A Practical Guide to Ending a One-Sided Love - Chapter 25 - ɪᴠ.

⊰━━━━━━━━ ❊ ━━━━━━━━⊱

He arranged a second appointment with Leila through a letter. It was fifteen days after the first meeting, still an endlessly bright spring day.

Before sending the second letter, Bjorn inwardly thought she might refuse his request. No, any woman in her right mind should have done so.

Even if she had not grasped reality properly on the day of the incident, he held the futile hope that after trudging home carrying the broken parasol and thinking it over, she would have made a rational judgment.

However, Leila shattered that expectation by replying to Bjorn’s letter asking for the next date. She even revealed excitement about the next meeting, saying there was something she had always wanted to try once she had a dating partner.

Upon hearing a reply had come, Allen burned with fighting spirit, saying she truly wasn’t ordinary.

And so, today, the day of the appointment.

Separate from the despair that the day he wished would not come had finally arrived, Bjorn was inspecting his appearance one last time before leaving the temple. The pure white formal uniform he wore after a long time was as splendid as a lady’s dress.

Among Todd’s suggestions for the second meeting had also been one related to clothing. The idea was to meet Leila wearing grotesque and bizarre clothes impossible to look at with open eyes.

But now, all three of them knew. She was not an opponent who could be repelled by that level of absurdity. Moreover, since she herself dressed so strangely, it did not seem she would care much about what Bjorn wore.

Today’s meeting place was somewhere visible to others and there was also the issue of maintaining a paladin’s dignity, so Bjorn decided to simply wear the uniform. If during the last meeting he had gone looking as shabby and miserable as possible, today’s operation would have had a greater effect the more splendid his appearance was.

“It’s still tight.”

Among the essential virtues of the Benignus knight order was ‘a neat appearance’. Therefore, knights kept mirrors as necessities in their rooms.

Checking in the mirror for wrinkles or stains on the clothes, Bjorn soon realized his own pitiful state and sighed.

The formal uniform of the Rimasoth Principality’s paladins was clothing filled with blatant intent the more one looked at it. The fabric tailored without a single gap further emphasized Bjorn’s already thick chest and firm thighs. Because of the design that revealed body lines as they were, it was clothing that required not the slightest disorder in posture while wearing it.

Whether he liked it or not, it was clothing he had worn all his life, so he knew exactly how to wear it to look his best. Smoothing the fabric with familiar hands and setting the lines, Bjorn finally checked his appearance in the mirror.

‘Something… feels lacking.’

Even after preparing for a long time, he tilted his head at the unfamiliar lack of perfection. It was already ornate enough with just the uniform alone, yet today it somehow felt plain.

After hesitating briefly, he finally took out the camellia oil shoved in a drawer and applied it to his naturally bright blond hair, slicking it back. It was one of the victory souvenirs but he had never even glanced at it because he had no use for it.

To think I’d use this like this. To ease the slight self-contempt, Bjorn forced an excuse.

‘This is not to look good for Leila. Today I am a soldier going to fight her persistent determination and this is my battle uniform. Applying hair oil is also a ritual befitting that and a way to steel my resolve.’

Muttering an absurd excuse, he recalled Allen’s advice in his mind.

‘The two methods I told you. Just remember those well. They’re like a magic spell that makes a woman recoil and stay far away. Why didn’t we think of this sooner? We could’ve finished it in one go.’

Reciting the two secrets Allen had passionately taught him a few days ago like a prayer, Bjorn left the room with light steps, then soon faced a painful truth.