To You Who Forgot Me - Chapter 1

A man with a cold complexion ran his hand through his long hair.

 

Bottomless eyes and a sharp jawline. Blue eyes half-exposed under long, downcast eyelashes.

 

His features and physique, which no longer showed that of a boy, made her realize how many years had already passed.

 

A strange yet familiar, beautiful man.

 

Leah looked at him with a half-dazed face.

 

Caius Enoch Hercesia.

 

Today, Leah’s long-time lover and fiancé returned from a three-year expedition, and before she could be happy to see him safely return, she had to face an unbelievable reality.

 

“I am engaged to this woman, you mean?”

 

After a suffocating silence, Caius spoke in a dry voice. At the same time, a cold gaze that Leah had never seen before was fixed on her.

 

Leah, who opened her lips blankly, muttered with a blood-drained face.

 

“How come…”

 

Caius was acting as if he didn’t remember Leah. In the three years she waited for him, she had never assumed this situation.

 

While Leah couldn’t say anything, unable to believe or understand, Caius’ aide, Victor, standing a little further away, opened his mouth instead.

 

“Lord… Lord, don’t you really remember anything?”

 

It was the same with the deputy and military doctors there, for whom the situation was embarrassing. That was because, so far, Caius had not had any problems.

 

“How many times do I have to say I don’t remember?”

 

At the repeated question, Caius narrowed his brows. As if to prove that his words were not false, the eyes directed toward Leah were cold, as if looking at an apparent stranger.

 

Victor, swallowing a sigh, looked at the two of them. Silence passed again, in which no one could open their mouths easily. The first to risk speaking was the military surgeon, who was watching the situation quietly.

 

“I-I think the attack a month ago may have been the cause…”

 

A month ago, on the way back from an expedition, Caius had a small accident. In an old castle where he stayed for accommodation, several assassins, instigated by someone, attacked Caius in the middle of the night.

 

Caius, who was awake, overpowered all the assassins, but one of them swung a blade as if in a last-ditch effort, and his arm grazed.

 

The problem was that the blade was coated with poison.

 

“But didn’t you treat it right away at the time? The lord also woke up without a big hit.”

 

As Victor interjected impatiently, the military surgeon nodded his head and responded immediately.

 

“That’s true, but the aftermath of the poison isn’t everything you see right in front of you…”

 

It was a story that something might have been wrong with Caius’s body without everyone noticing. For example, he had lost some of his memories.

 

“How did that happen…?”

 

Victor glanced at his lord, who was leaning against the wall. Caius was watching this situation with an expression that shared how absurd he found this entire escapade.

 

He couldn’t believe it.

 

He couldn’t believe he had lost his memory. And he knew that he was betrothed to the Princess of Ainel.

 

Caius’s fiancee, Leah, was a princess of the Ainel Kingdom and a hostage handed over to the Empire after the Kingdom surrendered a long time ago.

 

The Prince of an empire and a Princess from a country that was once an enemy country.

 

He didn’t know what the two had a connection for, but at least Victor knew that his lord was deeply in love with her.

 

It was to the extent that, despite the strong opposition from the Imperial family, he even obtained permission for engagement from the Emperor.

 

“I don’t know what kind of crazy situation this is.”

 

Caius, his eyelids half-opened, murmured as if laughing. His forehead was wrinkled, as if he had no intention of hiding his displeasure.

 

It was unfamiliar to her, as she had never seen it before. Leah, holding her breath and not saying a word to him, slowly grabbed the hem of her dress with trembling hands.

 

“…Caius.”

 

When she finally opened her mouth, her face was precarious, as if she could barely hold back her tears.

 

Caius, in the past, would have jumped up and comforted her. But now, he just watched what she was going to say with his eyes slightly open.

 

“This ring… Don’t you remember?”

 

Leah held out her trembling hand in front of his eyes. The ring on her ring finger fell into his eyes.

 

“You gave it to me. Before leaving.”

 

Her voice trembled as she pressed down each word.

 

The moonlit night before Caius left for an expedition. To Leah, that night three years ago was still so vivid.

 

That day, Caius hugged Leah, who was weeping over their parting, and whispered kindly.

 

“Don’t cry, Leah. I will definitely come back alive.”

 

And with an uncharacteristic nervous look, he gently squeezed Leah’s hand. What he held out was a silver-white ring with a purple diamond adorning the centre.

 

It was a ring containing the colours of her amethyst eyes and silver hair.

 

“When I come back, let’s get married.”

 

Recalling his still, clear voice, Leah bit her lip to keep from crying.

 

She raised her head with a desperate heart, but Caius, staring at her ring, only asked lowly, “You mean I proposed to you?”

 

Looking at him without any expression, Leah nodded her head with difficulty. Caius, who twitched his lips lightly, met her gaze.

 

“How can I believe that?”

 

At his cold gaze and even colder voice, Leah’s watery eyes froze at once.

 

This ring proved the day. Her clear memory became the evidence of that day.

 

But Leah knew for sure at this moment. That a man with such a cold face wouldn’t believe anything she had to say.

