The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 138
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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 138
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Richard took the lead in handling the aftermath of the incident that occurred in the middle of the night. He explained the situation to the family members in detail once again, assigned tasks to the servants, and had Leonhardt moved from the ballroom to his sickbed.
It wouldn’t be good if word got out that a monster similar to the Kraken had directly targeted Raskail. While they couldn’t completely cover it up, it was better to remain silent at least until the announcement about the Tritoma Special Knights and demon beasts was made at Geunkuk-je.
The Raskail Count and Countess worked to keep the servants’ mouths shut, and Gideon helped the Count and his wife while promising as Crown Prince to track down and severely punish those behind the demon beast.
Lindsey decided to investigate the barrier that had isolated the manor and search for the route the Mimic had used to enter through Amethyst Jewelers.
Rita heard from Oli about the Hounds that appeared in Beacon Garden and knew her speculation had been correct.
When Beacon learned that Pascals had directly targeted her, they showed a reaction close to hysteria. So much so that the family members who had been checking on their youngest daughter’s safety were startled and yielded their concern.
Ethan, who had been away, was especially frantic, but as always, the most composed Isaiah Kortvan somehow managed to handle his juniors.
Of course, Rita felt chills at the words he added.
“Junior, you’re keeping in mind what I said before, right? Don’t forget that next time, I go first.”
Gid was strangely calm.
He neither stopped his colleagues who were jumping around in anger at Pascals, nor joined them, but simply stared quietly at Lillieta who was being held by Beacon.
The colleagues only calmed down after confirming that Rita had just had a nosebleed and a cut on her lip, but wasn’t seriously injured anywhere.
Meanwhile, Olivia shouted exactly as Rita had expected, “I was hoping not to see that damn nosebleed!” which made Rita struggle to hold back her laughter. She felt like she’d really get scolded if she laughed in this situation.
She didn’t mention and hid the fact that she had received punishment from Oaths or that nightmares had resurfaced, causing hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.
In the past, she would have spoken honestly about everything for accurate situation reporting, but now that she understood what it meant for them to worry about her, she couldn’t bring herself to tell them.
‘The punishment subsided safely anyway, and things like hallucinations or auditory hallucinations don’t show on the outside.’
Beacon decided to discuss the tracking of the damn Pascals and changes to the ‘gift’ operation due to the oath Hanna made in front of him in the salon, then report the results to Rita separately later.
Olivia, made anxious by the sudden assassination attempt, only went home after getting permission from the Raskail Count and Countess to set up barrier magic around Creme Dome. This was a temporary measure, she said, promising to install proper magic later.
After roughly sorting out the situation and seeing off her colleagues, Lillieta finally went to bed late.
Her tired body from staying up all night was one thing, but she had been on edge worrying that someone might die or get hurt, so she thought she’d fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, but sleep wouldn’t come at all.
When she closed her eyes, she saw incomplete corpses, and when she opened them, it felt like the Mimic she had just subjugated would crawl out from the shadows of her bedroom.
A booming sound echoed faintly in her ears.
It had been audible since the moment she saw Leonhardt’s head rolling, but she had pushed it out of her consciousness while focusing on battle, and now that the situation was over, it began to bother her several times more.
‘Right, just because I killed the Mimic doesn’t mean this kind of thing will magically disappear. It was the same before.’
If it had been magic or a curse, she could have found some way to break it, but the scars left on her weren’t that kind.
Fortunately, she knew well how to comfort herself.
Rita calmly got up and looked for her music box. Just as she opened the window to go out to the garden while holding it.
Her eyes met Gideon’s, who was just about to climb the tree in front of her bedroom.
“…What are you doing there, Gid?”
She didn’t understand why he was here when he had finished discussing the aftermath with the Raskail Count and Countess and returned to the Imperial Palace.
At Rita’s bewildered question, Gid smiled sheepishly and asked the opposite of when he had visited before.
“Rita, want to come out for a moment?”
“Come out?”
“I have something to give you.”
