I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love

Driven to my limits by a sense of debt and guilt, I didn’t even have the room to judge right from wrong and simply nodded. If it meant Gerard wouldn’t get hurt, I wanted to do anything.

I thought it was something he had said impulsively, but as if he had been thinking about it all along, Gerard laid out a fairly detailed plan, and the preparations moved quickly.

“I’ll spread a false report that a monster appeared at Velota Harbor.”

Holding me in his arms, he spoke in a gentle but clear voice.

Gerard planned to destroy part of the harbor facilities and disguise it as a massive explosion, then make it look as if he had been caught in the blast, buried under the wreckage, and swept out to sea.

From that day on, Gerard Castion would disappear from the world as a dead man.

My role was only one thing, to board the prepared ship as soon as the explosion occurred.

Gerard made me rehearse several times, then had me memorize the markings and route repeatedly so I wouldn’t mistake the ship.

As if it had been his only goal from the beginning, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation or wavering in his actions.

But when the promised day came, I couldn’t go to Velota Harbor.

Was it the aftermath of that, or had Gerard’s already unstable rampage rate finally reached its limit.

After losing control, he destroyed the entire harbor, and it took dozens of Purifiers of second rank or higher to barely calm him down.

But in the memories he regained after barely coming back to his senses, I had been erased without a trace.

* * *

Three years after that, back to the present.

“My goodness, what happened to you, Luzi.”

Arvina pressed a handkerchief gently against my cheekbone and lifted it away. She stroked me softly as if touching a chick, but even that light touch made my body flinch from the stinging pain.

“It’s fine. It’ll heal after a day’s rest.”

Arvina let out heavy sighs as if she were the one who had been hurt.

“What if it leaves a scar on your face. Because of me… I’m really sorry.”

Before long, Arvina’s eyes began to well up. Clear blue eyes, like water drawn from a lake, quickly filled with tears. Fragile tears rolled down her doll-like face.

I was the one who had been dragged to a temporary holding cell and interrogated, yet somehow I ended up being the one comforting Arvina.

“I told you, it’s fine. What do you have to be sorry about.”

It was all because of Gerard, who’d gone half out of his mind after getting rejected.

“I’ll go to Lord Castion and make him apologize to you.”

“What? Are you cra— no, it’s fine. Don’t ever do that. I’m really fine. Anyway, I delivered your dress safely, and I got paid. That’s enough for me.”

I never wanted to see Gerard again.

When I refused with complete sincerity, Arvina let out a long sigh and pressed an ointment into my hand.

“Luzi, I always tell you this…”

“That I should take better care of myself? I get it. Thanks for worrying about me. But I’m behind on my assignments, so I should go.”

Sensing that Arvina’s lecture was about to get long, I quickly stood up.

“If you need it, talk to my personal physician anytime. He’s very kind.”

“Okay.”

“And thank you for delivering my dresses every time. You’re the only person I can trust with it. I’m really glad you’re my friend.”

“…Got it. Don’t you have class to go to too?”

“I should go now. But Luzi.”

I had just started to leave when I turned back toward Arvina in an awkward half-standing posture.

“What kind of person do you think Lord Castion is?”

There was no rise or fall in her voice, and I couldn’t read any emotion from it. I couldn’t grasp what she meant by the question.

What kind of person. Just repeating his name felt like a storm passing through my chest.

But the fact that he and I had been lovers was a secret even Gerard himself didn’t remember.

“Well, he’s an admirable person.”

“Is that so.”

At my half-hearted answer, Arvina smiled brightly instead.

“Oh, right. I don’t need this.”

Her blue eyes glanced down at the packaging ribbon lying scattered on the floor. Then, as if asking why I was just standing there, she lifted her clear, innocent gaze toward me.