CH 55

Self-Awareness and Secrets (11)

Countless wolves had been lying flat in front of Kergel as if they were obeying him and at the same time, they raised their heads and cried out towards the sky.

Then, they scattered themselves into different directions as if they had understood his orders. One group was heading towards the collapsed bridge, another group was already towards the upper stream of the flooded brook and the other group was moving towards the back of the village.

…She just couldn’t believe it, but all of this was a vivid reality.

“…What is this?”

Roelin spoke belatedly. However, she could not easily express the confusion that she was feeling.

She couldn’t say anything hastily and moreover, she didn’t have the courage to do so.

She felt like she had gotten a glimpse of a big secret that she never knew about.

So…

“Roe—no, Erita.”

At that moment, Kergel looked back at her. And her twin sister’s name eventually came out of his mouth.

She trembled slightly like a person who just woke up from a dream. Perhaps he had misunderstood that tremor, Kergel narrowed his forehead and slowly approached Roelin.

“We should avoid here first. It must be cold and hard, but hang in there.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Roelin could barely open her mouth and answered. Then, Kergel looked dejected for a moment and soon reached out to her.

“I’m sure there’s a lot that you want to ask… but save it for later.”

He closed his mouth tightly as if he was holding back something and added in a low voice.

“I’ll tell you when the time comes.”

When she could finally endure all these stories. When she wouldn’t feel repulsed that he was not an ordinary human man, but someone who was with a werewolf’s blood flowing inside of him.

Kergel pushed the words that he couldn’t bring out of his mouth deep into his own throat.

He thought that maybe this moment was an opportunity for him to truly talk about himself.

If he couldn’t hide it forever anyway, then one day, if she finally knew, he might as well confide in her when she was in a situation where he could actually talk like this.

However, Kergel thought of that way only with his head, but chose silence instead.

Even though he knew it was just a grace period for the time being, which could never be indefinite, he still couldn’t help it.

“Please do so, Your Majesty.”

Roelin stared at Kergel’s hand and carefully held it while she repeatedly answered in a small voice.

She thought back for a moment that she had forgotten about the name ‘Erita’ from Kergel’s mouth.

A wolf.

‘The wolf that appeared during the companion ceremony.’

A wolf that was encountered in historical books or ancient paintings where the story of the founding founder had been recorded.

A wolf who appeared in front of her during the hunting competition and acted as if he understood what she was saying.

……And this guy who seemed to be leading those very wolves.

In fact, everything that happened now was rather incomprehensible with her common sense.

Therefore, as he had said, there were actually many things which she wanted to ask. Nevertheless, Roelin didn’t ask any questions at all.

It was also because of his words that he would later tell her when the time came, but on the other hand, she wanted to close her ears on her own as well.

Roelin’s fingertips that were holding on to his hand trembled faintly.

‘Let’s not force ourselves to understand what’s truly hard to understand.’

She muttered to herself like that. She couldn’t handle it just by knowing how she had felt about him. So, she couldn’t afford to care more about anything else too.

After Roelin shook her head and threw off her complicated mind, she took a step as he led her.

“It’s raining so much…”

Kergel grabbed Roelin’s hand that emerged right in front of the door as he looked up at the sky and frowned. Then, he turned his eyes and gazed at Roelin. Even though she had even put on his outerwear, she still looked pale as if she was utterly cold.

‘I can’t be dragging on any more time. The flood may soon come into this place too.’

He had already ordered the wolves, but he still couldn’t afford to relax. Kergel nodded and organized his thoughts before he immediately doffed his top.

“Oh! What are you doing right now…”

Roelin was looking outside when she turned to him and freaked out before covering her eyes with both of her hands. However, as Kergel embraced Roelin, she became even more frightened and had no other choice but to put down her hands that had been covering her eyes.

“Your Majesty! Get off—huh?”

Roelin couldn’t finish asking him to get off as she was struggling in embarrassment. It was because of the fact that she could no longer see anything since it was suddenly dark in front of her.

“What happened?”

She flailed her arms and Kergel’s voice was finally heard from the top of her head.

“Stay still. It’s because I think you need to do this to get less rain on. You must feel uncomfortable wearing other people’s clothes, but still, endure it for now.”

“Ah…”

Roelin shook her arms and relaxed her words then. Her heart, which was pounding with surprise, gradually began to calm down as well. And as her confused mind was organized, she was eventually able to realize what he just had said.

She was aware… And it was dark right in front of her as of now…

Fiery.

She shrank her shoulders while feeling that her face was already burning. She wondered why he would suddenly take off his top a little while ago and he seemed to have tried to put it on her head as well.

It was not enough to wear the outerwear that he had worn, but she was even wearing his top too.

Roelin thought it was rather fortunate that he couldn’t see her right now because she was all covered with his own clothes.

Just like that, he moved somewhere with her in his arms. In the meantime, Kergel’s clothes, which she was wearing while covering her head, were already soaked in the rain and therefore lost their role, but fortunately, she did not feel that cold.