“We're about to be trapped,” Cornelia said. She kept twirling the pen in her hand over her finger. “There's an army in Pararel, and one coming from the north. There is an enemy army in Vermia. They will trap us.”

“Then we must retreat and prepare better. Otherwise the army will be lost and our chances of taking Vermia will be ruined. Furthermore, we might lose the all war without our armies. That’s a gamble, and not worth to do risk.”

Yu Valarfin wanted to take Vermia to fulfill Yurine's dream. Sivina would take over where he left off, even if he was not there.

“But we can’t do that now.”

Vermia was too important a position to be abandoned, but the Church of Andromeda had abandoned it. Sivina thought they would face an army of more than thirty thousand men, Cornelia's army was twelve thousand.

The first reinforcements brought by the Cathedral of Virgo were down to two thousand men, and even if the second reinforcement somehow managed to arrive, they would still be outnumbered.

“Even though I tell her, she doesn't understand. With so few soldiers you can only crush stupid villagers.”

“Shut up or I’ll put my fist to your mouth.”

At Cornelia's threat, Cecilus instantly fell silent and his eyes filled with pitiful anger. He looked as if he would have drowned his sister in a spoonful of water if he could, but right now he was clearly afraid of her.

“I will take back Vermia. This is my home.”

There was an undeniable determination in Cornelia's eyes. Cornelia was here to triumph or die.

Sivina respected her choice, but that didn't change the fact that it was a stupid one.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Cecilus was right about the current situation. Cornelia's army was only strong enough to bully the peasants. And besides fighting, soldiers had jobs to do and families to support, and the country's economy suffered when they were away from their work.

Summer was getting closer and closer, and when the harvest came in the fields, the already demoralized soldiers would want to go home.

“As far as we know, there are exactly seven thousand five hundred enemy troops inside the walls. Seven thousand five hundred have retreated to the city of Pararel and may come here in larger numbers from there. An enemy army of up to twenty thousand men will come from the north. It is safe to assume that we will face an enemy army of more than thirty-five thousand.”

Surrounded on all sides by an enemy with superior numbers, they would be annihilated and lose everything. This was the fate that awaited Cornelia.

“I know that.”

Of course Cornelia was aware of the situation and Sivina didn't want to say that she was wrong too. After all, this was her home.

“This is all the strength I have. That's all I can muster, that's all I can do. I have to take the result with what I have.”

Maybe by saying this she could convince her commanders to fight, but Sivina would not be convinced by this. Someone here had to think logically.

“Before the enemy forces reached the city, we wanted to break through the walls with siege engines and take the city and meet the enemy inside the city. This is no longer possible because we failed. We are outside the walls and the army will be destroyed when the enemy arrives. What do you plan to do?”

“We will create a line of defense and-”

Cornelia's plan was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of bells. The campsite echoed with the sound of the bells and the soldiers' voices were clearly heard inside their tents.

“Get in position!” someone was shouting.

“Run!” another soldier was saying.

Everyone sitting inside the tent suddenly stood up and rushed out. It was a riotous scene. Everyone was running towards the Jade River.

“Your Highness!”

A knight with a lion motif on his plate armor stood before Cornelia and gave a military salute.

“Did we get raided?” Cornelia asked in a hurry.

The first idea that came to Sivina's mind was also the possibility of a raid. Since the soldiers were running westwards, it could be assumed that an unexpected attack was coming from the east.

But the soldiers were running like they were going to war, weapons in hand. If they were running from enemy, they would have abandoned their weapons and there was nowhere to run to in the west.

“No, Lady Vermilia. The Jade Dragon is here!”

Sivina closed and opened her eyelids as she looked at the soldier. If her ears were not deceiving her, she had heard the dragon that had attacked them coming this way.

They all looked up, there was a green dot in the sky that was getting bigger and bigger.

“Did he follow us?”

