TYWWFMD~01

CHAPTER~01

 Three Years’ Gap

Bang, boom.
On the Emperor’s birthday, when fireworks bloomed across the sky and poured down over the world like starlight.

“Empress.”

By the time the banquet ended and the Emperor returned to his study, Airi was already there, waiting while clutching an oversized matchlock gun nearly half the length of her body, held upside down.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?”

As he took a step closer, the Emperor’s white hair gleamed pallidly in the light.
Airi fixed her eyes on that brilliance for a brief moment before answering.

“Good evening, Michael.
Did you enjoy the banquet?”

Despite her calm, casual tone, as though nothing were amiss, he gave no reply.

His long legs carried him briskly across the room toward her.
Only after a sharp click rang out as Airi adjusted her grip on the gun did Michael stop in his tracks, his face draining of color.

Whooosh.
The wind rushing in through the window sent Airi’s crimson hair whipping wildly through the air, and the documents on the desk between them scattered chaotically across the room.

Though the wind made a mess of his work, Michael did not spare it a glance, staring straight at her instead.
Even in the chilling air, the unwavering gaze that reached her felt unfamiliar, and strangely, rather than fear, it brought her relief.

“Madam.”

Ah.

“…Please put the gun down.”

So now you finally look at me.

Instead of answering, Airi toyed with the area near the trigger and lowered her gaze to the floor.

It was her husband who had taught her how to use a gun.

For countless years, humans who sailed the seas and the Siren clan had lived as sworn enemies, but Airi believed that no matter how long-standing the hatred, all grudges were bound to end someday.

And so, after gaining legs and recklessly attending a ball, she fell in love with the Emperor as if by fate, married him, and even bore a child.
In exchange, she lost the sea where she could swim freely and the clear singing voice like the dawn tide, but as long as she was beside her beloved husband and child, she thought it was enough.

‘When true love is fulfilled, your voice will return.’

However, after their child—the fruit of that love—was born, and from the day she regained her voice and confessed the truth to him.

Her husband changed into someone else entirely.

Airi could no longer see either her husband or her child.
Each time she begged to see at least her son, the Emperor was always absent, and eventually, even when they happened to cross paths in the corridor, he would turn away as if he did not want to exchange a single word with her.

The soldiers blocking her path, and the Emperor’s retreating back disappearing down dark corridors, were all that remained of her husband for three long years, lodged in her eyes like a thorn.

“I think I finally understand what you want from me.”

After three years without seeing even a single strand of her child’s hair, Airi finally realized it.

What it meant for Michael, born as the third prince, to become Emperor.
How immense the loneliness must have been for a boy who lost all his parents and siblings at the age of eleven.

And what she herself represented to a husband who had lost his entire family because of a ship wrecked by Sirens.

Only now, three years after watching him avoid her as though he had seen a ghost ever since she revealed her true identity, did she feel it sink into her bones.

“I’m sorry, for daring to love you when I’m nothing but a monster.”

Even at her heartfelt apology, her husband showed no reaction.
His rigid, statue-like face looked unusually pale, and Airi paused her words for a moment.

This was not a sin that could be brushed aside with a few words, and any further apology would only be hypocrisy.

After taking a steadying breath, Airi forced herself to speak calmly.

“The child has no sin at all, so please, don’t hate him.
For my share too, please…”

Love him.
The words she could not say welled up in her throat, and Airi clenched her hand tightly.

Her son, who had neither gills nor fins, showed no outward sign of Siren blood, so had it not been for a mother who could never become fully human, he would have been treated and raised as a human.

Only after realizing that she herself was the sole blemish on her son’s life did her resolve finally harden.
Unlike Airi, an outsider, her son, born a prince, had to live enjoying countless glories within this vast castle.

On land where she had no backing, and having lost even the Emperor’s favor, this was the only thing Airi could do now.
If she disappeared while embracing her husband’s hatred, then at least the child would be accepted as a member of the world, so…

“I’m going to grant your wish now, Michael.”

The smell of burning gunpowder grew thick, and the wind blowing from behind sent a chill creeping over the nape of her neck.

Airi looked back and forth between Michael’s unchanged, rigid face and the blackened fuse of the matchlock, then spoke softly.

“There’s no such thing as a flame that burns forever.”

If love and memories were bound to be reduced to ashes like sins anyway.

“I hope your pain ends here as well.”

A faint smile spread across Airi’s lips as the long barrel touched her chin.

“Happy birthday, Michael.”

Before he could say anything, mouth opening beyond the hand that reached out in panic, Airi pulled the trigger.

Bang.
A single gunshot echoed through the Emperor’s study.

Airi awoke to the sound of birds chirping and gazed out the window with clear eyes.
On a winter morning faintly lit by the late-rising sun, the nightmare from the previous night lingered on her skin like cold air.

It was that dream again.

At some point, Airi had begun to have the same dream over and over.
The vivid afterimages remained even after she woke, resurfacing whenever her mind wandered, and to cut them off, she had to start her day even more busily.