Chapter 88: Chapter 87

Episode 87

Translator : Missme

Editor : Aru

“Lydia.”

Ash quietly spoke the name of the other person who had fallen asleep.

There was no answer, but that alone was enough.

Only then did he know what patience he had been having. And where did that sensation like thirst come from?

Red hair flowed gently down the crevice of his finger. Ash grasped it firmly so that it wouldn’t get out and kissed it again.

He laughed.

It was this, what he was craving for.

The word family became a hard shackle, suppressed, endured, and ignored unconsciously.

A proud satisfaction rose and filled his chest.

Joy and peace came at the same time as a man who finally found what he had long hoped for.

Memories came to mind, and then he realized. Ash no longer had the intention of denying this feeling, nor did he have the will to endure it.

‘Hi, Ash.’

A long time ago. At one distant moment, there was a woman who invaded Ash’s world. And as time went by, the woman naturally became his world, as was originally set.

The sun shone through the crack in the carriage window.

The tightly closed eyelids flinched for a moment as if the sun were on edge and then calmed down again.

Ash laughed as he caught the scene in his eyes. He smiled so softly that he wondered if he knew it.

Chapter 7. Apel Forest

I had a dream.

As intended, I escaped from the mansion and ran away desperately, but in the end, it was a dream of being caught by Ash on the way without much going.

Even the secret of birth was revealed in the process.

But from the next time, the development of the dream was somewhat strange. Ash knew the secret of my birth and didn’t kill me.

Far from that, he looked at me with a more affectionate eye and embraced me with a tender touch.

Then in a soft voice, he whispered to me, “Get some rest,” and I fell asleep just like that.…….

“……..”

I opened my eyes.

A familiar ceiling was seen. And right after that, I could hear a familiar voice.

“Lady!”

“……Bessie?”

I blinked my eyes and soon got up. I felt dizzy for a moment because I suddenly moved, but it got better.

‘This is……’

It’s my room. I opened my eyes in my bed.

I looked around. Bessie wasn’t the only one keeping her place.

“Alex, butler…… Sir Davery.”

After checking out the faces that added to my subtle guilt, I looked at Bessie again. She opened her mouth with tears.

“Why did you do that?”

“Huh?”

“Why did you leave the mansion? And with that outfit.”

I looked unconsciously down at Bessie’s words. An indoor white dress with no exposure came into view.

“What you’re wearing now, of course, is what I’ve changed for you!”

“……what was I wearing?”

“You mean that? Where on earth did you get those men’s clothes from?”

……Ah.

‘It wasn’t a dream.’

I slipped my right ankle into the blanket.

The pain was immediately felt from the ankle, which was hard to move as if a bandage had been wrapped.

‘It’s not a dream.’

True. The fact that I fled the mansion and went into the northern forest and struggled was all true.

“Then………and then?”

“And those clothes are crumpled and messed up here and there like you were rolled in a forest somewhere…… do you know how worried I was?”

Bessie’s tearful voice brought me back to my senses.

I saw her and then the butler, Alex, and Sir Darberry in turn.

The three didn’t say anything, but their expressions were all similar. Bessie’s just speaking as a representative, so they all feel the same way.

I opened my mouth heavily.

“……sorry.”

“Why did you really do that?”

“……sorry.”

“You don’t know how much I’m afraid you’ll face some danger outside, regardless of everything else……..”

“I was wrong.”

In the end, I hugged Bessie, who couldn’t keep up. I had nothing to say to these people. I knew how selfish my choice was to them. I knew that if I disappeared like that, they would definitely be this sad and worried, but even though I knew it, I thought only of myself right away.

It was more important than anything else to avoid my unhappiness, which was just scary and frightening.

The sorriest and heartbreaking thing is that if I lose my memory and get in the same situation, I will make the same choice again.

“I’m so sorry.”

I muttered a small murmur with sincerity.

It was a small sound, so I’m sure it wouldn’t be heard. But everyone except me was doing nothing.

