The Moonlight Princess's Fate: A Forbidden Love Blooming in the Royal Capital - His Highness comes every day for the sake of the documents (I assure you).

Silence fell upon the tower's peak. In the moonlight, the figure remained motionless. Eyes burning like molten gold gazed steadily at Runa. Hair deep crimson, nearly black as lacquer, swayed in the night breeze. His frame towered over Runa by more than a head, and across his broad shoulders hung the black mantle of the knight order. The solar mark on his right arm—a golden spell pattern—glowed pale blue even in darkness. (That's... a solar mark tattoo?) Runa's mind raced. The golden sigil inscribed on the right arm of sun magic practitioners. The cost was fifty gold coins. Once marked, it never faded—the proof of a sun mage. Among those in the royal castle, only a select few held such a mark. The Solar Knights of Heliogard—the elite vanguard of national defense. Their commander was chosen only from imperial or high noble bloodlines. Runa had once read in the archives that the current commander had assumed the position at twenty-four, the youngest in history. (Your Imperial Highness...?) Runa's feet went cold. At that moment, the solar mark on the man's right arm flared red-black, pulsing violently. "—" A silent scream. His body folded forward. Just before his knees struck the stone floor, he caught himself against the railing with one hand, barely holding on. His face twisted. Sweat beaded on his forehead. Runa's body moved before her mind could catch up. (Wait, wait, wait—is this—) A passage from the texts she'd deciphered in the archives surfaced in her mind. Sun magic drew upon yang energy accumulated within the body as a catalyst. Excessive use, or some form of runaway—in the case of curse-induced seizures, body temperature spiked rapidly, leading to clouded consciousness. A seizure. This was a curse seizure. "Stay calm. Steady your breathing," Runa knelt quietly beside Sordan, speaking in a low, gentle voice so as not to agitate him. The mark on his right arm still pulsed erratically. Up close, she could feel the heat radiating from his skin. (What am I doing approaching a dangerous person like this...!) She delivered a mental jab at herself, yet her feet didn't retreat an inch. This was Runa's bad habit—she loved books so much that whenever she encountered a situation where her knowledge might apply, her body moved of its own accord. "Slowly. Breathe in. Breathe out," Thirty seconds. One minute. Two minutes. Gradually, the red-black pulsing subsided. The solar mark returned to its pale blue glow. The man's breathing steadied. Sordan slowly raised his face. Golden eyes met Runa's. "...Forget what you saw," His voice was quiet. Calm, but carrying an undeniable weight. It sounded less like a command and more like a warning. Runa flinched. Just for an instant. Truly just an instant. But. "I won't forget," Runa surprised herself. She didn't fully understand where those words came from. Yet—there was a certainty that she couldn't forget. And somehow, it felt like she shouldn't. "...What," Sordan's eyes narrowed. Runa slowly rolled up her sleeve. At the base of her left hand's fingers, illuminated by moonlight, a pale bluish-white mark appeared. Her hand trembled slightly from that point onward. "I'm hiding something too," Quietly, but clearly. "A mark from a magical accident at fourteen. I was born the daughter of a noble who wielded moon magic, but now I have no magical power. I'm called 'lightless'—that's my station. I work as a librarian because my only value now is my ability to read ancient languages," Sordan stared at Runa's left hand. His expression shifted—barely, truly barely—the tension between his brows softening just a little. "So I will keep your secret. And you will keep mine," A long silence fell. (This is bad. This is seriously an execution-worthy situation, isn't it? Proposing a bargain to the Imperial Highness—there's no way this is sane.) Runa's heart rate quietly exploded. But her face maintained as much composure as she could muster. Sordan observed her for a while. Not appraising, exactly—more like confirming something. Then he spoke, briefly. "...Do as you wish," He turned on his heel toward the tower stairs. Watching his back disappear, Runa finally remembered how to breathe. The night wind blew. The Moonlight River gleamed in the distance. (Do as I wish, huh. ...So that means it's okay, right?) Runa remained standing there for a while, hand still on the railing. It had been a strange night. ✦ The next morning, as Runa worked in the library, the door opened before noon. It was a heavy sound. Not the way an ordinary librarian would open it—more decisive, more certain. Runa looked up. And froze. Deep crimson hair, nearly black. Eyes burning like molten gold. A tall man in the black uniform of Heliogard—the Solar Knights' standard issue—walked in. The librarians around her dropped their work one by one. Silence rippled outward. "Bring me all the texts related to ancient curses. Everything you have," He said it to Runa as though it were the most natural thing in the world. (He came? He actually came?) Runa paused for a beat, then stood. "...Understood," she managed to reply, barely maintaining composure. The next day, Sordan came again. And the day after that. By the morning of the third day, all the library's colleagues had begun whispering among themselves. Berta, an older librarian, poked Runa from behind her papers. "Miss Runa. His Highness has been coming here every day..." "I'm simply assisting with research on ancient language texts," She stated it flatly. It was a statement she could make with confidence. It was true. Sordan came every day and studied curse-related texts. Runa decoded the ancient language and organized the contents. That was all. "But... for him to stay with just one librarian like that..." "There are few people here who can read ancient languages, so it's simply a matter of necessity," A perfect answer. Logically sound. Runa delivered it with conviction. Just then, Sordan passed by her side, moving