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At first, Valentin did not understand the meaning of that expression.
However, when the firmly closed doors opened and the sound of grief-stricken sobbing drifted from beyond, the faces of Vasily and his brothers suddenly came to mind. Had they also finished saying their farewells to Her Majesty the Empress?
Before long, it was Valentin's turn.
The Empress lay fast asleep beneath white bedding. Even seeing her like this, Valentin thought of Vasily and his brothers. He wondered why Vasily had to fight off sleep when Her Majesty the Empress was sleeping so peacefully.
After placing flowers on the bed, he kissed her ice-cold foot and offered a prayer.
‘Come to think of it, what was I supposed to pray for? Um... Her Majesty the Empress, Ivan and Tanya want to meet Larisa. Please make the 100 days pass quickly.’
After finishing his prayer, he stood before the wall, following his father. Perhaps it was because of his father's utterly dark complexion, but he felt as though something had gone terribly wrong.
Valentin gazed at the Empress, who slept without a single stir, and the Emperor, who bowed his head while gripping her hand tightly.
For a moment, he felt a chill he had never experienced before. Could it be that the "farewell" was...
“Mother?”
A vacant call reached his ears.
As if possessed, Vasily entered Valentin's field of vision and collapsed by the bedside. Not long after, his sorrowful wailing burst forth, and the room once again turned into a sea of tears. In the suffocating air, as if a boulder had been placed upon his heart, Valentin could not say a word.
It was a mournful scene that would occasionally return to him even years later.
Perhaps because the memory of that day remained exceptionally vivid? He began to care more for Vasily and his brothers, and the two grew close enough to be described as "quite intimate friends."
Because they were close, he could witness more poignantly how Vasily visibly broke down as the years passed.
And because it was so poignant, a clear line was finally drawn the year Valentin reached adulthood.
“Distance yourself from the Crown Prince now. The stories I've heard lately are all unsettling. I fear you will be swept up in the Crown Prince's violent temperament, Valentin.”
“...Vasily's temperament is not as violent as the rumors say, Father.”
“You say that because you do not know the hidden side of people. Do you know how many servants have lost their lives simply because they failed to please the Crown Prince? Do you not think that one day his blade may point toward you?”
Valentin left for his studies abroad, almost as if he were being cast out by his own father.
After that, he didn't know how time flowed.
Through what process he passed the age of twenty and reached the late twenties, only to be branded as a henchman of the devil who wielded tyranny and stand upon the execution block... it was all as blurry as fog.
However, he remembered the moment he ascended the execution platform with absolute clarity.
“Kill him!”
“Kill that devil's henchman this instant!”
The chair wrapped in red cloth with a golden lion emblem, symbolizing the Emperor, the head of the Novarov Imperial Family.
The fact that the person sitting in that chair was not Emperor Nikolai, whom Valentin knew well, nor Crown Prince Vasily, but Prince Ivan.
The fact that a cold muzzle, colder than anything he had ever felt, pressed against the bridge of his nose, making his lips go dry.
The fact that a red puddle soaked the ground beside where he knelt.
The fact that his father's corpse lay upon that puddle.
And finally...
“Valentin Vladimirovich Dmitriev. Does the accused admit to the fact that he conspired to assassinate His Imperial Majesty, acting under the instigation of Tatyana Nikolayevna Novarov?”
“....”
“Do you admit it?”
“....”
“I ask you once more. Do you admit it?”
“...Who are you referring to as His Imperial Majesty? Emperor Nikolai, who is not present here? Or Crown Prince Vasily, who is to succeed him?”
“How insolent!”
“Your Majesty, exterminate the Dmitrievs immediately! Those traitors do not deserve to serve God and Your Majesty!”
The fact that he never received an answer to the question that became his last words.
That day, Valentin ended his life as a shameful traitor in the history of the Ohala Empire.
And then, unbelievably, he opened his eyes again.
In the year he was five years old.
“Her Majesty the Empress will pass away today.”
“...What did you just say?”
“I had a strange dream at dawn. A dream where the Empress died after being struck by a horse, and Father and I entered the Imperial Palace carrying flowers for her.”
At his words, his father let out a roar of anger with a deeply bewildered expression.
“Valentin! Watch your tongue. No matter if it was a mere dream, you must not speak such dangerous things lightly!”
“Ivan said in the dream that after 100 days, I could meet a princess named Larisa. Is that true?”
“....”
“Father gave me two flowers... and one of them was for Princess Larisa. After Her Majesty the Empress passed away, Vasily cried sorrowfully. So, Father, could you please stop her from going out?”
“...Sigh. Valentin, where on earth did you pick up such a story? Who told you of such grave matters? The name Larisa and the story of 100 days remaining.”
“A story? No, I didn't hear it from anyone. I just saw it in a dream.”
Yes, it was all just something seen in a dream.
The Empress dying, the Crown Prince going mad, the sword of treason piercing the heart of Vasily who became a tyrant, his father's head being severed, and suddenly returning to the beginning... all of it.
It was a dream.
‘But what if it wasn't a dream?’
What if it were reality, not a dream?
What if it were true that he had returned to the past, where he could correct his mistakes by the providence of God...
Valentin's reason cooled. He looked up at his father, who wore a look of disbelief, with even more mournful eyes. Father, home, family. Everything he had lost had returned to its original place. Things he had to protect so that he would never lose them again.
That day.
Regardless of what measures his father took, the Empress was not struck by a horse's hoof.
Since he believed the death of the Empress was the start of all the nightmares, he felt a deep sense of relief at the passing news of her well-being. However, this relief did not last even fifteen days.
“Your Grace the Duke, urgent news has arrived. Just moments ago, Her Majesty the Empress, while on her walk...”
The Empress died again.
‘Why?’
What was the problem?
Could the price for avoiding death be death itself? Did that mean death was her inevitable fate? At the end of the Empress's funeral, his father asked tentatively.
“Valentin, have you perhaps had any other dreams involving her?”
“I'm sorry, Father. I didn't have any dreams this time.”
“It is not something for you to be sorry about. ...Forget the dream of that day, Valentin. Everything was merely a coincidence, so you must not keep it in your heart or assign a deep meaning to it. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
I wonder if his biological father knows that it is a relief it wasn't a coincidence. Sadly, the reality given to Valentin was a future that only betrayed his father's kindness.
The fact that he could not prevent the Empress's death. That meant the extermination of the Dmitrievs could happen all over again.
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