The ships that had not burned during the dragon attack had fled, leaving the burning ships behind. Just before the ships had sailed away and the dragon was out of sight, Sivina saw the dragon circling and roaring over the completely burned and sinking ships.

Now he had come after them to hunt the remaining ships? Sivina thought they were running away from him. How could she have known that the Jade Dragon would be angry enough to come out of the lake?

“Stupid bitch! Why did you bring it after you!”

Cecilus, who hadn't made a good impression from the first moment they met and who was getting on Cornelia's nerves with every word, finally managed to get on Sivina's nerves too.

But while Sivina had the arguments to refute the whore accusation, she had no arguments to refute the accusation that she had brought the dragon after them. If the dragon had come here, it had followed them and had come to complete its revenge.

“Get in the tent, Cecilus!”

Before Sivina could say anything, Cornelia hit him with the back of her hand and Cecilus fell on his back. It was Cecilus's mouth where Cornelia had hit him and the boy's lip was split.

Cornelia was yelling at him, but Sivina never thought she would hit him. Cecilus ran into the tent, holding his bleeding lip with his hand.

“I apologize for his words,” Cornelia said.

Sivina didn't answer, she just waited, clutching her sword, but Kigaro spoke for her.

“If you hadn't done it, we would have done it.”

It was a crime to hit a noble, and here was another noble, albeit the one who had hit the noble. Normally what Kigaro said would have been disrespected and punished if Cornelia and Cecilus were on good terms.

But Cornelia didn't seem to mind if Kigaro were hitting him.

“Bring my komodor,” she said to the knight in front of him.

“Yes, sir!”

Despite the plate armor, the knight shot out like an arrow and disappeared.

“You two go to Yurine. If the dragon approaches her, take her and run.”

Kigaro and Dimen ran away. Not thirty seconds later, Cornelia's mount arrived. It was a white komodor, eight meters long, covered in black armor. It was almost twice Sivina's height off the ground and drooled yellow drool from its mouth.

Cornelia climbed up using the ladder hanging from the animal's saddle and bent down to offer Sivina her hand.

“Come!”

Climbing on top of the animal, Sivina was riding a komodor for the first time. She was used to rinos and horses, but traveling at such a height would be a first for her.

“Run!” At Cornelia's command, the animal started running towards the river. It was faster than a rino and a horse could not keep up with it.

They looked up in the air and saw the green dot getting bigger and bigger. As they approached the river, the green dot had already taken the shape of a dragon, but as it came towards them, it suddenly changed direction and went towards Vermia.

“What's going on?” Cornelia muttered. She was talking to herself.

The dragon circled over Vermia, flying low for a few minutes. Then it rose a little and then began to descend towards the crowd near the river.

When the dragon landed, thousands of soldiers surrounded him. She couldn't see Virgo Cathedral's soldiers, but Cornelia's soldiers were at least brave even when they unmotivated.

Arrows were strung, waiting for a command, ready to be shot at the dragon.

The Jade Dragon roared. It roared again and Sivina squeezed Cornelia's waist in fear. Her hands were shaking.

“Don't let them attack...” Sivina warned.

Cornelia looked at her out of the corner of her eye, then nodded and called out to her soldiers. “Wait!”

Cornelia had heard Sivina's story and learned that they had incurred the dragon's wrath for attacking the dragon. If they attack before the dragon attacked, they might once again anger the dragon, which had no intention of attacking.

Her soldiers waited for the next command. Sivina sat behind Cornelia, looking over her shoulder at the dragon.

“Why did he land? Won't he attack?”

The dragon dropped its right wing. Someone appeared on the dragon's back and started walking on the wing. He was coming down.

“The dragon brought a human?”

The human descended from the dragon's back and looked at the dragon for a while, and after the dragon brought its face close to him and let out steam from its nose, it stepped back a little and flapped its wings. Meanwhile, the human crouched down and supported himself with one hand to avoid falling because of the wind.

