020. Bright Sunshine
Hardius returned safely to Nowak after completing all his schedules in Trunia.
Kaitlyn Meyer called him right to Kramwitz's cabin. It wasn't because she was worried about her son, who was sick from the forced march on the last day.
As soon as Hardius met his mother, he unfolded the mining contract as a gift. He also said that he planned to meet the King soon to negotiate a break in the engagement.
In that moment, Kaitlyn felt the weight of the stone that had been weighing on her chest completely disappear. She couldn't stand the pride and love she felt for her perfect son.
“Would you like to have dinner together after a long time?”
“See you again next time.”
Hardius left the house without even seeing his sick father.
Just as he was passing the tree-lined road leading out of the Kramwitz villa, Grojean approached from the other side.
“A message from His Majesty the King. He has said that he will accept all three conditions. He has only said that he will need some time to prepare for the third condition, as he needs to convince the people and avoid arousing Mrs. Meyer’s suspicions.”
"Yes."
Finally, he has overcome a difficult time.
Unlike his throbbing chest, his colorless pupils passed Grojean's face and headed somewhere in the sky. There were dark clouds, indicating that the early rainy season was about to begin.
The dark, stuffy air wraps around his body like a snake.
It looks like it's going to rain heavily.
Hardius sat quietly in thought.
Five years ago that day, the weather was exactly like this.
Not only his mother, but also his relatives, the allied families, including the Leichnen, the parliament, the press... the whole world said so.
The Meyer family was completely caught in the trap the King had set up called 'marriage'.
Sixteen-year-old Hardius had the same thought. It was unpleasant and irritating.
It wasn't that he didn't like political marriages in and of themselves. For the sake of his family, he was prepared to suppress his personal tastes and take in anyone, be it an ugly woman or a beautiful woman, a noblewoman or a commoner.
But the royal command, and the marriage that was a trap to suppress the family...
Hardius waited patiently and planned to throw it away at the right time. He suppressed the boiling feeling of displeasure as he imagined himself putting the arrogant King under his feet and laughing at him.
Her mother and others expected his commoner fiancée to be lowly and vulgar. She was not just a commoner, but the daughter of a poor farmer in the countryside. It was only natural that she would be illiterate and empty-headed, and she would have rough skin, rotten teeth, and a bad smell coming from her body.
Just endure it. Just endure it for a little while, and it'll be over.
Hardius entered the engagement hall without any sign of disgust.
And then he saw. A girl stood with a calm face under the large window of the hall.
The thick, dark clouds slowly cleared away, and a ray of intense light poured in.
Under the bright sunlight, the child shone golden. Hardius frowned without realizing it.
And then, the next moment, their eyes met. Those bright blue eyes were fixed squarely on him.
Mats were laid out on the wide white sand beach, and baskets and water bottles were placed. The weather was overcast, but fortunately, it wasn't blazing sun. The shaded beach was the perfect place to practice dancing.
“Yes, let’s begin.”
He grabbed Emilia's hand and supported her waist.
The first pose looks pretty good, except that the man's head barely touches the woman's chin.
“Three, two, one!”
The two pairs of legs that had been facing each other with relief began to move in the same direction. A three-beat waltz song flowed out of Mitch's mouth.
The seemingly plausible steps began to unravel in a matter of seconds. When Mitch's feet turned right, Emilia's feet turned left, and when Mitch turned, Emilia stopped.
The two of them were flailing like a machine with loose screws, and then they completely collapsed in an instant. Mitch fell first, and Emilia fell next to him. She giggled, her face buried in the sand.
“Did you actually learn how to dance?”
“What I’m saying is! Aren’t you the one who skipped class?”
Mitch and Emilia blamed each other, then looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“One more time?”
“One more time.”
After drinking water, the two posed again. On the darkening beach, the siblings danced, then stopped, then danced, then laughed, and so on.
“Mitch Bern, I’m worried you’ll fail the waltz.”
“Ha! Just worry about yourself. You’re going to end up being a wallflower (a girl who doesn’t get a dance request) at your first ball.”
“They say popularity isn’t determined by dancing skills.”
“No matter how beautiful a woman is, if she dances while hugging a log, her charm will be halved.”
