Chapter 143

Chapter 143

For days, the ring stayed in Lucius’ pockets as he rolled it around with his fingers and his mind pondered.

How do I give this to her?

At first, he childishly thought about handing it over to her in the most nonchalant way possible. But gradually, the image of him holding it out to her so simply became distorted in his head.

No matter how he thought about it, should he go with that plan, then there won’t be this beautiful scene of her hugging him and saying how she had been looking for it all this while. Then, Lucius imagined more affectionate gestures from her about how thankful she was.

He realized that he might be digging up past wounds by bringing that thing in front of her, but he also hoped that she might feel something after seeing the ring that had once represented their love for one another.

He remembered the change in Deatrice’s expression when he jokingly brought up the topic of marrying Spirt.

Maybe it would be better to just leave the past in the past? But then they will forever be unable to communicate about any of those anymore, even the pain they held inside during those times.

“Are you going to propose to her again?”

A knight, seeing the commander sitting and staring blankly at a red ring, asked.

Lucius slowly looked down and answered. “No. Why would I do that when the whole world already knows that Deatrice is my wife.”

“Then… what is that for?”

The appearance of the lord looking at a lady’s ring sparked rumors among the knights for several days. One even got beaten up when he so much as suggested that the commander was having an affair. Still, someone had the gall to say another thing about the issue.

“Can’t you see it? Those are the eyes of someone longing for a past lover.”

But the fact that Lucius didn’t have any other women besides Deatrice cut their fun short. The man had no idea what else to make of it.

“Then, that must be the ring from when they first got engaged.”

“What?!”

The person who spoke about the idea seriously bowed down and expressed his opinion.

“They were once engaged before the war came, but they broke up. This must be the ring he had given her back then.”

“Shouldn’t that ring supposed to be the ring the lady is wearing now?”

“Hm. That’s true too…”

“Wait—didn’t he just find that ring recently?”

“Really?”

“Oi, you. Why don’t you go and ask the commander? He might be contemplating on how to give that thing back to the missus.”

Samuel, the knight who had been chattering a lot with the captain of his platoon, was pushed by his comrades to finally satisfy their curiosity.

Lucius mulled the question over and over in his mind for a long time before finally opening his mouth.

“Will it be alright if Deatrice will receive this?”

Hearing how Lucius decided to ask about how it would be ‘alright’ instead of ‘will she like it’ sounded strange in Samuel’s ears. However, he thought that Lucius must have been confused for a moment and answered smoothly.

“Of course, she’ll like it and—oh! There’s a pond around here somewhere that’s been popular with the people. Rumor has it that there had even been fairy sightings there.

“…”

“You may finish your matter there. I won’t let anyone go near that place.”

The truth was that the knights were very zealous about the commander’s relationship with his wife. It was to the extent that they accidentally scattered petals on the ground and even unintentionally moved a large slab of stone for them to sit on.

What a coincidence!

Lucius, who brought Deatrice to the pond, pushed the unnaturally positioned petals away with his feet while she admired the picturesque scenery.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh… there’s an insect.” Responding naturally, Lucius took one step ahead. Where those burly men found those dainty, pastel-colored petals remain unknown and Lucius doubted he’d find an answer to that soon.

Fortunately, Deatrice did not seem to notice the knights’ poor decorating skills. Instead, she gazed in front of her for a long time, as if she had found something under the reedy pond.

“I heard that fairies appeared here.”

For some reason, no matter how luxurious a place that he had been to, all of those paled in comparison to how much more beautiful a place suddenly becomes when Deatrice was by his side.

It was a… warm and fuzzy feeling.

A corner of her mouth shot up, “Do you remember?”

“Hm?”

“When we were together at my aunt’s house. I fell into the water just to tease you.”

“Ah, the insect.” Lucius smiled, then he naturally approached and hugged Deatrice from behind. He said, burying his face in her soft bosom, “You know how scared I was at that time…”

He paused, then continued.

“A lot of people mistake you for a decent lady. But you are actually very, extraordinarily, and extremely—”

—bad.

Lucius didn’t know why that word suddenly popped into his head. An old feeling rose its head above the surface of the water and vividly took hold of him for a moment, then disappeared into the deep once more.

Deatrice turned to face him while she was being hugged. “Extremely what?”

Lucius blinked, then his face was all smiles, “Great. You purposely fell just so you could tease me.”

“You don’t remember why I did that?”

“You had a reason for that? I thought it was only because you wanted to show me an insect.” His eyebrows furrowed as he scoured his memories for a clue as to what she was referring to.

Deatrice laughed mischievously and pinched his nose with her index finger and thumb.

“You teased me first while holding your breath like this, saying you would show me how long you can hold your breath. But you held your breath for so long, I thought you’d die any second later.”

“Ah, right.” Lucius laughed as if he remembered that time. Then he kissed her hand that was holding her nose and kissed her face. “You were so cute back then.”

“That’s why I purposely fell into the water, to exact my revenge on you for that time.”

He chuckled dotingly, “Such extreme vengeance.”

“Extreme?”

When she asked her if it is really that bad, he nodded and fixed her disheveled hair.

“Few would go that far for revenge. Did you know how dangerous it was for you? You even caught a cold afterward…”