The Nymph Wants to be Plundered - Chapter 183

‘…I’m crazy, I’m not normal.’

He, Cassis, was exhibiting the very behavior he detested most. Cassis imagined how unsightly he must look if he were to gaze into a mirror, and then he spoke.

“I’ll be excusing myself first. Take your time and finish your meal.”

“Oh…. Did you eat well? I ate well too.”

He hadn’t wanted such a hollow reply. He had hoped that if he left, Evelyn would be left alone, relax comfortably, and then perhaps take something from that splendid dessert display to eat. One was fine, two were fine, and he wouldn’t say a word even if she rudely picked only the raspberries off the tart.

To be honest, looking at Evelyn in her current state, all his efforts felt futile. If she held a knife, it felt like it would clatter, the blade would slip, and blood would stain his hand. It was obvious that there would be no use in forcing that childishly colorful confectionery into her hand, telling her to eat it. She would just wait for him to disappear, place it back on the plate, and whisper for a spirit to take it away.

At this rate, he felt as if a day would come when she, like a bird that had lost its appetite, would act weakly, then hit her head somewhere and close her eyes.

‘Haa.’

Even as he tried to maintain an impassive expression, a simmering anger kept rising from somewhere, dragging him into irrationality.

This wasn’t right. They had gone outside the castle and had a perfectly good time, and although the end was dampened by rain, it couldn’t be called a bad conclusion. Ah, there had been an unavoidable situation where she might have slightly misunderstood, but hadn’t he explained everything and resolved it?

So why was the atmosphere like this when they were together?

These days, no matter how busy he was, he adjusted his schedule to ensure he ate at least one meal a day with Evelyn. He had been making the most effort since bringing her to the castle, yet there was no sign of improvement. Eating wasn’t just putting food in one’s mouth, chewing, and swallowing repeatedly, yet the time they spent together always repeated only that monotonous process.

Cassis, looking at her plate, which was less than half-eaten unlike his own, rebuked her.

“Eating well? It doesn’t look that way to me.”

“I’m sorry….”

Her piteous voice pleading for forgiveness made it even more unbearable.

“I’ll be late today. I’ll send a small fruit plate in the afternoon; make sure you eat all of it. You know the reason better than anyone.”

Leaving her, unable to respond, he strode out with rough steps. He simply had to leave. If he had lingered in the dining room, waiting for her to finish her meal, Evelyn might not have been able to leave either, sitting there until she vomited everything she had eaten.

‘Evelyn, your weak heart overcomes the strength of the blue vital energy I give in abundance. I was a presence incapable of dispelling the unease that arose in your heart.’

It was truly bitter, but ignoring the reality before him wouldn’t improve anything. As soon as he exited the space he shared with her, Cassis confronted himself, feeling nothing at all.

He walked to his bedroom and gazed at his reflection in the full-length mirror.

“……”

Terrible. It wasn’t the shoulder strap or the cuff buttons he had imagined tearing off earlier that were the problem. The clothes and accessories, perfectly draped without fault, were blameless. What was hideous was… the pathetic man in the mirror with a gloomy face.

What went wrong, and from where? No, before that, why had he been so angered by her escape that he had made a vow of chastity? Cassis decided to go back to the source and ask himself.

When he went to retrieve the nymph abandoned by fate, he had predicted that intimate s****l contact would somewhat salvage her life. The reason it didn’t specifically hinder him was that at the time, he had neither a wife nor a lover, and pity far outweighed any repulsion. Indeed, after actually dealing with her, she was so fragile that he even resolved to take better care of her.

And many things had truly happened. The brief period of less than one season spent with her was far more vivid to him than the decades he had experienced since wearing the crown.

He had embraced her when her life hung by a thread, and she had come to him, embracing a life bound to him. Then, absurd rumors spread that he had a fiancée, and Evelyn, misled by a unicorn, went outside the castle. At that time, he…

Rather than continuously pressing her on why she didn’t trust me, he made a vow of chastity, which she didn’t even fully understand. And he was satisfied alone. Why did I do that?

He looked into the mirror again. His pair of blue eyes gradually regained sharp focus, and he was able to unearth the reason he had forgotten, submerged in his unconscious.