much better than this, don’t you? This is just a practice.”
“Oh, then…”
“I’ll paint.”
Chloe promised with a shaky voice.
“I’ll paint you properly. So, you have to come back safely. Come back and see it with your own eyes, yes?”
“Chloe.”
Gerard gently put Abel down. Then, he pulled Chloe into a tight embrace.
“I’m going to miss you so much.”
Chloe cried, feeling the pleasantly tight hug.
“I mean it when I say that I’m going to k*ll you if you come back injured.”
That’s not what she wanted to say. She loved him so much. She loved him so much that she wanted to tell him not to participate because she didn’t want him to get hurt at all.
She felt like her husband would leave if she said that. She couldn’t imagine not seeing him again.
Ironically, Chloe couldn’t really express what she wanted to say.
***
Chloe had suffered since her husband’s departure. Acute helplessness overtook her continuously.
Although she knew what would happen from Catherine, she couldn’t change it again this time. She couldn’t stop her husband from going to the battlefield to protect her and Abel.
She wondered if the future could be changed.
“Chloe, you need to be stronger at a time like this.”
Catherine spoke to her sister, who stopped by the inn to visit her.
“Yes, my Lady.”
From Gaon’s perspective, Chloe appeared quite depressed.
“I was actually skeptical, but I knew one thing for sure upon seeing the Marquis participating this time.”
Gaon spoke while handing Chloe a cup of tea made from tangerine peel that he brought from the East.
“If the future really goes according to the dream, wouldn’t it be much more advantageous for Hernia having known the state of war through a dream? He’s going to come back with a huge victory.”
Gaon comforted her by rambling, which was not like him at all.
“But…”
However, Chloe murmured while still staring at the tea handed to her by Gaon.
“I’m nothing. I’m not the main character or anything, so what can I do to change it?”
Catherine frowned upon her sister’s discouraging remark.
“Chloe, I don’t know why you keep saying that.”
Catherine spoke encouragingly to Chloe.
“You are the main character in my dream.”
“?”
Chloe lifted her gaze at Catherine’s words, who only stared absentmindedly at her teacup.
“You’re the main character in my dream.”
“Oh…”
Chloe’s mouth was open slightly at the unexpected remark. She never thought about being the main character.
Leila had always been the main character in her dreams, so she had vaguely assumed someone else would be the main character again this time.
“So don’t say that.”
Catherine assured her.
“I’ll do anything to help you change the future.”
Her eyes were filled with warmth and love for Chloe.
Gerard exchanged brief greetings with the leading nobles in Hernia. However, soon he cut off those who held him back from talking and headed to his family.
He didn’t have much time.
In the distance, he spotted his wife standing with her back turned to him. Gerard hurriedly walked up to them when he sensed a deep sorrow from her back.
“Father!”
“Abel.”
Gerard called Abel and pulled the child, who stretched out his hands, into his arms. The child rubbed his face against his father’s lovingly.
“Father… How many nights do I have to sleep to wait for you to come back?”
Abel asked with a pout. He heard from the adults that his father was going to save the country.
The child was proud of his father, who was titled the sword of the Empire. However, parting with his father was
difficult for him.
For the first time, Abel wished that his father was not the sword of the Empire.
“Well, I’ll be back after you sleep fifty nights times seven weeks.”
Gerard spoke complicatedly in a way that was difficult for his son to understand. He couldn’t tell his son the exact date because he didn’t know how the war would progress.
“If I sleep fifty nights times seven weeks?”
The child didn’t understand and tried to use his fingers to calculate it. Chloe, who was listening to the conversation as if she was pretending to look elsewhere, had to control her bubbling emotions.
“Yes. So, if you want to know when Father will come back, you have to study hard, got it?”
“Yes…”
“Work hard on training your sword skills, listen to Mother, and…”
Gerard stopped nagging Abel and held the rest in. He didn’t want to just nag the child when he might not see him for a while.
“However, you don’t have to do as Father says, Abel. If you want to play, play as much as you want, and don’t hesitate to try something if you want to do it.”
It was completely different from his previous remark. However, he couldn’t help but say it because he thought the opposite.
He would nag his son when thinking of his future. However, he also didn’t want Abel to live his life following his words.
He hoped that his son would be able to live more freely and experience more things in life, not just within the boundaries he had set.
To do so, what the child needed was not boundaries, but a fence. A fence that prevented his child from danger so that he could have a healthy and happy life.
“I’ll be back to protect my dearest Abel and Mother.”
Gerard intended to guard the fence now. He placed a kiss on his son’s forehead reverently.
“I love you so much, Abel.”
Gerard, who finished talking with his son, called his wife.
“Chloe.”
Chloe had been paying her husband zero attention since earlier. It was partly out of resentment for her husband, who ended up participating in the battlefield, and the other part was because she didn’t want to let him go.
“Are you going to keep looking away like that?”
Gerard asked his wife, who only stared blankly at the ground. Noticing her husband’s trembling voice, Chloe couldn’t look away any longer.
She didn’t want to think about it.
That this might be the last time she saw him.
“…”
Chloe lifted her eyes and stared straight at Gerard. Tears had already welled up in her eyes.
Gerard swallowed bitterly at the sight. Even though he intended to stop making her cry, he already made her cry again after making such a decision.
