It was strange.
Could the person who gives the gift to the other person look so gloomy?
Normally, people don't get excited before giving gifts. I imagined that the other person would be happy.
The shadow on his face felt a little strange, but he nodded.
"There is nothing wrong with it. Show me now."
Even if I checked the other gifts tomorrow, I wanted to receive what he was giving me now, and he called his servant to bring him a gift.
Soon, a trolley loaded with a pile of gifts entered the bedroom.
"So much..."
"As I was preparing, I got a little more. You have a lot of time, so take it slowly."
Following his recommendation, I began to open the gifts at the top.
Inside the first box was a necklace.
It was a necklace studded with a large jewel that resembled the color of my eyes.
At first, I thought it was sapphire, but when I looked closely, it wasn't.
"Blue diamond?"
As I muttered, I looked at him in surprise for a moment.
Isn't it too unconventional for the first gift?
He smiled a little.
"Do you like it? All the other young girls and noble ladies wear those things, but I don't think you have anything flashy."
"Where did you get these things? Even among my mother's belongings, there was nothing like this."
As it were, diamonds of this size were difficult to obtain even for the Empress of the Han Empire.
It was surprising to receive such a great thing on an ordinary birthday
"It was hard to get. But if it's something you wear around your neck, it has to be special."
I carefully put down the item that I didn't dare to touch with my hands and began to open the next gift.
The other gifts were not much different from the first one.
Hard-to-find gemstones, handicrafts made by craftsmen with the best name value, perfumes that seem to have come from abroad...
All kinds of precious things popped out every time I opened the box.
Thanks to this, I was distracted the whole time I was unpacking.
I wondered if I could really take this or if I was dreaming, and I was just dumbfounded.
As I opened the prepared boxes, I reached for the last remaining box.
It was a small case that looked like it contained a ring.
Somehow, unlike other gifts, it wasn't gorgeously wrapped.
Perhaps it was something that was prepared in a hurry?
When 8 picked it up, Kishian's expression quickly hardened.
Still, I wanted to check every gift he gave me, so I immediately opened the case.
"It's a sapphire ring."
"..."
It was definitely a gift that felt a little different from other fancy items.
It was not studded with great jewels, nor was the workmanship particularly detailed.
Still, it was something he gave me.
Feeling the warmth filling my stomach again, I picked it up.
After that. I tried to put it on my finger, but...
"...Wait."
Kishian, who was watching from the sidelines, suddenly grabbed my hand and blocked it.
His face staring into the ring... He looked nervous.
"Why are you doing that?"
"... the Ring"
"What?"
I waited for a long time, but he couldn't open his mouth.
As if he were hesitating about something.
Like someone about to make a big choice.
After waiting patiently, I heard a word that left me dumbfounded.
"Not very good. I don't think it's a good thing."
"What?"
"It doesn't seem to suit you."
"It looked too simple compared to other gifts, so I guess I regretted it later. I'll give you something else."
However, I was more interested in these simple things than they were too flashy.
"I like it. All the other accessories are gorgeous, so I can only wear them at banquets. On the other hand, I think I can keep it in my hand daily."
"..."
"I want to carry it around and look at it whenever I think of you."
"..."
Was that too much? His expression gradually collapsed.
It even looked a little painful.
He brushed his face with one hand and spoke.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes, very."
"Then, before you have it, can you promise me one thing?"
As I waited quietly to tell him what the promise was, an unexpected word came out of his teeth.
"Promise me that you will never lie to me for the rest of your life."
"..."
"If you lied, you'll tell me now."
I couldn't say anything for a moment, and the surrounding was filled with a suffocating silence.
Unlike the quiet surroundings, the alarm bells sounded loudly in my head.
Something is wrong. Maybe something has been caught.
"..."
The ring in my hand suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
However, I couldn't say that I wouldn't accept the ring in the current situation.
'If I say I can't get the ring, he'll think I'm hiding something.'
It was right to pretend that it didn't matter now.
I had to tell him that I had never lied to him and put the ring on my finger.
"Can't you?"
His heart sank.
Without taking any more moments, I shook my head straight.
"I've never lied or anything like that. I won't do it in the future."
"..."
"I promise you now. I won't cheat you."
I tried to pretend that I didn't care.
I had no choice but to say that I couldn't make a promise or accept a gift while he was staring at me.
After speaking, he slowly inserted the ring into my finger.
"..."
I was nervous, but nothing happened.
I felt a little relieved.
It felt like he had safely avoided the exam he had suddenly taken.
I thanked him again for preparing the gifts and gave him a hug.
My heart began to calm down little by little.
***
Even though it was getting late in the morning, I couldn't fall asleep easily.
Because of my memory, which only improves unnecessarily when this happens, what happened earlier kept repeating in my mind.
'Why did he say that? It was just an ordinary ring.'
Kishian, who seemed innocent when checking out the other gifts, only showed signs of nervousness when I tried to put on the sapphire ring.
He even said something strange about whether I could promise not to lie.
I couldn't get rid of the curious curiosity that had begun to spring up from then on, so I just lay there with my eyes wide open until it was pitch black.
Then I quietly groped for the ring on my finger.
I felt a slightly unique pattern on the rough surface.
Other than that, there was nothing unusual about it.
'Is it like a keepsake of his mother?'
It was a time when I tried to pull out the ring, reliving my doubts that I couldn't shake off.
"...?"
The moment I applied force to the hand holding the ring to pull it out, the jewel in the ring was pressed with a loud bang.
As if it had become a device,
'What are you talking about...'
It was a time when I was frozen with a strange sense of foreboding.
Suddenly, a faint light began to flow from the ring's gem.
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment