Chapter 14
Annette laughed as she pulled her arm out of Karen’s hand.
“Karen, what are you talking about? We met at school on our first day too, and that day you were busy working late.”
“Ah!”
Karen murmured softly. Annette continued.
“We only didn’t see each other yesterday, right?”
As Annette playfully pinched Karen’s nose, Karen looked at her and broke into a wide smile.
“Anyway. You, tell me everything. How is that man? Did nothing happen with that man?”
Suddenly, the kiss with Elliots came to mind. Afraid that memory might be discovered, Annette quickly changed the subject.
“What about Karl? Hasn’t Karl arrived yet?”
“Exactly. Karl took the train this morning without even giving a reasonā¦”
Karen, who had been speaking, looked at Annette with puzzled eyes.
“See? I knew it. You already knew Karl took the train. What are you guys scheming, leaving me out?”
As Karen spoke rapidly, looking upset, Annette hugged her and said.
“Karen, it’s not like that. I just happened to not be able to tell you. Forgive me, okay?”
Annette spoke affectionately, shaking her body while holding Karen. Then, holding Karen tightly, she explained the reason Karl had taken the train.
After hearing the whole story, Karen wore a dreamy expression and said.
“Annette, then what is the identity of that man named Elliots? Could he really be a prince? Just by his looks, he’s completely a prince. We’re nursing a wounded prince.”
Annette burst out laughing again at Karen’s innocence.
“Is the name of the prince of the Bleit Empire Elliots?”
“Well… he could be hiding his name. Princes do that originally. They conceal their identity.”
As Annette and Karen were giggling like that, the entrance of the hall became noisy.
“Karl! Why are you so late?”
Someone’s voice was heard. Following the voice, Annette and Karen looked toward the entrance of the hall.
Karl, who was entering the hall, spotted Annette and Karen and immediately came over to them.
“Karl, did you have a good trip? Nothing happened?”
“Hey, Karl, you sure did fool meā¦”
Cutting off Karen’s words, Karl whispered to Annette.
“Mission accomplished.”
Karl winked playfully. Then, before Annette could ask anything, Karl, the village’s popular man, was soon surrounded by the villagers.
She had many questions, but since this wasn’t the time to talk with Karl, she gave up.
Annette started preparing for the festival again with Karen.
—
***
—
It was already 9 o’clock. She looked out the window. There was no sign of Annette anywhere outside. It had been thirteen hours already, and this woman hadn’t come home.
‘No matter what it is, she should come in at a reasonable hour.’
Elliots was getting impatient. Just as he was thinking of going out to the riverbank to meet her, he heard the sound of bicycle pedals turning in the distance.
Soon, he saw the small woman with her hair in pigtails, just as he had seen in the morning.
Just as he was about to feel glad at that sight, he saw two more redheads on bicycles behind her.
‘Why are those ones coming at this late hour?’
Elliots shook his head. He already had a feeling it would give him a headache. Elliots decided to pretend to be asleep and immediately went into his room.
The moment Elliots lay down on the bed, the entrance door opened.
“I guess Elliots is asleep?”
At Karen’s cheerful voice, Elliots let out a hollow laugh.
‘Redhead, let’s see if you can still call my name so familiarly after you find out who I am later.’
Elliots thought with his eyes closed. Soon, Karl said.
“Hey, Karen. We dropped Annette off, so let’s go home. Let’s come back tomorrow.”
That’s right. That Karl fellow has been becoming quite decent over the past few days.
“Anyway, Annette, please tell her for me. If we get to meet tomorrow or something, I’ll talk about it again.”
Karl asked Annette for something.
‘Seems like that Karl fellow had a good trip.’
Just as he thought the two siblings were finally leaving this house, the door burst open.
“I want to see his sleeping face at least before I go.”
At the same time, Annette and Karl’s urgent voices of restraint were heard.
“Karen!!”
“Hey!!! You can’t just open the door to a man’s roomā¦”
At their scolding, Karen seemed to be making some excuse, but it wasn’t clear.
Karen seemed to be dragged out by the two, and taken by this unexpected blow, Elliots was frozen stiff, unable to move.
