“Why would I mock you? Ha, to put it bluntly, the two of us did it, so are you going to ridicule me and call me dirty and vulgar as well?”
Hestia bit her lip, realizing she’d gone too far. Apparently, that hadn’t been his intention.
“We weren’t gossiping, we weren’t having an affair, we weren’t playing with fire, we weren’t being dirty or shallow.”
“…”
“And I swear by the goddess Lillian, on all my honor, that I have never, and will never, go around telling anyone about what happened that day.”
Silence fell between them after his firm words. It was Hestia who spoke again first.
“Then why did you come to see me?”
“I was wondering how you… were doing.”
“…”
At her look of disbelief, Adrian added.
“I missed you.”
“…”
“I know I’m doing things backwards, but I want to get to know you slowly, from the beginning, and I-”
“I refuse.”
There was no need to listen further. Now that she knew he had no intention of letting others know about this, she no longer wanted to be involved with him for any reason.
“Just listen until the end, please.”
She could see the sadness in his eyes. Hestia took a deep breath and let out a quick, long sentence before he could speak again.
“I don’t want to remember that day, not for the rest of my life, so I’m going to ask you, for the first and last time, to stop appearing before me.”
“Hestia!”
Hestia sprang to her feet, ignoring the pain in her ankle and broke into a run for the door. She burst through the door and came face to face with Colin, who was pushing a cart filled with tea and refreshments.
Before he could speak, Hestia slapped a gold coin onto his chest.
“You may keep the change.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Colin grinned and quickly snatched the coin. After Hestia left, Adrian was the only one left standing there, his brow furrowed.
“…Shit.”
Looking back and forth between the despairing man and the fleeing Hestia for a moment, Colin grabbed a handful of biscuits he’d been about to serve from the cart and munched on them happily before asking.
“What on earth did you say to the mage that she was on the verge of bursting into tears?”
“What? Ha, I’m going crazy.”
Adrian was literally about to lose his mind right now. He hadn’t meant to make her cry, he’d imagined the day he would see her again and talk to her so many times, but he hadn’t expected the worst-case scenario would happen, like her running off crying.
However, if he followed her and caught up, it would only give him a small sense of satisfaction. If that day was such a terrible memory for her, it must have felt awful just looking at his face.
Adrian rubbed his hand down his face as he gave Colin an order.
“Go downstairs and get her a carriage somehow. I don’t think she’s used the medicine at all.”
“She didn’t use the medicine? Doesn’t that mean she doesn’t just dislike you, but hates you instead?”
This time Colin picked up the plate of cookies and shoved a whole cookie into his mouth, making Adrian glare and growl.
“…Give it to me.”
“What?”
“The gold coin you snuck into your pocket. It’s mine.”
Colin, about to drink the black tea Hestia ordered, looked at Adrian and shook his head.
“The mage gave it to me. What would someone who already has a lot of money do with something like this? No matter how rude I was, it’s only 1 gold, taking it away is-”
“Give it to me now. And if she walks away while you’re wasting time here, I’ll tear your legs off.”
“Here it is, my lord.”
Colin tossed over the gold coin and ran downstairs.
* * *
Hestia ran out of the room, gritting her teeth as she tried to hold back her tears. She didn’t even know why she was crying, choosing to believe it was because her hurt ankle.
“Miss, are you returning home?”
Hestia came face to face with a friendly employee as she was about to exit the building, staggering due to the pain. She avoiding making eye contact as she muttered.
“I already paid upstairs, thank you.”
“For those who use the restaurant’s VIP room, a horse-drawn carriage return service is provided. Please come this way.”
He blocked Hestia’s path and guided her to one side of the hallway. Hestia shook her head, trying to refuse, attempting to leave again.
“It’s fine.”
“Ah, would you like to return home with the gentleman you dined with instead? He must be escorting you. I’ll have someone bring him here.”
He was insistent, smiling even more sweetly, he called another employee to fetch the gentleman who was in the other room.
The young employee immediately ran upstairs to the private room.
Horrified, Hestia threw up her hands.
“No! I’ll go alone. Where is the carriage?”
“Let me show you, miss.”
He guided Hestia and winked at Colin, who was secretly watching from upstairs. Collin breathed a sigh of relief that his legs would stay intact. He then threw the last of the cookies into his mouth.
