For the heart - Chapter 74

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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 74

Casian’s lips curved up gently at the unusually polite request, made with Stella in mind.

“Please, go ahead.”

“This young lady has a wound on her cheek. Could you heal it? Though it looks thin, it’s a deep cut. If not treated properly, it will leave a permanent scar.”

Nina pointed along Stella’s wound with her fingertip as she spoke.

Startled, Stella touched her own wound with her hand.

It had taken time for the bleeding to stop, and the cut still throbbed, but she hadn’t thought it would leave a lifelong scar.

Stella’s complexion darkened instantly.

There was no way he, Nina Arsed’s dedicated healer, would use such precious ability on her.

As expected, a conflicted sound flowed from Casian.

“Hmm… I don’t usually use my healing power carelessly. You know this too, don’t you, Princess? How powerful my healing ability is. After using it, my body becomes terribly exhausted.”

While frowning as if it were truly regrettable, Casian’s eyes never left Nina.

“But if Princess wishes for me to heal this young lady and makes a ‘special’ request of me, my mind might change.”

Go ahead, ask me once more.

In his brightly smiling eyes, that desire was clearly written for Nina to see.

Nina glared at that annoying face for a moment before speaking.

“I specially request this of you, Duke Montregger.”

Stella’s eyes widened at Nina’s words.

Everyone knew that Lillien and Nina didn’t get along well, yet Nina was making a request for her, Lillien’s maid.

A strange ripple stirred in Stella’s heart.

Meanwhile, as if Stella had never been in his consideration from the start, Casian accepted the request with a voice soft enough to melt.

“If that is Princess’s wish, gladly.”

Casian’s fingertip touched the back of Stella’s hand.

Though Stella flinched at the touch, she couldn’t take her eyes off Nina, who was seriously watching her wound.

‘If it were me, I wouldn’t have stepped forward for Princess Lillien’s maid…’

Despite Stella’s wonder, Nina was concentrating on whether her wound was healing well.

But for some reason, the wound remained unchanged.

“It must be a very deep wound indeed. It’s not healing easily.”

Only then did Nina look back at Casian.

It made no sense that he, who had instantly healed her own battered body, couldn’t heal such a wound.

Sure enough, Nina gritted her teeth and pleaded with him as he smiled at her knowingly.

“Please use a little more power, Duke Montregger. I earnestly request this of you.”

“Well then, shall I try?”

As soon as those words ended, the wound healed instantly.

“Whew, I’m quite tired indeed. I need to rest. The young lady’s wound is completely healed, so don’t worry and go on.”

“Th-thank you, Princess, Prince!”

Stella touched her cheek with a surprised face, repeatedly expressing her gratitude.

As she soon disappeared into the banquet hall, Casian leaned his back against the wall with a thud.

“Ah… It was such a deep wound that I must have used too much healing power. I’m dizzy and need to rest for a moment.”

“What have you been doing since earlier?”

“I’m telling you that I’ve exhausted all my strength fulfilling Princess’s earnest request and have no energy left. Look, behind the wooden fence in the square, there’s a small garden. If I rest there briefly, I think I’ll recover soon.”

“…”

“Will you just leave me here without energy? You should hurry and support me.”

When Nina made an exasperated face, Casian slowly raised his eyebrows.

His lips were loosely relaxed, pretending to be tired, but mischief he couldn’t hide lingered at the corners.

Under the bright moonlight, he smiled leisurely and slightly lifted his arm.

“Hurry up.”

At the urging sound that followed, Nina’s cheeks puffed slightly.

With watching eyes around, she couldn’t scold him further and reluctantly supported him, pretending to give in.

Watching Nina like this, Casian simply let out a laugh.

* * *

Casian looked back.

Fortunately, no one else was outside the banquet hall.

He had been waiting for a moment to be alone with Nina, and thanks to healing Stella, he even had an excuse.

Entering through the wooden fence, a small garden spread out before them.

The high moon cast gentle light over several wooden benches, but Casian headed not for the benches but toward a small fountain deeper inside.

