Ch 3.8
“So I hope you understand why I cannot feel comfortable being around you, Young Lord.”
If he still couldn’t understand why I found him uncomfortable after I had said this much, then the problem lay with him.
I admired my own acting skills, which clearly hadn’t rusted yet, and prepared to turn my back after giving him a nod of farewell.
However, suddenly, his voice—heavy and low—rang out from behind me.
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
I thought I had explained it well enough for anyone to understand, but Eden suddenly questioned me back.
When he asked why, I was momentarily speechless from the sheer absurdity of it.
But just as I was about to open my mouth again to address him, I heard a familiar voice calling for me.
“Young Lady.”
“Lian?”
“Lady Belita, the Duke and Duchess have returned.”
It seemed Lian had come to find me so that we could return home together now that my parents had finished their business.
“My parents are back? Okay, let’s go. I should be going now.”
I gave Eden a nod and left him alone, stepping away to leave the garden with Lian.
However, Lian’s gaze was fixed somewhere beyond my back.
“Lian?”
“Yes, Young Lady. Let us go.”
When I called his name, Lian’s gaze returned to me.
In that brief moment, I thought I saw a faint smile flicker across Lian’s lips.
But it vanished so quickly that I left the garden thinking it must have been my imagination.
“Was that person the one from back then?”
As we were walking together toward the carriage, Lian suddenly asked me.
“Hmm?”
“I mean the one who rescued the younger ones.”
“Ah, right. That’s him. It was Young Lord Eden Bayon. I was so surprised to run into him here, you know? Oh, do you want to go back and greet him?”
In any case, since Eden had saved the children from the circus, I thought it was only right for Lian to express his gratitude.
So, although I wasn’t keen on seeing him again, I told Lian we should head back for a moment.
“No, it is fine. Furthermore, the one who saved me was you, Young Lady, not that person.”
Lian, who usually only gave positive answers to whatever I said, declined with rare firmness.
I felt a sense of wonder and looked up at Lian for a moment, then soon nodded.
“That’s right. I saved you.”
“That is correct. You saved me, Young Lady.”
He looked cute mimicking my words, so I beamed at him.
“You must never forget that. Got it?”
I put on a playful expression and made a show of giving Lian a stern warning.
“I will never forget it.”
Because Lian’s face looked so solemn in response to my joke, I felt a bit awkward and changed the subject.
Whenever I talked with Lian, I always found myself cracking jokes comfortably without realizing it.
That was probably because Lian didn’t know the original Belita.
Because he didn’t know her, it made me feel very much at ease that he wouldn’t be suspicious even if I just acted as myself.
That was why the time spent talking with just the two of us was quite nice.
Of course, it was a bit dull since Lian was endlessly serious like right now, but well, it wasn’t bad.
“We talked about training earlier, but how is life in the knighthood? Are you doing well? Any difficulties?”
“None.”
Then again, surely William would be taking good care of him.
We had been together for a full two years.
Traveling together, eating together, and sharing food and lodging.
That bond was larger than I had expected.
Therefore, even if I didn’t tell William every single detail, he would definitely be looking after Lian properly.
“You’re listening well to William, right? You aren’t neglecting your training?”
“I am learning with my best efforts.”
From what I heard through Mary, Lian was certainly training hard.
And because Lian’s learning speed was vastly superior to others, that ability to acquire skills was shining even brighter within the systematic training.
“You have to work even harder. That way, when I become the head of the family, won’t you have a position too?”
Lian looked at me with wide eyes, seemingly surprised by my words.
“What’s with that look? Don’t tell me you were planning to leave my side?”
When I became playful again and gave him a slightly suspicious look, Lian spoke urgently.
“I will never leave.”
“Really?”
“Yes. If you tell me to stay, Young Lady, I will never leave. I will protect you even if I have to risk my life for the rest of my days.”
What am I supposed to do with this serious guy?
“You don’t have to go that far. And don’t risk your life recklessly for someone. If you eventually find someone you love, yes, say that to that person then.”
“I will only offer my life for you, Young Lady.”
“No, but still, if you find someone you love—.”
“No. I belong to the Young Lady. Therefore, my life also belongs to the Young Lady.”
I felt that if I argued further, he would claim his heart, gallbladder, and liver were all mine too, so I just shut my mouth.
Still, I didn’t hate his blind, single-minded devotion toward me.
I wore a gratified smile and made a hand gesture for Lian to lower his head.
Since it was an action I did so often, Lian understood perfectly and bowed his head low.
But this time, instead of stroking it as usual, I playfully ruffled his ashy hair.
“Hahaha!”
Laughter burst out of me because it was so fun teasing the unresponsive Lian.
