Chapter 18: CH 17

Chapter 17

Translator: Yonnee

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“Your identity has been confirmed. You may go in.”

With the knight’s permission, Reina entered the gate.

Whoosh—

Accompanied by the sound of the wind and the smell of grass in the morning, the light fog from the lake touched my nose. Soon, the imperial palace came into view.

Her vision was overwhelmed by the outpour of magic light, but it stabilized as soon as she could see properly again, she ran straight towards the personnel department’s building.

The purpose of her errand was obviously her father.

But the moment she entered the palace, the version of Reina Chantra as Shim Cheong¹,  who had received the errand request as a good filial daughter, was erased right out of her head.

“I mean, if you don’t eat home-cooked meals for just a day or two, it’s not like you’ll die, right?”

Reina, on the other hand, might really die if she didn’t see Ethan now. She hadn’t seen him for over a week, so she was in danger of him forgetting her existence.

“And I might really get engaged to Lehman at this rate!”

Therefore, it was more important to meet Ethan than to deliver this food to her father!

Now, it’s been about half an hour ever since she started searching around with her eyes sparkling.

“My love!!”

And as she finally found her goal, Reina immediately shouted, as if she was about to leave the palace.

“MY! LOVE!”

Ethan eventually stopped because the greeting had come closer.

“My love!”

As the huffing, slightly shrill screams of the woman had reached him in no time, Ethan asked her.

“We’re in the Imperial Palace, but what are you doing.”

Forced to gulp down her heavy breaths, she let out a loud exhale as she swept her hair up. Then, she closed her eyes and said softly.

“I came out to have lunch at the palace garden because of its scenery, but then, oh my gosh? I ran into you, my love? We fatefully meet here again, so let’s have lunch together!”

“The dining hall is over there.”

“No no. What do you mean, dining hall? I brought a packed lunch that’s been made entirely of love.”

People might wonder whether this food was brought for her father, but why would anyone catch onto that?

“Ta-da!”

Reina exclaimed as she held out the lunch box that she received from her mother.

“I made this specially.”

And this is a mental note just in case anyone’s confused, but everything in the lunch box was made with special care by the Chantra family’s chef.

“You didn’t have lunch yet, did you? Not yet, right?”

At the persistent gaze directed at him, he tilted his head slightly to the side and stared down at the package.

“I just ate.”

“Right, so let’s eat togeth… huh?”

“I’m on my way back from eating lunch.”

“…Huh?”

Blinking quickly, she looked up at the clock up at the central tower.

“But it’s… 11 o’clock?”

“I have a tight schedule today, so I ate earlier when I had free time.”

“……”

No matter how tight someone’s schedule was, 11 o’clock was still too early.

“You’re lying.”

Reina denied it while puffing her cheeks, but Ethan was a magnanimous person who wouldn’t be able to refuse such whining.

“If you don’t have any other business with me, then I’ll be off.”

“H-Huh?”

Why are you turning around without even a shred of hesitation? Reina opened her mouth in a hurry and shouted.

“Then! Please take me to the Ministry of Education!”

She knew it’s pathetic, but this was all she could do right now. It’s not like she could embarrass herself even more at this point.

“You’ve already eaten, so I’ll give this to my father!”

Gentle reminder: this was her father’s food in the first place.

“And I’ll just go back home and eat all alone, by myself.”

As she pouted her lips, Ethan was reluctantly caught. There was an unreadable expression on his face—so in retaliation, Reina made an even pitiful expression.

“I feel lonely eating along these days, but… I guess it’s okay to eat alone, I mean…”

Was it because of her drooping shoulders and her sad expression?

Reina lowered her gaze and scraped the floor slightly with one foot, and seeing this, the man who was staring at her eventually let out a small sigh.

“…I still have time, so let’s go.”

“Oh.”

She didn’t know it was gonna work, but it did.

“Oh?”

“No, no. I’m so happy, my love.”

After having gotten her way this time, she quickly erased the pout on her lips and smiled.

“Shall we go then?”

‘Before you change your mind.’

She reached out to offer her hand first, but Ethan just stared at it wordlessly.

“Don’t just admire my hand. Take it, my love.”

When asked to do so, he closed his eyes, then opened them once more. He looked her straight in the eyes.

“I don’t believe this is a situation that requires you to be escorted.”

“Oh my. I guess you didn’t see, my love. I ran with all my heart to reach you, and my legs are now shaking and my hands are also trembling, see?”

If someone’s shaking that much from just a 100 meter sprint, then it’s to be suspected that she had a muscle affliction or something. Everyone knew it was just a ruse—he knew it, Reina knew it, even the bird passing overhead knew it.

In the end, Ethan let out a small smirk and held her hand. Even his hand was pretty, but unexpectedly, his large hand had rough calluses here and there.

‘But really, I think there’s been a lot of progress in our relationship now.’

She was being escorted by none other than the ‘Cerulean Freak’. And for someone like Ethan, who was an unbreakable wall that would last thousands of years despite numerous engagement offers, this was a big deal.

Convinced that her future was hopeful, the corners of Reina’s lips curled up.

“My love, by any chance…”

It’s said that temptation must come in the form of persistence so that it couldn’t be forgotten, so she loaded her ammunition to fire once more.

“Is Duke Liam secretly a thief?”

And the moment Reina said this, Ethan stopped in his tracks.

Seeing that his expression suddenly became serious in an instant, Reina quickly shot out the second part of the pick-up line. No, well, she was about to say it.

“How do you know?”

“I feel like the stars have been stolen right out of the sky because my love’s eyes are… What?”

¹ Shim Cheong is a young woman from the classical Korean novel ‘The Tale of Shim Cheong’ who throws herself into the sea of Indangsu as a sacrifice so that her blind father can regain his eyesight. Her filial piety helps her to be resurrected and become an empress, and her father’s blindness is cured.