The Unlucky Bride Is Loved by the Fortunate Desert King - Chapter 27 – The Journey of Farewell

—I have to go.

I turned once more and burned Al’s figure into my memory.

“Sit in the back of the wagon,” my master said gently. “That way, you’ll still be able to see the palace for a while.”

Avoiding the public eye, we quietly departed from the mansion. Since the day Al saved me, this was the first time I had stepped beyond its gates.

The outside world felt frightening. If I could, I wanted to stay with Al forever.

Sensing the anxiety that threatened to crush me, the Lantern Master continued to watch over me with kindness.

When I couldn’t stop looking back at the mansion, he encouraged me to ride in the rear of the wagon and handed me a rainbow-colored Turkish lamp.

Inside the covered wagon, a single light glowed—its warm flame reflected on the many lamps piled up around it, scattering colors in every direction.

It shone like a beacon in the darkness. If only Al could see it, I thought.

—But I will never see Al again.

That truth struck me harder than anything.

I had chosen this path myself. I had left the mansion by my own will.

And yet, I couldn’t forget Al’s calm smile… His warm arms that held me… That soft, low voice whispering in my ear.

“Yuzu.”

That deep, gentle tone calling my name. The strong arms that drew the bow. The face more beautiful than any human’s.

Those fierce eyes, like a starving lion, when he looked at me.

The burning heat of his lips when he kissed me.

“I’ll take you away from Asaad.”

Those words—Al said them himself.

If only I’d asked him to take me away, no matter what I had to lose.

I wanted to follow him to the ends of the earth.

There would never be another person I could love that deeply again.

It was because it was Al that I wanted to stay by his side forever. And yet, I…

The mansion was growing distant. The palace’s round domes, once so clear, were shrinking smaller and smaller in the distance.

“…Al…!”

Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my cheeks. They fell one after another, dripping onto the Turkish lamp I held in my arms.

My heart was a mess—pain twisting deep inside me.

It hurt so much it felt as though my chest might tear apart.

My master flicked the reins, and the camel began to move, slowly stepping through the sea of sand.
It felt like walking across a silent ocean.

A vast, soundless sea of stillness. As I swayed with its gentle rhythm, I couldn’t stop the sobs that shook my body.