Emilia picked it up and laughed.
“Shall we take a break?”
The two sat on the mat. Mitch looked up at the gloomy sky for a long time. Then he made a worried face.
“No way. It looks like it’s going to rain. Didn’t Mom just hang out the laundry?”
Emilia also looked around the dark surroundings.
“Yeah, I guess I should go and walk.”
“I’ll do it. I’m going to go and get ready to go out... What about you, Sister?”
“I’ll be back in a bit. The wind is so cool.”
“Yes. Then I’ll go first.”
He disappeared into the quiet path as it was.
Emilia put away the mat and water bottle, then walked to the mound where the hammock was hanging.
The sky is ominous. It looks like it's going to rain at any moment. Should she have just gone home?
When she turned around again, to her surprise, there was Hardius Meyer again. It wasn't so surprising anymore that he suddenly appeared as if by magic.
Emilia stopped in her tracks, calmly watching his black hair dance in the wind.
The closer the man gets, the stranger the feeling becomes.
Something has changed. Something...
“How have you been?”
Hardius's gaze is so unfamiliar.
“You said you were going to Trunia...”
“I’m back.”
Her heart was pounding annoyingly.
A cold face, indifferent eyes, everything is the same, but why does it keep looking different?
Hardius stopped just short enough that the hem of his frock coat seemed close enough to touch her.
“Again... what’s going on?”
“I came here to see the sunshine.”
“Sunshine?”
The two looked up at the sky at the same time. It was gloomy, as if rain would pour down at any moment, let alone the sun.
When Emilia lowered her head again, his silver-gray eyes were strangely seething.
Yeah, that's the problem.
The gaze that made her mistaken every time, as if nothing in the world mattered.
“But... it looks like it’s going to rain here too.”
Emilia avoided his gaze and muttered regretfully.
“I wish you had come yesterday. It was sunny yesterday...”
She looked up at the sky once more, her small nose twitching. Hardius’s gaze followed immediately. Her eyes, which pretended to be cold, rested on her thin, white neckline.
"I doesn't care."
Her head, which had been tilted toward the sky, returned to its original position. The man's collarbone twitched, and his eyes turned to another place as if running away.
“But why did you really come?”
Emilia suddenly asked with a serious expression. Hardius felt a sense of discomfort as he realized that the enchanting blue eyes were beginning to hold a cold and indifferent alertness again.
“It looked like you were dancing.”
“Oh, did you see it?”
“I watched for a long time what the two of you were doing. Stepping on each other, falling over...”
Emilia's face turned red. It aroused the man's spiteful instincts.
“I think I need to practice dancing some more.”
The flushed cheeks took on a deeper hue.
Only then was Hardius satisfied. The image of Emilia smiling brightly and spinning around remained as an afterimage, continuing to spur him on.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes? No, it’s okay...”
“It’s for me anyway.”
"... Yes?"
“Graduation ceremony.”
Emilia's mouth opened like a clamshell, as if trying to say something. Then it closed again.
“Wasn’t it meant for that day?”
Hardius reached out his hand to Emilia without hesitation. It was the first time since their engagement, a long time ago.
"Ah..!"
He gently pulled the hand that was trying to run away.
The man's hand grabbed Emilia's wrist tightly and lifted it high. Emilia could only stare blankly at the sight of her own hand touching Hardius's shoulder.
Another hand wrapped around her waist, his body pressed against hers.
He was completely different from her skinny little brother. He was much hotter and harder.
Emilia don't know.
She really can't tell if that loud, thumping sound is the wind rushing in, the waves rushing in from afar, or just her heart beating.
As Emilia gradually lost her will, the sky became dark with thick clouds. In the meantime, Hardius grabbed her other hand that had been hanging limply. Their fingers brushed against each other, their palms clashed, and they became tightly intertwined.
It was strange. The part that touched was a hand, but why did it make her feel nauseous? The minty, clean scent of the man added to the mix, and Emilia felt dizzy.
“Raise your head.”
Emilia's head automatically rose because it was something she always heard whenever dance lessons began.
Their eyes met. Her pulse quickened uncontrollably as she stood before those deep silver-gray eyes, like the abyss.