At his confident steps, Nina asked.

“Have you been here before?”

“Yes. I was invited to the Lantern Festival banquet. I attended briefly.”

At those words, something suddenly flashed in Nina’s mind.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, Casian had come to her with a mask. The two had secretly left the Imperial Palace and enjoyed the festival until late at night.

‘He must have received an invitation from Lillien.’

Recalling the time he had come to find her, he couldn’t have stayed at the banquet hall for even an hour. Just enough time to finish a meal.

Nina’s face warmed slightly.

It would have been quite an important occasion for him, wanting to become a consort, so why had he come to find her?

Reaching the fountain carved with blooming Selenia flowers, Casian leaned against it and looked at Nina.

Earlier, when Nina had gone out to the balcony and waved to the gathered citizens, he had seen the bracelet on Nina’s wrist.

‘She said she was just trying it on for a moment.’

She had been the one to quietly slip off the bracelet that Pieruto discovered and put it in her pocket.

Though he felt disappointed, he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, so he buried those feelings inside.

But seeing that bracelet on her again made the corners of his mouth keep rising.

Casian quietly grasped Nina’s wrist where the bracelet was worn.

Then he moved aside the gem that was the same color as his eyes and gently rubbed the inside of her white wrist.

It suited her much better than he had imagined, filling him with satisfaction.

“Casian is the name my father gave me because when I was born, my eyes were said to be exactly the same as this gem.”

“Ah… I see.”

“I never liked my name after Mother passed away, but I like it for the first time in a long while. Because I can give this bracelet a name.”

“A name…?”

“Yes. This bracelet’s name is Casian.”

“What?”

The bracelet’s name is Casian.

Nina was so dumbfounded that she let out a hollow laugh.

She knew he was shameless, but this was shameless all over again.

“Keep Casian on your wrist at all times. Look at it when you miss me, and touch it when it’s pretty.”

Casian, whose voice had grown lower, pulled Nina’s wrist that he was holding closer to himself.

Nina was drawn to him without resistance.

Casian’s large hand tucked Nina’s hair behind her ear and gently fidgeted with her earlobe.

When her cold earlobe touched his warm hand, it felt like her entire body was warming up in an instant. And without realizing it, her heart quietly swelled.

A man who put a bracelet on her, spoke of nobility, gave that bracelet his own name, and told her to look at it and touch it.

Nina was now truly curious.

“…I have something I’m curious about.”

“Yes.”

“During the Lantern Festival, you were invited by Lillien, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you come to me?”

“Do you want to know that?”

“Yes.”

He now lightly cupped both of Nina’s cheeks instead of her earlobes and stroked that soft skin with his thumbs.

This utterly unfeeling woman was asking why he spent the Lantern Festival with her instead of Lillien.

Why was she curious about that.

Could it be that you too…

“If you kiss me, I’ll tell you.”

The moment he said this with a teasing grin to tease Nina again, Casian’s eyes widened.

Because cold hands wrapped around the back of his neck and pulled him down, while Nina rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

He had always been the one to initiate kisses, and all their moments of kissing until now had been driven by his desire.

But this time was different.

She wrapped both arms around his neck and took his lips more passionately than ever before.

Casian leaned his upper body toward her and watched Nina with closed eyes as she moved her small lips.

Hot heat surged through his entire body, and desire that felt like it might burst swirled through his whole being.

“Mmph!”

Finally, Casian pulled Nina tightly into his arms with both hands. Hard enough to fully reveal his desire to be closer.

And he roughly devoured her lips until their noses were crushed together.

Even when he immediately penetrated inside her and entwined their tongues, even when he swallowed her lips and breath, it felt insufficient.

He came to desire something deeper, more raw than this.

In that moment, he realized what he wanted to do with Nina Arsed.

Never once had he thought about wanting to mingle bodies with any woman.

But right now, in this moment, Casian was burning for Nina Arsed with frightening intensity.

‘Now, I really think it has to be you or no one else.’

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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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