“I do not know if I am being oversensitive, but……. when we shared the kiss of holy matrimony……. Were you perhaps dissatisfied with the wedding?”
Contrary to her expectations, his face was very calm.
That only made her more stubborn.
“Your expression was very poor. When we kissed…….”
Lucent listened to Aeplin’s words with one hand propping his chin.
But perhaps because it had been difficult for her to bring the words out, Aeplin’s face reddened, and her eyes wavered uneasily.
Aeplin blinked her large verdant eyes and fixed her gaze on Lucent.
The Lucent Blackakson she envisioned was a man who never acted without reason, and who was coldly rational and logically coherent in all things.
He was someone in whom reason preceded emotion and who did not easily reveal his inner thoughts, so she was all the more curious why he had done so.
Lucent stared at Aeplin with a slightly stiffened face, then turned his head and looked outside.
Once again, a chill swept fiercely between the two.
“Because I did not want to be taken from…….”
Lucent murmured quietly, still keeping his gaze fixed out the window.
“Taken from by whom?”
Aeplin tilted her head in bewilderment and brought her face close to his.
Startled, Lucent pressed his back flat against the seat.
She had seemed so sharp, so self-possessed, and so particular about formality and dignity—he had never expected her to have such an eccentric side.
“The answer…… Aeplin can find it herself.”
“Pardon? Me?”
Without realizing it, she had been given an assignment by Lucent.
What was even stranger was that her hurt feelings toward him flew away like a spring haze.
Soon only one thing circled in Aeplin’s mind.
‘Because he did not want to be taken from—by whom?’
Was Lucent not a man who could have anything he wanted?
It was difficult to find the answer to what, from whom, and for what reason he did not want to be taken from.
Still, it was a relief that it did not seem to be anything more serious than she had expected.
Aeplin quickly changed the subject.
On a day like today, she did not want to prolong a serious conversation.
“I am curious about the villa in Haven.”
“Aeplin will surely like it too. Beyond the villa, there is a blue sea and white sand.”
“Truly?”
Aeplin clasped her hands together and her eyes sparkled.
“But the villa is quite beautiful, and yet there is also a very ferocious being there.”
“What could that very ferocious being be?”
At Lucent’s dazzling smile, a thought crossed Aeplin’s mind.
‘Such a being is probably…….’
“Are there ghosts?”
Her gaze naturally turned to Lucent.
“What?”
Lucent, hearing words he had not expected, barely held back his laughter.
They were going on a modest honeymoon, not a haunted-house experience.
“I do not keep ghosts at the villa.”
“My imagination ran away with me.”
Aeplin was embarrassed to have asked such a childish question.
But when she had first met him, he had been startlingly noble and composed, and yet at today’s wedding, he had been more beautiful than anyone and yet majestic.
She had promised to share the seasons of her life with him and to build a family with him…….
‘Build a family?’
Suddenly Aeplin’s face flushed red.
She had forgotten that tonight she would spend her first night with him, and the reality struck her all at once.
‘Kissing, sleeping together……. And we have to do intimate things too, because we are husband and wife.’
She knew it in theory, but her heart had not prepared itself.
Aeplin’s greater wish was to know Lucent better.
Even if it was not a union founded on love, she hoped her feelings for him would deepen.
Only then would she not live to regret her choice.
‘People are truly sly.’
Aeplin turned her head to look out the window and wore a bitter expression.
When the fire had been at her feet, she had not cared about dignity, but now that she could breathe, she was making worldly calculations.
Yet it was said that humans are the most selfish beings in any environment.
As such, Aeplin considered her wish to know Lucent better not to be a sin.
Just then, an unfamiliar landscape entered her view.
Leaving the bustling city behind, they passed through fields lined with dark green olive trees, and before she knew it, the scent of the sea lingered at the tip of her nose.
“I can smell the sea.”
Aeplin turned to Lucent with an excited face.
He smiled warmly and reached out his long arm to open the window for her.
“Feel it as much as you like.”
