A man who had too much love for his wife and abused his child. A woman who knew it but didn’t think or do anything to stop him.

  Who did the wrong, and who was the odd one out could not be differentiated between them?

  Looking back, they were strange days. His father loved his wife to the extent that he was blind for her, but he still couldn’t prevent her from continually traveling to the Imperial Palace. He just believed in her and waited with hope that she would return and stay with him in the mansion, but he would continuously strike his child.

  Even after knowing that, his mother did nothing.

  In retrospect, she did like the child, had affection for him, but just didn’t love him. The days when he was waiting for the warmth to come by and make him smile, he was getting tamed by his father.

  The child was around six years old when he saw his mother kiss another man.

  After facing that situation, Assisi became distraught. He just seemed satisfied that he could figure out why his mother would never stay at their mansion.

  It was also when he turned six that he met Ferdel.

  His father’s friend’s son.

  It was the first time Assisi met someone his age. It wasn’t the first time for Ferdel to meet someone, but somehow, Assisi didn’t want to mingle with him, probably because he was the cursed child and couldn’t get too close to anyone.

  The same applied to his cousin, Sil.

  He never got too close to Sil because he liked her. The curse he had would only make Sil suffer. He loved his two friends too much to get close and destroy them. The world they lived in was very different from his world.

  The only one person who didn’t make Assisi feel bad about it was Caitel.

  A child who was very accustomed to pushing others away searched for a child who was similar to himself. When Assisi saw a child his age instinctively move away from others, he was relieved to meet him.

  It wasn’t just him.

  The place beside Caitel, who never pushed nor approached him, was the most special place Assisi had ever found.

  Being next to the Winter Tree made him feel at ease without doing anything. He was worried that an abandoned child like himself could take pleasure in the peace offered by the sacred tree, but Caitel told him that it didn’t matter. If it weren’t for those words, Assisi would have never been close to the Winter Tree.

  That was why he was there.

  When he was thirteen, when everyone said Caitel died, Assisi felt like he had lost his place again.

  “It can’t be. Your Majesty can……”


  “Sorry, but that is the truth. Just forget everything.”


  Fardel asked him to forget about it.

  To just forget.

  Assisi could never get himself to forget about the comfort Caitel had given him.

  How was he supposed to find it again?