Chapter 48
While my parents hesitated over how to settle this irreversibly ruined atmosphere, I opened my mouth first and calmly answered his feelings.
“I’m grateful for the thought, but I’m alright. These earrings alone are enough for me.”
As I said that, I once again touched my earlobe. The earrings dangling in my hand reflected the candlelight illuminating the dining room.
Raven’s gaze, which had been staring intently at my face, naturally moved to my earlobe. He examined my ear thoroughly, as though licking it with his eyes.
It felt as though heat rose wherever his gaze touched, but I plausibly ignored that gaze until the end.
“And when it hasn’t been long since we became engaged, mining rights… Receiving that kind of gift feels rather burdensome.”
“Then would it be alright if I gifted you jewels I own?”
It seemed the option of not giving me a gift did not exist for him.
I quietly shook my head.
“No, I think even if Your Highness gifted me a single jewel, it would not be very ordinary.”
“What do you mean by saying it would not be ordinary?”
“I think you would send every sapphire from the mine to me.”
“……”
“And going further, I also think you might gift me every sapphire that exists in the entire world.”
“……”
Raven’s silence continued for a long time.
At last, the gaze of the man who had seemed as though he would stare only at me without even blinking if someone pricked him with a needle slowly withdrew. It seemed my words had struck the mark.
He did not know this, but one of the countless courtship attempts Raven had made in the original work in order to win Giselle’s heart was precisely that.
Sending a great deal of something the other person liked or something that suited the other person well.
However, such a method was not very effective in winning the heart of Giselle in the original work.
Feeling burdened by the jewels that arrived almost every day, she eventually became exhausted and sent them all back, and that produced another misunderstanding, deepening the emotional rift.
Of course, even in that original work, there had been no mention of the rights to a mine.
After recalling the contents of the original work for the first time in a while, I calmly ended the conversation.
“I think gifts are happier to receive later, after feelings have deepened a little more. The emotion becomes deeper too.”
“……”
“So today, I’ll gratefully accept only the thought.”
The expression of Raven, who quietly listened to my words, was saying that his feelings had already deepened as much as they possibly could. However, he could not bring what was inside him out of his mouth.
Unlike me, who knew through the original work that Raven was the crow I had saved, publicly, the crow and Raven were clearly separate beings. There was no way to explain the reason his feelings had deepened from the first meeting.
Of course, he could also reveal that he was the crow that had been dying behind the storage shed of the Vellasi household. But the problem was that no one would believe that fact.
When judged by ordinary common sense, the very idea of a person transforming into a crow did not make sense.
Raven was already in a position where people feared him because of the ominous energy flowing from the magic power he originally possessed and his uniquely sharp appearance. If he were to confess even the fact that he could transform into a crow, the reaction people would show was obvious.
He was probably guessing that after hearing such a story, I would look at him as though looking at an insect and make the engagement something that had never happened. And breaking off the engagement was the thing he feared most.
“…Is that so. …Understood.”
As if supporting my judgment, after a long hesitation, Raven ended the conversation. He chose to remain silent.
Once he closed his mouth, the conversation was naturally cut off. I returned to cutting my steak, pretending that I did not welcome the engagement with Raven.
Only then did Father, who had been stiff all this time, urgently change the subject with a laugh that sounded stiff even at a glance.
“Haha. That aside, this is wine we prepared especially today to mark this joyful day, and I wonder whether it will suit your taste.”
“…It does.”
Amid a conversation that was embarrassing just to listen to, the dinner finally came to an end. Like that, Raven returned to his territory, Corvinus.
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