Chapter 67 – Nisty Mansion (3)
It wasn’t a good sign that she spoke flatly to Starchis.
To use half words is to remember what happened then.
She had been consistently using her honorifics, but when she asked to call herself ‘that word’, she finally asked for it by speaking her own language.
-‘Please, Starches..Do it. I’ll ask you just once, it’s a wish.’
She charmingly wrapped Starchis around his neck so he couldn’t escape.
And that means she remembers all of this.
Stachis pretended not to hear and drank his wine.
As if it would disappear if ignored.
“Well?”
Hian put down his glass and said.
“Rose, your cheeks are red. Are you drunk?”
“Joe, you must have drank a little too soon.”
“… Don’t be too excited. There are guests in front of you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
It was Starchis who wondered if the reason her cheeks were red was because of alcohol.
Starchis was uncomfortable with the topic and quickly changed his mind.
“…That, Miss Rose! I hear it’s her birthday soon.”
But Rose doesn’t respond to Starchis’ words and stars at him.
‘…Why…Why again…’
Stachis, anxiously puzzled, waited for Rose’s reaction.
Soon Rose snorts her snort and she speaks again with a warm expression.
“…Yes, it’s my birthday soon.”
She says as she looks at Hian and Stion on the other side of her.
He was blatantly dissatisfied.
Starchis couldn’t figure out why.
“Congratulations, lady.”
“Congratulations.”
Stachis and Stion say.
“Thank you. When is the birthday of Stachis or Stion?”
“…Um…Neither of us have anything like that.”
Stion answered.
Their goal was to survive day by day in their childhood, but they couldn’t afford to look at the date.
Even if he knew, he probably would have skipped over it.
As a result, they did not know anything about their birthday.
“Ah..!”
Rose’s pouty expression eases and she looks hastily at Starches.
“… Sorry, I’m too careless-“
Starchis stops her from trying to apologize again.
“You don’t have to apologize, it’s okay. What else…”
By the time the atmosphere at the dinner table was about to go down with a sullen expression for a while
She suggested, raising her head.
“Ah! Then, how about setting a birthday?”
“Yes?”
“Can’t we just decide that this day was our birthday and celebrate it?”
Stion and Stachis exchange glances when she suddenly asks her to set a birthday.
It was the expression that made me want to do that.
“Should I go that far for my birthday? I think I’ll be fine after spending my whole life without you.”
“No! The day you were born should be blessed!”
Rather, Rose said angrily.
“Is it a blessing to be born into this world? So, did you meet me?”
-Tattak!
Sparks burst from the fireplace, interrupting the conversation.
There is a moment of silence, and Hian looks at Rose.
Rose thinks for a moment and then hastily corrects herself.
“Ah..That, so.. You met the people of the world, right?”
“…Yes?”
Rose seems to be in trouble for nothing, so she affirms her words and helps.
Rose, on the other hand, listened to what he had to say and pushed her plans further.
“Right? So let’s decide on a birthday, Starchis.”
“I?”
Stion asks with a mischievous smile.
“Have I already forgotten? Who are you looking at?”
Rose was staring at Starchis without realizing it.
Again her scramble, Rose added.
“S-Stion too!”
Hian narrowed her eyes even more and looked at Rose.
In the end, only Rose excitedly set the date for Stion and Stachis’ birthday, and the conversation moved on to the next topic.
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.
.
.
.
“Elsaine, pour me some more wine.”
“…Rose? Calm down a little.”
“You should drink it on a day like this!”
Hian, with her face red from drunkenness, asks Rose for a favor.
But it wasn’t Rose who would listen.
She presses Elzain with her eyes, causing Heian to fill his glass.
At that time, this kind of appearance of Rose appeared at her dinner table.
She is confident in her alcohol, so she drinks it a little militantly.
“Bar, come get some fresh air.”
“Yes? How about emptying this cup for now?”
Eventually, Hian got up from her seat first and tried to escape for a while.
Rose didn’t want to let his father go.
Hian wears her hair.
“Starches! Hey, would you like to come and talk with me?”
This time, Rose stared at Starchis, but
She couldn’t go through with Hian’s request.
“I see.”
Starchis also gets up from his seat.
“I’ll be gone for a while. Lady, brother.”
“…Go and come.”
“Go and come.”
The two go on a visit.
Hian stops a maid from trying to catch up.
“I’ll walk alone for a while.”
