“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?” A young, beautiful boy peeked in through the window of the carriage. His thoughtful moon-white eyes were glazed over with concern as he checked the carriage’s interior. At first glance of the boy, Idyllia was deeply captivated.

“–––….”

His dazzling silver hair adorned his delicately doll-like face. His mysterious moon-white eyes were pure and yet oozing with sensuality. Even the slightest gesture of tilting his head made her nervous.

♔♔♔

(… Who?)

He was probably two or three years older than the thirteen-year-old Idyllia. From the shiny white silk outer robe he wore, it was clear that he was of noble birth. Idyllia was in a daze when her older sister, scrutinising the boy’s eyes, noticed the embroidery on his outer garment and murmured.

“…House of Fontana…”

Embroidered heroically in black and silver threads on his left breast was the crest of an eagle with outstretched talons. But her sister’s abhorrent voice passed Idyllia’s ears unnoticed.

The family crest was a trivial matter. Meanwhile, the boy who had peered into the tilting carriage lightly blinked his moon-white eyes upon the sight of Idyllia.

“–––.”

Lost for words, it was a moment where the gaze of the other entranced one sucked into a vortex of their own world as they stared at each other.

Illustration.

(This is what it means to have your … soul stolen from you….)

While gazing into those shining moon-white eyes, Idyllia was moved to the point that her heart trembled. The core of her head was numb, and she was intoxicated with happiness to the point of vertigo.

(Why do I feel like crying even though I’m happy? …?)

Idyllia was convinced that she was in awe of the passion that had awakened in her young thirteen-year-old heart.

It was a feeling that made her want to exclaim to the world.

Today, just now, she had met the man of her dreams, and –.

“Truly outstanding!”

By nightfall, Idyllia’s excitement still had not subsided. She repeatedly told her nanny the story of how she was rescued by a passing sergeant of the Fontana family after the wheels of her carriage came off in the street.

“I never thought such a kind, good-looking, and virtuous person existed in this world…. And yet so powerful, too? He lifted me out of the carriage with such ease when he took me out.”

Her nanny dressed her in a fluffy silk nightgown and brushed her long hair with a horsehair brush, the same hazel colour as her eyes. Idyllia, in the meantime, when on a spiral about how wonderful the heir of the Fontana family was.

However, her nanny replied with only indifference. “Miss, please be still for a moment,” she said.

“God must have brought us together! If it hadn’t been for that accident, I wouldn’t have met him until I was a little older and went to the Royal Ball.”

“I must remind your servant Jean to keep a close eye on the carriage.”

“You must be joking! I don’t want to hear it!”

The nanny, silently listening until then, finally shouted and pushed Idyllia into the bed.

She covered her with a feather quilt and spoke despondently.

“How our family screamed in fright when we saw you ladies return accompanied by the young men of the Fontana family…!

‘We were in trouble because our carriage couldn’t run, and he saved us.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to rely on the Fontanas!”

“But you drove him away like that….”

“If you had sent a messenger here, I would have come to pick you up immediately.”

“I’m indebted to him anyway. I have to thank him.”

“Miss!”

The nanny, who was putting out the fire from the candlestick, turned around horrified.

“Please open your eyes, my lady! The Leveaux family and the Fontana family have been enemies for generations, vying for supremacy at court. Do you know how many people have been sacrificed so far?”

“──────…”

She choked up at the harsh reprimand.

Her nanny was right. The two families have been engaged in a blood-soaked struggle for hundreds of years.

Many have been sacrificed so far – killed, in a cycle of endless retaliation from one eye to another… Idyllia’s cousin also lost his life the year before last when members of the Fontana family attacked him. He was only twenty years old.

“There can be no coexistence between that family and the Leveaux family. The conflict will continue until one of us dies out.”

My father always said that to the men of the family on every occasion. Idyllia thought it was like that too.

––Until today.