Fog (3)

Vlad leaned loosely against the office chair and tapped the table with his index finger.

He was peering through the ivory box in the middle of the ebony table.

A precious ivory called white gold. The box carved from it was originally a work of art in itself. It was glamorous even if jewels were not attached to it.

There was a refined elegance, but wherever you looked, it was not a work of artisan craftsmanship.

“…”

Suddenly, his fingers froze.

It looked like someone would show up soon. Cloudy gray eyes slowly climbed up from below and fixed their gaze on the doorway.

The gloomy and rigid atmosphere evaporated in an instant as if a bonfire had been lit.

“The duchess is here!” When the guard called out, he moved the box into the drawer and stood up.

The heavy doors swung open. The spring sunlight behind her was blinding; it looked as if all the light gathered only around her.

“Vlad, I’m here.” Her deer-like eyes were softly curved. Red lips like camellia petals drew shy arcs.

“Welcome, wife.” He looked carefully at his wife’s face.

She wore a green robe similar to the color of her bright eyes. Beneath her neatly-updone locks, the stray hairs on her nape were adorable.

He never thought the day would come when he would appreciate his damned sight.

After she set her foot in his territory, many things before her were covered in a different color. Most of them were corroded and old things that suddenly came back to life as she arrived.

Vlad hated black. It was the color that covered the corpses and mud on the battlefield. The day after she said that his black hair was cool, it became a color he didn’t like but no longer hated.

Lily hesitated due to his burdensome stare. “I ran into Hans on the way up,” she said. “He looked very tired… Did I interfere? I’ll come back later if you have to do something important.”

“No. It was just finished.” He sat casually in front of the table.

It was then that Lily naturally walked closer to him. He reached out and pulled Lily’s waist. She let out a small groan and was dragged between his spread legs.

“What made you come all the way here, my wife?”

At the sound of the openly pleasant voice, she couldn’t help but smile.

It was her second visit to his office. She came to him in a nightgown on a dark night and waited for him in the silence.

Even then, she was standing between his legs like this. A lot had changed. But not his scent and sensuality, the eroticism with which he seduced her.

“I had a thought while I was in the library, and I wanted to tell you first…” Her heart was pounding at his burning gaze, and words could not come out properly.

It was hard to make eye contact with him, so she turned her head to see a dent in part of his desk.

Why hasn’t that been fixed yet…?

He tilted his head, obscuring Lily’s view. The unrealistically handsome in her field of vision startled her.

Her cheeks blushed and she turned away from him again, avoiding his gaze. “I heard there was a m-meeting. What… Were there any stories?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“…”

Lily’s cheeks, which had turned red, instantly cooled. That was the line. If he didn’t tell her, she would never know. Whatever it was.

She wiggled her fingers as he wrapped her waist as she placed her hand on his forearm. “Can you still tell me? Even a little…”

“If there was anything you should know, I would have told you sooner.”

She squeezed a little force into her slender hand that grabbed his forearm. He looked at her as Lily raised her fine eyebrows.

“You went to Ataka just like that. As you had said, it was a story I didn’t need to know…”

As if he had returned to that day, a huge, hot sensation resounded through his throat. The day he prepared to go and the day he went for Ataka were the same. She ended up in a situation where she had to accept it without even thinking of a proper parting.

The goodbye that ended just as easily.

How was the three months that came after that?

The longing was still vivid as if it had not been erased.

“At that time, I actually… Was sad. It was so scary… I…”

One word at a time. The old, crumpled, hardened truth was cut out. It was such a clumsy and awkward way of confessing.

His emotions appeared on his face, so he released his arms and wrapped his large hands around her neck. The back of her neck was warm as their skin touched.

Vlad gently stroked her cheek with his thumb and lowered his voice, “It will never happen again. How much I…”

How much I regretted it.