The family’s disgrace, a bastard, the only beta.
The crown prince’s slave, a mongrel dog.
All of these were words that described me.
My family found me troublesome, and the one I loved thought of me as a simple chess piece.
So naturally, I thought everyone would be indifferent even to my death, but…
At my funeral,
Hyung-nim Kaeun cried with snot running down his face,
Noona Jane glared at His Highness as if she would kill him,
And Hyung-nim Darian struggled to retrieve my corpse.
But most unbelievable of all,
His Highness, who had laughed off my love even knowing of it, embraced my corpse and kissed it.
Why is everyone acting like this?
******
“Tiel.”
It was such a small voice I thought it might be an auditory hallucination. That faint ripple shook my heart.
The voice that had torn me apart completely didn’t stop there.
“Tiel, answer me where you are so I can come find you.”
It was a gentle voice that didn’t match his appearance of having wielded death and sorrow.
As if enchanted by that voice flowing like honey, I ended up answering.
Words I shouldn’t have uttered, words that were meaningless even if spoken.
“I’m here.”
His Highness’s violent movements stopped abruptly. A dim light flickered in my blurred vision.
I stretched out my stiffly frozen hand and grasped the sword he was holding.
His Highness, who seemed about to swing the sword at any moment, simply opened his hand.
The sword fell to the floor with a sharp sound.
“Tienas?”
His Highness called my name almost like the sound of wind.
As if he knew nothing else, I nodded as though drawn by something.
“Yes. That’s enough.”
His Highness, who had only been unyielding, collapsed toward me powerlessly.
“As long as you’re here, that’s enough.”
His Highness’s eyelids, which had never blinked once, fell downward, and silence came once again.
Even if it was a silence far from peaceful, one that seemed to press down on people.
Invited To My Own Funeral 5