Bridal Lessons - Chapter 83
Side Story III
Theodore, his close friend from the academy and through many battles, had died. His parents, too, perished in the same carriage accident.
Upon hearing the news from a faraway place, Iscarion rode his horse faster than ever before.
The Dana family was always cheerful and down-to-earth. They were among the few who had been kind to him.
“Hey, Isca. Want to go horseback riding?”
Unlike other academy peers who found him intimidating and avoided him, Theodore approached him without hesitation. The Count and Countess, who genuinely cared for him just because he was their son’s friend, had shown him sincere concern.
A sense of emptiness and sorrow overwhelmed him, emotions he hadn’t felt even after the death of his own parents. After all, they had chosen their paths.
“Hyah!”
Ordered to the battlefield once again by the emperor, he had received the news much later than others. The guilt of not being able to attend his dearest friend’s funeral spurred him on even more.
“The funeral had barely ended, and already the child is being sent away…”
“They say she’s being sent to a convent. Poor thing.”
The atmosphere at the Dana estate, which he hadn’t visited in a long time, was completely different. The once lush garden maintained by the kind Countess, who loved flowers, was now desolate, and most of the long-serving staff had been dismissed, giving the place a forlorn feeling.
As the people murmured, Rosen, dressed in a black satin dress, was holding her nanny’s hand and was just about to leave the mansion. She was carrying a small bundle of clothes and necessities.
“Miss, please get in.”
The man from the convent who had come to take Rosen gestured to the carriage with a business-like attitude. Rosen, who had developed a fear of carriages after the accident, hesitated and resisted. The man, growing impatient, tried to forcefully lift her into the carriage.
“Damn it, such a nuisance…”
“Uwaaah, nooo!”
“Rosen.”
As Iscarion blocked the man’s way and lifted Rosen with one arm, the monk’s eyes widened. The boy, who was only fifteen at the time, was already tall and robust, surpassing most grown men.
“W-Who are you? This child is supposed to…”
“Move aside.”
His tone was that of someone accustomed to giving orders. The innate authority of someone of high status was evident, regardless of his age. The monk, taken aback, stepped back.
“B, Brother Isca…?”
Brother! Seeing the familiar face of her brother’s close friend who often visited their home, Rosen burst into tears.
The fear she had been holding back all this time finally spilled over. She had been so excited about the family trip to the sea, counting the days on her fingers. But then the carriage had violently shaken, her family’s screams, the dull thuds as the carriage tumbled down the cliff…
When she woke up, her whole body ached, and her parents were nowhere to be found.
“They said, hiiic, we were going to the sea! Mom and Dad, they’re all gone! Hiic, they left me alone. And you, Brother, you too… Waah, uwaaah!”
In her young heart, she had a vague understanding. Her family had left her behind and gone somewhere far away. Her kind mother and father, her older brother who used to lift her up and play with her, were now in a place she could never reach.
The familiar staff were all dismissed, and the nanny, who was the only one left by her side, teared up every time she saw Rosen. People who attended the funeral clicked their tongues in pity.
The home where she had lived with her parents, her father’s study, and her mother’s cherished garden were all taken over by strangers acting as if they owned the place.
She wanted to ask someone, anyone, but she couldn’t. Voicing her fears out loud might make them real, might make it so she truly could never see her mother again.
“Mom is gone, and Dad is gone too! I’m scared! Wahh!”
“Shhh, it’s okay, everything’s alright. I’m sorry I’m so late.”
As a descendant of the Dana family, Rosen tried hard to behave with dignity, as her nanny had instructed, suppressing her urge to cry all this time. But once she was in Iscarion’s broad and warm embrace, a sense of relief washed over her.
The tears she had been holding back burst forth all at once, and Iscarion, holding her, patted her gently to soothe her sobbing.
“Don’t cry. I’ll be your family now.”
“Hiic, waaaah…”
Despite the large teardrops clinging to her eyes, Rosen nodded vigorously at his words.
“Understand? I’ll be your father and your brother…”
With a tight grip, her small hand clutched his collar as if she would never let go.
At that moment, a subtle emotion began to bloom slowly within Iscarion’s heart. The death of his close friend and the misfortune that befell his family certainly brought him deep sorrow. However, instead of dwelling on that sorrow, what he gained was this.
Rosen now had nowhere else to go except by his side.
In this world, the only person Rosen could rely on, the only one who would hold her hand, was him.
From this fact, an emotion began to sprout inside him.
An emotion too immense to be exchanged merely for sorrow.
Its true nature was a strange sense of joy.
Noticing that his hand was trembling slightly, Rosen lifted her head from his embrace and asked,
“Brother, are you cold?”
“No, no.”
Iscarion hastily answered, patting her gently.
They had only each other.
Shivering with the thrilling joy that this realization brought, he trembled for a long time.
