Young Master Will of the Hysterm Family woke up. As he welcomed the first rays of sunlight, a faint fragrance reached his nostrils. It was a lingering, light scent from the Half-elf’s body after she had sweated.
“You’re awake?”
“Phew… Good morning!”
As usual, upon opening his eyes, he saw Treya lying peacefully beside him. If he woke up before her, he would see her silver hair cascading down to her chest, lying peacefully with a perfect sleeping posture. If she woke up before him, he would see her light blue eyes gazing at him, as if counting her own eyelashes.
—Just like now.
He saw himself reflected in her eyes, his figure filling them, becoming a brown shape under that light blue “sky.” He slowly got up. He hadn’t had any strange “dreams” last night either; he had already spent a week like this. Indeed, how could such dreams compare to the happiness of his current life? How could they compare to the beauty of reality? All he needed to do was forget those dreams and focus on the life before him!
“Treya doesn’t seem to have anything on today, does she?”
“Your days are getting more and more chaotic. Today is the weekend; even I get to rest.”
Will’s vision felt a bit blurry. It was a common ailment for nearsighted people. He reached out to get his glasses from the nightstand, only to find it empty. As he was still wondering where his glasses were, he suddenly felt Treya lean against him from behind. Her cold Half-elf skin pressed against his back, and her fair arms brushed past his ears.
Then… She reached out and placed the glasses on his nose, then traced his face with her fingers, hooking the temples over his ears.
“You seem to have forgotten, you slept on that side last night. It’s just… hmm, yesterday was a bit too intense, so… you ended up on this side this morning.”
Treya leaned against his back, casually scratching his head with her small hand, messing up his soft brown hair. But Will didn’t get angry, letting her ruffle his hair.
“Indeed, I forgot…”
Will picked up the magnetic earrings Treya had placed on the nightstand—the ones she always wore, a gift from him.
“But it’s all your fault!”
He turned and pressed Treya onto the bed—he could tell, of course, that Treya had done it on purpose; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to push her away. Then, he brought the earring in his hand close to her right ear.
“Nn!”
Even though he was just putting on an earring, her pointed Half-elf ears were extremely sensitive. The moment Will intended to touch them, Treya tightly shut her eyes and bit her lip. No matter how powerful an Elf Empress she was… in the face of such sensitive spots, her whole body became soft!
“…Just putting on an earring?”
She cautiously opened her eyes, touched the round earring on her right ear, and slowly sat up. She seemed almost disbelieving that Will had actually just put on an earring so obediently.
“The first thing you do when you wake up every day is put it on—just like I put on my glasses. So, I just did what you do.”
However… Come to think of it… Why did he only give her half of the earrings when he gifted them back then? Why give black earrings to a purely white Half-elf? What was this gift meant to celebrate? Why, in his “memory,” couldn’t he find any explanation for such a “strange” action? This had happened more than once lately. Had he been experiencing some undetected mental issues for the past two weeks? Something felt… off. Or, was it Treya who was off…?
Will looked at Treya before him. Her back was to him as she reached behind her, her spine forming a graceful curve as she fastened her bra.
“Oh, right. Will, you don’t have anything planned for today, do you? Come with me somewhere?”
As she did this, she puffed out her chest and tilted her head to look at Will. Will understood Treya’s intention. She definitely had something she wanted him to accompany her to—although they slept in Treya’s room at night, Treya was very busy during the day as the newly appointed ruler of a nation.
“What is it?”
“A secret. Just follow me.”
“Where are we going? Let’s go.”
“As expected… you trust me unconditionally.”
“Huh?”
For some reason, Treya always asked questions that seemed to lack “security,” questioning his “trust,” but to Will, it was a matter that left no room for doubt.
“Yes, because you are Treya, is there anything wrong with that?”
After speaking, Will moved behind her and reached out to pat her head. His fingers slid through her smooth silver hair, as if retaliating for her ruffling his head.
“Oh, speaking of which, I have something else to give you. It just arrived yesterday.”
“What…?”
Will watched as Treya walked to the vanity and rummaged through her dressing case… and pulled out earrings made of white crystal that looked almost identical to the black crystal earrings she wore. They had the same shape, the same crystalline clarity, and were also magnetic. Like a “pair” made by nature. Treya reached out and put them on Will—on the same side as her own. She caressed Will’s earlobe.
