Vanessa stroked the stray hairs tickling her neck as her gaze drifted to the stack of correspondence on her desk. An ivory envelope, elegantly embossed with gold foil, sat atop the pile. Habit guided her hand to lift it; the name [Hayden di Ingerote] graced the cover in fine, swirling script. Two years. [Hayden] "I will wait for you. For exactly two years, I will wait." Those were his only words when he visited Evarn County two months after the national wedding collapsed. She

Declan devoured the sight of her lovely face while her gaze lingered on his mangled hand. God had always proved heartless toward a man who traded only in sins. Surely, this brief moment of bliss came with a hidden price—some cruel trial yet to be unleashed. To prepare for the coming storm, he etched every detail of her appearance into his mind. He didn't just look; he burned her image into his skull, pressing the memory deep into his heart. A primal urge to seize her hand, to

A heavy vibration rattled through her bones as they tumbled across the ground and slammed into the wooden legs of a market stall. [Unknown] "Ugh......" A suppressed groan sounded above her head. Vanessa, frozen in shock, blinked several times before scrambling to sit up. Her robe’s hood fell back, allowing her short, golden hair to flutter in the biting air. The figure who rescued her from the charging horse wore a robe that concealed every inch of their body. Her gaze didn't

Reliving the raw desperation of the time before the regression—an even deeper, more soul-crushing despair—he often found himself frantically pulling a body down. The corpse never yielded a single breath; it remained utterly frigid. He cradled the slight figure, his mind a whirlwind of denial. No, she isn’t dead. She can’t be. His heart turned to stone, freezing as if her icy temperature had seeped into his own blood. A dark pessimism flooded him, tempting him to discard his o

Spring, summer, autumn, winter. The cycle repeated, again and again. The seasons turned until they required ten fingers to count. Each rotation altered the colors of the world at the edge of the horizon, and the Evarn County was no exception. Snow had not yet fallen, but the biting wind suggested it would arrive any moment. Slender fingers traced the frame of a window clouded with frost. Beyond the glass, waves crashed against the shore with rhythmic violence. Sunlight, now m

She didn't look away. His face paled to the color of parchment, drained of all vitality. Shock and despair radiated from him—the crushing weight of a prisoner receiving a final death sentence. He stood motionless, his eyelids and fingertips frozen, breath trapped in his lungs. The sight left her feeling hollow. She had repeated these same words for an eternity. In the past, and now in the present. His sudden shock only proved how much his own heart had changed. She pushed asi

Julian shook Declan’s hand off his shoulder, his skin still tingling from the crushing grip. He winced, nursing the lingering ache, and struggled to continue. [Julian] "It’s obviously an excuse." [Declan] "An excuse? What do you mean......" [Julian] "Think. Would she scrap a royal wedding without a plausible lie? Calling off an engagement that massive makes both sides look like fools. A public excuse was mandatory. I heard Lady Rohawk retreated to the Evarn County for 'recupe

[Hayden] "Vanessa." He reached out, but the sight of her brimming eyes froze his hand mid-air. Her spirit lay in ruins, leaving no room even for guilt toward the man before her. A tidal wave of emotion, far more violent than anything she had ever endured, crashed over her. News of Declan’s impending death snapped the tension within her like a frayed thread. Terror, remorse, and a thousand nameless agonies suffocated her. A strange pain flared in her chest, distinct from the f

The week leading to the Covenant Ceremony drifted by like water. Vanessa could not shake the growing conviction that she was wasting her time, letting it slip through her fingers like dry sand. The moment she acknowledged her lack of anticipation—or even greed—regarding her marriage to Hayden, her heart grew hollow. What would become of her once she became his wife? The future remained a hazy, distant blur. No matter how hard she tried, she could not conjure a vision of herse

Dina must have spent the entire confrontation pacing and fretting, for she bolted toward the foyer the moment Vanessa stepped inside. Vanessa offered a quiet reassurance to her pale-faced maid before heading straight for the bedroom. Mud stained the hem of her skirt. After changing her clothes, she lay on the bed and asked Dina to draw the curtains. She had granted him the meeting he desired and delivered her words; she had no intention of wasting further energy on him. She d

Her lips curled into a slow, elegant arc. His eyes flickered with intense emotion, as if he had just witnessed a scene of overwhelming beauty. [Vanessa] "I told you before." Despite her lovely smile, her voice dropped like a cold stone. [Vanessa] "This isn't love. It is merely the desperate anxiety of a man afraid Hayden will snatch something away from him again." His persistence in stopping the national wedding—even after orchestrating a kidnapping only to release her—had a

Her heart froze, as if submerged in glacial water. [Vanessa] "Is it because of that?" Her voice, devoid of any significant rise or fall, sounded remarkably cold. Dina, her eyes wide like a startled rabbit, turned her head toward the window and gasped, sucking in a sharp breath. Vanessa glanced at the maid, who couldn't hide her shock, before casually walking back toward her bed. Dina swept a hand over her chest, exhaling in relief that her lady’s destination was not the front