“Th—thank you.”
Soon, clear air came rushing into the carriage.
The clear but salt-tinged wind also carried the fragrance of nameless flowers.
Aeplin closed her eyes for a moment and, escaping the ashen fog of the capital, imagined herself as a forest spirit standing in a place surrounded by clear sky and verdant trees.
Before she knew it, the worries that had filled her chest vanished like smoke, and tranquility found her.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw the scenery had changed once more.
Houses clustered snugly together.
All had white roofs and blue windows, and though they were tall buildings, they did not block the blue sky.
It felt as though she had traveled back in time, and her heart fluttered.
That was when it happened.
Lucent drew Aeplin’s attention.
“That building you see there is our villa.”
Aeplin immediately turned her eyes to where he pointed.
The building, made of white marble, was as mysterious as a heavenly temple.
Lace curtains fluttered in the breeze at the windows, and the trees surrounding the villa were of kinds unseen in the capital.
Before she could even let out a gasp of admiration, Aeplin swallowed dryly.
“It is…… splendid.”
She wanted to praise it with every flowery word at first sight, but in that moment her emotions surged so much that she could not think of the right words.
The feeling of splendor was the strongest, so she said it just as she felt it.
* * *
Dinner at the splendid villa was excellent.
Aeplin was bathing with Laurel’s assistance.
But unexpected words poured from Laurel’s mouth like a sudden downpour.
Following the news of the breakup between Crown Prince Serge and the opera singer Marita, the fact that he had tried to come to the Grand Cathedral today to stop her wedding was truly astonishing.
“Is it not so ridiculous? His Highness was the one who told you first that he wanted to break up, my lady.”
“Rather than ridiculous, it is pitiful that His Highness’s love did not last long.”
Unlike Laurel, who was indignant, Aeplin replied with a sorrowful expression.
“Our lady must be a saint.”
“A saint? It is not that.”
“If not, then why say it is pitiful? In a case like this, it is normal to feel refreshed.”
Aeplin looked at Laurel and smiled gently.
She had not the slightest desire to play the saint.
It was simply that she had lived since childhood learning to suppress her emotions and not become angry.
She had been taught that openly revealing emotions was vulgar, and it had naturally become a habit.
“I feel this every time, but it seems our lady is trapped inside the mold of a count’s daughter. The times keep changing, and yet…….”
“……?!”
A single remark from Laurel, who was rubbing oil onto her body, rang in Aeplin’s chest like thunder.
She had resolved several times to break away from the outdated image of womanhood and keep pace with the times…….
But she had never truly tried.
So Laurel’s words, striking the mark, stung.
“Anyway, are you prepared in your heart? Tonight is a special night, after all…….”
Only then did Aeplin, who had been calm all along, show a flustered reaction.
“Is there any need to prepare my heart? We can just…… let it happen naturally.”
Laurel dressed Aeplin in a negligee and sprayed her with apple-scented perfume.
Only after finishing her hair did Aeplin sit on the large bed where she would spend her first night with Lucent.
On the bedside table were prepared a candlestick, a bottle of wine, and crystal glasses that evoked a subtle mood.
“My lady, I will take my leave now.”
“Stay a little longer?”
“Why, are you afraid?”
Laurel asked with a mischievous face.
“It is not that.”
“Anyway, have a night where your bones and flesh burn.”
“What?”
Aeplin shot a look at Laurel, who was retreating from the bedroom with a sheepish smile.
‘Saying such indecent things…….’
It was the first time in her life she had heard such an explicit remark.
Yet her body was wrapped in a strange anticipation and excitement.
Before she could even hide the peculiar feeling, the bedroom door opened, and at last Lucent appeared.
Wearing only a black silk robe, he was different from usual—his hair was wet, and through the gap in the robe, his firm bare chest was fully revealed.
“Aeplin.”
The magic that made his approach as he called her name seem so very slow.
Aeplin, unable to take her eyes off Lucent, wore an enchanted expression.
