The Nymph Wants to be Plundered - Chapter 148

“…….”

“Look. You see, there are no traces of injury left anywhere around my mouth now. Even if there were faint marks remaining, I wouldn’t have pressed my face against the mirror every day, scrutinizing them and despairing. Because… I’m alive. Me, who they said wouldn’t last even a single season—I’m still alive like this even now, having passed spring and with summer coming.”

The focus gradually became clearer in Cassis’s blue eyes, which had been as clouded as the clouds floating above their heads. He tried to erase the listless expression from his face, as if attempting to make up for the disgraceful behavior he had briefly displayed, but it ended in failure. Because Evelyn rushed toward him, stood on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to his mouth.

“…!”

Caught off guard by the sudden passionate kiss, Cassis staggered slightly on one foot. It was such a minute movement that he didn’t let go of Evelyn who had rushed toward him, but the sound of a small stone rolling away after being kicked felt incredibly loud.

Unlike him, who would bite her lower lip and persistently cling on once he started, Evelyn quickly ended the kiss and smiled brightly. For him, it felt like a bird that had finally flown to him was flying away again, which was quite disappointing.

“…This kind of thing too, I would have lived my entire life without knowing if I hadn’t met you, Cassis.”

Evelyn.

He thought he had called out to Evelyn, but that was only in his heart. He also tried to summon sylphs to drive away the hot wind that had gathered around the two of them, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that either. He simply stood there in front of her. To listen completely to everything she was chattering about.

Evelyn smiled.

“That’s why I like it. I’m happy.”

The face smiling under the blue sky that endlessly poured down sunlight was etched into his pupils. That face felt even clearer because the poignancy had disappeared, containing only a bright smile. The hood Evelyn had been wearing had somehow fallen back behind her neck, and her light brown hair fluttered in the wind. Cassis suddenly thought that he wished her light brown hair would flutter like that forever.

Having hastily torn apart their small quarrel and ended it, they mounted their horses again and continued riding until they reached their destination. As soon as Evelyn arrived at the large log cabin where a babbling stream flowed up ahead, grass grew appropriately, and white marguerites decorated a small flower bed, she let out an exclamation.

“Th-this place… It’s the forest sanctuary I vaguely dreamed of long ago?! Oh, but back then, even in my dreams it wasn’t a log cabin but a hut with just a nice roof. There were no logs at all in the village where I lived.”

Cassis, having erased his futile melancholy, chuckled softly at her excited fuss, finding it endearing. He had just firmly resolved never to display such disgraceful behavior in front of Evelyn again. To show even a part of his shabby inner thoughts to Evelyn, who was already struggling to pull herself together—that was a grave mistake. How long had it been since he escaped being a worthless knight, and yet here he was acting like this?

He forcibly erased the weak feelings he had felt from her response and replied.

“It’s only a log cabin from the outside—the inside has different boards, so it feels different.”

“Even so, it’s overflowing with charm that just looking at it warms my heart. Even in winter… this place would be warm, wouldn’t it?”

Cassis gazed quietly at her happiness before opening his mouth.

“If only the other residents were like you, that would be wonderful.”

“Pardon?”

Though Evelyn played dumb, she more than caught on to what kind of lament was hidden in his casual remark. There are those who, even when they have many things, feel regret over losing just one, and even when they have ninety-nine things they like, if there’s one thing they dislike, it bothers them enough to make their entire day unpleasant.

Lord Cassis.

Thinking she had finally glimpsed a part of his heart, Evelyn turned around for no particular reason to look at the stream flowing ahead. As she absentmindedly watched a white bird that had happened to fly there, trimming its beak against a rock, her tense body gradually relaxed. He too shared in her leisurely time. Not just waiting for her, but truly sharing it.

“Let’s go in.”

As soon as they entered the log cabin, she realized why he had said there was no need to pack any luggage. From the portable lamp that was turned off during the day to the carpet spread on the floor and the seven-colored tapestries hanging on the walls—this place was perfectly equipped not just as a villa, but like another complete home.

There was even an empty vase on the table. Nothing was placed in what must have been beautifully crafted by an artisan. What flowers would be good to pick and put in it? The foxtail grass they saw on the way, or… it would be better to leave the marguerites in the flower bed to live well where they were.

As she stood there having quickly thought of several wildflowers, something reached out and snatched the bundle she was holding in her hand. Since the two of them had come together, it was naturally Cassis’s doing.

“Wait a moment!”

“It must be heavy, so leave it here. I won’t unpack it.”

Before they left, Daius had interjected with strange words, so a fierce storm had briefly raged in her chest. Though it half-subsided when Cassis placed the luggage inside the sofa without any teasing at all, it would be a long time before the storm of her pounding heart would calm down.

Her reckless heart that easily raced in front of him had not yet perfectly calmed down. Desperately trying to forget what the things inside looked like, she quickly went beside the bundle and sat down to hide it. When she pushed it forcefully with her bottom as if telling the bundle to move aside so it wouldn’t be visible, Cassis made a joke.