toward the next shelf of texts. "Or do you require another reason," A single quiet word, his expression unchanged. The entire library stirred. "No! What His Highness means is purely about the texts, and there is absolutely no other implication whatsoever—" Sordan was already at the next shelf. Runa hurried after him, and in doing so, only amplified the impression that she was chasing him, causing the surrounding gazes to rise another degree in temperature. (Why am I being looked at like this?!) A storm raged in her mind, but Runa forced herself to return to her work with the composure of a proper librarian. ✦ After several more days, an odd rhythm had developed between Runa and Sordan. Sordan would specify a text. Runa would decode the ancient language and translate it into modern speech. Sordan would read it, then say simply, "Next." Runa would retrieve the next text. Their conversation was minimal. Yet it was quiet, and strangely, they moved in perfect sync. One afternoon, Runa pulled a document from the restricted shelf in the back and returned. Dust swirled. The text was old, crammed deep in the shelf, and it had taken force to extract. "..." As Runa returned to the desk with the document in both hands, Sordan reached out without a word. He brushed the dust from her hair—a single, unhesitating motion, as though doing something perfectly natural. Once done, his eyes were already back on the text before him. Runa's thoughts stopped. For half a second, her mind went blank. Then it flooded with heat all at once. (What was that...?) Heat gathered in her cheeks. Runa tilted her face down slightly as she opened the text. Sordan didn't notice. Rather, it seemed he wasn't even aware of her reaction. Completely unconscious of it. From the shadows behind the shelves, multiple presences watched. All the librarians, hands pressed to their mouths. Their eyes said, "What does this mean...?" "It's just a dust issue! The back shelves accumulate particularly, and it happens often in this line of work!" No one believed her. (Why am I the one explaining? I didn't do anything wrong. So why am I turning red?) Runa forced her gaze back to the text, determined to maintain her composure at all costs. At that moment, she sensed a presence near the library entrance. A middle-aged nobleman in a plain gray robe. Fifty or so. She'd seen him a few times as the royal castle's document administrator. He held a single text, but his gaze was fixed on Runa. It wasn't curiosity. Something else colored his eyes—not observation, but something closer to calculation. A cold precision as he looked between Runa and Sordan in turn. Then, without a word, he left the library. Runa followed his departure with her eyes for a moment, then returned to her text. (...Was that just my imagination?) ✦ On the sixth day of the text research, late in the afternoon, Runa finally found a thread to pull. As she arranged and decoded multiple ancient documents, she noticed the same place name repeating in fragments: "Crepusculum"—the name of the Twin Light ruins. Runa spread out a map. The Velde Great Forest—spreading westward about sixty kilometers from the royal capital of Eltia, and even deeper into its heart. Roughly one hundred twenty kilometers west of the capital. An ancient sacred site that had been forbidden entry three hundred years ago. One text read: "Those who attempt the resonance of twin light must always return to the altar of Crepusculum. But why—" The rest was cut away, erased. And in another text related to what she believed was Sordan's curse, the same place name appeared. "The root of the curse that festers in the sun mage on moonlit nights—inscribed upon the altar of twin light," read one passage in Runa's handwritten translation. "...It all connects," She called Sordan over. Or rather, she simply said quietly, "Your Highness, a moment," and he came to her side immediately. Runa pointed to the map. "The Crepusculum ruins. In the deepest part of the Velde Great Forest. About one hundred twenty kilometers west of the capital. The same name appears repeatedly in several texts, and—" "There's a connection to the solar curse," "I can't say for certain. But the possibility is high. This passage, and this one, and this," Runa laid out three translated pages. Sordan leaned in to read them. The evening sun of the library slanted across the desk. A long silence. "We go," "Now? Immediately?" "Not immediately," Sordan pressed his right arm slightly. A small gesture, but Runa understood. The curse was progressing. "Preparation is needed. But time is limited," Runa studied the map. From the capital to Rendel Village was about fifty-five kilometers. From there into the forest another sixty-five kilometers. Six days on foot at minimum. Supplies would be needed, and since it was a forbidden zone, they couldn't get official permission. They'd have to move in secret. A knight commander and a lightless librarian sneaking off to an ancient ruin together—no matter how she looked at it, it was an insane plan. "...Understood. I'll gather materials as well," Those were the only words that came out. But their meaning was something Runa understood better than anyone. She didn't refuse. She couldn't refuse—or rather, she didn't want to. Sordan stood and adjusted his mantle. Just before leaving the library, he turned back. "With you, I can break through the barrier of ancient language," It was brief. Unwavering. He spoke it as though stating something obvious, quietly. Something in Runa's chest beat one extra time. (...Why do you say things like that so casually?) Sordan's back disappeared beyond the door. The evening sun painted the library floor orange. Runa remained staring at the map, unable to move. Crepusculum. A forbidden ancient ruin. The altar of twin light. Another fragment from the texts nagged at the edge of her mind—the fact that a pag

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Name: The Moonlight Princess's Fate: A Forbidden Love Blooming in the Royal Capital
Author: Novelia

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