Bessie soon warmed up from my embrace. As she curled her cheek with the back of her hand, Alex was seen putting out his handkerchief as if he had waited.

“There’s a lot of stories to tell and stories to hear, but I’ll concede for a moment.”

“Concede?”

“Because there is a person you need to share a lot before us.”

Soon I knew what Bessy was talking about. I could see a face that made my heart drop behind her, who rose from his seat.

“Come on, we’ll get out. We’ll just leave you two alone.”

Bessie was quick in action. She left the room in a flash with all the people here.

I heard the door shut. Ash, who was standing near the door, moved slowly this way.

My heart throbbed.

I grabbed a blanket that caught my hand without realizing it.

‘How far… how far is not a dream?’

It is certainly true that I had suffered from encountering a group of forest thieves by looking at the condition of my ankles.

Now that I’m back in the mansion, I think it’s true that I was captured by a member of the Dark Knights.

But after that?

And then what happened to me…..isn’t it all a dream?

“Are you all right?”

I flinched and raised my head. Ash was sitting in bed. The sound of the heart becomes clearer due to his close face.

It sounded louder in the midst of silence. I let my hair down and opened my mouth.

“……what?”

“Ankle, doesn’t it hurt?”

I glanced at my feet. Pulling up the quilt revealed the right ankle wrapped in a bandage, as I had guessed.

“…….Yes, it’s okay.”

It wasn’t empty talk. Compared to before, the pain in the ankle was significantly reduced. It stings a little when I move, but this was tolerable.

I wiggle my exposed toes.

Soon the quilt was lowered back and covered.

Ash’s quiet gaze that stayed on my bare feet made me feel ashamed for no reason.

“That’s relieved then.”

Perhaps in a mood, Ash’s eyes stayed a little longer at my feet and then came back.

“How are you feeling? Besides your ankles, don’t you feel uncomfortable anywhere else?”

“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine.”

Rather, the whole body was refreshed whether I slept well. The fever that I felt before I fell asleep was no longer there.

I jokingly thought the Doctor would have had some trouble while I was asleep, but I stopped.

Anyway, I wasn’t very proud of this situation where I was caught secretly trying to escape from the mansion.

Well, it’s a little bit too much for a joke, too.

I fidgeted the bedsheets like I had nothing to do. Silence sank in the room.

I felt awkward by myself, so I picked up the gaze that I had put down obliquely, and met Ash’s gaze.

Ash was staring at me silently without saying anything.

The calm eyes shook my heart at the moment.

My heart beat faster. I stopped bothering the bedsheet without meaning and thought.

‘Was it a dream?’

I wasn’t sure how far my memories were real and where they were fictitious.

At first glance, it was clear that everything seemed to be real, but at the same time, I wondered if it was an illusion created by my earnest wish.

After a long pause, I finally broke the silence first. It took courage enough until the fingernails penetrate the skin into the rolled hand.

“Ash, I…”

I took a breather because of my nervousness.

“Am I still your sister?”

I wondered if it was a proper question, but it was too late.

In fact, my mind was quite complicated. The questions I wanted to ask were quite long in writing.

Is it true that I’ve met him in the forest, it’s not a mere dream or fantasies, or did he already know that I’m an adoptee? Was he sure he’s treating me like this even though he knows that I’m not his sister?

I tried to condense the long question into a sentence and suddenly that sound popped out.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Whether it’s appropriate or not, the word has already been said. I waited for an answer with a thumping heart.

Perhaps because of the tension, I felt nauseous. The sound of my heart was so loud that I felt a headache.

Then Ash reached out to me.

At the moment, my shoulders shrunk secretly as I recalled some memories in the past.

But Ash’s hand never grabbed my neck.

Instead, Ash gently grabbed my hand and took it to him.

It was such a friendly and careful touch that I didn’t even think about resisting.

I watched Ash’s behaviour in a daze.

Soon after, I was surprised. Because Ash kissed me on the back of my hand.

The time seemed to stop briefly. All nerves were immediately turned to one place.

Ash then slowly opened his mouth.

“No.”