Happy ending 42

 Chapter 42

****

After the boat ride, Blake and his crew were walking briskly.

"You've totally thrown us off schedule."

"What were you doing in the water so late?"

A soaking wet maid was being scolded for being late.

He was walking hard, too, because he had to get back to the hotel early for her.

The maid's wet clothes needed replacing, as did Lily's coat, but their luggage had long since been picked up by a laborer and sent back to the hotel.

"I'm not even late, and this travel brochure said we still have exactly 251 sights to show Miss Lily!"

"If you stop at the hotel, you're wasting an hour."

But the accused maid was defiant.

"It's what it is, you would have made the same choice in my situation."

She looked satisfied, as if she'd gotten everything she'd ever wanted in life.

"You bastard!"

"You bastard!"

"You bastards!"

That was when the war between the servants broke out.

As she watched peacefully, Lily realized that her arm jewelry was gone.

"Oh my.................. what am I going to do?"

"What's wrong?"

"It's a bracelet, Gianna made it for me, and I shouldn't have lost it. I need to go back to the waterfront."

Blake jerked his head in the direction of the war.

"Hey, guys."

But they couldn't hear him in the midst of the fight.

"You greedy bastards! The truth is, you've been trying to keep Lily all to yourselves!"

"How did you know, I'm going to kill you!"

Blake realized that this fight wasn't going to end anytime soon.

"Let's just go our separate ways."

"And if our paths cross?"

"Never mind, they'll still be fighting like that when we get back from dinner."

Blake and Lily made their way back to the riverbank, where small boats lined the shore.

But the clerk seemed too busy to ask about lost and found. He must have dozed off and caused an accident.

"Oh, there it is................."

Lily spotted the arm jewelry lying on an empty boat.

They had to wait for the attendant anyway because of their harnesses, and as they thought about it, they put their hands on the harnesses, which opened unlocked.

"....!"

Without warning, Lily fell over the edge and landed in the sparkling clear water.

"Ahh."

Her palm was covered in grains of dirt, but she wasn't hurt.

But that wasn't the only reason she needed a seatbelt. Another boat came up to dock, confirming the fact.

"Lily!"

Blake tried to disguise his concern as a grumble, "You should have been more careful, are you hurt?”

With one hand, he wrapped little Lily in his arms and used the other to grab the bow of the oncoming boat.

He pushed the boat away with all his might. The passengers on board were thrillingly pushed away.

"Uh......!"

Blake realized that when he was too angry, the words wouldn't come out.

He glared at Lily, half submerged and half clutched in his arms.

"You should have been careful!"

The words he'd been about to say had a different weight.

"I didn't see it coming either."

"I've always been careful, even back in the day!"

Then their gazes shifted to her hand resting on Blake's chest palm.

Lily immediately panicked.

Ugh, what is my hand doing here?

Blake's shirt was thin even without it. It was so wet you could see through it.

His chest was hot and hard, not flabby. It was a mistake, but it felt incredibly guilty.

Lily could vaguely see why noblewomen had muscular men as a hobby; there was a reason they preferred them.

"I'm sorry I touched you. I didn't mean to."

"My fault. Never mind."

Lily felt a fluttering in her chest. It wasn't a bad feeling, but it was strange. Embarrassed, freaked out, and aroused.......

It was then.

"Are you all right, young people?"

There were only two other people on the boat, an elderly couple, and the older woman apologized.

"I didn't expect anyone to show up at all........ Is your wife hurt badly?"

Blake said, embarrassed.

"No, not really."

"Oh, of course you're not hurt, your husband must be very strong. I didn't know a man could push a boat by himself. It was fast enough that it reminded me of when I was a kid and slipped off the ceiling of my house while playing. I haven't had that much fun in a long time."

"Not her.”

"But I asked, just in case. The more careful you are, the better. Anyway, you must be a good wife. If your husband is strong, you know? Of course he can chop a lot of firewood. Whoo-hoo-hoo."

"I….”

"When my husband was younger."

"Hey."

Blake finally succeeded in getting the old lady to stop talking.

"Would you mind selling me some of your ............... clothes, I'll pay you ten times what they cost new."

Lily's clothes were soaked through, too.

It wasn't the reflective kind, but Blake was almost dizzy with her outline.

The old woman's eyes widened, wrinkled around the edges.

"Uh-oh. The young lady is soaking wet. Of course I'll give it to you. I don't need the money, it's my fault, and it's an old dress that's worthless, so I'm giving it to you as an apology."

"So, not Mrs. ......."

"This is what I used to wear when I didn't have enough money to buy apples."

"Give it to me quickly. But you get paid for your trouble."

Blake led Lily, dressed roughly in a cardigan, out of the dock.

The employee, realizing the situation too late, opened his mouth wider than his face.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Quickly," Lily whispered, apologizing profusely.

"We should probably get back to the hotel, that's for sure."

They were going somewhere, so it didn't really matter.

Lily grinned mischievously, and Blake wrinkled the bridge of his nose.

"Right, sure."

The servants, still fighting in the same position, looked at the soaking wet Lily and opened their mouths again.

"What the.........!!"

"Relax, relax, it's not a big deal, it's not cold, we'll just change at the hotel. Thanks to you, I'll be able to wear that pretty purple shawl Gianna made today."

Blake, walking at the far end of the group, glanced back.

Lily was still feeling a faint, unexplained palpitation, and she was replaying the incident with the man.

She could tell right away what was wrong with him.

"What's wrong?"

"I can feel eyes on me."

But there were so many people beneath the neatly stylized buildings that he couldn't make out anyone's features.

***

The sky was not only colored by the setting sun, but the darkness was also making its presence felt.

In a few minutes, it would be pitch black around the winter castle. Normally, they would have been preparing for the night by this time.

However, Aquawoods was still bright, with lanterns in every shop.

"Mm-hmm."

After returning to their quarters, they continued to explore, and by this time Lily was completely exhausted.

It was enough to make her forget the strange feelings she had earlier.

Sitting down on an outdoor chair in the street, Lily closed her eyes tightly and tried to relax.

"Are you very tired, Lily?"

"It's okay, I'm just sleepy."

Blake checked the sky and said.

"I'd better get going, then."

He seemed a little impatient.

In truth, the Festival of the Aquawoods wasn't even an annual event; it happened regularly every month. So it didn't have a special name.

There's nothing much there, but there's a big fireworks display at night.

The fireworks display, once the result of a scramble for supplies and leftover gunpowder, was now a favorite spectacle, but.......

As Blake, this was bound to bother him. This was due to his war neurosis.

"But master, there are fireworks soon...... Ah."

"Ah."

"Ah."

The maids, who had been focused on Lily, fell silent. They wanted to be there.

Oh, well, then?"

Lily rose from her seat, uncharacteristically unflappable.

It was time for them to head back to the hotel on the outskirts of the city.

A boy popped out from between the buildings and tipped Lily's hat.

He was so small, and he'd run off into the crowd, she couldn't even touch him.

"You son of a bitch, I'll be right back!"

Gianna, the spectral maid, followed the boy, weaving her way through the crowd.

The others ran after Gianna.

The streets were crowded everywhere, but especially in the corner of the square where the boy had fled.

"This guy. How dare you touch Lily, bring her hat back!"

Luckily, Gianna grabbed the boy by the nape of his neck and retrieved the lace hat.

But even the commotion was drowned out by the crowd cheering in the center of the square.

There seemed to be some sort of gambling boxing going on in the open air.

***

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