Walking along with him in the temple, the White Rotunias stood in front of the garden in full bloom.
Against the darkening landscape, the white roses seemed to gradually radiate a mysterious light.
As the deep blue night drew near, the petals shone like fireflies.
I looked over the flowers and said, like I was possessed,
"It's amazing. It glitters like a lamp."
The scenery I saw during the day was pretty, but it was a flower that showed its true value at night.
While I watched them for a long time with a slightly surprised expression, Reyhas smiled lightly.
"Do you know the legend of White Rotunia?"
I shook my head at his words.
"No."
There were about 100 books I had read here with Hesed's blessing, but I had never read that legend.
"It was said that in the Alteon of the Privato Kingdom, a boy and a fairy named Rotunia lived there."
I got unconsciously nervous as he reached for the shining rose.
I was afraid his hand would mercilessly pluck the flower again.
"The boy loved the fairy. But the fairy loved a man other than the boy, so the boy made a wish to the devil to have her."
Fortunately, his hand only brushed lightly against the buds of roses.
His meek voice followed,
"The devil told him to put the dying bird on the vine and put it on a road with thorns. The boy did it and the next day, Rotunia was hanging from the vines."
A cool night breeze blew.
I concentrated on his story.
"She was poisoned by the sap of thorns and her wings were damaged, so she lived with the boy. But she never smiled at the boy. Not even once."
"......"
"The boy went back to the devil and asked him how to make Rotunia smile, and this time, he placed Rotunia's broken wing feathers on the vines and applied poison to it. And the next morning, the man she loved was trapped and poisoned to death."
My eyebrows twitched at the bizarre story.
"Rotunia smiled at the boy for the first and last time with a very lovely expression. She then put her lips to the poisonous mouth of the man she had loved for the last time and died."
I asked because I didn't understand this story when I blankly listened to it,
"The man she loved died because of the boy... but she smiled?"
She should be blinded by grief and hatred.
"And why die? She should've killed that unscrupulous guy first."
Reyhas turned his gaze from the White Rotunia and looked at me.
The darkness in his dark golden eyes loomed as he stared at me.
"For him to remember and recall the smile he longed for all his life."
His low voice flowed into my ears,
"To continuously struggle and suffer from longing."
Reyhas went on,
"It was the biggest punishment for the boy who craved her like crazy. Maybe even bigger than death."
