Chapter 5
Tristan opened the double-door lattice window next to the bed and went out to the balcony. Ivy climbing up the wall was wrapping around the balcony pillars.
The scenery unfolding before his eyes was even more impressive. Neatly manicured grass, flowers in full bloom, and towering garden trees. On the river water flowing below the hill, sunlight like gold dust was sparkling.
“Is this why she keeps staying here?”
He knew through an informant that Ibella had lost her memories. Therefore, it seemed she had been buried in this beautiful and peaceful place for three years, shaking off her frustrated feelings.
Since it had turned out this way anyway, he took out a cigar case from his pocket, enjoying a long-awaited rest.
“……?”
At that moment, his pupils opened wide as if in full bloom.
In the far distance, upon the bridge, a woman was standing while holding a parasol and looking up toward this way. Even if her face was not visible, it was certain that the side she was looking at was the second floor of Rosevale House, the balcony where he was.
“Who is it?”
Is it a traveler.
At the very moment Tristan tilted his head, harboring a question, a mountain wind blew from behind the mansion.
After it became a gentle breeze and went down the hill, it swept across the flowers on the riverbank and the sparkling waves, reaching and touching her.
The woman’s long golden hair fluttered in the wind. While holding the parasol handle with both hands, she bowed her head toward him. That was not a motion done without meaning, but a polite greeting sent toward an acquaintance.
“No way!”
While holding the cigar case, Tristan hastily held the balcony railing and leaned his body out. The woman was definitely the woman who shared a conversation with Humphrey when coming in the carriage. A tall and slender woman who stood with her back to him and leisurely screwed him over.
“Ibella Campbell!”
His mind was numbed as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a blunt weapon. Only now could he know why Humphrey was so flustered, and why he could not look at him at the news that Ibella had left the house.
“Ha!”
Since it was the first time he had been caught so absurdly, a chuckle burst out of its own accord. The fact that she intentionally timed it to pass him by while knowing the purpose of his visit contained a clear meaning.
I will reject the King’s proposal. So do not do a useless thing and go back.
“I cannot do that, Ibella.”
The lips of Tristan, who had been watching blankly, twisted upward crookedly. As the thought that Ibella would be smiling changed into a certainty, a pleasant tension squirmed in his chest.
A competitive spirit, cool yet hot as if the wind had entered his chest, filled his inside.
Tristan smiled pleasantly and stretched his arm forward, spreading his palm wide.
“Run away shrewdly, Ibella Campbell.”
Tristan gripped Ibella, who was turning around and walking away. No matter how far she got, she was merely moving within Tristan’s fist with only her head showing.
“Even if you do that, you will be inside my hand though.”
Tristan opened his fist as if granting mercy and let Ibella go. Ibella’s figure, which had been like a small dot, shot up exactly as her faint shape and filled his vision. Whether the wind had blown all the way here, the palm that held her tickled.
☆☆☆
Three days later, at the Bourbon Convent of Emmerville.
It was a simple room where one desk, one wooden chair for one person, and one long bench for three people were everything. The furniture was crude, but it became glossy with time, creating a frugal dignity. Just like the master of this room.
“Thank you for lending me the cabin, Sister.”
Ibella, who sat facing Mother Superior Agatha, smiled and delivered her words of gratitude. The Mother Superior was a person who knew her identity and was also the person who provided a place for her to stay.
“You are welcome. Compared to the amount the young lady sponsored for our convent and orphanage, it is small. By the way, is the cabin not uncomfortable because it is old?”
“It is fine. They cleaned it all for me, and they put in necessary goods and food, so there is nothing uncomfortable at all.”
Ibella borrowed an empty cabin on the outskirts of the convent bordering a small forest. It was said to be a place that had been empty since the old gardener who used to use it died.
The wide area including the convent, the forest, and the cabin was all surrounded by high walls, so it was a place where anyone could not enter.
As for outside access, since she also used a side door made in the wall next to the cabin rather than the main gate, an independent life by herself was possible.
Although it was that she came out to avoid the King’s messenger, she was surprisingly spending a good time.
“Will you be alright? Even so, treating the person sent by His Majesty like that is…”
“Do not worry, Sister. Since the rumor says he is a clever person, he must have understood my intention.”
“But His Majesty will be very angry, so I am worried lest anything bad might happen to the young lady.”
Sister Agatha seemed to have it on her mind that Ibella neglected Tristan.
Because he would definitely report this matter to the King, and the anger of the King, whose patience had reached the extreme, might pour upon Ibella.
“His Majesty will not be able to do so.”
Ibella knew Philip’s disposition. He was sensitive and hysterical, but he was a person who did not have the boldness to commit an act carelessly.
Everyone around knew that between the King and her, it was a one-sided heart on his part alone.
Therefore, he would not be able to do a personal retaliation just because she did not accept it.
Because there was no way her brother and other ministers would stay still either. If a person she loved appeared, there was a possibility that the King’s hatred would be directed at him though.
“Then please stay until the young lady is comfortable. Ah, right. A few days ago, the new building of the Bourbon Second Orphanage was fully built. First, only some young children were moved there. This is all thanks to the young lady. Thank you very much.”
“Oh my. Meanwhile, I could not pay attention because there was something to do, but it is finally completed. That is so wonderful.”
Ibella, being so glad, clapped her hands, thwack, and showed a smile. She had been sponsoring various marginalized classes, but she was paying a lot of attention especially to the orphanage run by the Bourbon Convent.
After the Western Continent War and the North-South division of Estonia, orphans increased, but the facilities that could accommodate them were already in a state of saturation.