Hardius returned safely to Nowak after completing all his schedules in Trunia.
Kaitlyn Meyer called him right to Kramwitz's cabin. It wasn't because she was worried about her son, who was sick from the forced march on the last day.
As soon as Hardius met his mother, he unfolded the mining contract as a gift. He also said that he planned to meet the King soon to negotiate a break in the engagement.
In that moment, Kaitlyn felt the weight of the stone that had been weighing on her chest completely disappear. She couldn't stand the pride and love she felt for her perfect son.
“Would you like to have dinner together after a long time?”
“See you again next time.”
Hardius left the house without even seeing his sick father.
Just as he was passing the tree-lined road leading out of the Kramwitz villa, Grojean approached from the other side.
“A message from His Majesty the King. He has said that he will accept all three conditions. He has only said that he will need some time to prepare for the third condition, as he needs to convince the people and avoid arousing Mrs. Meyer’s suspicions.”
"Yes."
Finally, he has overcome a difficult time.
Unlike his throbbing chest, his colorless pupils passed Grojean's face and headed somewhere in the sky. There were dark clouds, indicating that the early rainy season was about to begin.
The dark, stuffy air wraps around his body like a snake.
It looks like it's going to rain heavily.
Hardius sat quietly in thought.
Five years ago that day, the weather was exactly like this.
Not only his mother, but also his relatives, the allied families, including the Leichnen, the parliament, the press... the whole world said so.
The Meyer family was completely caught in the trap the King had set up called 'marriage'.
Sixteen-year-old Hardius had the same thought. It was unpleasant and irritating.
It wasn't that he didn't like political marriages in and of themselves. For the sake of his family, he was prepared to suppress his personal tastes and take in anyone, be it an ugly woman or a beautiful woman, a noblewoman or a commoner.
But the royal command, and the marriage that was a trap to suppress the family...
Hardius waited patiently and planned to throw it away at the right time. He suppressed the boiling feeling of displeasure as he imagined himself putting the arrogant King under his feet and laughing at him.
Her mother and others expected his commoner fiancée to be lowly and vulgar. She was not just a commoner, but the daughter of a poor farmer in the countryside. It was only natural that she would be illiterate and empty-headed, and she would have rough skin, rotten teeth, and a bad smell coming from her body.
Just endure it. Just endure it for a little while, and it'll be over.
Hardius entered the engagement hall without any sign of disgust.
And then he saw. A girl stood with a calm face under the large window of the hall.
The thick, dark clouds slowly cleared away, and a ray of intense light poured in.
Under the bright sunlight, the child shone golden. Hardius frowned without realizing it.
And then, the next moment, their eyes met. Those bright blue eyes were fixed squarely on him.
***
Mats were laid out on the wide white sand beach, and baskets and water bottles were placed. The weather was overcast, but fortunately, it wasn't blazing sun. The shaded beach was the perfect place to practice dancing.
“Yes, let’s begin.”
He grabbed Emilia's hand and supported her waist.
The first pose looks pretty good, except that the man's head barely touches the woman's chin.
“Three, two, one!”
The two pairs of legs that had been facing each other with relief began to move in the same direction. A three-beat waltz song flowed out of Mitch's mouth.
The seemingly plausible steps began to unravel in a matter of seconds. When Mitch's feet turned right, Emilia's feet turned left, and when Mitch turned, Emilia stopped.
The two of them were flailing like a machine with loose screws, and then they completely collapsed in an instant. Mitch fell first, and Emilia fell next to him. She giggled, her face buried in the sand.
“Did you actually learn how to dance?”
“What I’m saying is! Aren’t you the one who skipped class?”
Mitch and Emilia blamed each other, then looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“One more time?”
“One more time.”
After drinking water, the two posed again. On the darkening beach, the siblings danced, then stopped, then danced, then laughed, and so on.
“Mitch Bern, I’m worried you’ll fail the waltz.”
“Ha! Just worry about yourself. You’re going to end up being a wallflower (a girl who doesn’t get a dance request) at your first ball.”
“They say popularity isn’t determined by dancing skills.”
“No matter how beautiful a woman is, if she dances while hugging a log, her charm will be halved.”