The dragon rose and the higher it rose, the more he flapped his wings. The ground was covered in a cloud of dust. As the human brought by the dragon watched the beast move away, the dragon grew smaller and smaller, until it finally became a green dot and disappeared from sight.

The human brought by the dragon looked around and saw thousands of soldiers surrounding him. Looking forward, he noticed the white komodor that Cornelia and Sivina were riding. It was very small compared to the dragon, but big enough to be notice.

Cornelia willingly stepped forward, but as the incoming human approached, the soldiers formed a shield wall in front of Cornelia to protect their commander against this mysterious being.

“STOP THERE!”

When the incoming human stopped at the command of the soldiers, Sivina barely realized who it was. He looked like a different person. His clothes and hair were covered in mud. His face was pale like that of a dead person and he was missing a hand.

But his brown hair, handsome face and violet eyes were the same.

“Yu...”

Sivina's sea-green eyes suddenly filled with tears. She jumped off her mount and ran towards Yu, breaking through the soldiers in front of her, with Cornelia looking on in amazement.

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“YU! YU!”

She thought he was dead. She thought he was dead because of her.

But now she saw that he was alive.

He was in such a terrible state that anyone who looked at him would feel a stab of pain in their heart, but he was still alive.

“YU!”

She ran up to him and jumped on his neck. Yu didn't say anything.

Sivina rested her cheek on his cheek and kept calling his name as she cried.

“YU!”

Yu was wet on top of her, his wetness was getting on Sivina, but it was fair because Sivina's tears were also on Yu's cheeks.

“YU! YU! YU! YU!”

For a minute, she kept shouting his name in his ear. When she finally moved her face away from his, Yu's pale lips parted a little and he murmured.

“Sivina...”

“YES?”

“Where's Yurine?”

***

Yu Valarfin's arrival at the camp terrified everyone, and his first wish was to see his daughter.

Sivina took him to the tent where Yurine was sleeping and showed him his daughter. She thought he would be relieved to see her sleeping safely, but nothing changed on his pale face.

He just moved his lips slightly and said, “Good.”

He would not answer any questions. Cornelia prepared a tent and a bath for Yu and decided to talk to him after he had rested.

“I'm naked.”

“I can see it.”

Sivina entered Yu's tent. Yu was sitting in a tub of hot water. His skin was paler than usual and his eyes... There was chaos in his amethyst violet eyes.

“I'm not questioning the strength of your eyesight, I'm questioning why you went into a naked man's tent,” Yu said.

“I'm the only girl in my family who grew up with brothers running naked down the hallway from the bathroom. It's not the first time I've seen the male body. And I'm not here to look under your body.”

Sivina was the only girl in her family and her brothers were literally wild. Once a week they would escape from the bath and run naked through their mansion, painting the faces of the servants red if they saw them.

For Sivina, their behavior had become commonplace and it was okay if she saw Yu's body.

“I'm not your brother.”

“Yes, you're a stranger I don't know.”

She didn't deny that Yu's body was beautiful, but she had imagined it more muscular. She questioned whether the training she made him do was working.

She saw that his shoulders were not as broad as she had thought when he was naked and his chest was not as muscular. Still, he had a well-proportioned and athletic body and Sivina found him aesthetic.

As Sivina walked slowly towards Yu, Yu lowered his eyes to the floor and stared at the water. He had both arms out of the tub. One hand was touching the floor and the other arm was dangling in the air.

Sivina pulled the chair from the tent behind him and sat down to wash Yu's hair, which was not wet enough.

Normally, to better cleanse the body, they would add an herbal medicine to the water during bathing, which would change the color of the water to dark blue.

But Yu was in no mood to do anything, so he hadn't even opened the lid of the medicine, and that's why Sivina could see what was under the water.

Yu's white penis with a pink head looked different then her brothers', and Sivina involuntarily rubbed her knees together at the sight of it.

She thought she was used to it, but this was the first time she had seen someone who was not her brother. She swallowed and looked at it for a while longer, even though she wanted to look away. When she had looked long enough, questioning what she was doing, she took the medicine from the side of the tub and poured it into the water.

