Chapter 157……………………………
Warm breaths passed between our parted lips.
I could feel the strength increasing in Terrence’s hand that was holding my waist so I wouldn’t fall.
I enjoyed the slightly rough texture of his lips for a moment before pulling away.
“I-Del, this is…”
Terrence, frozen like a rock, looked confused—as if he didn’t know what he should say first.
“Am I understanding this correctly?”
Then he finally managed to say one sentence.
“Can I assume that the feelings you have for me are the same as the ones I have for you?”
Looking at the man staring at me with such a desperate expression, I spoke.
“Yes. I feel the same way as you, Terrence.”
At that moment, Terrence’s pupils widened.
“I like you.”
I liked this man who seemed to have no composure at all yet still insisted on confirming my feelings.
I liked his strict honesty, his thoughtfulness—every side of the person I had personally come to know.
“I want to walk the path ahead of you together. So… will you walk my path with me too?”
The path Terrence must take as someone aiming for the very top of this nation might very well be full of thorns.
But if I’m with him, I feel like we’ll be able to overcome it—just like we have until now.
At some point, that certainty had quietly settled in my heart.
“I-Del…”
With a voice choked with emotion and a face that looked like he might be smiling or crying, he answered:
“Gladly.”
Right after that, Terrence suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace and buried his face in my shoulder.
“I swear. You will never regret the decision you made today for the rest of your life.”
“Yes. I will never regret it either.”
“I-Del, I-Del.”
After calling my name repeatedly, he asked in a surprisingly cautious tone,
“It may not be appropriate to ask in a moment like this… but may I kiss you again?”
“Of course.”
The moment I finished speaking, Terrence rushed toward me.
Our lips overlapped and his desire poured into me.
This kiss was far more intense than the one before.
Soon I realized why I had been able to kiss him so lightly earlier—it was only because he had been holding himself back.
Though he pressed forward fiercely, his burning red eyes never left me.
They looked like the eyes of a predator targeting its prey.
Despite boldly kissing him first and even answering “Of course” to his request, I became embarrassed and closed my eyes.
“Mmm…”
After that, we continued kissing, changing angles and positions.
I couldn’t quite describe the sensation—but it felt so good it was almost like I might faint.
At one point, Terrence pulled away and growled softly.
“This is driving me crazy. You have no idea how much I’ve been holding back all this time.”
“Terrence…”
I looked at him quietly, about to respond.
But suddenly my head spun and my vision blurred.
For some reason, it became hard to keep my balance.
“I-Del?”
Hearing Terrence’s puzzled voice, I suddenly realized something important.
Wait… this…
This didn’t feel like I might faint because it feels good.
It felt like I might actually faint.
“I-Del!”
Terrence caught my collapsing body.
“I-Del! Stay conscious!”
He kept calling my name while touching my cheek, but my mind was growing hazy.
“I’m fine… I just need to rest a little.”
“Fine? Do you know how pale you look? Damn it, I’ll call a physician right now—”
Just then the bedroom door burst open and Lucy rushed in from outside.
“What’s going on?!”
After looking toward us, Lucy’s expression hardened and she shouted,
“Prince! Didn’t I tell you not to give the master too much of your power?!”
“Me? No, I—”
“Step away first!”
At Lucy’s shout, Terrence quickly moved away from me.
Lucy rushed over to me, who was leaning weakly against the sofa, and placed her front paw on my forehead.
“It seems she temporarily developed a fever because she received too much of the prince’s energy. Fortunately, it’s not serious. She should return to normal in a few hours.”
The divine beast let out a deep sigh.
“I left for a moment because it seemed nothing would happen without me, and look at this. Haven’t you been controlling your power well until now, Prince?”
“That can’t be right. I did as usual…”
“Try lying to someone else. Your energy is still extremely unstable right now. When emotions shake, energy tends to shake as well.”
Lucy looked suspiciously back and forth between Terrence and me.
“Did you two fight or something? Why are you both so excited?”
“….”
“….”
Neither of us said anything.
“This level of excitement is something I’d expect after a life-and-death battle.”
The divine beast tilted her head, unable to guess what we had actually been doing.
