Chapter 39: Marcus — Part 2
The physician and Nick lowered their heads and would not meet my eyes.
“Who are you?
Do you think you can speak to me like that?”
I shouted before I could stop myself.
The woman’s clothes were expensive.
She might be a high-ranking noble.
But I had never seen her before, so we could not be very close.
Yet she spoke to me with a familiarity that made my blood boil.
No—more than familiarity.
I could feel a vivid, naked malice from her.
“I am your wife.”
“…That is a lie.”
I said that and turned to the physician and Nick beside me.
Neither of them raised their heads.
Their reaction alone made me understand that the woman’s words were true.
When I looked closely at her, I saw arrogance and cruelty in her face.
Had I really married such a woman?
My angel, Eris, was the complete opposite of this woman.
And yet I had married someone like her?
“This cannot be…”
“How rude.
I am the daughter of a marquis, and I was your top candidate for marriage.
“You did not seem displeased with me either.
I still treasure the sapphire necklace you gave me.”
Her theatrical tone was disgusting.
What shocked me even more was that she was clearly enjoying herself.
It was obvious she was simply mocking me for realizing I had made an irreversible mistake.
What a vile woman.
A sapphire?
Had I once thought sapphire suited this woman?
I could not remember.
Now even my memories after the accident felt hazy.
“She probably believes she was only toyed with.
Poor thing.”
The woman laughed as if she were having the time of her life.
“That is not true.
I entrusted her with the Stone of Protection.
“My most precious possession.
“She must believe in my heart.”
“What did you say?!”
The woman shouted.
With a furious expression, she lunged at me.
“You fool!
How could you do such a thing?”
She grabbed my collar and shook me violently.
So this was my wife…
What on earth had I been thinking?
The physician and Nick tried to calm her down and forcibly pulled her away from me.
“Marcus-sama needs rest.
His memory appears to be confused because he struck his head.
“Please remain calm and sleep.”
The physician declared this to me.
Nick politely escorted the woman out of the room.
Afterward, he drew the bed curtains.
At some point, I must have fallen asleep.
In my dream, I was in a place resembling that gazebo, together with a young woman.
She was someone extremely important to me.
My eyes snapped open.
The room was dark.
As I sat there blankly for a while, my memories finally merged together.
The three months of lost memories had returned.
I could remember everything that came after as well.
All of my memories had connected.
I had known as a fact that about three months of memories before the accident had vanished.
But I had never thought it was a serious problem.
Even the Stone of Protection had disappeared from my memory, but since it was lost, I had simply accepted it.
As for the coronation ceremony, those around me had told me how it had gone.
I had also heard from my attendants about the diplomatic tour afterward.
However, the half-month of private travel I had taken afterward remained a mystery.
The attendant who had accompanied me at that time had died in the carriage accident.
Eris…
Eris.
How many years had passed since then?
Nearly forty years.
What had I lost?
My memories, reality, and emotions spun together until they finally became one.
I had lost love.
By the time I reached that conclusion, morning had come.
When morning arrived, my son came to visit me.
I had already dressed myself and was sitting in a chair, enjoying my morning coffee.
“Good morning, Father.
How are you feeling?”
He spoke with a concerned expression.
His face resembled mine, but his nature was exactly like his mother’s.
It was a regrettable thing.
“Ah, thank you.
I feel much better.”
“Yesterday Mother told me about the Stone of Protection.
I never imagined it would be in another country.
“We must retrieve it.”
“Yes.
You should quietly make an inquiry through the state.
“If it is her, she will return it immediately.
“When I gave it to her, I told her it was the most precious thing I had.
I do not think she would have thrown it away.”
“You did not tell her it was a royal treasure?”
“That part is still vague in my memory.
I cannot recall exactly how I explained it when I gave it to her.”
My son sighed theatrically.
“Then I will send spies to investigate the whereabouts of the former Lady Eris Bale.
“Should we report the findings to you as well, Father?”
The word former struck painfully in my chest.
Former Lady Eris Bale should have been standing beside me now, the mother of my son.
Hiding my feelings, I answered him.
“Send the report to me as well.”
This son of mine had a habit of reading too much into things.
I had to be careful what I said.
After all, he was now the king of this country.
His influence was enormous.
“Has your memory fully recovered?
I heard you were confused yesterday.”
“Yes.
When I woke up this morning, everything felt normal again.
“Yesterday my memories after the accident were clouded, but now I am fine.
“There are still a few things I cannot remember clearly, but most of it has connected.”
“That is good to hear.
Then I can ask you about the Stone of Protection.”
Ah yes.
This child had always been obsessed with the Stone of Protection.
Some of the accidents that had happened to me over the years had likely been arranged by him.
That trait was inherited from his mother as well.
I turned my gaze toward the window.
How empty it all felt.
“If we retrieve that stone and I become its owner, will the protection transfer to me?”
I looked back at my son.
“No.
“During the coronation ceremony, there is a ritual where the king makes an oath, correct?
“That ceremony determines who the protection will be transferred to next.”
My son looked at me in surprise.
Then he spoke in an accusing tone.
“But I still have not received the protection.
You still possess it, Father.”
“The protection actually transfers only after the current holder dies.
“Then it moves to the next king who was named during the ceremony.
“In other words, the ceremony is like a preliminary contract.
“After that, the king makes his first wish to the stone.
If the stone accepts that wish, the contract is formed.”
My son muttered with dissatisfaction.
“Then what happens if I die before you?”
“During the ceremony, you also named the person you would pass it to, did you not?
“That means it would pass to the crown prince.”
He still looked dissatisfied.
Apparently, since the legend said the protection would transfer when the current holder died, he had hoped I would die sooner.
“There is one more thing.
“If someone tries to harm the person protected by the stone, the protection will never transfer to them.
“The stone will reject them.”
When I said that, his face turned visibly pale.
“What are you so surprised about?
“It is obvious.
“The stone would never protect someone who harms the royal family.
“That is why it cannot fall into the hands of an enemy.
You need not worry.”
I felt slightly better after saying that.
The protection would never pass to this son of mine.
And therefore it would not pass to the crown prince—his grandson—either.
In truth, I had once considered offering a prayer to pass it to the crown prince.
But somehow I had never felt inclined to do so.
I did not know the crown prince well enough to judge his character.
He seemed more decent than my wife or my son, but I had little contact with him and felt no closeness.
He was polite and seemed intelligent.
Yet for some reason, I felt no desire to pass the protection to him.
As a result, no next contractor had been designated yet.
I remembered something my father once told me when I was a child.
“This stone does not grant protection to those who harbor evil intentions.
“That is why when the throne is passed on, the successor is chosen with that in mind.
“Thanks to that, our country and its neighbors remain peaceful.”
I asked my father,
“What happens if there is no one who can receive the protection?”
“The stone chooses its own next master,” he said.
“That has never happened before, and it probably will not happen to you either.
“But if there truly is no one the stone can choose, then it means this country no longer deserves to possess it.”
I remembered those words now.
It was not as if the country could not exist without this protection.
After all, my son—who was the king now—had managed without it just fine.
As long as he was not constantly targeted for assassination and nearly killed over and over again.