NOVGO.NET Chapter 220: Nacreous Snowmelt [3]
Chapter 220: Nacreous Snowmelt [3]
The first time Vanitas had seen Karina in over a year was only a few months ago, during Franz’s wedding. At the time, he had thought he was losing his mind, convinced that his anxiety was playing tricks on him and making him see things that weren’t really there.
But seeing her now left no room for doubt. She was taller than he remembered. Her once disheveled hair, due to overtime work, now flowed into beautiful waves.
And atop her head was a military cap, completing the picture of someone who had changed far more than just her appearance.
It was clear Karina had been very, very busy.
“Karina! I told you to wait in the guest lobby!”
“Apologies, Admiral!” Karina motioned into a salute. “But I’ve come with a report!”
“Report?” Iridelle repeated, her brows scrunching ogether. “Aside from that, how dare you be rude to the Marquess?”
“….”
Vanitas kept silent as the two went back and forth. Iridelle thoroughly scolded Karina, practically chewing her, but Karina stood her ground firmly.
Iridelle sighed. “Sigh. What is it, then?”
“The Colonel is having problems entering the north,” Karina reported. “Their visa isn’t being validated by the guards.”
“The Colonel?” Iridelle raised a brow. “Why is the Colonel even following us?”
Karina hesitated for a moment, then answered, “Because of… my uncle.”
“….”
That drew Vanitas’s attention. His brow arched ever so slightly. Uncle? The implication was clear enough. It only confirmed what he had already suspected.
Karina must have received help from Roman Neuschwanstein, her stepfather’s elder brother. Considering she was with Iridelle, it was clear she had risen through the ranks quite fast.
Vanitas had long been aware of her potential, so her rise did not surprise him in the least. What caught his attention instead was the insignia on her chest, proof enough that Karina was a Major.
“The north isn’t usually closed off,” Friedrich said. “But in times like these, I had to take precautions. The Scholars are one thing, but I was never told Dominion military would be arriving. I’ll inform the guards after this meeting. Thank you for reporting this.”
Karina nodded, lowering her salute. “Understood, Your Grace.”
Iridelle exhaled through her nose, still displeased but letting the matter rest for the moment. “Next time, learn to report properly without causing a scene. Discipline reflects the Dominion, Major.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
Karina’s gaze lingered, shifting slowly toward Vanitas. He met her eyes with a blank expression.
Astrid, noticing the silence, glanced between the two before finally speaking.
“I believe it’s time for you to leave, Major Maeril. You arrived uninvited, and now you’re disrupting the meeting.”
“….”
“….”
Vanitas, Iridelle, and Friedrich all turned their eyes toward Astrid in disbelief. None of them spoke, but the thought was mutual.
“Princess….”
“Yes?”
If anything, Astrid herself was no less an uninvited guest, much like Karina.
* * *
In the end, Vanitas failed to remove Astrid from the expedition. The compromise was that she was to follow his protocols without complaints.
“R-Really? That means I’m under your surveillance twenty-four seven, right?!”
“Y-Yeah….”
The others, bewildered by the outcome, could only stare dumbfounded at the exchange.
“How troublesome,” Vanitas muttered.
Yet Astrid, despite the strict conditions placed upon her, looked positively delighted. Her eyes sparkled with childlike excitement, as though she had just been gifted her very first doll.
Even Iridelle, who had been firm in her scolding earlier, found herself at a loss for words. She had to take her doubts back.
It seemed every one of the Aetherion siblings had a few screws loose.
“She can stay here, right?” Vanitas asked, turning toward Friedrich.
Friedrich nodded. “Of course. As the northern duchy, it is our sworn duty to accommodate the Imperial Family. All the more so, since we are distant relatives of the Aetherions.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes,” Astrid confirmed with a nod of her own. “Lord Glade and I are distant cousins. By the way, where’s Sir Sigmund? I haven’t seen him around.”
“….”
