Chapter 141
Translator: Yonnee
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"...Still, you can't."
"It's useless to stop me!"
"You can't..."
Irene, who had been walking angrily, was forced to stop at his fading voice. A frail voice like a candle flame in the wind, heard just before dying.
As she turned around with surprised eyes, she found how Ciel stood tall despite his extinguished voice and conveyed his words without looking back at her.
"You're a long way from the past now. You're in a good environment now. It's different."
"Ciel..."
"You tried to erase me... But why can't you let go of a different part of the past?"
Irene couldn't offer any response. His words were correct.
"If that's the case, you shouldn't let go of me either. But why, with me..."
As he became increasingly emotional, Ciel raised his eyes. He pursed his lips as if someone withholding words several times, then turned his head.
"No... What I want to say isn't this. For now, I hope you put your trust in me. There are many ways to prevent that woman's heinous actions without necessarily killing her. So, just live happily as you are. Away from the past, just like this... with your family."
"......"
"So, don't pay any more attention to it."
After finishing his words like that, Ciel soared into the air. Irene could only watch him disappear quickly.
It felt stifling, like he was suffocating somehow. He couldn't pinpoint where this frustration was coming from.
In the end, he couldn't say it.
'I hope you're no longer entangled with Seo-yoon' was the phrase that lingered in his mouth but never made it out into the open.
* * *
It's been two days since I parted ways with Ciel, and the atmosphere in the mansion lively yet again. I noticed the commotion, but as I recalled his words-about Seo-yoon, about the monster waves-I didn't go downstairs. I thought it might be just another round of him bringing in new food.
So, with a frown on my face, I looked out the window, but someone knocked on my door. Naturally assuming that it was probably Mary, I habitually responded.
"Come in."
Then, the sound of the door opening reached me. Soon, the sound of an unexpected set of footsteps could be heard entering.
Startled, I turned my head to find Ciel standing there with an awkward expression.
"Hello."
"...Hello."
"It feels like it's been a long time since I visited the Barony. Have you been well?"
Even though we had met just two days ago, he spoke as if it had been a month since we last saw each other.
I looked at him with curiosity, wondering if there had been any change in his feelings.
Did he have a change of heart? And if he were to ask for a favor, I was ready to listen now.
"I came because I have something to say... Is it okay if we talk for a moment?"
"Yes."
I answered as I stood up. I felt relieved that he decided to come around even if it was belated.
Really, was there a need to spare the life of someone who's a threat to society? Considering everything that happened, and all the atrocities that she had caused in the past, it was only right for her to pay the price in this life.
He stood not far from the door. Since it looked like he wasn't thinking of coming in, I walked towards him first.
As I got closer to him, his head gradually lifted. When I stopped right in front of him, I had to crane my neck to look up at him.
I waited for his response, feeling a difference that wasn't much different from the past.
He stood there with a tense gaze, looking down at me for a moment as if realizing something.
Then, he spoke.
"Just a, just a moment."
He went outside again and came back with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.
It was a bouquet filled with roses that subtly blended the pink and crimson colors, reminiscent of those I had received through the butler and Mary at some point. In the center, a black rose took its place.
Unlike last time with just one, this bouquet featured around thirty black roses surrounded by coral-colored roses, forming an elegant arrangement. He cleared his throat and then extended the bouquet to me politely.
"Irene."
"...What is this?"
"You might have heard, but I've been invited to a banquet at the Imperial Palace. Not only me, but your entire family is invited."
"Ah... I haven't heard about that yet."
"Oh, I see."
Whether he hadn't considered that I might not know or not, he held the bouquet out to me, hesitated for a moment, and then continued speaking.
"...But you should still attend the banquet. So, I was thinking of humbly asking you to be my partner. Would you kindly accept?"
Though I was looking up at him, and he was looking down at me... His cautious tone, demeanor, and body language felt unfamiliar.
Thinking back to the past, he seemed completely changed, but I must have already adapted to this changed Ciel without realizing it.
Rather than feeling that this was strange, in my eyes, he now seemed cute in this state.
...Was I the one who had become strange?
The bouquet he held trembled, and the petals quivered. A petal from the coral-colored rose in the center swayed and fell to the ground.
As I looked at it absentmindedly, impulse swiftly forged a path ahead.
"Yes."
There was absolutely no reason to refuse being just his partner for a banquet. I smiled and received the bouquet from him. When it was in my arms, it seemed much fuller than it appeared when he held it.
"Uh, um..."
He seemed frozen, as if he hadn't expected a positive answer. I burst into laughter.
I never expected him to be such a dummy.
