The Mortal Girl and the Wounded Prince

For thousands of years, Elara guarded Master Lucian’s sleeping body inside the sacred crystal chamber of Mount Elarion.

She fed him drops of blood from her own heart, believing his spirit would someday return. Kingdoms rose and fell, yet she never abandoned him.

But destiny had prepared another trial.

To ascend beyond her immortal rank, Elara was required to survive the Trial of Heaven. Without warning, a violent storm surrounded her as she crossed the northern mountains. Golden lightning tore through the sky, striking her again and again.

Then a dark seal appeared across her forehead.

Her power vanished.

Her memories disappeared.

The nine-tailed princess fell from the heavens like a dying star.

When she awoke, she was lying beside a quiet river. She no longer remembered Silvervale, Mount Elarion, or the master she had waited thousands of years to save. She did not even remember her own name.

The villagers who found her called her Sophie.

Believing herself to be an ordinary mortal, Sophie built a small cottage deep within the forest. She gathered herbs, cooked over an open fire, and lived alone among the mountains.

One stormy evening, she heard something crashing outside.

A wounded black dragon had fallen near her home.

Although terrified, Sophie approached the creature and discovered a deep silver wound across its chest. For three days, she cleaned the injury and fed it medicine, never realizing the dragon was actually Prince Adrian Blackwood, heir to the Celestial Kingdom.

Adrian had been attacked while hunting a demon and had transformed to conceal his identity.

When his strength returned, he took human form.

Sophie found a pale, handsome stranger standing where the dragon had been.

“You saved my life,” he told her.

“I would have done the same for any injured creature,” she replied.

Adrian had spent his entire life surrounded by nobles who feared his power or desired his throne. Sophie was the first person who expected nothing from him.

He began returning to the cottage under the excuse of protecting her.

Days became months.

They cooked together, repaired the leaking roof, and walked beside the river beneath the moonlight. Slowly, the distant prince learned how to laugh, while the lonely mortal girl discovered what it meant to be loved.

Adrian never told her he belonged to the heavens.

Sophie never knew she had once ruled an immortal kingdom.

One evening, beneath a peach tree covered in pale blossoms, Adrian placed a simple wooden ring in her hand.

“I cannot promise you an ordinary life,” he whispered. “But I can promise that I will always return.”

Sophie smiled and accepted.

Neither of them noticed the celestial soldiers watching from beyond the forest.

The heavens had finally found their missing prince.