P. 8
Yesterday, there was quite the snow that fell in London.
The Thames River has also completely frozen over and it’s filled with people who are enjoying skating.
Since the Christmas season is one where you spend time with family, I can imagine that you are spending your holiday peacefully with your father. As I wonder how you are doing, I sincerely wish that one day I would be able to spend Christmas and the new year with you.
The Christmas season in London society is considered over already but I won’t do the senseless thing and ask when you"re coming back.
P. 9
I will restrain back my feelings of wanting to see you immediately and divert my urge by writing you letters.
I’m sure it is quite cold over where you are. I am worried if you might catch a cold.
Even when apart, I think of you.
Edgar Ashenbert
Folding the letter back up and putting it away into a small wooden chestnut box, Lydia let out a small sigh.
She forcibly got a long holiday break and was spending it in Scotland far away from London in her family home near Edinburgh, but Lydia was strangely not able to remain calm.
He was an earl who didn’t hesitate to treat Lydia as his bride-to-be, and she couldn’t completely believe his sweet words and she ran away, not know what to do from the fear that she might fall in love with him.
But once she read the letter that was sent, Lydia would relax the muscle in her cheeks at just the little happenings in London and feel pain in her chest when she felt Edgar’s loneliness of not having any family members, and her heart was wavered by his unusually serious words.
But Edgar had a delicate and lonesome part about him, and because of that Lydia was dragged into living in London and commuting to his estate there and had let it remained that she was his ‘fiancée.’
It could only be removed by Edgar and yet she came back home here forgetting she was wearing it.
P. 11
After Lydia’s father, who was her only family member had attended a party that was held from New Year’s Eve to the New Year, claimed that he wanted to do a geological survey while the university was closed and so was on a trip to Northern Europe.
She stepped away from her desk and approached the window and whipped the fogged gla.s.s with the tip of her fingers.
The gla.s.s window that was out to take the open air was frozen over so cold like ice and when it came in contact with the air of the room that was warmed by the hearth, it didn’t take any time in becoming clouded again.
Her eyes were a golden-green, and could see fairies that ordinary people could not. Her eyes, which were spurned by the townspeople who also called her a witch, were glaring back at her through the mirror like they were ready to pick a fight.
“Lydia, are you perhaps waiting for a letter from him?”
“What, oh goodness, Lota, what are you saying? That’s impossible.”
Lota was a former pirate but decided to live in London for a while after meeting her real-life grandfather, but she appeared in Lydia’s town a few days ago by herself, saying she wanted to spend some time with her friend.
“Oh, really, I didn’t notice.”
In a flash, Lydia pushed her cheek against the window, but realized what she was doing when the snickering Lota said “Jus----t kidding.”
“That’s mean.”
Lota patted Lydia’s shoulder, but she let out another sigh.
The letter Lydia had read earlier was a letter that had arrived a while back.
Lota sat herself down on a chair and crossed her legs. Even if she decided to live with her grandfather, she couldn’t get rid of the masculine way she carried herself since she used to be a captain of a pirate crew.
“He knows that if he stops sending letters then you would get worried. Just like how you are now. So he’s trying to lure you to cut your holiday short and return to London.”
I was about to be tricked.
However, as soon as she heard the ring of the bell used by the post man, she went running out of the room.
“It’s finally here, this is for me.”
Seeing Lydia giving him a look of surprise, the fairy cat standing on his hind legs on top of the post box puffed out his chest arrogantly.
He was a fairy who liked to wear neckties and groomed his fur with a comb and walked around copying the gestures of a gentleman.
However no matter how he tried to copy, he would always be in the body of a longhaired gray cat, and so the more human he acted, the more strange it appeared.
The voice came from the bushes. The one who stepped out from the leaves was Coblynau. He was a small fairy with a snub nose, unkempt beard and dressed like a coal miner who scurried his way up the fence and starting bouncing up and down when he reached the top.
Fairies tended to over-exaggerate. That’s why Lydia decided to prioritize with checking the mailbox than listening to his emergency, but it looked like the letter addressed to Nico was the only one, because nothing was inside.
Lydia turned to face Coblynau.
Blue Knight Earl was another name for the Lord of Ibrazel.
