I nodded absentmindedly, but he had already pulled out a chair and sat down.
I think we just made eye contact…
‘It must be my imagination, right?’
Yeah, there’s no way he’d be so calm if he saw me. He even greeted the air. What a polite young man.
I relaxed and watched the man eat.
Except for the occasional tightening of his lips, his movements were so smooth that one wouldn’t know he was injured.
My mouth was already itching to talk to him. But…
‘No, not yet.’
Rushing things will only ruin them. Approach him slowly.
I returned to the guest room before the man did and left a card that read, ‘You are welcome to stay as long as you wish.’
* * *
Fortunately, the man stayed in the castle as I had hoped.
Judging by the way he applied medicine and bandages to his wounds every day, it seemed he planned to leave as soon as he recovered.
I wish it would snow heavily since it’s the middle of winter. He wouldn’t be able to leave if the roads were blocked.
“Squeak.”
Lost in silly thoughts, I was startled by a voice at my feet.
Amused by my efforts to hide my large body behind a flowerpot, the baby rabbit sat on my instep and shivered.
“Shh!”
Afraid the man might hear, I flattened myself under the flowerpot.
“Squeak, squeak.”
The man, he’s handsome.
I nodded in agreement to the baby rabbit’s whispered words.
He stood out even among the flowers created by the magic garden. Like a being made of warm spring sunshine.
My tail wagged furiously as I admired his beautiful figure as he admired the purple lisianthus.
‘I want to talk to him!’
I had been circling the man for a week, and I was dying to talk to him. All the while, I quietly looked after him, piling up a mountain of one-sided familiarity.
“Haa….”
But just as I was about to talk to him, I remembered the people who had run away screaming when they saw me, and I lost my courage.
In the end, I spent hundreds of times carefully timing my approach and then backing away.
A week passed without any progress.
* * *
“Squeak! Squeak!”
I was taking deep breaths and getting to know the beast in the mirror when I heard the rabbit calling me, so I turned the doorknob.
“What’s wrong? Do you want to tell me what you want for breakfast tomorrow?”
But contrary to my expectations, the baby rabbit was rolling around on the floor like crazy.
“Squeak! Kureu-ang, Kuwang!”
“What?”
I took the note attached to the baby rabbit’s body, who kept shouting that something terrible had happened, and neat handwriting came into view.
Thank you for letting me stay. May fortune always be with you.
My brain froze at the unexpected words.
By the time I came to my senses, I was already running towards the door.
Only the thought of catching him dominated me.
‘And then what? I know exactly what’ll happen if I just show myself out of nowhere.’
But I couldn’t give up.
‘I’m not going to spend the rest of my days just waiting to die here.’
I opened the door.
Beneath the orange-tinged sky, the flowers adorning the garden shimmered in the sunset.
As I anxiously moved towards the main gate, a head of golden hair, whose brilliance was not diminished even under the intense sunset, caught my eye.
The man was standing in front of a rose bush.
‘…Now is the time. I have to talk to him now.’
Contrary to my heart, my body wouldn’t move at the thought of revealing myself. My mouth went dry, and sweat beaded on my hands.
When I finally took a step, the man’s hand was touching the lush roses.
His beautiful fingers, which had been tracing the red petals, moved further down to the stem of the rose….
At that moment, my body moved faster than my consciousness.
Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the man.
Wearing the most menacing expression I could muster.
“What do you think you’re doing in my garden?”
A beastly roar naturally erupted from my throat.
Revealing sharp fangs as if I would tear a person to shreds was a bonus. I was planning to hold him back no matter what, even if he ran away.
‘If he’s going to be scared anyway, I might as well start off scary.’
Contrary to my expectations, the man showed no reaction. He simply stared into my eyes with a calm expression.
I was the one who was more embarrassed.
‘What, what is it? Am I not scary enough? Why aren’t you scared?’
Look at me. I’m a beast much bigger than you. I can even talk like a human. Why aren’t you surprised?
Besides, the man’s face, seen up close, was devastating.
Meeting his clear eyes, a sense of guilt crept up from deep within.
I felt like I should get down on my knees and apologize for coming out so recklessly.
‘No, get a grip.’
I consciously raised my eyebrows, which were drooping from a lack of confidence.
As I frowned again with a scary face, a pleasant voice flowed from the man’s lips.
“The roses were so beautiful that I reached out without thinking. Are you the master of this castle?”
“Ahem, yes.”
Scary, be as scary as possible.
“I wanted to be sure to thank you. I’m glad I could see your face before I left.”
His blue-green eyes looked at me with deep affection.
I couldn’t help but be flustered by the smile that disarmed everything.
It had been so long since I had received a gaze filled with warmth instead of contempt and fear.
The desire to smile and greet him back surged to the top of my head.
But that wouldn’t do.
‘I’m a beast right now.’
The man’s eyes still reflected the image of a hideous beast.
