“Adeline! Adeline, answer me! Adeline!”

The sun went down completely, and darkness fell.
Kael took the lantern hanging from the horse to light up the road and searched for Adeline.
It was the worst situation to find a person. He thought he had about three hours to spare, but judging from the freezing air, it seemed like the blizzard would hit him within an hour.

“Please… Please, Adeline.”

Kael eagerly called Adeline’s name and looked around.
Unlike the eastern territory, which was safe from snow, the western territory was covered with snow since early morning.
He kept getting angry at the fact that she had gone outside to look around in such a risky situation. He wasn’t angry at Adeline. It was anger directed at Kael himself.
If Kael had been in the castle, he would have somehow discouraged Adeline from going out.
However, Kael kept leaving the castle. He didn’t stay inside because he didn’t have the confidence to face Adeline, nor should he face her.
It was because of that. That Adeline went out in such a cold winter.

“Adeline! Adeline!”

Kael called Adeline’s name until his throat hurt. Through the strong wind, he hoped his voice would reach her.
He was afraid of losing Adeline. His heart had long since lost its original speed, and his head was filled with only the eagerness to find her.

‘Please, don’t let her be touched by my curse. Please. Adeline, please.’

He was afraid that his love, which was revealed to the whole world, might have taken Adeline’s breath.
He wanted to stop listening, but the curse of that day kept lingering in his ears.
The voice of the old woman, who said that everything he wanted to have and everything he loved would die in pain, rarely left his mind.

“Ade…”

As he begged for her to stay alive, he could see traces of a horse rolling around.
He couldn’t see the horse, but there were traces of it even though the snow had piled up over it.
Kael’s senses were sharpened. He had a feeling that it might be the horse that Adeline was riding.

“Adeline!”

Kael called out to Adeline and ran in the direction of the horse trail.
As he ran in that direction, he saw a large cave.

“Adeline! Are you here? Adeline!”

After getting off his horse, Kael rushed into the cave.

“Adeline!”

At that moment, Kael found Adeline leaning against the wall, barely holding herself together.

“… Kael.”
“It’s alright now. I’m here, Adeline.”

Kael covered Adeline’s ice-cold body with his cloak and hugged her tightly.

“Adeline!”

Adeline lost consciousness as soon as she felt his warmth.

***

Kael, who had evaded the blizzard and started a fire inside the cave, worked hard to increase Adeline’s body temperature.
He took out all the blankets he had and wrapped them around Adeline. He also took off the thick fur cloak he was wearing and covered her with it.
Fortunately, Adeline’s frozen body heated up, and her complexion gradually returned to normal.

“Adeline? Adeline!”

But just as he was about to relax, Adeline’s face suddenly turned pale and her whole body trembled.

“Adeline! Can you hear me? Adeline!”

Adeline opened her eyes slightly and looked at Kael. She had definitely woken up and felt awake, but she was in a strange condition.
Kael immediately lifted Adeline and made her lean into his arms.
He opened the other cloak he was wearing, wrapped it around Adeline, and hugged her like he was holding a baby. Adeline’s head gently touched Kael’s chest, and Kael’s firm arms wrapped around her shoulders.

“Adeline. Look at me. You can’t fall asleep right now. You need to get to your senses.”

The symptoms that Adeline was showing now were symptoms that Kael had seen a lot on the frozen battlefield. At this point, if she lost consciousness, she would be completely dead. She had to hold on until her body tremors calmed down and her cold body regained its heat.

“Do you know who I am? Look at me, Adeline.”
“… Kael?”

When Kael called to her in an earnest voice, Adeline’s eyes gradually regained their focus.

“Kael, is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You are safe now, so hang in there. You can’t fall asleep now.”

Adeline stared blankly at Kael with half-closed eyes.

“… Is this a dream? It seems like a dream. Ah, it must be. Because you’re not in the castle right now.”

