Chapter 58
The wind was soft as it blew through his hair.
Pession opened his eyes as a cool breeze tickled his cheek.
It was nap time.
It was a time that had become a routine since he had started exercising and Arellin’s poor stamina hadn’t been able to keep up.
‘Arellin.’
Pession’s eyes opened and his gaze quickly swept over the room.
His heart, which had been beating erratically with anxiety, quickly slowed to a crawl with relief when he found Arellin asleep beside him.
Pession smirked to himself as he realized he’d fallen asleep with her.
‘I should go back and do my assignment.’
The routine was too fast-paced.
No study, no obligations, no training, no time for anything.
If he gave up coming to Halbern, he would be able to relax again, but there was no reason to give that up now.
The canopied second-floor balcony.
The midday sunlight, shredded by the leaves, shone on their faces.
Arellin was asleep, oblivious to the world. Pession studied her face.
‘Are you tired?’
Arellin had been drinking elixirs and exercising today, looking like she was drinking a potion.
Her whole body protested, but she complied.
The doctor testified that Arellin had gained strength. Pession was satisfied.
“If only she could get healthy faster…”
His father told him not to be impatient, but impatience was too much for a child of less than ten years old to handle.
In his work, patience is not difficult. In fact, it was easy.
But why?
Why is it so hard when Arellin is involved?
Pession reached out and pecked Arellin on the cheek. The puffy cheek pinched in.
“Mmm.”
Arellin swatted Pession’s hand away in annoyance. Pession smiled at the slight frown on her brow.
“I guess I want to be a dad after all.”
If he could be Arellin’s father, he could spend days and days with her and no one would question it.
Pession’s red eyes darkened.
He knew that Arellin had been very good at going along with his outrageous greed.
But.
Just a little more.
A little more, if you’ll let me.
“Arellin…”
He leaned in close, their foreheads touching. Arellin’s faint breath tickled my ear.
Her long eyelashes, her pale cheeks, her face as soft and cute as a spring flower, but with a fragility that threatened to crumble.
Pession was terrified.
Afraid that something would happen to Arellin again while he was gone.
It was terrible separation anxiety.
He misses her, he wants to be with her all the time, he wants to know what she’s doing, he wants her to think of him.
He knows it’s greedy, but he would be so happy if she thought of him, even just a little, that he would give up his right to the throne, even his country if he had to.
Had he really gone mad?
“Hah.”
He wanted to be told she was beautiful, praised, and liked every day.
His ever-growing heart has no limits, but the eyes that look at him are so dry…
He would die for a little kindness now and then.
“Cih.”
He likes it, though.
“Arellin.”
His life has been reassembled overnight, and it’s all revolving around her, and strangely enough, he doesn’t remember the life before that.
He sure every day was fun and exciting before, but for some reason it seems so dull, boring, and uninteresting now.
The more he thinks about it, the more he thinks about it, the more surprising and weird it is, so he checks it again and again.
Knowing better than anyone that it wouldn’t change his mind.
A phenomenon that comes solely from Arellin Sigria Halbern.
He wants to protect someone, he wants to care for them, he wants to be with them, he wants to take care of them from top to bottom.
A feeling he learnt perhaps too early in life.
“Your Highness, it is time for you to return.”
Chamberlain Graham’s voice rings out. Pession knew better than anyone that it was time for him to get up.
“Just a little.”
It was too hard to leave Arellin’s sleeping side.
“Just a little longer.”
Pession Allerman was clever.
He wasn’t stupid enough to avoid the swamp when it was so obviously in front of him.
He mean, this one.
It was an inescapable swamp.
“Arellin.”
Pession ruffled Arellin’s flowing hair and said what he wanted to scream again and again, for days and days.
“I like you.”
He doesn’t even understand why he likes it, he doesn’t even understand himself, why he is doing this.
So even though his uncontrolled mind and impulses are sometimes scary and unfamiliar.
It’s painful, irritating, and annoying, but when he looks at that face, it all melts away like spring snow melting, and Pession makes her feel like such an idiot.
“I want you to like me just a little bit more.”
Because liking her a lot is something he is already sick of.
“I want you to like me just a little bit more.”
***
When asked to name the real ruler of the Albrecht Imperial Court, most would not hesitate to name Empress Ageni, but the palace maids have a surprising choice.
Princess Shirua.
This clever and lovely girl could move in and out of the palace with a wave of her hand.
“Hmph.”
Princess Shirua narrowed her eyes. Pession made a slight frown.
“Why do you look at me like that?”
“What did you do?”
Pession’s mood plummeted instantly at the sight of the Shirua he had just encountered.
“Where have you been?”
“Do you need to know?”
“You’ve been out a lot lately.”
“Unusual.”
“You’ve been busy lately.”
“I’m always busy.”
“I don’t think that’s the reason.”
Pession glared.
“When have you ever been this interested in me?”
“Well, now?”
She thought he was going to be angry, but he smiled.
His smile was still pretty and gorgeous, but it was too cold.
“Stop being a brat.”
Shirua didn’t care.
“Have you eaten?”
Apparently choosing to ignore her, Pession didn’t answer and stormed off.
Left alone, Shirua crossed her arms and shook her head.
“What an idiot.”
Her tone was uncharacteristic of her young age, but the lord’s maids shrugged it off as if they were used to it.
“Hmph.”
She doesn’t know when it started.
When her brother, who was already stupid, started being even more stupid.
‘Arellin.’
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t heard rumor’s of her brother’s daily visits to Halbern Manor as Princess Shirua.
All the courtiers were cheering the Crown Prince’s young first love with glee.
“First love…”
Shirua snapped her fingers.
“Let’s go to Therion.”
The youngest prince, the center of all the palace’s cuteness, was still eating.
Shirua sat down in front of him, watching him munch away.
“Therion.”
“Eh?”
Therion looked at Shirua with squirrelly cheeks.
“Have you ever seen her?”
“Who?”
“Arellin? You know, the one with that stupid Pession chasing her around?”
Unlike Shirua, who rarely set foot outside the monarch’s palace, Therion was a frequent visitor to the Crown Prince’s palace. Perhaps he had seen her before?
Therion blinked, then shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why don’t you know?”
“I don’t know.”
Losing interest, Therion ate the last of the pasta in a frenzy. He didn’t seem to have any interest in anything but eating.
“Uh.”
Shirua oiled more food into Therion’s bowl, encouraging him to eat.
“Eat this too.”
“Sist you’re the best!”
Shirua mused as she stroked Therion’s chubby cheek.
“I wonder.”
Her brother’s ‘abnormality’, which she had dismissed as a passing fancy, a rumor, or an overblown gossip, had gone on far too long.
Princess Shirua had never seen Pession skip class, or skip archery, or hang himself like that.
“I’d like to see how stupid he looks in person.”
The problem is Pession.
Pession’s protection was too strong to break through.
The answer.
“Oh my god.”
Shirua’s mouth curled into a mischievous grin.
***
Mehen looked at the official letter from Empress Ageni that had arrived in front of him and raised his eyebrows.
“What is this…”
