Chapter 36: Chapter 36 Please don’t come to the evening concert (11)
As the two got carried with the sweet melody, they didn’t move for a while, just like the ivy vine wrapped around her body. While looking at each other’s face without saying anything for a while, she finally opened her mouth first.
“… It seems like this kind of thing happens often. ”
“… Nope, only second time.”
Schroder was kind enough to pinpoint the number of their meetings.
On a rainy day, he saved her from almost falling in front of her house.
Regardless of the eyes of the two, the vine coiling around her leg tightened to hold her weight. At that moment, she unfortunately saw the vines sprouting from the carpet beginning to crumble one by one. Surprised by the sudden movement of the vines, he inevitably supported her leaning forward, which made them almost touch each other.
He felt hot sweat oozing out of his nape. The feeling of his hand wrapping around her waist made her so embarrassed as if he touched her directly.
“Um. Sir Schroder, stop it. Would you please raise me up? ” Looking at his face, she barely spoke, “… Sir Schroder?”
But Lard was looking silently at her face, without showing any sign of stepping away from her. Even when she appealed again, he wasn’t swayed, just looking at her with his broad forehead, dark eyebrows and gray eyes like the winter night sky, the high ridge of his nose and tightly closed lips. There was some power reflected in his face that she could not resist.
The moment she turned her eyes away from him, she felt like she was like a broken ship that had lost its anchor. She spaced out. All she could do at the moment was to look up at his face in the dark.
All of a sudden, the moonlight outside the window suddenly shone into the room. When the man’s shadow covered her face, she fell into the illusion that his face was overlaid on hers. Amid their confusion, the violin melody constantly teased her ears, making her mind more dizzy.
He was staring at her as if looking into her grass-green eyes was the only way for him to quench his curiosity. If somebody ignited a flint on his dry eyes, it would have burned well inside.
Gulp.
She swallowed as if she wanted to quench her thirst. But it was an obvious mistake that she swallowed at that moment because his lips, as if it were a whistle sounding “Charge!”, were getting closer to her lips.She felt his hot breathing.
“…Sir Schroder! It looks like we were poisoned. We’re out of mind…”
She barely stuttered, trying to stop him. However, it was impossible to stop him who was already captivated by her soft lips. He would not stop even if he was severely punished for disobeying orders.
“Sir…?”
She squeezed his forearm urgently, feeling her heartbeat pounding hard. As it seemed impossible to ask for his help at the moment, she was determined to raise herself by herself. While she was struggling to straighten up, she unfortunately ended up bumping her lips against his.
“Ooops!”
At that moment, she felt like she experienced the mystery of the human body as if her heart expanded into dozens. She heard her heartbeat pounding like crazy in her ears, in her nape, around her chest, even fingers and toes.
‘Oh my god…the poison is spreading now!’
She shivered unconsciously, murmuring to herself.
As she was in a chaotic state of mind, perplexed by the situation she brought on herself, he was as much distracted as she. His dry lips felt hot. His upper lip felt burning when it bumped against hers, but her body temperature and touch were more intense. If that’s what she called ‘poison,’ it sounded like a deadly poison because it was something like terrible attraction.
He should have been wary of that from the beginning. Since he was already addicted to it, he might be able to recover it.
Feeling his eyes turning to her face unconsciously, he thought he wanted to feel the soft touch of her lips.
‘Is this also one of the symptoms of poisoning?’
He pondered over it for a minute. When he saw her embarrassed face, however, he realized shamefully that he was obsessed with pursuing his own desire at the moment.
He raised her cautiously but regretfully. He briefly wrestled with her when he reluctantly pulled his arm from around her waist. This might be another symptom of ‘poisoning’. In no time he was convinced of the existence of ‘poison’ that she mentioned before, although they interpreted the poison differently.
When she raised her body and shook her head, he again smelled the scent of
the dye from her hair, which made him stand on alert again. Without his belated alertness, he would have helplessly been humiliated by his uncontrollable actions before her.
“I think the air in this room is strange. I feel like we’re exposed to poison here…”
She began to talk gibberish. Although she fanatically fanned herself, she was obviously tense and embarrassed at the moment. Even if she did so by accident, she didn’t want to admit that she kissed this imperial knight.
“Sir Schroder, could you open that window?” She said, pointing to the window through which the bright moonlight was streaming in.
But he was staring at her face instead of walking to the window. Then he walked up to her and extended his arms to lift her quickly. She was dumbfounded at his unexpected actions.
“Oops! Sir, what are you doing now?!”
As if he couldn’t hear her screaming, he turned freely toward the sofa in the room.
While she was agonizing over how to defend herself, he gently dropped her on the couch.
“As you would feel uncomfortable with standing like that, just sit there and remove the remainder of the vines.”
It was certain that he did so in consideration of her legs.
When he was done, he, not forgetting her request, approached the window and opened the tightly closed window. Late at night, the cool air cut through his cheeks and blew into the room. She felt a bit relieved when exposed to the cool air.
Even though he was standing still, he heard something throbbing in his heart for the first time in his life. Actually, he had never felt it before he was knighted, became the chief of the 1st Knights Division or even when he defeated Sir Crechman, the best swordsman of the empire.
“Like you said, there’s a strange poison in this room.”
He breathed the cold wind deep into his heart. As the moonlight shone over his face like the sun glowing in midsummer, he stroke his cheeks shyly.
“Oh, I agree…I feel dizzy, my head is pounding, and I feel nauseated… Do you have any of these symptoms? ”
She stuttered several words that she herself felt rather embarrassed to say it. Her whole face turned red.
“…Exactly. I seem to be experiencing all those symptoms at once. ”
“It looks like you’re more sensitive to the poison than I am. I feel I am fine now. If you are exposed to some cold wind, you will feel better soon. ”
He giggled as she continued to preach about ‘poisoning.’ He knew a conversation like this was ridiculous, but nothing seemed more appropriate to explain his strange feeling.
However, he could not agree with her when she said he would feel fine if he were exposed to a cold breeze.
‘Will I really feel better?’ He stroked his cheeks once again.
“I hope you can forget what happened in this room. I mean things like my misunderstanding of the imperial knight a little while ago, this ivy, me slapping your face by mistake, oh, and accidentally bumping into you. Please forget it all after you leave the room.”
She said, carefully tearing off the ivy on the front of her dress. It seemed she felt so ashamed that she couldn’t raise her head. He did not raise any objection, although her description of her slapping his face or bumping into him by mistake was all wrong. From his point of view, it was a serious false statement as well as the fabrication of the fact.
When he kept silent, looking out the window, she suddenly raised her head towards him, “Sir Schroder, are you listening to me?”
“I’m listening.”
This time he replied timely. Upset about his vague attitude, she glared at him, “Anyway, I hope you forget about what happened today. You don’t have to blame that young imperial knight. I know you won’t, of course.”
He didn’t reply again.
“…By the way, I’m so sorry that you missed the concert because of me. If we go back as soon as I remove the vines, can we enjoy the end of the concert? The Crown Prince said he would check you out in the royal box. I’m afraid he will be angry if he doesn’t find you there.”
“Are you sure you just mentioned the Crown Prince?”