Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Unfortunately for Leonhard, night came quickly.

He tried to get some sleep to conserve his stamina but failed. It was because when he closed his eyes, he remembered the afterimage of Celine being torn apart in his arms.

“….”

He had already stayed up all night, so now he would be staying up two nights.

‘It’s like… the old times.’

He laughed as he recalled that he once was not able to sleep for over a month due to nightmares before Leonhard went to find Celine.

‘It’s been like that for over a month… Two days is nothing.’

Moreover, at that time, wasn’t it a nightmare that he didn’t even know why he was having it? He was able to endure it this time.

The problem was Celine wouldn’t accept that fact.

Leonhard knew, at least in this matter, that she would not back down from stubbornness.

‘…She’ll forcefully push herself in.’

Things were different now. Celine wouldn’t go back even if he went away or locked the door. If he left the hotel, she would come after him, and even if he locked the door…

‘She’ll break it.’

Leonhard sighed.

Perhaps Celine didn’t understand why he rejected her out of the blue. Because by now, he’d been using her so well.

‘…She wasn’t receptive in the first place.’

He didn’t know her very well when Celine first told her that she would pass the night with him. While he only thought she was a warlock, she was actually a woman who was under an unfortunate curse… that simple fact was all he knew of her.

Leonhardt closed his eyes tightly.

When he first got separated from Celine, he remembered the ugliness he had shown her after she came back.

‘Even in the South… Ah.’

Heat rose again on his face.

By now, it’d been three months since he met Celine Hunt. It was only then that Leonhard Bernoulli recognized how his actions would be seen by others.

‘What have you been up to, Leonhardt Bernoulli…’

Maybe others already thought she was his woman.

As he thought so, Leonhard pressed his forehead with his rough right hand.

‘Such nonsense…’

This was a matter that had a lot to do with Celine’s future. Now, because of the curse, she wouldn’t even dare to do that, but one day she too would want to marry another man. It was clear that trouble would arise if rumors spread that he was the woman of Leonhard Bernoulli.

Leonhard gulped.

It was only natural that Celine hadn’t noticed this all along since she grew up with a bizarre lack of proper education from her childhood.

Still, she should have noticed.

‘Ah…’

He groaned inside.

It had never been so strange that the servants in his residence looked at it meaningfully whenever she spent her time with him. What about the reaction of the Baron’s maid in the south? The Crown Prince’s ridicule over his relationship with Celine no longer felt like a mere check.

‘If I go back to the north, I’ll have to deal with it properly.’

Leonhard muttered, unable to think of the right way as he buried his face in his rough hands. He had never built such a close relationship with anyone before. So, he missed the obvious signs.

‘How should I explain…’

He knew Celine quite well. He was sure she’d say it wouldn’t matter.

Leonhard gulped. He’d better get some sleep now, but the more he went on, the more his mind became distraught.

‘…Let’s talk about it now.’

Thinking so, he rose slowly from the bed.

If he waited until night, he wouldn’t be able to overcome her reckless intrusion. He walked over to Celine’s bedroom and knocked on her door three times.

No answer came.

‘Is she sleeping…?’

Leonhard opened the door, knowing now that he shouldn’t.

In front of him, Celine was sleeping, oblivious to the world, as she curled up on a huge bed. He couldn’t stop his lips from curling. Washed clean of all blood and mud, she looked like a normal woman who hadn’t gone through any of the hard and scary events she had been through.

‘If the curse is lifted, that will be so.’

He imagined her life when the curse was lifted.

She, Celine, a noble sorceress and the northern guest, living a comfortable and prosperous life and building a happy family…

‘….’

Obviously, just thinking about it made him smile and he should have been happy. Still, he felt his mood gradually sink.

He wasn’t stupid enough not to know why.

‘…What are you thinking? You stupid man.’

Leonhard laughed bitterly. The person who would capture Celine’s heart and be with her all her life would never be him. He himself, one day, as the lord of the North, would bless her children and grandchildren.

He stared down at Celine, who was fast asleep.

‘…Rather, it would have been better if I had died.’

He frowned at the sudden thought.

This wasn’t the first time this thought had occurred to him. Nonetheless, he dismissed these thoughts as impulses for no reason.

Because Leonhard Bernoulli should never die.

Before his life ended, he had to cut down just one more warlock and monster…

However, in front of Celine, that obvious fact felt like a meaningless fantasy. Where his own absence made it feel like nothing in front of her, no matter how many people lost their lives at the hands of the warlock.

