By Zephyria 
His chest felt tight. Breathing was a little difficult.
Adrian ignored all the subordinates who were prostrating themselves at his feet and moved his heavy steps. It would be good to sleep. Because when he slept… he often had unusually unrealistic dreams.
He had been dreaming for quite some time. He had never told Noah. When did it start, was it from around the time the world started to go awry? Occasionally, Noah Hamilton’s boyhood, which he had never seen, often appeared in his dreams. The dreams were terribly vivid, but most of them were forgotten after waking up. The only impression that remained for him was that young Noah was terribly lovely. Even when he had people bring him Noah’s childhood portraits, they were not as good as what he had witnessed in his dreams.
‘Adrian!’
Noah Hamilton, who only existed in his dreams, burst into laughter with a clear voice and ran to him, fearlessly hugging him. Why was the sight of the impudent little boy hugging him and dangling his legs so heartbreaking? It was definitely a happy dream, but strangely, his heart felt empty after waking up. Some days, tears would fall for no reason.
On those days, he would somehow make time to go see Noah in reality. When he didn’t have time, he would secretly sneak in and just watch his sleeping face.
The face of Noah Hamilton, sleeping peacefully and breathing softly. For some reason, he watched the thin chest rise and fall gently with each breath without realizing how much time had passed. Why was it so admirable that his sharp nose was breathing?
It was something that would never happen, but in some terrible dreams, Noah Hamilton would take his own life, leaving him behind. The details were, as always, scattered the moment he woke up from the dream, but only the terrible sorrow he experienced in the dream remained vividly in his heart.
He never imagined that he would experience that terrible sorrow again in reality.
‘Ugh…’
If he had known this would happen, he would have just looked at him and not said anything. He should have woken him up and talked to him. Without being mean. Without tormenting him. Just as he felt, to his heart’s content. That you… look so pretty. It seems I really…
Looking at the statue placed at the end of the hallway leading to the sleeping quarters, Adrian habitually recited the prayer. God, please return him to me. His rough face was no longer moist. He had even forgotten how to cry. He was a skeptic who had used God his whole life, but had never relied on God. If Noah Hamilton could come back alive, he was prepared to be reborn as a more devout fanatic than anyone else.
Even with faith as small as a mustard seed, you can bring the dead back to life, can’t you? If the problem is that my faith is small, I will give anything to make up for the insufficient faith, so please, please, please.
The next day. Instead of Little Count, who was under house arrest, Frederick Hamilton of the Royal Knights came to the Crown Prince Palace tirelessly and requested the annulment of the engagement. The reason was that a tombstone without a coffin because the body could not be found was still a tomb, and he wanted to build it in the family’s tomb, not the royal family’s tomb. Adrian did not allow it.
It had been two months since Noah Hamilton’s disappearance. It was now a time when even he had to admit that Noah was really dead.
The ashes that had been burned became oil again.
“Your, Your Highness…! Young Master Hamilton…!”
Noah Hamilton had returned.
Noah Hamilton… was alive. Alive and safe… he had returned to his side.
Ah. In the midst of this extreme joy and excitement. Adrian wanted to shatter into white foam without a trace at this very moment. If possible, with his one and only… lover, who had been swept away by the waves.
“Young Master!”
A tear-soaked, youthful face was buried in my chest, and I couldn’t hear anything. The sound of sobbing and crying was so contagious that no one in this place was not crying.
“…I’m sorry.”
I tried to pretend I was okay, but even I couldn’t keep my composure. My voice trembled whenever I tried to say a word.
“I’m sorry, Nicole… I… I was too late.”
“Sob, I, I was so worried… Young Master, really, what if something happened to you, sob, sniff… Waaaaah…”
Nicole’s hand, clutching my clothes as if she would never let go even if she died, was full of veins. The nanny seemed to be stopping Nicole with words, but in action, she was just turning her head back and trying to calm her crying.
