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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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5 minutes earlier.
Leaving the student council executives behind, Yuria walked to the back of the auditorium.
‘It’s okay. I’ll be fine even if I see him.’
Yuria thought to herself.
However, as she got closer to the back of the auditorium, her breathing gradually became faster.
Yuria suddenly felt dizzy in her head.
Without realizing it, she gently placed her hand on her chest, feeling her heart beating violently for reasons unknown to her.
‘Why…’
She should have forgotten by now.
No, at least she had tried to forget the past memories.
The two years at Deinhart Castle.
She thought she had shaken off the memories of those two years when she could live happily without any worries.
But now that boy had returned, and so did those memories.
As if trying to disturb her present self through the past.
With the meeting place in sight, Yuria habitually grasped the necklace around her neck tightly.
She wondered when she had forgotten that this, too, was given by that boy.
Yuria smiled self-deprecatingly and stepped forward with determination to face the boy.
The boy stood still, then lifted his head as if he had spotted Yuria.
The boy with sun-like eyes smiled as he saw her.
And then he opened his mouth with a smile.
“It’s been a long time, Your Imperial Highness. Or should I call you senior now?”
Leonhart’s voice, which she heard after a long time, was much softer than she remembered.
Yuria felt a tingling in her heart.
It hurt.
“Call me senior. When it’s just the two of us… you can call me anything.”
Yuria had to try hard to open her mouth as if nothing was wrong.
“I will do so.”
Leonhart said that and leisurely walked towards her.
Yuria maintained her usual cold gaze while suppressing the urge to step back.
“Your Highness. I understand that you’ve been through many confusing events. I’ve been worried all along. That’s why I’ve been wanting to see you. As your knight who made an oath with you.”
Yuria realized how much Leonhart’s words shook her.
With each word he uttered, the marks he had left on her in the past radiated heat.
Yuria responded sharply to that tingling sensation that was gradually getting hotter.
“Did you call me here to say such shallow words? Calling yourself my knight, yet never once looking for me.”
“I couldn’t come. Though it may not compare to what Your Imperial Highness has been through, it was a hectic time for me as well.”
Leonhart bowed his head elegantly and solemnly in apology.
“Of course, I didn’t call Your Highness here to make such apologies. There’s something I really want to ask.”
“Something you want to ask?”
“Yes. But it’s not just a verbal request.”
Leonhart lifted the box he was holding in his hand.
And then he slowly opened the box to show what was inside.
At that moment, butterflies that seemed alive spread their colorful wings and flew up into the sky from inside the box.
Yuria admired the beautiful sight and unconsciously reached out her hand.
The light scattered by the butterflies, shimmering faintly like moonlit snowflakes, settled in Yuria’s palm.
Yuria, mesmerized by the sight, slowly lowered her head.
Inside the box was a pair of blue earrings.
“Will you accept my gift, Your Highness?”
Leonhart said, his eyes curving like crescent moons.
Her head was spinning.
The pain in her heart intensified.
It seems she had extrapolated what he wanted to ask her.
“Into Your Highness’ student council…”
At that moment, Yuria was lost in her thoughts and missed the first part of what Leonhart had said.
“…Please accept me.”
So all she heard was this last part, the most crucial three words.
Yuria squeezed her eyes shut.
If she accepted his feelings now, he would be disappointed soon enough.
Leonhart needed to learn about her current self.
He probably thought she was still the pure and beautiful girl from when she was 10 years old.
And she feared Leonhart being disappointed when he learned about her current self.
She was scared that he might leave her forever after being so disappointed.
It was better not to know.
It was better not to accept.
Even if her heart was torn apart, even if it hurt so much, she couldn’t breathe.
“…You’re cruel. Leonhart Deinhart.”
Yuria vented a slight resentment towards him for causing her pain.
However, she knew it wasn’t his fault.
Her vision blurred, and tears welled up.
