“I didn’t get the reward yesterday. Can I have it now? Elysia.”
Next to the pillow, the bed was pressed hard and she felt her body tilt.
Elysia’s eyes widened at the touch of his fingertips caressing her face and her lips.
“Sir…. Sir Eleon.”
Sitting on the cramped bed, Eleon placed his hand next to her head and gently caressed her face and lips.
“Ahh!”
The unfocused gray eyes that stared into the air followed her voice and turned to her.
“Why? Are you surprised?”
“Why… why are you here…..”
Elysia got up right away and flattened herself against the wall.
“We were supposed to go out. I knocked on your door for a while, but you didn’t wake up.”
“I locked the door yesterday.”
“Ah… I couldn’t help it.”
She looked at the door and saw that the hinge on the lock had been mercilessly broken.
“Isn’t time more precious than gold? I just need to put on a new lock.”
Elysia was stunned and speechless.
“So this is your room.”
Eleon focused on her nose.
“This room smells like you.”
“Really? I thought it smelled like that.”
After fully waking up, Elysia became nervous again.
He sat on her cramped bed, and Elysia squatted in the corner of the bed with nowhere to turn.
She was so close to him that it felt so different from the Grand Duke’s spacious bed.
“My reward?”
“What?”
“You didn’t give me my reward last night.”
“Ah.”
Elysia had promised Eleon a reward before going to bed if he treated her as Rona.
She forgot about that after her walk with Eleon, and for some reason, he became less talkative. After their walk, he told her to just go upstairs.
Still, it’s only been twice, and it’s hard to keep up with this.
Eleon seems like someone desperate to get a kiss on the cheek once a day.
Elysia grabbed her loose pajama and approached him.
While she lightly pressed her lips to Eleon’s cheek, the man who had been waiting with his eyes closed smiled in satisfaction.
His face was so beautiful that Elysia felt she was about to stop breathing.
“Get ready and come down.”
Even after Eleon got up and left the room, Elysia couldn’t easily escape the dreamy feeling.
“But it’s the first time Eleon has come here.”
His walk was so natural.
Eleon could only walk comfortably in places where the objects were placed in fixed positions like his room, the lobby hall on the first floor, the entrance hall, and a part of the stairs where he used to walk.
But a little while ago, he was walking comfortably, like a person who could see.
“Hey come on. It must have been because the room was so small that it only takes a few steps.”
Elysia shook her head and quickly got out of bed.
* * * * *
It took them an hour to reach a fairly wide river.
“Wow. It’s really beautiful!”
Elysia didn’t know much about the geography of this world.
She knew that the place she first woke up was Laurel Lake, but the castle, to which the forest rangers had taken her, was not very clear to her.
She boarded a wagon with little luggage, and recklessly headed for the capital.
Usually, the center of the story has an emperor or nobleman, and the capital is the background.
Nobody taught her that, but going to the capital recklessly was a rule of survival for the possessor.
As a result, the idea of coming to the capital, Constance Avignon, was not so bad. She was able to find a job to avoid the snow, rain, and hunger.
Plus, she ended up working for Eleon. She hoped to return to her world after seeing the ending.
Wow, it’s been a long time since I thought of this.
Elysia was surprised at the thought she had just had.
Her initial intention was to return to her world.
But somehow, she felt like the possibility had completely disappeared from her mind as if she hadn’t thought about it at all. Even though she just thought about it, she felt so strange.
I guess I’ve already changed everything.
It was Elysia who healed Eleon’s eyes. It was she who won his heart. And it was she who received the marriage proposal from him.
At the same time, she was in a position where she could easily accept or admit the twists in the original story.
Because of a few words from Mariela.
I can’t tell if she lied or told the truth.
I had to figure out a way. How true is what Mariela said.
“Do you like the scenery?”
Eleon’s words snapped her out of her daze.
“Yes. It’s very nice here. Today the weather is sunny and the sky is blue. The sky blue is reflected in the water, and there are trees with green leaves all around the river.”
Elysia became his eyes and mouth.
“I think it’s Acacia. The white flowers are coveted like clusters of grapes. It’s very beautiful, it falls along the entire riverbank. and….. this is.”
Elysia stopped talking.
The mood around her was strange. There were many couples.
They seemed to be couples, walking along the riverbank with their arms crossed, holding hands and sharing a parasol, or enjoying a ride in small boats with ribbons and lace awnings.
Although the awnings didn’t block the sunlight properly, they looked as close as if they were kissing.
What! It seems that everyone is on a date.
Eleon asked when she fell silent, unable to honestly describe this scene.
“This is?”
“I mean… umm… date…… There seems to be a lot of people going on dates.”
“Is that so?”
