“Freedom”

The brightness of the moon illuminated the darkness of the night.

Without her, he was a lost soul.

Breathing but not living.

He kept talking to her, who was not even breathing.

He seemed crazy, but he wasn’t.

He just believed that maybe, someday she will know it.

He kept seeing her everywhere, but there was no shadow.

Proving that it was all his illusions, she was no longer here and his cruelty towards her would start to flash in his mind.

In that beautiful rose garden, he kept waiting for her with a white rose on his hands.

.....

Maybe he will be able to give her this someday.

Apart from the empress, the emperor wanted nothing.

Nothing around him made sense anymore and the air felt too heavy to breathe.

With an absent expression on his face, he just kept making her portraits.

A bright smile on her face, which he will never see again.

He wasn’t crazy, he just loved her wrong; which ended by her quitting forever as she could no longer continue.

And left him with endless regrets and pain.

That was his love story.

Painful, yet beautiful in his eyes… Because she was there.

historical

He wished for everything to be a dream and his wish came true.

He found her again, who kept running away from him with fear.

Different from the dream he remembered, full of mystery and sadness.

Fragile but as sharp as a broken piece of glass, which cut him open every time he tried to get close.

A red rose in his hands, he stood and waited for her at the same rose garden; where he found his lost soul again.

Nothing could hold him back from being hers this time.

All she wanted from his was a promise that he will forever be hers.

Hold her tight in his arms and never letting go.

But he killed their story, her love story with his own hands.

Even if she forgives, stays beside him;

She can’t forget.

She can no longer love anymore.

She had been too stupid, regrets everything as this was not what she wanted.

He kept offering his heart, when she no longer wanted it anymore.

She choose to not care about it, but he refused to give up till the moon illuminates the night and she rushes into his arms again.

He always kept waiting at the same spot.

If she still ignored him, then he would take the last step as it’s hard to breathe without her in his life.

He will offer his last breath of life, to his only moon.

She is the reason of his existence in their every story, and his fate.

No matter how her appearance and status changes, his soul will only fall for her in his every life.

Recognise his one and only empress, his moonlight.

Even if he is called insane, he can never let her go.

Even if she doesn’t loves him, it’s okay as long as she stays beside him; let him love her.

This is what he had thought till now, before spending this night with her.

Cathain fumbled her wet silver hair as he stared at her sleeping face with his burning gaze.

He was laying beside her with a blanket covering their exposed bodies.

Her eyelashes trembled as a her brows furrowed slightly, which eased again after he planted a kiss on her forehead.

She was sleeping peacefully after getting exhausted, not caring about tomorrow.

Where, Even if his insecurities died down with this; his heart still ache with pain knowing she didn’t did it with him out of love.

He finally realised what’s the difference between making love and just sleeping together.

Keeping her with him, where she is not happy.

She slept with him to shake off her worries, to stop escaping from the past as she got tired of running.

She just no longer cared about anything else and seek for a warm embrace.

Her inner self wanted love, her mind wanted to escape; but she wanted peace.

Now that she has given herself to him, their is no reason for him to keep being insecure about her running away.

Her father will no longer worry about her mental health and getting traumatised again.

Now that she has accepted her worst nightmare, nothing else can scare her anymore.

She will finally get peace and freedom from his possessiveness as she belongs to him now.

Which scared Cathain more, thinking she might become emotionless and cold again.

Four years… he had kept talking to a motionless Eleanora for four years.

No matter what he did, what he said, she couldn’t react to him or open her eyes.

He could only imagine of her smiling face and kept making countless portraits of it.

Stare at her smiling portrait, before breaking down again and again because she can’t never smile like that towards him again.

Even if he offered all his wealth, she wouldn’t wake up and embrace him.

In the end, Cathain just decided to pull her exhausted sleeping body in his embrace and buried his face in her neck to sleep.

The milky scent coming from her body seem to calm down his tensed nerves, luring into the greatest peaceful sleep he ever had.

…

Imperial Year 1754, 10th February~

The emperor woke up in the empty bed, as Eleanora had left early in the morning.

His big hands stroked the place where she embraced him last night and gave herself to him, with a painful smile as he his gaze fall on the note beside his pillow.

‘Happy Birthday’

The note only contained two sentence but it was more valuable to him then any treasure.

He never liked to celebrate his birthday as it was the same date as his mother’s death anniversary.

He had stopped celebrating it completely for the last six years, after his coming of age ceremony.

