P. 126
But turning back into the room, she watched Edgar being poured a gla.s.s of wine by the owner of the house as he sat on a finely curved chair.
She was amazed as she heard him explain that we were attacked by thieves, injured, and were separated from our valet, and then how he asked for a doctor and new clothes. Then by mentioning how he knew the landlord"s acquaintance who was an aristocrat, he managed to make a promise to spend the night at the gentry"s house.
"By the way my lord, were you going to Mannor Island? It"s just a small island. There"s nothing significant on it."
She wondered if the wound he had the doctor treat hurt anymore. He was told to reframe from alcohol, yet he was happily enjoying it. His glistening golden hair, which hadn"t lost its s.h.i.+ne even as he laid in the dark shack, was even more brilliant under the chandelier light.
In this landlord"s house in this countryside town, the numerous expensive furniture and art pieces normally wouldn"t be able to show off their dignity and patronize their owner, but now, she had the absurd feeling like they looked as if they had been waiting for someone like Edgar to visit, and to think that was a disbelief to Lydia.
Hearing the word mermaid, Lydia"s ears perked up.
P. 128
"Well, it is only a rumor. Since that island is like a treasure chest of mermaid legends."
The landlord was taken aback at her seriousness.
"She has an exceedingly high interest in fairies. I"d like to know about it if it"s about my island," said Edgar.
"It"s hard to say that all the s.h.i.+p incidents were coincidental. Since mermaids are able to control waves and the tides. Furthermore, why are the Mannor Island mermaids that normally inhabit the sea living in the castle? Is there any information about that?
That was the normal response of people who"ve met Lydia. She was used to her words being taken as incomprehensible and irritating.
P. 129
But Lydia didn"t have any information regarding the merrows. Honestly, she wanted to know all that she could.
"More like heard singing coming from somewhere deep in the castle, and the story is that when it comes morning, the island residents find dead bodies of thieves washed up on sh.o.r.e who broke into the castle. But, well, it"s just groundless rumors about fairies and ghosts that only the childish would enjoy."
"I actually like groundless gossip. I really need to grow up."
"Oh, no, no, I didn"t mean it like that. Ah, my lord, if you will excuse me, I feel like I need a bit of a rest," said the landlord, standing up, eager to leave.
"Um, may I ask a favor?" asked Lydia.
P. 130
"What is it?"
Naturally, she was met with a wry face, but as for her, she couldn"t be made any more upset than she already was.
"You have quite the unique sister. Now, if you"ll excuse me." Making that his sign of approval, the landlord left the room.
"If I didn"t say that, a man and a woman alone together would draw unwanted attention."
"Really? Then should I go correct him? Should I tell him we are actually lovers secretly hiding."
"Oh, you wound me. You don"t have to hate me that much. Changing the subject. Are the fairies really lost?"
"Then that means, in your eyes, you can see a shuffling crowd of fairies in this room?"
Edgar put the gla.s.s on the table. When he did that, he coincidently avoided the spot where a fairy was laying down and sleeping.
Unlike him, the landlord would sit down on them, squis.h.i.+ng them down with a cus.h.i.+on, and kicked them aside as he walked. Seeing that, made Lydia want to do her part.
Although he did seem to be the thickheaded type, even if his hair was pulled out, or he got purple bruises unbeknownst to him, he probably wouldn"t realize how that happened.
She lined the droplets one by one as she inched from the windowsill towards the door.
"Is that the guiding path? So that means there are fairies lined up right here?"
"What kind of fairies are they?"
"Hmm. So would I be able to do it as well?"
He smiled and nodded.
"Are they following?" He had a face like a playful boy.
"It"s strange to imagine this. Is doing things like this also part of a fairy doctor"s duty?"
She didn"t know if he was really listening, but Edgar let out a snicker and dropped the last water droplet next to the door side.
P. 133
"But you still think that fairies don"t exist, don"t you?"
"...You"re so strange."
"Oh, I"m sorry. Um, it isn"t that I"m making fun of you, it"s just, well, I was surprised. It was the first time someone introduced me to that kind of perspective."
