Chapter 16
When Bella opened the box, she frowned.And then — confusion.
‘Wha… white, thin… lace underwear?!’
Snap!
She slammed the lid shut.
It felt like she had just seen something she really shouldn’t have.
“Th-this… what is this, ma’am?”
“Oh my, why so shy? You’re a grown woman~”
It wasn’t shyness. It was shock.
‘Wait—this is?!’
Bella, who thought she was mature, suddenly changed her mind.
She was still a child — maybe even, as Aurora once said, a tiny speck of life in the vast world.
‘Mom… do people really give each other sexy underwear as a thank-you gift?’
Sure, there were rumors.
People already misunderstood her relationship with Acares anyway.
But still—this was too much!
“I-I’m sorry, ma’am, but I really can’t accept this.”
“Oh? Why not? Don’t you like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… it’s just… too much.”
“Oh dear, really?”
Coco frowned, looking disappointed.
“If it’s too much, then that’s that, I suppose.”
“Yes! If I wore this, even my late mother would come back just to scold me!”
Coco chuckled softly.
“Well, I only wanted to give you a bridal veil. After all, the Holy Marriage Festival is coming up.”
“Ah… what?”
Bridal veil?
Bella opened the box again.
Now that she looked properly — it wasn’t underwear at all.
It was a delicate wedding veil, old but beautifully elegant.
“How is it? Do you like it now?”
Coco’s wrinkled face brightened with a smile.
In the Kingdom of Pione, it was tradition for mothers to pass down their wedding veils to their daughters when they married.
On the day of the Holy Marriage Festival, brides-to-be wore those veils and waited for their grooms to propose.
‘Oh right… the Hedletons had a daughter, didn’t they?’
They did — a beautiful only daughter.
But she had passed away young, and the couple had lived in grief for years.
To them, Bella had become like another daughter — a ray of light.
She always treated them kindly and often helped out at their ranch.
Bella closed the box and hugged it gently to her chest.
“No, I really like it, Mrs. Coco!”
“Oh, you do? That’s wonderful!”
Coco’s face instantly brightened.
Bella bowed deeply.
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Coco.”
It was clear there had been a misunderstanding — but Bella didn’t mind.
Coco’s heartfelt gesture was something she couldn’t reject.
—
At the far end of the house, on the floor where Bella’s room was, Acares stood on the balcony looking down.
“The ranch owners… the Hedletons, right.”
They had visited even while Bella was unconscious — bringing a whole crate of milk.
Acares never quite understood how people could produce that much milk so often.
But what had really startled him wasn’t the milk — it was what Coco had said.
“I don’t know your name, young man. May I just call you Bella’s husband?”
Bella’s husband.
Technically… she wasn’t wrong.
He was acting like her husband, after all.
But acknowledging that publicly — that was something else entirely.
Even though he was hiding in a foreign land, danger could appear anywhere, anytime.
If enemies ever found him, they could use Bella as leverage against him.
Sure, he had changed his appearance completely, and his Shadow Knights guarded the area, but still…
‘Maybe I should’ve just been her butler, like Lie.’
That would’ve been easier — butlers didn’t have to worry about feelings.
Instead, here he was, tangled in emotions.
‘Annoying.’
“…Why, Bella?”
He remembered hearing her thoughts earlier — that one short phrase that had bothered him since.
Just because he could read people’s minds didn’t mean he truly understood them.
Bella, too, could control everything with her powers — yet sometimes she felt powerless.
Still, she had once said she needed a husband.
So for now, he would play that role — try to understand her heart.
Why did she hate the gods so much?
And was that hatred somehow connected to why she couldn’t use her Oracion powers?
“Bella, what on earth are you—”
Sexy underwear.
“Cough!!”
Holy Marriage Festival veil…
Acares spat out the water he’d just drunk.
He couldn’t hear clearly from this far, but it was definitely Bella’s voice — her thoughts again.
He looked down from the balcony.
Bella was talking with Mrs. Hedleton, receiving something from her.
Holy Marriage Festival veil…
There it was again — her voice in his head.
“Holy Marriage Festival…?”
He’d heard townspeople mention it before — a day where engaged couples gathered and publicly proposed.
Acares blinked, then froze.
‘Wait… Bella can’t seriously be thinking of marrying me, can she?’
He sighed, running a hand through his golden hair.
“This is… a problem.”
Things were definitely getting out of hand.
***
Later, Bella returned home.
The first thing that greeted her was the huge fountain statue at the entrance — a half-naked muscular man spouting water.
‘…Should I get rid of that?’
She didn’t know why she had created such a thing when shaping this house through magic, but now it was just awkward.
“You’re back, my lady?”
“Ah, yes.”
As always, Rie appeared out of nowhere to greet her.
But her apron was ripped to shreds.
“R-Rie, what happened to you?”
“Oh, nothing serious. Just had a little fight with the wolf.”
“I… see.”
‘Mom, living in a house that doesn’t match your budget is one thing, but living with people who fight wolves like it’s nothing — that’s another level of stress.’
Lie brushed off some blood-stained fur from her apron and handed Bella a silver tray.
On it was a small bowl with something shiny and greenish inside.
“Lady Bella, Lord Acares prepared this for you.”
“Acares did? What is it?”
“Apple sherbet.”
“…What?”
Bella’s eyes widened slightly.
Apple sherbet — her favorite childhood treat.
‘Come to think of it… he made that the first day we met, too.’
Acares often recreated the dishes her mother, Simone, used to make.
‘Acares said he can hear the voice of God, right? …Could he also hear my mother’s voice?’
Bella remembered something her mother once told her:
Oracion users could sometimes communicate with previous Oracion users — even after death.
But Bella had never been able to.
Acares, on the other hand, seemed to easily do things she couldn’t.
So maybe… just maybe… he could hear Simone’s voice.
“That’s… so strange,” she whispered softly.
She was the one who had summoned him — and yet somehow, he seemed beyond her control.
He wasn’t just a summoned being anymore. He felt… different.
‘Alright… I’ll figure it out slowly.’
“Rie, where’s Acares right now?”
“He went out, my lady.”
“What? Out? Where to?”
“He said he might not be back for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“I… don’t know.”
Rie avoided her gaze.
‘Can summoned beings even decide to go out on their own?’
Bella frowned. That wasn’t how summoning contracts worked.
Just as she narrowed her eyes at Rie—
“Awoooooooo!”
A loud wolf’s howl shook the entire mansion.
(To be continued…)
