Chapter 67
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 67
As the masked man drew closer to me, whispers rippled through the crowd as though voicing my own unspoken thoughts.
"Good heavens, look at that gentleman. Has Brentwood always harbored someone with such an aura?"
"Who on earth is he? He must be of extraordinarily high station."
"Oh, I wish I could tear off that mask and see who he truly is!"
Even without revealing his identity as the Prince of Holland, Leopold's arrival commanded the assembly's rapt attention. His charisma and nobility emanated from his every step, from the subtle tilt of his raised chin, and through the faintly visible depths of his eyes.
People instinctively parted before Leopold as he advanced, for from the moment of his entrance, his path was fixed upon a single destination. They could discern that even as he moved in my direction, I was not his true objective.
"Ah...."
I exhaled a trembling breath, as though I had forgotten to breathe. Leopold came to a halt three paces away from me. The "Woman of Darkness" and the "Specter" masks faced one another—a pairing that seemed both fitting and utterly incongruous.
"Charlotte."
His voice cut through the air with such tender softness that I found myself desperately hoping no one but I could hear this beautiful utterance.
"Your Highness...."
I whispered, my voice trembling. I could scarcely trust my own eyes. Behind that solemn larva mask stood Leopold himself—Leopold restored to flesh, Leopold in his true form.
"Your Highness, it truly is you...."
My lips quivered once more. I felt the curious gazes of those around us, yet I had no mind to heed them. There emanated from Leopold, now restored to corporeal form, an irresistible weight of presence and charisma that I could not deny.
In that instant, the outdoor orchestra began to play. As the lower strings produced their pizzicato notes, a melody stirred to life across the Outdoor Floor—playful yet sorrowful, romantic yet melancholic—awakening every spirit and body present.
Rather than answer, Leopold slowly took my trembling hand in his. It was the signal we had promised—an invitation to dance together.
"Mm...."
I drew in a breath. Where his touch found my skin, it felt as though new sensation awakened in my flesh, as if my body were coming alive for the first time. A tingling current coursed through me, and I felt tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I gazed up at him, overwhelmed by a strange emotion that made me feel as though I might shatter.
"Will you permit me this dance, Charlotte?"
Leopold whispered low. His tone was less a question than a statement of intent.
"...."
Rather than answer with a voice thick with emotion, I simply nodded in silence. At that, Leopold's other hand encircled my waist, and I trembled at the scorching thrill that traced across my lower back.
It was only when I finally rested my arm upon his shoulder, using the steady gaze of his slate-green eyes visible through my mask as an anchor, that I realized how much I was shaking.
"You're trembling all over."
Leopold spoke softly, gently grasping my pale, cold hand that rested upon his shoulder.
"Your hand is colder than a ghost's."
He tilted his head slightly, bringing his lips to my ear as he spoke. In that same moment, a breeze swept past, carrying the fading sunlight and a delicate sandalwood fragrance. The subtle sweetness at its heart was all that kept me from collapsing into his embrace.
"I don't know what to do..."
I barely managed to move my lips.
"Even yesterday, and the day before, every night for the past three months I've seen you..."
My brown eyes trembled with an innocence that seemed at odds with the mask of the Woman of Darkness.
"To me, you felt no different from anyone else. And yet...when I saw Your Highness reclaim your body, when our hands touched like this, I feel something I've never experienced with anyone before."
Unable to explain this heat coursing through me, my eyelids fluttered. The sandalwood fragrance, the dark auburn hair swept by the sunset breeze—all of it was familiar to me. Yet now, confronted with Leopold's reclaimed form, I felt utterly overwhelmed by a presence entirely different from when he was merely a spirit.
"...From my toes to the nape of my neck, and even my earlobes...everything feels like it's burning."
I whispered, gazing up at Leopold. At my innocent confession, the corners of his mouth curved softly beneath his mask. And as if to show he understood my turmoil, he slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"Yes, Charlotte. I understand what you're saying."
Despite his unhurried demeanor, his voice carried an undertone of something roiling beneath the surface. The romantic, quickening music of the eve filled the space between us. As we danced, I felt as though there was no distance left between Leopold and me—not even the smallest gap remained.
Leopold continued speaking shortly after.
"There are emotions that only living bodies can share with one another, not souls."
