Chapter 91
Chapter 91
How should I put it.
That rather motherly vibe she'd shown when she verbally beat the crown prince down in front of the magic department lab just now.
No, calling it motherly even for her was a bit much, so let's say it was more of a cool, big-sister-like smile.
I was feeling it in my bones all over again: this woman named Elysia could smile just as harmlessly and adorably as Lily.
'What is this? Why did she suddenly become this lovely?'
The vicious, obsessively deranged villainess from the original story was nowhere to be seen.
All that remained was a face as clear and pure as a girl in love for the first time.
Oops.
Get a grip.
What kind of sappy nonsense am I spouting right now?
I hurriedly clutched at my wavering reason and cleared my throat.
"Ahem. You don't need to ask."
"Yes. Then I'll refrain from asking."
Elysia smiled faintly and started walking again, matching my stride.
"I'm just so happy... so glad that you came here to find me."
"...."
What on earth was making her so happy today?
It was the day she'd witnessed the prince's infidelity, the same prince she had clung to her whole life.
Shouldn't she be depressed or upset?
But I didn't particularly want to blurt out such tactless snark.
I knew all too well from the novel that this woman had had so much in life as the duke's legitimate daughter, and yet...
she'd lived a life in which she'd never once been truly loved or happy—something I knew all too well from reading the novel.
Whatever the reason, if she'd smile at me this brightly right now...
I figured I could at least stay quiet and let her be.
That's how human hearts are.
I silently walked through the night garden in step with Elysia.
But as I walked, my gaze kept drifting to one place.
The sight of Elysia's white shoulders subtly shrinking against the night breeze.
With her light, springy steps—if I exaggerated wildly—she looked even colder for how she practically skipped along.
I stopped in my tracks.
"Just a moment."
"Yes?"
Elysia turned her head and looked at me.
A cute question mark seemed written all over her round face.
I firmly suppressed the useless sentiment bubbling up inside me—that expression was ridiculously adorable.
I untied the strap of the dull cloak I was wearing.
Swish.
"You look cold. It may not look like it, but this is a clean item, so at least wear this."
I took off the cloak and held it out to Elysia.
Even if it was just a cheap disguise cloak, it would be a hundred times better than facing the night wind in only a thin dress.
But then.
"...."
Elysia didn't take the cloak I offered.
She looked back and forth between the worn cloak in my hand and my eyes.
And then...
With a sweet smile on her lips, she stepped a little closer to me.
"Will you wrap it around me yourself?"
"...Pardon?"
My hand froze in midair.
Elysia clasped her hands neatly together and whispered with a beautiful eye smile.
"Is it burdensome?"
"...."
Damn it.
I'm losing my mind, seriously.
Why isn't she doing her usual teasing little pranks that get on my nerves today?
Because this wasn't her usual prickly, mischievous attitude.
And because the woman in front of me looked so genuinely, unbearably adorable that I couldn't possibly refuse.
I had no excuse or reason to push her away.
And I'd also decided today was the day I'd help keep her from going dark.
'Hmm.'
No, that's not it.
Let's cut the cringe nonsense and be honest with myself.
I just wanted to give that eye-smile whatever she wanted.
'I'm really in trouble.'
The fox had me twisted around its paw.
"....No, not at all."
I answered briefly and cautiously stepped closer to Elysia.
The distance between us shrank in an instant.
Flap.
I spread the cloak wide with both hands and carefully draped it over her small shoulders.
Every time my hands brushed near Elysia's nape to fasten the cloak.
A very sweet, luxurious rose scent from her body filled my breath.
'Wow.'
She was too close.
The heady scent—I couldn't tell if it was shampoo or perfume—hit me all at once, making my head spin.
"...."
I glanced down at Elysia's face as I tied the cloak string into a knot.
Her pale cheeks and the tips of her ears were burning bright red.
Not from the cold, but flushed as if fevered, and it was terribly adorable.
Honestly, she's insanely beautiful.
"Thank you."
Elysia looked up at me with a flushed face and smiled shyly.
Only I was reflected so clearly in her eyes.
"The cloak's a little big, so it'll drag. Be careful not to step on it and fall."
Damn it.
Even I think that line is stupid as hell, seriously.
But...
"Yes. I will."
Even after my embarrassingly old-fashioned line, Elysia smiled again as if genuinely thrilled.
Ah.
This is bad.
My heart started going absolutely wild inside my chest.
* * *
Tap, tap.
A walk with our steps matching side by side.
But my nerves wouldn't settle at all.
'A threat to my life?'
Honestly, I didn't know about anything that grand.
It's just that Elysia, walking beside me in my cloak...
had suddenly started to feel insanely, crazily attractive, to the point my heart felt like it might burst.
'Ah, so it really is a threat to my life.'
Come to think of it, that wasn't wrong.
Because I was feeling my heart pound and flutter this much over the crown prince's fiancée, who would become the empire's next ruler.
If I got caught, it was a free express trip to the guillotine for treason.
I'm really screwed.
"Cassian."
