Chapter 2.2

C H A P T E R _2.2

Episode 4

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“Count!”

As soon as a big lightning bolt embroidered the sky, Elsia screamed in shock. It wasn’t just because she was afraid of thunder and lightning. It was only after facing Mother Nature’s disaster that her surroundings were lit up for a bit.

The only frame placed in the room of an unmarried count that no one can enter recklessly.

A beautiful and elegant woman in that frame.

A phrase of sincere love that cannot be overlooked.

Why did he have to keep the precious frame out of sight?

A type of pain that can only be forgotten when a strong commander of the knights drowns himself with alcohol to forget….

‘No way, perhaps…?’

Elsia never wanted the woman’s identity to be the person who suddenly came to mind. It was so absurd that it was a kind of love that could not be possible from the beginning. However, as with most people, Elsia’s intuition used to be accurate in a bad way.

It was unfortunate.

“Count, Count! Where are you?”

Elsia swayed in the wind, folded her umbrella, which became cumbersome, and went to find Ian. She ran around in the rain while screaming like crazy. By the time the blood vessels almost popped from her throat, she managed to find Ian crouching beneath the shabby fortress.

He stared blankly at the pouring rain. Even though he was clearly watching Elsia run, his eyes seemed to have lost their light and were out of focus. Beside him lay a half-filled wine bottle with a closed cap.

“Count…”

Elsia approached Ian, who did not respond to the call, opened the folded umbrella over his head to shelter him from the raindrops. The sound of the rain was loud, but what flowed between the two was silence.

On the man’s left hand, a small brown frame was held intact and the ugly right hand was hidden behind his back.

Elsia apologized, looking at the muddy water pooled underneath his seat.

“… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up the count’s room. I just wanted to keep it clean.”

Elsia’s, which began to get rained on by putting her umbrella on Ian instead of herself, had her voice fading. Unlike her lively personality, she was very meek.

“…….”

“I’m so sorry. How can I ever apologize?”

She apologized again with a trembling voice.

“What are you sorry about?”

He asked in a clear voice, seemingly not drunk.

“That… I put up the Count’s frame with my own hands……. I’m so sorry.…. It was dusty, so I shook the dust off. It was one of the Count’s belongings, I just tried to keep it on the table.”

As Elsia’s gaze turned to the frame, Ian hugged it tightly to his chest and hid it as if trying to hide it from her view. He made it seem like she was a rogue who chased him to steal the frame. Seeing his extremely defensive attitude, Elsia’s heart sank. It seemed that she had done something insensitive.

As expected, was the woman in the frame precious to him? Did you carelessly hurt him again after confidently shouting in front of the crown prince that you would go save him? Elsia made an excuse in a small voice because she had a sad thought.

“I touched the count’s belongings and…. I’m really sorry. I won’t touch any of your belongings ever again, I promise.”

*pitter*patter*

As Seiran said, the rain poured with loud noise. There was uncertainty that it would stop by tomorrow. Ian’s pants, sitting flat on the floor, were a mess. The hem of Elsia’s robe also becomes dirty due to raindrops falling into the soil. The two confronted each other for a long time, regardless of how they looked.

It wasn’t long before Ian’s posture, which was holding the frame, had changed. He looked at her with bloodshot eyes and spat out coldly.

“When it stops raining.”

“…..Yes?”

“Go back, get out of my way… I won’t forgive you if I see you in the castle even though the storm has gone away. I will not be considerate just because you’re a girl.”

“Count-nim…”

Her voice, exhausted from the cold, was getting smaller faster than the patient Ian.

“Ha, are my words truly incomprehensible to you? Or you dare to ignore me because I’m just worthless trash now?”

“No, it’s not like that.…!”

“Good, then…. Let’s do it like this. If you don’t promise to leave the castle, I won’t take a step out of my room from tomorrow. No matter what you’re up to, everything will be in vain, right? Your goal is to lead me to the castle like a dog when you find something to threaten me with!”

His cold words became a sharp dagger and tore Elsia’s heart to pieces.

“No, don’t get me wrong. I have no intention of doing anything bad with the count’s personal information! His Highness said so, too!”

“I won’t comment any more. Ms. Puppeteer, I told you to disappear from my sight, so keep that in mind and get lost soon.”

Ian’s stubbornness was persistent. From the moment Elsia first met him up, the moment Elsia made a serious mistake. Had she not touched the frame, the results would have been the same.

The distance between the two was only three inches, but each other’s positions were sharply divided, unable to get narrowed at all. Is it also difficult to open Ian’s closed heart overnight? Seeing the sorrow of the man’s face, Elsia leaned close to him, regardless of whether she had dropped the umbrella.

“Don’t do that, please. Don’t hide in that dark room again! Young Haden is still unable to sleep because he is worried about the Count. He said you are a good person who takes care of the servants, right? I know it!”

She grabbed Ian’s knee with trembling hands and shook it a couple of times, still, the latter was stubborn.

“……It’s none of your business. Get out of my way! You met me for the first time today, don’t talk like you know me! Who are you to tell me what to do and what the servants think?”

“Ouch!”

Ian pushed Elsia out and picked up a dirty bottle of liquor in anger to uncapped it. It was too late when Elsia, who was coughing with rainwater in her mouth, came to her senses and looked back. Ian had already drunk all the remaining alcohol and threw an empty bottle on the floor, frowning.

“No!”