Adeline wasn’t fully conscious and could not grasp the situation she was in. She thought that the moment she was held in Kael’s arms was a dream, not reality.

“I miss you. When will you be back? Are you coming back? Will you not see me even when you come back?”

A slightly cracked voice asked powerlessly.

“Your face is very haggard. I wonder if I look the same. If you hadn’t looked back so coldly and left, would we have stayed well? What is this?”

Adeline reached out her trembling hand and touched Kael’s cheek. As soon as her hand touched him, Kael’s large hand covered it again.

“As I waited, I saw the sea every day. The sea you made for me. But I felt so… So strange.”
“…”
“When we sat side by side in the East and looked at the sea, we were infinitely happy. We were the same people then, and we are the same people now, but we have become such a mess.”

Tears began to well up in Adeline’s eyes. The light green eyes that Kael had encountered after such a long time were slowly getting wet.

“You know, can’t we just love each other?”

The trembling voice pierced through Kael’s heart.

“That curse you received; I’ll just get through it. I won’t be swayed.”
“…”
“Even if we can’t overcome it and there comes a moment when I have to die… I’m still happy just loving you, at least until then, so am I being too cruel if I ask you if you can’t just enjoy that time?”

Adeline, who thought she was facing Kael in a dream, was more honest than ever.
She revealed the words in her heart and the sincerity she held without hesitation.

“It’s because I really think I’m going to die. If I give up on you because of the curse, and deny your love, I think I’ll dry up and die.”

Eventually, tears flowed down Adeline’s cheeks. Kael bit his lips and wiped Adeline’s tears with a careful hand.

“You think you’re saving my life. You think this is the way to save my life…”
“…”
“Just love me.”

It was a very earnest request. Kael, who was barely holding back his emotions, couldn’t take it anymore and hugged Adeline tightly.
Perhaps it was because of the warmth conveyed from his body, which was a little suffocating as he hugged her tightly, or because of the hot tears that quickly wet Adeline’s face. As soon as the sad confession ended, Adeline’s trembling subsided.
Her cold body regained its temperature, and her eyes, which had lost their focus while she was half awake, hid themselves behind her eyelids.
However, while Adeline changed in search of stability, Kael remained firm and held her in his arms.
Teardrops fell on the cloak wrapped around his beloved lover.

“…”

Kael was crying.
For the first time since the day he was cursed for surviving alone on the battlefield, Kael, who had endured hellish pain but never showed tears, wept bitterly.

***

“Ah…”

Adeline opened her eyes with a headache that seemed to break her head open.
She saw something unfamiliar. She had no memory of when she had entered the cave or how she had ended up there.
Frowning, Adeline turned her head.

“…”

Kael was leaning against the wall of the cave, his eyes closed. Adeline, who had been staring blankly at the sight, barely got up and approached Kael.

‘It wasn’t a dream.’

She thought she had seen Kael in a dream. The fact that Kael was hugging Adeline and making eye contact felt so distant that it didn’t seem real.
However, after facing him like this for so long, she felt that it wasn’t a dream.

‘He came here to save me. He saved me.’

Without being able to speak, Adeline carefully reached out her hand. A hand that still remained cold touched Kael’s face slightly.

“… Adeline?”

The moment her soft hand touched his cheek, the blue-grey eyes she missed met Adeline’s.
It was just eye contact, but as soon as they met, tears welled up in Adeline’s eyes.

“…”
“…”

No one could speak easily. However, there were so many words in their eyes that their emotions overflowed just by looking at each other.

“I thought it was a dream. That’s why I said it all.”

It was Adeline who broke the heavy silence. She vividly remembered everything she had said, thinking it was a dream. She had a good idea of the sincerity she conveyed to Kael.

“I won’t ask for an answer right away. So right now, just…”

The moment tears flowed, Adeline’s words trailed off.
After slightly touching Kael’s chapped lips, Adeline kissed him.
Kael didn’t push Adeline away either. Rather, he coveted Adeline’s lips with even greater passion.

–