“I’ll return safely. Don’t worry, my Lady.”
However, despite Gerard’s words, Chloe’s frown didn’t break. She was not reassured by what she heard from Catherine and the current state of war.
“I won’t step forward. I’ll flee as soon as I think it’s dangerous.”
Gerard lightly spoke words that others would consider cowardly. There were many people around who were listening to him, but he didn’t care.
That wasn’t the point. He didn’t care because he didn’t have time to bluff. Whether someone else heard it or not. Whether his honor was lost or not. It didn’t matter.
He thought reassuring his wife was more important than anything else.
“…Really?”
Chloe asked at the childish remark. She wanted to hold on to his words even though she knew her husband was just saying it to reassure her.
“Chloe.”
Gerard rubbed his wife’s cheeks with the hand which wasn’t holding his son.
“I’ll come back to you and Abel no matter what it takes.”
He swore.
No matter what happened. No matter what got in his way. He would come back to her.
“Here…”
Chloe handed a handkerchief to her husband, who was going to war. However, it wasn’t a handkerchief with ordinary embroidery on it.
She couldn’t calm down upon hearing the news that he was going to participate in war and she couldn’t bring herself to stop embroidering. Of course, she could have asked a maid to embroider for her, but she didn’t want to do that.
“My Lady.”
Gerard frowned slightly after checking the handkerchief. He did it to suppress the emotions rising inside him.
At the corner of Chloe’s handmade handkerchief was a small and sloppy painting of the Blanchett family.
-I hate my eyes, but…
-I grew to like them because you like my eyes. You’d sometimes look into my eyes as if you were staring at the prettiest thing in the world.’
-I do?
-Yes, so I wonder how my eyes look from your perspective, my Lady.
-Oh…
-So, promise me that if you draw again one day, the first thing you draw is me.
It was the conversation Chloe had with Gerard a few days ago.
When she opened up about her reason for not painting anymore, he asked her to draw him first. He said he’d be jealous if she drew something else because he was greedy for her.
Gerard seemed to take the thought that Chloe would paint again for granted.
She brushed it off after he said so. He suddenly thought that that day might never come.
‘I don’t have enough time to paint, but I have enough time to embroider.’
She wanted to grant her husband’s wish to draw him if she decided to draw again. And when she thought that he would miss her and Abel, she thought it would be great to draw them together.
The drawing was similar to a doodle, but it wasn’t easy. She had to throw away so many handkerchiefs to make his green eyes look pretty.
“I really like it. Thank you, Chloe.”
Noticing his wife’s efforts, Gerard carefully tuck his handkerchief into his chest pocket.
“Oh, it’s not this one.”
However, what Chloe said was unexpected.
“What?”
“I didn’t fulfill that promise with this. You know I’m much better than this, don’t you? This is just a practice.”
“Oh, then…”
“I’ll paint.”
Chloe promised with a shaky voice.
“I’ll paint you properly. So, you have to come back safely. Come back and see it with your own eyes, yes?”
“Chloe.”
Gerard gently put Abel down. Then, he pulled Chloe into a tight embrace.
“I’m going to miss you so much.”
Chloe cried, feeling the pleasantly tight hug.
“I mean it when I say that I’m going to k*ll you if you come back injured.”
That’s not what she wanted to say. She loved him so much. She loved him so much that she wanted to tell him not to participate because she didn’t want him to get hurt at all.
She felt like her husband would leave if she said that. She couldn’t imagine not seeing him again.
Ironically, Chloe couldn’t really express what she wanted to say.
***
Chloe had suffered since her husband’s departure. Acute helplessness overtook her continuously.
Although she knew what would happen from Catherine, she couldn’t change it again this time. She couldn’t stop her husband from going to the battlefield to protect her and Abel.
She wondered if the future could be changed.
“Chloe, you need to be stronger at a time like this.”
Catherine spoke to her sister, who stopped by the inn to visit her.
“Yes, my Lady.”
From Gaon’s perspective, Chloe appeared quite depressed.
“I was actually skeptical, but I knew one thing for sure upon seeing the Marquis participating this time.”
Gaon spoke while handing Chloe a cup of tea made from tangerine peel that he brought from the East.
“If the future really goes according to the dream, wouldn’t it be much more advantageous for Hernia having known the state of war through a dream? He’s going to come back with a huge victory.”
Gaon comforted her by rambling, which was not like him at all.
“But…”
However, Chloe murmured while still staring at the tea handed to her by Gaon.
“I’m nothing. I’m not the main character or anything, so what can I do to change it?”
Catherine frowned upon her sister’s discouraging remark.
“Chloe, I don’t know why you keep saying that.”
Catherine spoke encouragingly to Chloe.
“You are the main character in my dream.”
“?”
Chloe lifted her gaze at Catherine’s words, who only stared absentmindedly at her teacup.
“You’re the main character in my dream.”
“Oh…”
Chloe’s mouth was open slightly at the unexpected remark. She never thought about being the main character.
Leila had always been the main character in her dreams, so she had vaguely assumed someone else would be the main character again this time.
“So don’t say that.”
Catherine assured her.
“I’ll do anything to help you change the future.”
Her eyes were filled with warmth and love for Chloe.
