Chapter 180

****

***

“Bibi told you the whole conversation?”

Seria asked back with a puzzled look on her face.

“Yes.”

“……?”

“She told me as she heard it.”

Seria turned around and saw Abigail standing far away. She had the most harmless look on her face.

Most likely, Kalis could have hugged Seria freely in the Great Temple. So she was sure Abigail wouldn’t stay still outside. Still, it seemed that she (Abigail) did not enter out of consideration for Seria and monitored outside the door, but to tell Lesche all she heard….

Chuckling, Abigail looked elated. Then, she bowed her head and disappeared just like that. She was Seria’s knight, but Seria couldn’t understand her…

“Wait a minute.”

The smile on Seria’s lips gradually disappeared.

“Lesche…. Did Bibi tell you everything?”

She broke out in a strange cold sweat as she asked. Come to think of it, Lesche’s expression was different from usual. Something more strange ….

“She told me everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, everything.”

“…….”

At that moment her face became hot like she was having a fever. She turned around reflexively.

“Time for prayer.”

The words came out without going through her head. Seria walked away quickly. On the one hand, she was inwardly worried. No matter how fast she ran, compared to Lesche…. If he was going to catch her, it seemed she would have to take off her shoes and run away.

She was not prepared for this.

She didn’t think she would let out the feelings she had been hiding.

She was very embarrassed. Her face was gradually turning red and she felt like she was going to explode right away. How much did she run? After passing many priests and arriving at a quiet courtyard, she finally stopped to catch her breath.

Before she knew it, it was the courtyard with the swing that she had previously sat on with Lesche. As she sat down, grasped those four strings, and exhaled, a shadow hung behind her.

Seria turned around and screamed.

“Argh!”

Her heart pounded. Unlike her, whose chest was rising and falling in an attempt to escape, there stood Lesche, looking all too normal.

“…Why are you following me?”

“You ran away.”

“No….you would have caught me. You didn’t hold me back.”

“I thought it’d be nice if we were in a place where there were few people.”

“What?”

“I didn’t expect you to gasp like this.”

“…….”

“I should have carried you.”

Lesche walked in front of Seria and grabbed her hand, making her stand up. Instantly, their positions changed and he sat her on his thighs as he sat on the swing. Those four strings touched her back, and Lesche’s arms closed around her.

“Seria.”

Their gazes meet helplessly. In fact, there was some hope. Lesche was going to spin a little bit and mention it’s going to be….

“Why don’t you tell me you love me?”

It was a funny hope.

Seria screamed inwardly and covered her face with her hands. Her face felt like it was on fire.

“How could I say such a thing to you?”

“…Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’?”

“I didn’t hear it from you. I heard it from your knight.”

“That…”

“Let me hear it from your mouth. Don’t tell anyone else.”

“Ah!”

Seria eventually screamed. Her ears were so hot they felt like they were going to explode. If this was a confession, shouldn’t it be sweet and exciting? Why was she so embarrassed?

“Look at me, Seria.”

“Do I have to talk to you face to face in this situation?”

“Show me, please.”

“Why are you saying that again….”

This time, Lesche grabbed Seria’s hands and pulled them down.

Seria’s head, which had been lowered so low, rose. She slowly made eye contact with him. At the same time, her eyes started to shake a little.

Because Lesche’s face was red. He was just like her, whose face turned red when her heart was revealed to the one she loved.

Both eyes fixed on him were shaking like her heart. She was completely lost for words.

Why does he look at her like this?

“Is there a man in this world who would want to hear those words more than I do?”

“What?”

“Seria.”

It was a feeling that she was unsure of, and so she traced it sadly to its roots. It began to invade her heart like water seeping into it. Her heart, which had been running madly, slowly rose as her eyelashes trembled.

“I love you.”

“…….”

“I think I’ve always…….. Tsk, Seria.”

Lesche caught Seria’s hand and placed it on his chest. The overwhelming beating heart felt like a witness to all this confession.

“I don’t know how I’ve endured what I wanted to say.”

He kissed Seria gently on the cheek.

“I love you, Seria.”

It felt like someone was engraving a letter on her heart. It was so sweet and weirdly numb that she felt like she was going to stop breathing.

“…Are you not going to tell me?”

Somehow, Lesche’s voice seemed uncharacteristically nervous. Even that reaction was like the sincerity he was showing her…

“Lesche…..”

A locked voice came out. She hugged Lesche’s neck in her arms and asked slowly.

“Is it okay to say I love you?”

Lesche gently stroked her hair.

“Will you believe me if I say I’m desperate?”

“I love you.”

At that moment, Lesche’s arms, which had been wrapped around Seria, tightened. She didn’t feel suffocated at all even though she was weighed down in his arms. Strangely, she didn’t know why she felt like crying.

“You’re right.”

