Chapter 230

Chapter 230

“La…”

…cias.

A name so familiar it came up automatically.

Lila held her tongue. Lacias was so familiar to her that she could recognize him just by the tips of his black dress shoes.

She didn’t have to look up to picture Lacias’s face. Was it because she’d seen it many times or because she missed him so much that she kept seeing him in her dreams?

Lila was about to face the person she’d tried so hard to avoid, and she had no idea what to do. She wanted to look up but couldn’t. Her eyes shut tight, blotting him out of her vision. It was starting to feel like her body wasn’t even hers.

“Lila,” Lacias said, “look at me.”

His voice was still kind as ever.

He can’t see my face because of the hood…so how did he know it was me?

Of course, Lila also assumed it was Lacias just by looking at the tip of his toes, but how did he….

At the sound of his sweet, kind voice, Lila’s vision grew hazy, but she had no idea why.

“Lila…you don’t look well. Are you sick?” Lacias rose from the stairs and slowly approached her.

“It’s good I found you quickly. You’re already so thin. I was worried you’d gotten so thin already. What have you been eating?”

Her thin body looked even thinner now. Lacias pulled off his cape and wrapped it around her shoulders. Lila was still staring at the ground. She simply didn’t have the courage to face Lacias.

“Please look at me, Lila.” His warm hands cupped her face, his thumbs brushing her cheeks. “Hm? Please…”

Her cheeks, which should be so squishy, felt like leather.

“I thought I’d be angry to see you, but that’s not the case. I just…I’m just glad that I see you again.”

It was Lila who made his heart beat again. Only Lila.

“You’ve become so thin. You must be famished. I think we need to feed you.”

“Is that important right now?” Lila asked, bewildered of his actions.

“Ah, you finally answered.”

At this, she was left without a choice but to lift her gaze, having given up on tenacity.

“It seems you’ve gotten thinner than me, Lacias.” She couldn’t help but comment as she looked at his slightly lighter figure. He definitely lost some weight.

“Me? No way. I dressed up to meet you.”

He had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn’t gotten any sleep. Despite all, the man was grinning so beautifully it seemed he was overjoyed by their union.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

“Hm?”

“I miss…” She should say that she did, but her lips wouldn’t allow it. To say that she missed him after running away would sound truly selfish. But to the man who only had kind eyes for her, wouldn’t it be okay to show a little selfishness? Would it be so bad to be a little more honest?

“Missed you,” she said. “Of course.”

He laughed brightly, so much so that she couldn’t help smiling. “Want to go inside? I waited alone out here for so long.”

She nodded. Lila felt a little bewildered. She’d run away from Lacias, but now that they’d met again, it was almost like she’d never left. Was it because he was treating her no differently?

Whatever it was, they needed to talk about it.

Lila stepped on the spot on the stairs where Lacias had been sitting. Maybe she was imagining things, but she thought she could feel his warmth on her feet.

“Come in here.”

She pushed open the white door an inch. Lacias peeked in through the small crack. She couldn’t tell if he wanted to see how she was living or find a trace of someone else. She stepped aside, and Lacias walked in like he lived there.

“Aren’t you uncomfortable living in such a small place?” he wondered aloud.

“Not at all. Even this house is too much for me.”

“I thought you didn’t take any funds. Did you have any funds on the side?”

He smiled, like he was making a joke, but Lila knew he wasn’t. He was looking for an assistant. Someone who would’ve helped her get the house and furniture. Someone who would’ve helped her with her daily life.

“It seems you’re living alone.”

“Who else would I be living with?”

“I heard a lot of things during my search for you. Like you looking newlywed.” He shrugged his shoulders, like he was just repeating what he heard, but there was nothing casual about the way he looked at her.

“Well, it seems like a misunderstanding. What is this?”

Lacias gazed at the candle on the fireplace and shook it slowly.

That’s…

It was a candle in the shape of a fairy. “This doesn’t look like your type of thing. Who gave it to you?”

“Just a gift…”

“A gift? You already have people to exchange gifts with here? How fascinating.”

Until they walked into the house, she hadn’t felt this uncomfortable. Now her discomfort had risen almost to the point of insanity.

She bobbed her mouth, unable to answer. She knew exactly what those people had meant when they said she looked like a newlywed, and she knew who’d given her that candle.

Hizette will be in trouble.

Honestly, she was certain she’d be ok. Just looking at Lacias’s reaction after they met, she’d felt he would put past the fact that she’d run away. But Hizette? He would be in big trouble.

After a few moments of her silence, Lacias gave an odd smile and put the candle down. He hit it on purpose, and it shattered on the ground, the head and body splitting in half.

“Oh, my bad,” Lacias said. “Was it something important?”

“N-no. It’s okay.” She’d been using it as a decoration, since it was so pretty, but she couldn’t reveal that to Lacias.

“I’ll buy you a new one, so you don’t have to worry. I’ll decorate our room once we get back to our place.”

Our place. The Duke Wipere castle in Ahibalt Empire.

Would it…would it be okay to do that?

As someone who’d left everything, would it be okay? Lila was confused. To be honest, she wanted to go back to where everyone she loved was. But her existence was their weakness as well as their trauma.

Weakness to Lacias. Non-erasable trauma for Hir.

Even if she could convince Lacias, Hir’s trauma was too critical. He’d have nightmares about her, and Hir wouldn’t forgive her if she went back…

“His waits for you every night.”

…or so she thought.

“He has a nightmare every night,” Lacias said. “He thinks you abandoned him.”