Anyway, because Lucy insisted that I absolutely needed complete rest, I moved to the bed.
For the record, Terrence tried to carry me there, but Lucy kicked him in the back.
“I told you to stay away! If you touch the master now, the energy inside her that came from you will react to your emotions and continue to fluctuate!”
So Lucy used her own power to float me through the air and place me on the bed.
I wasn’t unconscious, so I could have walked myself—but Terrence and Lucy both objected.
Following Lucy’s instructions, Terrence tried deep breathing and meditation to calm his energy, but all his efforts failed.
After a while, he sat on a sofa far from the bed and apologized.
“I’m sorry. I said I would make sure you never regret choosing me for the rest of your life…”
Staring down at the floor, he spoke in a dejected voice.
“But even while you’re suffering right now, a part of my heart is feeling indescribable joy.”
Terrence covered his face with both hands.
“I still can’t believe it. That you like me.”
If the strange delight in his voice makes me happy, then maybe I’m just as hopeless as he is.
“It feels like a dream.”
“It’s not a dream.”
“Then please say it once more.”
“I like you. I love you, Terrence.”
At last he raised his head and met my eyes.
“I love you too.”
In the dark night when even the moon was hidden behind clouds,
Terrence confessed with a beautiful smile that seemed to shine on its own.
I slipped my hand out from under the blanket.
“Hold my hand.”
“But the divine beast…”
“That nag went to sleep earlier.”
“I’m more worried about your body than her nagging.”
“Just holding hands is fine. I know my body best. Hurry.”
When I insisted impatiently, Terrence hesitated before pulling a chair next to the bed.
Soon he gently took my hand.
“Good.”
When I grinned widely, he smiled back.
Even though we had shared a passionate kiss less than an hour ago, just holding hands now made my heart pound.
Thinking Lucy might appear again at any moment gave the moment a strange thrill.
It felt like we were students secretly fooling around while avoiding a strict teacher’s gaze.
“I-Del.”
Just as I was feeling both satisfied by our hands touching and yet unsatisfied by that alone, Terrence suddenly spoke.
“Do you remember the moment we first met?”
“I do. It was in the Wanderer Forest. I slipped and fell, and you caught me.”
“That’s right. Even though you came looking for me, you gave the cute excuse that you got lost while looking for an escort.”
“…Did I? That’s strange. Why don’t I remember that?”
“You don’t have to feel embarrassed. Thanks to that excuse, I was able to stay by your side under the pretense of escorting you.”
“That’s true. But why bring it up?”
“Even after saying it myself, I couldn’t understand why I offered to escort a woman I had just met.”
He gently squeezed my hand.
“Strangely enough, I wanted to go with you. I wanted to help you.”
Now that I think about it, Terrence had been unusually kind to me from the very beginning.
“But now I understand. I fell in love with you at first sight.”
“At first sight…?”
“I never believed in love at first sight or destiny before, but once you experience it yourself, you understand.”
Terrence said with certainty.
“Even if we had met in a completely different way, I would still have fallen for you.”
Could there be words more romantic than that?
After that, we continued talking about many things while still holding hands.
I wanted to learn even more about him, but at some point my eyes began to slowly close.
“Go to sleep now. We’re only just beginning, so we have plenty of time.”
With Terrence’s reassuring words as the last thing I heard, my consciousness drifted into sweet sleep.
And the next moment—
I was standing in a forest.
Because the sensation had become familiar by now, I quickly realized that I was seeing the real I-Del’s memories again.
Last time it was a memory from when she worked at the Iber Merchant Guild, and before that it was when she was playing with the duke’s two young sons at the Cassius household.
Both had been fairly pleasant memories, so I naturally wondered what this one would be.
For some reason, the “me” in this memory—no, the real I-Del—was currently up in a tree.
“Ah—!”
Suddenly the body swayed.
I tried to regain balance, but soon fell downward.
However, I didn’t feel the impact I expected.
Because someone caught me.
“Hey. What was that all about?”
The person who caught me spoke in an annoyed tone.
“Interrupting someone’s nap.”
It was Terrence.