Once the noisy crowd of fairies had left, suddenly Lydia realized she was alone with Edgar. She was made aware of that because he was looking down at her with his focused eyes and they stood right next to each other since they worked on making the pathway huddled together.
"I, I kind of feel like I"ve babbled on. I never talked about fairies so much like this other than with my family...., because, normally I"ll be teased. Ah, but, you must think of me as a strange girl."
P. 134
"I don"t think of you like that," said Edgar.
She slowly started to loose track of what she was saying.
Huh? What am I saying. It sounds like I"m confessing to him or something.
"It"s so soft, like a cat"s furcoat, yet it doesn"t tangle, is that because fairies frequently comb it for you?"
P. 135
"Fairies like blond hair. They"re not interested in this rustic-iron color."
"Huh?"
She couldn"t believe that just having this rude man, who was playing around with her hair, say something like that would make her not able to raise her hand on him.
I really can"t be too careful around this man. Just as she was thinking that to herself, Lydia was confused, she didn"t know if she was displeased or not about his interpretation.
Edgar shrugged his shoulders and stepped away from Lydia. He said "You can enter" towards the door.
"Lord Edgar, I"m sorry for my late arrival."
Edgar didn"t seem to be worried about them even though he was separated from them.
P. 136
If they"ve been through close call battles together, they must have known how each other would act when they got separated.
Edgar happily opened his arms and hugged the two like a father embracing his children. She could tell Edgar cared for them deeply.
"Miss Carlton, were you not hurt?" asked Ermine kindly, but Lydia slightly still felt left out of the circle.
"There was nothing to worry about. I protected Lydia safely."
"Now look, Ermine,"
"No. But if you knew, then I"d hope the two of you would give us at least ten more minutes. It was just getting good."
Aside from the two of their conversation, Lydia felt Raven"s sharp eyes on her. Did he realize Edgar was injured? Did he realize that it was Lydia"s fault?
Leaving behind the uncomfortable air between her and Edgar and the unnatural pounding of her heart, Lydia decided to escape from the room.
Hearing his words drifting away, she quickly sped out of the drawing room.
(Hey, did you see that? That was a fairy doctor.)
(I heard her say that she was going to Mannon Island.)
(If the merrows are released, then we can go home.)
"Hey, shorties. What do you mean going home?"
"I"m not a cat. I"m the fairy doctor"s partner."
"What"s happened with the merrows?"
(When the merrows grieve, it disrupts the sea. We used to live on Mannor Island and had been going back and forth between the mainland and the island, but because of the merrows, we"ve haven"t been able to cross the sea. We haven"t seen our family for three hundred years now.)
(A fairy doctor should be able to solve human problems.)
P. 139
P. 140
"They should have been handed something from their master who left."
Hmm, thought Nico, combing through his whiskers.
(On a human boat? Is it alright for us to get on?)
"I"ll tell the fairy doctor about your request. In exchange, introduce me to your family."
All that was left was to find out how many of the small fairies on the Mannor Island knew about the precious information about the merrows.
She has never seen a merrow before, yet she is calmly resolute in facing them.
P. 141
"She really is a handful, geez."
"It would be great if the merrows would just take the thieves to the bottom of the sea,"he said, slipping into the house from the crack of an open window.
He wasn"t the same nonchalant man who was always teasing Lydia, he had a serious face, the kind he wouldn"t show her, thinking about what was ahead.
"Why don"t you have a seat. Would you join me for a drink?・
P. 142
He guessed what the questions she wanted to ask from how she asked so orderly.
She knit her brows with a sad face.
"You pretend to be indifferent. But you"re always suffering from the decisions you make."
"Don"t worry, Ermine. I haven"t done anything to Lydia."
"I couldn"t. For some strange reason," he admitted, almost embarra.s.singly. And Ermine, still having a sad face, relaxed as if relieved.
"She doesn"t have any intention to take part in a burglary. She wants to prove that it"t impossible to get the sword unless it was the real Blue Knight Earl, and make us come to our knees in shame by showing us that reality."
P. 143
"Lydia is an interesting girl. She would appear like she was under my control and yet she"s not. Then she shows me how soft-hearted she can be and how she doesn"t have any other intentions then what she shows, and only says what she means. On top of that, it seems she can"t abandon a criminal like me if I hang onto her and beg on my knees."
