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Chapter 4

Author: Celebrant
Adrian stood outside my chamber for an entire day and night.

I never opened the door.

On the eve of the political marriage, moonlight traced his silhouette across the threshold—tall, rigid, unmoving. At last, his voice broke the silence.

“Elise,” he said at last.

His voice was low, restrained—too controlled for a man standing on the edge of a choice he did not fully understand.

“I will marry you.”

I leaned my back against the door and did not reply.

“I will spend my life answering for that blade,” he continued.

Each word came carefully, as if chosen from a code he had lived by since boyhood.

“I swear it—not as a lover, but as a soldier.”

There was a pause.

“I will guard you as I have guarded this realm,” he said finally.

“With my body.With my life.”

He did not say love.

He said the only things he had ever been taught to mean forever.

I remained silent.

After a while, his steps moved away down the corridor—measured, controlled, as though leaving were simply another order he had accepted.

Inside the room, I rested my forehead against the wood.

My mouth curved, almost unconsciously, and a single tear slipped free.

At dawn, when the envoy crossed beyond the border,

I rode out in crimson.

Alone.No ladies-in-waiting.No banners.No farewells shouted after me.

This was not a journey meant to be watched.

Only carried.

This was a burden meant for one person only. Dragging others into it would be needless cruelty.

It was also the day Adrian was meant to wed Elara.

By now, he should have received the surprise I left behind.

What I did not expect—

was to see him waiting on the road that marked my final path out of the capital.

A veil covered my face.

His gaze lingered on me for a long moment before he spoke.

“I’ll ride with you.”

I didn’t respond.

I urged my horse forward, passing him without pause.

He turned and followed.

“Do you resent me,” he asked, riding alongside, “for marrying your elder sister?”

I stiffened for a heartbeat.

So that was it.

He thought I was Elara.

Which meant he had been waiting here—

long enough to miss the truth I had left behind.

“But this is a debt I owe her,” he continued.

His tone was steady, almost disciplined.

“I failed her once. I won’t fail her again.”

I kept my eyes forward and said nothing.

“I’m sorry,” he added after a moment.

“Even now, I couldn’t stop the crown from sending you away.”

Then—suddenly—

“If you want to resist,” he said, reaching out and catching my reins,

“I can take you away. Now. Tonight.”

His grip was firm, decisive.

The kind of certainty he only ever used on a battlefield.

“I won’t let a princess be traded for peace,” he said.

“Not again.”

I turned and looked at him.

In his eyes there was no longing.

No romance.

Only something harsher—

a refusal, deeply ingrained, to watch someone be sacrificed in the name of order.

To him, this was duty.

To me, it sounded like love.

Then I pushed his hand aside, pressed my heels into my horse’s flank,and rode on.

In a world where royal brides were meant to be delivered with ceremony and guard,she rode out as if she were already forgotten.

Adrian remained where he was.

He stood there long after the sentries closed the gate behind her,long after the road had emptied.

Only then did he turn back toward the capital.

Something was wrong.

He did not yet know what.

Elara had been… different the day.

She had dismissed the honor guard assigned to her.

Refused the ladies meant to accompany her to the border.

She had not spoken a single word—not to him, not to anyone.

Not a plea.

Not a farewell.

Not even a glance back at the city she was leaving behind.

It unsettled him more than tears ever could have.

He had seen this departure once before.

In that other lifetime—though he did not think of it as such—

Elara had wept openly, clinging to her attendants, begging him with her eyes to stop what could not be stopped.

He had ridden beside her then, silent, grim, convinced that endurance was all he could offer.

This time, she had not cried.

By the time he returned to the capital, dusk had already settled into night.

He approached the bed and reached for the bridal veil with hands that felt strangely distant, as though they no longer fully obeyed him.

When he lifted it, the world tilted.

The face beneath was familiar—too familiar.

“Elara!”

Terribly wrong.

