The day I failed at my first love.

The moment I realized the reason was my lack of power, greed stirred within me for the first time.

---

Two years later.

At the end of a winter so cold it chilled my bones. I joined the war.

As the second prince of an Imperial Family that already had an eldest son.

There was no surer way for someone in my position to achieve merit in a short time than the battlefield. I harbored no grand ambitions of serving the country or ensuring the peace of the imperial citizens.

For the one I loved.

I rolled through the battlefield for a reason even a romanticist would mock.

The war was more horrific than I imagined.

Instead of my first love's eyes, the red bloodstains of the enemy were etched into my retinas, and instead of her voice, the rough cries of forcibly conscripted soldiers lingered in my ears.

My wounds stung.

Overworked muscles tore, and at night, the dying breaths of young soldiers who fell by my blade weighed down on me.

---

Only after three years did the war come to an end.

The Empire was victorious.

The Imperial Family opened the path grandly as if to erase the ashes, and I returned amidst everyone's cheers.

I was invested as the Crown Prince.

I returned to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I alone remained in that place.

The place where red rain fell.

---

"......."

---

After the investiture.

She approached me once again.

But for some reason, I didn't feel the fluttering of my youth. Not the trembling, nor the faintness of those brilliant moments. Whenever I looked into her eyes, the battlefield came to mind.

A place that was entirely red.

My stomach churned with nausea.

It wasn't that I hated her. What sin could she have committed? It was all my choice. Simply maintaining my manners in front of her was all I could do.

I realized before long.

That there is no love in any of these moments.

Age 20.

It felt as if all my emotions had burned away.

What should I do from now on?

After being invested as Crown Prince, I naturally began to think about the enthronement ceremony a few years away, but nothing else would enter my mind.

Then one day, In late summer, when the scent of flowers was particularly thick.

I met you.

---

HL & BL possible