Chapter 154
She couldn’t remember.
As Lynette parted her lips, trying to recall what she’d meant to say, her fingers brushed the pendant hanging around her neck without thinking.
Its presence brought everything back to her.
Before anything else, she needed to return this.
She immediately removed the pendant from her neck, set it on the table, and pushed it toward him.
“I’ll return this to you.”
Instead of picking it up, Euphen simply looked at it quietly.
“I… no, I think you should be the one who keeps it.”
“I already gave that to you.”
“I just… wanted to return it somehow.”
When she first heard of his death, what tormented her the most had been this pendant.
She couldn’t free herself from the thought that if only he had had this with him, he might have lived.
She endlessly regretted taking it with her.
She never wanted to fall into that kind of despair again.
Her original plan for the funeral had been to get close enough to slip the pendant back into Euphen’s hand.
‘Though the chance of approaching him that closely had been slim.’
That was how guilty she had felt.
Guilty enough to believe in the absurd expectation that even a dead man could be saved.
“Now it’s yours, Lynette.”
“…If it’s mine, then I can do what I want with it, right?”
At that, the man let out a short laugh, as though he hadn’t expected her to twist the reasoning like that.
“I can’t take it.”
“I can’t take it either.”
Their gazes locked.
Neither of them seemed willing to back down.
Lynette let out a trembling sigh.
“If I hadn’t taken this… I kept thinking over and over that Euphen wouldn’t have died.”
“…”
“That because I asked for something so unnecessary… you died.”
Just remembering that moment made her chest tighten again.
She thought she had cried all her tears back then, that she had no sadness left for ‘Euphen’s death’. But that wasn’t true after all.
Was it because he was here now, alive before her eyes?
“It was… really hard.”
Euphen clenched his fist tightly, as if suppressing the urge to reach out to her.
His faint smile began to fade.
“Did you… cry a lot?”
She knew lying won’t work.
Lynette slowly nodded.
An expression full of pain crossed his face.
“I never wanted to make you cry like that.”
Euphen murmured in a low voice, lowering his head slightly.
“It’s enough that you’re alive.”
He let out a long sigh.
“Either way, I still can’t take the pendant. As long as you’re a little safer, that’s enough.”
“This will save your life, Euphen.”
If things had gone the way it should be originally, he would have been gravely injured during the Imperial Castle’s hunting tournament in the future. But this wasn’t the Imperial Castle, and he had no reason to attend.
Still, she couldn’t assume that nothing would happen. Hadn’t she already learned that?
Even in situations that were twisted off course, what was meant to happen somehow happened.
And even if she told him he would soon be injured badly enough to nearly die, he wouldn’t believe her.
Lynette pushed the pendant a little farther toward him and spoke calmly.
“And if an enemy shows up, you would be in more danger than me.”
He stared quietly at her fingertips resting lightly on the pendant.
“It frustrates me… not being able to put even a single necklace around your neck.”
“I trust you, Euphen.”
He lifted his head.
“You’ll protect me so I don’t get hurt… won’t you?”
‘Protect’.
The moment she said it, Sillian came to mind.
Judging by the slight pause, Euphen had thought of the same person.
Hadn’t Sillian repeatedly declared, almost blatantly, that he would protect Lynette?
But saying she trusted someone else to protect her… it didn’t sit well with her. She felt unbearably sorry toward him.
“…I want to protect you.”
Euphen answered with a bitter smile.
“But I can’t touch you.”
“…”
“If you get hurt when I’m not allowed to lay even a finger on you, then what am I supposed to do?”
Lynette pressed her lips together tightly.
“That’s why you should keep it. I really can’t protect you.”
She wanted to argue, but she had no words to refute him.
“All I can hope… is that he protects you properly.”
His last words were so quiet they were barely audible.
There’s resignation in them. Something he didn’t want to accept, yet had no choice but to.
Lynette clasped the pendant tightly in her hand.
Seeing the sorrow in his expression left her with no choice but to accept it.
Letting out a deep sigh, she put it back around her neck.
The touch of it against her skin felt strangely cold.
“Since I’m not allowed to touch you… there’s almost nothing I can do.”
Euphen spoke in a low voice, sighing.
He had thought there would be plenty he could do without touching her, but realizing even the briefest contact wasn’t allowed… made it feel like there’s truly almost nothing he can do.
Even sitting diagonally like this… If Sillian saw it, he would undoubtedly say something.
She realized only now, after traveling together like this, how much conscious effort was needed just to maintain distance.
A heavy silence settled between them.
They hadn’t exchanged a single word, yet both could clearly feel how aware they were of each other.
At that moment, a familiar voice reached them.
“Lynette, what are you doing?”
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