The courage to open the door of the Duke of Erminerus’s room without permission. No, can that even be called courage? In Elliots’s world, it was something unimaginable.
At that thought, Elliots couldn’t hold back his laughter and let out a low chuckle.
After a moment, Elliots stopped laughing and resolved himself.
‘I need to do something about that redhead pony.’
—
***
—
Annette paced in front of the door. She was curious whether Elliots had eaten and fallen asleep, but she couldn’t very well wake him if he seemed to be sleeping.
‘I’ll tell him what Karl said tomorrow.’
Fatigue washed over her. Thinking it was time to wash up and rest, she turned off the lights in the living room and took off her clothes in front of the bathroom.
Just as she took off her dress and was about to pull down her stockings, click, the door opened.
“Huh!”
Startled by Elliots’s sudden appearance, Annette floundered and fell. Her foot had gotten caught in the dress that had fallen to the floor.
Elliots, who had come out, turned his head toward Annette’s flustered voice echoing in the darkness.
There, he faintly saw the fluttering of a small white bird. Without a moment’s hesitation, Elliots reflexively ran toward that spot.
Then, as he reached his hand out toward Annette, who was about to fall to the floor, Elliots realized it.
The fact that Annette was sitting down, wearing only thin undergarments. As the thought crossed his mind, Elliots’s hand caught Annette’s shoulder.
“Ah!”
Annette let out a small gasp.
The shoulders of Annette held within both his hands were soft. The thin lace straps resting on her shoulders made Annette’s small shoulders look even more slender.
‘It would be better to reveal those pretty shoulders.’
The thought briefly crossed his mind. Annette, receiving the full weight of Elliots’s gaze, flustered, tried to stand up.
However, that wasn’t a very good choice.
Because Annette stood up abruptly, Elliots’s hands, which had been holding her shoulders while kneeling on one knee, fell from Annette’s shoulders and ended up tracing down her entire body.
Elliots’s hands, which had passed from her shoulders to her arms and over her hips, awkwardly stopped at her thighs.
After pausing there for a moment, as Elliots slowly stood up, his gaze traveled up Annette’s body.
The thin muslin undergarment, bathed in moonlight, clearly revealed Annette’s silhouette.
Annette’s face flushed with embarrassment. At a loss for what to do, Annette fumbled and tried to step aside.
Elliots extended his arm in the direction Annette was trying to go, creating a wall. Flustered, Annette looked up at Elliots.
Standing with his back to the window, Elliots’s face was shrouded in deep shadow, making his expression unreadable. The man’s body, visible only as a silhouette, felt even more massive.
Reflexively curling her body, Annette turned her body toward the other side. Then, Elliots’s other arm rose and built a wall on that side too.
Annette, trapped by the massive man’s body that even blocked the moonlight, the wall at her back, and his solid arms, didn’t know what to do.
Slowlyā¦ she felt Elliots’s breath approaching.
—
***
—
He had only intended to greet Annette after she finished her day’s work. He had wanted to trade lighthearted jokes with Annette and end the evening listening to how her uneventful day had gone.
He had merely wanted to end his quiet day in this place with a goodnight greeting to Annette.
Even when he reflexively reached out his hand to catch Annette as she fell to the floor, he hadn’t anticipated this result.
But the moment he grasped the slender shoulders of the small woman before him, he instinctively knew the outcome had changed.
The line and texture of her body felt through his entire hands, Annette’s unique scent wafting strongly as her body moved urgently to get up.
All of those things combined momentarily suppressed Elliots’s reason.
Elliots slowly rose and gazed intently at the deep blue eyes shining in the moonlight. Those beautiful eyes were pleading.
The earnest eyes of a cornered, fragile animal ignited something deep within Elliots’s heart.
At that moment, reason, gratitude, nothing else matteredāhe couldn’t think of anything.
In an instant, he roughly pulled Annette’s shoulders toward him and crashed his lips against hers.
Annette froze for a moment, as if caught off guard. To Annette’s ear, frozen motionless, Elliots whispered hoarsely.
“Annette, your lips.”
