The Alchemists

Aleksis closed her eyes and enjoyed the breeze that caressed her long hair. Indeed, the atmosphere was very pleasant and romantic with the moonlight as the only lighting.

Hmm... She remembered that a long time ago when she was little and first came to this conservation, she couldn't sit still at all. She would run around and do things that would make Lauriel shake his head.

Ah... If she wasn't mistaken, she once chased a rabbit here and there and sat on a big rock that looked alike to this one.

BAM!

Suddenly, Aleksis turned to her right and left several times and realized that this was indeed the rock that was in her memory. How could she forget?

Her heart beat faster. Slowly, her eyes turned to the left and looked for something on the rock.

Oh... It's still there, she thought sadly.

Aleksis unconsciously took a deep breath. Her mind returned to fifteen years ago when she was a teenager. At that time, she was still naive and obsessed with Prince Siegfried. She had carved her name and Prince Siegfried's with a knife on this large rock.

And just now, she realized that the carving of their two names was still there. Her chest felt tight. For some reason, she was always reminded of Alaric wherever she went, even though in a month she would marry Nicolae. Now, her future husband was even sitting with her enjoying the moon.

She closed her eyes and tried to forget the two names carving. She had to take Nicolae home before he saw them. Aleksis knew she had to protect Nicolae's feelings.

"Aleksis..." Nicolae's voice suddenly broke the silence and shocked Aleksis.

"Yes... What's up?" Aleksis asked, turning her head to the side. She found Nicolae looking at her without blinking. Aleksis waved her hand in front of Nicolae's face, who immediately smiled and shook his head. "Hey... Why aren't you blinking?"

"It's okay. I was just thinking," Nicolae said to her.

"What were you thinking of?" Aleksis inquired, instantly forgetting the carving that had made her worry. Seeing Nicolae behaving unlike his usual self made her worry.

"Aleksis... Do you love me?"

Nicolae's sudden question surprised Aleksis. So far, Nicolae had never openly asked her this.

Nicolae expressed his love several times to her and even proposed to her one night while they were on holiday together in Iceland, but the young man never asked for an answer from Aleksis.

He never even gave a time limit for Aleksis to answer his proposal, and Aleksis herself decided to answer it four years later.

Aleksis looked closely at Nicolae and frowned, astonished at the question, "Why are you suddenly asking that? I wouldn't be marrying you if I don't love you."

Nicolae nodded, "Of course. But there are three types of love in this world. Eros, Philia, and Agape. What love do you love me with?"

Aleksis looked at Nicolae and immediately understood his meaning. She touched Nicolae's cheek and answered honestly, "I love you with Philia. You are my best friend, my brother, and my family."

Nicolae nodded and touched Aleksis' hand which was rubbing his cheek, "That's enough for me. Thank you."

Aleksis saw Nicolae's pair of blue eyes glittering and she wondered why he would suddenly ask such a question one month before they were about to get married.

"How about you?" Aleksis asked afterward.

Nicolae pulled Aleksis's right hand from his cheek and kissed it while closing his eyes, and so his words sounded very solemn, "I love you with Eros, Philia, and Agape. I love you with all types of love there is in this world."

"Nico..." Aleksis's voice choked up. She didn't doubt Nicolae's words and believed that if there were a thousand ways to love someone in this world, then Nicolae would love her in a thousand ways...

"Aleksis..." Nicolae opened his eyes and stared straight at Aleksis, "I know it's not easy for you to continue to live and build a home with me at the moment. I know you've been thinking that you have to force yourself to forget the past in order to move forward. I want you to hear it directly from me now: you don't need to do that. "

Aleksis' eyes rounded in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is... Please, don't be too hard on yourself. I know you have an immense amount of grief because you feel that you have to protect my feelings,  your parents' feelings, and your children's feelings... You want to make all of us happy because we want to see you happy, and so you force yourself to recover and move on as if everything that happened in the past can be forgotten just like that..."

Aleksis bit her lip, holding back her grief. Nicolae truly knew her exceptionally well. He even understood her deepest feelings.

"After all, I really have to go on with my life, right?" Aleksis asked in a bitter voice. "People who are always stuck living in the past will never be happy."

"That's true. But as I said, you don't have to forget the past to move toward the future. After all, Altair and Vega exist because of your past..." Nicolae wiped the tears from Aleksis' pair of blue-green eyes streaming down to her cheeks. "I don't want you to feel that you have to forget Alaric Rhionen to move on and continue your life living with me. He's your first love. That's a fact, and I'll never take that position from him. But from now and forever, I want to be your last love. I'll make you happy and wait until you love me with Eros, Philia, and Agape."

Feeling touched, Aleksis covered her lips. Her voice faltered when she tried to speak, "You... have you seen the carving?"

Nicolae nodded. "I saw it a long time ago. I can guess you carved the names of the two of you there when you were little. I can't bear to see you acting awkwardly just because of some carvings on a stone... I don't think it's necessary."

"Nico..." Aleksis softly whispered. She knew she was very, very lucky to marry this man, who loved her in every way and understood her as he understood himself.

"One more thing..." Nicolae continued, "I want to be honest with you from the start, so you don't have to play a guessing game and keep this as a burden because you're afraid to convey your wishes to me."

"What is it?"

"I don't want to have a child from you. I already consider Altair and Vega as my own. I don't want to share my love with other children."

"Nic..." Aleksis was rendered speechless, unable to voice out anything other than repeatedly calling Nicolae's name. Her mind went blank and she felt like she was no longer on earth. For a moment, her body staggered.

"Aleksis..." Nicolae got up and pulled Aleksis into his arms, trying to calm the girl so she wouldn't cry anymore, "Sshh... Don't cry. Father will kill me if he finds out you just cried because of me..."

"N... No, I'm not crying because of you... but..." Aleksis increasingly stammered between her sobbing, "These aren't tears of sadness, but happiness..."

Nicolae rubbed the girl's hair and kissed the top of her head. "Okay... As long as it's a cry of happiness... It's okay. I won't be able to forgive myself if you cry because you're sad."

Aleksis raised her face and looked at Nicolae with a solemn face. "Thank you..."

"What for?" Nicolae seemed to hold back laughter, "After we get married, you'll be my wife. Whatever I do for you is done for me too. Your happiness is also my happiness. You don't need to thank me."

Aleksis finally nodded and slowly began to smile. Nicolae had always known how to make her forget her sorrow.

"Nico... I'm happy." Finally, Aleksis said a sentence that she knew would stop Nicolae from worrying.

If Aleksis was happy, Nicolae would be happy too.

"Hmm... I'm glad to hear that," Nicolae whispered.

He touched Aleksis' chin and brought his face close to her, then closed his eyes as his moist lips gently kissed Aleksis' lips.