Chapter 96
It was truly a difficult mindset to understand.
Angelina deliberately swallowed her uncomfortable feelings, thinking that even feeling sorry for them might be misinterpreting their way of life.
She turned to look at Blake with a bright face. And her eyes widened at his appearance.
“Oh my.”
“…Does it look too strange?”
Like Angelina, he was wearing clothes borrowed from the villagers.
“Even though I said it would be fine to keep wearing what I came in, they insisted I use these, and it felt impolite to refuse…”
Unlike Angelina, who usually wore clothes of various colors, Blake, who always wore the same style of dark clothing, looked very different in their clothes.
“Does it look that strange?”
“No, it’s not strange, it’s just…”
“Mason burst out laughing, saying it didn’t suit me. It’s okay to laugh.”
“No, rather than not suiting you…”
Angelina, who couldn’t find the right words, eventually covered her mouth with a soft laugh.
“I’m surprised because you pull it off better than expected.”
“Ah…”
“Those colors suit you well.”
“These… red and yellow colors?”
He shot her a skeptical look, and Angelina replied with a slight smile.
“The face is what completes any fashion. Duke, you’re handsome, so anything looks good on you.”
Angelina casually tossed out what seemed obvious to her.
However, those words created a great ripple in Blake’s heart. He was struck speechless, and warmth slowly began rising from his neck.
Was being called handsome always such a pleasant compliment?
He’d heard it often from his subordinates when they were joking around, but this seemed like the first time he’d heard it as a genuine compliment.
“Come to think of it, you probably don’t get many chances to wear such colors. The Duchy’s crest is black after all.”
Clothes matching the crest are black, dark colors for subjugation missions to hide blood and dust, and when dressing up, it’s either navy or white.
“Seeing you like this must be a rare opportunity, isn’t it? I’m glad.”
Angelina felt pleased, thinking she’d seen a side of the male lead that others didn’t know.
Her bright smiling face filled Blake’s vision. The sounds of the children around faded away as his world became filled with her, bathed in moonlight.
This feeling of breathlessness and tickling in his chest was like dandelion seeds being scattered.
It was the same emotion he’d felt when talking with her in the garden.
The woman who had untangled the regret bound by guilt that remained in his heart that day now made that heart race.
The mischievousness that wells up whenever he meets her. The laughter that escapes without reason. The concern and worry keeps building up.
At some point, he couldn’t take his eyes off her while checking her mood, and he’d developed a habit of scanning the surroundings to remove anything that made her frown.
When she burst into loud laughter, all his complicated and unpleasant memories would melt away, making him want to hear that laughter again.
Her words that revealed sides of himself he didn’t know became sweet, making him want to ask more and keep lingering around her.
After parting with her at the villa, did she know how much he had counted the days until he could go to the Grand Library?
How pathetic and ridiculous he felt when he discovered himself counting down the days until then.
No matter how many times he scolded himself that it wasn’t right, that it was wrong…
“Your Grace.”
That voice had settled in his heart and refused to leave.
“Your Grace, have you ever thought about leaving the busy city and living in a quiet mountain village like this?”
The moonlit atmosphere loosened his tightly wound nerves.
It was an irresistible feeling.
“Rather than wanting to escape… I’ve thought about not wanting to return.”
It was a thought he had when he first entered the Dark Forest. Since there was no one waiting anyway, why not just endure there until death…
Though meeting that child did make him think he absolutely had to survive and escape from that place.
“But now…”
Many things were different from back then.
Unlike back then when there was no one, now there were many who believed in and followed him.
Though the world was harsh and there was much to protect, he knew that living wasn’t just terrible.
Instead of protecting that child, he had embraced foolish ambitions to set the world right and made promises to himself not to break no matter how dirty the world became.
But even so, his empty, repetitive life had somehow become colorfully filled.
Discovering parts of himself he didn’t know existed, and unexpectedly finding emotions he might have gone his whole life without knowing…
“Now I just… carefully hope not to grow distant.”
He wanted to feel this emotion for a long time. Like this, from now on too.
Not growing distant, but staying close.
“Well… Though running away might feel refreshing for a moment, it would be very lonely alone.”
Angelina whispered softly while looking up at the night sky.
Whatever expression she wore pricked Blake’s heart again with its loneliness.
What was she thinking about now? What was she remembering to make such an expression?
“Your Grace.”
“Yes.”
“Later, much later… Well, about a year and a half from now.”
“Yes.”
“Please grant me one request.”
“A year and a half from now?”
“Yes.”
“I could grant it now.”
“It can’t be now.”
Angelina turned to look at him slightly and frowned a little. As if she, too, regretted it couldn’t be now.
“Promise to grant it then.”
And she held out her finger.
“You must.”
Blake let out a small laugh at her cute little pinky finger held out. Then he linked his large finger with hers.
“It’s a promise.”
“Yes.”
A smile spread softly across her face.
“Then I’ll head in first.”
Having sealed the promise with her pinky, she began backing away toward the lodging, seemingly satisfied.
“Sleep well, Your Grace. I hope you have sweet dreams.”
“Have a peaceful night.”
She received his greeting, showed him a bright smile, then turned around.
Blake remained in that spot until her quickly retreating figure disappeared completely into the lodging.
Once she vanished from view, he raised his hand to look at his finger.
“A promise… huh.”
After failing to keep the promise to return quickly, he had decided never to make promises again.
People were truly fickle and selfish.
As time passes, even that child eventually becomes blurry.
Blake lifted his head to look at the sky Angelina had been watching.
Somehow, the stars dotting the sky seemed to resemble her lonely expression as she had gazed at them.
He stood there like a statue for a long while, staring at that sky.
***
Though the bed was hard, Angelina woke up surprisingly well-rested and greeted a refreshing morning.
As she returned from quickly washing up at the stream Laura had found during the night and changing clothes, Haley came running breathlessly while helping with breakfast preparations.
“My lady. I just found out something incredible.”
“Something incredible?”
“You know how all the adults here were taken away?”
“Yes.”
“There’s one person left!”
“What?”
“No, no, that came out wrong. I mean, they were taken but escaped!”
“Really?”
Haley quickly went to Angelina’s side and pointed out that ‘adult.’
There was indeed one middle-aged man among the group of hunters.
“How did he escape?”
“I thought you’d be curious too, my lady, so I went ahead and found out everything.”
Haley said she would tell the story and led Angelina to the room. She even made her sit on the bed.
Angelina sighed as Haley acted as if she was preventing her from collapsing from shock.
Usually, Haley would have immediately reported if there was such a person, but she seemed to have gathered all the information first because of how Angelina had appeared yesterday.
Though she wanted to say it was unnecessary, Haley’s worried expression was too serious, so she decided to just go along with it.
“We thought that since this was the Order’s doing, the village chief and adults would all be held at the Grand Temple or places related to the Order, right?”
“Yes.”
“But it seems that’s not the case.”
“Then?”
“The mercenaries did hand over the village chief and young men to the Holy Knights. But the Holy Knights didn’t take them to the priests, instead, they handed them over to another group.”
“Another group?”
“Yes. But things were a bit chaotic during that process, and that’s when this person says he escaped. He doesn’t know exactly where they went after that, but he says the crest on their armor was a heart wrapped in thorns.”
“A heart wrapped in thorns…? The Imperial family’s crest?”
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