Chapter 18

꒦︶꒷‧₊★₊‧꒷︶꒷‧₊ଓ₊‧꒷︶꒷‧₊★₊‧꒷︶꒦

·  · ୨୧ ·  ·

Was It Really That Bad?

(Servants of the Hillington Mansion’s 3rd Person POV)

No one could believe that the notorious Duke of Belfius, a person who usually didn’t care for anyone other than himself, would be attracted to Lady Hildea.

‘But our young lady doesn’t seem to like him!’

At first, the people of Hillington weren’t attached to the blunt and emotionless girl.

Unlike her twin sister, Rosériel, who always smiled brightly, Hildea was a very quiet girl.

She rarely expressed herself.

On occasion, she was misunderstood as an arrogant person who ignored or ridiculed others, and looked down on them.

But in fact, the eldest young miss was very kind.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for me, you can have it if you want.”

“I heard that you’re getting married, and I thought that it would be burdensome to hand this over. Then would you kindly give this to your wife? And again congratulations on your wedding.”

“Excuse me, but the air will be very cold since it’s almost winter. And you’ll definitely catch a cold with that kind of fabric. Then the prestige of the Duchy will be diminished.”

(TN: These are different statements coming from Hildea, referring to how she treats the servants of the Hillington Mansion.)

‘Who on earth would look with this kind of detail so carefully? What kind of noble lady would be curious about and considerate of such trivial things?’

People who were cared for by Hildea gathered and shared their stories about the young lady’s kindness. And they prayed with one heart and mind, ‘Please don’t let the Duke of Belfius, who was well known to have a bad temper, become the young lady’s fiance!’

But heaven has forsaken them.

Because the Duke of Belfius, who didn’t show any interest before, suddenly stormed into the house of Hillington and began to actively pursue a courtship.

Neither the boy’s appearance, which looked like a pretty doll, nor his significant title were considered.

‘I can’t believe that he can’t even speak properly when he’s facing our young lady Hildea.’

Whenever Hildea wasn’t looking, the young boy’s gaze following her was tenacious and intense. But as soon as their eyes met, he would immediately turn around and avoid making eye contact with her.

He acted so coldly and rudely to others, but he couldn’t smile properly whenever he faced Hildea, because of the stiff expression on his face.

Whenever the subject was related to Hildea, his ears would always turn as red as apples and his fingers would twitch from nervousness.

‘As for our lady Hildea…’

Rather than understanding the boy’s unusual behaviour which showed his shy heart, she seemed to have misinterpreted him as being rude.

Because she always expressed hatred whenever she looked at Gabriel and had a very awkward expression on her face.

‘But the ungrateful Duke even drowned our precious little lady on the lake!’

‘But the truth is, everyone was aware that they fell together at the lake. Still, what’s the use of his amazing ability if he can’t protect his beloved who fell off the lake with him, right?’

But the Duke of Belfius couldn’t do anything if the lady Hildea herself didn’t approve of him.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Hildea’s POV)

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been sick like this.’

‘No, I think it was the first time that I’ve experienced this kind of pain since I possessed this body. It felt like my whole body was bruised from a beating.’

It took an entire week for me to get better, and thanks to that, there is little time left before Gabriel leaves for the war.

Rosé, who came to visit, used to chat with me, but half of those conversations were complaining about Gabriel.

It was just a cute whisper.

‘I hate it when my sister is sick. Both of you fell down on the lake, but how come Gabriel is fine?’

‘Yes, you’re right. “Cough”. It’s really unfair.’

But I remember everything. The moment he reached out his hands to me, that point when he saved my life, and the time that I fell on the tree and he protected me. Those were times when I felt embarrassed and hated him at the same time.

That alone makes me feel a little bit relieved about the complaints that have built up.

(TN: I think the reason why she kind of hates him might be because of what happened to them but she would feel grateful to him later on.)

‘But if I look back at all the things that have happened, the victim was definitely Gabriel.’

Especially, from the time when I fell from the tree, and the boat ride on which I fell over the lake, Gabriel was involved all because he was trying to rescue me.

‘If Gabriel had been alone at those times, whether the ship stumbled or not, he might have been able to save himself and land safely without any bruises. No, he certainly could have.’

That’s why, for no other reason, I thought that it would be better to say thank you in person, so I decided to visit Gabriel.

But when I try to see him face to face, it’s very difficult to find him. When I didn’t want to meet him before, we always bumped into each other very often.

“Is the Duke of Belfius here?”

In the end, I almost circled the whole Hillington Mansion and finally arrived at the library.

The very first head of the Hillington family was a man who was crazy about books. Since he was not satisfied with only his study room, he decided to turn the entire building into a library.

The knights guarding the front of the door saluted me and shouted.

“Yes, miss. If you look at the entry and exit records, it’s been quite some time since he entered, as it shows on the list.”

As I looked at their rigid, embarrassed expressions, I sighed and wrote down my name on the list, and then entered the library.

‘How can I possibly find him here?’

Gabriel is still a boy, so it would be difficult for me to see him since he is small and the same applies to me.

There is no librarian, since this is not managed by the state itself. And even if there were, they would never have been able to find that little boy in this spacious place.

‘Anyways, I can do it myself, since I have a lot of time.’

I start looking through the bookshelves one by one.

And after a while, I found the back of the boy, while he was focusing on something.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Gabriel’s 3rd Person’s POV)

‘It was a disaster.’

