Chapter 21: Object of Affection (19)

Perhaps Leandro would never forget the look of Eckhart, his father, who stood next to a woman and whose face was covered with blood. It was not a father’s face looking at his son, but a look of fear as if he found a cruel monster.

Of course, a reinvestigation into the assassination of Empress Lucilia was conducted on the basis of Leandro’s words, revealing that the woman was indeed the true culprit. When he found out that the reason for the assassination was her jealousy of Lucilia, a commoner, becoming an empress, Leandro trembled at human greed and ugliness. She took the life of his one and only mother only for that petty reason? Nevertheless, Eckhart seemed unable to accept Leandro. It was awful that his little son, who hasn’t even become an adult yet, had done such a cruel thing.

Prince Leandro, who was praised for his beautiful appearance, brilliant mind, and mature character for his age, grew up to be a lunatic monarch obsessed with sadness, anger, darkness, and madness.

******

‘…If I didn’t know this background, I wouldn’t have understood this madness of Leandro.’

Ariel remembered her death and thought to herself as she looked at Leandro, who was shaking all over with anger. There was a reason why a man who was fine became so cruel. She understood a little bit about his loss of reason upon seeing the blood and his contradictory behavior of wanting to hurt Ariel while being horribly obsessed with her at the same time.

Blood alone reminded him of his mother’s horrible death, and it was obvious that he hated all the femininity in the world because it reminded him of the “woman” who killed his mother. It seemed, therefore, that he tried to cover up his own contradiction of feeling love and hatred at the same time while looking at Ariel. Of course, the original Ariel, who had no idea about his background story, thought Leandro was just scary and horrible, and now she was also very afraid of his level of madness.

But what’s different between Ariel in the past is that she knows the past, the agony, and sorrow of Leandro hidden behind his anger.

“…Your Majesty, I will not suddenly disappear from your sight.” As if to be heard, Ariel whispered in front of Leandro’s nose.

“…What?”

Leandro’s tremors, which seemed unlikely to calm down no matter what he did, stopped like a lie. It was because Ariel’s words accurately penetrated through the pain that was hidden deep behind his anger. Just like Lucilia did. If another person he loved with all his heart disappears from his side, Leandro would probably fall apart.

Ariel was the first to recognize this hidden fear disguised as anger.

Little by little, the strength was loosened from Leandro’s grip, and Ariel’s arm detached from his.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“…”

His mother’s face seemed to clash with Ariel’s in his eyes when she said she would stay with him for a long time. Leandro’s pupils shook visibly. Leandro wasn’t the only one who was surprised by Ariel’s unexpected words. Carlos, who was straining his whole body out of fear that Leandro might lose his reason and strangle Ariel on the spot was also quite surprised by her calm and collected response.

She wasn’t the feeble Ariel they knew. Ariel slowly extended her arm to Leandro like a child whining for a hug.

“Give me a hug, Your Majesty…”

Leandro’s heart sank with a thump at the longing in her voice.

“Ha…, Ariel…!”

My own Ariel. Mine. Ariel.