"...Yes, my lady."
"Just around this corner."
Elysia slowed her steps a little and looked at me.
Her red lips curved into a very pretty smile.
"I can say with certainty that it'll unfold into such a truly beautiful nightscape that even calling it one of the finest in the entire continent wouldn't feel out of place."
I knew what she meant.
I'd never seen it with my own eyes, but I'd definitely read about it in text in the original novel.
The mysterious secret place the Rosenberg ducal house boasts about in the original novel.
"Do you happen to know it?"
Elysia asked, her eyes curving smoothly.
I opened my mouth reflexively.
"I don't really know it."
"Is that so?"
"Since I've never seen it."
Huh.
Why?
Why wasn't I, like usual, saying, 'Mm, you could say I know it,' and putting on a sly show of being in the know?
Without realizing it, I was somehow going along with the consideration she'd shown by not asking how I knew to come here.
"Heh."
Elysia cheerfully brushed off my shameless lie, even though I'd clearly known the place existed and was pretending not to know about its beauty.
"That's right. This is a special place you can't claim to know unless you've seen it with your own eyes."
Even when I explain it in the most garbage way possible, she accepts it perfectly.
I'm dying of embarrassment, seriously.
And just as we turned the dark corner side by side,
"Flash────."
An unbelievably beautiful, dazzling galaxy flooded my vision and spilled down before me.
"Wow."
Without realizing it, I let out an exclamation.
"Welcome."
Elysia lightly spread her arms and spun around like a fairy in the night sky.
"This is Star Tree Forest."
Literally.
The great trees stretching endlessly to the edge of sight each shimmered softly, as if transparent jewels had been set into their leaves.
It was a place that looked as if tens of thousands of stars had fallen to the ground.
It was such an unreal sight that it wouldn't have been strange to call it a real galaxy brought to life in a forest.
"Since you're here..."
Elysia asked carefully, clasping her hands behind her back.
"Would you like to look around a little more with me?"
"...."
I couldn't bring myself to say no.
Because her big red eyes might as well have had 'Please say yes' written all over them.
Normally I'd have coolly brushed her off with, 'Why would I? That's a pain.'
Today, though...
For some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to answer in a way that went against what she wanted.
In the end, the answer that came out of my mouth had been decided from the start.
"Yes. Please."
Just for today.
Only today.
I repeated it to myself countless times and tried to rationalize it.
Today this woman had given me a huge hand by coolly driving the crown prince off in front of my private lab.
And at the same time, today was the day she'd cut away, with her own hand, the relationship she'd believed in her whole life, so she had to be hurting a great deal.
'I'm just going to give in and indulge her for one single day.'
I gave myself that excuse and started walking side by side with Elysia, matching her steps.
Rustle, rustle.
Whenever the shining leaves brushed the wind, they made the sound of tinkling glass beads.
"I'm glad."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought you'd brush me off coldly, saying you were busy or tired."
"No matter how much I hate hassle, I'm not such an unromantic bastard that I'd turn away from a sight like this just because I'm busy."
Bullshit.
Honestly, the most beautiful thing in the world is a freshly washed blanket on a clean bed.
The height of romance is pulling a fragrant blanket over your head and dreaming of farming in a field filled with the smell of earth.
"Heh-heh. That's a very reassuring thing to hear."
Elysia smiled with her eyes and gathered the hem of my cloak with both hands.
On me, it was a cloak that looked like something a back-alley vagrant would wear, but on this tall, slender woman, it made her look like an elf princess from an adventure movie.
"This cloak is warmer than I expected."
"It was cheap market junk, so it should just be heavy. Wouldn't it be better if you went inside quickly?"
"No. I really like it."
Elysia murmured softly, burying her nose in the cloak collar.
"It smells comforting, too."
"....?"
My step slipped and I stumbled.
I could feel the heat rushing straight to my face.
No, what was that blatant line this lady just said?
Is she insane?
It's not like she'd taken some kind of blush-inducing medicine for my sake, so why the hell was she acting like this?
"Um... my lady."
"Yes?"
"Even so, men and women are different."
"Oh my."
Elysia grinned mischievously, her eyes curving into crescents.
"Heh-heh."
"You're teasing me, aren't you?"
"Caught me?"
"It's all over your face."
We traded such pointless jokes and slowly walked deeper toward the deepest part of the sparkling Star Tree Forest path.
As if only the two of us were left in this world, the forest's peaceful air drifted between us.
"Are those trees imbued with mana?"
As I pointed at the glowing leaves and asked, Elysia nodded.
"Yes. During the day they soak up sunlight, and at night the leaves give off light like this. Beautiful, isn't it?"
Beautiful.
It would be even more beautiful in her eyes.
This forest.
It was a meaningful legacy, with the touch of the mother who had spent her whole life tending it woven into every corner.
I turned my head.
Elysia's face, lit by that soft glow, came into view.
Was it because I knew the secret of this place?
For some reason, even though she'd clearly seen this sight countless times, her gaze looked somewhere wistful.