With the excuse of his father’s fake death.

He donates that money between the needy people and the orphanage, and accompany his father so that he won’t feel lonely.

He turned 24 this year, and it’s also been 24 years since the brutal murder of his mother.

Cathain got freshened up as he knocked on his father’s bedroom before entering.

Valerian was sitting on a rocking chair, with a old portrait in his hands.

The young woman in the portrait had light pink hair and olive green eyes, with a gentle smile on her face.

The man beside her in the portrait looked stiff but one could see the affection he had in those red eyes.

That was the one and only portrait of the late empress that Valerian has.

He had removed all her portraits after her death as it only made him recall her cold body.

.....

“Father...”

“Happy Birthday, Cain...”

Valerian spoke as he stroked his fingers above the portrait and wished Cathain.

“We are getting older but she is still the same young woman in my memories...”

Cathain felt his father’s pain as he also felt the same pain once, everyone was not lucky like him to get another chance.

“...She came to meet me before leaving.”

Valerian spoke as he recalled meeting Eleanora in the early morning and Cathain waited for his father to speak furthermore.

“She has decided to go for a vacation, with her father... And asked me to inform you.”

“I see...”

Cathain replied with a heavy feeling in his heart, as she just left just after spending a night with him.

Like his past self, who left after not being able to accept the fact that he slept with her just like that.

As he couldn’t remember anything about that night, he thought that he had forced her after getting drunk.

He left with embarrassment as he didn’t dared to face her because of this.

Where in actual, He suppressed the other vengeful soul which wanted to kill Eleanora to re-appear Ariadne’s soul after her death by possessing his body.

He gave in to his inner desires, as Eleanora’s holy powers which wasn’t known to anyone; helped him to calm down.

Otherwise he would have already been controlled and kill her, given to how much messed up he was at that time.

“...You- Okay with that?”

Valerian became a little stunt as Cathain’s response wasn’t something he had expected.

He thought, his son will go crazy again with all the talk about how she just keeps escaping him.

“I think you were right... I should give her time and freedom, as well change myself;”

Valerian’s pale red eyes widened with surprise before a smile appeared on his face.

“That’s great to hear... Father is really happy for you.”

Cathain smiled lightly as he finally made up his mind to fix his over possessiveness.

There is no meaning of her staying with him if she isn’t even happy.

Last night, he realised that fully.

She desired him, wanted him, but that wasn’t love.

She did it to get rid of her mixed feelings, to escape the guilt she felt for what he did for her till now.

Specially during the war of Rua, when he begged his enemy to save her.

She felt obliged to him, she wanted to get rid of everything and start a new.

This is why she came to him last night.

She made him realise how it would be if he kept forcing her, he might keep her beside him like a caged bird.

Who will slowly turn into an emotionless person.

He realised that her happiness mattered to him, her cheerful smile was what he wanted to see more then her staying beside him.

So, he wanted to let her go and become free this time. Enjoy her life and take a break from everything.

Meanwhile, he would work more harder to become worthy of her. Into someone whom she can accept.

At the same time, Alexander and Eleanora started their journey to explore the world.

They was just father and daughter now, no duke or crown princess.

They visited the beach where they used to come, when the duchess was still alive.

Eleanora walked with Alexander and chuckle as she recalled their happy moments.

How she could cry after her sand castle would be washed away by sea water,

How her father used to dig a small hole and bury her body with her head out, only to get rebuked by her mother later on.

“If i want to bury you now, i might have to dig this whole place.”

Alexander spoke as he understood what Eleanora was chuckling about.

“People will arrest you for burying someone alive, if we do that now. But, that was really fun.”

“Fun for you, as your mother would only scold me.”

“Who are you trying to fool, papa? like i didn’t knew how you would stop her by kissing?”

“...”

A smug look appeared on Eleanora’s face as she saw her father’s embarrassed expression.

“How dare you to peek on your parents?! That’s bad manner...”

“What could i do as a child, when you people would forget about my existence and act like newlyweds?”

This time, A smile appeared on Alexander’s face as he tried to recall how many times he had got caught infront of his daughter and got rebuked by his wife because of this.

“Let’s make a sand castle then,”

“YES!”

Alexander watched Eleanora running towards their tents to bring out a bucket and some tools to make a sand castle, as she waved at him to hurry up.

He chuckled again as the memory of his wife calling him with the little Eleanora on her arms flashed through his memory and he walked towards her.

‘You will always be alive in our memories, Lia;’