On a frigid winter night when plum blossoms bloomed and the world slept, my homeland perished—leaving not a single trace behind. No one remembered the fallen kingdom, and I believed I would never again see the warmth of the sun.

But everything changed when Yeon-oh, that enigmatic man, appeared before me. Crowned king in place of his mother who died young, Yeon-oh is the sole heir of the Oh dynasty—a lineage where, for generations, only daughters ever saw the light of day. He is the last monarch, the only king, and the descendant of the sworn enemy who destroyed my country. I must kill him, and soon.

Yet rumors echo through the capital: the only king in our world suffers from a strange affliction—he can survive only by devouring human hearts, demanding that a life be offered to him each day.

And then there is Wol-ae, the mysterious girl who keeps reaching out to me. As the last princess of the Yoo dynasty, she seems deeply burdened by the duties imposed on her.

“Take me with you. Anywhere—wherever you wish. I’ll follow, no matter the place. Please, run away with me.”

Wol-ae’s relentless devotion pierces my heart again and again, but as a fifteen-year-old girl who has yet to grasp the fullness of the world, I cannot know when her desperate pursuit will end.

Still, I am determined to sever this chain of hatred in my own lifetime.

“At the end of all fading years in our world, I will remain and wait for you. So live on, in your own time, my beautiful red plum blossom, my only life, my Yeon-hwa.”

Will the ruin born from this beginning’s end finally set me free?

Original Novel:
RIDI, Naver Series, MrBlue, BookCube

Official Translations:
English