What Remains in the Damaged Place - Chapter 94

For a moment, a dizzying sense of disconnection washed over her. This was Valderion’s fortress, so why was she bound by the same restraints as when she had been imprisoned in Dylan’s palace?

Then a memory hit her suddenly. Valderion had once tried to restrain her in this same way.

An unpleasant sense of déjà vu crawled over her skin.

Clack.

As if he had sensed that she was awake, the door opened at that very moment, and the figure who entered made her feel as though she had been thrown back into her distant past.

When she saw Valderion step inside, Lirette was overcome with an indescribable emotion. Chaos, confusion—it was something roiling, boiling deep from the pit of her stomach.

“You haven’t changed at all,” she said.

“And neither have you,” he responded without a flicker of emotion, even as she made a show of shaking her bound ankle for emphasis.

The sharp, jagged edges of their feelings pointed at one another like weapons.

“Let me go,” she demanded.

“My answer will be the same as before,” he replied calmly.

“Why? What reason do you have for imprisoning me this time?” she shot back, her voice rising.

“You’re not seriously asking that, are you? The moment I release you, you’ll do whatever it takes to run away from me again.”

Lirette let out a bitter laugh.

“And what reason do I have not to leave you?” she asked, then continued before he could respond. “Ah, is it because my name has manifested?”

“……”

“Because now, if I’m in danger, so are you?” she spat, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Her earlier laugh vanished, replaced by a fierce, burning gaze that pierced him.

“So that’s all it is!”

“……”

“You only came looking for me for that reason, didn’t you?”

“Stop with the baseless accusations,” he said, his tone steely.

“Baseless? Then how do you explain your promise to return me to the prince?”

“Promise?”

“I saw the letter from the prince. It was clear. He told you to return the toy, as promised, at the Water Garden.”

Valderion’s brow furrowed slightly.

Seeing this as confirmation, Lirette twisted her lips into a bitter smile.

“So, are you still going to deny it?”

“……”

“You were planning to send me back to Dylan, weren’t you?”

“Did you ever ask me about it?” Valderion’s voice cut through the air, his tone more somber than usual.

“Did you ever ask me whether that was true? Whether I really intended to send you back to Dylan?”

Lirette slowly shook her head.

“No, I didn’t.”

“……”

“Because I was afraid,” she admitted, her voice trembling. “I was afraid that you really would carelessly hand me back!”

She clenched her hands, her nails digging into her skin painfully as she fought to suppress the surge of emotion rising within her.

“Do you think I acted this way because I wanted to? Because I wanted to seem cowardly?” she demanded, her voice shaking. “If only you had given me some reason to trust you from the start, would things have turned out this way?”

The cracks in their fragile relationship were laid bare with that single sentence. Valderion paused, as if realizing it himself. Encouraged by his hesitation, Lirette took a step toward him.

“Would you have looked for me even if my name hadn’t manifested?”

The question she asked landed in her own heart like a blow. She took a deep breath, as if trying to contain the flood of emotions, and slowly shook her head.

“No… I don’t think you would have.”

“……”

“You wouldn’t have looked for me at all,” she said, her voice breaking slightly. “I would’ve been nothing more than a passing memory, just someone who stayed briefly in your mansion for a year.”

The truth of her own words hit her hard, and she suddenly felt a wave of sadness. The tangled mess of her emotions began to take shape through the disjointed accusations she hurled at him.

“I don’t have a single shred of confidence in our relationship…” she admitted, her voice trembling.

There was a deep mistrust, a belief that her love would never be reciprocated. Doubts, clumsiness, and the resulting fear and sense of impending loss had plagued her from the beginning.

“So please, let me go.”

Why this?

Why did it have to be the same kind of restraints that reminded her of when she was captured by Dylan?

“Let me go… please.”

“……”

“Let me go! I said, let me go!” Lirette’s voice trembled as she shouted, unable to hide the emotions that surged within her, no matter how hard she tried. Emotions, when forced down, only rise stronger to the surface. Now, she was fully submerged in the wave of her feelings, unable to contain the rising tide.

