The Sand Bride - Chapter 80

Hakan understood the meaning of those words. He must have meant he was ashamed of being with a woman who had killed his wife and children.

In the end, he could not make the man see the Southeast doctor. Hakan, who was about to give the doctor the promised money for his troubles and send him away, having gained nothing, suddenly lifted his head at what the worried-looking doctor said after hearing about the man’s condition.

“I would need to see him in person, and this is just my guess……. But judging by the symptoms you described, for the patient…….”

“Judging by the symptoms?”

“It resembles the symptoms of Lepiran flower poisoning.”

Hakan’s face hardened. The Lepiran flower. He had heard that name before. It was the flower Hemor had given to the man with a bright smile. The beautiful, vibrant flower with crimson petals…….

“He didn’t say it directly, but……. This flower, they say its meaning is the end of hatred.”

However, before Hakan could tell Hemor what he had heard from the doctor, the man died. Hakan, watching Hemor cradle the corpse of the man who had died spitting blood, silently left the room.

Hakan had intended never to reveal the truth—that the man had not died of an unknown illness, but had committed suicide with a poisonous herb.

If Hemor believed the man had merely died from illness and not suicide, she would struggle with his death, but she would clearly overcome it someday. He believed then that everything would return to normal.

“Sister, where in the world are you going?!”

Hakan desperately chased after Hemor. Just when he thought she was finally abandoning her reclusive life in the royal garden, she suddenly began to prepare to leave the palace and go to the man’s hometown.

“I told you……. I intend to go to his hometown. At least I want to be with him there.”

In short, she meant to stay there. Hakan was startled and tried to stop her, but Hemor’s face was already set with firm resolve. Hakan knew that when his sister wore such an expression, no persuasion would work. But he couldn’t let her go like this.

To give up not only Sayar’s position but even her royal status for the sake of such a man. Moreover, that man had even deceived Hemor!

“Sister, you truly know nothing…….”

Hakan gritted his teeth. Hemor turned to him with a bewildered face. Seeing her eyes, which showed she didn’t understand, Hakan felt his heart pound.

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Sister, that man didn’t die from illness.”

“What? What are you saying?”

Hemor was now completely focused on Hakan’s words. Hakan gritted his teeth once, then inhaled and poured out everything he knew.

That the Lepiran flower the man liked was actually a poisonous herb, that the man’s symptoms resembled Lepiran flower poisoning, and above all, that the Lepiran flower was called the flower of death.

Hemor, having heard all of Hakan’s words, momentarily stiffened her entire body. Her pupils, rigidly fixed in place, stared blankly at Hakan’s mouth, then dropped to the floor.

Hemor was an intelligent person. She soon had to helplessly accept that all her previously ignored doubts were now perfectly formed and redefined by the truths Hakan had revealed.

Now that she knew the truth, she bared her teeth and laughed. Her touch, as she turned and caressed the Lepiran flower, was meticulous, as if someone who had suddenly gone blind was re-examining something familiar.

“Come to think of it…….”

Hemor, caressing the petals as if crushing them, slowly opened her mouth.

“There was no trace of him around at all. So sometimes, I wondered if such a man truly existed by my side, or if it was all just my fleeting imagination. That doubt made me unable to leave this place.”

“Sister.”

“Hakan. Actually, it pained me to look at this flower. But since it was the flower he nurtured, looking back, it was the only trace of him left to me.”

“…….”

“Yes……. I hated looking at this flower. Because the man who would make it bloom again, even if it withered, wasn’t here.”

Hakan gazed intently at Hemor’s back, unable to say anything. She looked so fragile. Her dark blue hair seemed to have lost its vitality, looking murky like a shroud of death, and her thinly trembling shoulders and body looked so frail as if she would collapse at any moment.

Hakan didn’t know what to do. Imminent death and fragility. It was a combination he had never thought suited Hemor.

While Hakan was in turmoil, Hemor stopped caressing the petals. Then, without even looking at Hakan standing behind her, she coldly dismissed him.

“Go.”

Hakan did so. What else could he have done at that moment? When he next found Hemor alone, his nightmare had already come true.

Was it fate? Whether by chance or destiny, it was certain that their meeting was a tragic affair. It was more like a prelude to downfall than the beginning of a new relationship blossoming in the future.

Hemor had the power to destroy everything about the man, and the man, through his own ruin, could lead Hemor to the same downfall as himself.

After Hemor’s death, Hakan replayed that day countless times. But he never regretted telling Hemor the truth. His only regret was not going to that battlefield with Hemor and killing that bastard before she met him.

To love unknowingly, to rejoice, and thus to weaken and eventually die. Hakan, who as royalty knew no fear, only truly understood what it was after witnessing someone seemingly unyielding self-destruct due to emotions they themselves hadn’t recognized.

But Karzhen must not repeat such a thing. Karzhen was not an irreversible past now. Hakan wished he would never know. He desperately tried to prevent him from reaching a conclusion like Hemor.

He even breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Karzhen had locked Esther in the West Tower.

But in the end, it came to this. Hakan looked at Karzhen with a face that seemed on the verge of tears.

“Brother. Remember sister Hemor’s words.”