"I confessed to her a little about my past. It was strange. Like I wanted to see what kind of reaction she would take."
"She must have thought I lost my mind after getting my brain removed."
"But, she believed me, she believed in something more unbelievable than the existence of fairies. She said she hates liars. She must look past other people"s flattery and lies with those mystical eyes of hers. But I"m made up with falsehood. A false name, a false life, everything is false. All there is to me is an earnest lie and a lie that"s not. Probably those earnest lies are my truth, and she must have understood that."
"Then, you"re planning to reveal everything to Ms Carlton?"
That was what he was mulling over just now. But however much he thought it over, he couldn"t change his mind.
It was the unchangeable fact that to Lydia, Edgar was still just a despicable criminal. In order for an imposter to get his hands on the sword, he had to rely on despicable options.
"Why? Lord Edgar."
He stood up and walked over to Ermine.
"She"s an innocent girl. So honest, and suited to walk on the peaceful side of society. I don"t want to hurt someone so privileged."
P. 145
"But, even Lord Edgar has become attached to Ms. Carlton, haven"t you?...That"s why, even though she found out that you were an imposter, you revealed everything and spoke out to her sympathy then trying to use violence, didn"t you?"
"You give me too much credit."
It was Lydia"s cat.
"Nico, were you eavesdropping on us?"
Even though he thought there shouldn"t be a problem if a cat overheard them, however, remembering how Lydia was saying that this cat understood human language, he felt he shouldn"t left him go.
Even if it was a stupid idea, Edgar turned the frustration in him that he didn"t know what to do with, towards Nico.
P. 146
Walking over to the hearth, he attempted to throw Nico into it like he was fuel for the fire.
"Lord Edgar, what are you doing?!" Ermine tried to stop him, throwing her arms around him.
Edgar fell down onto the floor with Ermine and turned just his face up towards Nico.
"I wouldn"t think so, you"ll pay for this!"
Edgar let out a sigh. Still remained sitting on the floor, he stroked Ermine"s short hair as she still clinged onto him.
"Sometimes, you purposefully try to act callous. Like you"re trying to throw away the kindness and compa.s.sion in you."
"Please treasure yourself, not just for me or Raven"s sake."
P. 147
Ermine"s lips touched his. They quickly parted, but her body still leaned up against Edgar.
"There"s nothing to apologize about."
He could tell that she had been mulling that option in her head. But for Edgar, it only looked like Ermine was loosing her courage.
"In order to get our freedom, we have to do this. If we give up, then we can never escape from that man"s clutches."
"Prince isn"t indestructible. You"re no longer his slave, but my dear friend. Forget about the past."
P. 148
"Then, please make love to me."
"Please make every part of me yours. It"s not that I wish to become your lover. I just want to make sure that you are my master. Or else I"m terrified. Like I will always be chained to Prince."
"Really? Or do you just think dirty of me because I was Prince"s woman?"
"Because, we are always by each other, and you know how I feel about you, yet you pretend not to notice."
A pitiful girl. She was one of the young, beautiful female slaves that Prince owned. From when he became friends with Ermine and her brother and wanted to protect them, he resolved to become a different person. If there was anything his weak self could do, he wanted to help them.
P. 149
P. 150
He pressed his lips against her white neck. Her arms softly wrapped around Edgar.
Edgar was Prince"s possession, but his position was completely different than the other slaves. Because he was groomed to be the next replacement for Prince, the leader of that twisted, immoral organization.
That unfair reality. Being cornered mentally and physically, being robbed of your own free will, and the feeling of slowly being molded into a different person. The fear of gradually forgetting who you were and what you were like.
But from that, Edgar realized the stupidity of the situation he was in.
From there he convinced Ermine, who had given up on everything at that point, and attempted to rebel against the ones with power in that organization.
Just because she had been Prince"s woman, he never viewed her as beneath him. But he was certain he didn"t want to take control of her like that man and so, even if they were a free man and woman now, if he took her to bed now, he felt like that would continue Prince"s domination, and that frightened him.
In the end, Edgar could only push Ermine away.
*****
Lydia swiftly backed away from the door.
She couldn"t hear what they were saying, but they were definitely embracing each other.
If he did have a lover and he was still flirting with others, then he definitely was a rake.
"Ahhhh!!" she screamed, falling back down on her bottom.
It was Raven. Lydia quickly stood up.
She wasn"t asked anything, yet she was rus.h.i.+ng to come up with an excuse. She had the feeling like Raven was keeping an eye on her, like he saw her as a threat to Edgar.
"Then, I shall prepare it for you. Please wait in your cabin room."
"Poisoned?"
When they were surrounded by Huxley and his men at the train station, the victim was the man who stuck a knife to her throat. But, after hearing the hair-raising sound of bones snapping right by her ear and after the thought of whether she would hear that same sound when it happened to herself crossed by in her head, that thought horrified Lydia and sent her into a panicked state of mind.
"I"m sorry."
Met with a sudden apology, Lydia, surprised, looked at him.
He said it in his usual expressionless face, but all of a sudden, Lydia felt extremely guilty.
Even at that time at the train station, he was just protecting Lydia from that scoundrel and his knife. Changing her mind, she called Raven to stop him, as he was starting to walk off.
He turned around to look at her with a curious expression.
"But, it wasn"t like you were going to kill me."
P. 156
"Then Edgar doesn"t have to be the one to rule you, couldn"t anybody be your master?"
She could never be a beast tamer. But that meant that Edgar had taken up the task of carrying another human"s life on his chest, on top of what Raven had just said.
A perfect bond of trust, built on not demanding too much from one another.
"Ms Carlton, it"s natural to feel uneasy around me. That"s why I ask you, please don"t do anything that will cause trouble for Lord Edgar."
As a fairy doctor, perhaps, it was a much more difficult task for Lydia to prove the impossibility in Edgar and his group"s plan, than how to deal with the merrows.
Spending time alone with Edgar, Lydia thought she had come to understand him just a bit. She realized that he wasn"t a rotten person at his core, and he showed kindness and consideration that Lydia had never received before. She knew it was just a simple ingratiation, but he effortlessly saved Lydia from harsh or hurtful words that were aimed at her.
But from witnessing him with Ermine and talking with Raven, Edgar started to become a mysterious person to Lydia again.
"Ah geez, that"s why I told you not to trust them."
"Just as I thought, they are dangerous. Look at this, the end of my tail is burnt."
"I was nearly thrown into a fire by that idiot Edgar! It looks like I overheard something that they didn"t want us to know about."
"I didn"t hear them clearly, but it looks like they"re still hiding something from you. In order to definitely get their hands on that sword, they"re planning on doing something bad."
"Anyway, just like you thought, there are merrows living on Mannor Island protecting that sword. But the problem starts from there."
"The small fairies who came from that island said the merrows are taking care of something their master entrusted to them. And now they"re longing for their master who hasn"t returned."
"You know, Lydia, you don"t have to face the merrows for their sake. You know that right?"
Either way, Lydia wasn"t on their side. If Edgar didn"t share the blood of the real Blue Knight Earl, then all she was left to do, was make it clear that the merrows wouldn"t hand him somebody else"s sword.
P. 159
"If it turns dangerous, we"re left with only one option, to run. We"re no match against merrows anyways."
But the biggest problem is their beautiful singing. Humans become captivated by it and enchanted, and are said to be lured to the bottom of the sea at the merrow"s command, and there is no power that could match their magic, which was why they were so petrifying.
For the newbie fairy doctor like Lydia, who just had a little bit of knowledge about them, this would be the first time meeting them, and she didn"t think she could manage a negotiation.
When push-came-to-shove, she wondered if she was going to be left with the decidsion of abandoning Edgar.
Just those simple words of his had already sank down deep into Lydia"s heart, and she was worried if she would be able to let herself watch him die.
P. 160
And yet, she thought, if she was able to convince the merrows, and make him Blue Knight Earl, she would be able to give him back the right to walk on the sunny side of society that was his position to begin with.
"They deserve to be drowned in the sea by the merrows. They"re criminals. It would be good riddance for society to get rid of them," said Nico in a some what violent manner, perhaps caused by the bald spot on his tail.