As expected, Lian had no reaction this time either.
Lian just stared at me blankly.
“What, do you have a complaint?”
“No.”
“I’ll fix it for you.”
I gestured for him to lower his head again.
“It is fine. I will do it.”
When Lian’s hand tried to go near his hair, I quickly grabbed his forearm.
“No, I’ll do it. Hurry up and lean down.”
Lian’s expression looked somewhat reluctant.
But when I issued an stubborn command, he had no choice but to lower his head before me once again.
And instead of fixing it, I ruffled his hair one more time.
“Puhaha!”
I laughed loudly, even clapping my hands because it was so fun.
Lian also burst into a chuckle, perhaps finding my behavior absurd.
“It’s fun, right? Isn’t it?”
In that way, I kept teasing Lian until we reached the carriage, and Lian let himself be fooled by me several times, keeping me entertained.
Once Belita left the garden, Eden suppressed his desire to hold her back and became lost in thought for a moment.
He was surprised the moment he saw her at the dinner, but he was glad to see her like this.
Belita Hates.
To think that she, who had introduced herself as Bell, was actually the daughter of the Duke of Hates.
It was a development he truly hadn’t imagined.
When he first saw her, he had already noticed she might be a noble lady based on her appearance and attitude.
Of course, she also showed many behaviors unbefitting a noble lady, which made him look twice and stay on his mind.
When she found out he was Eden Bayon, she seemed just as surprised as he was.
But something was a little strange.
He felt as though she was somehow avoiding his gaze.
‘Why is she doing that?’
Simultaneous with the rising question, he didn’t feel very good.
She wasn’t like that when they met again by chance in Yulita.
The woman who had visited the circus to ask about the children’s well-being, and who had helped him when he was
struggling in pain due to the necklace, was not like that.
But the woman he met again was keeping a noticeable distance, as if she were seeing something she shouldn’t, to the point where her determination not to even glance at him was visible.
He tried to keep attempting a conversation, but she acted as if she didn’t want to exchange a single word with him.
And the moment he heard the unexpected answer to the question he had asked just in case, he was certain.
The woman who had called herself Bell—no, who was now Belita Hates—was speaking as if the events with him had never happened at all.
An unknown sense of anxiety and displeasure surged within him.
Even though it was only two meetings, he thought they had shared many things during that short time.
Yet, the fact that those events had now become things she wanted to erase was making his mood drop to the bottom.
In fact, there was no reason for him to be angry just because she took such an attitude.
Since he was not the type to give his heart easily to someone in the first place, it wasn’t as if he had fallen in love with Belita at first sight or anything of the sort.
However, she had eyes similar to his own.
Those eyes, a bit deeper than the blue sky, knew loneliness and emptiness.
That was why she had come to mind occasionally—no, frequently.
How she was doing, where she was traveling now, or if she had returned home, if she still had eyes like his…….
To him, who rarely showed interest in others, she was almost the only person he had cared about for a long time.
Perhaps that was why.
Because he had been so curious about her during the time he couldn’t see her, but it seemed she hadn’t felt the same.
He was curious about the reason.
He had to talk to her to find out why.
After the meal ended and he let Adela rest in the carriage, he immediately went looking for Belita.
She happened to be heading toward the garden, and he followed after her.
And the moment he heard the reason why Belita had acted that way, his mind went dizzy, as if someone had struck his head with a solid piece of iron.
‘Adela Bayon, Kane Maxius, and Belita Hates.’
He rarely stayed in the capital.
It was partly because he traveled around for family business and was busy with personal matters, but above all, it was because Duke Bayon did not like him being in the capital.
Furthermore, he had absolutely no interest in social gossip.
That was why he knew nothing of what had happened between the three of them.
He only found out later that Kane had broken his engagement with his former fiancée, then got engaged to Adela, and then broke that off too, but he didn’t know the exact internal details between them.
Belita told him to go and hear from Adela what had happened, but he felt he would know even without asking.
Adela was as weak in spirit as she was in body from a young age.
Furthermore, because she couldn’t go outside, her craving for people was quite severe.
She was the type who liked receiving interest from others.
And she grew up receiving sufficient love from her father and the servants within the mansion.
Perhaps because she knew what it was like to be loved, she was not stingy with her own favors either.
One could tell just by thinking about what she had done for him, Eden, until now.
Whenever he was scolded by Duke Bayon from a young age and was completely intimidated, she would unfailingly appear and comfort him.
— Eden, does it hurt a lot? Why is Father like that to you?
— You must cherish your body.
Understood?
— Your body isn’t yours alone anymore. You carry the name of Bayon now.
Of course, now he knew why she had worried about his body or health.
