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"No! At this rate, Ludian will...!"
While falling, I instinctively looked around, and I saw a sparkling tree branch hanging low over the pond.
If I reached out and grabbed it, I could live.
But in that fleeting moment.
Instead of grabbing the branch, I pushed Ludian forward with my last bit of strength.
Ludian would live without me, but I didn't even have time to think about that.
It was an instinctive action that welled up without time to think.
Due to the recoil, my body moved further away from the branch, and the sparkling effect disappeared.
And then...
Splash—!
Cold water engulfed me.
At the same time, cold water filled my eyes, nose, and mouth.
'I can't, breathe...'
But the more I struggled, the surface of the water receded further and further away.
The water of the dark pond tightened around my neck, and my vision gradually blurred along with the terrible pain filling my lungs.
'I don't want to die like this...'
Contrary to my desperate will to live, my eyes closed.
Gradually, the senses in my whole body faded, but one thing was clearly felt.
A sensation I had already experienced twice.
Death, right in front of me.
"...Leticia?"
When Idriss returned to the balcony, Leticia was gone.
'Where did she go?'
At first, he thought she had gone to the restroom and waited, but Leticia didn't return even after a considerable amount of time.
Eventually, Idriss left the balcony and returned to the banquet hall.
However, Leticia was not in the banquet hall either.
He wondered if she suddenly felt unwell and returned to the mansion first, but...
"The Lady has not come this way."
The carriage remained as it was.
'Leticia wouldn't leave her seat for this long without saying anything.'
Then, he suddenly recalled the stalking he encountered near Amon's shop, and a bad feeling washed over him.
Just in case, he checked on the key figures, Deon, Feidan, and even Elise, but they were all in the banquet hall.
Idriss left the banquet hall and searched the garden, but Leticia was nowhere to be found.
After wandering around for a while, he was able to find a palace servant who had seen Leticia.
"Lady Leticia went that way towards the pond. She seemed to be urgently looking for something..."
The direction the servant pointed was a garden inside the palace, far from the main palace where the banquet was held.
'Why suddenly the pond?'
Idriss was puzzled, but headed towards the pond following the direction the servant had indicated.
As he moved further away from the main palace, the noises from the banquet disappeared, and an unknown anxiety gradually grew.
Idriss's pace towards the pond changed from a fast walk to almost a run.
It was around the time he reached the pond that he heard the sound of crying.
"Leticia!"
"...Ludian?"
A child's voice mixed with sobs cut through the silence of the night. And...
Silence.
The silence, cut off as if with scissors, was eerie. At the same time, his heart sank.
Then, before his head could realize it, his body moved instinctively.
Idriss ran in the direction where he heard Ludian's voice and encountered Ludian as expected.
A maid gagging the child... no, an assassin as well.
Seeing Ludian limp in the assassin's arms with his mouth covered, Idriss lost his reason with anger.
Only then did the maid discover Idriss and try to use the child as a hostage, but Idriss was faster.
Idriss, who had closed the distance in an instant, attacked the maid with magic.
Bang—!
With overwhelming speed and mana, the maid didn't even scream, let alone counterattack, and died instantly.
Ludian, who was being held by the maid, was released by the attack.
"Ludian!"
Idriss caught the child before Ludian fell to the ground.
But the child was unconscious.
'...He's still breathing.'
He had only fainted for a moment.
Idriss, relieved after checking Ludian's condition, suddenly recalled the child's last voice a moment ago.
'But... didn't Ludian call Leticia's name just now?'
But Leticia was nowhere to be found here.
The moment that question arose, something floating on the surface of the pond caught his eye.
'That is...'
Idriss's eyes began to shake violently as he realized what it was.
Floating in the pond was a flower-shaped hair ornament.
The one that was adorning Leticia's hair.
'Could it be.'
An uneasy premonition flashed through his mind, and he felt as if someone was gripping his neck tightly.
...No, it can't be.
Please.
Reaching that point of thought, Idriss immediately entered the pond.
He didn't even have the time to consider the possibility that Leticia might be somewhere else, or that it might not be Leticia's.
He felt like he wouldn't be at ease until he confirmed with his own eyes that Leticia wasn't here.
But contrary to his hope that it wouldn't be,
Leticia was in the pond.
With that beautiful appearance that had captivated him once again today, with her eyes closed as if dead.
'Leticia!'
-Splash!
Idriss approached the unconscious Leticia and, without hesitation, pressed his lips to hers and breathed air into her mouth.
However, Leticia, who was closing her eyes as if dead, had no reaction.
Idriss continued to breathe into Leticia's mouth and came out of the water.
The pond, which was not even deep, felt like a vast deep seabed.
Idriss laid Leticia on the ground and first checked her condition.
Her complexion, so white it was almost blue, resembled a corpse, and fortunately her heart was beating, but her breathing had completely stopped.
He breathed into her mouth and quickly compressed her chest.
"Ha, Leticia..."
Please, don't go like this.
Please...
After attempting CPR several times like that.
"Cough...! Ha, ugh..."
At the end of a hellish moment, Leticia coughed and vomited water.
God, thank you...
At that moment, Idriss sought the God he had never sought even on the battlefield for the first time.
At the same time, he felt drained.
But he was not relieved yet.
He felt like he couldn't be relieved until he met the eyes looking at him from under those eyelids.
"...Idriss?"
At that time, as he was wrapping Leticia in the jacket that he had taken off haphazardly before entering the pond, he heard the voice he had been longing for.
Idriss raised his head and met her gaze to answer the voice calling for him.
However, the moment he met the blue eyes that he thought he might never see again, he felt choked up and speechless.
She's alive. Leticia is.
Idriss nodded instead of answering the call, and waited for her next words.
"How about the Crown Prince...?"
Idriss felt drained and overwhelmed with the emotions he had been holding back at Leticia's first words after regaining consciousness.
Idriss swallowed his rising emotions and replied.
"...He's okay."
Then, he hugged Leticia, buried his face in her face, and let out the breath he had been holding back.
No, it was more fitting to say that he was finally able to 'breathe'.
The low breathing sounds he heard in his ear, the heartbeat echoing from within the small body, those common and trivial gestures...
He realized for the first time that they could be so lovely.
"Everything's okay now..."
Idriss hugged her like that for a long time.
Until his hands stopped trembling.
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