Emilia picked it up and laughed.
“Shall we take a break?”
The two sat on the mat. Mitch looked up at the gloomy sky for a long time. Then he made a worried face.
“No way. It looks like it’s going to rain. Didn’t Mom just hang out the laundry?”
Emilia also looked around the dark surroundings.
“Yeah, I guess I should go and walk.”
“I’ll do it. I’m going to go and get ready to go out... What about you, Sister?”
“I’ll be back in a bit. The wind is so cool.”
“Yes. Then I’ll go first.”
He disappeared into the quiet path as it was.
***
Emilia put away the mat and water bottle, then walked to the mound where the hammock was hanging.
The sky is ominous. It looks like it's going to rain at any moment. Should she have just gone home?
When she turned around again, to her surprise, there was Hardius Meyer again. It wasn't so surprising anymore that he suddenly appeared as if by magic.
Emilia stopped in her tracks, calmly watching his black hair dance in the wind.
The closer the man gets, the stranger the feeling becomes.
Something has changed. Something...
“How have you been?”
Hardius's gaze is so unfamiliar.
“You said you were going to Trunia...”
“I’m back.”
Her heart was pounding annoyingly.
A cold face, indifferent eyes, everything is the same, but why does it keep looking different?
Hardius stopped just short enough that the hem of his frock coat seemed close enough to touch her.
“Again... what’s going on?”
“I came here to see the sunshine.”
“Sunshine?”
The two looked up at the sky at the same time. It was gloomy, as if rain would pour down at any moment, let alone the sun.
When Emilia lowered her head again, his silver-gray eyes were strangely seething.
Yeah, that's the problem.
The gaze that made her mistaken every time, as if nothing in the world mattered.
“But... it looks like it’s going to rain here too.”
Emilia avoided his gaze and muttered regretfully.
“I wish you had come yesterday. It was sunny yesterday...”
She looked up at the sky once more, her small nose twitching. Hardius’s gaze followed immediately. Her eyes, which pretended to be cold, rested on her thin, white neckline.
"I doesn't care."
Her head, which had been tilted toward the sky, returned to its original position. The man's collarbone twitched, and his eyes turned to another place as if running away.
“But why did you really come?”
Emilia suddenly asked with a serious expression. Hardius felt a sense of discomfort as he realized that the enchanting blue eyes were beginning to hold a cold and indifferent alertness again.
“It looked like you were dancing.”
“Oh, did you see it?”
“I watched for a long time what the two of you were doing. Stepping on each other, falling over...”
Emilia's face turned red. It aroused the man's spiteful instincts.
“I think I need to practice dancing some more.”
The flushed cheeks took on a deeper hue.
Only then was Hardius satisfied. The image of Emilia smiling brightly and spinning around remained as an afterimage, continuing to spur him on.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes? No, it’s okay...”
“It’s for me anyway.”
"... Yes?"
“Graduation ceremony.”
Emilia's mouth opened like a clamshell, as if trying to say something. Then it closed again.
“Wasn’t it meant for that day?”
Hardius reached out his hand to Emilia without hesitation. It was the first time since their engagement, a long time ago.
"Ah..!"
He gently pulled the hand that was trying to run away.
The man's hand grabbed Emilia's wrist tightly and lifted it high. Emilia could only stare blankly at the sight of her own hand touching Hardius's shoulder.
Another hand wrapped around her waist, his body pressed against hers.
He was completely different from her skinny little brother. He was much hotter and harder.
Emilia don't know.
She really can't tell if that loud, thumping sound is the wind rushing in, the waves rushing in from afar, or just her heart beating.
As Emilia gradually lost her will, the sky became dark with thick clouds. In the meantime, Hardius grabbed her other hand that had been hanging limply. Their fingers brushed against each other, their palms clashed, and they became tightly intertwined.
It was strange. The part that touched was a hand, but why did it make her feel nauseous? The minty, clean scent of the man added to the mix, and Emilia felt dizzy.
“Raise your head.”
Emilia's head automatically rose because it was something she always heard whenever dance lessons began.
Their eyes met. Her pulse quickened uncontrollably as she stood before those deep silver-gray eyes, like the abyss.
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