Elysia was wearing the dress Eleon had prepared for her.
He had some of the finished clothes tailored to Elysia’s measurements, as she had her clothes made beforehand at the famous Le Ballein dressing store.
Elysia glanced at Eleon.
Perhaps because of the strong wind, Eleon’s forehead was exposed.
His eyebrows were well-groomed.
Her heart ached the moment she saw his gray eyes, but Eleon’s smiling lips full of happiness, made her forget her worries.
Eleon was formally dressed in a suit. He wore a frock coat made of thin material with embroidery on the collar and sleeves.
He looked very elegant and sophisticated.
“Do we look like them?”
Eleon asked.
Only then did Elysia realize why Eleon had brought her here.
It’s a date. It’s our first date too.
She never imagined that he would think of her as a woman since the day they spent time at Cafe Cardinal or Trappel Park.
And the reason was that he already had a predestined partner.
She was busy serving Eleon as his maid and also thinking about how he would meet Karina.
The only other time she spent time with Eleon was when they chatted and drank tea in Yuter’s paradise.
The garden was as big as Gillian’s love for Mariela, but it couldn’t be considered a ‘date‘.
That’s why we rode in a carriage, and he insisted on escorting me.
Eleon must have known what he was coming here for.
Her heart pounded again and she felt relieved just thinking about it.
“It would seem that we are also dating”
Elysia grabbed Eleon’s arm and stroked the back of his hand, wrist, and arm with her fingertips so as not to surprise Eleon.
“This will look more natural.”
Elysia wrapped her hand around Eleon’s strong arm. But suddenly she felt her face heat up a bit.
“Should I remove my hand?”
“No.”
Eleon pressed Elysia’s hand to his arm with his hand.
“Shall we walk a bit like this?”
“I’d love to.”
Elysia got excited walking with Eleon arm in arm along the silvery ripples of the river.
“It’s picturesque here.”
“Why?”
“It’s just that all the colors around here are very pretty.”
The small boats decorated with pastel-colored ribbons and awnings, floating leisurely against the background of greenery under the blue sky, looked like flowers falling on the water.
“It would have been nice if we could watch it together.”
She heard somewhere that lovers don’t have to look at each other, but stand side by side and look at the same place.
Somehow, she finally understood what that meant.
Seeing Eleon listen to what she was explaining, her old memories became clearer and clearer.
She recalled the dazzling red-eyed man smiling and following her as they walked through Yuter’s paradise.
There was silence between the two of them.
Only the sound of flowing water mixed with laughter could be heard from afar.
Neither Eleon nor Elysia could open their mouths.
……I made a mistake.
Elysia was embarrassed and didn’t know what to do.
She didn’t mean to offend him.
Also, she blames herself for Eleon’s blindness.
However, she said those words without realizing it as she was fascinated by the scenery and the atmosphere.
The problem was that she was being honest. Even if they were just words, she couldn’t cover them up.
When Elysia did not know what to do, Eleon let go of her hand that was holding his arm.
“Sir… Sir Eleon.”
He pulled out his hand and embraced Elysia.
Eleon’s careful touch soothed her and assured her that he wasn’t angry or blaming her.
“Let’s get on the boat too.”
“Yes.”
Elysia just gave a quick nod as he pretended not to know what she said.
I have to be careful. I’m an idiot.
She must have been so excited about her first date.
Rona wouldn’t do this, but like Elysia, she was in trouble anyway.
There are too many problems to just call it trouble.
Elysia shuddered at the thought of all the problems she had to deal with.
Stop. Focus on Eleon.
He was a man who was more alert to presences than to being blind.
Elysia grabbed Eleon’s hand and boarded the boat at the dock.
“This boat is smaller than I thought.”
From a distance, it looked like the boat had plenty of room for the two of them, but when they got on, they were very close.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
“No.”
As Eleon rowed, the boat made its way towards the middle of the wide river.
Elysia looked around. She had nothing to do, so she hummed and enjoyed the atmosphere.
“Elysia.”
Eleon looked at her seriously.
“I originally wanted to do it here.”
“What did you want to do?”
“Marriage proposal.”
As Elysia hesitated over what to say, he took her hand that was on her lap.
“But today I have to confess.”
Suddenly her heart was pounding.
A marriage proposal is good, but so is a confession.
But the best was Eleon. She thought that he would propose to leave her with beautiful memories in a place like this.
The man who sat across from her held her hand.
“I am not blind.”
“…..What?”
Elysia didn’t understand what Eleon said.
I like you. I love you.
She was excited to hear those words, but she felt as if cold water had been poured on her fluttering heart.
His unfocused eyes looked at Elysia.
“I can see.”
