[TIDK] 10 – One Day I Will Take You To The Royal Castle

The one hundred days would feel longer than expected.

Winter passed, the deep snow covering Salantier made way for bitterly cold winds and rains of early spring in the capital.

With his wife gone to the monastery, Viktor started dealing with the pesky journalists.

He stared at the downpour hitting the carriage window. Blythe, who had meticulously arranged the countless medallions of conquest, so that none of them was crooked, opened his eyes and looked at Viktor. His lips twitched at the unwelcoming sight.

It was Viktor who hired Blythe after seeing his obsessive-compulsive clean-up habits. He straightened the medals with his own hands, so Viktor didn’t say much, although he was tired of the tidying up.

After much fuss, Blythe finished preparing Viktor and cleaned the withered petals of the bouquet he had brought.

“Are you okay? Even if you see Duchess Marina.” Blythe asked, deliberately giving Viktor the bouquet.

“I go there often.”

“But this time with reporters, right?”

“It’s nothing.”

Until the very end, he tried to avoid this, but the royal police and the media constantly attacked Viktor, making it a necessary evil.

Soon Blythe opened the carriage door, got down, and spread his umbrella.

Amidst the crowd of reporters, Viktor got out of the carriage with a bouquet of flowers in one hand.

The reporters who were preparing their aggressive questions stopped as they gazed at the beautiful, hardened face, exposed under the rain. 

-The unbelievable dignity of the twenty-six-year-old young officer.

He entered Oslit Abbey, the wealthiest monastery in the capital, where his mother, Marina Dumfelt, resided.

Oslit Abbey was famous for having a chapel full of stained glass inside. It was beautiful, but very few were allowed to go in and out.

His mother was sitting in an armchair on the porch overlooking the garden, decorated thanks to a large sum of money donated by Viktor.

As he approached, Marina saw her son.

“Viktor.”

“Mother.”

Viktor smiled. Then he knelt on the fine wood floor next to her chair and looked up at Marina.

Marina stroked Viktor’s hair for a moment before she jumped up. Then her eyes changed, and she grabbed his neck.

“If it weren’t for you…”

“…you would have lived like royalty. Yes. I know.”

“You shouldn’t have been born! You ruined my life!”

“You’ve said that many times.”

He felt his mother’s dry hands on his shoulders and she scratched the nape of his neck.

It always happened. She took a deep breath as if exhausted from beating and scratching Viktor whom she tried to for a long time.

Then she asked him if she had regained her mind.

“Is your wife okay?”

“Yes.”

“Does she still love you that much?”

Viktor smiled faintly at her words.

“Sure. As burdensome as it is.”

Marina nodded, and soon she opened her mouth again.

“Did I tell you about the slide in the royal castle when I was young?”

“...no.”

It was a story he had heard a thousand times. The story of a slide with a handle made of gold, and the story of a cradle full of jade embellishments that were said to be inherited by all royals.

After talking for a long time about her childhood, her resentment for Viktor reappeared. The bouquet he gave her had long since been ripped by Marina’s wrath and thrown into the rain.

Viktor, who had been listening to her for a while, got up when he saw she was exhausted and showed signs of falling asleep.

Then Marina grabbed his arm.

“Son, one day you will take me back to the royal castle.”

Her face was young again with indescribable hope mixed with madness.

“My dear son, you’re the only one I believe in.”

“Sure.”

Viktor replied as he arranged her blanket.

“One day, I will take you to the royal castle.”

---