Chapter 14
***
Chaint inhaled.
Why the hell already?
Even though he'd been the one to propose, he couldn't help but feel perplexed.
Euris, his wife in his last life, had spent much of her life tied to Kylan.
"I thought I said don’t come to see me anymore.”
He remembered Euris’s sharp words to Kylan at the party the other day. He'd watched her for years, and he knew that when she'd spoken those harsh words to Kylan, she'd meant them.
Still, he thought he must have seen something wrong. Euris’s feelings for Kylan were not something that could be broken so easily.
Her heart, the one he'd watched over in his last life, had been.............
'Something solid and strong that I dare not............ interfere with.’
He tapped the desk in the office where he was sitting.
'Is there a past I don't know about, or has something changed?’
Either way, it was clear there was a mess he didn't know about. And he sensed a small gap. He decided to step through it.
The man squinted and reread the telegram from the Aether house.
'I must have dinner with the Aether soon.’
He needed to see Euris one more time, to see her up close, the woman he was sure he knew better than anyone else.
'Kylan Hebron.’
Chaint thought of the name.
Poor, unfortunate man.
But a man who made him endlessly unsettling...............
He was silent for a moment, remembering his last life.
"It's a good thing."
But soon, Chaint murmured with joy. He could marry Euris again.
But his eyes wavered weakly with a certain anxiety.
***
House of Either and the Eridov family sat down to dinner to celebrate their children’s engagement.
Euris remembered that she had been at this table in her previous life, and that the atmosphere was very different, as she was expecting to die.
"Welcome, Count Either, your ladyship, and young lady."
Chaint father, the Marquis of Eridov, greeted the guests with a formal bow.
The meal was a convivial affair. The Marquis entertained his guests exceptionally well, and both Count and Countess Either ate to their satisfaction.
Euris hadn't felt well earlier. Not surprising, given her reclusive nature.
Moreover, she had to be extremely careful about what she said, lest she slip up because of what she knew about her past.
Even though there weren't many occasions to talk, she kept almost pretending not to know the familiar servants of the house.
And having to deal with Chaint was enough to break Euris’s heart.
The sight of him, alive and well, kept juxtaposing with the last time she'd seen him, dead, and it made her stomach turn.
He smiled at Euris from time to time, and she had to smile embarrassedly whenever she caught herself squinting at Chaint out of the corner of her eye.
'I'm sure I’ll get used to it in time. It's only my second meeting with Chaint, after all.'
After the long meal, Euris was desperate for some fresh air, so she made a dash for the lady room, promising to relieve herself before the maids brought out the tea.
"Is this a good idea?”
Euris asked the nervous woman in the mirror quietly. Her white skin had grown even whiter.
"Should I break off the engagement?”
It was only natural for Euris to wonder, since she had no idea why Chaint had asked her to marry him.
Confused as she was, the thought of attending the tea party that followed made her sick. Stepping out of the lady room, she made her way to the opposite side of the room from the formal dining room, hoping to walk in without being rude.
‘I'm familiar with the layout of this mansion anyway, so I shouldn't get lost.’
Euris walked straight through the great hall and down the corridor. At the end of this corridor was her favorite room in the Eridov mansion. The glasshouse. Or, more precisely, the passageway leading to the glasshouse.
The only sound in the marble-floored hallway was the clicking of her heels.
She finally arrived and opened the door to the greenhouse, which was every bit as beautiful as Euris remembered.
"Wow..............."
The darkened greenhouse was decorated with subtle lights, and it had a dreamy feel to it, as if fireflies were fluttering around. Yuris wandered through it, feeling like she was dreaming.
It had been so long. This was.............
'Perhaps the Marquis and Marquess of Eridov will show us around after they finish their tea.’
The glasshouse was a point of pride for the Marquis of Eridov, so it was a favorite spot for guests.
Suddenly, Euris wondered if the flowerbeds with the pretty flowers she had loved in her last life had been there since then, and she remembered its location.
"Ah......!"
And that was when something caught in her foot, her vision narrowed by her dark surroundings. Yuris immediately lost her balance and fell.
Instinctively worried that her knees would give out if she fell on the hard stone floor, she turned and fell to the dirt.
With a dull thud, she literally hit the dirt. To make matters worse, it had been watered not long ago, and the soil was soaked through. She didn't have to look to know that her ivory dress was soiled.
'Ha.......'
Euris let out a small sigh as she sat down on the damp earth. Her ankle was throbbing. She could feel it burning and swelling in real time where she'd sprained it when she'd fallen.
"What the hell.”
She had to pull herself up to avoid soaking more dirt into her dress, but it was hard to move, even when she tried. She looked around for something to hold onto, and suddenly she heard a shout.
Euris instinctively ducked low. No one would say anything good about her if she was seen falling alone in a greenhouse in a manor that wasn't hers, and that she hadn't been shown around.
"Yuris?"
Euris’s name was called and her efforts to conceal herself were in vain. Fortunately or unfortunately, the owner of the presence was Chaint, and he looked down at Euris on the ground in bewilderment.
"Ah, Master Chaint."
Euris looked up at him with a shy smile on her face, still trying to sound as calm as possible.
"Did you fall?"
"...."
"Let me see."
"It's not a big cut, I can get up if you give me a hand."
Just then, she heard voices from the outside. They were still too far away to hear the conversation clearly, but they could recognize the voices of the Marquis of Eridov and the Count of Either.
‘Have they finished their tea already?’
Euris was even more flustered. Something akin to shame washed over her at the thought of facing the adults like this. Even in the dim light, Chaint could make out the flush on Euris’s face. He leaned down and whispered to her.
"I'm sorry, if you'll excuse me."
Without waiting for her to respond, he slipped his arm between her small of the back and her knees and lifted her up in a swift motion. Euris nearly screamed at the sensation of being lifted into the air.
"If we go out like this, we'll be seen!”
Yuris watched the situation from the corner of her eye. Chaint moved with great agility while carrying her.
Instead of going out through the main door, he opened a wooden door in the nearby wall. It was a low-level, narrow room that looked like it could be used as a warehouse, and he could barely fit through it without stooping to his waist.
He held her and together they squeezed into it, curled up in a ball. It smelled stale, like it had been left unattended for a long time. He closed the door soundlessly.
Then it was dark, completely cut off from the outside world and light. Euris seemed to be sitting on his lap. She wanted to move out of the way, but the space was too small.
They could hear every sound of the conversation outside, as if it were a makeshift room made of false walls. Chaint whispered in her ear, very low.
****
To donate for extra chapters for my series or to tip me visit my personal kofi page
Join my discord to get notifications for updates https://discord.gg/bxABmT2uK
(If the link is expired please message me for a new link)
Write a comment
Luliibunny (Sunday, 18 February 2024 19:59)
"Chaint whispered in her ear, very low."
I'm like ���
And I can relate so much to yuris social anxiety and clumsy nature.