“Urgh…”

Drunk in an instant, Ian slowly collapsed to the side. Nevertheless, he kept the drops of rain away from the frame he held in his left hand. As his body shook uncontrollably, he only focused on the item in his pale hands.

However, he, who was losing consciousness, could not keep the precious frame protected forever. The frame was on the verge of falling to the floor because his fingers were loosened. Elsia quickly caught it and placed it in her inner pocket.

“C-Count Cypris!”

“Ugh…”

Ian was significantly larger than Elsia, so it was too much for her to support him alone. She left her umbrella that fell into the muddy water and shook Ian’s shoulder in concern. He only made a groaning sound, but he couldn’t even open his eyes because of exhaustion.

How did Ian fall asleep in a remote place like this?

Frustrated, Elsia screamed loudly in the rain.

“Anyone here? Sir Seiran! Mr. Butler! Haden!

It was then.

“……yla. My beloved Kayla…. Where are you? Please come back to me……. You promised to be with me when it was all over. We were supposed to leave the empire together.….”

An unexpected name popped out from Ian’s lips with his eyes closed and a mournful tone. At that moment, Elsia, who felt a severe chill, could not move.

The ominous expectation was right.

‘Kayla, she’s…….’

It was the name of the Saint from Vanir Church, the one who lost her life while accompanying Ian on the expedition.

People want the two churches’ representatives, the saint, and the leader of the holy knights, to be together as comrades, but….

That didn’t mean that the two should be romantically in love in private.

In the long and long history of the two churches, there has never been a time when the appointed saint and a leader of the holy knights had a relationship.

(TL/N: Oh idk? Maybe the two were being punished because the gods found out about their relationship OoO. Anyways, I’m happy this ruined our Valentines  good :’> I swear, if Ian doesn’t suffer later I’m going wild.)

All relationships were nothing more than political and religious companionship, a conscious act to widely comfort believers and avoid conflict. Even if they held hands, there was only friendliness in mind…

“Count-nim?”

Ian, mistaken as he was in a dream after seeing the picture, quietly scattered the secrets he had hidden for a long time.

“I love you, Kayla.…. I’m yours forever, Please, take me to your side..….”

“Count!”

He struggled to call Kayla’s name, which he had dreamed of for a long time, completely unconscious. Elsia shook Ian a few times, but there was no sign of waking up making her body drop. She was in a severe crisis.

She staggered standing up and dragged Ian’s heavy body, placed him under the tent, and ran to the main gate of the main building with all her might.

Fortunately, Haden was standing at the main gate, the young servant waiting to ring the bell if their master was found. They called other servants and managed to save Ian, who collapsed, from the heavy rain and alcohol. It was a great relief that Seiran came in the middle of transporting him and assisted them.

When the servants washed Ian’s body clean and laid him in bed. Elsia, who was barely relieved, sighed and collapsed on the floor and completely lost consciousness.

It was such a funny thing.

Ian, who collapsed after drinking, woke up just half a day later, but Elsia did not. After being completely soaked with worries about Ian and cold rain, she could only wake up after four days from her illness. As soon as she opened her eyes, the first thing she found was Ian’s servant, Haden.

“Ah, Ms. Elsia…”

“I need to see the count.”

With a rather pale complexion, she ran, almost crawling in front of Ian’s bedroom. Her fingers had been shaking hard as if she were telling her to rest because she barely recovered but still ignored it. She was currently in a situation where she didn’t know if she would be kicked out under Ian’s order and power. She only fell asleep for a day but stayed still until she got better a few days later, contrary to what the Count had said, he let her stay. The boat returning to the other island had been gone as well.

“…I’m sorry, but will you call Count? There is something I really want to say.”

Haden made a tearful face and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Elsia.”

“You won’t allow me?”

“Yes…”

“I see.”

What is the crime against Haden, who has the fate of following his master’s instructions? Elsia patted the young servant’s head gently, and told him that he could relax because she would stay in front of his door for just five minutes and return to her bedroom.

As Haden watched her with an anxious look, Elsia simply stood still in front of Ian’s bedroom door and opened her mouth.

“Hello, Count.”

Naturally, Ian beyond the door gave no answer. Perhaps he was completely fed up with a tactless and stupid woman like her. Thinking like that, she would have been the same. Elsia, who thought so, tried to soothe the frustration that was rushing in.

“….You know?”

“…….”

Elsia turned her head and opened her mouth looking at the window of the hallway.

“After three mid-summer storms, everyone’s favorite autumn comes. This is the third time I’ve experienced two storms in the capital. So, if I endure a bit more, the cool autumn will come, right? The chef here says he makes maple syrup by himself. I’m going to learn it if I have a chance. What do you think?”

She hesitated to talk about the saint’s incident she had overheard.

In fact, she was shocked once again after waking up and coming to her senses.

‘Ian Cypris fell in love with St. Kayla?’

As the knight commander, his duties would be over if he stepped down from his position. However, it was different for the saint.

The saint is revered by the whole people of the empire, and believers from other countries also come to this temple in hopes of her blessing.

Therefore, even the emperor could not handle it easily when the symbol of peace was kind enough to suppress war when the empire was weak. The position representing the saint held the same power as the head of the holy knights. But basically, Ian was a knight, pretty much different from the saint. The saint was literally like a walking mother symbolizing rest, peace, and the love of God.

In summary, the case of Ian and the saint.

It was a forbidden love difficult enough to be put into words.

It was a secret that could never be told to anyone.

END OF EPISODE 4