After their marriage, Darfin remained working as an orphanage caretaker because he didn't want the kids to be sad about him leaving.
He did, however, live in the palace, so he would always go to sleep and wake up with Valindra in his arms.
Valindra remained a queen, but now that she had a husband who loved her, she was finally happy, and the work she continued to do became much easier when she didn't have her feelings bottled up inside her.
They continued working and enjoying their lives, and nine months after their marriage, Valindra gave birth to a boy.
The baby cried a lot, but that just showed that he was healthy, and they named him Erelith.
Valindra had to take care of Erelith, so she didn't have as much time to work as a queen as before, but because her loyal subjects were very capable, the country continued to smoothly develop.
When Erelith became ten years old, Valindra started to teach him how to be a king because she wanted him to inherit the throne in the future.
She also wanted to teach him how to fight with a spear, but Erelith was always more interested in swords than spears, so Valindra delegated the task to her elite guards, who were experts at wielding a sword.
As Erelith grew up, he came to love his parents very much.
Valindra was usually strict with him, but she still showered him with love, and his father, Darfin, was great with children, so Erelith would only have happy memories with him.
Sometimes he would be training his sword techniques, and his father would help him sneak away from the training grounds to play hide and seek in the castle.
Other times, the entire family would go for walks, and Erelith would ride on Darfin's shoulders, laughing and enjoying the fresh air.
Valindra and Darfin did try to have another child, but it never worked out.
They did have Erelith, though, so they at least didn't have to worry about having nobody inherit the throne.
Erelith was a bright and talented child who quickly learned how to use the sword and was also a quick learner in other areas, such as etiquette.
The elite guards that were teaching him would sometimes even lose to him, which was very surprising because at that time he was only fifteen years old.
This made his parents very proud, and they lived their lives filled with happiness, wanting nothing more than for things to remain the same. But, alas, fate had other plans for them.
---
Valindra was working in her office like any other day, but this time she was working with a smile.
Now that she had an adorable son and a loving husband, her life had turned for the better.
She used to hate working and only did it because it gave her a purpose, but after becoming a wife and a mother, she worked for her two boys, and that enabled her to push through the day.
Valindra was signing a document that would give a certain elf farmer the rights to sell his produce in the capital, which would then ensure a stable income for the palace that she could then use to make the continent better.
Her butler stood by her side, always handing her another document and explaining what it was about.
Valindra didn't have a lot of time to work when Erelith was younger, but now that he was almost sixteen, she could go back to being a queen because she knew that he could take care of himself.
Erelith also had servants following him everywhere he went, so she knew that he would be safe. Not that he needed them because his swordsmanship rivaled even Valindra's former brother Arun.
Her husband was still working at the orphanage, but because of his skills and hard work, he was now the director of the orphanage.
Darfin didn't need the money that his new position brought him, though, so he always invested it back to the orphanage, buying the kids new toys and clothes.
He was loved as an orphanage director, and all the kids that would leave the orphanage because someone adopted them would always visit the orphanage just to talk to him about their lives.
Valindra was currently humming a song as she continued reading a document, and her butler also had a smile on his face because he loved seeing his queen happy, unlike her past expressionless self.
BANG
Suddenly, the doors to her office were forcefully opened, and a guard wearing silver armor rushed inside. He was panting and had his hands on his knees because he ran with his heavy armor on.
"What is it, Trius?"
Valindra put down her ink feather and looked at the guard.
She remembered the names of all her servants because she wanted to treat them as people and not numbers.
"Your… majesty! It's… King Darfin! He… he…"
The guard couldn't even finish his sentence because he would run out of breath as soon as he said one word.
"First, take a breath, and then tell me what happened. Did my husband do something silly like spending all his money on the orphanage children again?"
Valindra chuckled because she remembered how she had to give Darfin an allowance since he would always spend all his money buying things for the children.
The guard, whose hands were shaking and whose lips were trembling, breathed in and out.
He then looked at Valindra with a pale expression.
"The king had collapsed in his office!"
"…"
A pin-drop silence engulfed Valindra's office, and only the guards' heavy breathing could have been heard.
"Wh- What?"
Valindra's pupils started to shake as she had difficulty standing up.