I tried to hide my gloomy heart and continued to speak.
“Is this how you repay kindness? I fed you, gave you a place to sleep, and even treated your wounds, but you’re picking my most precious roses. If that’s not repaying kindness with betrayal, then what is it?”
Is that too illogical? It’s too much to get angry over just picking one rose. It’s not like I put a lot of effort into growing them, the magic garden did it on it’s own.
The line was so awkward, like reading from a script, that I cautiously watched his reaction.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to notice.
“I see.”
Instead, he lowered his eyelashes and made a serious expression.
“What can I do to appease your anger?”
His slightly lowered eyes, expressing his apology, and his polite expression and caring eyes, which were never subservient, overwhelmed my gaze.
‘I’m already appeased.’
My heart fluttered as I saw his golden hair fluttering in the breeze.
I stared blankly at the man who was the first person in this world to look at me directly.
My lips moved on their own.
“Visit this place again and stay for three days.”
I just wanted to be with him a little longer.
To see his face, to make eye contact, just normally.
…He’ll hate that, won’t he?
“Understood.”
Contrary to my worries, the man, with a neat lift of his lips, nodded willingly. So much so that I worried my ears had deceived me.
“…If you don’t come, I won’t forgive you. I’ll hunt you down no matter what.”
The man lowered his head for a moment at my terrifying threat, then his shoulders shook.
‘Is he scared? Was I too harsh?’
But I couldn’t easily take back the words I had already spoken, so as I was floundering, the man raised his face again.
My whole body tingled at the polite gaze that met mine without hesitation.
“I’ll visit before May ends. If you see a black carriage with a rose emblem pierced by a sword, please open the gate.”
A rose pierced by a sword?
It seemed to suit the man in front of me, but it was also unsettling.
But who cares about some emblem?
I couldn’t control the corners of my mouth from rising and asked the question I had wanted to know the most.
“Ahem, what is your name?”
I was embarrassed for no reason, so I put my hands behind my back and pretended to look away, but all my attention was focused on the man.
The man, who was staring at me as if trying to read my intentions, opened his lips willingly,
“Valentin Genoa Berenice.”
I repeated his name several times.
Valentin Genoa Berenice.
‘Why is it so familiar? There’s no way I’d be familiar with such a foreign name.’
As I searched for the reason for the discomfort, I finally found a plausible answer.
‘Could it be because Valentin is from Saint Valentine?’
If so, even his name was sweet.
This time, the man asked me.
“If you don’t mind, I would like to know the name of my benefactor.”
For a moment, I nodded as if possessed by the sweet voice that tickled my ears, but then I fell into contemplation.
Whose name should I say?
But the worry didn’t last long.
It wouldn’t make much difference whose name I said anyway.
“Nadan Laphelia.”
With the end of saying the name written on the short note, I saw Valentin off.
When his figure was far away and no longer visible as a dot,
“……I did it. I really did it!”
I shouted with joy.
I was so proud of the magic garden that had bloomed roses beautiful enough to stop Valentin.
“You pretty things.”
I grinned and looked at the spot where he had been standing with affectionate eyes.
Only blue leaves were scattered on the ground.
‘Where’s the rose Valentin picked? Did he take it with him already?’
I lingered in front of the rose bush for a while, then turned around.
“Well, it’s over, so that’s good enough.”
My steps inside were lighter than ever.
* * *
Time crawls by.
I was so impatient that I felt resentful towards Valentin.
‘I will visit before the end of May.’
Well, it was nice of him to tell me the exact time. But waiting only for him was nothing but pure torture.
“May has 31 whole days.”
Valentin had left this place at the end of April, and now it was well past the middle of May.
The sunlight was warmer, and the flowers in the magic garden bloomed more abundantly.
It was literally a magic garden, so it bloomed flowers even in winter, but it was much more beautiful when it received the spring sunshine.
After meeting Valentin, I regained my energy and spent a lot of time in the garden.
Being alone in the castle was too stuffy, and I often broke the furniture, so there was hardly any left.
When night fell, I searched the study. I needed to know at least roughly what kind of world this was.
At first, I wondered if I had possessed the main character of a book, but I had completely ruled out that possibility.
‘I don’t remember reading a novel with a beast in it.’
Then where is this place?
According to the information I learned from the books, this world was made up of the Oman Continent and the Lisban Continent.
I was on the Oman Continent, in the northwest of the Richard Empire, which held the hegemony of the continent.
Not far from here, in what was marked on the map as the Latlante Forest, was the ‘Black Swamp,’ which was the habitat of magical beasts.
‘Magical beasts.’
No wonder people ran away calling me a magical beast or demonic beast whenever they saw me.
“Thinking about it that way, it’s amazing that Valentin was okay even after seeing me.”
The corners of my mouth turned up on their own.
I miss him
“When is he coming back?”
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