Chapter 33

"The end of my wife was a battle with illness."

This was the opening sentence. (I see, as expected) I thought. I had assumed that the content was something he couldn't bring himself to publish, even if he wrote it in code.

The new work was densely woven with codes. Elmar had written and vented his feelings in the novel as codes, and then hidden them in the forest house. There, his late-life emotions were vividly recorded.

"My wife is losing her new memories. Today, she panicked because she thought her son wasn't there. He's already forty-two, long married and moved out, but she searches for her teenage son. I wonder how much of her memory will return tomorrow. I'm afraid to sleep."

Still, there were times when Carolina's memory was clear, and Elmar hoped, "Perhaps she will settle down this way." But his hopes were repeatedly dashed.

Elmar gradually accepted reality.

At times, unable to bear his troubles, he confided in the priest of the settler's church.

"Father, my wife's memories are gradually fading. She is slowly returning to the past."

The priest comforted the troubled Elmar gently.

"Your wife is returning to the time of her birth. Don't be sad. A pure soul is loved by God."

After four years of caregiving, Elmar's wife, Princess Carolina in her late sixties, had returned to the memory of a teenage girl. She often cried and begged Elmar.

"Why am I here? I want to go back to the castle. Please, take me back to the castle."

"Princess, we'll go back to the castle tomorrow. I'll definitely take you."

Elmar would comfort his wife for hours until she fell asleep.

Holding his sleeping old wife, Elmar cried. "Carolina no longer has the memories of being a wife who loved and was loved by me."

While reading, I wiped away tears many times, thinking, "How lonely and sad Elmar must have been."

"We traveled by carriage to the capital. I stood there, holding my wife who could no longer walk, where the castle was visible."

Seeing the distant castle, Carolina said in a princess's tone,

"Thank you. I must give you a reward. Shall we go to the castle quickly?"

She thought Elmar was a servant.

"Princess, let's wear a beautiful dress and attend a ball tomorrow."

"Yes, prepare a tiara for me. I want a prince from some country to see me."

"Of course. Princess, you will be so beautiful that all the young nobles will be captivated."

"That would be nice. Thank you."

Smiling at Elmar, Carolina closed her eyes and fell asleep. Her breathing gradually became shallow, and eventually, Carolina's chest stopped moving.

"Holding my wife, who had become so light, I sat there for a long time. I wanted to show her the castle one last time."

"When my wife started saying she wanted to go back to the castle, I sold the gold ore we had at home and bought the land where the castle was visible. I dug a grave there and buried her. I lost my crown and became just an old man."

Elmar Archibald, who betrayed the organization and escaped to live with his beloved wife, lived a long and happy life and finally slept beside his wife in sorrow. It felt like more than just a story, and my heart ached.

After a while, I calmed my swollen eyes and prepared to go out.

"Reed, head to the house behind Mrs. Yorana's."

"Behind Mrs. Yorana's, right. Yes, ma'am."

The house built back-to-back with Mrs. Yorana's was where Mr. Miles, who had been monitoring my movements, used to live. The man who greeted us this time had a military appearance. He introduced himself as Chester and looked to be in his late fifties.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Asher. You want to make a 'contact' today?"

"Yes, with Mr. Mike. Can you contact him immediately?"

"I'll go right away, but should I call him here?"

"No, please have him come to the location written on this note."

I handed Chester the note. It contained the location of the two graves I had deciphered.

◇ ◇ ◇

"I kept you waiting, Mrs. Asher."

"I'm sorry to trouble you."

"Is this Princess Carolina's grave?"

"Yes."

On a high hill, overlooking the capital, at the end of a path through a forest, there was a square white stone at the highest point.

"This is the stone from that crater, isn't it?"

"Yes. If you look closely, the names of the two are engraved. Elmar probably engraved them himself."

"Did Elmar prepare his own gravestone as well?"

"After losing Princess Carolina, he seemed to have only one goal: to rest beside her."

Mike prayed in front of the two gravestones.

"In fact, we also thought there might be something hidden in the new book, so we tried to decipher it. But we couldn't find the key word. What was the key word to decipher the code?"

"It was 'My Crown.'"

"Oh... I see."

"For Elmar, Princess Carolina was the shining crown."

"I thought the crown in the bestseller 'The Lost Crown' referred to the gold ore."

"There was very little about his wife Carolina in the coded document in the pot. I thought it was rather brief for someone who dedicated his life to her."

I approached Elmar's grave and gently traced his name with my fingertips.

"Even though his love for his wife was evident in the book and the coded document, there was little description of her. I thought there must have been something he didn't want to write about. It took courage to read the new book."

"Still, impressive. Our people will be surprised when I tell them about this."

"Please say that Mike found the graves. I'll tell Bernard that I learned from Mike."

Mike said he felt uncomfortable taking credit, but in the end, he thanked me and left.

I met up with Reed, who had been waiting at a distance. Our destination was Bernard's mansion. When I visited without prior notice, Bernard was reading in the living room.

"What brings you here, Victoria? It's not your assistant day today."

"Mr. Bernard, I have a story about Elmar."

"Hmm? Elmar?"

After making tea and arranging the pastries I had bought on the way, I sat down.

"Mr. Bernard, there was a coded document hidden in Elmar's new book."

"Really! What was the content?"

I told him about Elmar's later years as I had deciphered them.

I thought it was a sad story, but Bernard's response was unexpected.

"He was a happy man."

He pressed his eyes and fell silent.

"Mr. Bernard?"

"Ah, sorry. It's a story of deep love between a couple, Victoria. You might not understand because you're young, but it's the record of a man who was blessed to meet a woman he could love so deeply."

"Is that so?"

"I understand. Elmar must have been lonely after losing Carolina, but he was also happy to be able to continue loving her until her last second."

"Is that how it is?"

"Meeting a good partner is almost the same as a successful life."

(I thought about how he must have felt losing his memories of me) but I didn't say anything.

"For you, death might be a permanent farewell and despair, but for us old people, death is the final resting place. If you think you'll meet your wife there, it's not a frightening thing. Elmar must have lived with the hope of meeting his wife again."

Suddenly, Elmar's code, which seemed like a record of despair to me, felt warm and comforting.

"That's how it is. Elmar must have been lonely after losing his wife, but he wasn't miserable. The last coded message is about not wanting to show his weakness to anyone, not even his children, but wanting to write down and vent the pain of being with a wife who was forgetting him. He was the type who couldn't help but write, just like I can't help but investigate historical mysteries."

Bernard looked at his wife's portrait on the wall and smiled.

"Couples can't travel together, but it's just a little while. You'll meet your loved one again. Elmar must have lived with that hope."

Then he smiled brightly and bowed his head to me.

"Thank you, Victoria. Because of you, I was able to learn about Princess Carolina's life and visit her grave. I can say, 'Nice to meet you. I've been researching you for over thirty years as a historian.'"

My code-breaking skills were useful.

Seeing Bernard, who looked like a happy boy, I thought, (His wife must have been worried about leaving him behind.) She must have been more concerned about Bernard being left behind than about her own death.

Thinking about it, I couldn't help but shed a tear, which startled Bernard.

If I were in Carolina's state, Jeffrey would surely love me until my last second like Elmar.

"But Jeffrey is a lonely person. If I die first, he will be very lonely. I want to live a long life and make Jeffrey a happy husband until his last second."

I had a new important goal.

With this goal, I no longer feared aging or being left alone at the end.

"So, Elmar, you felt this way too, didn't you?"