Chapter 58

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕲𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

Like an angel's breath descending through my soul's gate, passing through the high walls that I've set, came across like a bypassing nostalgic warmth of the lost and forgotten time.

With every caress that it brought, gently swayed my dull hair, as if combing through it would make my silhouette feel better, and yet the line that followed me was the one that became ashes to the colliding cold wind.

Every echo of footsteps, expensive and ordinary, joys from the reigning masses, and the warmth of the one who continuously wrapped mine to theirs, began to bear fruit, the labor of hours from those cloaked nights, was indeed all my breath has asked for.

When seconds became eternity, then the minutes that passed by became a defining moment of a loop in time, a frozen stance of my mind's cycling memories erupted, like boiling water.

"We've been doing this for a few nights, touring around the market and within the small village, and it seemed that every night, the people got curious because of the old lady's words," Lexus's deep voice descended on my ears and as soft as it sounded, it was full of mixed tones.

A thought came flowing through my mind, as if a lamp suddenly appeared right in front of my soul doing these dances created by the gust of a rustling wind, but the silhouette remained.

When my soul landed on Lexus' mirror, a sense of my body being carried by an unknown force made every hair from my body rise, as nature's soft whispers carried my hair, and my only view was him and everything around, every sound, every breath, every move came to define the vagueness of tomorrow's hold.

My chest felt heavy and before I knew what was happening, my hands that held each other in the middle of my chest got enveloped by his soft leathery warmth, that defined the scars of his past.

Then, the steady sight earlier from my previous stance made way to twirl all around just a second before feeling Lexus' intertwining and yet, burning grip.

My hand that was free, adjusted my coat, and the side of my eyes, which were covered by Lexus' other hand, narrowed only to see how he managed to readjust my mask.

The strands of my hair that the wind freely held got caged from the cloaked fabric of my body, and the sounds of those unfamiliar euphorias rang within, echoes of joyful whispers, erased the agony of the past, and the actions of hands holding the air above, made the stance of instilling light from their hearts.

The enchantments of their words nearly made my feet move on their own until I could feel how Lexus's leather hand seethed through my skin twirling the direction of what I believed and making me face back the darkness of that abyss, a place where only the shadow of the past lives, and yet a very familiar area to see, considering it was the place, where I first gave my bottles of medicines.

His head grabbed the gap between us, breathes that collided with mine, and warmth enveloped my body with his long slender finger coming in between my lips, our souls became one before we heard the bypassing sounds of people's curiosities

"Did you see, Miss Agnes?"

"I thought she went this way?"

"No way! We couldn't lose someone as good as a fairy godmother like her"

"She's a mysterious lady and I don't trust people who are mysterious but she's the first one I put my trust in"

"I could never trust anyone more than her, because she just cured my ailing daughter when the public physician told me that there's no cure for my daughter, I lost hope and faith, until she brought that up!"

"Me too, I never thought to meet her that night, a time that changed my whole life forever..."

"I wanted to at least say my thanks to her because of her miraculous medicines that were free..."

"Who else would be able to give us such a blessing through the form of a woman? I wanted to meet her personally and be of any use to her. I just wanted to repay her for her kindness."

"Me too..."

"Hell, me too!"

Every whisper of the passing people echoed within the dark-empty-looking place, where the only space was made for people who would throw something, it wasn't meant for a huge following.

I could feel his minty breath descending through my heated face, and my frightened hands that kept on barely gripping through his coat managed to land on both of his necks, the moment he took them and put them to where they were now.

With a sudden blink, and gasp from my mouth, I felt my body become lighter and when I looked down, my feet were already above the ground as I felt his warmth touching the hems of my coat.

"It's better to go back for now, since this day, having you deal with a shop owner, wouldn't be possible..."

My head turned to where he was but before I could speak, my opened mouth halted the words because our noses were already touching.

"And I guess, we needed to change the plan for now since a lot of people have hinted you're coming to this place"

"But how?"