As a result, Hildea was sick for a week. Gabriel kept going back to the place where Hildea was staying, but repeatedly walked away without properly seeing her.

Unfortunately, precious time just passed by. There was not enough time to stay at the Hillington mansion.

More and a little more. It was becoming a big problem because his greed kept growing. And he wouldn’t be seeing her for a very long time.

‘It would have been better if I was the one who got sick instead.’

Gabriel chuckled at the thought that came to his mind.

If his adjutant heard his thoughts, he would definitely be trembling, saying that it’s really scary.

He had done that many times now, ever since Gabriel started treating Hildea with care.

“Hey.”

It was then.

“Are you okay?”

“…….”

“Hi there, Ahm.. I actually came here because I have something that I wanted to say…..”

Gabriel had never been followed before.

There was never a time when he couldn’t feel another person’s presence before.

The problem was that these past few days, he has been constantly unfocused, especially when he was thinking about Hildea’s condition.

“Hill….”

But what if someone suddenly speaks behind you?

He was shocked as if he had died of a heart attack. Gabriel stumbled back while he was climbing the ladder, and at that specific moment…

“!”

With his elbow, he accidentally pushed the books that were placed slantedly.

At that point, his body twisted and fell, and the books also poured down like rain.

“Ah…”

However, Hildea, the girl who was looking up with her eyes wide open, the same girl who drove him crazy these past few days, happened to be down there!

‘If it’s like this, then..’

Gabriel’s heart tightened.

“You’re going to get hurt!”

‘No. Please, no.’

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Hildea’s POV)

‘How can this be?’

‘How can this be happening now?’

I crouched and waited for the books to pour heavily.

However, as time passed, the pain was never felt.

But instead, someone was hugging me tightly.

When I opened my eyes slowly, the first thing that I saw was Gabriel’s face, who had somehow wrapped his small body around mine and got hit by the books instead of me.

“Oh, my….”

My usually neat hair was messed up, and so was his.

I looked at the boy who had a disheveled face and was tightly hugging me, and I saw a lump sticking out of his white forehead, which was already red.

I frowned. ‘It must have hurt a lot.’

Then, at some point, Gabriel shivered.

“Ugh!”

It was then that he realized our current state, and in response, Gabriel immediately jumped back, as if he was a high jumper in the Olympics.

“I almost got you in trouble.”

The problem was that the surrounding area was full of messy books.

The boy who was stumbling from shock, almost fell backwards. This time I reached out first and grabbed Gabriel to support him.

I let go of his hand awkwardly, but a clumsy smile seemed to appear on my lips.

I finally opened my mouth, and looked at the boy properly.

“Thank you.”

I should’ve said it from the beginning, but I couldn’t say it properly.

‘I kind of feel like the atmosphere has softened a bit. Am I mistaken?’

For some reason, Gabriel’s hand seemed to tremble slightly, perhaps because he was injured while blocking all those books.

“Give me your hand.”

“I didn’t get hurt. I’m okay.”

“Then how about your forehead?”

“This, too. It’s okay.”

I tried to look closely, but the boy hid his hands behind his back as if he didn’t want them to be seen.

While his face was bowed down.

‘Okay then.’

It’s not hurt to that extent, so this time, I decide to respect Gabriel’s sensitivity.

Also he’s my life savior.

‘Even though I’m not your fiance, you still did all those things to protect me.’

My first impression of Gabriel, which was all messed up, has collapsed again.

‘It would have been nice if we could become friends. I just wish that he hadn’t hated me yet.’

I’m pretty sad. And sorry as well.

I know that Gabriel may have a bad impression of me, due to the frequent accidents that we got into when we were together, but at least for me, I see him as a good boy.

I can’t smile as kindly as Rosériel. Still, I say it again with all my heart.

“Thank you, Gabriel.”

“… Of course, it’s my responsibility.”

Gabriel didn’t even look at me.

Even so, his small hand, that he reached out with as if asking me to help him up, was faintly trembling as if it had been injured.

I stood up holding the boy’s hand without force so I wouldn’t hurt him.

Gabriel’s hand was very warm.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Hildea’s POV)

The remaining few days went by very quickly.

“May the silent hand of the goddess rest, and there may be peace.”

“May only the blessings of peace and well-being bloom like the blessings of the wind god.”

It’s too formal and bleak for a conversation between families that are getting engaged.

Gabriel’s gaze is directed towards my sister. It’s obvious that he’s been looking at Rosé for a long time now.

After he stared at Rosé for a while, he then looked at me for a moment as if showing whom he is comfortable with.

He licked his lips and greeted me as if he couldn’t help it.

“I hope that Young Miss is also at peace.”

“I hope that the Duke will be careful too.”

Rather than the formal greeting from before, it’s a word of gratitude.

And it’s very sincere.

‘His destination is the battlefield. It’s a place where anyone can die at any time.’ I frowned thinking that this little kid would be going to that kind of place.

It was then that Gabriel, who was looking at me as he said his farewell, suddenly turned his eyes away.

‘Since he’s already said his farewell greeting to me, It’s now time for him to say goodbye to Rosé.’

As I turned around, I was about to call Rosé.

But for some reason, Rosé, who had been chattering and saying something, took a step back and smiled at me.

When I beckoned her to provide a place for the two of them, Rose waved her hands. She raised her finger and pointed behind me.

‘Huh? Wasn’t Gabriel behind me?’

The moment I turned around, I was stunned.

“…..Hildea, dear.”

‘When did you get so close?’

TO BE CONTINUED…