Chapter 153
Thanks to the four of them moving quickly, or perhaps because the people had accepted Euphen’s death as it was… Not once, up until the very moment they escaped the Imperial territory, did anything dangerous occur.
Lynette let out a long breath and tapped her fist lightly against her thigh.
‘Nothing is going the way it was supposed to.’
Maybe it was because the tension had finally eased, but a faint laugh slipped out.
She hadn’t expected that ever since returning, everything she resolved to do would fall apart.
Even leaving Euphen hadn’t gone as planned, and all of her intentions had crumbled.
She had meant to attend the funeral, yet she ended up meeting Eshar and Euphen.
She had planned to take things slow, traveling leisurely, yet she had been forced to move at full speed.
‘Still, I’m glad things feel safer now.’
She felt a bit relieved knowing they were outside the range of the Imperial family’s influence. Besides, they hadn’t encountered a single assassin since they had joined up again.
More than anything else, that was what put her most at ease.
After entering another noble’s fief, the first thing they did was find an inn.
They had all been exhausted down to their fingertips.
Even when passing through villages, they hadn’t bothered to stay at inns.
They only bought what they needed and hurried on their way.
Not one of them voiced the desire to rest.
‘To think we’d end up sleeping outdoors in the night dew.’
Just remembering it made her body ache all over again.
Sillian had picked a decent spot for them, but the ground was still the ground.
It was hardly comfortable at all.
When she left the Imperial Castle, she had never even imagined eating jerky and hard bread on the roadside, then falling asleep under the night dew with nothing but a blanket wrapped around her.
At this point, even making plans felt like a foolish act. Everything she resolved to do fell apart anyway.
Lynette forced her still-stiff legs to move and stepped out of the room.
After soaking in hot water for a long time and finally getting real sleep in an actual bed, some of the fatigue had eased, but now she was hungry.
“Ah.”
The moment she stepped outside, she saw a man coming out of the room two doors down.
It’s Euphen.
He also seemed to have noticed her, hesitating for a moment.
What should she do?
Ever since they decided to leave together, they had been so busy on the move that neither had the energy to pay attention to the other. During the rare moments they stopped, they either fell asleep immediately or were too occupied forcing food down to think of anything else.
“Are you going to eat?”
When she spoke first, he thought for a moment, then gave a faint smile.
“Yeah. Were you going to eat too, Lynette?”
“Yes.”
“Go on ahead.”
At his words, Lynette went downstairs first.
She let out a bitter laugh.
To think they couldn’t even do something as simple as walking down the stairs together.
Euphen came down while keeping some distance between them and took a seat at a table.
Should she sit with him?
After hesitating for a moment, Lynette carefully sat diagonally across from him.
The funny thing was, even sitting this far apart was still closer than they ever sat at the Imperial Castle’s dining table.
They placed their orders without any real conversation, then fell silent, only stealing glances at each other from time to time.
‘I have so many things I want to say.’
When she heard that Euphen had died, too many unspoken thoughts had surged up inside her and it felt suffocating. But now that she was facing the man, alive in front of her, she no longer knew how to bring any of it up.
Had the things she’d been holding in her heart scattered during the silent ride?
Feeling the weight of his unmistakably direct gaze, she turned her head, meeting his blue eyes.
Lynette parted her lips, finally managed to speak.
“Your Highness.”
At that, Euphen quickly glanced around.
Only then did she realize her mistake.
She shouldn’t call him that. All along the journey, they’d had so little contact with people that she hadn’t had time to think carefully about his form of address.
“From now on, call me Euphen.”
Her lips moved slightly.
She had thought she would never be able to say that name again.
Even in the past, she had only managed to speak his name at the very last moment of everything.
Since Lynette didn’t obediently say it right away and only blinked, the man patiently waited for her.
“Then… may I call you Sir Euphen?”
“Just call me Euphen. We’re not in the Imperial Castle anymore, and right now, I’m just an ordinary person.”
“But…”
“I’m a dead man, remember.”
She quietly looked at Euphen’s expression, which looked faintly amused.
In truth, she envied Eshar deeply.
Even if what was done back then had been an impulsive act meant to provoke her, thanks to that, Eshar had been able to call him Euphen long before Lynette ever could.
Even after that, Eshar never changed the way she addressed him… perhaps thinking it was a privilege of being his Guide.
Euphen.
She must have thought about this name tens of thousands of times by now, yet saying it aloud required considerable effort.
“…Euphen.”
“Yes, Lynette?”
He answered slowly with a gentle smile.
Sitting like this made everything that had happened feel strangely distant, almost like a lie.
The overwhelming difference in status that had existed between them, the fact that they were not meant to touch, the faked death and departure… all of it.
It almost felt like the two of them had become nothing more than an ordinary man and woman.
Lynette blinked, then swallowed down a bitter smile.
Things had turned out this way because of their current circumstances, but she knew they would soon return to how they used to be.
Is it terribly selfish to wish that day would be a little farther away?
“What were you going to say?”
“…Yes?”
“You called me.”
He smiled, propped his chin on his hand, and looked at her.
What had she been trying to say?
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