I Won’t Accept Your Regrets

The Agrita Empire, the Imperial Palace.

The red glow of the setting sun filtered through the large office window. It was quite a beautiful sight, but Raymond, the owner of the office, paid no attention to the sunset. He was quietly going through and signing the scrolls stacked on the desk one by one.

Until the red glow faded.

The butler's voice echoed in the office, where only the sound of the feather was heard for a while.

“Your Majesty, the Empress has sent a messenger.”

At that moment, Raymond's hand stopped.

‘It's Ellie.'

Raymond answered without hesitation.

"Let him in."

The door opened and a knight entered. It was none other than one of the Empress's escorts.

“I greet His Majesty the Emperor, the Sun of the Empire.”

"Get up."

Raymond responded quickly. Raymond frowned when he saw the knight in civilian clothes.

“Did the Empress go out?”

There was no mention of going out today. But he was in civilian clothes. That meant that it was a secret outlet that covered the status of the Empress.

‘Who are you trying to meet with?'

For a moment, a man entered Raymond's head.

‘No way.'

As soon as Raymond's heart cooled, the knight responded.

"Yes, to the Phoenix branch."

Raymond was relieved. But the relief was not long.

“Her Majesty has asked me to tell you that she won’t be able to attend the dinner because she will suddenly meet the former Duke Drua today. And she added that you better sleep in your room tonight.”

‘Duke Drua.'

‘I didn't know I was going to see him.'

‘Besides, she thought it would be better for me to sleep in my room tonight, which means she's going to be very late tonight… so I shouldn't wait for her.'

‘But is it really too late? Or it's not just late.'

The anxiety that he had forgotten for a while slowly increased. Raymond's hand tightened on the pen.

‘Control yourself!'

Raymond spoke coldly to himself and answered the knight who was waiting.

"Okay, you can leave."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The knight came out and the quiet in the office fell again. But unlike before, Raymond didn't look at the papers. In fact, he couldn't.

‘Ellie would meet Jeremy.'

He was crazy the moment he heard it.

‘Why are you meeting him suddenly when you drew a line like that yesterday?'

‘Was yesterday's performance meant to calm me down? Inside, with Jeremy…'

"Oh, this is so pathetic."

He told himself. It was so pathetic of him to imagine something ridiculous out of jealousy.

Raymond rose from his seat with a deep sigh. He left his desk and went to the window. The sky outside the window had darkened before he knew it. His gaze as he looked up at the sky reached the Empress's palace.

"…Ellie."

‘Please don't come back too late.'

He replaced the words with a heavy sigh that he couldn't pull out of his mouth.

Just in time, the clock bell rang.

As if waiting, the butler opened the door and entered.

“Your Majesty, it’s almost time for dinner. His Highness the Crown Prince has already arrived at the hall.”

‘Carlisle.'

His son as precious as Ellie. Raymond walked away from the palace, looking away.

"Let's go to the dinner table."

* * *

A Deep Night. 

The Drua Duchy, was a Duchy that would disappear from the Empire forever tomorrow, but not yet… Because Jeremy, the owner of the Drua, hasn't left the mansion yet.

Of course, all the other servants had left the mansion. So the big mansion was as quiet as a mountain, but Jeremy liked the calm now.

Nobody called him Duke.

Jeremy was sitting at a balcony table by the window, all packed up.

In fact, even if it was his luggage, it was about a little clothing and money to live on for about a month.

No matter how tilted the Duchy of Drua was, it wasn’t without property.

From this mansion to the lands and mines under the name of Duke Drua, to the treasures of gold and silver in the vault. There was a great fortune, but Jeremy decided to leave them behind.

It wasn't his wealth, and he wanted nothing connect him with Drua.

Therefore, he filled out the severance pay for the employees in a generous manner that was incomparable to other aristocrats, and donated the rest.

‘Jed told me to sell the land and mine that I own and use it for a good place.'

So now Jeremy was broke in a moment, but his heart was lightened. Finally, it seems that the burden of Drua has been completely released. Strangely though, he couldn't get out of the house right away and was looking at the night sky.

The cloudless night sky was beautiful today, but Jeremy's eyes were darker than the night sky.