“……”
“No, Noah… Noah…”
Andrew and Frederick couldn’t even come near me and were frozen pale. It was only natural that even those two people’s faces were covered in tears.
It had been two months since I fell off the cliff and disappeared. I had finally come back alive.
Officially, I was said to have been rescued by an old herbalist couple living deep in the mountains. Of course, they were people Carlisle had planted in advance. The wolf that was trying to drag me away when I fell off the cliff died, and I was lucky enough to survive by using the wolf’s body as a cushion, but I was swept away by the swollen river due to the rain and drifted far away. The kind-hearted herbalist couple rescued me after I lost consciousness and drifted away, but because they were both so old, they couldn’t go down the mountain, so they couldn’t send any news until I had fully recovered and came down to the nearby territory myself.
It was a pretty natural story. I had matched the words in advance and braced myself one last time as I came down the mountain. I was expecting that there would be no teleportation stone in the small territory in a pretty remote place, and it would take about a week to borrow a carriage and head to the capital.
But the lord’s response was faster than I expected. As soon as I appeared at the castle gate without revealing my identity, he was shocked and ran over, immediately reporting the situation to the capital through the emergency reporting system used during wartime, and I took a seat in the lord’s castle’s guest room. And it took less than an hour for the members of the Hamilton Count family, led by Andrew, and the Crown Prince to come to the guest room where I was.
Andrew, Frederick, Nicole, and the nanny came to see me representing the Hamilton Count family. Because there were only two teleportation stones that could be scraped together as much as possible, a debate was about to break out over who would go right away, but the Crown Prince provided additional support with what he had, so Nicole and the nanny were able to come as well. It was a grateful thing. He had come down alone without a single attendant.
“……”
Nicole, who was crying in my arms, and the nanny, who was barely stroking my shoulder with trembling hands. The two brothers, standing a few steps away, were staring at me blankly and shedding tears.
I bit my lip, afraid that my tear ducts would burst if I let my guard down even a little. I didn’t deserve to cry. They were people who had experienced sadness that they didn’t have to experience because of what I had caused and planned. To be honest, I knew that they would be hurt if I planned something like this without saying anything, but I was the one who forced it through to the end because I didn’t know where the words would leak from.
I was trying to comfort Nicole while trying to appear calm. I felt a stinging gaze on the side of my face. It was the Crown Prince, no, Adrian’s gaze.
He didn’t come and cling to me like Nicole, nor did he shed tears like the two brothers. He was just staring at me without blinking an eye.
“……”
Bloodshot eyes and sunken cheeks. He looked too shabby and insignificant to be the Crown Prince of a country. The murderous intent in his eyes was so intense that if someone who didn’t know the situation saw it, they would have thought he was the enemy of his family.
It was a strange thing. In reality, it had only been about two months since we had been apart, but it felt like I was seeing him after a very long time. He was no longer the Crown Prince trapped in the framework of the original game to me. He couldn’t be just a Love interest who loved Allen.
“Why……”
His voice trembled slightly.
In the countless timelines that had been repeated so many times. The cold and cruel appearance of the Crown Prince, who had insulted me countless times and trampled on me because he loved Allen, was now shattered and disappeared.
It wasn’t him who trampled on me. It was not him, but my past self, and the petty God’s will that wanted to wield me as he pleased.
The curves I experienced in the last life that finally came were by no means small to replace it with only that. It was definitely like that.
“Why are you just standing there and watching…”
The murderous purple eyes were not scary at all. I could clearly see it in my eyes, which had regained all my memories. He didn’t look angry now. He didn’t hate me either. He was just… scared.
“Didn’t you want to see me, Your Highness?”
Ah, I don’t know anymore. I don’t want to argue about whose fault is bigger or smaller.
“…That’s a cheap question.”
“……”
“While knowing very well that it could never be.”
He was my Adrian. Irresistibly lovely and sinful. Noah Hamilton’s Adrian.