Chapter 169
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lody’s strange behavior didn’t stop there.
She even personally approached Christian Carver and carefully spoke to him.
“Um.”
With a very anxious face at that.
Was she worried she might not hear his answer?
There was no reason the second son of the Carver family wouldn’t converse with such a great lady like lody.
“Hello, I finally get to greet you. Miss Higgins.”
“No, I’m the one happy to exchange greetings with you. I’m lody Higgins. You…seem to already know though.”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t know? I’m Christian Carver.”
Claude stared at them intently from a few steps away. Even though he knew it was rude.
lody was conversing with him with both cheeks flushed with heat.
He now seed to understand why lody had been attending banquets so diligently.
It was to run into that man.
Claude realized at that mont that he had the sa unsightly heart as others.
Because he unconsciously thought, ‘Why a man like that?’
But at that ti, he had no ti to properly grasp his new side or the confusion lody was giving him.
Because he noticed Christian Carver grasping and pulling lody’s hand!
‘…That clueless lady, really!’
By the ti he ca to his senses, he was already wedged between the two, giving Christian Carver a friendly smile.
“I heard the news of your knighthood. Congratulations, Mr. Christian Carver.”
In fact, Claude had no intention beyond interrupting the two. But Christian responded to his greeting with a heated reaction.
“I didn’t know Sir Claude Baldwin would know of . It’s truly an honor.”
Christian looked about ten tis happier than when greeting lody.
Claude found himself wanting to laugh for so reason. But it wasn’t because of Christian’s reaction.
It was because lody standing behind him secretly started tugging at his clothes. Maybe with a very angry expression too.
So Claude tried to be a bit friendlier to Christian.
“It’s more surprising that I could not know of such a great knight. You can call
Claude. It would be an honor if you allow
to call you by na as well, Mr. Carver.”
“Of course! My goodness, to think I’d be conversing with the young master of Baldwin. There will be no happier occasion than this tonight!”
A perceptive servant brought them drinks, and the two n amicably shared glasses to commorate their eting forever.
After that, Christian Carver occasionally sent gifts or invitations to Claude.
As if completely forgetting about lody, he never contacted the Higgins again.
Claude inwardly worried if lody might be hurt by that, but that was his misunderstanding.
While she grumbled for a long ti about Claude butting in arbitrarily, she seed to quickly forget about that man.
After a few weeks, she forgot even his na and called him “the second son of so family,” and didn’t even recognize him right in front of her during the Records Keeper exam.
Claude sotis thought about what might have happened if he hadn’t intervened that day.
The two who had only been exchanging glances for a long ti would have rapidly grown close, and maybe even beco a special relationship.
Whenever such thoughts arose, Claude would sotis bolt up in bed, shouting, “Why him of all people?!” even after going to sleep.
Unable to calm his angry heart, he would chug cold water in the middle of the night, but to no avail.
Really, why? Why that man?
As he anxiously pondered, Claude realized his question of “Why him?” was actually “Why him, not ?”
…It’s silly to think this way himself, but he considered his charm to be more than sufficient.
He received praise about his appearance almost daily, and his knowledge wasn’t lacking either. He also possessed the virtue of diligence to maintain those strengths.
To be more honest, he was aware that he belonged to the quite outstanding group.
Although he never showed it, following his father’s words that modesty should be a virtue.
Yet lody acted as if such a person didn’t even enter her eyes.
That fact made Claude’s heart very desperate.
To the point of making the mistake of excessively using the Higgins na in his desire to sohow keep her by his side.
“All done.”
At lody’s voice, he finally escaped from the old mories.
When Claude lifted his head, lody was happily holding up the last bundle she completed at eye level.
“You’re quite dexterous.”
“I have a master who gives
any kind of work without discrimination.”
When the relationship he had been using for a long ti was pointed out, Claude’s heart sohow ached.
Actually, that wasn’t it…
He was just anxious about lody leaving his sight.
After the Christian Carver incident, he realized that lody had a charm that drew attention.
Whether her cute features, elegant gait, or pretty voice, everything that made up her was simply beautiful.
Thanks to that, n with eyes acted as if they were dying to not be able to look at her.
Last ti in Kristonson too, Claude thought his eyes would really fall out from confronting all those gazes.
Even though he knew such things were very childish behavior, he sohow couldn’t stop.
He was even afraid that if he took his eyes off, several more n like Christian Carver might appear.
