However, that initial bold enthusiasm did not last long.
By the time they passed the middle of the stairs, Blair began to show signs of fatigue.
Her breathing had long become ragged, and the feet inside her shoes throbbed.
At first Herdin had been following behind Blair as they climbed, but now he was ahead of her.
With the same relaxed steps as before, without even the slightest disturbance in his breathing.
Noticing that Blair was falling behind, Herdin looked back at her.
“Who was it that proudly said they could make it?”
How irritating.
Blair glared at him with dissatisfaction as he teased her, then bit her lip tightly and stubbornly climbed the stairs.
Her competitive spirit had been stirred.
Watching Blair pass him and move ahead, Herdin casually said,
“If you ask me to carry you, I’ll carry you all the way to the top.”
“…I can go by myself.”
Herdin snorted with laughter as he watched Blair marching ahead.
That stubborn refusal to lose reminded him of when he had first met her as a child.
After that long struggle, the two finally reached the top.
The cool wind high above swept across Blair’s sweat-dampened forehead.
When she opened her eyes after briefly closing them against the sudden gust, the panorama of the capital spread out before her.
Blair gasped in admiration without realizing it.
“Wow…”
The late afternoon sky was dyed gold just before sunset.
Below it, cherry trees in full bloom and colorful festival flags fluttered in the spring wind, while a blue river wound its way through the center of the capital.
Amid that scenery stood the imperial palace where Blair had lived her entire life, and the temple where they had just been.
Seeing it like this made her realize how small the world she had known all her life truly was.
And how vast the world ahead of her would be.
Blair stared blankly at the view.
It was a scene she had long wanted to see.
The wind blew through, scattering loose strands of her hair.
Below them, the nape of her pale neck glistened with sweat.
Herdin, who had been quietly watching that sight, removed his outer coat and draped it around Blair.
Blair turned to look at him.
Only then did he exist within her violet world.
“Thank you, Herdin.
I really wanted to come here at least once.”
Blair smiled brightly.
It had been a long time since her smile had been directed at him.
Herdin stood beside her as she looked toward the distant world rather than at him, silently taking in the sight.
The woman suited the fully blooming cherry blossoms and the golden afternoon sunlight like a painting.
Only then did it feel as though this detestable season of blooming flowers might become a little more bearable.
* * *
The two only began descending the stairs after watching the sunset.
Herdin, who had gone down first, sensed something strange and turned back.
“Blair?”
Blair was holding onto the wall and descending the stairs one step at a time with trembling legs.
She had overexerted herself climbing up and now her strength had given out.
She looked like a newborn fawn.
He had known she was weak, but to think she was this weak.
Herdin watched Blair with a somewhat bewildered expression before bursting into laughter.
“…Don’t laugh.”
His face curved into a refreshing smile as he laughed, and it looked annoyingly handsome.
Blair clenched her teeth and continued down the stairs on her own.
But when she grew a little greedy and quickened her pace—
“Ah!”
Her body wobbled forward as she stumbled.
Herdin quickly stepped forward and caught her by the waist to steady her.
“Careful.”
“Ah, thank—”
Before Blair could even straighten herself, Herdin lifted her up in his arms.
Blair barely managed to stop the scream that almost escaped her lips.
“Pu-put me down.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very wise method.
At that rate, it’ll be tomorrow morning before you reach the bottom.”
“….”
Considering the current situation, that sounded quite possible, leaving her with nothing to say.
In the end, Blair quietly wrapped her arms around his neck.
“…Aren’t I heavy?”
“Hmm, my arms might fall off.”
“….”
At his playful answer, Blair pressed her lips together in dissatisfaction.
Even if it was a lie, he could at least show some courtesy to a lady.
Seeing that expression, Herdin laughed.
“Since I’ve done you a service, Madam, please grant me one wish.”
“A wish?”
“Yes, a wish.”
Seeing the mischievous look on his face, Blair quickly set a condition.
“As long as it’s not a strange wish.”
“I’m not very interested if there are restrictions like that.”
“…So you were planning to make a strange wish after all?”
“Why don’t you explain what your standard for ‘strange’ is first?”
“Something vulgar—”
Blair stopped speaking when she realized a beat too late that she had been drawn into his playful rhetoric and quickly shut her mouth.
