Chapter 54: Parting
The young girl’s soft voice held a trace of loneliness. Ig moved his lips, but no sound came out.
A long silence followed.
“Xiao Mi, about the Young Lady attacking you just now…”
The silver-haired princess couldn’t help but lightly grasp her tender palm with her slender fingertips and said, “If I say I was very scared… very wronged at that time, would it help?”
There was still a long silence. “…I’m sorry…”
The answer was not unexpected.
Her long eyelashes gently covered her crystal-like eyes.
Misaela pursed her lips, trying her best to make her voice sound as relaxed as possible. “It’s okay… I know that.”
“After all, Sister Vera and you have been through so much… In Ig’s heart, you are more important than me, which is only natural.”
“Xiao Mi…”
A faint smile appeared on Misaela’s slightly raised face. “Actually, I can understand Sister Vera… Even though she promised me before. But, no one would want someone to snatch away what rightfully belongs to them, right?”
“If Sister Ophi were in my place, I think if she saw Sister Vera like this, she would have voluntarily backed out…”
Ig raised his cheek and moved his lips.
But Misaela didn’t give him a chance to speak. Her fair little hand clasped the young man’s stiff hand. The expression on her snow-white little face turned serious.
“But I’m different. Ig, if Sister Vera had opposed me coming to your side back then… I would have been sad, but I would never have pestered you further.”
“However, why are you asking me to give up now? Why do you need me to give up my love…”
Misaela’s intermittent voice was like a blade twisting in Ig’s heart. The girl’s moist eyes, filled with shimmering light, reflected in his pupils.
Ig lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.
He knew that his words would hurt the gentle and kind girl beside him again. But…
“Xiao Mi, I know. But for now, let me go find the Young Lady first, okay?”
Feeling his hand being slowly moved away. The young man in front of her stood up and then slowly turned around.
Misaela suddenly raised her face. “Ig, this morning, Father asked me… when our wedding will take place.”
Ig’s steps paused slightly. He was silent. The King had asked him about the wedding a month ago.
“…I know you definitely won’t abandon Sister Vera alone. So, I stalled Father.”
The girl’s voice from behind him was faintly choked with sobs, sounding desolate.
Ig turned around, not knowing what to say. “…Xiao Mi, thank you.”
Crystal tears fell from her eyes, tracing the smooth and flawless surface of her cheeks. Misaela stood up from the ground and, towards Ig’s retreating back, shouted with all her might:
“But I won’t give up! I won’t give up, never!”
Wet moisture blurred Misaela’s eyes. She lightly clenched her little hands, her voice becoming incredibly faint, as if she were only speaking for herself to hear. “I won’t give up…”
…
Ig didn’t know under what kind of emotion he left Misaela’s side.
He touched the scarred flame pattern. The exquisite and gorgeous markings were still beneath his skin, but they had lost all warmth.
This was the fated connection between him and Verafia… which had been silently severed.
Wandering aimlessly, the weakness from blood loss caused waves of dizziness in his mind. When Ig looked up, he saw the small villa they lived in at Aris Academy.
The place where he and Verafia lived…
A flame ignited in his heart. Although he knew it was ethereal and illusory, he wanted to reach out and touch it as if clinging to survival.
The room door was pushed open forcefully. What appeared in his eyes was a clean and empty room. The girl’s dresses, jewelry, the plush dolls she asked him to buy with her pampered affection… including any trace of her, any moment of their life together, had vanished, as if devoured by a cleansing flame.
As if she had never existed.
“Veer is not here…”
Ig didn’t know in what kind of voice he uttered this short sentence. His palm clenched tightly, and the silver hairpin cut into his flesh. Pure white was adorned with bright red.
The continuous pain stung his seemingly extinguished consciousness.
Suddenly, a gentle door-pushing sound broke the silent atmosphere in the space. Then came the girl’s light footsteps.
Ig seemed to grasp onto something and suddenly turned around. “Young Lady—”
His voice was cut off in the silent stillness. The Vampire Princess girl with silver hair and blood-red eyes, holding a thick quilt with her two fair little hands, her exposed little head looking at the young man in front of her with a complex expression.
Ig took several breaths to calm himself before approaching the girl, asking urgently.
“Fran, do you know where the Young Lady is? If I was wrong…”
“Ig.”
The slender girl’s voice interrupted his words.
The Blood Race Girl pursed her thin lips slightly, revealing a hint of hesitation, but she still shook her head slightly. “Big Sister said she knows you didn’t do anything wrong. But Big Sister doesn’t want to see you.”
— Calm, rational words were more terrifying than angry, spirited emotions.
Ig knew that this was not something that could be changed by his apology or admitting fault.
“I understand. Thank you, Fran.”
He didn’t know how he managed to utter a hoarse voice from his dry throat.
He turned and left under the complex gaze of the Blood Race girl.
The deep autumn wind blew into the gaps of his clothes, until the twilight’s fading light. Even with Ig’s physique, it still felt like a sharp blade, cutting into his flesh piece by piece.
Ig didn’t know what he should do.
Go find the Young Lady…
Ig was well aware that if that noble girl truly didn’t want to see him, then his actions would be nothing but futile.
It was more like he was aimlessly abandoning himself… in order to escape the pain he had to face.
Suddenly, his body crashed into a slender girl’s delicate body. Ig looked up, but his vision and hearing were as if covered by a layer of white silk cloth.
Completely unaware, as if time itself was empty.
“Brother Ig, Brother Ig…”
The girl’s tender yet anxious voice startled him awake.
Ig supported himself with his hands on the ground and slowly got up. He saw the beautiful red hair, as soft as silk, in front of him, and the worry on the girl’s little face.
Ig opened his mouth. A forced smile appeared on his extremely unsightly face. “It’s Princess Siya…”
He turned his head. The handsome young man with sea-blue hair, wearing an outer robe over his silver plate armor, also appeared in his sight.
“Lord Andes.”
