It took a long time for Chloe to snap out of her daze and realize what she had done.
The lingering warmth still remained on her lips. She knew that Alia and Yuna might be right outside the door at this very moment, but she didn’t care.
It was strange—why had she suddenly become like this?
The girl’s face was so red it looked as if it might drip blood, and her fingertips unconsciously brushed against her lips.
She had been enduring it the whole time before returning home… while watching him dance with Ophelia at the ball, while those bright-eyed girls approached him one after another… in every moment where he had to distract himself to deal with them… she had silently and forcefully pressed that dark, burning sensation—which was almost bursting out of its cage—back into the depths of her heart.
But just now, Chloe felt as if that supposedly resilient string called ‘reason’ had snapped without any warning.
Her body had acted before her thoughts could catch up. By the time she came to her senses, she had already kissed him.
Loran looked at her with eyes that resembled two deep pools of water. He raised his arm as if wanting to touch her face, but his fingertips stopped mid-air as Chloe straightened her back and dodged him.
The boy’s arm froze there for a moment before he quickly retracted it.
Seeing his slightly stiff expression, Chloe was briefly stunned, then she softly curled the corners of her mouth.
She wanted to tell him many things; she wanted to say more.
But… now didn’t seem to be the time.
Thinking back, before this boy currently beneath her had quietly appeared at that lonely castle in North Yankton, it seemed as if no one had ever cherished her quite like this.
Not Alia, not Yuna, not Thrudd, not even Ophelia… only he gave her a different feeling, unlike anyone else.
This made the girl feel both happy and terrified, fearing that once she lost this companionship, she would return to that cage of the past.
Whether it was when he returned late earlier, or when Ophelia invited him to dance at the ball today, that jealousy which erupted without warning and scorched her reason had nearly swallowed her whole.
She feared that one day she would be burned to ashes by these flames, and even more, she feared that these flames would scare him away and destroy everything she had worked so hard to gain.
Yet Chloe knew clearly that this kind of emotion was wrong.
She knew he was an independent person, but the tiny version of herself deep within still hoped that he could belong to her.
To her alone.
—Chloe, you really are a greedy person…
The girl closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm her thoughts.
The crackling of the fireplace became clearer, and the moonlight moved a few more inches across the carpet.
Chloe got off Loran, her movements seemingly a bit sluggish. Her toes even stumbled slightly when they hit the floor. She turned her back to him, her fingertips trembling as she straightened the skirt she had just disarranged herself.
Rustling sounds came from behind her; it was Loran sitting up from the sofa. Chloe could hear the boy’s breathing was somewhat more hurried and erratic than usual.
This was enough.
Chloe gently turned around.
A few strands of hair slid down the side of her face. The girl raised her hand and tucked those disobedient strands back behind her ear. Her jewel-like red eyes looked up, the depths of her pupils holding bits of moonlight flowing in from the window.
A flower-like smile graced her face.
“It’s getting late. You should rest early; we have to head out tomorrow.”
Her tone was gentle and natural, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred.
Loran nodded somewhat mechanically. Chloe had already turned and walked toward the living room door, her figure merging into the darkness of the hallway outside, as if swallowed by the night.
Sure enough, Alia and Yuna were standing in the hallway, though their postures were starkly different.
Yuna was still maintaining a posture as if she were eavesdropping, while Alia stood a few steps away, staring straight ahead at the wall without looking aside.
“Your… Your Highness?”
Yuna seemed to want to explain something, but Chloe didn’t look at her. The silver-haired girl walked straight past Yuna and finally stopped in front of Alia.
“Alia, tomorrow, I want to go for a stroll outside the city.”
Alia bowed slightly. “I understand, Your Highness. I will make the arrangements.”
Chloe nodded and said nothing more, turning to walk toward her bedroom. Alia followed silently behind her. It wasn’t until both their figures vanished into the depths of the corridor that half a head poked out from the living room doorway.
And then she ran right into Loran’s eyes, which were glaring fiercely at her.
Thus, she also scurried back to her own room in a flash.
***
Loran lay on the bed in his room, tossing and turning.
He had originally wanted to see if the little iron book the magic cube had turned into had updated any new magic after the prologue plot was completed.
But he couldn’t calm his mind.
Whenever he closed his eyes and tried to sink his consciousness deep within, the image of the girl leaning down toward him appeared in his mind. Her silver hair cascaded like a waterfall, gently brushing against his cheek, and her eyes were magnified in that close proximity, her clear pupils reflecting his momentarily blank face.
—It’s over, my brain is probably broken.
Loran opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, letting out a long sigh.
Forget it.
Better wrap up in the blanket and get a good night’s sleep; he still had to accompany Chloe out tomorrow.
***
In the dining room of the Blanche family, the chandelier cast a warm light over the long table. The fire in the hearth burned quietly, dispelling the slight chill of the capital’s winter night.
Ophelia sat at the dining table, focused intently on dealing with a piece of roasted lamb chop drizzled with black pepper sauce on her plate.
She ate quickly. The bowl of creamy mushroom soup beside her was already empty, and the small plate holding the salad was mostly gone.
Grand Duke Blanche, sitting at one end of the long table, stopped using his knife and fork. His gaze crossed his daughter’s plate several times. Then, using the motion of drinking, he questioned his wife sitting opposite him with his eyes.
“Another glass, please. Thank you.”
Ophelia pushed her empty glass toward the maid nearby.
“I feel quite good now, better than ever before, so Father doesn’t need to worry.”
Grand Duke Blanche put down his glass and looked at her. The haze and daze that had shrouded the girl’s face for the past few days had now vanished completely.
“I was overthinking things before. There are some matters that can never be solved just by brooding over them by yourself.”
Grand Duke Blanche’s expression became even stranger. He felt as though the daughter before him was somewhat unfamiliar.
“Father, Mother, I’m full.” Ophelia elegantly dabbed the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “Today’s Sacred Ceremony was truly exhausting; I’m going to rest now. Tomorrow, I want to go out for a stroll to change my mood.”
Only after the sound of his daughter’s footsteps had completely faded away did Grand Duke Blanche lower his voice to urgently ask his wife what exactly had happened at today’s ceremony. He had been summoned to the palace early this morning and only knew that there was another student in the Radiance Class at Artlas Academy.
The Duchess gestured for the nearby maids to withdraw for a moment. Once only the two of them remained in the dining room, she told the Grand Duke everything that had happened at today’s ceremony, which naturally included the part where Ophelia danced with Loran.
“Ophelia… she really said that?”
The Grand Duke seemed unable to believe it. In his understanding, his daughter was extremely prideful. Among her peers, there were very few she even deigned to look at properly. This didn’t sound like something Ophelia would say at all.
Looking at his wife’s certain gaze, Grand Duke Blanche fell silent.
After a long while, he slowly let out a breath and said:
“She has grown up, after all.”