She gripped the chains around her ankle, pulling at them with such force that her hands began to bruise. Seeing her hurt herself, Valderion quickly approached, grabbing her hands to stop her from further injuring herself.

“Why are you doing this? Why?” she cried out, her voice filled with desperation as she shook off his grasp.

“You said you wouldn’t stop me, even if I went to hell!”

“That was before I fell in love with you!”

His words made her breath catch in her throat. It was a confession—a raw, sudden admission from the man who had only ever glared at her in silence until now.

Lirette’s eyes widened, and her pupils quivered as she processed what he had just said. His expression mirrored hers, trembling slightly, as if he too felt exposed by his own admission. His words, both a declaration and a confession, struck her dumb.

She wished he had added more, explaining, clouding her mind with unnecessary details. Anything that might distract her from the overwhelming weight of his words. But instead, Valderion said nothing more. He left the word “love” hanging in the air, as if that single word was enough, as if it demanded to be absorbed entirely.

It consumed her.

Her nerves, the stance that held her upright, the last bit of rationality she had been clinging to—all of it crumbled in the face of that one word.

Valderion felt it too, that something had shifted. Before he realized it, he had already pulled her into his arms.

“Ugh… H-heuh…” Lirette sobbed. Her broken, uneven cries tugged at his heart. He lifted her tear-stained face and gently kissed the corners of her eyes, wet from the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing.

He slipped his arm beneath her legs and carried her small frame. As he sat her down on the bed, she shook her foot, still restrained.

“Let me go. Please. These chains, they remind me of Dylan… It’s suffocating, unbearable…” she sobbed uncontrollably, pouring out all the anguish she had kept bottled up. Valderion, his voice low but resolute, cupped her tear-streaked face and whispered:

“Tell me that you won’t leave me.”

“…”

“That’s all I need. Just say it.”

It sounded like an order, but it was really another confession. Lirette found herself marveling at that. It didn’t feel purely like an arrogant demand, not when his hands, tenderly caressing her damp cheeks, were so gentle, so full of concern. It was as though he feared that the slightest pressure might break her.

His movements, careful and tender, were not those of a man issuing a command but of someone consumed by a desperate need. And so, she reached out, her fingers wrapping around his wrist, and nodded faintly.

At that, Valderion’s gaze softened, and he leaned in to kiss her. His lips, tinged with the salt of her tears, parted hers, deepening the kiss. As she clung tightly to his clothes, a soft clinking sound came from the chains binding her ankle.

When she opened her eyes moments later, the chains that had held her in place, preventing her from going anywhere, had been loosened and pushed away.

Valderion gently held her chin, preventing her from looking down at her freed ankle, as he pressed his lips against hers again with an almost insatiable desire. At the same time, he softly stroked her ankle, as if silently asking for forgiveness for the way he had restrained her.

When their long, lingering kiss finally ended, he leaned his head against her cheek and murmured softly:

“Stay here, with me.”

Lirette, this time with a bit more conviction, nodded again.

“You need to rest,” he added gently.

“…”

“Your condition right now…”

Lirette, her mind still clouded and heavy, lifted her eyes to meet his. She couldn’t quite understand his words at first. But as Valderion pulled back, creating a small distance between them, the look on his face made her freeze, as if she had been doused in cold water.

“…The baby.”

The words slipped out of his mouth, serious and solemn. Lirette’s hands, which had been gripping his sleeve, slowly lowered to her abdomen.

From the moment she woke up, she had felt an inexplicable unease pressing down on her. Now, as she touched her stomach, a place that had once held life, it felt impossibly empty, cold, and hollow.

More than anything, what solidified the truth for her was the look on Valderion’s face. His silent, sorrowful expression was the answer she feared.

Lirette’s unfocused gaze drifted downward, her eyes scanning the floor, then wandering aimlessly. Her movements, at once frantic and still, were a clear sign of the overwhelming realization that had just hit her.

But no matter how much she didn’t want to accept it, the truth was inescapable.

Instinctively, she knew. The life that had once protected her, the life that had stayed with her since she left Valderion, was now truly gone from this world.