And for the first time that night, the unease he had carried since the city gates had closed finally found its shape.
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  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 8

    He moved before I finished breathing. One moment there was distance between us—custom, borders, fate— the next, his hand closed around my wrist with a force that startled us both. “We’re leaving,” Adrian said. Not a request. Not a plan. An order barked from instinct, sharp and unthinking, the way commands were given on a battlefield when hesitation meant death. I staggered a half-step toward him. The guards stirred. Steel whispered from scabbards. I looked up at him, stunned—not by the pain in my wrist, but by the naked fury in his eyes. Gone was the restraint, the discipline that had always defined him. This was not a general weighing consequences. This was a man who had reached the edge of himself. “Now,” he said again, lower this time. “Before this place takes anything else from you.” For a heartbeat, I wanted to go. God help me, I wanted to turn my horse south and never look back—to let him pull me out of this nightmare and pretend the treaty, the blood, the years of s

  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 7

    Elise POV I had stopped expecting rescue. That, perhaps, was the most dangerous thing of all. The north taught its lessons quickly. Silence was safer than protest. Stillness invited less attention than fear. On the third day, one of the women assigned to me tugged too hard at my sleeve while dressing me for court, and I did not pull away in time. The fabric tore. The blade that followed was swift and careless, meant to remind me where I stood. The blood dried dark against the pale wool. No one apologized. I did not ask for it. By the fourth night, I understood what Elara must have faced in the other life—the constant testing, the quiet cruelty disguised as custom, the waiting to see when the southern bride would finally break. I would not. If this was the price of peace, then I would pay it standing. That was why, when the guards announced an audience—unexpected, unscheduled—I assumed it was another humiliation dressed as courtesy. Another northern lord curious to see how muc

  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 6

    Adrian POV The road north unraveled beneath my horse’s hooves, mile after mile of frozen ground cutting through the last illusion that I still had time. I had seen this ending before. In the last life, it was Elara who went north—trembling, weeping, clinging to every farewell as if it were a lifeline. She had written once, then never again. A year later, word reached the capital: the northern consort had taken her own life. The court mourned briefly. I told myself it was inevitable. I told myself I had done what duty required. I had been wrong. This time, it was her. The woman who rode alone beyond the gates without tears, without reproach, without even turning back toward the city that had sacrificed her. And that was what terrified me most. By the third night, I began to hear it everywhere—the truth I had buried under discipline and honor. The northern lords did not keep fragile women alive. They tested them. They broke them. Or they killed them. I knew their customs. I

  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 5

    The familiar face beneath the veil struck him like a blow. “Elara!” She surged into his arms, clutching his chest as if the ground itself had vanished beneath her feet. “How—how is it you?” he asked hoarsely. The moment the words left his mouth, a cold thought took shape. Elara’s gaze flickered away. Her voice softened, threaded with unease and something carefully concealed. “I… I don’t know,” she said. “Yesterday the royal decree was altered. They said… Elise was sent north in my place.” The room seemed to tilt. “What did you say?” Adrian seized her shoulders, fingers biting hard enough to leave bruises. “If she went north—then the woman who rode out alone beyond the gates—” “Elara,” someone called urgently from outside. “General—where are you going?” Adrian released her as if burned. He did not answer. Still dressed in ceremonial red, he snatched his sword from its stand, crossed the chamber in three strides, and was gone—mounting his horse and driving it forward thro

  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 4

    Adrian stood outside my chamber for an entire day and night. I never opened the door. On the eve of the political marriage, moonlight traced his silhouette across the threshold—tall, rigid, unmoving. At last, his voice broke the silence. “Elise,” he said at last. His voice was low, restrained—too controlled for a man standing on the edge of a choice he did not fully understand. “I will marry you.” I leaned my back against the door and did not reply. “I will spend my life answering for that blade,” he continued. Each word came carefully, as if chosen from a code he had lived by since boyhood. “I swear it—not as a lover, but as a soldier.” There was a pause. “I will guard you as I have guarded this realm,” he said finally. “With my body.With my life.” He did not say love. He said the only things he had ever been taught to mean forever. I remained silent. After a while, his steps moved away down the corridor—measured, controlled, as though leaving were simply another order

  • The Marriage Meant for Another   Chapter 3

    I attended what would be my last Mid-Autumn banquet in my homeland. By the time I arrived, the great hall was already alive with low music and candlelight—and with tears. Elara stood at the center of a circle of noble ladies, her eyes rimmed red, her voice trembling just enough to draw sympathy without breaking entirely. She clutched a silk handkerchief as though it were the only thing holding her together. “So after the festival, Princess Elara will be sent beyond the northern border…” one lady sighed loudly. “How tragic,” another murmured. “And the Crown Princess does nothing—nothing at all—except chase after General Adrian’s favor.” “At least Elara understands duty,” someone added. “Such devotion to the realm…” Elara’s shoulders shook. Beneath the sleeve that hid her face, a flicker of something else passed—brief, sharp, satisfied. Then she saw me. Her breath caught. I had never liked these gatherings. In previous years, I rarely attended the Mid-Autumn banquet at all. She

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