She has been correcting this small fairy repeatedly, but as long as she was wearing the moonstone engagement ring, then Coblynau only saw her as the future wife of the Blue Knight Earl.
P. 15
A hundred years ago?
“Who said that?”
Of course she knew there were fairies that travel by riding migrating birds. However, she wouldn’t be able to get near wild, cautious birds.
“Was it really the earl? It could be an imposter from another bloodline,” interrupted Nico.
“It must be real because they claimed that the Ibrazel army and family banshee were also brought along. Even if that man was born from the earl, someone from the minor bloodline wouldn’t be able to do such a thing.”
His descendants came to be known as Blue Knight Earl and possessed estates within England but Ibrazel, a great island believed to be a myth was the earl’s main residence and it wouldn’t be any surprise if an army existed.
But that would mean the real earl’s descendants might be alive somewhere. Or was the earl who appeared one hundred years ago the very last heir?
“Coblynau, I would like to meet those fairies.”
Like I said I’m not his wife.
“What was that circ.u.mstance?”
The coblynau looked like it was torture to say.
Just then, a good-looking young man hopped over the bushes in one leap and landed right in front of Lydia.
P 17
Kelpie combed back his ruffled black wavy hair with his hand and made a childish smile and released bird feathers to fall down around Lydia.
But romance couldn’t possibly be staged by this barbaric water horse standing in front of her.
“I made sure to keep the feathers. Just for you. I remembered how happy you looked when you picked up a feather the other day during your stroll.”
However there was no mistake that Kelpie ripped these off before he devoured the creature, so she couldn’t enjoy such a gift.
Kelpie cheerfully peered down to Lydia with his mouth stuffed with feathers.
“You mustn’t Miss, you should not listen to what that unseelie court is saying,” protested Coblynau as he tugged a lock of wavy hair of Kelpie who was leaning down towards Lydia.
“Who did you hear that from?”
He can’t keep his mouth shut.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to change the close and distant relations.h.i.+p she had with Edgar. She returned to Scotland in fear of that happening but as time pa.s.sed by in Scotland, Lydia was gradually able to regain her old self.
When she had just left London, she was feeling lonely, tired and confused even though she had fairies to keep her company.
P. 19
P. 20
Every person is born with what they could and could not do. We should all live within our own capacity. Living quietly with fairies was the best life for Lydia.
Something like that could only happen in a million years. Besides, why do I have to be the generous one?
“Hold on, that’s a good idea. Lydia, if you want to get back at the earl then I’ll help,” offered Kelpie.
“Then please return to London,” argued the coblynau.
Kelpie picked up the coblynau. The mine fairy must have feared he would be eaten. The blood rushed out of his face and he fainted.
P. 21
“Hey everyone, tea is ready!” yelled Lota.
Even Coblynau awoke and jumped out of Kelpie’s hand to escape to tea.
My goodness, fairies sure say and do as they please.
If you knew how to get along with them, they treated you well.
The family’s house was built on the best location of the area, and her father was an university professor and well-respected by the townspeople, so she was able to hire a housekeeper to come clean and cook every day while her father was here. However, since his only daughter was seen as a freak no housekeeper was hired was she was here alone.
The tea, prepared by the resident hobgoblin, suddenly appeared on the table out-of-nowhere, but Lota apparently didn’t bothered by it.
Lydia could see that this was the best life for herself.
If she didn’t return to London, what would he think?
“Lydia, what are you doing?” asked Lota.
“You aren’t going to sleep?”
Lydia was searching for her mother’s diary.
She read all the volumes of her mother’s diary collection repeatedly to see if anything was written about the Blue Knight Earl, but found nothing.
P. 23
Perhaps her mother only knew what was published in the popular novel about the earl.
“Is it about the Blue Knight Earl?” she asked.
Lydia knew how Edgar wanted to become like the first earl. If he didn’t, then he wouldn’t be able to win against the man who inherited the earl’s magical powers.
After Lydia repeated that same excuse to herself in her head, Lota tilted her head in confusion.
“Huh,”
P. 24
“If you realized that you do care for him after being apart so long, then I’ll go beat the h.e.l.l of out him so that it’ll straighten him out.”
As she worried about that, she closed the diary.