At Hian’s words, Stachis realized that Hian had something to say to him.
The trigger was to avoid Rose’s invitation, but
It’s probably something you’ve already thought of.
The two leave the mansion.
It is late at night and the cool air welcomes them.
Her cheeks, which had been dyed red, gradually cooled.
A sigh came out as smoke.
“Walk.”
Unlike when Hian ran away from Rose, he spoke in a serious voice.
Starchis started to get nervous for nothing.
Maybe she knows what Rose asked her to do… Her unreasonable anxiety rises.
This is all because I was stabbed.
Starchis makes a promise to live more conscientiously.
Of course, it wasn’t Rose’s fault for asking herself that.
Even so, she is making a commitment to live without discomfort.
“My Rose, isn’t she pretty?”
Hian suddenly opened her mouth.
Starchis also affirms his words.
“Yes. He is a good man.”
He thinks of Rose, who helped him when he was in trouble.
“…I’m so glad. To have grown this much without her wife.”
“…”
“I’m sorry, but would it be all right if I fell a little?”
“Please take it easy.”
“… On nights like this, I think of her wife.”
Hian walks through the dark garden and speaks.
“He was such a beautiful person. She was kind, caring, and she was a woman who was not stained by anything negative.”
Starchis just listened.
At times like these, he knows it’s better to just listen than to say anything.
His brother was like that too.
When talking about lost party members, he just listened.
“It was the woman who made her love known. A word of love that warms her heart and makes the world beautiful. Do you know love?”
Stachis pauses at Hian’s question.
‘Love?’
She has been saying that love wants to do it.
Starchis also heard a lot about the positive things that love gives.
A love that always reminds her of her, that fills her heart, that makes her work harder, and that allows her to love herself.
I wanted to experience that too.
But if you’ve tried it…
“…I do not know.”
“Haha, is that so? I’m sorry, but then you don’t know love yet.”
Hian pats Stachis on the back and says.
“You will know when love comes.”
He let out a big sigh and continued.
“Ha… So the pain of losing it is really great.”
Hian seemed to have already fallen into his own world and recalled his wife.
“The pain of having all those positive emotions ripped from me… Hard to explain. Haha, maybe some of you are experiencing this because of a cool person like you!”
Soon after, he praises Staches and changes the atmosphere.
“Yes?”
“Didn’t I almost die a while ago! If there was someone who was in love with you at that time, he would have experienced the same pain for a while.”
“Haha.. Is that so?”
Starchis remembers his older brother.
“…It’s dangerous. What you do.”
Hian lowers her voice and speaks.
“Starches. Just do my one favor.”
“Please speak.”
Hian turns around and stops.
A handsome man with a white beard and white hair looks at Stachis.
The wrinkles around his eyes seemed to indicate the years he had experienced.
“…I can’t know everything, but I can feel it.”
“…”
“…Rose seems to like you.”
“…”
Starchis couldn’t say anything.
Maybe that’s what he thought too.
Did he ask for such a favor?
He said that he was the first to show up.
I wondered if it was because of the alcohol, but
When he showed himself remembering everything while talking casually at the dinner table
He wondered if it was a calculated action rather than an impulsive one.
“…Keep your distance from my daughter.”
“Yes?”
Hian puts his hand on Starches shoulder with an apologetic expression.
“Don’t get me wrong, really. You are such a wonderful young man. More than many noble children. I might have blessed them both. I’m serious.”
He clears his throat
“… I want my daughter to marry the man she loves. There is no compulsion to connect with the nobility. A man like you would have satisfied me… The problem is your job.”
“It’s my job.”
“You could call it your dream. Isn’t that too risky? No matter how you wrap it up, isn’t it a job where you risk your life in the end? I don’t want to tell my daughter the pain I experienced.”
Hian moves his arm from his shoulder and grabs his wrist.
“I’m sorry.. Really. Look at this scar Can you bet this is the last one? Can you promise me that I won’t die prematurely with my daughter? Or would you give up your dream?”
“… Don’t give up on your dreams.”
He bursts out laughing
“Haha… That’s really cool. Yes, you should have that much ambition. See, so I’m asking you too. It’s not my part to interfere, but I’ll do it anyway. Keep your distance from my daughter. It’s good if you’re friends. But please don’t develop into a lover… Okay?”
Stachis reads the pain in Hian’s voice.
He seemed to be thinking of his wife as he spoke his words.