Yuria took a step back as if pushing away the one trying to approach her out of concern.
“I’m different from before. You’ll surely be disappointed. I’m sorry, Leonhart.”
Even as Yuria said those words, she felt as if her heart was completely crumbling.
Her vision blurred, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
For a moment, when her vision cleared, she saw him gazing at her with concern on his beautiful face.
“I can’t accept you.”
Yuria said that as if pronouncing a sentence on herself, not him, and turned her body.
And she ran away mindlessly, turning the corner.
At that moment,
Thud!
Her shoulder collided with someone.
The girl fell back lightly without even a surprised scream.
Yuria’s eyes momentarily met with those of the beautiful girl with azure hair who had fallen to the ground.
She seemed to be a new student.
Yuria felt a somewhat chilling sensation when their eyes met, but she thought it was just her imagination.
Because another thought came to mind first.
“You didn’t see anything. Forget whatever you saw.”
Yuria gave a light warning, thinking the girl might have been watching.
She wouldn’t talk about what she had seen if she was in her right mind and wanted to keep her life.
Yuria turned her eyes away from the azure-haired girl and ran away from that place as if escaping.
Yuria, who only thought of getting away from that place, didn’t notice the reciprocal glare from the azure-haired girl.
“Senior… love… confession?”
Livia muttered, placing her long, slender fingers on her lips.
“…Hmm.”
Earlier in the auditorium, Livia had sensed an unusual atmosphere when she saw Leonhart and Yuria communicating through lip movements.
So she carefully got up secretly, simultaneously using three spells that were the essence of assassination magic – invisibility, presence erasure, and noise cancellation – and followed Yuria.
As expected, Yuria had intended to meet the senior from the beginning.
She walked with somewhat uneasy steps, coming all the way to the back of this auditorium, and began to talk with the senior.
‘Thieving cat…’
Livia thought as she spied on the senior and Yuria.
She wished she could hear their conversation but couldn’t hear anything due to the soundproofing magic.
But something was strange.
Yuria was fidgeting as if she already knew what the senior was going to say.
The Senior showed a soft and warm smile he had never shown to her.
‘Could it be…?’
And then, after seemingly exchanging some conversation, the Senior finally politely took out a gift and offered it to Yuria.
When the senior opened the box, pretty butterflies flew up, beautifully adorning the sky.
Each drop of light falling like scattered water droplets was enchanting.
‘Ah… the gift prepared by senior is as noble as senior himself.’
Livia was envious.
She was so, so envious of Yuria, who could receive the senior’s gift.
A tingling sensation she had never felt before ran through Livia’s body.
‘Senior… no. That woman is a thief! You’ll never be happy if you get together with her!’
However, Livia witnessed a shocking sight.
Yuria, who received the senior’s gift, rejected his noble gift and even ran away crying.
‘No way…’
Livia thought blankly as she lay fallen where she had collided with Yuria.
Could there be… someone who would reject the senior’s feelings?
‘How? The senior who smiles so kindly? When just blinking his eyes, just breathing in and out makes the whole world love him? Unless you die from shock upon receiving the senior’s love, how could such an atrocity of running away be possible? Is it because he’s too noble, because she can’t accept it?’
Livia slowly got up.
The more she thought about it, the more complicated her head became.
So she decided not to think about things that wouldn’t yield answers no matter how much she thought about them.
It was one of the teachings of the assassination guild, where Livia had grown up for years since birth.
Instead, she decided to use a more straightforward method.
‘I guess I’ll have to ‘take care of’ her. How dare she reject Senior’s feelings…?’
Perhaps that way, the senior’s wounded heart would be healed, too.
Before that, Livia gently got up, intending to comfort him, who must have been deeply hurt.
Feeling her obsession with him grow even stronger.
“Senior! I’ve been looking for you because I couldn’t see you!”
Livia lightly jumped into the sight of the senior she had come to love and love endlessly, drawing a smile.
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