CH 17 ~ Pain

A few moments earlier, at the market place~

"STOPPPPP!!"

Alexander halted on his steps as Eleanora suddenly spoke while pointing at something.

"Let's eat at that restaurant!"

A frown appears on Alexander's handsome face as he averts his gaze at the place her fingers pointed.

It was normal-looking but slightly better than other common restaurants.

How can he let his daughter eat there?

Who knows who might mix something in her food at a place like this?

"Eleanora, you can't-"

"The tomato stew there is really delicious! I want to taste it!"

"…"

Alexander pauses on whatever he wants to say, as well as Eleanora.

How did she know that the restaurant sells tomato stew?

It has only been a whole day since she came to this unfamiliar yet strangely familiar place.

But this isn't something she should know…

She doesn't even have any memories of the body she was possessing.

This is what Eleanora has been thinking on her mind.

Because subconsciously; her soul still remembers everything that happened in both timelines.

She had watched that Eleanora get the love of her father that she couldn't, how that Eleanora made friends and suffered because of the memories that belonged to someone else, but still she got her happy ending.

That Eleanora's Cathain loved her dearly and could do anything for her; she lived happily with her children.

But she couldn't.

Her father never looked back at her, she watched her children getting killed and watched everything getting out of her hands slowly.

Her Cathain didn't love her, he sentenced her to death and when he realized his feelings; it was already too late.

Even if she had wanted that Eleanora to be happy, helped them to be happy and get a different ending;

Eleanora, who was trapped in the eternal abyss envied her parallel self as she watched over them.

How she wished her father could smile at her and protect her like that.

How she craved his love and lived happily with him.

How she wanted a friend like Jennifer and the others.

But she couldn't… she was destined to envy others and be a failure.

A teardrop left from the 12-year-old Eleanora's round jewel blue eyes as her heart clenched with a sudden unknown pain.

She didn't know why it was hurting so bad.

But this pain felt familiar and… comforting, she felt suffocated but surprisingly she didn't hate this feeling.

She was feeling alive because of this pain in a strange way.

Like, this was something that had always belonged to her for a long time.

'Why does it hurt so bad and alive at the same time?'

Eleanora clenched the fabric of her cloak as she endured the increasing pain in her heart.

Alexander became stunt to see her crying all of a sudden and he started to panic despite his facial expression remaining the same.

"Elle-Eleanora?"

He called out for her, but his deep voice full of concern only made her pain worse, and started to sob hard on his chest.

"D-Don't cry… You want to eat at that restaurant right?"

"W-We are going there… Please, don't cry…"

Alexander tried to console the crying Eleanora in his embrace his face was full of anxiousness before he hesitantly murmured her nickname which he hadn't uttered for six long years.

"…Papa is here…Don't cry…My princess…"

He murmured and then Eleanora's sobbing suddenly stopped like magic, but without wasting for another moment; he took long strides towards the restaurant.

"Rayon,"

Alexander called his aid and Sir Rayon stepped forward.

"Yes, your grace?"

Sir Rayon asks with a polite nod.

"Check out the process of the food they will make for her, there should be no mess ups."

Alexander speaks coldly to his aid and Sir Rayon again nods politely.

"Yes, your grace."

The knights of the Dalton Duchy stood outside of the restaurant for guards, where some of them observed the cooking process; making the whole crowd curious about what was happening inside.

Alexander chooses a window-view table as he sits with his sobbing daughter in his arms.

Just what is wrong with her today?

But there was no answer to that question in his heart.

"Eleanora…"

Alexander calls out her name as he stroked her silver hair and Eleanora fidgets a little without lifting her head from his chest.

"Tell me, what is wrong?"

Although he was trying his best to sound gentle, to Eleanora, it was still quite fierce.

He wouldn't punish her for being like this right?

In the story, Eleanora La Alexander Dalton was a perfect girl with the most perfect etiquette and behavior.

But she isn't like that.

When he called her Princess a few moments ago; she felt like she was back to her father's arm, who always called her his princess.

Who always loved her regardless of how useless she was.

She wasn't that great at studies, neither interested in any kind of profession.

She had everything yet felt like she had nothing and was empty.

But her father still loved her the most and spoiled her.

He was the sole reason why she kept living despite feeling so empty.

She loved her mother too, but it was that she loved her father more than anyone else.

Then meeting Cathain Donavon stirred up an unknown feeling in her heart.

She felt magically attracted to him, like she belonged to him.

But in the end, he had another girl in his heart and she can never replace her.

She tried for almost four years, but he was always searching for somebody else in her.

Thus, Eleanora burst into tears again as the same empty painful feeling awakens in her heart brutally.

And Alexander was surprised and shocked at the same time.

"Princess…"

He started to pat her back and whisper some soothing words in her ears, but she couldn't hear them.

Her heart was feeling really painful and heavy, she was suffocating but she was still breathing normally.

Nothing was making sense to her anymore.

Why is she feeling like this?

Why is she so sad?

Why does it hurt so badly?