“Should we hang this on the wall now?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. Just hang them without the bundles touching each other.”
“Without touching each other, got it.”
She repeated the precaution and hung the bundles of dicinal herbs at regular intervals.
“Hanging them up really makes them look like decorations. It’s pretty.”
“Since you like it, should I hang plant decorations for your next birthday, Miss lody?”
“Yes, that sounds good. It’ll be even prettier if we mix flowers in too.”
“You an yellow spring flowers, let’s prepare them together.”
Those were flowers lody really liked, so she turned to look at him with surprised eyes. As if asking how he knew.
“Hmm. It’s more surprising you thought I wouldn’t know. Who made the greatest contribution in finding Miss lody’s birthday?”
“Well.”
lody answered while hanging one more bundle of dicinal herbs.
“It was you, Young Master.”
“Right?”
He raised his arm high and hung the herbs where lody’s height couldn’t reach.
“The weather has gotten even more overcast in the anti.”
When lody ntioned it, Claude lifted his head to see pitch-black clouds rolling in.
“What happens to these dicinal herbs if it rains?”
“It’s indoors here, so it won’t be a big problem. During severe monsoon seasons, they didn’t dry properly and had to be mostly discarded though.”
“I hope it’s just a passing rain.”
“It will be a passing rain.”
“Hmm, and…”
lody clapped her hands lightly after hanging the last remaining bundle.
“The work is finally done!”
“Good work. You really could have just stayed still today.”
“Nope, no way.”
lody slowly shook her head, then suddenly brought her palm near her nose and mouth.
“Touching fragrant grass makes
feel good. Now my hands sll nice too. Do you want to sll?”
lody abruptly held out one hand to him as if boasting.
But she soon recalled that his hands would have a not much different scent.
Since they had been touching the sa grass.
Feeling awkward, she slowly tried to lower her hand.
“Is that so?”
But Claude, who had approached right in front of her, gently grasped her wrist.
“Uh, since…the sa scent is coming from you, you don’t really need to check.”
lody belatedly added those words, but her hand had already been lifted near his face.
“…Scent.”
The words he uttered in a small voice with his eyes closed were close enough to be caught in her palm.
“It’s very nice.”
“Well, since I kept touching dicinal herbs…”
“There’s another scent too.”
lody answered while slightly averting her gaze, feeling sohow embarrassed.
“That’s probably because of perfu. I don’t know if the fragrance still lingers though…”
At the end of her words that gradually beca smaller, lody seed to realize sothing and turned her head towards the window.
“Ah.”
After a short sigh, she soon showed a worried expression to Claude. The perplexity or embarrassnt she felt until a mont ago was not visible at all.
“It’s really raining.”
The thin raindrops soon began to fall thickly and strongly enough to engulf all the surrounding sounds.
“Seeing it suddenly beco this heavy, it must be a passing rain without fail. It’s always been like that.”
Perhaps to reassure Claude who cherished Jeremiah’s dicinal herbs.
She looked up at Claude intently with a forced smile.
“So you don’t need to worry.”
“…”
But he didn’t give any answer.
He just stared down blankly with unfamiliar eyes that sohow lacked emotion.
“Why…?”
The smile was no longer visible on lody’s face as she asked that.
“You really…don’t care.”
He opened his mouth slowly, one word at a ti, and sohow his complexion seed to darken with each word. Like soone deeply wounded.
“About being this close.”
He pulled the hand grasping lody with a bit more force.
“To .”
With the word ‘close,’ Claude’s lips perfectly pressed against her wrist.
“…!”
lody was startled and tried to withdraw her hand, but the arm held by him didn’t budge at all.
No, that was actually a lie.
lody could have easily escaped from his hand if she wanted to.
But she didn’t want to break free from the sensation of lips firmly pressing on top of her wrist for so reason.
Realizing that she was allowing her wrist, he muttered while gently shifting his gaze.
“…How cruel of you.”
It was a confused voice mixed with resentnt and desire.
“Not giving
a piece of your heart.”
He kissed the hollow of lody’s inner wrist.
“But allowing…your scent and wrist.”
He buried his lips in the sa spot as before. With the eyes that had been slightly open now completely closed.
Occasionally, his lips parted and hot breaths tickled between lody’s fingers along her wrist.
When she flinched at the unbearable sensation, he soon tilted his head to explore her wrist even more deeply.
‘It’s like…kissing…’
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