Imprinted with the Obsessive Male Lead - Chapter 68

“Miss Mage. Look at this. It’s so pretty!”

The maid Millie held out a pale purple lavender toward me. Then Kana, who had been trimming pink roses beside her, quickly chimed in.

“This one too! Maybe because it came from the capital, it feels really luxurious, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

Resting my chin on my hand, I gave a small smile and looked over the flowers spread across the reception room table. Light pink roses, hydrangeas, lavender, eucalyptus. A variety of flowers, regardless of their blooming season, were laid out before me.

“Thanks to you, Miss Mage, the atmosphere of the castle has changed so much. I love it.”

“That’s right. I never imagined we’d be arranging flowers here. We were always just cleaning or doing laundry, so something this elegant. Looking at flowers just makes me feel good.”

“The flowers are so pretty to begin with, there isn’t much to trim anyway.”

I had been a little worried that I might have unintentionally given them more work, but seeing how lively they looked, I felt relieved.

Snip, snip, tap.

Humming softly, Millie and Kana’s hands moved faster with their scissors.

It’s true that having flowers changed the atmosphere. A few days after Chase first bought that bouquet, flower baskets began to be delivered every morning. The baskets that had once been filled with simple roses started to include quite a variety of flowers by the third delivery.

Now, starting from the lobby and reception room, the Grand Duke’s castle was filled everywhere with vases of bright flowers.

After exchanging a few more words amid their cheerful laughter, I picked up a vase filled with the hydrangeas and pink roses they had arranged and left the reception room.

I was heading toward the central staircase when I suddenly stopped. Snow is falling outside the window. Just as Chase had said, after a week had passed, the first snow had come. The quietly falling snow had turned the entire world white within just a few hours.

Since that day, mana hadn’t appeared for a while. Is the cold related to mana? The thought crossed my mind, but it didn’t seem likely.

According to Anthony, last year there had been even more mana activity during winter. So it’s probably just a temporary phenomenon, and perhaps it might even be related to the purification I had been doing recently.

Even so, there is no clear answer. The timing of mana occurrences had always been irregular, and no method to predict it had been revealed.

The absence of mana is a good thing. But since the mana storm, this is the first time it had been this quiet, so even resting felt a little uncomfortable.

I know I’m helping the North just with my purification ability, but… if I could find Joel in this situation, it would be even better.

Fortunately, Anthony had passed along Chase’s words and hinted that he’s searching for him, but there was still no news. After staring out the window for a while longer, I went up the stairs and knocked on Chase’s office door.

Knock, knock.

There was no answer.

“Chase.”

I carefully opened the door. The office, faintly scented with citrus, is empty.

“Not here today either.”

There’s a trace of lingering warmth, but the firewood had gone out, leaving the room overall chilly. The vase of roses I had placed on the desk is still there.

After a moment of thought, I stepped inside and approached the desk. Perhaps because of the cool air, they were much fresher than the roses in my room, but the tips of the leaves had started to wilt.

Thud.

I set down the new flowers.

Honestly, this feels like playing hide-and-seek.

I had thought it from the beginning, but if this man puts his mind to it, he would be very good at hiding himself completely.

The fourth floor. My bedroom, Chase’s bedroom, and the private office that only Anthony and Logan could enter.

Aside from Millie coming to call me for meals or the physician stopping by, it’s a floor no one else entered. And yet, recently, I hadn’t seen Chase at all.

More precisely, since that day. Since what happened at the training grounds. Thinking about it rationally, the timing could be called bad.

From that exact day, mana stopped appearing, so I had no reason to go out for purification, and he became busy with estate matters.

Frowning slightly, I absentmindedly touched the roses.

But why did it have to be at a time like this?

Even just thinking about it is enough to make my whole body heat up in embarrassment. Maybe it was the look in his eyes looming over me that had been frightening.

To be honest, I thought I was going to be devoured. I endured because I knew he wouldn’t do that, but still… It had been such overwhelming contact that it felt hard to breathe. The marks he left on the back of my neck had only just faded.