Chapter 105 (2/2)

Do you think any man in the world can love you more than him? Change your mind. Don’t you see him looking at you only? If you can’t love him right now, you can try. Try getting close to him instead of staying away from him.’

I moved the rook instead of the bishop. One space, two spaces. The shadow of the rook on the wall gradually approached the bishop looking at it. The distance between them was gradually narrowed. But when there were only three spaces left, the rook didn’t move as if it had been stuck there. Even if I tried to move it with my wobbly hand, the shadow of the rook was still there as if to show that’s as far as it could move.

The distance remained as the shadow of the rook that would not move.

I smiled a bitter smile. Even though I knew that there was no man better than him, I couldn’t come closer to him stupidly. I was a woman who broke his heart. He who was so precious to me.

How cold, cruel and heartless I was!

I pounded my chest with a fist out of frustration. However, no matter how hard I knocked on my chest with a deep sigh, I didn’t feel better. Does Allendis feel the same way now?

When I recalled his green eyes as he waited for my reply nervously, I also recalled the deep blue eyes of Carsein who was looking at me wistfully like Allendis did. How were my feelings toward him? Just like I broke Allendis’s heart, did I do the same to him?

I quickly looked down on the floor and put the black knight on the chessboard, which I found among the scattered pieces on the floor.

‘Carsein.’

He was aggressive in approaching and contacting me excessively. He smiled at me, cracking jokes childishly after casting an intense gaze on me sometimes. My first meeting with him wasn’t very pleasant, but the young man with red hair, who got close to me little by little, became one of my best friends.

The knight’s shadow was indignant. I smiled to myself.

‘What are my feelings for Carsein?’

Actually I don’t feel the same warmth that I do in Alendis, but he gives me comfort in another sense, and he keeps preaching at me to be more mature and makes me smile with joy when I am with him. What the heck are my feelings for him?

The shadow of the knight approaching the rook suddenly stopped. The rook then moved one space towards the knight, which seemed to be hesitant. The shadow of the rook that stopped with three spaces to go hesitated. After hesitating for a long time, the shadow of the room paused once again instead of trying to step forward. I saw the shadow of the knight standing still in its place without moving forward.

As the intention of the knight is unfathomable, it’s hard to narrow the distance between it blindly. After hesitating, the rook stopped finally, with three spaces to go. The shadow of the knight laughed playfully as it saw the rook hesitating. After looking at their moves for a moment, I cleared the bishop and knight on the chessboard with a sigh.

‘What the heck am I doing now? Let me clear the chess pieces.’

I picked up the chess pieces scattered all over the floor, and suddenly noticed a king scattered in a shade. I hesitantly picked up the king.

I put it on the chessboard.

The shadow of the king on the wall and the shadow of the rook standing on the other side. Stunned at seeing the king, the rook hid at the edge of the chessboard. As if it didn’t see the rook or didn’t care about its move at all, the shadow of the king stood firmly in its place.

The king, standing still for a while, gradually began to approach the rook hidden in the dark. The rook, awkwardly hiding in the shade, now walked out of it cautiously.

The king’s shadow asked the rook half covered with darkness. As if it didn’t care about anything around it, the king’s shadow quickly moved to the rook. The shadow of the room trembled and retreated. Whenever the king’s shadow approached, the rook stepped back a little, step by step.

At that moment, the candle flickered. The shadow of the king on the wall was split into two.

The surprised rook lurked into the darkness. The shadow of the king saw its other shadow and said in a bitter tone.

When I saw the two shadows, I remembered a headache that I had forgotten for a while: the old him and the present him. Which of the two shadows was the rook looking at? Who was it the old him or the present him that made me have hopes that my frozen heart would be able to survive once more?

Two shadows and two princes.

The shadows of two dark and light kings, the same but different.