Chapter 46
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------
Chapter 46
The night I read Armand's letter, I persuaded Lydia Augusta to finally relieve my sisters and parents from their constant vigil at my bedside. In their stead, I arranged the anemones that Aunt Elicia brought each day in a beautiful vase and placed it on my nightstand, then lay back to gaze out the window. Beyond the glass, October's darkness was descending swiftly upon the world.
"Your Highness Leopold."
I whispered softly, my body tilted against the headboard.
"I know you're here."
I closed and opened my eyes slowly. At the edge of the darkness, the last fragment of sunset mingled with the emerging starlight, casting a dim glow across the room. And where that beam of light passed through, Leopold revealed himself, his grayish-green eyes gleaming.
"Why is there no one attending to you tonight?"
Leopold approached me with footsteps as light as the wind flowing through the window.
"You still have a fever, Charlotte."
His familiar hand gently brushed my earlobe and forehead.
"I asked to be alone because I wanted to see you, Your Highness."
I shifted in bed with a soft rustling sound.
"Here. Sit like you did last time, so I can lean against you."
I tapped the spot beside me on the bed with my delicate hand.
"Will you refuse the request of someone who is ill?"
When Leopold remained still and simply gazed at me, I pouted and spoke.
"Your Highness bears some small responsibility for my illness. So..."
I met Leopold's eyes with a plaintive gaze. Finally, he slowly settled onto the space beside me on the bed.
"...."
I caught the sudden drift of Leopold's scent. He carried the fragrance of flowers that bloomed only in the deepest forests—a scent I had missed all the more keenly since I hadn't taken my evening walks for days. With my eyes gently closed, I brought my forehead to rest against his broad shoulders. The sensation of firm muscle and warmth traveled from my forehead through my entire body.
I slowly parted my lips.
"Aunt Elicia has been bringing me a bouquet of anemones from the forest every single day. They're beautiful, aren't they?"
At my words, Leopold's gaze turned toward the vase on the bed near me. Though my eyes remained closed, I could sense his every movement through the subtle shift against my forehead.
I continued speaking.
"Aunt Elicia says these flowers must surely be a gift the forest is sending to me. She mentioned that whenever she takes her walks through the forest, she finds a neat handful of flowers placed along the path...."
I recalled how Elicia had delighted in saying that "the wind must have carefully selected the most beautifully bloomed flowers and arranged them there."
"...It was you, wasn't it, Your Highness?"
"...."
Leopold fell silent at my question. But I already knew his answer. I could feel his heartbeat—so vivid it was hard to believe he was a spirit—growing slightly more rapid.
Rather than wait for his response, I imagined him walking alone through the forest, plucking flowers for me. And as dawn's light began to break, I pictured him carefully arranging those white anemone blossoms along the forest path.
"Your Highness, you came to the Ball four days ago because you wanted to see me, didn't you?"
I whispered, hiding the sting in my nose within the darkness.
"...You disappeared back then without answering that question."
"Charlotte...."
Leopold's low voice stirred the dark air. That was enough. Once again, I had no need to wait for his answer.
"Your Highness, at that moment I was so focused on confessing my feelings to you that I hadn't had time to think about it."
I spoke in a slightly strained voice.
"But you said something that day. That despite understanding your own circumstances better than anyone, you found my dancing with another man beautiful...."
Charlotte felt Leopold's body stiffen at her words. As expected, the prince spoke in an unusually anxious tone, uncharacteristic of his usual composure.
"On a day so important to you, I revealed myself following the desires of my heart. Moreover, I spoke words that confused you. I'm sorry, Charlotte."
"...Following the desires of your heart...."
Charlotte lifted her forehead from Leopold's shoulder and repeated his words aloud.
She slowly raised her head to gaze up at him. The confident prince who had worn such a composed and detached expression even when speaking of his possible death now appeared troubled and tender. His usual composure had crumbled, replaced by vulnerability and anguish.
Meanwhile, Charlotte—who had always worn an uncertain expression—now bore a soft, confident smile.
"Your Highness once said at the midnight recital in Romford that you wished to live following your heart someday. Not what you thought was right, not the answer that matched others' expectations, but following your heart...."
Charlotte whispered softly. The candlelight filling the room made her rosy lips gleam with particular radiance.
