Chapter 484.2: The One Missing (2)
…
“Lord Roel, Miss Charlotte will need so ti to prepare herself. Please wait here for a mont.”
“Alright.”
Roel casually eyed the dozen exquisite carriages stopped along Brolne’s main road, and he noticed bits of dirt and mud clinging onto them. The coaches driving the carriages were also fighting a losing war against their drooping eyelids. That affird his earlier conjecture that Charlotte’s convoy was traveling without rest back to Rosa.
A sharp glint flashed across his eyes.
There’s indeed sothing wrong here.
Holding onto the reins of his steed, he recounted the events that had happened earlier.
Roel and the heretic army had woken up before sunrise, and they quickly packed up their items and resud their pursuit. They spent hours charging ahead before the Diamond Rivière finally appeared in their line of sight.
To his surprise, the Diamond Rivière didn’t stop right away even though a few mbers of their convoy had already noticed him, choosing to travel on.
Charlotte would always order for her convoy to halt whenever they bumped into each other, regardless of the occasion, but she didn’t do so this ti around. Roel was forced to follow the convoy for quite so ti.
Things only got weirder after the convoy halted.
Charlotte didn’t leap out of the carriage right away, and the one to receive him wasn’t Grace but another female guard. Roel had so impression of this female guard, but going by the Sia Continent’s etiquette, she was unqualified to receive soone of his stature.
He wasn’t bothered by such formalities, but he knew Charlotte was. It was unlike her to commit such a faux pas.
Is this a show of dominance from her? No, that shouldn’t be…
It was a baffling situation to Roel, but he decided against dwelling on it since it was of lesser importance. His priority was to et Charlotte and have her explain the situation.
But as ti ticked by, his eyebrows started to furrow.
She’s taking too long.
Roel glanced at the coaches who had started napping from having to wait for an extended period of ti, and his expression slowly turned grave.
He was not so dense as to not know that won needed more ti to wash up and fix their appearances in the morning, but Charlotte was an exception. In the days they spent traveling together, she had always been able to tidy herself up quickly every morning. In fact, she often had spare ti to peek at his sleeping visage.
The sun was already hanging high in the sky. Charlotte should have already woken up by now. It was bewildering how the door to her carriage was still firmly closed after such a long period of ti.
Should I barge in?
Fortunately, the carriage door opened before Roel could make a reckless move. A female attendant stepped out and offered Charlotte’s invitation to him, informing him that she was waiting in the guest room. He answered with a nod.
Roel entered the Diamond Rivière and walked across a spacious lounge. He soon arrived at the guest room, where an auburn-haired woman sat on the other opposite end of a sofa.
A year had passed since their last eting, but Charlotte looked the sa as ever, be it her flawless fair skin, her flowing auburn hair, her dignified face, or her intoxicated erald eyes.
She wore a stylish gown weaved of red and white that exposed her shoulders, only to tighten around her waist. It flowed in a way that naturally brought focus to the crimson trinket she wore around her ankles.
It was a piece that looked innocent but seductive, noble but avant-garde, a style that was uniquely Charlotte. It was probably one of her self-created piece.
Roel was srized from the mont he laid his eyes on her, but he quickly let out a cough and adjusted his state of mind.
“It has been a while, Charlotte. How have you been faring?”
“… I’ve been well, darling. What about you?”
“Well… Not too bad, I guess.”
Roel montarily paused for a mont at Charlotte’s return question as he thought about everything he had faced over the past year. From Tark Stronghold’s tragedy, the Theocracy’s internal war, to the recent Braytown investigation, it was simply too hard for Roel to describe his year as ‘good’…
… though the sa could be said about Charlotte too.
Suppressing the lethargy and enfeeblent haunting her, Charlotte put down her teacup and looked at Roel with deep eyes. She had bottled up countless words to say to him over their year of separation, but she had to hold herself back, knowing that it wasn’t the ti for it.
She couldn’t risk Roel catching the sa affliction, no matter how slim the possibility was.
Her plan was to express her dissatisfaction and find a way to drive Roel off, but when they finally ca face-to-face with each other, she realized that she had overestimated herself. How could she drive off the man she had been yearning for an entire year?
Her aching heart started to beat hard from the mont he appeared before her. A year’s worth of feelings suddenly gushed forth, resuscitating her dulling soul.
I… I am really unable to chase him away, Charlotte thought bitterly.
On the other hand, Roel took a trip down mory’s lane too, but he quickly snapped out of it. Turning his eyes toward Charlotte, he asked a question that had been plaguing his heart for a few days now.
“Charlotte, did sothing happen?”
“What are you saying, darling? What could have possibly happened?”
“Don’t bother putting on an act. This doesn’t work on .”
Fluster montarily flashed across Charlotte’s eyes. She quickly concealed it with a smile, but Roel wasn’t fazed at all.
From their first eting, he had already known that she was an actress through and through. It was not just once or twice that he had fallen for her act, though her tricks slowly lost their effectiveness as they got closer to each other.
“You didn’t inform when you returned to Saint Freya Academy, and now you’re returning ho without bidding farewell. I can’t say that this is the Charlotte I know. Tell , what happened?”
“… It’s nothing. I just miss ho.”
“Miss ho?”
“Yes. I’m drained from the long discussions in the symposium,” replied Charlotte.
It was a response that didn’t satisfy Roel, but no matter how he probed her, she obstinately clung to her stance, insisting that she had been out for too long and wanted to quickly return ho to rest.
The way she was reacting to the situation failed to assuage Roel’s unease; if anything, it was making him worry more. He was getting a bad feeling based on what he knew about her, but the latter was refusing to divulge any clues at all.
Knowing that he wouldn’t make any progress at this rate, he turned his attention to the other details, hoping to unravel so other clues from the details. It didn’t take long for sothing—or rather, the absence of sothing—to catch his eyes.
Looking at the loneso Charlotte in the room, his golden eyes narrowed with hawk-like sharpness.
“Charlotte, where is your personal maid, Grace?”
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