For the heart - Chapter 65

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 65

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A delicious aroma filled the Satellite Palace.

Pieruto entered the dining hall with Casian and Emil.

“Tila, thank you for inviting me. I’m excited to taste your cooking after so long!”

“Welcome, Your Highness. You too, Emil.”

Tila, who had been standing by the kitchen fire, quickly came out with a welcoming smile.

Emil, who had already rolled up his sleeves, went into the kitchen.

As Casian slowly looked around, Tila approached him and spoke in a quiet voice.

“She spent time in the Imperial Library from morning to evening for a while… but since the day before yesterday, she hasn’t budged from the Satellite Palace. She’s noticeably lacking energy too. When I ask what’s wrong, she won’t tell me… Please try talking to her, Your Highness.”

Tila led Casian to one side and opened a small door for him.

It was a cozy courtyard behind the Satellite Palace building, filled with modest flowers.

Under the afternoon sunlight, Nina lay stretched out on the grass in comfortable clothes.

With her arms behind her head and ankles crossed, she gazed at the passing clouds with a vacant expression.

Only when elegant features came into view instead of the white clouds in the blue sky did Nina snap out of her daze.

“It’s been a while since we’ve met.”

Nina finally sat up at Casian’s greeting and answered somewhat listlessly.

“I suppose so.”

“May I sit beside you?”

“Do as you please.”

With her indifferent permission, Casian plopped down on the grass.

He quietly observed Nina’s face as she only stared at the sky.

Her eyes held a void as if nothing was reflected in them, and her expression was hardened with boredom and lethargy.

Casian took a deep breath, then looked up at the sky alongside Nina and spoke.

“I heard there will be a grand celebration for the continental unification soon. The Arsed Integration Banquet, I think. Representatives from all countries have been invited, and new appointments will be made this time.”

“I see.”

This time too, her response was merely indifferent.

Casian stared at her profile, then gently tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear.

At that ticklish action, Nina turned her head to look at him.

As if that action was meant to make her look at him, Casian smiled.

“I heard you spent time at the Imperial Library.”

“I thought I might find traces of the Former Emperor.”

“Did you find anything meaningful?”

Nina slowly shook her head.

The chronicles from the Former Emperor’s reign had burned away, and she had looked through books that might contain records about oracles and even noble genealogies that might have records about House Desmont, which allegedly tried to usurp the throne, but found nothing helpful.

And now it had become difficult to go to the library anymore.

Nina looked up at the sky again with listless eyes.

“There’s an old librarian there, and his son was a Healer.”

“…”

“I think he’s the father of the Healer I killed on my first battlefield. I haven’t forgotten the name either. Pedro Grienn. When I looked into it, the librarian’s name was Roban Grienn.”

“…”

“So I ran away.”

Nina looked down at her fingers that had fallen limply onto her knees.

It felt as if the rock that had settled in her heart was slowly sinking to an even deeper place.

The name she had never forgotten swept through her chest like a cold wind.

Her blue eyes filled with guilt became misty as her head slowly bowed.

“What that librarian must have felt seeing me appear in the library, just rummaging through books… I felt so sorry…”

“So you couldn’t go to the library after that?”

Nina’s head barely moved.

With what face could she go there?

It had already been three days since she holed up in the Satellite Palace. The librarian’s gaze kept coming to mind, making her heart ache.

Though continental unification had been achieved, too many had been sacrificed in the process.

Even while believing she was walking the path guided by the oracle, Nina could never let go of her guilt.

She thought everything was over now…

But that feeling hadn’t ended and was growing heavier and heavier.

Casian’s hand quietly grasped Nina’s chin and turned it toward him.

“Shall I heal you?”

“What…?”

“You never know. Maybe a Healer’s power can heal a troubled heart too.”

Nina didn’t avoid Casian as he quietly tilted his head toward her.

She should have pushed him away, asking what nonsense he was talking about, but with his warm hand grasping her chin and his breath drawing close, she simply closed her eyes.

Large hands slowly cupped her cheeks and slid down her slender neck, and their lips quietly met.

With her eyes closed, Nina shared her breath with Casian as he gently parted her lips.

As they gradually shared each other’s lips and tongues, her heavy heart seemed to break into pieces and scatter like tiny grains of sand.

‘I should stop this… Why am I doing this…’

Nina was swept along by Casian’s lead.

The sensations he gave her had the power to quickly blur even brief thoughts.

She liked the warmth that touched her instead of words, wrapping around her body. Time seemed to have stopped.

And at that moment.

The sound of a door opening was heard.

“Your Highness, the meal is ready— Oh my goodness! Don’t mind me and continue, continue what you were doing!”

When Nina’s eyes snapped open, only Tila’s flustered voice remained.

“Oh, uh, what do I do.”

“Pfft.”

Unlike Nina who was extremely flustered, Casian burst into laughter as if he found this situation amusing.

Nina’s face turned bright red as she looked at him with eyes full of resentment.

“I told you to finish what you were doing. Ugh.”

When Casian approached again with a grinning face, Nina firmly struck his shoulder. Then she bolted upright.

Casian rubbed his shoulder that didn’t even hurt much and looked up at Nina.

“How is it? Does your heart feel somewhat healed?”

“It got worse?”

Looking at Nina with her eyes wide open, Casian burst into open laughter this time.

He rather liked how she, who had been listless just moments ago, was now bristling and snapping back sharply.

“Then, how about we try a little more? I think it’s having some effect from what I can see.”

He casually wiped his lips with his thumb and swept back his disheveled hair.

Only then did Nina notice the bracelet on Casian’s wrist.

The transparent gem she had given him from her sword as proof of their alliance.

It was the same one he had ostentatiously made into a bracelet and worn around.

Since she had never seen it once while they were out on the battlefield together, she had thought he only wore it briefly at first to pressure her.

But here he was wearing that gem-adorned bracelet again.

Seeing Nina’s eyes on the bracelet, Casian lightly shook his wrist to show it off.

“I was worried it might get damaged or lost in the harsh terrain. I put it back on as soon as we returned to Arsed. I like it more each time I see it.”

Casian propped himself up on his arms behind him and leaned back to look up at Nina.

His sparkling red eyes beneath straight eyebrows cast an intense gaze toward Nina.

‘I haven’t forgotten that we’re allies. A very secret and intimate alliance where we even share kisses away from people’s eyes.’

His gaze meeting Nina’s seemed to say exactly that.

Even though he hadn’t spoken those words aloud, his feelings were read all too clearly.

Nina felt her face growing hot somehow and turned her head away. Then she strode inside by herself with large steps.

She somewhat regretted allowing healing to be done through kisses.

Using that as an excuse, Casian seemed to tease her more easily than before, anytime he wanted.

While she was always flustered, his consistently composed and handsome face was annoying, yet somehow the heavy feeling in her heart had quietly disappeared.

Though she didn’t want to admit it, it was too obvious.

Was it because she had shared the heavy feelings she couldn’t tell others about, or was it really as he said…

‘Could hearts also be healed through kisses?’

What kind of ridiculous thought was that.

She shook her head vigorously to create a breeze, but the heat that had risen to her face on its own showed no signs of subsiding.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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