A Thousand Years | 𝐆𝐮𝐆𝐮

Chapter 23ᴘᴀʀᴛ1|ᴄᴀʟʟ ᴏғ sɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ

It was starting all over again.

Gusion numbly stare at the floor as everyone around him are wearing black. Everyone have somber looks in their faces as the entire Kwon and Qing Empire mourn for the lost of their supposed to be empress. Rows and rows of people have their heads bowed as the funeral of Lady Crane was held on the Qing's Palace grounds and garden.

The ministers beside him are watching and murmuring to one another silently as Harith is sobbing on his father's side, the emperor of the Kwon who have a dark look on his face.

"The emperor should start looking for a new empress candidate..."

Gusion refused to lift his head as his body is so numb. There's a ringing in his ears but he can still hear everyone's voices in his almost insane consciousness.

"Sshhh, our emperor is grieving right now. Please do respect him." One of the ministers whispered.

"I do not think someone could be so attached in an arrange marriage much less meeting them for less than one week. The emperor must only be thinking hard on who should be her next replacement." The minister of defense concluded.

"I actually brought the scroll of the possible next candidates." Another one whispered.

They whispered to one another as Gusion looked at them darkly and mournfully. Guinevere just died... a day ago. Why are they talking about replacing her already? Replace who? Replace fucking who?!

"How unfortunate for the princess to be assassinated while travelling in her palanquin..."

Gusion's eyes darkened once again at what he heard. Just one more... one more word from their filthy mouths, he would burn this empire to the ground.

"Enough. You all have disrespected our emperor and the late princess Crane. Be shameful."

The ministers bowed at the head imperial knight, Alpha, who is stoically watching and surveying everything around him. The ministers nodded as they gulped.

"Father..."

Gusion's tired and dimmed cerulean orbs looked at Nana who is gazing at him in pity and sympathy. Why... is she looking at him like that? Does she want to be killed by him? Does she want her eyes to be gouged out by his own hands?

"What?" He harshly answered her as she flinched.

"I-I'm sorry, it's nothing." She stood up and bowed once again as she shakes from fear.

The emperor is suddenly detached from the world. The smile he once showed at the wedding can no longer be spotted. Dark circles littered around his eyes that glared at everyone except for Harith. It was like... he died.

Or maybe he really did.

Guinevere is his life and she left him once again.

One day after the wedding, on the field of dandelions, she told him everything that she knows about their curse. During the denouement of the holy war when Gusion lost consciousness, she was awake barely hanging alive. She saw and heard how the curse was made for the both of them.

"The lady of light cursed us... yours is eternal life and mine is eternal reincarnation."

Her sad, sweet, and gentle voice echoed in his head.

"The curse was simple, you will forever live while I'll be forever reincarnated over and over again abnormally. The difference is that, I'll be reincarnated without ever meeting you in any of my lifetimes. It was mother's curse."