“Do you love me?”... more>>
“Yes.”
“Even so, I can’t stand beside Your Majesty, can I?”
“That’s right.”
It was a simple answer. That made it hurt even more.
At the edge of the northern border, Cecilia happened to save the escaping crown prince, Tezett.
Fourteen years have passed since then.
The fragile and beautiful Tezett reclaimed his place and became the emperor.
And Cecilia came to a realisation.
“Is there anything she can offer me now, as the empress?”
That she, born a commoner, could never be his true equal.
If she could have just stayed by his side, it would have been enough, but…
“…At most, three months.”
Even that, God did not permit.
In the end, Cecilia closed her eyes alone, waiting for a lover who would not return.
At that cold train station, during that snowy winter.
And on the third anniversary of Cecilia’s death—
“Young Lady? Master! The Young Lady has opened her eyes!”
Cecilia opened her eyes once more, this time as the emperor’s fiancée.
* * *
Yes, you, who feared loneliness. You, who hated the cold winter.
You, who once said, ‘Look at me,’ ‘Love me,’
and ‘I want to stay by your side.’
“…And I–I left you, someone like you, behind all by yourself.”
Ah, is that so.
Tezett slowly looked down at his hands.
Was I the one who made you this way?
[I hope that at the very end, you won't come.
Though I still love you, at least in the face of death, I wish to die entirely as myself.]
So, in the end, you let me go.
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