For the heart - Chapter 78

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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 78

Nina’s lips twitched before pressing firmly together.

She found herself speaking sulkily without realizing it.

“How would I know that.”

“Then, please don’t know for a little longer.”

“What?”

To Nina, who widened her eyes in surprise, Casian tilted his head and lightly pressed his lips to hers.

At the lips that touched and parted in an instant, Nina blinked and wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“You’ll naturally think of me while seeking the answer. I think it would be good if you didn’t know for a long, long time. And from now on, please be careful never to get hurt.”

“What would I have to get hurt from? It’s not like I’ll be going on campaigns.”

Nina rubbed her fingertips with her thumb, tracing the sensation that had been throbbing all day.

Even though she had confirmed that Casian’s healing power wasn’t working on her like before, a strange sense of relief welled up.

‘If only you stay by my side… everything will be alright.’

At the thought that came without her realizing, something settled with a thud in Nina’s empty chest.

Even if her feelings had changed, the essential nature of her relationship with Casian remained unchanged.

Casian had formed an alliance with her for power.

He wouldn’t want to live as Arsed’s hostage for life, and she didn’t wish that for him either.

Moreover, there was Lillien, who was already deeply infatuated with him. Someone he could have if he just reached out his hand.

Nina quietly looked up at Casian, who was watching her.

The corners of Casian’s mouth, who didn’t refuse her gaze toward him, slowly curved upward.

Cupping one of Nina’s cheeks and tilting his head slightly, he looked back and forth between her eyes as if trying to figure out what she was thinking.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was wondering if I could give you what you want.”

Casian burst into laughter at the unexpected answer.

“Do you know what I want when you say that?”

“Of course I know. Why did we form an alliance?”

“That’s right. I will become a consort.”

Casian gently caressed Nina’s cheek that he was cupping with his thumb.

His red gaze shone intensely as it traveled down past her nose bridge to the tip of her lips. Then it rose back up to Nina’s eyes that were looking at him.

“Without fail.”

His eyes were firm, as if he wanted nothing else but to become a consort.

Nina quietly nodded her head.

But the strength slowly drained from her eyes.

Given his situation, it was the wisest goal he should aim for, and only that would free him from a life as a hostage.

She already knew all this, but hearing his firm resolve from Casian’s own mouth made her feel strange.

Even though she had never possessed him… it felt like she had lost him forever.

However, Nina was determined not to turn away from her clear emotions that she was feeling for the first time.

Setting aside Casian’s goals, Lillien’s existence, and the anxieties that had befallen her body that had been troubling her mind until just moments ago, when she focused on the emotion at the center of her heart, everything converged in one direction.

Whatever future Casian wanted, at least in helping him stand as a ‘person’ rather than Arsed’s hostage… she wanted to help him.

Since it was an alliance formed to use each other from the beginning, she thought it would be okay to be used.

Even if it would only leave her with wounds in the end.

When that resolution settled calmly in her chest, Nina raised her head.

“Alright. I’ll help you with all my strength too. Just like you helped me.”

* * *

The next morning, Nina was at the training grounds early.

It was her first training since the conquest war had ended.

As soon as she returned to Arsed, she had stood trial for murder, then there was the appearance and death of Anny who they thought was the Saint, and time had flown by like an arrow while searching for traces of her father Magnus Arsed.

Since she was planning to step down from her position as Knight Commander soon, she no longer needed harsh training.

But the time ingrained in her body as a knight wouldn’t easily let her go.

For Nina, who used her body more when her mind was complicated, today’s training was practically predetermined.

Nina still couldn’t understand him, who said he would definitely become a consort while kissing her and asking her to think of him for a long, long time.

Those words were painful because they were affectionate, and cruel because they were resolute.

But one thing was certain.

She had no place in Casian’s future.

Nina, who had been swinging her sword and exerting her body until her light training clothes were soaked with sweat, soon stopped moving.

“Haa, haa…”

As her breath came out roughly, the tip of the sword she was holding touched the ground with a thud.

She had never once felt it was heavy. Suddenly, all her energy had drained away.

Above Nina’s wrist holding the sword, the red gemstone bracelet that Casian had given her had slid down.

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

Remembering the moment he had put it on her, Nina smiled without realizing it.

His words telling her to look at the bracelet instead when she missed him now felt like the last mercy he had allowed her heart.

Even though she knew that wasn’t the case.

‘I don’t regret it. It’s okay.’

Casian had been many firsts for her.

He was the first Healer to hold her hand without being afraid, and the first person to see her as a human being rather than a weapon.

Even if the time they spent together and everything he had given her was actually a sweet illusion, the warmth at least wasn’t a lie.

Thanks to that, she felt alive.

It was engraved in her heart and became proof of her life.

Nina thought that alone was enough.

Nina took a deep breath and raised her head.

Her shoulders, which had momentarily collapsed, straightened once again.

She gripped tightly the sword that was like one body with her.

“Your Highness.”

Just as she was about to regain her strength.

When Nina turned around at the voice from behind, Cezar Blanche with his long ash-gray hair approached from a distance with several guards.

“How did you come to be here.”

“It was difficult to see Your Highness, so I used some influence. I came asking around where you might be.”

“Do you have something to say to me?”

Duke Blanche smiled at Nina’s businesslike tone and looked up at the sky with his hands clasped behind his back.

“The weather is quite nice, you see.”

“….”

“Today is the last day of opening the Imperial Palace, isn’t it?”

“It probably is.”

“On my way here, I saw tremendous crowds already entering the Imperial Palace. His Majesty the Emperor is distributing bread to share the joy of continental unification with the people of the Empire.”

Nina nodded her head in response.

It was something she had roughly heard about from Tila.

“I don’t know why he’s suddenly doing something he’s never done before. He said he’d open the Imperial Palace for three whole days, so the knights standing guard are having a terrible time.”

Duke Blanche couldn’t take his eyes off Nina in her sweat-soaked training clothes.

Below her firm shoulder line, the sweat-dampened fabric clung to her body, revealing her slender curves completely.

Her blade-straight posture, her lean waist without an ounce of excess fat and her straight legs, toned from training.

She possessed a beauty completed by strength that could not be felt from any other woman, formed by elegant lines without disorder.

Nina’s brow furrowed at the gaze slowly scanning her.

“Your gaze is uncomfortable, Duke Blanche.”

“Ah, my. I have committed a discourtesy, Your Highness.”

“If you have nothing else to say, I should finish my training and be going.”

“Please spare me some time. Now that I see Your Highness again, I’d like to have a somewhat deeper conversation,”

Bang―!

At that moment, a tremendous explosive sound erupted from the direction of Maryeonso.

At the following sound like metal being torn, Nina looked up at the sky.

“Kiiiiaaak―!”

‘Nairak?!’

As Duke Blanche’s guards who were nearby rushed over and quickly surrounded him, the Duke shouted.

“Guard Her Highness!”

“Don’t move!”

Everyone’s eyes widened as they looked at Nina who shouted while extending her hand. Then their heads all slowly turned upward simultaneously.

In the clearly bright sky, a giant monster bird was circling above their heads.

“It’s a monster that attacks moving things, so don’t move a muscle until it disappears.”

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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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