“Turing, you…”
The moment he saw the church, Merka suddenly realized something.
He whipped around to look at Turing. His heart gave a jolt—the one buried deep in his chest seemed to twitch like a car engine catching, then began to pound wildly.
His face turned bright red in an instant.
As if all the blood he’d shed in his entire life had rushed to his cheeks at once.
Seeing how flustered Merka was, Turing didn’t explain. She only gave him a gentle smile.
As the boat slowly drew near the shore, she rose from the bow, stepped up onto the embankment in front of the church, then turned and helped Merka up after her.
Merka stared wide-eyed at Turing, who looked like an elf beneath the moonlight, and felt his heart stir.
His body felt more sensitive than the most precise surveying instrument in the world.
Goosebumps covered his skin. Tens of thousands of pores all over his body seemed to open slightly, as if waiting for Turing’s next words.
He hadn’t expected it.
He was actually looking forward to this moment so much.
“Merka, do you remember that day?”
“The day I confessed to you, in the castle on the outskirts of Lachésis.”
As she spoke, Turing took Merka’s hand and led him into the church.
The night draped her back in a dim wedding veil.
Her silhouette shimmered in Merka’s eyes, like a small, delicate moon drifting slowly along the Milky Way.
Her hand was soft, but if Merka gently traced along her skin, he could feel the hardness buried deep in her bones.
The starlight all around him dazzled Merka.
He rubbed his eyes, seeing the light again—
Scalding, pea-sized tears streamed from his eyes, one after another, like drops of wax melted by candlelight.
“Back then, I had so little time, and you were so beautiful.”
“I couldn’t wait to confess to you. I wanted to bind you to me with wealth, power, food, fame…and everything else.”
“Just like my mother tried to bind me.”
Turing shook her head gently and continued.
“But I never realized those things could never win someone’s heart.”
“Just as my mother couldn’t keep my father in the end.”
Turing paused. Still holding Merka’s hand, she pushed open the church doors.
The wooden doors creaked as Turing pushed them open, like the sound of a priest turning to the pages of a book to bless a newly married couple.
“But now I understand. Sincerity has to be met with sincerity.”
“The only way to win someone’s love is with all your heart.”
“Nothing else will do.”
Turing led Merka to the center of the church.
Ethereal moonlight streamed through the stained-glass window above Turing, draping her in a shimmering wedding veil.
She hesitated for a moment, then blushed.
Hurriedly, she took one of Merka’s hands and placed a pair of small objects in his palm.
Merka opened his hand and looked.
A pair of rings, one black and one white.
“I love you, Merka.”
“This is my surprise for you, my gift…”
“My heart.”
When Turing finished speaking, she lowered both hands to her stomach and nervously twisted them together.
Shy as she was now, Turing hardly seemed like Acadia’s princess.
She’d lost all her confidence and toughness, becoming an ordinary little girl again.
She looked up at Merka with a timid, pleading expression, as if waiting for the answer she hoped to hear.
“Your…answer?”
Even though Turing already knew what he would say, she still asked.
Merka’s lips parted slightly as he stared blankly at the black and white rings.
His tears wouldn’t stop falling.
The day had come. At last.
The day he’d dreamed of night and day had come even sooner than he’d imagined.
“I love you, Turing. I love you too.”
“Marry me.”
In the silent church, Merka took a deep breath and wiped his face with his sleeve.
With the sea and the moonlight as witnesses, he solemnly slipped the ring onto Turing’s finger.
Turing raised her hand slowly into the moonlight and gazed at the black ring on her ring finger. She let out a relieved breath, then laughed softly.
Merka smiled happily too.
Just as he was about to put the white ring on his own finger, Turing reached out to stop him.
She held Merka’s hand in one of hers and pinched the ring between the fingers of her other hand, sliding it onto his ring finger.
“Hehe… This one’s mine to do.”
“It’s something I should do for you as your wife, right?”