“But you would stay up all night looking up something for him.”
“I understand. Since the fairies here seem like they really do care about you.”
She heard that her fairy doctor mother had left the place she was born and eloped with her father.
Why was she able to make such a sacrifice?
P. 25
The reason she untied the string around her mother’s diary to open it might have been because she wanted to know the reason behind that decision, but the only thing that was written in the diary was about fairies.
That’s why she must have written all that she knew about fairies for her daughter who could also see fairies like her.
“Where’s Mannon Island?”
It was Lydia who helped Edgar become the Blue Knight Earl. However, the true powers of the Blue Knight Earl were so powerful and that he could rule a whole country in the fairy world.
“That’s why you’re going to Mannon Island? But Lydia, it’s not important that you don’t have any powers, but your feelings towards Edgar.”
P. 26
That’s why she tried to turn her focus on something else.
Going to Mannon Island might be the only way to delay her return to London.
When he woke up in the morning, Paul Foreman saw a young man with brilliant golden hair standing before him.
If this man didn’t speak, people would think he was a sculpture.
But the background behind him was terrible. Why was he was standing in such a cluttered room?
Why is a n.o.ble like him in such a horrible place like this? No, maybe I’m still asleep. So Paul closed his eyes tightly, but when he opened to glance up to see the man’s mesmerizing ash-mauve eyes staring back at him, he finally realized that this man was the real life Lord Ashenbert.
Paul jumped out of his bed covers.
“Since I didn’t get a reply at the door, I took the liberty and came inside. You didn’t lock the door so I was worried that you might be dead.”
“Uhh, I’m terribly sorry to make you worry. I had a little too much to drink, and I returned at day-break and had been asleep all this time.”
As Paul fixed his s.h.i.+rt b.u.t.tons that were b.u.t.toned wrong, he tilted his head in confusion at the earl’s comment about his life being saved and then finally noticed that everything in his bed chamber including the studio he could see through the doorway was completely a mess.
“Whoooahh! Wh-what happened? Who did this?”
It seemed like he was so drunk he hadn’t realized what state his bed chamber was in when he came home.
“You should check if anything was stolen.”
He was a fairy painter who just barely started. Currently, his only patron was Lord Ashenbert who bought most of his work.
However, they were all important to Paul. He quickly went to pick them up and check to see if there were any smudges or paint sc.r.a.pped off.
Mr. Slade was the art dealer who had been struggling to sell Paul’s paintings and the owner of a high-cla.s.s club that served the high-cla.s.s society.
It originally was an organization made by a group of painters and sculptors but the leading artists were killed by a man named “Prince”.
P. 29
The earl later escaped from Prince’s organization and became the leader of the Scarlet Moon, promising to seek revenge, but one of Prince’s subordinates who came to England might have made the next big move.
Prince’s subordinate happened to be a 15, 16 year old-looking boy named Ulysses who Paul also met before.
“Do you suppose they thought that I would have that?”
“Not at all.”
I see, thought Paul. Paul was there when his father was killed and he nearly died but was miraculously saved, and became Foreman’s adopted son who was his father’s friend and a fellow Scarlet Moon member.
Of course the earl knew and that was why he was worried about where that information had leaked out from.
“I’m not sure about that, if O’neil’s son turns out to be alive, then they wouldn’t allow it. Even more if that son might be hiding some important information,” said the earl like that was nothing.
Paul s.h.i.+vered. He didn’t like the idea of being killed for an unknown reason.
Paul nodded in grat.i.tude. He had complete trust in this young earl and believed there couldn’t be a more trusting man than him.
He was calm, self-possessed intelligent man who never cowered in any dangerous situation. Not only that his sociable personality allowed him to get along with anyone, which helped him win the favors of the young members of the Scarlet Moon, including Paul.
“I would be ideal if we could find whatever they were after before they do.”
Those were scattered out on the floor as well.
If they were after a painting or letter that might have something important written on it, then they must have taken all the papers with them.
Paul was in the middle of picking up his paintings and turned around tilting his head like he didn’t understand what the earl was talking about.
In the next moment, the creature stood up and stripped off the covers and peered back at the two men.
Paul froze, unable to speak as the earl walked over to the girl.