For that reason, the Bourbon Orphanage also had many difficulties in operation, and Ibella, who learned of this, sponsored so that they could build a branch.
“Then have the children already moved there?”
“Only some of the young children. It is really fortunate that we could finish it before the Emmerville Festival begins. Although small tasks still remain.”
“I will go and help, Sister.”
“Do not do so. How could the young lady do such a thing.”
“Mother Superior, I was at the field hospital. I probably do labor and things done by hand better than most men, you know?”
Ibella was a nursing officer, but she was not a person who only saw paperwork.
In the first place, she wanted to be dispatched as a nurse, and it was merely that the upper management of the military attached the rank of nursing officer.
She supervised, directed, and managed the field hospital, gave medical education to nurses, and personally squeezed out blood and pus from wounded soldiers and changed bandages.
Naturally, she also lent a hand to the work of washing, boiling, hanging, and folding the laundry that piled up like a mountain every day. To her, who came back from rolling in the battlefield, sharing hand labor was not even a task.
“Let us do so, then. I will be waiting. The children will like it.”
“Yes. Since I have to go out to the hospital tomorrow, I will go the day after tomorrow.”
She was doing volunteer activities not only at the orphanage but also at a rehabilitation hospital for disabled veterans.
It was a charity hospital established for those who brought sickness and injuries from the military but could not receive proper treatment.
Because doctors and manpower were always insufficient, she went out there once a week and helped with the work.
At first, it began to help marginalized people, but now she was receiving more comfort. The wounds of war, the lost memories, and the death of her father. The things that made her mind unsafe were regaining balance while doing the volunteering of small daily life.
Soon, the Emmerville regional festival would begin.
Music would echo through the streets, and vitality would turn on people’s faces.
Since she came out of the house anyway, she intended to enjoy the festival and spend a lot of time volunteering.
The King’s aide would wait for her for about two days, then face reality and go back. There was no need to do a useless bickering, and it would be a certain rejection to the King.
The position of the Queen was not needed. Right now, she did not even feel like returning to the capital. Because her father, whom she loved most in the world, was not there.
She would live here, doing what she wanted to do together with beautiful nature. Without forcing herself to turn back the disappeared memories, while accepting her father’s death as a natural order. In doing so, she believed the path she had to go again would be visible.
☆☆☆
“Should I have bought them later?”
Ibella laid down the luggage held in both hands and looked up at the cloudy sky. After she left the convent, she had just dropped by downtown and bought a mountain of gifts.
While she had ordered the items to give to the patients of the hospital to time with the festival, she was on her way back holding only the things to give to the children full in both hands.
Because of the heavy luggage, her steps kept slowing down, and since even one or two drops of rain fell, her mind became more hurried. Ibella, who was walking while holding the luggage again, stopped her steps at a strange feeling and looked back.
A short and plump man was seen quickly hiding his body behind a wall.
‘That person again.’
It was a man who appeared from about a week ago and chased her.
At first, she thought he was a man who approached because he had a heart for her, but strange points were being discovered little by little.
He did not reveal his appearance as far as possible, and when she hid her body and conversely observed the man, she could frequently see him taking out a notebook and writing something.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The raindrops beat the ground increasingly more and faster.
Ibella turned around while holding the luggage and began to walk fast. If she went a little further, there was a ruined building at an old chapel site. Since it was of quite a large scale, she intended to shake off the man there.
As Ibella’s steps quickened, the man also stuck closely. As if a little flustered, the number of times he exposed himself was increasing. As the man followed more doggedly than expected, Ibella was flustered. Because she had luggage, she could not run either, her shoulders felt as if they would fall off, and her neck, bent due to continuously looking back, began to hurt.
The intensified rain streaks beat her face, and her clothes began to get wet. Finally, it was the moment when Ibella, who ascended onto the foundation of the chapel site, walked along the collapsed wall and turned a corner.
Thud. Along with the sound of wet bodies colliding, a dizzying impact beat her head. The opponent caught Ibella in surprise, and she, missing her luggage, collapsed into the opponent’s embrace.
“Ah. Argh!”
The two people fell down below the foundation while holding each other.
Although it was a height slightly exceeding their knees, the pain of striking their bodies on the ground was not small.
At least Ibella was on top of the overlapped bodies, so the impact was less, but the opponent, perhaps because he fell backward, could not get up along with a single scream.
“Ugh. Ouch…”
Due to the dizzying impact, proper grasping of the situation was not made. Ibella, exactly as she lay face down, pressed her forehead and raised her head with difficulty.
As she instinctively observed behind, the man who chased her had already vanished without a trace and was not visible. Phew.
Ibella, who turned her head while barely feeling relieved, grasped the situation late and opened her eyes round.
“Ah, dear me.”
Only then did Ibella realize the fact that she was lying face down on top of a man’s body. Between face and face was barely about a span of a hand. At a distance where gazes tangled and breath mixed, the two people looked at each other.
“…….”
As if they had made a promise, neither she nor he had words. She could not move as if her body were frozen.
The man who had wet golden hair was unspeakably beautiful, and his blue pupils were deep and distant, as if catching and pulling her mind into an abyss.
His facial features, which were beautiful separately yet together, were to the extent that she wanted to raise a hand and touch them.
Ibella, swearingly, saw such a handsome person for the first time. That too, at a distance of barely a hand’s span.
“Until when are you going to be like this?”
Finally, a pleasant bass voice flowed out from the man’s mouth. Simultaneously, he stretched his hand and softly wrapped and held her waist.
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