Chapter 31: You Were Once Mine

The day his heart was shattered, was the day he had lost her forever.

Dante watched on, a hollow husk of himself, as he relived the nightmarish day. For him, it was worse than being slaughtered on the battleground with only a breath left. Despair came first, dragging him deep down into an abyss of darkness and shadow.

"No… no… stay with me!" He yelled in agony as he tried to stop the bleeding of her wound.

Dante would never forget the soft smile that appeared upon her face as she reached out her trembling blood-covered hand towards him. He grasped it immediately with his own and brought it close to his cheek.

"I'm here my love, I'm here. You'll be alright… I will find the best healers…" he constantly reassured her.

Or was he saying it to reassure himself?

"Da...Dante… listen to me…" she struggled to speak coherently as her consciousness stood on the edge between life and death.

"I'm listening, I'm listening."

She spoke her final words. He could see her mouth moving, but his mind no longer remembered what she had said. Dante had tried to recall that memory as clearly as he could. But he was never able to hear it again.

All he could remember was the water in her eyes, the tears that trickled down her cheek stained red by blood. Her hand grew heavy. It slipped out of his grasp and landed on the ground with a thud.

He called out her name. He called her lovingly by her pet name. But she never responded again, her body soon grew cold. As he felt the warmth of her body slipping away, he fell into despair. He cried out in agony and anger.

"I will not let you go this time. I will never let you go…" he whispered as he watched his former self cradling a limp body in his arms.

Dante remembered what happened after that fateful day.

He never knew exactly what happened but the next time he opened his eyes, he was no longer holding her in his arms. Her body was nowhere to be found. It had simply vanished into thin air. Dante searched high and low for years. He exhausted all of his leads.

He could not sleep.

Each time he closed his eyes, the scene of that fateful day would replay like a broken record.

He knew he could not wallow forever, so he tried to pull himself out of it. But it was as if he was trying to rip his heart out. He could not do it. The alcohol helped to numb the pain in his heart.

But it only cured the symptoms, it did not cure the root of his heartbreak.

"My sundrop…" he mumbled in his sleep as he reached out his hand.

A scene he wanted to forget yet always kept close to his heart. He did not want to forget the pain of losing her. He wanted to remember the reason. The reason he must cherish her when he finds her again.

Everyone told him to give up. To move on. But Dante was never able to step out of that shadow. It was as if someone had stolen his heart. He felt hollow and empty on the inside. A piece of him went missing the day she died in his arms.

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The day Marius brought him the good news, Dante thought it was a joke. He assumed it was just one of Marius's many attempts to cheer him up. But when his confidante showed him the proof, the evidence; he felt something warm in his hollow heart.

He found his reason to live once more.

In Dante's dreamscape, the scene he was watching dissipated into thin air. In its place, was a familiar young woman. She was as beautiful as the first time he set his eyes upon her.

Without any hesitation, he ran up to embrace her. But the moment he wrapped her in his arms, she turned into hundreds of ruby monarch butterflies. All of the butterflies fluttered out of his grasp and into the open skies above.

Dante stirred awake from his slumber. He could feel the warmth of the sun rays on his face as he groggily opened his eyes. As he set up in bed, he could feel a splitting pain pulsing through his head.

As the pieces of memories from the night before slowly resurfaced in his mind, Dante tried to make sense of what had happened. At first, all he could remember was returning to his quarters after sending Laina back to her room.

"What… what happened last night?" He muttered to himself as he tried to recall.

He remembered drinking liquor. Someone poured him glass after glass. Beyond that point, his memories were hazy. When his eyes finally adjusted to his surroundings, Dante looked around.

He stared with his eyes wide open.

He was not in his living quarters. He was not in his bedroom. As a warm breeze blew into the room, Dante looked down. He gasped in shock to realize that he did not have his shirt on!

"This… this is Laina's room," he looked around frantically only to realize she was nowhere to be found.

Titan, the mastiff, was also missing.

He peered over the bedside to see his shirt strewn on the grounds.

What on earth happened last night?!

Then, Dante remembered. Everything was coming together. He remembered the purple hair maid. He realized she had given him a different liquor on purpose, to get him drunk.

When his mind was no longer as sharp, she cast a spell on his drink. He drank it down in one gulp without thinking. Dante slapped the base of his palm on his forehead.

How could he be so careless!

After that, he began to hallucinate. He thought he saw Laina in his room, leaning on him. But his keen sense of smell made him realize that woman was not Laina. So when the maid left him to go to the toilet, he sneaked out of the room in search of Laina.

He stumbled into her room. He remembered everything.

"Dante you idiot!" He cursed at himself, "She's going to think you just want to bed her! How are we going to win her over now?!"

Dante angrily pounded his fist onto the bed.

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