(Risking My Life) Proposing to Miss Hazel - Chapter 46
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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 46
I crouched down and moved around like little chicks, chirping as I unfolded the letters one by one.
They were all letters addressed to me.
The senders were different, but the contents were similar.
[We wish for Miss Hazel’s speedy recovery. We await the day we can see your bright face again….]
I thought I had contracted some serious illness.
What on earth happened after I collapsed yesterday?
I had simply fainted from overwork, yet this was their reaction. I felt bewildered as my head rang with a throbbing sensation.
“What did Felix do this time?”
Felix is terribly indifferent to his own health, but when I get sick, he makes a huge fuss as if the world is ending.
When people live their lives, they can catch colds, get indigestion, get burned, get cuts, or break bones.
Of course, it would be nice not to get hurt or sick, but no one can avoid misfortune through their own will alone. Everyone grows up getting moderately sick.
But my Felix applies all kinds of ointments and wraps my entire hand in bandages even if I get just one scratch on my fingertip.
It’s nothing but excessive treatment and waste of resources.
Now that I’ve become an adult, I thought that fussing would calm down a bit, but seeing this parade of letters, it seems that’s not the case.
Felix must have carried me around the entire neighborhood yesterday, advertising my illness.
I could picture it clearly without even seeing it.
I’ve experienced this countless times before.
I had just collapsed from exhaustion. I should have said I was going to sleep and just buried my head.
“Sigh…. They must have worried a lot. But I’m fine.”
I sighed, but I didn’t feel too bad about it.
After all, having people who worry about me is something to be grateful for.
It’s just….
A bit excessive….
“Uncle Gwen’s fifth cousin also sent a letter and candy. Maria’s eighth cousin also sent a letter and flowers.”
Both are outsiders who haven’t been settled in the village for long, unmarried men who resemble potatoes more than handsome men.
Seeing how they’ve been acting particularly friendly toward me lately, they probably have that kind of interest in me, but since they haven’t confessed or asked me on a date yet, I can’t be certain, though I’m usually quick to pick up on these things.
Among the people who’ve become regulars recently, these two look at me with different eyes.
Should I say it’s sticky, or should I say it’s greasy?
Both are potatoes, but they’ve applied too much butter, so they’re disqualified dirt potatoes.
“At this rate, I might end up never getting married.”
I wish I had someone I could fall for at first sight like Maribel or Sara.
Not once in my life have I heard the bell that’s supposed to ring when you meet your destined partner, let alone felt my heart skip a beat with excitement.
“….”
Just then, when I suddenly recalled some man’s thick chest, arms with well-balanced major and minor muscles, and bewitching eye-smile.
“Miss Hazel.”
My shoulders shrank at the voice carried on the morning breeze.
My ears felt ticklish for no reason.
“Baron?”
I raised my head to respond to his call, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Not down the hill, not beside the house, not in the direction of the forest—the black-haired man as big as a mountain was nowhere to be found.
‘Did I hear things….’
The moment I realized it was my imagination, a hot flush spread across my cheeks.
Embarrassed, I hung my head low and picked up the gifts and letters. I wanted to hurry back inside the house.
But there, stuck in the gap of the front door, was something I hadn’t noticed before.
It was Baron’s lunch box.
[Meat is the best for recovering energy.]
Along with a blunt memo without a single line of greeting.
***
The day flew by even though I hadn’t done anything.
Time passed well even though I had just been lying down.
It was so much fun.
It was the best day ever.
Playing is the best. Who knew that vigorously doing nothing would suit my constitution so well?
Until now, I thought hard work was in my nature, but not even close. Felix’s blood, who lived as a playboy for seven years, couldn’t have gone anywhere.
If my life had been one where I could live comfortably just by breathing, I might have lived like today forever….
But since that’s not the case, I have to return to being diligent Miss Hazel starting tomorrow.
‘So let me sleep a bit more.’
In the late afternoon, I closed my eyes to enjoy one last nap.
I thought I would end the day peacefully, but a nightmare that seemed to envy my happiness came to find me as if it had been waiting.
Seven years old. Around the time when I first set foot in Ruden Village, carried on Felix’s back after being stoned at Cromwell Castle.
I suffered from high fever and couldn’t open my eyes for over two weeks, hovering between life and death.
The following two weeks, I apparently suffered from delirium.
When I was young, I couldn’t remember anything from that period at all, but since becoming an adult, I sometimes dream of those days.
‘Mom, I’m hurt. Mommy. Hold me. It hurts.’
‘Hazel, Mother has passed away. You have to forget everything. Felix will hold you.’
‘Dad, I’m scared. People keep throwing stones, they hate me. I’m so scared. Waaah.’
‘Father isn’t here either. Now it’s just the two of us. You’re not scared because Felix is here, right?’
Felix never left my side as I cried and had fits.
He endlessly wiped away my tears, held me, and took care of me so I wouldn’t hurt or be scared.
Felix was only twelve years old himself.
How scared that young child must have been.
‘…isn’t there either? Are they dead? Felix, please find….’
In the dream, I kept asking someone to find someone for a long time.
It wasn’t Mom or Dad. It was a name that didn’t remain in my memory. Felix seemed not to know who… was.
That’s why it was sad.
Just the fact that Felix didn’t know someone precious to me made me heartbreakingly sad, and tears kept flowing.
“Hazel, Hazel!”
“…!”
While struggling in the sad nightmare, I was drawn by the voice calling my name and woke from the dream.
My eyes were moist. I must have cried while sleeping. I blinked my eyes, my eyelashes tangled with tears.
My vision was pitch black. It was because Felix was covering my eyes with his palm.
Whenever I cried while sleeping, Felix would always wipe away my tears.
It’s a long-standing habit of Felix, whether he’s the unicorn Felix or the scoundrel Felix.
Felix’s gentle voice tickled my ears.
“What kind of nightmare did you have? I thought you were resting well, but if I had known this would happen, I would have come home earlier.”
A voice thick with worry. I could picture his expression without even seeing it.
It was probably a face on the verge of tears. Or maybe with tears welling up in my eyes.
My answer at times like this is always the same.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
I’ve forgotten everything.
Felix chuckled as if he had expected that answer.
He didn’t persistently pry about the dream and changed the subject.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“I wasn’t even hurt. I was just tired.”
“Uncle Michael said the same thing.”
“You even went to see a doctor?”
“How could I not when you collapsed? I thought my heart was going to drop.”
“You probably screamed and carried me around the village again.”
Felix answered my mischievous interrogation with laughter in his voice.
“Albert thought you had gone to heaven before he did.”
“He must have been startled.”
“No, he was much calmer than I was. As soon as he saw your complexion, he said you were just sleeping and told us not to wake you unnecessarily but to lay you on the bed.”
“He really has experience.”
Knowing that my tears had stopped, Felix gently pressed and wiped around my eyes with his palm. Despite his rough skin, his touch was tender.
Felix’s expression, visible through my blurry vision, was quite bright. He seemed relieved to confirm that I was okay.
“After dinner, let’s go for a walk with me. I have something to show you.”
“You told me not to leave the house today.”
“Then do you want to go out after midnight?”
I chuckled softly and shook my head.
“Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll take you there.”
***
We passed the hill path where moonlight descended brilliantly, crossed the Village Central Square where only cat cries could be heard, and entered the familiar mountain path.
Felix’s steps were light.
I didn’t know what he wanted to show me, but he seemed quite confident.
Holding Felix’s hand, I entered the cave he had dug.
Torch flames stuck in the walls were brightly illuminating the interior like lighting.
“Hazel, don’t be too surprised.”
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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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