It was a good thing Yu had turned around, otherwise he would have seen Sivina's face for the first time, truly red, and Sivina didn't want that to happen.

When the medicine mixed with the water and gave it a dark blue color, Sivina could no longer see Yu's lower half. She grabbed a basin and poured water over his head until she was sure his hair was completely wet.

Yu slouched as the water ran down his shoulders. He allowed Sivina to wash him as if it was normal.

Sivina dipped her fingers into a jar, picked up the shampoo and rubbed it into Yu's hair.

There was dried mud at the roots of his brown hair. Sivina lathered the shampoo to soften the dirt so that it was easier to clean.

“Do you love me?” Yu asked. There was no life in the voice. It was cold, emotionless and empty.

Sivina began to rub her knees together more vigorously. It was already more embarrassing to wash him than he had imagined, and now hearing the question made her red face burn hot. Sivina could feel the heat in her cheeks.

And the heat was not exclusive to his cheeks.

“I-I don't have romantic feelings...” She stammered her answer. She had never felt romantic feelings for anyone before, and not knowing what those feelings were like, she wasn't sure her answer was correct.

As she continued to wash Yu's hair, she tilted her head a little and looked at half of his face. He had closed his eyes.

He had all the requirements to make a girl fall in love with him. He was handsome, he was smart, and he had a sense of fatherhood.

But Sivina was unsure of her feelings. Why had he suddenly asked such a thing?

“Y-yet... I love... I guess.”

It was the first time she had ever told a man, other than her relatives, that she loved him, even though she had previously declared herself unromantic. It was embarrassing, she was so embarrassed. She bit her lip and spread her legs apart when she realized that she was rubbing her knees together with such force that they were hot.

But this time she felt something different, something wetter between her legs.

Yu remained silent. Sivina wondered if his face was still lifeless, but she didn't look down again and continued washing his hair. Her brothers also played in the mud and got their hair dirty, but Yu must have buried his head in the mud, there was no other explanation for the filth.

After making sure that there was no dirt left at the roots, she poured water again into Yu's hair with the water basin. Since she had washed her own hair twice with shampoo, after cleaning Yu's hair she washed it again and again poured water to wash the foam out of his hair.

Sivina felt like washing his back and Yu seemed to need it. She took the glove-shaped washcloth, put the soap on it, put it against Yu's back and began to scrub.

“I will tell Ana,” Yu said.

“That thing...”

Ana was the one that Yu completely misunderstood and quickly closed the door on. He thought the two of them were in love.

Maybe Ana had those feelings for Sivina, and Sivina loved her very much indeed, but she was not in romantic love. Unlike now, she had never felt so hot around Ana that her knees rubbed together.

“Yu,” she said. She was calling him by name now and it felt so nice to use his name. “You misunderstood that matter and hung up without letting me explain. Ana... She kissed me, but I don't have romantic feelings for her, it was completely against my will. I'm not in love with her, I don't feel that way about girls.”

“I see. I am sorry.”

She felt a heavy weight lifted from her chest because she could finally tell him the truth.

“Did Yurine try to hurt herself after I left?”

Yu's question reminded Sivina of moments she didn't want to remember again. Now that Yu had arrived, she hoped Yurine would be back to normal and she didn't want to think about it again.

“Did you know it would be like this?”

“She had this attitude after her mother died.”

At the end of the summer, the Sigma Tower in Capital Rolderhelm had burned down and Sivna had learned that Yurine’s mother had died in there. She knew that Yu and Yurine had witnessed her death and had recently learned that it was an assassination planned by Cecilus.

But apart from that, she knew almost nothing about Yurine's mother.

“Yes. Yurine tried to hurt herself. We put her down with bird's milk when we got here so she wouldn't hurt herself.”

Bird's milk was a strong medicine and was rarely used to put people to sleep when they were suffering from deathly illness.