Lillieta hesitated for a moment, then set down the music box she was holding. She didn’t want to worry him by showing signs of hearing things.
After putting on a robe over her newly changed negligee, she climbed through the window. Gid spread his arms below. Rita jumped toward him without hesitation. He caught her lightly and walked through the garden while still holding her.
“I noticed there was a fountain over here earlier.”
Unlike the garden behind the manor that had become a mess when the Mimic died and melted away, the garden in front of the manor was intact. Gideon naturally walked along the gravel path between the hedges as if it were his own home, arriving at the fountain surrounded by flower beds.
Around the marble fountain carved with a woman holding jewels like fruit and a knight with a sword, there were several benches. Gid spread a handkerchief on one of them and sat Rita on top of it.
“A handkerchief… You don’t really see me as a real noble family young lady, do you?”
At Rita’s words as she frowned, Gid chuckled.
“You are a real noble family young lady, Rita.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know, but you must be tired.”
After giving an answer Rita couldn’t understand, he pulled out a blanket from somewhere and covered her shoulders like a shawl. It seemed like he had prepared it near the bench in advance.
Lillieta was about to ask what this was about when she saw what he took out next and was speechless.
A music box.
Unlike hers, which was an ivory box decorated with gold and jewels, this was a modest wooden object. The rose pattern engraved on the lid of the box was familiar.
Gideon sat close beside her and opened it. A small angel doll began to dance.
He said nothing. In the silence, the sound of the music box resonated gently against the background of the fountain’s water.
A familiar, so very familiar melody. Touching shoulders and low breathing. Wordless comfort.
These things covered over the booming sound. Covering and enveloping, soothing.
Something was about to burst out, so Rita bit her lip.
Their faces reflected in the unbroken mirror attached to the inside of the lid. Looking at those faces that were different from before – Gid with both his eyes and herself completely changed – she finally calmed down. She reminded herself that this was Creme Dome’s garden, not a campsite in ruins.
She murmured quietly.
“I thought I’d seem fine.”
“To me too?”
When Rita remained silent, he let out a low laugh.
“There’s no way I wouldn’t notice your condition.”
Before she knew it, dusky dawn was breaking at the distant edge of the sky.
Before the moon set and the sun rose. A subtle time.
He smiled under the sky where purple was spreading. The sound of flowing water mixed with the music box’s sound, and the angel he had brought spun round and round. The air grew warm.
Before she knew it, the booming had stopped.
Suddenly, Lillieta reached out and traced his face bathed in dawn light. Gideon blinked for a moment, then lowered his head to make it easier for her to touch. Then he asked.
“Why?”
Rita didn’t answer. She couldn’t understand why herself.
Even so, she didn’t stop her hand. She traced his jawline, felt around his eyes, brushed along his eyebrows, and touched his cheek. As if confirming who was here, as if remembering.
Gid, who had been quietly offering his face, suddenly lowered his eyes. He stared at her lips, which had been treated with potion earlier, then gently pressed them with his fingertip.
“…!”
She flinched in surprise and pulled her head back. When she stared at him, he asked in confusion.
“Does it still hurt?”
“No.”
She shook her head and added.
“I was just surprised.”
Then Gideon deliberately made an aggrieved expression.
“You touched me all you wanted, but I can’t?”
“…”
Lillieta was silent for a moment, then leaned her head toward him again. It was wordless permission.
His eyes widened. She thought his pupils resembled the sun that was slowly peeking out from the edge of the sky.
Gid slowly pressed her lips with his fingertip, then gently caressed them. It was a movement that remembered where the wound had been.
As he did so, his eyes narrowed. His pupils, half-hidden between his eyelids, became even more like the rising sun.
She was grateful that unlike the sun, those eyes were two. At the same time, she recalled the moment when they had become one like the sun.
Rita touched his right eye area and suddenly spoke up.
“Back then… when we were 14.”
“…”
“Why did you do that?”
What she hadn’t bothered to ask back then. The reason she hadn’t asked because she thought she knew, she now asked belatedly.
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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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