Chapter 26
At the question Johannes threw along with a vague answer, Daphne’s face immediately turned serious. For a moment, Johannes almost burst out laughing. Barely managing to compose his expression, he added, feigning indifference.
“With my return imminent, it’s only natural that there are several young ladies with whom marriage proposals are being discussed.”
Daphne’s eyes darted to the side.
“…Does that mean you don’t have a wife yet?”
At that, Johannes shrugged his shoulders and continued slowly.
“I was originally far from the throne. There was no need to rush. Then one day, I suddenly became king, and immediately after, I was sent to the battlefield…. I still don’t have a queen.”
Somehow, his voice sounded bitter and lonely, so Daphne fumbled to find some words of comfort.
“That must be quite a predicament.”
“For me?”
“Because a king needs a queen and an heir.”
After a moment, Johannes turned to look at Daphne with narrowed eyes.
“…Are you aiming for the position of Itium’s queen?”
The corners of his mouth, as he asked, held a subtle playfulness. He thought she would surely furrow her round brows and blush all the way to her neck. But she…
“Goodness, why would you ask something like that?”
She suddenly burst out laughing, then playfully furrowed her brows as if to say, “Stop with the mischievous jokes.” It was a completely different reaction from what Johannes had expected.
In the meantime, Daphne added in a rather nonchalant, yet confident tone.
“You wouldn’t keep me by your side anyway.”
The faint upward curve of Johannes’s lips subtly hardened. Come to think of it, though she looked at him as if she coveted him, she had never properly shown any greed for him. Realizing this, Johannes felt something boiling up inside him. Oblivious to this, Daphne muttered a self-deprecating joke.
“No, who could keep me by their side? The only man who would take a half-wit as his wife would be from Equilla.”
In that instant, Johannes’s mood completely soured. He impulsively grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him. A small scream escaped her lips, and Johannes stared down at her with sunken eyes as she blinked frantically. Daphne looked into his eyes and mumbled in a flustered voice.
“Johan…?”
“……”
“I thought you were going to kiss me. Though there’s no way you would do that to me….”
Daphne had simply tossed out the joke, trying to lighten the suddenly tense atmosphere. However, Johannes couldn’t hide his momentary agitation.
The moment her blue eyes, reflecting him, wavered helplessly, the moment his chest heaved and his entire body stiffened. Daphne stared with her mouth agape. It was probably the first time he had ever been so rigid with her. So, it didn’t seem entirely like a misunderstanding.
‘Since a little while ago, he’s been… to me…’
Doesn’t it seem like he wants me, just a little?
But even then, Daphne had no intention of doing anything. She didn’t know what she should do, and she couldn’t dare to guess what would happen next. All she could say was that her body had moved. As if by instinct.
Daphne leaned in. His and her lips met awkwardly.
She couldn’t tell if it was his lips that trembled or hers. The trembling spread beneath their skin, burrowed into their stomachs, and radiated throughout their entire bodies.
At the hot, tingling sensation, Daphne pressed her lips a little more firmly against his. Shocked by the speed at which a scorching desire reared its head, she snapped her eyes open, met his gaze, and flinched, pulling her body away.
She saw his face, framed by the pale moonlight, and his lips, slightly parted from the clumsy kiss. He looked startled.
She should have laughed it off, pretending to be as foolish and clueless about etiquette as usual, but Daphne froze as she replayed what she had done. The time for an explanation was over in a brief moment of panic. The kiss had become sincere.
He jumped down from the tree branch. With his back to her, he slowly ran a hand through his hair, then approached her again and extended his arms. It was an offer to help her down. Daphne hurriedly grabbed his shoulders, and Johannes swiftly set her down on the ground.
She should have seen his expression then. But by the time Daphne’s feet touched the ground and she came to her senses a little, Johannes had already completely turned his back to her.
“Go back.”
And with that, he left first. Left alone, Daphne buried her face in her hands.
In a single moment’s mistake, she had lost him.
💎
In a brief moment, a myriad of emotions surged.
The moment the woman tilted her head and approached him, the moment their soft lips brushed against each other, and the moment they parted and he met her horror-filled purple eyes.
None of the ever-changing emotions in each of those moments could be clearly explained. The only certain thing was the regret left at the bottom like dregs.
He should have pushed her away.
Johannes could have easily pushed her away, but he didn’t. No, he couldn’t. The realization of that fact sent a vague fear surging uncontrollably through him.
It was an absurd impulse, an absurd mistake.
Johannes turned away from her and dashed through the trees at the fastest speed he had ever moved in his life. It was a clear escape.
‘Damn it…’
He was almost out of the forest when something snatched his arm.
Johannes instinctively grabbed the wrist of the person who had snatched him and slammed them to the ground. In the blink of an eye, he had them pinned by pressing on a vital point, pulled out the dagger strapped to his calf, and raised it high.
The next moment, Johannes’s movement stopped as he identified his opponent. He scowled deeply and muttered.
“…Günter?”
The strength in Johannes’s grip slackened. Günter, whose vital point had been pressed, coughed, “Gack, gack.” Even in the dim light, it seemed his face had turned beet red. Letting Günter go, Johannes carelessly tossed the dagger aside and irritably swept his forehead. In the meantime, Günter, having stopped coughing, sat up and glared at his lord with bloodshot eyes.
‘He was really meeting a woman in the forest? And the princess, at that?’
A beautiful woman, shining like silver as if she were a fairy from a myth. And his own lord, smiling like an idiot in front of her. It really felt like he had seen something he shouldn’t have. Shaking his head as if to deny reality, Günter opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty. Have you gone mad?”
“…You have no reservations about what you say in front of your lord.”
“Then I’ll speak as your friend. Are you crazy? That’s the princess! Of Bellares, no less!”
At “the princess,” Günter instinctively lowered his voice. Günter was usually a man of few words, but once he started nagging, no one could stop him. Johannes scowled and grumbled without thinking.
“What do you mean, ‘that’…”
“You madman…”
Günter sighed in disgust. A few unspoken curses were swallowed down his throat. Günter spoke, clenching his jaw. He was trying to have a rational conversation.
“Yes, Johan. ‘That woman’ is Daphne ‘Thessalia’.”
“……”
“How is that woman roaming outside the castle? And why with you…. How could she so naturally… Damn it. Did I see that right?”
But the more he calmly retraced his steps, the more messed up he felt. With a pained expression, Günter roughly rubbed his face. Soon, a frustrated voice leaked through his palms.
“…Even with all your other crazy antics, you never had problems with women, and now you finally go and cause trouble…!”
At that, Johannes furrowed his brows as if he were being unfairly accused. Seeing that expression through the gaps between his fingers, Günter looked at Johannes up and down with an incredulous expression.
“What’s with that ‘I’m being wronged’ look? Don’t make me laugh. Usually, you’re right, but this time, whatever the reason, you’re wrong. So stop it right now!”
While Günter fired off his words without taking a breath, Johannes remained silent with his face still scrunched up. That expression looked so brazen, as if he not only didn’t know what he did wrong but also didn’t know what he was being told to stop, that Günter shouted, pointing wildly toward the forest.
“You know what I’m talking about! Going into the forest, meeting that woman, all of it! I’ll send a similar-looking woman from among the prisoners to your tent, so…”
“It’s not like that.”
Johannes, who had been sparing his words, for some reason, rushed to deny it.
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