We’re Married, After All - Chapter 119

“Did you walk this way back then too?”
“Hm?”
“I mean, when you were living at the monastery. Monks always walk everywhere. I was wondering if you used this road.”
“Hmm, I mainly took the opposite road. Because this one leads to the capital’s center. It’s a direction we, as priests, rarely had reason to pass through.”
“Ah, that’s right.”

I nodded. Indeed, when Danel was at the Grand Cathedral in the capital, he was in the identity of a monk, not a regular lay tourist. Since he had no reason to visit a Count’s townhouse, he wouldn’t have needed to use this road.

But if that was the case, how had he been so sure that I would like the western square?

Danel, who had finished removing all the petals, looked at my face. As if he knew what I was thinking, he gave a faint smile.

“That’s not to say I never came this way at all. Plus, I was often assigned to clean the spires. So, among the deacons who trained around the same time, I probably saw the festival scenery the most.”

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Danel’s lips moved.

“Moreover…”
“Moreover?”

“Whenever I passed by this way occasionally, I thought to myself… that you would probably like this path.”

Unusually, Danel smiled, revealing his neat teeth. He seemed happy that a long-held thought had come true.

At that beautiful smile, I caught my breath. A fact I was realizing anew flowed down my spine.

The fact that this man, including the time he spent in the capital, had spent his entire life loving me.

“…Yes, it’s very pretty. The street, and the flowers.”

Perhaps because I forced the words out, my voice sounded slightly choked.

Danel, who was looking down at me, also paused for a moment, his breath catching. Then, he slowly bent down and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“This is difficult,” he muttered as he pulled his lips away.

I understood the meaning of the words he swallowed. He was the kind of man who, if this weren’t a public path and if there were no people around, would have held me and covered me with kisses.

It was only after a long while that we began to walk along the street again. A burning heat still remained in our clasped hands.

A pleasant fragrance arose with every step we took through the flowers. The sun, now high in the sky, had erased the shadows, making the petals in the flower beds shine even more vividly.

But, in fact, the symphony of color was gradually beginning to draw to a close.

From a certain point on, the proportion of white flowers in the flower beds began to increase. The closer we got to the cathedral, the more pronounced this tendency became.

After walking for about twenty minutes like that, the main gate plaza of the cathedral came into view. By now, the flower beds contained only white flowers.

However, by the time we reached the cathedral grounds, the flower beds no longer caught my eye.

The cathedral was truly massive. It was impressive even from a distance, but seeing it up close revealed its truly enormous scale.

One could say it was fitting for a building that served as a testament to faith. It was beyond comparison even to the royal gate I had seen when entering the capital.

“It’s really… amazing.”

I offered my admiration freely.

It was the first time I had ever seen such a huge building. For me, who had never left the territories of the Marquis of Temesio and the Count of Veloce in my entire life, this building was overwhelming by its scale alone.

“……”

In contrast, Danel showed no reaction to this magnificent building.

I noticed his face had hardened stiffly. At a glance, it seemed similar to his usual expression, but he was clearly lost in some deep thought.

Even as I admired the ornately carved main gate, he only nodded quietly.