Vanitas fell silent. The pause stretched until Friedrich answered in his stead.
“He’s gone.”
“Gone?” Astrid tilted her head, confusion crossing her features. “What do you mean? Where did he go?”
A sudden chill ran down her spine. Surely, he didn’t mean…
“He’s dead,” Friedrich said at last.
“….”
Astrid froze, struggling to believe what she had just heard.
She had never been particularly close to Sigmund. However, as the heir of the northern duchy, Friedrich often brought him to noble banquets, and Astrid had spoken with him on several occasions.
Despite the age difference, they had shared more than a few conversations.
After all, he was technically her nephew.
“A Thunderbird….”
After being briefed on what had transpired, Astrid could only stare in silence. Iridelle, on the other hand, immediately grasped the graveness of the matter. It was now clear why so many scholars had been summoned to the north.
If an unknown entity, with no clear study or record, could so easily manifest a creature like a Thunderbird, then it was a threat that could very well spell the end of the entire northern region.
“For now, go and rest, Astrid. Your room is over there,” Vanitas said, pointing down the hall.
“Do I need your permission if I want to go out, too?”
“What?” Vanitas frowned, a brow twitching. “Do whatever you want.”
“He-hee~”
Astrid giggled and skipped off toward her room, leaving Vanitas exhaling in exasperation. For some reason, she was especially irritating today.
Shaking his head, he pushed the thought aside. There were more pressing matters to attend to. Stepping out of the mansion, the bite of the northern cold sank into his skin.
It wasn’t winter in the empire, but here in the north, winter was eternal.
It pressed into every stone, every breath, every heartbeat. It was the kind of cold that did not wait to be endured, but demanded to be lived with.
In that cold, he found the disconnect between Karina. Between them was the same eternal frost. No fire, no matter how fierce, could melt it in an instant.
Just as the northerners had learned to adapt and survive through endless freeze, perhaps they, too, were fated not to dissolve the chill, but to carry it.
The thought was both bitter and grounding.
The cold did not lie.
It took away pretense, leaving only what could withstand its temperature.
Maybe that was why he had always been drawn to it. And maybe that was why, despite the glaciers between them that refused to melt, he could only look at Karina and accept the truth that some thresholds were never meant to be crossed, but endured, like a frost that would never thaw.
“Hello, professor. Or should I say Marquess Astrea, now?”
Standing there was Karina’s silhouette underneath the frost-glittered sun with her hands clasped neatly behind her back. As Vanitas walked toward her, a thought overlapped between who she was now with the memory of her a year ago, back when she still worked as his assistant.
Vanitas had never forced work upon her. If anything, it was Karina who had willingly thrown herself into tasks with the fervor of a workaholic.
There had been no grand reason for it.
The truth was far simpler.
Because she looked familiar.
That was it.
Among all the people he had encountered at that time, Karina alone was the most familiar. And because of that, he often found himself softening toward her.
And why?
Because she resembled Kim Minjeong.
Even after he had learned of the theory of souls and spent countless hours trying to make sense of it, the pieces never aligned. Karina and Julia Barielle had both existed at the same time, which rendered any idea of reincarnation or spiritual overlap senseless.
Yet there were countless cases of resemblance, people who were not true doppelgängers but bore uncanny similarities, enough to evoke a sense of nostalgia.
Karina, most likely, belonged in that category.
Just a person who, by sheer coincidence, looked like someone he once knew.
Someone he loved.
No, someone he still loved.
“Did you wait long?” he asked.
“I did. I think it’s been a year now.”
“You should’ve just come back home, then.”
“No way. You would’ve likely killed me.”
“I’ve never had such thoughts.”
“Well, you killed my father.”
“I didn’t—”
“Do you still remember what you told me back then? When I asked—no, when I begged, pleaded—for the reason why you killed him.”
“….”
