"...So that's how it is."
After listening to Annan's account, Duke Ivan sighed deeply.
His emotions were complex, his right hand holding the scepter tightened slightly.
"Anya..."
Ivan murmured someone's name softly.
A profoundly complex mix of emotions surfaced in his eyes.
Sorrow? Nostalgia? Calmness? Resignation?
Or perhaps none of the above.
Even Annan couldn't decipher such profoundly complex emotions.
It was a look one only acquired when reflecting on the past in the twilight years, with half of one's body buried in yellow earth.
Just by looking into those eyes, an onlooker would unintentionally calm down.
"Are you very sad, Father?"
Annan couldn't help but ask.
Although none of this was Ivan's fault... it all started with Lily's own clumsy tragedy.
But after all, Anya was trying to find Transcendent Wisdom to figure out how to marry Ivan and change Winter; it was for that reason that she performed that ritual, leading to Lily's accident.
