Chapter 6
The little boy who had once followed her had grown into a young man and now stood before Annerose.
Iver’s gentle hand came to rest against her cheek. Annerose stared at him with trembling eyes. Despite their long-awaited reunion, the unease in her heart refused to fade.
“You! Who are you? Are you a royalist?!”
Iver effortlessly subdued one of the revolutionaries who had raised a sword against him, then turned back to Annerose.
“Annerose, choose. Will you come with me, or will you die here?”
“Iver… how did you…”
“I told you, didn’t I? I promised I’d find you again, and I swore I’d keep that promise. I’ll grant your wish. Just tell me what you want.”
“…”
Annerose looked at the hand Iver held out to her.
The delicate hand of the little boy she remembered was gone. In its place was a man’s hand, long, strong fingers lined with calluses from gripping a sword. Scars marked his skin here and there, telling her without words how many battles and hardships he must have endured.
Annerose remembered the boy who had once cried out for her to wait for him.
And the moment she saw Iver gazing at her with that gentle smile, a desperate desire to live filled her heart.
Even if she had to live a small and insignificant life, she wanted to breathe. She wanted to keep living in this world.
“…I want to live. I want to live…! I don’t want to die here…!”
“Yes. Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere safe, Annerose. Somewhere safer than anywhere else.”
Annerose cried out her deepest wish to him, and Iver smiled before lifting her effortlessly into his arms.
He looked down at Annerose trembling in his embrace, his expression filled with unmistakable affection.
“Now that I’ve found you again, I won’t ever let you go. Never.”
Annerose Parozera, the forgotten immortal queen, took Iver Dio Costeria’s hand and journeyed with him to the Costeria Empire.
* * *
The Costeria Empire. A greenhouse deep within a secret garden.
Annerose awoke in the bed at the center of the sunlit glasshouse, breathing in the soft scent of roses that hung in the warm air.
The sheets beneath her were damp with cold sweat. She had another nightmare, just as she always did.
‘I thought I wouldn’t dream tonight… How much longer am I going to have dreams like this? Will I have to endure them for the rest of my life?’
She often dreamed of being killed by an angry mob.
Even if it was only a dream, it wasn’t all that different from reality. If she returned to the Kingdom of Parozera or faced its people again, there was no doubt they would kill her.
Annerose let out a long breath. With the sigh, the trembling gradually subsided, but the unease in her heart refused to disappear so easily, even though she was no longer in the Kingdom of Parozera.
Eventually, she reached out and brushed her hand over the empty space beside her.
‘Iver’s already gone.’
Annerose gazed at the bed, still bearing the traces of the previous night, before slowly turning her eyes toward the glass ceiling, now brightening as the sun rose.
The pleasant warmth of the sunlight soon bathed her body, soothing her troubled heart for a little while.
‘I hope today will be another peaceful day.’
And so she prepared herself to welcome another morning.
* * *
The greenhouse in the secret garden had been designed so perfectly around Annerose’s preferences that it might as well have been built solely for her.
Its high ceiling kept the air from ever feeling stifling, while a large, pristine pond and winding waterways gave her plenty of places to soak whenever she wished.
Among the countless plants, her beloved roses bloomed in every season, filling the greenhouse with their fresh, sweet fragrance day after day.
A bridge stretched across the pond and waterways at the heart of the greenhouse, leading to a bedroom with a soft, inviting bed at its center.
When she lay in bed and gazed upward, she could see the sky clearly through the glass ceiling.
For someone who had spent her entire life seeing nothing but pure white snow and gray skies, it was an unfamiliar and breathtakingly beautiful environment.
Annerose loved this greenhouse. It was a space made entirely for her, and, more importantly, it was safe.
When she stayed here, she didn’t have to see the frightening affairs of the outside world or the assassins who came looking to kill her. In this place, cut off from the rest of the world, she could continue living quietly, just as she had for all those years.
When she began to feel the warmth of the air, Annerose walked toward the pond inside the greenhouse, her pale, naked body exposed.
Having been born and raised in the frigid north of the Kingdom of Parozera, Annerose found the greenhouse warm. Thus, she began each day by soaking her overheated body in the pond.
A breeze carrying the scent of flowers drifted in through the open conservatory doors. Feeling the cool wind against her skin, Annerose lowered herself into the pond.
Choosing the greenhouse had been entirely her own decision.
On the day Iver carried her into the secret garden, Annerose had caught sight of the beautiful glasshouse.
After spending her entire life surrounded by a white, snow-covered land, she had been captivated by the lush greenery before her.
Perhaps, if I lived there, I could grow as many roses as I wanted, she thought.
“If I can choose where I stay, may I live there?”
“The conservatory? You like that conservatory?”
“…Yes. I want to try growing flowers.”
“Of course. If that’s what you want, Annerose, then we’ll make it your home.”
Iver granted Annerose’s request without hesitation. She only learned later that the conservatory had once belonged to the imperial family and had since fallen into disuse.
At first, she wondered whether anyone could actually live in a greenhouse, but Costeria was a temperate empire blessed with plenty of cool, gentle breezes, so Annerose quickly adapted to life there.
Her body, however, had spent so long accustomed to the cold northern climate that she continued to struggle with the heat even as time passed. As a result, once the sun rose, she often wore only the thinnest clothes or nothing at all.
Since very few people ever ventured as far as the greenhouse deep within the secret garden, Annerose gradually came to enjoy being naked despite still feeling somewhat embarrassed about it.
“…I hope today will be another peaceful day.”
Gazing at the morning sun, Annerose repeated the words she had uttered countless times before.
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