Herdin looked at her and asked leisurely,
“Vulgar, and then?”
“…I won’t say.”
“Then we’ve agreed that you’ll grant one wish without conditions.”
Blair looked at him with distrust but reluctantly nodded.
Finally obtaining the answer he wanted, a satisfied smile appeared on Herdin’s lips.
* * *
Blair placed a small framed painting on the bedside table.
It was a small painting of the clock tower and cherry blossoms she had visited with Herdin today.
They had bought it from a painter selling pictures on the street on their way back to the carriage after coming down from the clock tower.
‘Every time I look at this painting, I think I’ll remember today.’
The blue spring sky, the scattered cherry blossoms, and Herdin who had been with her in that beautiful scenery.
She heard his voice just as she was thinking of his face.
“You like that painting that much?”
Startled by the low voice near her ear, Blair turned her head and saw Herdin standing behind her.
He picked up the frame in that same position and examined the painting.
His warmth behind her, his face so close.
So close that if she exhaled carelessly, she might touch him.
Blair hurriedly turned her gaze forward in case their eyes met.
In the silence, she worried that the pounding of her heart might be heard by him.
Trying to break the silence, Blair nodded and answered him.
“Yes, I like it.
Every time I look at this painting, I think I’ll remember today.
The cherry blossoms were beautiful, and the little boy selling rings was cute…”
Herdin remembered the crude ring Blair had been wearing.
Even such a ring looked beautiful on his wife’s pale, delicate hand.
“And the cherry-blossom-shaped cream puff bread was delicious.”
He remembered Blair munching on the cream puff bread and the sweet taste lingering in his mouth.
He also remembered her round eyes widening in surprise when he bit her finger.
“And climbing the clock tower was hard… but the view was incredibly beautiful.”
Before she realized it, Blair had forgotten the distance between them and was completely absorbed in talking about the day.
Herdin quietly watched Blair speaking with an excited face.
Her soft, chirping voice was pleasant to hear.
Her violet eyes sparkling as if dreaming were newly beautiful.
“Still, when we came down it was thanks to you—”
“Blair.”
Herdin called her before she could finish speaking.
Blair, who had not noticed the faint heat in his low voice, casually turned her head to look at him.
Herdin did not miss the opportunity and swallowed her lips.
At the same time, he pulled her slender waist into his arms.
Blair, startled, tried to pull away, but soon closed her eyes as if accepting him.
Herdin laid Blair down on the bed and continued kissing her.
At first the kisses repeatedly sucked softly and pulled away, but gradually they became rough, as if trying to devour her.
“Mmm…”
When Blair groaned and pushed him away because she could not breathe, Herdin moved to her pale nape.
Flowers bloomed wherever his lips passed.
Like the cherry blossoms they had seen today in full bloom.
Only after making flowers bloom across her body did Herdin seem satisfied, raising his upper body.
Then he embraced Blair’s trembling body and immediately overlapped his body with hers.
A sensation as sweet as cream filled his entire body.
Licking his wet lips, he looked down at the woman in his arms.
“Herdin…”
The small body covered entirely in his marks, the lips reddened from being bitten and sucked, the eyes filled with tears, and…
The spring scenery reflected within those violet, jewel-like eyes.
If Blair knew, she would probably call it shameless, but he felt that every time he looked at the painting in that frame, he would remember her in this moment.
Herdin gazed quietly at the spring reflected in her eyes, then bent down and kissed her gently.
Behind the shadows of the two who had become one, cherry blossoms fell like rain.
* * *
The flowers fell after several days of spring rain.
Herdin walked down the long corridor, looking at the morning scenery of the garden now filled with green, and entered a room that had become more familiar than his own.
The owner of the room seemed to still be sleeping deeply, and the room was quiet.
Herdin quieted his footsteps as he looked around the room.
On the table in front of the fireplace was a scented candle instead of the bowl of marshmallows.
For the past few days she had been practicing getting used to fire by lighting scented candles.
Passing that sight, he approached the bed and, as expected, saw Blair sleeping.
Herdin raised his arm to check his wristwatch.
There were about fifteen minutes left before the time he had ordered the carriage to be prepared.
It would be good to wake her before then.
Of course, he could wake her, but the reason he could not do so was the last bit of conscience of the person responsible for making her sleep this late