To You Who Forgot The Night

Chapter 1 - A Woman Who Resembles The Night

A Woman Who Resembles The Night

Darkness fell in the spacious room.

With a huge bed behind him, an eight-year-old boy stood by the window, staring beyond it.

His shadow cast a jagged silhouette on the glass.

“You should go to sleep. What are you looking at like that?”

Suddenly, a woman appeared from behind and hugged the boy.

Holding him in her soft arms, the dark-haired boy stared out the window.

“Night,” said the boy, who was staring at the dark night sky where there was no moon.

“Night?”

“I look like my mother.”

An average child would be afraid of the night, but this boy didn’t show any signs of fear. He fiddled with his mother’s long hair with his little hands. 

He looked up at the woman.

The face of the woman, long hair hanging down and smiling brightly, was very beautiful. She was the sweetest and kindest mother in the world.

She was just as warm and cozy as the darkness.

‘I hope this night doesn’t pass.’

Enough to wish.

***

His first memory was the faintly stinky smell that stung her nose.

The faint sound of music hovering in his ears disappeared to the far side of his consciousness. He opened his heavily seated eyelids to drive out the darkness. As the surroundings gradually calmed down, the blurred vision became clearer by blinking a few times.

A white ceiling.

As he jumped to his feet and sat down, a needle-like stabbing headache soon eroded his head. 

Euris let out a low groan and ruffled his black hair violently. The eyes that glowed red like rubies looked around.

He wrinkled his brow. Before he opened his eyes, he had guessed that this was a hospital. For him, who calls a doctor rather than coming to the hospital, he didn’t understand the current situation.

There were several beds with screens in the room, but fortunately, he was the only one lying down.

He casually looked out the window and saw the greyish sky, low-rise brick buildings, and falling leaves swaying away from the branches. He wondered if he was cuddling with the duvet while he was sleeping, the neat creases on either side of his trousers had become wrinkled. The black frock coat he was wearing, was hanging on the chair next to the bed.

He quickly checked the pockets of his coat but found no wallet or anything to prove his identity.

‘Where the hell am I?’

‘Does this hospital have a phone?’

If only he could send a telegram at the very least.

“Patient, are you awake?”

The nurse, who came through the open door, approached the bed. Wearing snow-white clothes and a headband, she looked more like an apostle of God than someone trying to fight against the disease.

Euris quietly asked the nurse who was examining his condition.

“Why am I here?”

The man was quite startled inwardly at the sound of his hoarse voice, as if he had been strangled. 

As if he had been asleep for a long time. 

As he slowly recollected his memories, things about his identity came to mind one by one.

“Your name is…”

“Euris den Astrian.”

The man recited his name, including his aristocratic surname, with a graceful pronunciation. 

He was an elegant, handsome man with black hair and slightly sharp eyes contrasted with pale white skin. He looked much younger than his age with his hair down.

According to the nurse, the hospital was located in the capital, but it was quite far from the house where he lived. It seemed like he had to call someone to pay the hospital bills.

“The patient was lying on the street. Fortunately, no major injury was found. Do you have any guardians to contact?”

“…Does the hospital have a phone? Or is there a post office nearby?”

“Ah, the phone is installed.”

“Then let me call-”

He was about to get out of bed, thinking he was lucky, but he noticed that his body was not getting any strength and changed his posture gently. It was natural, as if nothing wrong had happened to him.

Euris scrawled the number after receiving the pen and paper from the nurse and handed it to her.

“Could you please contact this number?”

“Oh, sure.”

“And, what day is it now? The exact date.”

“It’s September 13th.”

Looking at the year, according to the date the nurse said, he was now 30. This, too, was not much different from his memory. 

When the door closed and he was left alone again, he slowly clasped and unfolded his hand. Strange tiredness struck him as if he had accumulated fatigue from a long journey. He couldn’t show a tired appearance in front of others, so he stretched his body when he found himself alone. 

He couldn’t tell his father that he was in the hospital, so he wrote down the number of his cousin, Claude. He was quick-witted, so Euris was sure his cousin would take care of it.

A dull time passed by.

A faint sound of loud footsteps passed his ears. As he sat quietly and waited, the door swung open.

“Euris!”

An unfamiliar voice called his name. 

Euris looked towards the open door. 

A woman in a suit was standing next to Claude, a blonde man he had been familiar with.

Black eyes and black hair that came down right to the chin. Even though it was a bright day, the woman’s hair was as dark as pitch black.

She also had exotic features, and was she from Hianq?

Although the Pleth Kingdome was a country where many ethnic groups lived, people from Hianq were not common. 

His mother, who passed on the colour of her hair to him, was also from that country.

…He didn’t like it.

“What the hell are you doing? Do you know how surprised I was when I got a call from the hospital?”

“Who is this woman?”

After hearing Euris ask curtly, Claude opened his mouth wide. His eyes were wide open, so he did seem to be quite surprised. He clenched his lips in bewilderment.

“Euris, what a joke?!”

“What a joke? I don’t feel like joking.”

Euris frowned and gave the woman a cold gaze. 

Astonished, the woman did not lose and looked him in the eye. The black pupils were as deep as the abyss.

Just like the night, he saw as a child.

A memory that he had been holding down came out at will and shook his already complicated brain. Neither Claude’s reaction, nor this woman, nor the circumstances in which he lay here, he understood nothing.

Claude opened his mouth as if in shock.

“Did you lose your memory? Don’t you- don’t you remember me?”

“Claude den Astrian, a cousin and friend I’ve known since I was six. Now, you’re in the company and working all over the place.”

When he recited his personal details, his cousin laughed coldly.

“You remember clearly about me, but you don’t remember Radia? What nonsense is this.”

A frown formed on his gentle face. Euris couldn’t really understand his friend’s reaction.

Who is this woman?

“Excuse me.”

A clear voice crept in between the two.

“Isn’t it rude to ask people about other people in front of them?”

The woman had a strange atmosphere. 

Even though she was only making eye contact with him, she choked a breath, as if she was being crushed.

He was stupid to think that she looked like the night for a moment. 

That can’t be true.

A faint smile appeared on the woman’s lips. 

But oddly enough, it didn’t seem like she was genuinely smiling. 

There was a vague sense of rejection, but he didn’t know why.

“I am Radia Jean.”

As if killing her emotions, a dry voice answered.

“You are my one and only lover.”