"We don't know, but I guess, you being dressed like this, already made someone spot you. Besides, it's not only the commoners who are chasing you. Some of the nobles did as well," his voice that was previously wavy became stern, and his eyes that were calm as the ocean became like the place's figure.

A tight and long gust of air came from my mouth and before I knew what I was doing, my head had already a mind of its own and moved in accordance with the time from Lexus' soul.

And that second, disappeared in a blink of an eye, because the moment my gaze touched the light, my hands that shook from holding Lexus' neck halted and my mouth opened.

"L-Lexus, where exactly a-are we?" I managed to utter despite the blinding lights almost corrupting my vision.

Perhaps, my vision was still caught in this unexpected area and when my feet already landed on the ground, hands that felt like fire came to put their warmth on my shoulders.

Then I faced an unknown expression from him that I'd never seen before.

"Since I've said some words earlier not considering your thoughts, I would like to apologize because when I think about it, it's your effort that pushed these people to believe in your warmth. Right now, we're in the shop you mentioned, the greenery shop where I used to buy some of your potions"

"H-How----"

I heard soft chuckles escaping his mouth, then I saw how his appearance changed again when he swayed the black coat covering his whole body, his usual dress as a butler appeared.

His hands went in between his stomach bend with the corners of his lips plastered in an unfamiliar lift. For a few seconds, his gloved hands carried mine as I could feel my eyes widen when the back of my hands became wet, and yet warm air gusted through it.

"Milady, please allow me to rewrite my wrong words. Please let me bring you to the owner of the greenery shop. I knew this was a plan of yours all along but I felt as if he knew right away who you should be dealing with when it comes to creating a shop within the market"

The corners of my lips mimic his face, and like what he did earlier, instead of a long penetrating air coming out from my body, it came out like a wave of soft rustles.

"I could never expect that you would do such a thing like this, Lexus. Not when I didn't say these things..."

"Then right now, you just discovered another skill of mine, Vestia..." his words descended like soft cotton and yet, I couldn't hope for anything more, not when I was already the one enveloping him with my warmth.

"Then next time, let me be more surprised knowing that I wouldn't take any sacrifices when you endanger yourself in the end, Lexus. You know, you made a promise with me, right?"

"I could never forget any word you said, Vestia. Not when they were like my laws already"

"Silly..."

Then I ruffled his soft and curly chestnut brown hair, only to come up with a cough from the other side of where we were.

"I supposed that you, young lady, was the master of this young sir, as he previously mentioned?" a voice that sounded like thunder, and yet when my gaze descended on the person, barely making any echoes of his footsteps, only the silhouette of a wall remained.

But I gasped when I felt Lexus' hands going overboard through my other shoulder then when my head turned, my eyes created a gap between my lips.

"Oops, as I've guessed, I couldn't even beat this young man's moves even if his master wasn't aware. Such a waste of talent that I wasn't able to recruit a young man like you..." I could see from his soft whispers that they were like knives disguised like a curling wave of wind.

I had never seen this man before, in my entire life, not when I already come back to the past as if it were my present.

He had this single lens of classes attached to his right eye, with laces hanging on both of his ears, from him narrowing our distance, I could see how pointed his nose was, and how neat his hair looked, but it had been tied on the edges of his neck.

If I didn't see the tie, I wouldn't be able to know how his hair descended to his feet but it became thinner as it waved down.

He had the same appearance of suit, like a butler with a handkerchief on the pocket from his chest, his vest was well out together, only that it differed in terms of color.

Butlers usually wore vests with black hues, but this man who seemed as if he was young ironically with his voice, had a vest that was colored deep purple, a previously worn vest in the times before the Mezor empire began.

When he flipped to the other side with his hand under his chin, I could see how his lower lips puffed but there was this unusual badge on his left chest, shining and it's blinding my vision to the point that I could vaguely define what it was.

"So what brings, a shadow assassin claiming that this young lady is his master to my shop again? Are you prepared to make the end of the bargain, Sir Lexus?"