For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 127

[ To my dear Estira,

The cold has become pervasive. I hope you are keeping well and healthy. I sometimes imagine what winter must be like in Dongguk, and what winter spent together with you would be like, all the way from the Holy Kingdom.

It snowed here not long ago. That’s when I began writing this letter. ]

[ Your eighteenth birthday is approaching. With feelings of regret and longing that I cannot be with you, I am sending this letter along with a small gift. It is a bookmark made from the leaves of the sacred tree.

It seems my own bookmark is still tucked in those times I spent with you, Estira. ]

[ I hope things are safe in Dongguk. Since Feyden is with you, I am not too worried, but at the news that the black mages are making suspicious moves, your face was the first to come to mind. Please take care of yourself.

With all my longing,
Ariel ]

I always read Ariel’s letters, which arrive like clockwork every few months, with a happy heart.

Three years ago, when Ariel said he would go to the Holy Kingdom alone, I had no intention of stopping him, but I was worried about the dark mage attacks.

Still, seeing Ariel’s powerful divine power with my own eyes, I managed to push aside my worries, and I clearly remember hugging Feyden with joy when I received a letter saying he’d arrived safely and was allowed to study with the priests there.

Since that day, Ariel has always sent me letters filled with warm feelings.

Maybe because of the way Ariel writes about missing me in those letters, every time I open one, I get a ticklish feeling, as if I were in a long-distance relationship.

“It’s good to know he seems to be doing well.”

“Wouldn’t you, if you were surrounded by people like him and got to see that giant tree every day? It’s his world, really. That bit about being sorry to miss your birthday party is probably a lie too, you know? I bet he never planned to come here in the first place.”

“What you really mean is, you miss Ariel too, right, Feyden?”

Now I know. Whenever Feyden grumbles like this, there’s always another meaning behind it. As a tsundere, Feyden was definitely feeling sad that it’s been three years since he last saw Ariel.

“No, I don’t! What would a little runt like you know, anyway?”

“I’m over average height now, you know?”

I went right up to Feyden’s chest and measured my height with the edge of my hand.

Sure, I was still small compared to Feyden, but in this village, there wasn’t a single woman taller than me, and in the last three years, I’d grown at least 15 centimeters.

It was all thanks to eating well, exercising diligently, and munching on plenty of medicinal herbs.

My once sunken cheeks were now nicely filled out, and I’d put on enough healthy weight that anyone could tell at a glance that I was in good shape.

I’d even built up the stamina not to get tired after hours of tough work at the tavern, and the lung capacity to go up and down the mountains without losing my breath!

Well… telling this to Feyden, who possessed monstrous strength and stamina, would only get me laughed at, so I kept it to myself.

“Oh! It’s snowing!”

It happened just as I was putting Ariel’s letter away and heading home.

The gray sky had looked suspicious all day, and sure enough, now it began to drop big snowflakes.

‘This year’s birthday will be a white Christmas!’

Not that I even knew the actual date of Estira’s birth. Well, I could have found out if I’d wanted, but I didn’t like being reminded that I’d been born at the Margraviate. So, I arbitrarily decided my birthday would be December 25th.

It was because, when I’d lived in Korea, I loved walking home on Christmas nights after a busy day of work, listening to carols in the street and buying steaming hot fish-shaped bread or roasted sweet potatoes.

Seeing snowflakes after such a long time, I began to dash around like a colt.

Of course, that’s Feyden’s way of putting it, not mine.

“Wow! It’s really coming down!”

If it kept snowing like this, we could even have a snowball fight!

I played in the falling snow for a long while, not even feeling the cold, catching snowflakes as they fell. Feyden, quietly following behind me, also smiled as he watched the snow.