Every time she blinked, her eyes became wet.

“How did you hold back what you wanted to say?”

“…….”

“I love you, Lesche.”

She once thought of that. Every time she heard certain words from Lesche, a sapling seemed to bloom in her heart. Now she understood. Before she knew it, her mind was full of greenery.

Lesche released his arms. With his face still red, he frowned slightly at his forehead. He brushed Seria’s eyes with his fingertips. It was a touch that made her feel ticklish. When she laughed because it tickled, Lesche also smiled lightly.

“People will never know you’re this cute.”

“Cute? What are you talking about?”

“You cry and laugh a lot.”

“……?”

“It’s better to be cute only to me. Stay cold on the outside.”

Seria frowned with her watery eyes.

“You know you were like Susan and Ben just now, right?”

“Why, would you also say I was like your knight?”

“Bibi’s frank?”

Lesche chuckled. Seria raised her eyebrows.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I think you really think that.”

“Of course I do.”

“Then I must think so too.”

Lesche’s smiling face lowered to Seria’s. His kiss was warm. When Lesche lifted his head a little, he whispered words that made her heart race.

“I love you, Seria.”

***

Abigail was walking to her bedroom. Linon saw her and thought, ‘She seems more content than usual, what’s wrong?’ 

But when he saw the priests loitering irritably in front of Seria’s room, he immediately adjusted his gait.

The atmosphere was so strange that he could see it at a glance.

A priest recognized Abigail and rushed over.

“Sir Abigail Orrin! Where is Seria Stern?”

“What’s the matter?”

“She must leave immediately!”

***

Duke Howard was nervously pacing his study.

“…Jun, have you gone mad?”

Duke Howard was very quick to learn that Prince Jun had disappeared. It was because Queen Ekizel had asked for help.

Her complexion turned blue and she let people go. How many days have passed since then? Surprisingly, Prince Jun visited Duke Howard secretly.

Naturally, Duke Howard jumped. He asked the Prince to go back to the Imperial Palace now, but Prince Jun refused. Then, shockingly, the Prince didn’t look normal.

It was not simply a level of contamination of Magi.

Blood vessels were black and bulging around his left chest. The heart, protruding in the center in a reddish-black color, looked like something out of a nightmare.

“What the… What the hell is this…?”

Duke Howard had never seen something like that before. And if the Prince was that tainted, he would have fainted, let alone walked around…..

With such a bizarre look on his face, Prince Jun opened his mouth.

“The temple is chasing me. I will die.”

“……!”

“But the Saintess is on my side. Even though she’s a fake… a fake that will become real. …. Then my wish to become emperor will not be difficult.”

It was hard to believe that the eyes that flashed around belonged to a human. If the Prince was taken to the Great Temple, he was likely to be executed immediately.

Duke Howard used his hand. In order to confuse the High Temple’s pursuit team, he deliberately and covertly provided false information. False information spread. As a result, the pursuit teams headed in the opposite direction of Prince Jun.

Duke Howard helped Prince Jun in this way, but he was very concerned about where he was going.

‘Why to the northern border….?’

No matter how much he pondered, he felt guilty.

”No good.”

He thought he should call back his henchman whom he had sent out to help Prince Jun. It was at that moment that Duke Howard walked irritably toward the door.

“Please don’t do this ….Knight……!”

The butler’s voice, who seemed to be at a loss, could be heard from outside, and at the same time, the door broke down as it was.

Slam!

Duke Howard’s eyes widened when he saw the butler was thrown to the door with one kick. There was no way he didn’t recognize who the knight was. Berg’s knight commander, Alliot. He was the knight he tried to covet desperately.

He (Howard) didn’t even have time to ask what the heck this was.

A ferocious man walked into the study afterwards ….

“His Highness the Grand Duke of Berg. Ahhh…!”

“My Lord!”

Duke Howard was grabbed by the chest. He was struggling for breath. However, there was an overwhelming difference in strength, so it was impossible to shake it off.

Lesche Berg’s eyes glowed with murderous intent.

“Thank you for shoving my duty to protect the glacier to the floor. Duke Howard.”

“Ha, what do you mean….?”

“Half of the northern boundary began to collapse.”

Duke Howard’s eyes couldn’t get any bigger.

‘Jun…!’

At the same time, a body was thrown from the floor. Duke Howard was about to faint.

The body belonged to the henchman the Duke had sent to help Prince Jun. He was so stained with magi that he died without closing his eyes.

“Did you send the magi-contaminated child to the boundary?”

Duke Howard began to shudder. Lesche threw him to the floor with a merciless hand.

“Ugh….”

“Duke Howard.”

Lesche’s voice was horrific, shaking with cold fury.

“Tell me exactly where the damn prince bastard went. Or I’ll chop your head off.”

“……!”

***

Please support to save ROS. Your help is desperately needed.