Hestia got into the carriage and leaned her head against the wall. She should’ve been relieved that he’d sworn he had no intention of threatening her by revealing what’d happened that day, but strangely, she was in a terrible mood.
Adrian Kingston acted like he was interested in her, even trying to confess. However, she couldn’t believe his superficial words, such as ‘I want to be friends, I want to get to know you slowly, I missed you.’
He was a famous playboy at the academy and he’d been with many women.
Dancers, courtesans, commoners, and nobles alike, he was known for dating a wide variety of women and breaking up with them after a short period of time. To him, women were nothing more than playthings.
She didn’t want to be his plaything; life was tiring and hard enough without him.
For now, she just wanted to live quietly, then after a year, when she got the right to report her own movement route and became free, she’d leave for Windsor.
To do that, she needed to know a little more about Windsor. There was no time to waste on useless things, like silly love affairs.
“Miss, we’ve arrived.”
“Thank you. Goodbye.”
Before she knew it, the carriage had already arrived in front of the Carlton residence. The coachman kindly laid down the portable steps to help Hestia get down from the carriage. She then hurried into Carlton Mansion as if to hide herself away.
At this point, because of everything that’d happened that day, she was exhausted. When she got to her room, she locked the door and lay down on the bed to try and catch some sleep.
But no matter how hard she tried to close her eyes and clear her head, it was no use. She remembered his face as she raised her thorns and pricked him.
Her conscious was stabbing her in the heart.
… He’d looked so hurt.
* * *
Ted was smoking a cigar. There was a blue bruise over his right eye and his ankle was injured and covered in bandages. Moreover, his whole body seemed to be screaming in pain.
To drown out the pain, he went to an upscale bar that catered only to nobility.
The long brunet hair of the barmaid sitting next to him, pouring him a drink, cascaded down and tickled his shoulder.
Ted stared at the barmaid’s hair as she chatted away, fawning over him.
He frowned. What he wanted was a classy, elegant brunet, not this cheap brown. Just like Hestia Welter. At the thought of her, his temper began to rise again.
‘No.’
He remembered the green eyes that stared straight at him, challenging him. Then, the cocky beastman also came to mind.
After Ted was forced to return to the banquet hall, he couldn’t overcome his anger and continued to drink. He was so unstable, unable to control his emotions, that people around him started whispering.
In the end, Count Carlton got angry and kicked him out into the room, telling him if he wasn’t going to be helpful, not to embarrass him at least.
As he was stumbling towards the break room, Collin appeared and suddenly punched him in the face, injured his arm, and threw him to the floor. Then he trampled his right ankle viciously. It all happened quickly.
‘If you touch her one more time, I’ll blow your head off.’
Whispering the chilling threat in his ear, Colin didn’t stop there, shoving him down the stairs. It wasn’t until after the ball was over that the palace chamberlain found him, having fallen down the stairs and fainted.
And he then had to endure all kinds of insults from Count Carlton. He was even compared to his younger sister, whom he usually ignored.
“Damn it, bring me a something stronger!”
He was downing alcohol, but no matter how much he drank, the pain wouldn’t subside. Instead, he vividly remembered the past, so he pushed hard on the shoulder of the barmaid sitting next to him and yelled.
The suddenness of his action knocked her off-center and she slid out of her chair and onto the floor.
“I’m sorry, my lord. What can I get you?”
She cursed inwardly, but smiled outwardly, soothing him. He was a nobleman, and seemed to have a lot of money. Her fawning voice was laced with pretense.
“Do you think I’m funny? What’s with that look?”
Ted needed someone to vent his anger on, even if it meant spewing out nonsense. And the woman in front of him was the perfect target. He pushed her hard and started punching her.
“Ah! I messed up, Sir! Sir!”
“Vermin like you all need to die! Hey! Do you think I’m joking? Am I funny to you?”
The poor woman was beaten and her entire body was covered in wounds. The glass on the table fell to the floor and shattered loudly, shards flying everywhere. In response to the commotion, a man sloppily dressed ran over and stopped him.
“Guest, please leave now.”
“Who do you think you are to command me? I’m a noble!”
Ted boasted, it was the only thig he had to show.
“Noble sir. Do you want to be stabbed to death by gutter rats and trash who live life without a care for their future?”
As if to prove that the man’s words were not mere threats, his eyes flashed with excitement. Several burly men with rough appearances gathered, and forced Ted out.
“Stop interfering with our business and leave.”