Vanitas pressed his lips together. Back then, in the suddenness of that confrontation, Vanitas Astrea, the man who had escaped countless sticky situations in the world of espionage for years, found himself disarmed.
All it took was a single question from a young woman who couldn’t even lay a finger on him.
And because of that, because of such a mistake only a novice would make, his words failed him, and his thoughts were in disarray.
In the end, he lied.
A lie spoken without insurance.
“You said you didn’t know him.”
“….”
“Do you remember?”
“Listen to me, your stepfather is not as innocent as you think—”
“Neither are you.”
“….”
“The Queen.”
“….”
“You killed her, didn’t you?”
Vanitas kept his poker face. However, his heart began to pound dreadfully, a chill running down his spine.
“Or, to be precise,” Karina continued, “you were an accomplice.”
“You’ve completely misunderstood the situation—”
“My father investigated the case. In doing so, he uncovered your connection to the true perpetrator. That link tied both of you together. You killed him to save yourself—”
“Your real father is the perpetrator! For fuck’s sake!”
“….”
“Do you understand?! Even if I were an accomplice, that puts us in the same position! If the truth comes out, you’ll be executed without question—”
“Is that the best you can come up with?” Karina scoffed. “A year after we parted, is that really all you have to say to salvage the situation and save yourself? Another lie? Do you even hear yourself?”
She tilted her head, eyes narrowing with contempt.
“What was his name again? Zelliel?” she pressed. “You’re saying he’s my real father? That’s not funny, Marquess Astrea.”
She looked ahead.
“Alright, let’s say for a moment you’re telling the truth. Why haven’t you told anyone? It would be simple to cast me aside by bringing it to the Emperor. You’re his Adviser, aren’t you? Oh, wait—”
Her lips curled into a bitter smile.
“—Is this your idea of redemption? Protecting the daughter of the man you killed? Am I supposed to say thank you?”
“And what of you?” Vanitas countered. “If you know all this, my connection to the Queen’s case, why haven’t you brought it up with anyone?”
“Because I wanted to hear the truth from you,” Karina said. For the first time, her expression displayed her pain. “After lie upon lie, I just wanted you to be honest with me. Just once.”
“And I have always been truthful to you—”
“I used to admire you, professor. A lot. Did you know that?” Her voice cracked slightly. “You were kind to me. In a world that was always so unfair, you showed me kindness I never thought I deserved. That’s why it hurt so much, thinking it was all a lie.”
Her gaze dropped as memories poured out.
“Those mundane days in your office… working together, eating together, covering each other’s tasks, filling in when one of us was gone… I liked those days. I didn’t want to let them go. Part of me is sad that I couldn’t let go, because in those days, I knew, this world still had a little happiness.”
Karina lifted her head, her eyes glistening, though her expression hardened into a cold facade.
“I kept asking myself if I was just some fool who misread everything. If all your kindness was just another tool in your trade.”
“Karina…”
“Close your eyes.”
“….”
Vanitas obeyed, shutting his eyes without a word.
For a moment, nothing happened.
“….”
Then, all at once, something moist and warm pressed against his lips amidst the eternal frost.
A second passed.
Then another.
And another.
At last, her breath brushed against his ear as she whispered.
“All this time, I’ve come to realize… perhaps the reason I ran away, the reason I refused to acknowledge the truth, was because I’ve been lying to myself as well. I was afraid to face any bitter truths. And even now, I refuse to accept whatever you’ve told me.”
Her lips hovered close, her voice trembling as the words left her.
“Because throughout our time together, no matter how much I tried to deny it… I grew to love you, despite everything.”
Vanitas opened his eyes and looked back at her.
“But this love,” Karina continued softly, “it isn’t right. No matter how much I want it, it feels like a betrayal of the last shred of respect I have for myself.”
Her face inched close, so close that Vanitas could feel the warmth of her breath against the tip of his nose.
“So, professor—no, Vanitas… I’ve made my decision.”
“….”
“Let’s just die together.”