He will never know when he will see the skies of the Agrita Empire again.

"I may never see it again until I die."

Yes, Jeremy was going to leave the Agrita Empire today and go far away. And he wasn’t going to visit this place for a long time.

Until the memories and emotions of the Agrita Empire faded and crowded together. Of course, it wasn’t about Drua's feelings and memories. In the first place, he had no recollection of nostalgia for Drua.

What he misses is… What he remembers is.

"…Ellie."

Ellie Croft. It was her.

Now, of course, she's the Empress of the Empire, so she's not Croft, but Agrita.

Ellie Croft will always come to his mind first in his memory.

The girl he knew, his first meeting and relationship with her had been when she was Ellie Croft.

“…I will remember you until the end.”

Our first meeting.

Jeremy gave a bitter smile.

It was his choice to leave without saying goodbye.

It was his choice not to tell Ellie the truth about him.

He was supposed to ask all the questions, but when it was time to bury the table and leave, he couldn't stop the bitterness from flooding him.

But there was always an expectation in a corner of his heart that she would remember him one day and recognize him… But it's time to let go of that little expectation.

Jeremy then looked down from the portrait, which resembled Ellie, exhaling a long breath. And slowly he closed his eyes as if he had a hole in his heart.

As he controlled his emotions, he suddenly heard the sound of the huge gate of the Duchy opening.

‘Who the hell??'

‘Is this a thief?'

Jeremy widened his eyes and went to the balcony railing. And the Duke confirmed that someone was entering. It wasn’t a thief.

Jeremy, who saw the carriage, thought that Jed was here for a moment, but he saw the guards.

First of all, there's no way Jed would ride in a carriage.

‘So who's there?'

There was no aristocratic emblems on the carriage. As Jeremy frowned, the carriage stopped in front of the mansion.

The escorts dismounted from their horses and one of them opened the carriage door and said in a low voice

"Your Majesty, we have arrived."

“…!”

Ellie, a beautiful silver-haired woman getting out of the carriage.

"What…?"

At the moment when Jeremy hardened into stone in an unbelievable situation, Ellie, who got out of the carriage, looked up. To the balcony where Jeremy was standing.

When their eyes met, Jeremy, who had come to, quickly turned around. And he ran towards the hall of the mansion. Ellie, seeing Jeremy walk off the balcony, turned to Helen.

Helen handed Ellie a bouquet of Healis flowers that she was holding.

"Wait here."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Ellie, who ordered Helen and the knights to wait outside the mansion, entered the mansion with a bouquet of flowers.

The mansion hall was empty as if all the servants had already left. The cold, empty air that hung in the hall seemed to hint at the fate of the Drua that would disappear.

But there was light in it.

“I'm Jeremy.”

The blond Jeremy, the only light in the darkness, breathed violently. He ran so fast that he gasped like an excellent mercenary.

He looked down at her, breathing hard.

As if he was checking if she was real.

As if he soon realized that she was real, Jeremy was quick to try to be polite with a shaky look on his face.

“The Moon of the Empire…”

She stopped him and said quickly.

“It's okay to say hello. I’m not here to see you as Empress today."

Jeremy hesitated and soon raised his head. He spoke slowly with a mocking look.

“…If not as an Empress.”

"I'm just here to see my old friend, Jeremy."

"…Friend."

Ellie continued, looking at Jeremy's embarrassed face.

"Actually, I was worried that Jeremy had already left because it was later than I thought, but I'm so glad to see you like this."

“…You came to see me off when you knew I was leaving.”

Jeremy smiled feverishly. He seemed to think that she had come to say goodbye to him, back in the days when they were friends in the Lund Kingdom.

‘Well, that's not bad either, but…'

Ellie responded with a smile.

"I'm here to say goodbye, but… I'm here to fulfill my old promise."

"Promise?"

Jeremy asked, twitching the tip of his eyebrow.

Ellie smiled and handed him a bouquet of Healis flowers.

“Yes, I promised you a long time ago under the auspices of party. Proof that Jeremy is not ugly, that I would show you a beautiful lucky flower that looks like Jeremy.”