"So that day, your heart came to see me, and you felt a sudden jealousy watching me dance with another man. Ultimately, leaving my hand with Philip Oslo was... a decision made by your reason overriding your heart."
Leopold's dark brows rose diagonally at Charlotte's unexpected rebuttal. Thanks to this, she could see his grayish-green eyes more clearly as she continued.
"Your sincere wish is that I find a good person, someone to share my days and nights and dawns with. But asking me to share warmth with others in a bright ballroom rather than a dark gallery—that was your reason.... Isn't it?"
Charlotte held Leopold's gaze steadily, offering him a tender smile.
"Then... wouldn't you continue following your heart, Your Highness?"
At Charlotte's words, Leopold's heart thundered loudly. She seemed utterly unaware that when she smiled like this, her rosy cheeks puffed adorably like a baby rabbit's, and that Leopold suffered an overwhelming desire to kiss them. Or perhaps she knew far too well.
'Or perhaps she knows all too well.'
Leopold narrowed his brow in anguish as he gazed upon her impossibly lovely expression.
"Charlotte, that is...."
He barely managed to open his mouth, but it was futile. Charlotte, her arms wrapped around his firm shoulders, spoke in a sweet voice.
"Even Shakespeare, whom Your Highness admires, said this: an honest heart is the light that belongs to that person alone. So please... be just a little more honest."
"...."
She seemed determined to seduce Leopold, her round brown eyes sparkling with an impish smile. Leopold felt an exquisite emotion he had never experienced before coursing through his entire body like electricity.
A moment of silence passed, and Leopold's rigid expression softened toward Charlotte. His straight forehead then descended gently against hers, like a petal falling.
"Charlotte, you truly are...."
Leopold continued in a voice tinged with a languid, melancholic smile.
"I may be nothing but a shadow over the bright, beautiful life you deserve, Charlotte. A shadow of death gnawing away at your precious time...."
Charlotte trembled at Leopold's deep voice, one she had never heard before. The thought crossed her mind that this might be one of the rare moments in his life when he spoke his true heart.
"Even if Your Highness leaves me with loneliness, even if you cast a shadow over me—that loneliness is mine to bear, and that shadow is one I love."
Charlotte wanted to embrace the profound sorrow flowing from Leopold's every breath. He must be accustomed to bearing others' burdens. That was why he had told her in Count Oslo's Gallery that her feelings toward him were misguided.
"Your Highness Leopold, you need not shoulder my decisions and responsibilities as well. Instead, listen to where your heart is truly drawn right now. Listen to what I truly wish for. Yes?"
Charlotte's round forehead pressed gently against his with audacious tenderness. Leopold, who thought himself well-versed in sound judgment, felt the sweet fragrance emanating from Charlotte gradually shaking the rigid inner rules he had carefully constructed to make such decisions.
'Can it truly be this way, Charlotte...? Is following where one's heart leads really this easy, this sweet?'
Complicated thoughts tried to cloud his mind's vision, but the smile of the small lady before him prevented them from gaining momentum.
"...Ah."
After a long silence, Leopold exhaled a sigh that sounded like a pleasant surrender. It almost seemed to carry a hint of laughter within it.
Seeing this, Charlotte's face broke into a brighter smile than ever before. But it was not because her feelings had been accepted, nor because she had received the affection she had longed for all her life. Charlotte was genuinely delighted that Leopold had made a decision following his heart for the first time—not a decision based on reason, but one made for someone he cared for.
"Your Highness, you once told me that being a ghost allowed you to see my true self, and that pleased you, didn't it?"
Charlotte recalled when Leopold had said he liked her authenticity. Leopold lifted his grayish-green eyes to gaze at her.
"That is...."
His gaze faltered and came to rest on Charlotte's glistening pink lips. Charlotte asked in a languid voice.
"There might be another advantage to being a ghost.... Do you know what that is?"
Rather than wait for Leopold's response, I grasped his shirt collar with both hands and drew him gently toward me.
"That means... a cold won't spread between us."
"...!"
Leopold's gaze, which had never wavered from me, met my lips as they touched his. It was a sweet reward wholly undeserving of such an improper decision—one made by surrendering to the desires of the moment.
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------