She had seen her husband this morning, and while giving him his morning kiss, she saw just how healthy he was, so there was no way he would suddenly collapse.
"It is true, your Majesty! One of the children went inside his office and found him lying on the desk. The child initially thought he was sleeping, but when she noticed how heavily he was sweating and ruggedly breathing, she called for help!"
"Where is he?!"
Valindra clenched her teeth and ran to grab the guard's shoulders.
After he informed her that Darfin had been hospitalized, she dashed to the palace infirmary.
When she got there, Darfin was sleeping while the three best doctors on the Elvish continent were standing next to him.
"Your Maje-"
"Save it! How is he?!"
When they saw their queen, the doctors wanted to kneel down, but the upset Valindra stopped them.
One of the doctors, who looked the oldest because of his slightly grayish hair, walked forward and started talking with a downcast expression.
"It seems that because of his poor upbringing, he had contracted a disease in the past, and it revealed itself only now. If we had known sooner, we could have treated it, but since it had rooted itself so deeply inside of his body, we are powerless to do anything."
"...How… How long does he have?"
Valindra, whose body was trembling, let out a soft sniffle as she asked her question, hoping that Darfin wouldn't leave her yet.
"We can't say for sure, but from how the disease has affected people in the past, we estimate that he will live for at most a week, but it will be the most horrible week of his life."
"A week… a… week…"
She slowly walked over to Darfin and caressed his pale cheek.
The doctors couldn't change the outcome, so they left Valindra in the room alone with Darfin.
Valindra was looking at his sleeping visage as tears dripped down from her eyes.
After she had finally managed to find her happiness and break herself from the monotonous cycle of hiding her emotions, the world was trying to take that happiness away.
'Am I not allowed to be happy? I don't want a lot… All I want is for my husband and son to stay healthy… Is that too much? Am I not allowed to have at least that much?'
Valindra kept cursing the world while looking at Darfin.
"Ho… ney…?"
Darfin slowly opened his tired eyes, but as soon as he did, Valindra could see how his pupils had turned white.
His disease first took away the strength in his body, then it took away his senses, starting with his sight, and finally it would take away his life.
"I can't… see…"
Valindra hugged Darfin and started crying even harder. She knew that her husband didn't deserve this, and the feeling of powerlessness to stop it was tearing her heart apart.
"I am here, Darfin! I am here for you!"
Darfin could still hear, so he heard how his wife kept crying as she hugged his weak body. He also heard how she kept reassuring him of her presence, and Darfin understood his situation.
He didn't know how or why, but he knew that he was dying, and his wife was attempting to comfort him, but mostly she was comforting herself by hugging him and trying to hide her sadness with her words.
So Darfin opened his trembling lips to talk to her while he still could.
"Honey… I want you to know… that I love and have always loved everything about you... The way you smile in the morning, the way you grip my hand when you are scared, the way you curl up your fingers when you are embarrassed… I love everything about you, Valindra... everything."
Knowing that he was running out of time, Darfin tried his best to convey his feelings to Valindra through words one last time, but his voice sounded raspy and exhausted.
"Darfin! I also… lo… y… Pl…"
As Valindra attempted to respond, Darfin heard only bits and pieces of what she was saying, and then he couldn't hear anything anymore.
He could still feel her warmth as she hugged him, but he couldn't see or hear her now.
Darfin wanted to talk to his wife more and tell her not to cry, but not being able to see or hear made him feel like he was stuck in a dark, silent room, and as he was also slowly losing the feeling of touch, he became more and more terrified.
He felt as if he were trapped inside a stone statue in the shape of his body, unable to move.
All he saw was darkness. All he heard was silence. And all he felt was nothingness.
His last ability that the disease had not yet managed to take away was his speech.
He could still speak, even though he now couldn't hear himself. So, he opened his quivering lips.
"Valindra…"
"Yes?!"
Valindra looked at her husband, who now looked like an empty husk, and attentively listened to him, willing to help him in any way he needed her to.
But Darfin could no longer hear her words.
"I can't see your beauty anymore, nor can I hear your sweet voice… I can't even feel your warm touch… I am scared of becoming a prisoner in my own body…"
His soft voice turned into a grieving one as tears started clogging his throat, and he was doing his best to stay sane.
"So, please, Valindra… Please kill me…"