Chapter 96: Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Adele roused herself from her daze and immediately felt anxious that she fired off questions one after the other in a single breath.

“What happened? How did you get here?! Oh, my lord—what if the emperor sees you? We might get caught! You need to go, now! The knights—”

“Shh.” Noah placed his finger on Adele’s lips and smiled. “If we ever get caught, it would be because you’re too loud. One at a time, darling.”

Adele felt exasperated at Noah’s lackadaisical attitude—they were in a serious situation!

He already had ‘criminal’ labeled to his name, but he still had the audacity to trespass on palace grounds!

Noah seemed blind to the urgency in her gaze, he only held her hand and stroked her hair. But seeing the emerald ring on her neck irked him to no end. Therefore, he took it off and ‘innocently’ flicked it far across the room.

Inwardly satisfied, he turned his gaze towards her and his expression became solemn.

“You must’ve heard of everything from the emperor.”

Adele failed to notice, perhaps deliberately ignored, his little actions from before and spoke worriedly. “What about the knights?” she bit her lip, “And… what about you?”

Noah gave a short glance behind him, “They’re still fighting. I sneaked away from the battle and made my way here.”

Adele was afraid, if they were caught, what would happen to them? To him?

“Is… is there nothing else we can do?” She asked and suddenly had this fleeting thought.

What if he just surrendered his knights to the imperial family? But when she recalled, during one of her visits, the unconcealed respect in each of the knight’s eyes and the serious yet somehow earnest gaze Noah had when he trained them…

Adele fiddled with her fingers, regretting that she had asked him that question.

Noah wiped her lips his thumb and kissed her lightly. He then whispered, “Mn. There’s nothing else we can do. My knights are my limbs, losing them means reducing my capabilities to protect.”

“The castle?”

“No, you.”

He placed a tender kiss on her lips and uttered lowly. “I need to be able to fully protect my wife, especially now that there’s an idiot trying to take her away from me.”

Adele heart kept beating furiously and berated him, albeit weakly, “You still have the nerve to joke around?”

“Joke? I would never, not when my woman is at stake.”

“Don’t lie…” Adele hit his back with her fist.

Noah caught it and pulled her closer. His playful attitude suddenly disappeared and the mirth in his golden eyes was replaced with pain. “I don’t want you to be taken away from me again. Because you…”

He rested his forehead against hers and muttered underneath his breath.

“Because you are my lifeline.”

He kissed the tip of Adele’s nose and the gap between their lips narrowed. A light moan emitted from her throat and Noah swiftly intertwined his tongue with hers. Their kisses were brief and soft, yet the exchange was filled with heated yearning for one another.

Adele paused her actions to steal a glance of him, only to find that he was already watching her with a smiling face. Noah pulled at her waist and was about to capture her lips for another entanglement when he saw a glimmer of anxiety in her eyes.

Sighing, he grabbed her pale hand and found that her ring finger was currently empty. Touching it lightly he spoke, “I came here for you, and I’m not leaving unless you’re with me.”

The moonlight struck something, and Noah could see it glinting into his peripheral vision.

Walking closer to it, he could see it was Adele’s wedding ring, beside another detestable emerald ring. Ignoring the other one, he took the yellow ring and slowly slipped it on Adele’s finger.

Kissing it slowly, he spoke, “Adellia, come live with me.”

“…”

Seeing that that she didn’t respond, Noah tensed up.

“I… I can make you happy for the rest of your—damn it!” he walked slightly further away from her and ran his fingers through his hair. “Fourteen years of preparation, and I still can’t f*cking say the right thing.”

“Hm? Fourteen?”

Noah paused and slowly directed his gaze towards her. He nodded his head. Adele’s heart thumped inside her chest.

“By any chance, d-did you know me? Even before I married Enon?”

He didn’t speak, but Adele could tell from the way he looked at her. He did.

“But I don’t remember anything about you before that!”

“Naturally.”

“…”

It was a complicated matter. Noah couldn’t help but let out a sigh, “I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here first.”

Adele was visibly perturbed because her first memory of him was when they met two years ago. She really couldn’t bring herself to remember anything else!

But there was something she learned of today.

If she based their interactions of what she knew before, Adele would assume he had only started to have feelings for her recently. But from his words, it was clear that wasn’t the case. He loved her, and it didn’t simply start 2 years ago, but much earlier than that…

Noah carefully grabbed her hand, “I am aware of what you think of me.”

“…”

“No matter how hard I try, you can only see me as your husband’s brother. Which is why you’ve always pushed me away. But…” he tightened his grasp, “I have already accepted that. As long as you choose to stay with me, that doesn’t really matter to me anymore.”

“…”

“Even if you hate me, just… don’t leave me.”

Tears sprung from Adele’s eyes, but it wasn’t because she was touched or happy. “Noah.”

“Mn?”

Adele found it hard to say the words, she tried to cover her face, but Noah caught her thin wrist. Watching his figure bathing beneath moonlight, her heart twisted painfully.

“Did you kill Enon?”