The Abandoned Princess: Promises Arc

Chapter 29

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕷𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

"So stop crying will, you? It's not like I've died or something, Vestia... And right now, I am already breaking my promise to you..." Henry's deep, husky, and yet the softest nostalgic voice I've ever heard, resonated within my ears.

However, my hands got stuck on his back, never letting him go. Not when I fully wet his clothes.

From the background, I could even see how Claudius was smiling with his chuckles. Right now, we were supposed to enjoy the morning tea, and everything to catch up with the past.

But when Henry brought up his current role as a senior knight and left out everything we witnessed that day, I didn't even notice that my hands were already tugging his shirt.

I've been enveloped by this warmth, a familiar sensation that I couldn't forget, not when I lost this for five freaking years.

I heard Henry sigh for a moment before finally letting me fully wet his clothes. When I had enough, I even wiped my wet nose on his clothes so that all he could muster was to make a face and act like it was disgusting for a lady.

But little did he know that I intended to do that because of his punishment for leaving me those years.

I didn't even have the time to send his coat to his household, not when he wasn't around.

"You're acting like a child, Vestia. Goodness, act like a fine lady, will you?"

"What if I don't want to? Besides, that's your punishment, Henry..."

"What did I do?"

"Takes you an additional five years to understand," Instead of speaking those words I had in mind, Claudius responded on my behalf. Henry looked at him with his eyebrows almost creasing and an open mouth with eyes searching Claudius' words.

However, the silence that once filled the garden was engulfed with humorous laughter after Claudius smacked Henry's head again.

"Besides, this is my punishment for you as well..."

"What?" Was the only words he could say before making a face once more. But after a few more seconds, Claudius broke down and I know that kind of expression.

It felt like he lost a friend for a moment before finally getting him back.

"So don't keep secrets to yourself, dummy..."

"Dummy? When did I become a dummy, Claudius?"

"For those five years in the past!!!" Then Claudius ran to me from behind, like the first time I saw him act as if he was making me a shield for himself and I chuckled.

We heard Henry sigh and when we looked at him, he crossed his legs, and looked at his tea, before finally drinking it. I can see how he reacted to the bitterness of it, but he once admitted to me that he didn't like the green tea flavored with lemon until he tasted it in our afternoon tea.

After putting his tea down, he looked at the large tree from behind him, and we saw a different outlook from his perspective.

As the wind swayed his raven hair, a glimpse of loneliness shone in his eyes, and a façade that we weren't able to see in the past.

It's as if Claudius and I had seen him feel indifferent for a second before looking back at us, and then he smiled, a kind of smile that never reached his ears.

"It's a long story and I don't want to spoil the mood, so at the right time, I will tell you. I promise that..."

In the blink of an eye, Henry grabbed my pinky finger and intertwined with his same with Claudius in his other hand. Then as if he had become the old himself, he smiled at us as if nothing ever happened in his household, and as if we never witnessed him get tortured in that dangerous basement of his household.