(Risking My Life) Proposing to Miss Hazel - Chapter 101

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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 101

My flustered mouth moved on its own.

“I’ve decided to make a large-capacity version of Sleep Potion, so I need more lampflower calyxes. Much more than now.”

“Ah.”

“And we’re almost out of whiteclaw grass too. Not as much as Sleep Potion, but you’ll need to prepare quite a lot.”

“I see.”

Baron nodded gently with a leisurely smile, as if he was delighted by whatever I said.

“And also…”

“Also?”

His blatant and sweet gaze dug deep into my eyes.

I lost my words and only moved my lips, then dropped my eyes to the ground.

Today especially, his face seemed to shine like the sun, making it difficult to look at directly. It would have been better if he had some dirt on it.

I don’t know. I can’t think straight at all. This wasn’t what I wanted to say when meeting Baron, but my loose mouth was out of control.

“I haven’t been drawing lately. No, I can’t draw. I don’t know what to draw, and even when I try to practice, there’s no plaster cast…”

Ah, really. Why am I saying this?

I bit my lower lip to prevent my mouth from babbling any further. Baron’s laughter brushed across my forehead like wind.

‘Ugh.’

I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.

I could have just said it’s been a while, nice to see you, have a good lunch, and parted with light greetings.

What on earth did I want to say to him? My mind went blank and I couldn’t think of anything.

Not knowing how to end the conversation, I was just fidgeting with my feet when he asked tenderly, as if determined to melt my ears.

“Isn’t there more?”

“What, what do you mean?”

“Miss Hazel’s reason for seeking me out.”

“…”

“I wish there were more.”

His handsome face, deliberately painted with disappointment, suddenly entered my view.

He bent his massive body as if crumpling it, deliberately meeting my gaze.

The binding stare that prevented escape was quite burdensome. Even when I rolled my eyes to avoid it, everywhere was filled with him.

“Gasp.”

The hastily drawn breath was trapped tightly in my narrow nasal passage. I just stared at him like someone who had forgotten how to exhale.

‘…’

So, this kind of thing is criminal.

Does Baron know how toxic, harmful, and destructive his face is?

He would have nothing to say if sentenced to lifelong mud-smearing punishment under some law or another.

I glared at him with a face that looked ready to cry, then barely managed to open my mouth.

“Your face… your face…”

“…?”

“That handsome face of yours…”

“…”

“I, I can’t breathe.”

The red eyes that met mine trembled greatly. Following the ripples in his pupils, a reddish warmth spread across his face.

Does the symptom of not being able to breathe spread too?

The shameless composure that had been there vanished from the man’s face, which had stiffened like a plaster cast.

A face that looked somehow thirsty and anxious.

I could feel an invisible force suppressing the impulse that seemed ready to commit some act at any moment.

It seemed like anything could happen at this rate.

And whatever happened, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to refuse him. It was force majeure.

“Ah.”

He, who exhaled first, dropped his face as if surrendering.

The tip of his ear peeking through his fine hair was ripened red like a late autumn apple.

Since I couldn’t see his face, I could finally breathe. I let out the breath I had been holding very long.

“Whew…”

My chest, emptied of air, filled with the rough sound of my pounding heart.

His earlobe, touched by my breath, trembled.

***

“Hazel, did you hear that rumor?”

I, who had been blankly staring at the hill path, asked back in a stupid tone.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you heard the rumor.”

“What rumor?”

Sara put a sour fruit into my gaping mouth.

Maribel continued chattering with an ‘I knew it’ expression.

“Lord Cromwell’s mistress died.”

“What? Which mistress?”

Lord Cromwell has as many women as he has many territorial subjects.

Where did Axel’s shamelessness come from when he confessed to me while having a fiancée? Since what he saw and learned was from his father, he naturally thought it was normal to have a wife and mistress separately. This is why family education is important.

Maribel spread her fingers to count but soon gave up. Sara, who was helping beside her, did the same.

“I don’t know. Probably around the tenth mistress or so. She was supposedly the youngest mistress, around our age. But she died a horrible death in the middle of the night.”

“Oh my… how?”

“This is top secret, but mom told me not to tell anyone?”

The top secret information delivered by Anna, who was quickest with neighborhood news, was always interesting.

Sara and I perked up our ears and listened to Maribel’s words.

Maribel looked around the empty surroundings and lowered her voice.

“The assassin Nocturne visited Cromwell Castle.”

At the sudden appearance of this character, Sara and I looked at Maribel with pale faces.

She should say something that makes sense. Why would the assassin Nocturne be at Cromwell Castle?

“Doesn’t Nocturne only assassinate big shots?”

“Besides, wasn’t Nocturne in the south right now? There was an article yesterday or the day before. A noble family in the south was massacred by Nocturne.”

“Right. Turns out that noble was supplying materials to the Black Magic Rebels and was also involved in human trafficking? Ugh, the area below the mountain is really scary.”

Our disbelief deflated Maribel’s spirits.

“Ah, I don’t know. I just heard it too. But they found a bunch of black feathers at that mistress’s house. That’s why the rumor spread that Nocturne had been there.”

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, that’s why Cromwell Castle is in chaos. The reason Lord Cromwell is staying quiet even after taking a hit from our village is because he doesn’t have the mental capacity to pay attention to this side?”

“That’s fortunate. I wondered why it was so quiet.”

Agreeing with Sara’s words, I was about to dismiss the story as close to a false rumor when Felix’s words came to mind in passing.

‘That guy is the assassin Nocturne.’

A few months ago, the words Felix said while pointing at Baron.

At the time, I thought Felix was talking nonsense because of the poisonous mushrooms…

Looking back, most of Felix’s statements that I dismissed as nonsense at the time turned out to be true.

To the point where it was embarrassing that I had accused Felix of being a pathological liar.

So perhaps that’s why I was suddenly concerned.

Baron’s origins and previous activities are also unclear…

It was even more so because the time when Baron left the village coincided with when the assassin Nocturne was active.

‘I’m supposed to meet Baron later.’

Even if I had suspicions, Baron wasn’t particularly scary.

In front of me, he was busy acting like a fox desperate for affection. He expressed his feelings with his whole body, making it hard to keep my composure.

‘Chocolate ice cream, when should we eat it?’

That must be why. Why I couldn’t refuse his suggestion to eat ice cream.

But today, I’m not meeting Baron to eat ice cream.

Yesterday, the Bashar Merchant Guild came by and commissioned several more portrait orders.

Well…

I could eat ice cream while painting, but anyway, the purpose is the painting. I’m completely innocent with nothing to be ashamed of before heaven.

‘I need to hurry.’

As I fidgeted with my anxious toes, my friends’ eyes narrowed sleepily.

Their mischievous lips curved like hyenas who had spotted prey.

“By the way, Hazel, where were you headed?”

“Our Hazel is skipping work during working hours? And dressed so prettily too.”

“It’s not skipping. I’m going to do other work. And pretty? This is a dress I wore before.”

The yellow checkered dress I wore the day Baron returned.

It was the first time wearing it since then, but anyway, I hadn’t dressed up on purpose.

Absolutely, definitely, really, not at all.

I slowly backed away from my friends, then quickly darted up the hill.

“I’m going!”

“Yeah, have a good date!”

My friends’ giggling laughter tickled the back of my neck embarrassingly.

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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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