Leonhard gulped again.

All these thoughts were thoughts he should not have dared to have, and he had only recently found the source of these thoughts.

“Um…”

Leonhard, startled by Celine’s drowsy talk, stepped back, tripping on the chair and falling back.

“Leonhard?”

Celine, who had just woken up from her slumber, called him with a startled face.

“Did something happen?

“…No.”

“You came into my room without something happening?”

Leonhard sighed inside. Celine had an overly sharp side.

“I will spend the night alone.”

“….”

Instead of answering him, Celine crossed her arms and glared at Leonhardt.

“Of course, I will be worried, but now I can survive on my own. First of all, I know you’re safe… It will be a little easier.”

“Leonhard, isn’t it easy for me to say alright, send Leonhard out, and go to sleep peacefully?”

“But at night, things are different.”

“Yes.”

Celine nodded her head.

“Are you going to lock the door? I’ll break it, and Leonhard will have to pay for the repairs.”

“If I go out…”

“I will follow you to the end of the world.”

Ironically, the more he listened to Celine’s retort, the more his heart began to rise with a strange joy.

Of course, it was subdued by his sane mind. Leonhard decided to present the reason why he only realized today to Celine. If he explained slowly, she would understand, no matter how uneducated she grew up.

“Celine, I’m sorry to have to talk to you now…”

Leonhard slightly turned his head away from Celine’s staring gaze.

“We… seem to be under unnecessary misunderstandings. I’d rather not do anything that could cause such misunderstandings in the future. That’s why I’m going to endure tonight alone.”

Her answer came out as soon as his words were finished.

“You thought I didn’t know?”

“…What?”

A word filled with amazement escaped from Leonhard’s lips. Celine, in frustration, poured out rapid-fire words.

“Leonhard, do you remember the first time we went out on a mission? Ride the carriage bestowed by the Crown Prince.”

“How can I forget that day?”

His voice was grievous. It was because it was the first day she died because of his own arrogance and weakness.

“Do you remember what I said back then in the carriage? Not when you come back, but when you go.”

“….”

Even though he tried to recall the memories of that day when only regrets remained, the moment she said did not come to mind.

Celine chuckled.

“Leonhard said it, so if you listen to it, I’m sure you will remember it. It was said that this carriage was to take women, so that was why the Crown Prince dropped it off.”

“….”

He was speechless.

Celine was right.

“What have I… done?”

“I know. What have you done?”

Celine wholeheartedly agreed with him. She was so astounded that she could still remember Leonhard’s expression at the time.

‘It was a puzzled face as if asking what the problem was… wait.’

She frowned.

All the while, Leonhard acted more insensitively than any man she knew. She even thought at one point that he was treating her as ‘something cursed’ rather than as an ordinary woman.

Celine let out a sigh.

“And Leonhard, if you’re going to argue with me about trivial things like that, you shouldn’t come in when I’m sleeping.”

“….!”

He looked as if the cat got his tongue.

“…Yes, that’s right. I will leave now.”

“Wait.”

She stopped Leonhard.

“Anyway, from now on, me and Leonhard… you don’t want us to be misunderstood as a lover?”

Leonhard nodded his head vigorously enough to overdo it.

“Why?”

“….?”

“That, that…”

When he stuttered and couldn’t answer properly, Celine smiled like she was having a lot of fun.

“Think about it. Leonhard said he had no intention of getting married. For the rest of your life.”

“Yes, that’s right. But you…”

“I have no intention of getting married either.”

Celine sighed.

It would be different if she got out of this body and returned to reality, but she really had no intention of getting married in this world. What kind of modern person would want to give birth to a child in the middle ages?

“….!”

However, Leonhard, who couldn’t even guess Celine’s thoughts, was startled.

“Well, if being misunderstood like that is something you absolutely hate, I’ll think about it… but that’s not it, right?”

“….”

He barely nodded his head instead of answering.

Celine clapped her hands weakly.

“Then, that’s it! We don’t have to go to great lengths to put an end to misunderstandings that don’t matter to all of us anyway.”

“….”

At those words, Leonhard opened and closed his mouth to retort. With his now confused head, he couldn’t possibly refute Celine’s words.

The blue-gray eyes curved like half moons.

“Seeing that you’ve come to say such nonsensical things, I can’t seem to sleep. I’m hungry right now… Shall we have something to eat?”

Leonhard nodded his head. If Celine had offered to jump out of the window right now, he would have complied.

He felt it.

…Now he knew he couldn’t possibly refuse her request.

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