 

While Leah’s fingertips trembled at the surging reality, Caius straightened his body from leaning against the wall.

 

The gap in their eye level widened a little more. There was no hesitation in walking past Leia, who was clumsy.

 

“Victor, take the woman out. And don’t let anyone in for a while.”

 

Caius gave a low command and opened the large window. The straight back looked ruthless.

 

It seemed that his lost memories and the woman who claimed to be his fiancé had nothing to do with him.

 

Looking back at him, Leah’s lips trembled slightly.

 

People once said that Caius was possessed by something. They said that Princess Ainel might have used magic to capture him.

 

Otherwise, he, the Prince, could not have taken a hostage from an enemy country as his fiancée.

 

Her heart sank whenever she heard such words, but she was able to assert herself nonetheless. It wasn’t witchcraft or trickery that won his heart.

 

But now she couldn’t be sure of that. The man in front of her felt so unfamiliar.

 

“Lady Leah.”

 

Victor cautiously approached her, quaking. It was to fulfill his lord’s orders.

 

Swallowing her breath, Leah had no choice but to move on with heavy steps. However, her gaze could hardly be separated from Caius.

 

As she managed to get out with heavy steps, Victor, who had closed the door, removed his hand from supporting her.

 

“I know you must have been puzzled and surprised, but… First of all, I think we should observe the situation a little more.”

 

“…”

 

“As you heard earlier, sometimes the aftereffects of an accident appear late. As time passes, memories may come back, so don’t worry too much…”

 

Leah, barely able to hear Victor’s words, lowered her eyelids helplessly.

 

‘Will his memories really come back after time passes? What if it doesn’t come back…?’

 

In the past three years without Caius, she had broken down and weakened several times. Even so, she was able to capture her heart in the end because of his promise to come back.

 

However, after a long wait, he returned safely and did not remember Leah. He even denied her existence. How can she easily accept this reality?

 

“That, how much His Highness valued Lady Leah. He will definitely come back to normal. For sure.”

 

Leah slowly closed and opened her throbbing eyes, barely giving a nod.

 

Only she remembered everything.

 

She knew Caius.

 

“Don’t think about anything else. Just think about what you want.”

 

On the day she received the marriage proposal, the man whispered to Leah, who was hesitant to answer. As she recalled that sweet voice, the storm in her heart calmed down a little.

 

Yes, everything will be fine.

 

Desperately, Leah breathed slowly.

 

However, feeble hopes could not always overcome the forebodings.

 

* * *

 

Several days after, the Imperial Palace, which came to the Imperial Army’s return ceremony, was buzzing.

 

Celebrations continued beyond the southern border, where the Hercesian Empire was taken three generations ago.

 

Caius, who had been praised for conquering the territory and subjugating it to the Empire, was now preparing to become the next Crown Prince.

 

Everything went smoothly. Only Leah waited for him, enduring the bloody time.

 

In the evening, just after 15 days, Caius suddenly called Leah to his palace.

 

Leah, who was alone in the bedroom and lost in thought, heard the news from the servant and ran to the Imperial Palace with a hopeful face.

 

“One month.”

 

But when she finally arrived at his office, Caius, who sat in front of the table, only informed her with an indifferent face.

 

“Let’s continue the engagement for that much more.”

 

After waiting for three years, what came back was such a cruel declaration of breakup.

 

Caius thoughtlessly turned over a document, not even thinking about listening to her answer. Leah’s breathing trembled as she looked at the emotionless man in front of her eyes.

 

Caius, who she knew, was not so cruel.

 

Leah, who closed her eyes tightly due to blurred vision, slowly lifted her eyelids. She took a step closer to him.

 

“Caius.”

 

Caius, who was looking at the documents, finally raised his eyes. Emotions rushed in as soon as their eyes met, and Leah bit her mouth.

 

“Just a little more. Think about it.”

 

Her quivering eyes went down to the back of Caius’ hand with the papers.

 

“The time we shared was really long, so obviously… There will be memories of me somewhere.”

 

She continued, looking at the burn on the back of her hand as if caressing it.

 

“Remember me. Let me help you.”

 

Leah, who swallowed the rising despair, whispered with determined eyes. Caius, who looked at her with a subtle expression, was silent for a moment.

 

The straight eyebrows narrowed as if measuring something but eventually returned to their original state. He tilted his head lazily, staring at Leah’s face emotionlessly.

 

“Well, do I have to remember?”

 

The voice that leaked into her ears was unfamiliar.

 

It was so unfamiliar that, like a dagger, it pierced Leah’s already half-ragged heart once more.

 

“If you were an important person to me, I wouldn’t have forgotten you in the first place. Don’t you think so?”

 

There was no answer. Because she didn’t know what to say.

 

Leah just stared at the heartless man in front of her. Then, at some point, her view went blurry.

 

The blurry face of a man overlapped with the face of a lover who once whispered love to her.

 

And going back a little further, the blunt but friendly face of the boy overlapped.

 

Tears welled up when she recalled the warm time.

 

As she slowly lowered her head, Leah’s vision was covered in the old memories one by one.

***