The Flower Of Eternity
Chapter 19: Something Missing

After that day, they agreed to carry out Irene's plan. They let Anna assume that Xavier is still alive. Irene told everyone in the palace not to mention Xavier or his death.

It allows Anna to carry out normal activities as usual, such as before Xavier's death. No more nightmares. No more screaming in the middle of the night. No more tears. No more suicide attempts. And Leon stopped giving him Bloody Berry.

Two days later, Anna was able to return to the Main Palace and take over all her duties from Leon. Leon kept her company and helped her work. But overall, Anna can focus herself on government tasks so Leon believes that Irene's decision is correct.

However, Leon still wanted to resuscitate him. He could not bear to see Anna living a lie that he created himself aware of or not. When there was no one among them, Leon often asked why Anna had to do all her self-governing duties and where Xavier was at the moment.

"I thought you knew." Said Anna. His eyes did not stop reading the report documents before him seriously. "He's in Montreux. That's why the development there is improving quickly. Soon we can move the western border back to Montreux. Residents displaced in Trivone could return to their new homes in Montreux. Isn't this good? After this I will make Trivone a center of health and medical care. I intend to set up a free medical school there so that ordinary people can become doctors. The castle belonging to the Queen Mother will also be a public hospital for the next. Xavier and mother-in-law have agreed to it."

The other day, after Montreux had returned to normal, Leon again asked about Xavier. Hope Anna is fully aware of Xavier's death. I wish I could stop lying to him indirectly. But Anna always had an answer for him.

"He's in Westeria. There was an affair with Queen Eugene regarding the Queen's plan to make our daughter her heir."

"He's on Schere. We plan to move the government center to Schere. Noord's too cold. Xavier knows I can't stand the cold here."

"He went to your house. He said there was something he needed that was kept at the Winterthur residence. Bizarrely. Why didn't he just ask you for help. Or ask the Wolves for help. I really don't understand him."

Leon continues to try to lure Anna by asking for Xavier's whereabouts, but Anna always has an answer that she has unknowingly cornered. And that made Leon even more worried. The longer Anna forgets that Xavier is dead. And it continued until Anna gave birth.

...****************...

A few days before the birth of Princess Xavierra...

Smirnoff House, Schiereiland

That morning Ludwig looked very busy in his study room which was always a mess. Ludwig forbade anyone to clean up the mess in his room. To him, that chaos was his order. Even Constanza did not dare to order the servants to tidy up the workspace of her husband.

Constanza was standing at the entrance of Ludwig's study, watching her husband seeming in a state of alarm. "What are you looking for?"

"No. It's not gone." Ludwig said, more to himself.

"What else is missing this time?" Ask Constanza again. Even so, he did not want to look for her. Because usually, if there's something in Ludwig's workspace that's missing, all you can find is Ludwig himself. His help will be a formality.

"It can't be lost." Ludwig. But his feet were busy walking here and there. His hands were busy getting rid of the various documents and items on his messy desk. He even ducked looking under the table. "It can't be lost. I'm sure it was a few days ago before we visited the Tsarina in Eze. But why isn't there now?"

"You'd rather I help you find something you're looking for, or would you rather kiss you as a form of moral support?" Bargainly.

"Both?"

Constanza approached her husband and kissed him.

"Tell me what's missing, baby." Her request.

"Promise you won't be angry." Ludwig said as the opening sentence that actually troubled Constanza.

"You're not..." Constanza paused for a moment, furrowing his brows, folding both of his arms in front of his chest. Ludwig waited for the continuation of his sentence with a huff. "Please don't tell me you lost our wedding ring." His voice is full of threats.

Ludwig immediately raised his right hand to reveal their wedding rings still coiled around his finger, "Did I just survive death, dear?"

Constanza smile. "Take your luck, baby." Said. "So what are we looking for?"

"You remember, long ago, before we got married and I decided to lock up my mom... My mom once asked me to make—“

"Bombs made from Morta's poison were sold to Orient. To destroy Nordhalbinsel." Constanza immediately interrupted Ludwig's words because he seemed to know what Ludwig was looking for earlier. "You made it, but you didn't sell it because you knew it wasn't the right thing to do. You can't destroy it either because it's very risky to explode."

Ludwig nodded. There was horror on his face. Constanza didn't want to hear it, but Ludwig immediately said, "That's missing."

...****************...

Emperor's Palace, Jungdo, Orient

Yeon-Hwa is still waiting for him.

But he didn't come. Yeon-Hwa has imagined their marriage many times. Imagine living with him. Only then, he could feel the freedom from the Palace that locked him up, from the millions of eyes that awaited him to make a mistake to bring him down.

Elias has not been here since his departure that night. There is no letter. There's no news whatsoever.

Yeon-Hwa knows Elias is not dead. Because he would definitely know right away if his soul mate was dead. Elias is still alive, so why hasn't he met him yet?

Haru's words back then continued to ring in his mind. What if Haru's right? What if Elias left him just as the Wolf left his King?

No. gabe. Elias is not like that. He'll come back to me. She loves me. L loved her. Yeon-Hwa tries to convince herself.

"What makes you so sure she won't leave you one day?"

