Chapter 148
Angelina tilted her head at Ante’s words, which she couldn’t agree with at all. But she was pushed toward Blake by Ante’s nudging from behind.
After acting like he would never let her go earlier.
“I need to meet the Empress.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Lina, are you worried about your brother?”
“Of course.”
Ante smiled happily.
“Have you forgotten who your brother is?”
He whispered as he gently rubbed the back of her hand. Implying that no one could carelessly mess with him, the Tower Master.
‘Having your weakness caught has nothing to do with being the Tower Master.’
She was annoyed at him for acting so nonchalant without understanding her concerns, but she couldn’t stop him from meeting the Empress for that reason.
“I’ll be in the garden.”
“Yes, I’ll be there soon.”
Ante looked back and forth between Blake and Angelina before turning away.
As a bonus, he gave Blake an unspoken pressure to protect her well before turning his back.
“I’m still worried…”
As Angelina muttered while watching Ante’s back, Blake stood in front of her line of sight.
“The Marquis wouldn’t want you to just worry like this.”
He extended his hand to her.
“It would be better to leave now while the audience with His Majesty and the dancing are still in full swing. If we delay any longer, the garden will get crowded.”
“You’re right.”
Angelina shook off the worries complicating her mind and took Blake’s hand.
She could hear sighs from those around them, lamenting the union of the two.
With that as their backdrop, they moved to the garden.
***
Perhaps thanks to Blake’s good timing, there weren’t many people in the garden.
Exchanging brief greetings with those they occasionally bumped into, they soon found themselves at a rose thicket.
“This is prettier than the theater at night. Is it wrong to even compare it with the palace?”
She liked the subtle lighting that wasn’t excessive. Unfortunately, the palace lights were too bright to see the stars well.
“The rose garden is the pride of the palace.”
“It deserves to be.”
Thinking about it, it was somewhat amusing. The imperial family crest only had rose thorns, not the rose flower itself.
By beautifully cultivating roses in the palace, the imperial family had become a complete rose, in a sense.
“But I prefer…”
Blake, who had been leading the way, guided her beyond an arch of vines standing tall on one side of the rose garden.
“This side.”
What spread out behind the rose vines was an artificial lake. It wasn’t particularly large.
Moreover, it was a bit darker than the rose garden, with less lighting.
“Water lilies.”
“Yes. Though they haven’t bloomed yet.”
The water lilies were holding their buds, ready to bloom at any moment.
“Many people dislike this lake, saying it looks dirty, but I really like it.”
His gaze as he looked at the lake seemed somewhat wistful. So Angelina looked at what he was looking at.
The dimly lit lakeshore due to the weak lighting. However, it wasn’t completely dark as the brilliant light from the palace beyond the vines reached here.
It was as if the thorny vines divided the brilliant light and shadows.
A space behind the bushes that no one paid attention to. A place that would be immediately ignored due to the seemingly dirty lake with moss and lily petals, even if discovered.
But there, water lilies were undoubtedly preparing to bloom soon.
“People are often blinded by splendor.”
Angelina thought she understood why he liked this place.
It was just like… his life.
“When I was young, I sometimes thought that if water lilies were born in a brighter, clearer place, they might have been more loved.”
He spoke while looking at the still-budding flowers.
“Is it God’s will that beautiful water lilies bloom on a dirty lake, or is it the will of the lilies themselves?”
“….”
“Then, is the world being this twisted God’s will or a phenomenon created by mistakes humans have made… Well, I used to think about such things.”
Angelina turned her head to look at him. He, to,o turned his head from the flower buds.
“But I realized that whatever the answer is, it doesn’t matter.”
There was no wavering in the blue eyes that met hers. As if proving that those days’ worries no longer troubled him.
“No matter how the water lily came to be here…”
“Because the fact that it lives tenaciously to bloom doesn’t change?”
Angelina finished his sentence for him. She knew these words from the original work.
Blake, momentarily surprised, soon smiled and nodded.
“Miss Flaubert always seems to know all my thoughts, which makes me feel shy.”
“I’m sorry. Was I being too presumptuous?”
“Not at all. That’s why I feel comfortable when I’m with you.”
He whispered and slightly bowed his waist toward her. Then, meeting her gaze, he whispered.
“Like now.”
Over his face looking straight at her, Angelina faintly overlapped childhood memories.
Because she had injured her eyes back then, she couldn’t see properly, so all she remembered was a rough shape and black hair.
But perhaps because she knew it was him, it easily overlapped.
The music from the ballroom crossed the garden and filtered through the bushes, creating a gentle background. It was quiet enough to hear each other’s breathing.
“Duke.”
Angelina, suddenly breaking the intensifying atmosphere, took a step back.
“I… think my shoe ribbon has come undone.”
She said, looking down at her feet.
A very abrupt statement that didn’t fit the situation.
It was a remark that broke the mood, but Blake lowered his head following her gaze. The toe of her shoe was slightly visible beneath her skirt.
“Hmm… if I sit here to check, no one will see, right?”
“I’ll do it.”
“Hmm… it’s okay.”
As Angelina was about to bend her waist, saying it was fine, he stopped her and knelt down.
“You’ll fall. Hold on, and I’ll tie it for you.”
“Hmm…”
He placed Angelina’s hand on his shoulder.
Angelina didn’t refuse.
All the way here, she had been wondering how to best convey the truth to him.
Should she just say it outright? Or should she present direct evidence?
After much consideration, the method she chose was somewhat primitive and perhaps a little childish.
But unable to think of a better way, she held his shoulder and bent her waist slightly.
“Maybe it’s because I haven’t worn high heels in a long time and I’m not used to them.”
“Are you hurt?”
He asked with a worried face.
“Not that…”
Angelina extended her right leg forward and lifted her skirt slightly. Under the puffy skirt, her ankle peeked out.
He held her foot.
“The ribbon…”
He was about to say the ribbon wasn’t undone when it happened.
As the dress hem lifted and her calf was revealed, Blake’s words trailed off.
Her smooth leg was exposed, but what captivated Blake wasn’t such a sensual thought.
The ankle ornament.
The thin platinum string sparkled in the light, but that wasn’t what mattered. The problem was the shabby string woven into the platinum string.
A worn and tattered string that didn’t match her glamorous shoes and sparkling platinum string at all.
But he knew what it was.
‘Keep wearing it. I’ll be back soon.’
How could he forget?
Blake held her ankle with trembling hands. His fingers, slowly caressing the anklet, shook.
“How…”
His voice broke.
When he raised his head with difficulty, he saw her.
Crimson eyes. Silver hair.
Clearly different…
Instead of a face contorted in pain, a pretty smiling expression.
Porcelain-like skin instead of a mess of bruises and wounds.
Not one thing was the same.
All different.
Everything was different, but Blake could tell.
“You…”
The words caught in his throat. His throat was completely blocked, only able to make a short, pained sound.
He had thought it was an absurd idea. That he had started making cowardly imaginations because he was too desperate.
“Do you really have to go?”
‘I don’t want to be alone…’
That she had died because of him…
‘This will protect you in my place while I’m gone.’
That he had lost her because he had left her, and over the regrets he had been avoiding, crushed by guilt…
“Angelina.”
Her voice overlays.
‘You look just like a ripe barley field, and it feels like well-dried barley stalks too.’
To the hair he had touched back then.
‘I even dyed my hair like this to avoid standing out!’
She overlaps with the girl he saw in the black market.
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Angelina.”
The image of her gently smiling and tapping her chest with her index finger is overlaid with that child from his youth.
“Nice to meet you, Blake.”
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