Rather than kneeling as though he were being punished for a crime, he looked up at her from below like a knight offering his sword to his lord, like a man laying his life at the feet of his lady.
“I’m not like that man earlier. I can’t say something so neat and proper like confessing my feelings and being satisfied with just that.”
“Ah…”
“I want to be your lover. I want you. I want us to call each other by name, to have dinner together, to walk side by side holding hands.”
His confession didn’t quote any grand or flowery verses, but the desperation in his eyes was painfully sincere. And unlike the earlier confession she had brushed aside, Karia met his gaze and listened intently.
“You are…”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Your desires are always so modest.”
At Noah’s earnest declaration, Karia burst into laughter. She had noticed his feelings long ago.
Noah was not someone who hid his emotions. Whatever he might have been like around others, at least to Karia, his straightforward feelings had been obvious from the beginning.
He seemed so confident, but seeing Higeon must have made him nervous.
Just as Karia understood Noah well, Noah must also have sensed her favor. Whether it came from confidence in his own appearance or an overly optimistic view of how others saw him, he had been sure of their relationship. But perhaps that confidence hadn’t been as solid as he’d thought.
I don’t remember thinking he was this cute when I looked at Guilford.
Whether this confession was born of jealousy or impatience, Karia didn’t dislike it. Seeing his face as he spoke of love made her feel as though she had been carried back into the past.
“Are you really going to call me by name? I have a title now. If I start acting too familiar with a knight, others might get ideas and overstep their bounds.”
“Then… is it all right when we’re alone, Karia?”
A man with the exact same face as the one she had once loved called her by her name for the first time. A name that had always belonged to her, yet had always felt faintly uncomfortable—strangely, she didn’t dislike it now.
It felt different from when her family or her husband’s relatives called her that. Being called by him made existing as “Karia” feel no longer so unpleasant.
It was a ticklish sensation—not irritating or something she wanted to brush away, but like a feather gently stroking her chest.
“It’s not bad, surprisingly. I’ll allow it, Noah.”
Karia smiled mischievously and returned his name to him. Noah’s expression visibly brightened. She had called Higeon a dog as an insult, but Noah was like a big dog in a very different way.
She rose from her seat, imagining a large black hunting dog panting with its tongue out, wagging its tail furiously for her alone.
“Then shall we go have dinner now?”
“Ah, that is…”
The red light of the sky was being swallowed by deep navy, tinged with violet. Seeing the darkened window, Noah suddenly came to his senses and pulled up the hood of his robe.
“No, let’s have dinner another time.”
“There’s no guarantee there’ll be a ‘next time.’”
Thinking he was embarrassed and that that was why he’d hidden his face so completely, Karia answered teasingly. But Noah hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
“I’ll be going now.”
It was a rather cold response for someone who had just confessed. He gave a light bow and turned away. Arms crossed, Karia watched him.
He was really leaving like this? After throwing out a confession, after she had allowed him to call her by name? The whole situation felt like an elaborate joke.
“What are you always so busy with?”
“It’s very late.”
“Are you afraid of the dark? You have a surprisingly childish side.”
With his back turned, Noah strode out of the room. Karia followed quickly after him. No matter how many times she teased him, he didn’t respond.
Because she was walking a little irritably, the sound of her heels echoed loudly through the corridor.
“Are you going to keep following me?”
“Why did you put your robe back on? You dressed so nicely in your knight’s uniform today.”
“Could you at least say I look impressive? Or dependable, at the very least?”
“I can’t lie. You’re beautiful. And honestly, I prefer that si—ah!”
She was stubbornly talking as she chased after him. They had left the corridor and reached the stairs of the central entrance, and Noah didn’t slow his pace.
With the difference in their heights came a difference in stride as well, so Karia kept hurrying. As she chased after his back, she misstepped without realizing it.
“Karia!”
At her startled cry and the uneven sound of her steps, Noah reflexively turned around. The moment he saw her stumble, his body moved before his mind could think.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her in, and with his other hand pressed her head against his chest.
Their bodies collapsed together, rolling rapidly down several steps of the staircase.
“—Ugh! Karia, are you all right? I told you not to walk so fast on the stairs!”
Fortunately, because they fell sideways and rolled on their backs, neither of them lost consciousness or suffered serious injuries.
Though it was Noah whose shoulder had slammed against the marble steps, even in his dazed state he focused on Karia first.
Hearing his voice, Karia groaned softly and slowly lifted her head from his arms. But the moment she saw his face, shock flooded her expression.
“—Your hair.”
“My hair?! Does your head hurt?! Damn it, did you hit it somewhere? Please bear with it—I’ll call a physician at once!”
“No… not me. Your hair.”
In the chaos of their fall, the hood that had covered Noah’s head had slipped off. The hair revealed beneath it shimmered a brilliant silver, catching the light of the chandelier.
“Ah.”
He blankly touched his head for a moment, then jolted and hurriedly pulled the hood back up. But that couldn’t erase what she had already seen.
Pale skin that seemed to glow faintly, fine silver hair like spun thread, and between it, large ears shaped like leaves…
So this was what it meant when they said one’s hearing sharpened at night.
As if entranced, Karia reached out toward him.
“Is this why you always leave once night falls?”
She knew they looked alike—but she hadn’t imagined it was to this extent.
Half human by day, half elf by night… there was no doubt about it. He was a half-elf.
Just like Guilford.
“Mother? What do you mean? You said you had no family.”
“No. That woman… I have never had such a woman as my mother!”
It was not long after Asmof married Guilford. One day, a woman claiming to be Guilford’s biological mother came to her estate. A provincial lord, she said she had been searching for the son who had run away long ago, and had discovered Guilford by chance while visiting the capital.
Both Asmof and Guilford were orphans, and over the years countless people had approached them claiming to be family. But Guilford’s reaction this time was markedly different.
After meeting his mother, he shut himself in his room for days. When he finally came out, seemingly resolved, he confessed to Asmof the secret he had hidden his entire life.
“—Guilford, that appearance…?”
When he snapped his fingers, an artificial wind wrapped around his body. The form revealed afterward was not the husband she knew.
Skin pale and shimmering as if dusted with pearl powder, longer lashes, and more delicate features exuding a decadent beauty. And the ears—clearly larger and pointed—were unmistakably not human.
“—You should know, my lady. I was born a bastard, the child of that woman and an elf slave she bought.”
“How could that be…”
“She was obsessively attached to my father. After he ran away, she turned that obsession toward me. My childhood was a nightmare. I survived only by desperately learning magic and escaping. She is not family—she is nothing but a horrible nightmare. Even this half of me that I inherited from her is hateful.”
By day, Guilford took on the form of an elf and had to hide his true appearance with magic. By night, he loathed the human form he had inherited from his horrific mother. He could not love himself for even a single moment. And Asmof had watched all of this from closer than anyone.
“You are not horrible. To my eyes, there is not a single part of you that isn’t beautiful. I love you.”
Every night, Asmof stayed by Guilford’s side as he sank into self-loathing, praising his beauty.
In truth, Guilford’s appearance had never mattered much to her. She loved him because he had noticed her fragility and loved her for it. So now it was her turn. If he hated himself, then she would stay by his side and keep telling him she loved him.
In time, strange rumors spread that she was so bewitched by Guilford’s looks that she had lost all sense of reason—but even that was trivial in the face of love.
“Don’t look!”
Now, after so much time had passed, Noah—who bore the exact same face as Guilford—was shrinking under the same burden. He hastily pulled up his hood and hid his face, but what had been seen could not be undone.
“I didn’t want you… of all people… to see such a horrible 모습…”