“Mmm, perfect. Let’s go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walking along the royal road, Will felt that everything in the royal palace was so dazzling. The servants on the street would only discuss the freshness of green leaves, the fragrance of flowers, and the brightness of the sunlight, discussing Entak’s future after the cycle of days and nights, and their own beautiful lives, right?
Like…
“What is Her Majesty Treya thinking? I feel like she’s completely changed since she ascended the throne.”
“A ruthless reign, showing no mercy to those nobles. She didn’t even spare her own siblings.”
“I wonder if the fourth princess will have her own ideas; she used to be Treya’s older sister.”
“She wants to bring in the new generation of adventurers. Didn’t you see how she doted on the Young Master of the Hysterm Family?”
“Isn’t it the other way around? It’s precisely because she favors him that she wants the adventurer forces to join the table?”
“Hush, they’re coming this way.”
—Such words would never be uttered by them. Like an electric current, these discussing words vanished from his mind the instant Treya took his hand.
“We’re here, right here.”
Treya pulled him along, this time entering a hall used for receiving guests in the royal palace.
“What on earth is this…”
The hall was four meters high. Normally, a table that could seat over a dozen people was placed there, but now the table had been moved, leaving only a dust-free, empty square on the floor, and… four columns of “hangers” arranged horizontally. Two columns were for women’s wedding dresses, and one column was for men’s wedding suits. The suits were categorized, with similar colors hung together, and then arranged by changes in collar, hemline, and trouser style. The wedding dresses were even more dazzling, as if all the suitable wedding dresses in the country for Treya had been brought here, filling every hanger to the brim.
“It’s wedding dresses—we need to choose the one for the wedding three weeks from now. These are all for trying on.”
“Because it’s my wedding, I want this to be the grandest wedding that everyone can remember.”
Beside the hangers stood over twenty top-class tailors, ready with measuring and sewing tools, prepared to cater to their every need. Will had never witnessed a royal wedding, nor had he imagined it would be so luxurious. Following Treya, even as the young master of a top family in all of Entak, he still felt a bit constrained standing there. As if sensing his unease, Treya turned, placed her hands on his shoulders, and pushed him towards a rack of suits.
“I want to play a game, Will.”
Treya reached out, crossed Will’s shoulders, and skillfully lifted the sleeve of a beautiful black formal suit from the rack.
“Someone once told me that when there are too many choices, you can’t distinguish what you truly want.”
Will felt this statement was familiar; he seemed to have heard someone express a similar idea before. Treya suddenly lowered her voice and whispered into Will’s ear in a husky tone:
“Only through constant loss and constant choice does one find what one truly desires in the end.”
He had heard this before, so, so, so familiar that he felt he could recite it himself. His head ached.
“Of course, you said it yourself.”
The light before his eyes flickered. The bright sunny day outside suddenly turned into a gloomy sky, as if it would rain any second. He blinked hard, and in the flickering vision, during one of the moments he opened his eyes… the sky cleared. The clear sky cast warm sunlight, as if the cloudy day Will had just seen was merely an illusion.
“Treya, this… this saying sounds familiar. Someone very impressive must have told it to you, right?”
“Yes. That’s right. A very, very good teacher, someone I deeply admire, someone I like very much.”
“…Who was it?”
In Will’s “memory,” he had never heard of such a person around Treya. Treya’s eyes met Will’s deep blue gaze, and they could see each other reflected in their similar eye colors.
“It’s someone I believe I no longer need to call ‘Teacher.’ Because I have grown to a point where I can let him stay peacefully in the colorful beautiful dreams I’ve created, without having to abandon anything anymore.”
Her words were full of “implication,” as if meant for Will but not quite, and before Will could understand her words, with a whisper brushing past his ear, she had already pulled out that suit. The suit was black, but even an outsider could tell that the style was a bit outdated.
“We’ll do this, always choosing one out of two, selecting the most suitable one, and discarding the rest.”
She threw the suit into an empty bucket nearby. Although it wasn’t a trash can, throwing an expensive trial suit into a bucket was enough to be called a waste of resources.
“Then why did you throw that one away just now?”
“I just felt like your father would wear that kind of suit. It’s a bit disgusting.”
“?”
Will recalled. For some reason, he now felt a strange, unpleasant shiver when he thought of his father. —As if he had caught it from Treya.
Author’s Note: I was a bit dissatisfied with this chapter last night, so I spent a long time revising it today. Another update will come after midnight. The previous 0.5 chapter has been revised again and again. jpg