The hurtful words that once emerged from Haru's mouth came back to her mind. Those words haunted him, deadening his hopes, destroying his delusion of a happy life.

I trust him. She loves me. L loved her. Yeon-Hwa's birthday is in her mind.

He had to meet Elias immediately and tell him the good news he had kept for two days after the man returned to Nordhalbinsel to ask for his parents' blessing. He must immediately tell Elias that they will soon become a complete family. The first Palace Physician knew of it, thinking that the Emperor would soon obtain the heir that the entire Orient people had long awaited.

Yeon-Hwa caresses her stomach, as if she can feel a new life growing inside her. "Patience... He's coming." Yeon-Hwa said to herself and to the fetus in her womb. "He will keep his promise. And we're gonna be a very happy family."

That morning, the air was so fresh and soothing. The sun shone brightly and the singing of the birds accompanied the red leaves that were falling in the garden of the Emperor's Palace. The Maharani was staring out the window of his room. Not waiting for the arrival of the Emperor who was going to Shina to visit the Queen Mother, but waiting for the arrival of the man she loved. The father of the baby she had. Soul mates.

The day was so beautiful and peaceful that no one expected it to be the last beautiful day for the thousands of Orient people in Jungdo. That day, Morta's magic bomb killed thousands of lives. Two of them are thought to be the Empress and the daughter of the Wolf.

...****************...

Northern Palace

Elias knows Yeon-Hwa is still waiting for him.

Elias also knows, from the wolves who still swear allegiance to him, that he secretly sent to guard Yeon-Hwa in the Orient, that Yeon-Hwa was pregnant with her child.

And Elias knew when Yeon-Hwa died.

But he can't do anything. He can't go to the Orient to save Yeon-Hwa. He can't go to the Orient to look for his lover's body. No. gabe. More than that, he could not go a single step out of the Northern Palace.

He, for the rest of his life, which will now be very long, for a thousand years, will be confined to the Northern Palace without being able to leave.

No words can describe how devastated she felt when she found out Yeon-Hwa was gone and she could do nothing for her. He was angry, sad, frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. He can't even cry over Yeon-Hwa's death. He had never felt so helpless like this before.

"If only you hadn't killed Xavier..." He said with a soft. He was like he was saying to the cold air around him, but when a woman appeared before him, he looked up, looking at him with sadness and a storm of anger in his eyes. "Elle... She's pregnant with my son."

Eleanor could not say anything. Deep regret filled him since Xavier's death. But her tears could not come out. His heart was frozen, and so were his tears.

Eleanor was not far from him. Elyan was sleeping soundly, as if the cold air was deadly and his mother's now icy skin never bothered him.

Something was different from Eleanor now. Her beauty is famous all over the world now increasingly looks inhumane. His skin was like made of ice, his hair was blond now looked more like snow with lips that were now blue as his eyes were icy blue. She now looks like the cold, beautiful and eternal embodiment of winter in Nordhalbinsel.

"If only you hadn't killed Xavier that day. If only you had never tried to resurrect Griselda for your selfish purposes. If only you'd never loved Dylan and felt enough about your engagement. If only you'd never made that deal with Xavier..."

"I'm sorry." Eleanor. He wanted to cry when he saw his twin brother so devastated after learning of the death of his soul mate, but he couldn't cry anymore now. "I'm sorry, Elias." Deuteronomy. Because there were no other words he could speak that could comfort Elias.

"If only I could die..." Said Elias again. Empty look. "Death will be so sweet right now."

"It's my fault."

"really. Your fault. If only you hadn't killed Xavier. We will not be punished by this damned penalty for breach of the covenant with him. It's all your fault!" snapped it. His emotions brought a blizzard to the far north. But now there was no one there but the two of them.

"Generic..."

"He's dead, Elle. My soul mate is dead, and I will live for the next thousand years, locked up here without being able to see him again for good!"

"I've also been locked up here for a thousand years, Elias. I lost someone I loved too. I know what it's like long before you feel it. If there was anything I could do for you, I would do anything, Elias." Eleanor. "I deeply regret what I did. And I'm even more sorry that you suffered the consequences. We'll live in this palace for the next thousand years, so please, forgive me." Say it earnestly.

Elias turned to Elyan in Eleanor's arms. The baby boy is still human. Still mortal. Later Elyan could have died due to the deadly cold weather in the Northern Palace. "Elyan cannot stay here. You have to let someone else take care of her." Said Elias later.

Eleanor tightened her arms, "He's my son! I'm not gonna let go! He's the only one I have in this world. He's the only one that's allowed me to survive!" His tone increased with each sentence.

"And he deserves to live free. Let him go, Elle. He cannot take away your sins!" Elias also raised his tone. But seeing her sister looking at her nephew with an expression full of love and sadness, she could feel it too. How the baby boy was the lifeguard for his sister so as not to really fall into the pit of destruction. Elias softened his tone, "Let Elyan live outside the Northern Palace, Elle. Begging Leon, if necessary, to bow down to him, so that Leon will accept your son at the Winterthur residence. The boy would later become the Winterthur Wolf as well and swear allegiance to Tsarina Anastasia and her son. That way you might be able to atone a little for your sins."

...****************...