Chapter 14
“I’m sorry, sir. It just feels like a dream. I never imagined a day like this would come. I never thought I’d see, with my own eyes, the moment you opened your heart. I say this out of excessive concern, but if you’re doing this out of a sense of responsibility for my waiting, there’s really no need to go this far. I never liked you expecting something like a relationship in the first place. So please, don’t push yourself. If we can just sit like this from time to time and even share a cup of tea, that’s more than enough for me.”
What kind of nonsense was this now. Faced with an answer he hadn’t anticipated, Bjorn felt a flicker of irritation.
When a woman chases after a man, or a man after a woman, doesn’t that ultimately have the goal of dating and marriage? There was no way a fool existed in this world who would engage in such meaningless behavior without hoping for any outcome.
He had no intention of truly dating her, but her attitude, which sounded almost like a roundabout refusal, made him feel inexplicably impatient. It was probably anxiety that the plan might fail. Bjorn quickly denied her words and repeated the same point once more.
“I’m not pushing myself. I sincerely wish to date you, Miss Bailey.”
Of course, before the day was even over, she would be the one fleeing first.
After watching Bjorn for a moment, Leila opened her mouth again with a hesitant expression.
“Um, then. I don’t know how many times it will be, but if we do continue to meet like this from now on… would it be alright if I asked just one shameless favor?”
“What is it? Please, go ahead.”
A request as soon as the relationship showed signs of progressing. A sense of déjà vu brushed Bjorn’s mind, and he frowned slightly.
She was the same woman who had come to him just before he departed for the holy war and, under the guise of a request, had pressed a rosary into his hands. What kind of favor was she laying the groundwork for this time.
His needless suspicion once again returned as a faint sense of deflation.
“If it’s alright, could you call me by my name… It’s a personal reason, but being called by my family name makes me a bit uncomfortable.”
It was such a trivial request that her overly tense demeanor seemed almost ridiculous.
Wasn’t she being excessively cautious over something as simple as asking him to call her by her name? Bjorn felt an unprovoked sense of suffocation at Leila’s still painfully timid manner.
He was, in fact, curious about the personal reason she mentioned, but Bjorn soon corrected himself. They weren’t going to be seeing each other for long anyway, so there was no need to know the reason.
“If you permit it, I’d be happy to do so. In that case, would you also call me by my name?”
Not wanting to be called by one’s family name applied to Bjorn as well. His parents had abandoned him, yet he could not abandon his surname as he pleased. Every time someone called him by that name, it constantly reminded him of the position he was in, having been discarded by those who had given him that name.
“Is that really alright? That’s an honor I never expected…”
“But it would only be fair to do so.”
There was no time to wait for her to be moved and overwhelmed by every little thing. Cutting it short, Bjorn rang the bell on the table to summon the server.
Not long after, aperitifs were set before the two of them.
The meal was a typical formal course of the Principality. Roughly seven courses in total. In other words, it would take an unbearably long time to finish.
To avoid interrupting the guests’ conversation, the staff left excessively generous intervals between courses. Like it or not, that meant he would have to converse with Leila until the soup or main dish arrived.
“Are you hurt anywhere, or feeling unwell? There was nothing I could do here except pray, but I truly wished with all my heart that you would return safely.”
“Yes, I’m not injured anywhere in particular.”
“I should offer my prayers of thanks to the Almighty God even more fervently then. Um, how do you feel about being back in the capital after five years? Until I heard the news of your return, the years felt endlessly long, but when I think about it another way, it also feels like time flew by.”
“Well. I can’t say I have any particular impressions… though it does seem like a few buildings have been constructed that I didn’t recognize.”
Fortunately, the conversation flowed without awkwardness. To be honest, the atmosphere between the two of them was far from bad, much better than Bjorn had feared.
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