“There is a mistake in the story my grandmother told me. She said that sword fairies die after the person they love dies. Didn't Yurine love her mother? If she continued to live after she died, the story is not true.”

Otherwise Yurine would have been dead already, but after Yu's departure, Yurine really looked like she would have killed herself if they had let her go. Sivina didn't know what was right.

“I've heard that sword fairies die after leaving the person they love, so I was very worried about her.”

“The dragon told me something similar.”

“Jade Dragon told you?!”

Even though it was something that one could never forget, it was out of Sivina's mind because of happiness. If Yu had come here with a dragon, he must have made a deal with him somehow, but how had he gotten to him?

“Yes.”

“Yu, what happened after you fell into the water?”

That was what she was most curious about. Sivina had jumped into the water right after him, but no matter how hard she searched, she couldn't find Yu. Yu had disappeared into the sea.

“When I fell into the water, all I could think was that I didn't want to die. I don't remember what happened next. When I woke up, it was morning and I was on an island.”

“But you said you can't swim.”

On the way to İlonya, she remembered that Yu had said she couldn't swim. So she couldn't understand how he reached Jade Island, the only island in that lake. Yu answered in exhaustion:

“I don't know, Sivina. I don't understand what happened.”

After Sivina finished washing his back, she moved to his arms. With one hand she lifted Yu's right arm and washed it from armpit to fingertips. Then she did the same with the other arm, but this time she was only able to wash it up to the wrist.

“Then I turned around and the dragon was right there. I was nose to nose with him, I felt his breath on my face.”

“And then?”

“I got scared and peed my pants.”

She could understand this brave confession. Sivina was sure she would have been the same in his place, but she never thought the proud Yu Valarfin would say such a thing.

“I don't know why he waited until I woke up, but he was going to kill me. He opened his mouth and prepared to spray his flames on me. I buried my head in the ground and begged him.”

Sivina's curiosity grew as his story continued. Yu, on the other hand, maintained the same callousness with every word.

“Then I heard the dragon's words in my head. He offered me a deal, either I would find his heart and bring it to him, or I would give him one of my hands, and in return he would bring me here.”

He could clearly see the choice Yu had made, he had chosen to give his hand.

“I thought it would be either too dangerous or too time-consuming to find his heart, so I immediately offered my hand to return to Yurine. He then took it and brought me here.”

For the first time she felt that Yu was telling her something honestly. After washing his arms, she washed his neck and scrubbed behind his ears. Then it was time for his chest.

Sivina moved the chair she was sitting on a little closer to the bathtub to wash Yu's chest. When her hand went to his chest, she felt her heart speed up and Yu leaned back, breaking his slouched position.

His head was between Sivina's breasts.

“Huh?” Sivina was looking up at his head. It was perfectly placed between her two breasts.

She had put on new clothes because her clothes had gotten wet after hugging Yu, but now they were getting wet again.

“W-well...” Sivina said nothing as her hands and lips trembled. Yu's head was between her breasts so she couldn't lean down to look at his face.

“Have you ever felt feelings you didn't know the name of before?” Yu asked.

Sivina was feeling emotions she didn't know the name of at this very moment. What about Yu? Did he have feelings for her? Was that why he had asked her that?

“When you think about it... He also asked me if I love him, or if he loves me... But it can't be, it's never happened before... No, no it can't be...”

She nodded and continued to wash Yu's chest. Sivina's heart beat faster and faster as her hand moved down to his waist and she could feel the wetness beneath her growing a little more.

“I loved my sisters and I loved Yurine the way I loved them.” Sivina held her breath as Yu began to speak. “But when I woke up this morning, there was a warmth in my chest that I had never felt before. Warmth. This thing... I can't make sense of it.”

Sivina couldn't make sense of what she was feeling either. She felt the same as Yu.

“Is he talking about me? He saved me... Is it about me?”

“Whatever,” Yu said. “I guess you don't know the answer either.”

