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Chapter 190
It was a temple of towering white marble columns. A red carpet covered the marble steps leading to the entrance, and nameless flowers blended naturally around them, showing off their beauty.
Kinain marveled once again.
‘Seeing this, it’s like its collapse was a dream.’
The rebuilt temple was far grander than before — even opulent. It felt a little different from what one might expect of a solemn, sacred place, but that did not change the fact that it was a breathtakingly beautiful building.
Under ordinary circumstances, a place like this would have taken years just to build. In that sense, magic was nothing short of a miracle.
The moment Kinain had brought up the wedding, Asad had restored the temple in an instant, as though he had never been reluctant. It had taken mere seconds for the massive blocks of stone to become a temple. The reason it had become so lavish was probably that Asad thought of it only as the place where the wedding would be held, but in any case the ruined temple was repaired, so the gods would be satisfied, wouldn’t they?
Thinking of the statues that would stand inside the temple, Kinain murmured inwardly.
‘With this, I’ve kept my promise.’
Long ago, Kinain had offered a gold button at a shrine and promised that if his wish were granted, he would give something even better later. The god had granted his wish, so with this he had kept his promise.
Of course, when Kinain had told him about it, Asad hadn’t seemed to believe it much.
‘The gods do not involve themselves in the affairs of the mortal world. Even less would they show themselves at a human shrine.’
‘But I definitely heard a voice then.’
He had seen the hand taking the gold button he offered, and heard the voice whispering that his wish had been granted.
At the time he had thought it was a dream, but now he thought it might really have been a god’s voice.
‘Well, there are many gods — maybe one of them took pity on a human?’
When he said that, Asad didn’t deny it further. But Kinain had seen a faint pain cross Asad’s eyes. He seemed to think Kinain had hallucinated because he had been so ill then.
That might have been the case. But even if it had only been a delusion, the gods did truly exist, so it couldn’t hurt to get in their good graces, could it? After the wedding and having a child, he might go to the divine realm with Asad.
…Of course, that was if he could have a child.
The scars were gone, and so was the demonic energy that had ravaged his body. As if born anew, Kinain’s condition was better than ever. He had even been told that a dragon’s mate lives the same span of years as a dragon, and so would not age in this state.
Much had changed. The only thing that hadn’t changed was that this body was a recessive omega.
A recessive whose heat cycle didn’t even come properly. On top of that, as a man, his chances of pregnancy were extremely low.
Back when he was tainted by demonic energy, Kinain would have blamed himself for the fact that he might not be able to bear Asad an heir, digging himself a hole. He might even have thought it would be better for Asad to take a different mate than him. But the Kinain of now, with the demonic energy purged, thought differently.
‘Well, my husband’s a dragon — surely it’ll work out somehow? I hope the gods think so too.’
Above all, there was no more time to wallow in self-blame.
The wedding was beginning.
When Kinain walked toward the altar, instruments that did not exist in the human realm began to play.
Countless eyes were on him, but he was by nature not one to get nervous easily, and even now he had no sense of reality, as though dreaming a happy dream, so he didn’t tremble. Just as well — at least he wouldn’t make a mistake from nerves.
But the moment he saw Asad waiting at the altar, Kinain had to revise his thinking at once. ‘What…’
Asad, like Kinain, was dressed more splendidly than ever. Kinain sometimes forgot that Asad was a dragon, but at this moment he could only keenly feel that he was not a human being.
No, this was no time for that. Kinain barely pulled himself together and walked on. Fortunately the moment hadn’t been long, and it seemed no one had noticed he had nearly slipped.
Kinain grumbled inwardly.
‘This is too much. If he was going to look that good, he should have shown me once before the ceremony.’ He’d nearly stood there gaping forever.
At last Kinain arrived before Asad. Unlike him, Asad looked very composed even in this situation. Seeing Asad, Kinain, who had been inwardly flustered at his own slip, felt himself calm down as well.
Kinain recalled the next procedure.
‘First Asad greets the gods, then it’s my turn.’ Kinain waited for Asad to speak.
“…”
But no matter how long he waited, Asad’s lips did not open. He only stood there with his lips pressed shut, staring blankly at Kinain — without blinking once. Only then did Kinain realize.
‘Uh-oh.’
Asad’s face looked not just calm but almost indifferent. But looking a little more carefully, there were more than a few odd things. Not only had he not blinked once since their eyes met, his focus was oddly hazy.
As though his soul had left his body.
“…”
As the silence lengthened, the guests seemed to notice something was off, and a small murmur began.
At last Kinain called Asad in a low voice.
“Asad.”
“…”
Only at Kinain’s call did Asad blink dazedly. Seeing the hazy focus sharpen, Kinain felt relieved.
“Your Highness.”
Thankfully his wits seemed to have returned…
“You are too beautiful.”
…or had they?
Asad’s voice was not quiet at all — everyone heard it. Fortunately the wedding guests were all wise enough to pretend they hadn’t heard a word.
Kinain was flustered, but thinking that Asad had felt the same way looking at him as he had looking at Asad, he couldn’t help laughing.
“Thank you. You look handsome too.”
Asad’s cheeks flushed red. Asad, delighted like a child hearing his first compliment, was lovely.
Apart from the early hiccup, the wedding proceeded without trouble. After the great spirits’ blessings ended, only the final step remained.
“I, Asad, declare to the gods that by taking my mate in this place, I have found the dragon’s final scale.”
Kinain tensed slightly, but nothing he had imagined happened — no candles went out, no temple collapsed. The statues only gazed down at them in silence. The gods had accepted this wedding.
Phew — Kinain breathed a secret sigh of relief.
At that moment Asad took a step toward Kinain.
“Normally I would offer my first wish at this moment, but that has already been given…” Asad carefully took Kinain’s hand and lifted it. In his other hand, the one not holding Kinain’s, he held something.
Kinain’s eyes wavered greatly when he confirmed what it was.
Through their joined hands, Asad’s trembling came through. Or perhaps it was his own trembling.
“Your Highness has given me many things. Each and every one of them was more than I deserved.” The plain silver ring fit his finger perfectly.
As though it had been there from the start.
Kinain noticed that Asad wore the same ring on his own finger. Exchanging rings between lovers or spouses was not a custom that existed in the spirit realm. That was why Kinain hadn’t expected this either.
“…Now, I will give you what I have received.” Eternal love.
The moment Asad whispered, Kinain saw it.
Their rings, joined by a thread of golden light.
The golden thread, joined so precariously it looked as though it might break yet never did, shone brightly, and a familiar landscape unfolded before Kinain’s eyes.
The lakeside on a summer day. The place where they had first exchanged rings and promised their love.
He thought he could smell the water at the tip of his nose and hear leaves rustling in the breeze.
He had thought he would never see that landscape again. The lover who had promised eternal love while giving the ring no longer existed anywhere.
“…”
He blinked, and the afterimage of the lakeside and the golden thread joining their rings vanished like a mirage.
But his lover alone stood before him, unchanged.
Unable to contain his swelling heart, Kinain kissed Asad.
Some say that eternity does not exist. That it is only an illusion.
But Kinain knew something eternal.
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