Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Chapter 24

No, actually, this was alright. I had been sleeping soundly without even dreaming until recently, so my fatigue had lessened quite a bit. I thought it would be okay to stay up some more.

“It must be hard to sleep uncomfortably. Are you okay?”

But it might not be good for Bleon. So I asked him if he was okay, and Bleon replied right away.

“Then what shall we talk about?”

Saying so, I lifted my gaze to see his face. Bleon kept looking at me as I made eye contact with his blue eyes.

And it was a moment. Suddenly, for no reason, my heart started beating wildly.

‘Because I’m stuck like this, he’d be able to hear my heartbeat…’

I wriggled around to move away a little.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“Uh, it’s just… a little cramped.”

Bleon moved back slightly when I said it’s cramped. But his arms were still hugging me. Still, now that there was a sense of distance, even by a single span, I carefully exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Still cramped…?”

Bleon’s voice subsided a little, probably because he was confused that I sighed.

“No, I’m fine now.”

My heart was still beating so fast that it didn’t seem to calm down, but I thought he wouldn’t notice this, so I tried to focus on something else.

“So what are we going to talk about?”

“Do you remember the day we first met?”

I was going to talk about what we were going to talk about, but Bleon asked me if I remember the day we first met.

“The day we first met?”

But that was when he met Astell, not me, so I traced Astell’s memory for a while. Astell had memories of meeting him when they first met several months before Bleon’s parents died in an accident. Astell had attended a handful of banquets since she had come of age, and it was in one of those balls.

On that day, too, at the initiative of her family, she was ridiculed and insulted by the nobles because of her appearance. However, there was the sound of someone approaching with light footsteps nearby.

Astell had hurriedly wiped away her tears. And she didn’t want to show herself crying, so she quickly turned around, bowed her head, and tried to get out of the place. Then, she saw a boy, standing still as he looked at her. And as she lowered her head, she was forced to look at the child’s eyes.

“…….”

“…….”

She felt embarrassment and shame when the child saw that she had cried, and at the same time, she was captivated by the appearance of the child in front of her eyes. He was so pretty that in this moment, his blue eyes captured her heart and she forgot that she had to avert her gaze.

If there was such a thing as an angel, would they look like him? Astell thought so. That’s how much the child’s appearance felt out of this world. But, aside from that, the child was looking at with the same admiring gaze.

“You are so pretty.”

And she unwittingly said to the child.

‘If I had been as pretty as you, I wouldn’t have to be treated like this…’

If she would have been half as pretty as him, she would have married and had children by now and lived like other nobles. But as she felt that she could never be like that, Astell became so envious of the child’s features, poignantly feeling her own humiliation. But the very next words that came out of the child’s mouth were words that she had never heard and had never imagined.

“Sister is pretty, too.”

“What?”

Astell that she had heard it wrong as it didn’t make sense, so she asked back.

“Sister is much prettier than I am.”

And as if the child really felt so, he told Astell one more time.

“So don’t cry, Sister.”

Saying that, the child smiled more than anyone else. Leaving behind the memory, I came back to the present.

“I remember. We met for the first time in a garden. There…”

It was a wedding anniversary banquet of a certain nobleman, but I couldn’t remember whose it was.

“It’s not…”

“What?”

“The first time we met wasn’t there…”

What do you mean?

“I guess that day was one of the ordinary days for Wife… Because Wife has a beautiful heart…”

“What do you mean? Did we meet before that?”

It was something that I had never read in the novel, nor could I find a trace of it within Astell’s memory.

“Yes…”

When I couldn’t remember right away, Bleon answered with a sullen expression.

“When?”

I couldn’t resist my curiosity and asked him.

“…The masquerade…”

Masquerade? A masquerade… When? Still, I could easily recall some memories, but I couldn’t remember a masquerade. I once again tried to bring out Astell’s deep memories.

‘Ah…!’

And I remembered what happened when Astell was twenty.

‘At that time, the little boy in the puppy mask was Bleon.’

The masquerade that day was a banquet where you could go if you wore a mask due to a nobleman’s whim. The masquerade was also a day when a lot of nobles attended for a different kind of entertainment because most of them had only heard of a masquerade yet did not intend to hold one.

At the age of 20, Astell was not as depressed yet, no matter how bad she looked. However, when all the young girls of the same age as her were married, her family’s contempt and ridicule became more and more pointed than she could have imagined as she had not been courted by anyone for three years.

Anyway, Astell at the masquerade party was quite brave, thanks to the mask. And she expected that she would meet a decent person there, but no one came to her, seeing her face under the mask.

‘Of course.’

Astell hid her pitiful laugh under the mask as she walked out of the banquet hall. At that time, she still kept her head up. There are still plenty of opportunities ahead, so there’s no need to fret. As she wandered around with that thought, she heard the voices of children from somewhere.

“Take it off! Take it off!”

“Stop it…!”

Several children surrounded one child and were trying to remove his mask.

“Give it up! I will have it!”

“No…! This is mine…!”

“How can you be so ugly? The puppy mask is mine!!”

The word ugly struck Astell’s nerves. She quickly approached the children.

“What are you doing!”

“Ahh!”

“Run away!”

Suddenly, an adult appeared and tried to scold them for their mischief, so the children ran away. Astell couldn’t leave the crying child that was sitting down to chase after the children, so she approached the child.

“Are you okay?”

The child’s mask almost slipped off, but luckily it wasn’t ruined. Astell wanted to take off the mask of the crying child and tried to wipe the tears away, but she just put the mask on him properly.

‘Maybe you don’t want to show your face.’

Just like her.

Astell continued to think of the ugly comments that the children had made, and she waited by the child’s side until his tears stopped. And as the whimpering gradually subsided, the child raised his head and looked at her.

“Thank you…”

“Have you calmed down now?”

“Yes…”

Astell leaned over and stroked the gold-thread-like hair until the child calmed down.

“Your friends are so mean. Right?”

“…Not my friends.”

“Huh?”

“A person who bullies others is not a friend…”

“Oh, yes. You shouldn’t be friends with people who bully you .”

So what if the bully is a family member? Suddenly, Astell had that thought. She couldn’t leave them because they’re her family. On the contrary, she was the one who tried to keep herself from being abandoned by them. But all that always came back to her was hurtful words and cold looks.

But this child’s circumstances were different from hers. The mask gave her courage to say things she would not have been able to say if this was a normal situation, and she said words that were possible because the person before her was a very young child.

“If they bother you again later, take it seriously.”

“What?”

She felt the blue eyes turn in surprise at the unexpected words.

“You’re not even friends, so who cares? Just make sure they never bother you again. Understand?”

Astell actually told the child to do the actions that she really wanted to do, but she could never do.

“Otherwise, they’re going to look down on you more and more. So you only have to be brave once.”

“…What do I do if I’m afraid?”

“If you are afraid…? Like today, I will protect you. Trust me.”

Astell smiled brightly as she said that. That was then. Near her, Astell heard her sister’s voice calling her. With a sigh, Astell hurriedly patted the child’s head once more to get back, then turned around. However, the child grabbed Astell’s skirt.

“What… is your name?”

“Astell, it’s Astell Heines.”

“Astell…”

The child said her name in a hushed, quiet voice. He kept repeating Astell’s name as if he wanted to make sure he’d never forget it. And that was the true first meeting that Bleon remembered all along.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────