For the heart - Chapter 70

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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 70

Lillien’s eyes sparkled at Stella’s fuss.

Casian had come out to the town square to buy a gift for her.

“Yes. That Maison Riolat only sells women’s jewelry. There’s no reason Prince Casian would buy women’s jewelry other than for Your Highness.”

“That’s true.”

“Maison Riolat is the most popular among the jewelry stores in the capital these days. The owner of that shop is a young woman, and they say she handles gems so well.”

Lillien let Stella’s chatter flow in one ear and out the other.

Her mind was filled only with the thought that Casian must have bought jewelry for her.

Lillien watched until the end as his tall figure disappeared in the carriage, then lifted the corners of her mouth.

Her mood, which had completely hit rock bottom, suddenly came back to life.

‘It really must be for me, right? There’s no other reason for him to come out to the town square. He kept refusing my invitations, so maybe he felt sorry?’

As she imagined Casian entering a shop full of women and choosing jewelry to give her, a smile naturally bloomed on her face.

‘I should wear what I received from Casian to the upcoming Arsed Unification Banquet. Then I can subtly convey my feelings to him.’

Lillien, who had lifted the corners of her mouth to the fullest, looked back and forth between Ivana and Stella, then pointed at Maison Riolat with her hand.

“Let’s go there too. I need to ask what Casian bought.”

* * *

It took a long time just to look through one year’s worth of annual records.

Nina was examining every detail of the records meticulously, not missing even the smallest thing.

She couldn’t look carelessly since she didn’t know where or what kind of clue she might find.

Nina had been spending time in the library for several days like this, but today she headed outside the Imperial Palace.

It was because she heard the news that Eron Hydrick, the older brother of Vice-Captain Bern Heidrick, had finally died.

When Nina, dressed in black formal attire, arrived at the cemetery on the Hydrick County Estate, many nobles were already in attendance.

As she approached Bern, who was with his grief-stricken family, the nobles’ gazes focused on Nina.

The mourners stirred just at the fact that Princess Nina, known for not forming personal relationships with nobles, had attended this funeral.

Bern, who noticed Nina approaching him, strode toward her.

His eyes were already reddened.

Soon, he, whose body was twice as large as Nina’s, bowed his head before her.

“Captain…”

“Bern…”

Nina patted Bern’s shoulder and gave him a light hug. Then Bern rested his head on her shoulder and sobbed.

“Thank you for coming, Captain.”

“Of course I had to come. You’re my closest colleague.”

At the words that he was her closest colleague, Bern lifted his head to look at Nina.

His eyes shook with a strange gleam.

Nina, seeing Bern’s unfamiliar gaze, thought he was overwhelmed with great sorrow from losing his brother.

She still didn’t notice even a bit of the feelings Bern harbored for her.

“Bern, your brother trusted you to be strong, so—ugh!”

Nina was giving Bern the best comfort she could when she stopped mid-sentence and widened her eyes.

Suddenly, Bern had pulled Nina into a tight embrace.

“Seeing you, Captain, I finally feel at peace. Now I know for certain. I know who I feel most comfortable being with.”

“I, I see…”

Nina felt the pressure squeezing her and patted his back.

Everyone’s gazes were focused entirely on the two of them.

She could also see the faces of Ivana Hydrick and her parents watching from afar with wide eyes.

Though she felt a bit troubled, Nina calmly comforted Bern.

Since he had recently been discharged, she accepted it as meaning that she, a colleague from the knighthood who had spent a long time with him, had become a source of comfort.

* * *

After Eron Hydrick’s funeral ended, Nina returned to the Imperial Palace.

The memory of Bern acting particularly strange today quickly scattered away, attributed simply to his inability to overcome great sorrow.

Her mind was filled only with the thought of wanting to go to the library early tomorrow morning to look at more of Arsed’s annual records that she hadn’t seen yet.

As she entered the narrow path leading to the Satellite Palace, she saw a large silhouette in the darkness.

Nina stopped in place and looked at the man standing with his back against the wall.

The red eyes of the man she faced somehow carried a chilly aura.

“You’re late.”

“Yeah. What are you doing here at this hour?”

As she took another step, only then did Casian approach Nina.

“Well. I don’t know what I’m doing either.”

Nina quietly looked up at the sulky Casian.

His face looked extremely displeased about something, but it was hard to guess the reason.

‘He’s upset, and he even waited for me here.’

Nina, who had been thinking deeply right in front of his nose, opened her mouth.

“By any chance.”

“Yes.”

“Did Tila give Emil dinner but not give you any?”

“What?”

Casian let out a hollow breath as if he was dumbfounded.

What exactly did she think of him?

To think that he was waiting for her because he was angry about not getting food—it was too absurd to be absurd.

“No? Then why are you upset?”

“I’m not upset.”

Strange. She definitely seems to be in a bad mood.

Looking at Nina who was staring intently at him, Casian irritably ran his fingers through his hair.

What Emil had frantically told him when he returned to the Western Palace in the afternoon was enough to keep his nerves on edge all day.

“Your Highness! I just heard some very hot gossip!”

“What is it.”

“There was a funeral at House of Hydric, and Princess Nina attended! It seems Bern Heidrick’s older brother died.”

“…Well, he was the vice-captain. It makes sense for her to go.”

“That’s not the problem. As soon as Lord Heidrick saw the Princess, he suddenly embraced her like this and cried!”

Nina surely wouldn’t have pushed such a Bern away and would have comforted him.

Casian’s lips twisted unpleasantly at the scene that formed clearly in his mind.

Meanwhile, he fidgeted with something in his pocket.

He could feel a teardrop-shaped gem cut with multiple facets at his fingertips.

Casian felt strange every time he looked at the transparent gem on his wrist that he had removed from Nina’s sword.

He thought it was odd that he lay in bed looking at that gem and thinking of Nina every night.

But even while having such thoughts, he found himself smiling with the corners of his mouth turned up.

‘It would be nice if Nina’s wrist also had something that could remind her of me.’

‘Preferably made with gems the exact same color as my eyes.’

Just imagining a bracelet that could remind her of him hanging like shackles on Nina’s wrist gave him satisfaction.

So he had removed several red gems, Casianites, from his most ornately decorated clothes.

He had just received them back after having them reprocessed into a bracelet by a skilled jeweler in the Capital’s Main Square.

Casian withdrew his hand from his pocket and arbitrarily took Nina’s right wrist.

As the bracelet was wrapped around her wrist in an instant, surprised Nina looked back and forth between him and the bracelet.

“What is this?”

“I was waiting to give you this.”

“…”

“It’s a gem called ‘Casianite.'”

Casian relaxed his previously stiff expression.

He lightly pulled Nina’s wrist wearing the bracelet he had given her, then lightly pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist and pulled away.

He smiled gently at Nina, who widened her eyes in surprise.

Taking another step closer to her, he whispered.

“Casianite has a meaning.”

“What is it…?”

“Noble, soul.”

Casian smiled gently once more and then moved away from Nina. And as if his business was finished, he disappeared into the darkness.

Nina stared blankly at Casian’s retreating figure.

The hand with the bracelet quietly touched her chest area.

It felt like something was bouncing warmly inside her empty chest.

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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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