In time with the music, I spun beneath Leopold's arm, and my crimson gown swirled in a beautiful arc, the skirt billowing before settling gracefully around me.
"I want to see Your Highness's face."
My face bathed in the crimson glow of the sunset, I whispered as I nestled back into Leopold's embrace.
"While the sunlight still remains, I want to hold the sight of you in my eyes."
Yet what troubled me was not merely the sunset gradually disappearing beyond the Brentwood Forest. I found myself increasingly aware of the masked young couples around us who kept glancing our way. Perhaps it was Leopold's unusually tall stature and graceful bearing—I felt an unfamiliar attention settling upon us both.
"Wasn't dancing with me before so many eyes, receiving their gazes, what you wanted?"
Yet Leopold seemed entirely indifferent to the attention from those around us, his eyes fixed solely on me as he asked. I bit my lip secretly before answering.
"It seems I still harbored some vanity and doubt within me."
"Vanity and doubt?"
Leopold's grayish-green eyes narrowed behind his mask. Just then, I heard someone behind me recognize my mask and ask who the handsome gentleman dancing with Charlotte was. I looked directly at Leopold and spoke.
"Perhaps I harbored a small desire to show others that I dance in the heart of the Ball with someone as magnificent as Your Highness. Not Armand or Philip as rumored in society, but to show that the person I truly love is here—that vanity of mine."
What Charlotte called vanity sounded infinitely pitiful to Leopold's ears. Contrary to her natural disposition, she had always been forced to hide the most joyful moments of sharing her heart with someone in darkness. Therefore, Leopold understood Charlotte's wish to dance with him defiantly before so many people.
My trembling voice continued.
"And the doubt... it persisted even until the moment Your Highness approached me, and everyone around felt your presence and whispered. Perhaps it was a small doubt—that our story over these past three months might all be my imagination."
My voice carried a subtle wetness to it. I had sometimes wondered if his love for me might not exist, if it were merely something I had conjured.
Leopold, reading my emotion, slowly opened his mouth.
"Then now, before even one dance ends, has that doubt vanished and the vanity you speak of been completely fulfilled?"
As Leopold continued speaking, his grayish-green eyes glistened behind his mask like rain-soaked leaves.
"If not, then until your remaining doubts evaporate like morning dew, until everyone in Brentwood remembers seeing you with a mysterious lover... I don't mind dancing with you all night long while bearing their gaze."
At Leopold's devoted words, a faint blush crept across Charlotte's cheeks. Yet she realized that rather than feeling embarrassed as she usually did, she was savoring the tenderness in Leopold's voice.
"I wish I could become such a wise lady, free from vanity and doubt, but I fear I still have far to go before reaching that point."
Charlotte's crimson dress hem gleamed in the deepening sunset, appearing like dancing flames.
"But Your Highness, a greater emotion has awakened in me now—greater than vanity or doubt. It's the curiosity to see your face beneath the sunlight, and the selfishness of not wanting to share you with anyone's gaze."
Charlotte whispered with a slightly trembling voice, mindful of the people around them stealing glances. Leopold's transparent eyes slowly traced over her.
Her lovely eyes and rosy lips, which seemed ready to spill sweet nectar at any moment, gleamed from behind her mask.
"...I feel the same about not wanting to share you. Especially on a day like today, when I can see you beneath the remaining sunlight."
Leopold answered in a slow voice. He understood perfectly well what Charlotte meant by 'selfishness.' He closed his eyes for a moment as desire bloomed within them, reflecting on the past few months.
When Charlotte, who had chattered beside him all night, finally fell into deep sleep, and he had to vanish with the sunlight, leaving her behind. Leopold had long envied every person who would see her rosy cheeks, her red and moist lips, and her rich, beautifully disheveled brown hair in the sunlight where he could not exist.
'You never noticed at all....'
Emerging from his reverie, Leopold's gaze turned to Charlotte's small, delicate hand resting in his. His eyes slowly traced past her upper body wrapped in crimson silk, across the pale curve of her neck, and brushed against her masked face.
"Then... we should go somewhere we can be alone."
With Leopold's mysteriously cryptic words like mist, the couples who had just finished the first dance released their closely held bodies from each other with wistful smiles. Yet Charlotte and Leopold, without widening the distance between them at all, began to slowly slip away from the Outdoor Ballroom.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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