It was his forte in breaking down a girl’s barrier towards strangers with one glance at his smile. The girl’s tight cheeks softened up and she looked like she was about to nod to Edgar’s question which snapped Paul back to reality.
At Paul’s sudden interruption, the girl’s face quickly wrinkled into an expression like she was about to cry.
As he eased the girl, the earl picked up a green hooded cloak that was lying under the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. Since it didn’t seem to be Paul’s, it must have been hers.
“Um, I really do not have any recollection of how this happened,” whimpered Paul. He was the one who felt like crying.
“Uhh, I was terribly drunk yesterday and don’t remember a thing….”
Paul noticed this was one of those moments when the earl lowered his voice and spoke like the devil.
“It means that there are different ways to manage these sorts of things. And there won’t be any future trouble if you manage to couple her to another man.”
“I’ve never taken a girl to bed while I was drunk and forget about it. Besides, what fun is a tumble if you can’t even remember it, it’s much more fun to invite a miss and not cause mistakes which lead to trouble down the road.”
“Excuse me…., does that gentleman not recognize who I am?” asked the girl nervously as she slowly peered out of the doorway.
“Paul, it looks like you did invite her.”
His young girl was sitting down on the ground in the corner of an alleyway and was crying. Paul pa.s.sed by and decided to help her. It was a mystery why all the other people were pa.s.sing by her like they didn’t see her. It was like she was invisible to them.
“So, young lady, did you come here with him and spent the night?”
“Yes, when I’m by his side, I feel like I’ve known him from before, like nostalgia…..”
If Paul left the conversation in the hands of someone who was seeking entertainment, then the result was going to be horrible. Paul decided to ask the girl himself.
Trying to be considerate of her feelings, he decided to be a gentleman and stood ready to take any responsibility.
However Paul was only returned with a face utterly confused.
Aren’t you being a little too blunt, my lord?
“What? How boring,” uttered the earl.
“So, young miss, are you saying you don’t remember your own family or name?”
“I guess you could have been employed by a peerage. What was your master’s name?”
As the girl explained, her eyes suddenly filled with tears that came pouring down her cheeks.
“Did something happen to her?”
“I don’t know…”
“If she’s such a lovely woman, I would love to meet her. If we don’t know her family name, then I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head, but I shall investigate who she might be.”
Just then, Paul happened to lower his gaze to the floor and bent himself down towards the girl’s feet.
They were the girl’s tears.
Even the earl noticed and bent down to pick one up.
“Wha-what could this mean?” asked Paul.
Her tears soaked her eyelashes and trickled down her cheeks like natural droplets but as soon as they dropped into the air they instantly hardened into amber and made a hard thud as they hit the floor.
“A fairy? Are you a fairy?.....”
P. 37
P. 38
“Then would that mean your master is also a fairy?”
“My lord, I think it’s best to ask for Miss Carlton’s help.”
He knew that the fairy doctor Lydia was taking a long holiday to enjoy Christmas in Scotland, but the end of the holiday was approaching.
“Huh, but why?”
“But she hasn’t shown any signs of coming b…”
This was a man could have any woman he beckoned for, any girl would be dazzled if they spent a minute with him, but for some reason Lydia was the only girl who he couldn’t win over.
Paul wasn’t aware why the earl permitted her return to Scotland, but he wasn"t using his usual forceful approach like go getting her himself but seemed to be planning his next move extremely carefully.
He would fool everyone with a friendly smile at first but when he opened his mouth he unleashed cold, stinging remarks.
“Anyway I’m on my way to meet Lydia. But I don’t want to talk about work.”
Paul wanted to jump from joy.
He hired an investigator. That means he’s having someone report to him what she’s doing.
In contrast, she might have not told him because she didn’t want to see him….
“Then could you take along this young lady and have Miss Carlton talk to her?”
“Uh, then I will accompany you,” offered Paul.
It seemed like he could only become brave when he was walking on his own territory.
“What, bu-but, she’s a fairy. How am I supposed to take care of a fairy?”
The earl took out his pocket watch and checked the time with the happiest smile no one had seen for a month.
“Now then, make sure to take caution just in case Ulysses is still after you. You must hurry and pack your things. If you need anything, go to my head-maid Harriet, she will take care of the rest.”