Son Ombre

Ep 4

I kept my royal walk down the stairs while Peter was waiting for me downstairs, holding out his hand.  

With his help, I stepped down and stood on the straight floor. I looked back at our ship and smiled at myself. The air was so different, it was cool but pleasant, not as frozen as in Denmark.

For a strange reason I couldnt explain to myself, I felt I had come home To my parents' house, to the house where I grew up, smelled the smell that hung in the air and looked around me.

"Come on, the carriages are waiting for us." Peter didnt wait for my response and took my hand. The light run to the carriage was as short as the road to the Imperial Empire.

It was the happiest moment of my life.

When I saw through the window two young men dressed in traditional Korean clothes, standing with swords beside their bodies and opening the gates of the Empire, I let out a sigh of relief.

- "Here we are." Peter's Danish accent always made me laugh, but this time something else occupied me, something I dreamed of for a long time, something I thought I would never see again, alive, ever except my dreams.

The soldiers stood at attention and then I felt that pain on the left side, it was my heart.

It was my heart that died as soon as the carriage stopped. Peter looked up at me and stroked my hand, he murmured a few words in Korean before he left the carriage, and I followed him immediately.

We met with a deep bow one of the emperor's important men, he also wore a traditional red outfit, it was velvety and there was a ribbon on his head, his mustache was long and gray.

His age was quite old and he muttered a few words in Korean.

As Peter exchanged a few words with me, I adjusted my dress and heard a voice that said stiffly and loudly, almost shouting.

It was the commander of the army.

And standing next to him was the deputy commander who stood infront of my eyes. a few meters from me.

The soldiers' eyes look forward and I look for my memory.

A strong shudder passes through my body.

At a quick glance, my eyes returned to the deputy commander and, upon hearing the commander's order, the soldiers' feet were pinned to the ground and their hands raised to salute.

My heart began to change its rhythm as I turned my head sideways again, to the right side, and caught that slanted, korean pair of eyes.

The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.

As they salute and look forward, he blinks and pushes them away as he looks at mine and I am in his.

I see how he tries to keep his expression serious and fixed on his face and I look at him all with one glance.

He recognizes me.

His body, his upright posture, his eyes, his nose, his lips, his hardened features, grew older.

The first time my eyes caught him, I was seventeen, and now I'm twenty.

And nothing is as it used to be.

I open my eyes when I notice him continue to look at me while he salutes, wearing his army uniform and his military cap on his head.

I dropped my head quickly, thinking of his face when I first saw him, and now he looked like I'd always imagined him. I tried to keep his face in my fresh memory.