Sivina finished washing him. The bottom part was left unwashed, but Yu had to do that on his own. She wanted to get up and leave the tent before Yu saw her red face, but he grabbed her hand with his right hand.

“Keep teaching the sword.”

It was a request she did not expect to hear. She did not expect Yu to show determination to fight at this point.

“But...”

“I have to.”

Yu had people on his side who could fight for him. Why did he have to learn that?

But she did not want to say no to him. On the contrary, she was impressed by Yu's resolute. Yu was emotionless, but Sivina believed that he got exactly what he needed for the sword. Determination.

“I will teach you.”

Yu let go of her hand and Sivina stood up to leave the tent without turning to face him. Just before she left, Yu called out to her again.

“Sivina.”

Sivina didn't turn around this time because she was afraid he would see her red face, but she stopped and waited for her to speak.

“Thank you.”

Sivina smiled and left the tent, even though Yu could not see her.

***

“Come here!”

A blonde-haired man was chasing the girl as she skipped.

She cheerfully paced through the rooms of the house, running before the blond-haired man, but he managed to corner her.

“Oh!” she cried.

She was angry at being cornered and didn't want to give up. So she tried to pass between the legs of the blonde-haired man who was panting.

“You failed, little lady.”

He grabbed her by the armpits, lifted her into the air and planted a wet kiss on her cheek, his red eyes shining.

“Emily, how long are you going to make me chase you?”

Her name was Emily. She was a nine-year-old child with blond hair and red eyes, like her father.

“Dad, a little more!”

Emily still wanted to play and held the cat ears on the top of his head so that her father would not leave her. Her father had an important job and was busy most of the day and the little time she had with her father was never enough.

“You know I have things to do,” Emily's father said.

“Yes, I know. Mom told me, you work for us.”

“Yes, it is.”

Emily's face fell when her father put her down. He couldn't in good conscience let her be sad, so he sighed deeply.

“Okay, okay... You win, I can stay here a little longer today.”

When her father announced that he would stay with her a little longer, Emily jumped on his waist. Caught off guard, she and her father fell to the ground.

When her father began to tickle Emily in her armpits, she laughed and tried to break free from his grasp, but it was not easy to break free from his strong arms. Her struggles were in vain and she was at his mercy. Tears welled up in her eyes as she laughed with her father.

But his laughter was interrupted when his father's red eyes began to darken. His father's eyes darkened and melted into two pairs of pits. Spiders were coming out of them.

Frightened by the spiders, Emily screamed and started kicking her father to get away from him.

But Emily was kicking the floor because her father was no more. Suddenly Emily was alone in the spider-infested house.

Emily screamed louder.

Her screams continued until the nightmare was shattered.

---

Emily's fear was piercing Yurine's chest. The screams were still fresh and ringing in her ears. Yurine quickly opened her eyes to escape the dream.

When she opened her eyes, she realized that the world she woke up in was no better than a dream.

Those who want to escape reality seek refuge in dreams, but Yurine's dreams and reality were equally terrifying and she had nowhere to run.

Yurine was a drowning person under the sea, but she was neither lost consciousness nor able to surface. She couldn't breathe, but she continued to live.

Would she die if she strangled herself? The answer was no, but Yurine didn't think about it, she put her hands to her throat. Maybe ripping her throat out would kill her. There was no need to live in a world where there was no love and no way to reach it.

“What are you doing?”

When she felt another hand on her throat, at first she thought it was Sivina, but it was a man's voice.

She said “Yu?” Her voice was full of hope.

“Yes, it's me.”

Yurine slowly turned her eyes and looked at the man standing next to her.

His skin was abnormally white, his eyes were filled with mournful joy, his brown hair was half wet and his lips were barely smiling.

He was not the father he had known the day before, he was different.

But he was still Yu Valarfin. Same body, same soul, same memories and same love.

She hugged Yu's neck, never noticing the absence of Yu's hand.

If this was a dream, Yurine did not want to wake up from it.