He was recalling the pain of having to remain alone.
His will was felt.
She felt that she wished that her daughter, who had been raised by Keum Ok-yeop, had not experienced such pain.
I could feel the shame and regret he felt for making such a request.
He felt ashamed that he had to interfere with this,
If Starchis also liked Rose, she is sorry to end the relationship.
All Starchis could also understand.
“Okay.”
Stachis promises.
.
.
.
.
“..More…More…”
Hian shakes her head, doses off, and bangs her head on the kitchen table.
Rose is cautiously surprised.
“…Oh..”
She covers her mouth and exhales after breathing.
He spit out the intoxication that was inside her body.
Even the wine bottles that Elsaine brought and removed would exceed 10 bottles.
As soon as Hian returned to her post her, Rose began to run like a war horse,
Hian and Stion Stachis, who were trying to follow that pace, were sweating.
Rose, in particular, recommended her drink her to Hian.
Stion covers his mouth and jumps up from his seat.
“Turn it off.. I, I’ll bring Hian back.”
“..Would you please?”
Rose asks.
She looked fine except for her red cheeks.
“Elzain, show her to her father’s room her.”
Stion supports the drooping Hian.
Elza nodded her head and began to lead.
“Please go slowly.”
Even without Rose saying it, Stion thought so.
It seemed that she would drown in alcohol if she remained here.
-Kikkik, thump.
As the door closes, there is silence again.
No one, no one eating
Only the sound of burning firewood can be heard.
Stachis shakes his head in intoxication and then opens his eyes in a strange silence.
He looks around
All of the maids and servants had left the room before I knew it.
Rose and herself were the only ones in the room.
It was scary, if scary, that Rose didn’t talk to her until he looked at her.
Starchis stiffens like a deer facing a beast.
“…Starchis.”
Rose calls him.
He swallows
‘In a situation like this…’
Unbeknownst to him, he was in a dangerous situation.
He slowly turned her head to look at Rose.
“..Yes?”
“I told you to speak plainly, Stachis.”
She says.
Stachis thinks that he probably wouldn’t have been so nervous during the battle.
He got up to avoid his seat her.
“Wow, toilet Joe-“
Then, with Rose’s hand gently squeezing his thighs, he sat back down in his seat.
It was also difficult to balance due to alcohol.
“For now, just listen to me.”
‘Muh, what are you trying to say..’
Stachis was worried.
If he asked another bizarre favor, he wouldn’t know what to do.
Hian’s request lingered in his head.
It reminds me of the desperate look of Rose at that time.
…The sense of immorality at that time also raises its head.
He shook his head.
I just didn’t want everything to happen.
“Starchis, I’m sorry.”
“Yes?”
But her apology made his head go blank.
“Was it too sudden then?”
At that time, they both knew exactly what time they were talking about.
“…Yes. It was sudden.”
A feeling of relief sweeps through his chest.
As his thumping heart his relaxed, it beat faster.
Heat rose to his face.
“I did it because I was drunk.”
She says.
Glancing, Starchis looked at her glass her.
It’s not like I drank less today.
I get anxious all over again.
Rose continues her words.
“…But I was a little disappointed earlier.”
“When are you talking about?”
“When you called me Miss Rose.”
Starchis fumbles his hair.
Apparently, when Rose sat down next to her and secretly talked to her,
She pouted when he called her Miss Rose.
The pouting radar that he had been trained as a party member ran fiercely.
“You’re right Miss Rose.”
“…I called you Chis. Then you should call me Rose.”
“My father is in front of me, so how is it?”
“Then what about now?”
Rose stars at him intently.
She hadn’t lifted her hand from the thigh he had touched to sit Starches down.
“Now?”
Starchis reached for his glass of water to hide his agitation.
He sips his water slowly and thinks of his next plan.
It wasn’t easy with a messy head.
‘…Yes, hyung will come soon.’
I thought Stion, who went to pick up Hian, would come soon.
Then, if you pass the moment now, you will be able to finish your seat and return.
Hian doesn’t have anything to worry about.
If this job is over, Rose won’t be around again.
He said as he put down his glass of water.
And this can happen even between friends.
“Okay, Rose.”
However, Rose put her hand on Stachis’ thigh and put her strength on it.
Supporting his body her with his hands her, he presses his face close to Starch’s ears.
He slowly shakes his head.
“…That’s not it either. There are only two of us.”
The cold sweat started flowing again.
