Reynard could only run alongside at a moderate distance. Hiding his concern that his pregnant fiancé might get hurt, pressing it down firmly. Unable to even shout louder.

Valentin reached the top of Lonwood Hill without slowing his pace.

The horse’s speed gradually decreased.

[Haa, haa…]

Valentin, still mounted on the horse that had faithfully followed its master’s command, was breathing heavily. His gaze was fixed on the far eastern lands. He didn’t seem to realize that Reynard had hurriedly chased after him, shocked as if struck by lightning.

Reynard approached carefully so as not to startle his fiancé and the horse.

[Valentin.]

As if only now hearing his call, Valentin slowly turned his head towards Reynard, and his face…

That face was truly…

It was the face of someone in the midst of despair and self-loathing.

It was an expression he had seen often on the battlefield.

The face of someone with a rifle pressed under their chin. Looking directly at the muzzle but unable to confront it, having already given up on life but unable to hide the fear… Why are you making such a face, Valentin?

Reynard was confused, unable to express the strange sensation he felt. Flushed cheeks excited from speed and heat, and slightly reddened eyes. A pure expression like a child who had been stripped of everything good…

The boundary between terror, fear, and resignation…

[What’s wrong?]

Standing beside his fiancé, all he could do was ask what was wrong, what had happened.

If possible, there were no more words he could say to someone who seemed like they might oxidize and fly away at any moment. It felt like if he took his eyes off for even a moment, wings might sprout from that white and beautiful back and fly off into the sky.

Like an angel who had left something very precious far away.

Valentin, who had been breathing roughly, struggled to open his mouth.

[I just… just wanted to run a bit.]

He said only that one sentence and then his lips were tightly closed again. Reynard was at a loss for words hearing that answer.

[Is that all?]

It contained many meanings.

Don’t you have anything more to tell me? What are you thinking right now? What do you want? What’s troubling you? Why are you making that expression?

…Why do you look so pained…?

But contrary to his heart, Valentin’s mouth closed more firmly.

Seeing him looking like a bubble that might pop and disappear if touched even slightly, he couldn’t press further.

Valentin just slowly nodded at that question. And then turned his gaze back to the far eastern lands. The winding roads that looked like threads, the vast land, patches of green trees. All the way to the hazy brown horizon in the distance.

Reynard swallowed many words as he was.

And he lightly jumped down from his horse and approached Valentin.

[Come down. Let’s rest for a bit.]

[…]

[We rode too hard. Let’s let the horses rest too.]

Valentin, who had been still without answering, finally moved when Reynard mentioned the horses’ fatigue. He fell into the arms of his fiancé who was standing firmly on the ground with arms outstretched, and finally touched the ground.

Reynard tied the two horses to the nearest large old tree and pulled Valentin’s hand. And he sat down with him in his arms on the flattest-looking high rock.

He didn’t ask anything, didn’t say anything.

The summit of Lonwood Hill absorbed that silence.

In place of the conversation that had disappeared between the two, the wind spoke to the greenery. The lush green summer leaves and prairie chattered noisily among themselves like that. As if wetting their ears in place of the two people.

Just like that, until the sun completely set on the opposite western side, the two silently gazed at the horizon.

Towards where there would be a path leading to distant foreign lands.

Until the summer grasses that had been emitting green gradually turned red.

And they finally rode back home, barely relying on the red glow of sunset.

On the way back, the horses didn’t run like before.

Not even once.

I accept your proposal.

Reynard stared at this sentence written in Valentin’s letter for a long time, recalling Valentin’s face on Lonwood Hill. His expression as he gazed endlessly at the horizon.

That face that seemed to be enduring something for some unknown reason. That expression that seemed to be leaking something that filled his body with an inexplicable frustration. And that beautiful white face containing an unsettling relief as if he had given up everything…

It wasn’t that he couldn’t ask because he lacked eloquence, or because he didn’t know how to comfort him.

In fact, for the first time in his always firm and strong life, something had made him suddenly afraid.

‘I couldn’t bring myself to ask.’

What’s troubling you?

What makes you make that expression of such longing? What on earth is secretly hidden and locked away inside you? He simply couldn’t ask.

Because he felt like he might know the answer that would come from those lips even without hearing it.

So he couldn’t ask anything.

He could do nothing but stay there with him until that face full of frustration and sorrow passed.

He couldn’t leave Valentin there, and of course he couldn’t push his back to go further forward. He could only preciously hold him in his arms so he couldn’t go anywhere, so that no danger would befall him. So that he wouldn’t get hurt by anything. He could only embrace him like that.

And so that he couldn’t run away anywhere.

So that he would stay in his arms forever.

‘This is where you belong. My warm and safe embrace is your dwelling.’

He wanted to murmur into the white ear with soft down. He wanted to part the platinum blonde hair beautiful as golden thread and insert it into that ear. But he couldn’t say anything for fear of shattering the one in his arms.

‘You can’t go anywhere.’

He was his person.

Even more so once the wedding they were about to start ends.

Legally and socially, he was his omega. Not to mention that body carrying his child.

‘Everything must still feel unfamiliar.’

It was a hastily arranged marriage, even more so because of the pregnancy. A midsummer wedding held before autumn could even arrive.

What others prepare for over a year, they had rushed through in a month. Thinking of how overwhelming and busy it must have been just with the preparations on such a tight schedule, Reynard steeled his heart. He gave up on and turned away from discovering the fearful inner thoughts and future. He pulled in every possible reason and excuse to justify it. And those gathered to give birth to the word reassurance.

‘It must have been hard and tiring, especially not being alone.’

That must be why.

And it had to be.

Knock knock.

“Colonel.”

With the sound of knocking, his aide Shane opened the door and entered.

“It’s time to greet the guests.”

It meant there was no more time to delay. Come out and show your face since I’ve come to get you personally. It was one of the things Shane said most often to his superior. A request to please do some basic socializing. A request for the natural duty to raise the honor of the glorious navy.

“I’m coming now.”

Reynard folded the letter again and put it inside his breast pocket.

And he walked down the corridor following Shane.

The corridor made of old stone from the cathedral echoed like a cave up to the high ceiling with the sound of the two men’s shoes. It was a disciplined and uncluttered gait. The sound of firm steps without a moment’s hesitation about walking forward.

“Do you have any concerns?”

Shane asked in a cautious voice contrary to his gait.

It was very unexpected for his superior to take time alone before the wedding. He had never thought of him as someone with enough sensitivity to contemplate something alone before the biggest event in his life. Shane was curious about what had made him ponder.

After walking for a long time down the seemingly endless corridor without answering, Reynard opened his mouth.

“Valentin.”

“Yes. Lord Wiche.”

He had thought it was related to him.

After all, there was only one person who could stir the heart of his superior who had lived as if he didn’t know what worries were his whole life.

Shane held his breath and waited for the next words to come from his superior’s mouth.

The two slowed their pace for conversation.