What was that just now? Aria’s eyes popped open wide and she clasped her own cheek.
Gabriel and the many other complicated thoughts about the future disappeared at once.
The black eyes were intertwined with her.
She couldn’t even run away. Because she was in Lloyd’s arms and she was cradled so tightly.
By the way…….
“Why are you avoiding my gaze?”, Aria asked Lloyd.
His gaze was somehow obliquely deflected from her.
“…it’s ridiculous.”
“what?”
“I….”
He said so, but there was no way she could understand what he meant. Perhaps it means that he did it without even knowing it…….
‘What if he was feeling embarrassed?’
Thanks to this, Aria was able to get out of the shock sooner than she thought. In fact, she even had some spare time.
So she reached out to Lloyd, who didn’t answer, and fiddled with the back of his burning ear.
“It’s red.”
“……”
“It’s very red. Maybe it’s because your skin is white.”
“……stop it.”
Finally, his wandering eyes turned to Aria.
“Why are you so calm?”
He kissed her cheek. Of course he wasn’t expecting Aria to be embarrassed, but he couldn’t help it.
He didn’t know that she would make fun of him as she looked up at him with a smirk on her face.
“I think Lloyd is more embarrassed than I am.”
Originally, it was the law that the one to be embarrassed first will get made fun of. If Lloyd had shown a brazen reaction, Aria would have been frozen in embarrassment and blushing.
“I’m not flustered…”
Lloyd muffled his words and looked away again. It’s ridiculous that he already touched on a topic he’d never thought about.
He didn’t know what to say.
He didn’t know how to act.
‘…… I thought it would be hard to stop.’
Lloyd’s throat choked as he swallowed the words he couldn’t get out. His eyes were sunken as deep as the deep sea, and he moistened his dry lips with his tongue.
Maybe it’s because of the hallucinations that God’s hope showed him, or maybe it’s because of the unpleasant eyes of the Garcia apprentice.
Raw desires that seemed insane were boiling inside him, and he couldn’t keep his eye on it.
‘Are you nervous?’
Aria looked at Lloyd’s reaction and was puzzled.
His sharp jawline was firmly tightened as if something was being suppressed. Aria looked curiously at the bulging tendon in his neck, then poked it with her finger.
Lloyd’s body trembled.
“What are you doing?”
“To relax your nervousness?”
“Just… be still.”
“Yes.”
Aria decided to sit quietly in his arms. And she belatedly realized that her heart was beating like crazy.
‘Ah…… I was surprised.’
She was so startled that she reacted as if everything was okay.
‘I thought I’d like to kiss you once before I die, but…….’
Even if it’s just a light kiss on his cheek, but she can’t believe she was reacting like this. If they did anything more, her heart might burst and die.
‘Should I ask why you kissed me?’
She pressed over her heart, which was accelerating, and patted her lips.
“Grand Princess.”
Then, Gabriel, who was standing alone with his back against a cherry tree, approached them.
Lloyd’s face wrinkled in an instant.
“I don’t remember inviting you.”
“Well, I invited him.”
Aria carefully intervened.
Still, he brought and sacrificed his divine power for her, there’s no way she would alienate him because she couldn’t hold the banquet by herself.
She invited him to the banquet through an employee.
‘It’s right to show a sincerity of returning what you had received.’
Little things like that keep piling up and it becomes vindictive.
But Gabriel didn’t seem to have much interest in enjoying the banquet. His gaze was always on Aria and never left her.
“Are you okay?”
“As you can see.”
Held in Lloyd’s arms. Aria gave an awkward smile as she was held in his arms.
Although her body had already fully recovered, Lloyd was holding Aria as a gentle warning not to overdo it.
But again, it was embarrassing to be like this in front of people.
“Oh, that’s good.”
Lloyd took the necklace out of his arms and gave him an order. He was as dignified as a person looking for the things he had left behind.
“Here, the divine power.”
Aria glanced at the two of them in turn and squinted her eyes.
“……Understood.”
Then Gabriel grabbed the necklace without any resistance and filled it with divine power.
“Now scram.”
But maybe this time, he was going to rebel so Gabriel just stared at Lloyd without answering.
“Scram.”
Lloyd, with a bewitching smile, nodded his head. As if ‘what are you doing without going away’?
However, Gabriel remained still despite the order being repeated twice.
“Garcia apprentice.”
Lloyd mumbled in a muffled voice.
“If you’re going to be chasing after something hard, didn’t I say that I’d be happy to pluck your pretty eyes?”
But Gabriel was not shaken by the murderous intent-filled threats.
“Then, scram.”
Gabriel simply replied bluntly.
“I only care about the health and safety of the Grand Princess.”
“You only care about her health and safety?”
Lloyd twisted his lips as if that wasn’t even funny.
“I’ve been worried. I’ve never formally studied medicine, so it’s uncertain, but the Grand Princess’ health seems unusual.”
Did he find out something?
Gabriel spoke with a serious face like never before, and Aria asked without realizing it.
“How… is it unusual?”
Lloyd, who was holding Aria, looked down at her for a moment.
“No matter how much divine power was poured into you, only your energy was restored, and the Grand Princess’ health itself did not seem to be restored.
“You proudly confess that your skills are inferior.”
“Of course, that is also true.”
It doesn’t seem like that…….
Gabriel paused for a moment and looked at Aria’s complexion, as if examining her complexion.
“It must be my mistake.”
And after a while, he came to a sad conclusion.
Lloyd looked at him like a madman, but Aria was convinced the moment she looked into his eyes.
He wasn’t just saying it out of the blue.
‘He was saying this because he knows I’m running out of time.’
Even though he didn’t know that she was time-limited, he seemed to know for sure that her health was so bad that her life was at risk.
And he noticed that Aria was hiding it from everyone.
‘This is difficult…….’
Lloyd turned his back without hesitation.
He must have extracted the divine power, because there was no reason to face Gabriel anymore. He moved away from Gabriel, even though she was holding Aria in his arms.
“I’ll be waiting for you in the prayer room every day, Grand Princess. Come to pray whenever you are fully recovered.”
Gabriel whispered to their backs as they moved away.
With a shy smile.
Hearing it again, Aria had to think about Gabriel again.
‘Is this an unconscious action? Or is it intentional?’
She was confused.
If it was Gabriel, who was not familiar with what Aria had been through so far, of course it would be the former.
For an instant, a golden gaze rested on Aria’s cheek where Lloyd’s lips had touched, and then moved away.
‘I thought it might be the latter… … .’
Looking back on the memories of her previous life, Gabriel had a tendency to do anything when he focused his attention on one.
Her mind was complicated.
Aria relayed to Lloyd all of the words that Laura had whispered in her ear.
Then, hearing those words, Lloyd went through the documents piled up like a mountain on the desk in the office.
“I did my own research. She was a child from the orphanage run by Count Chateau. I saw it in a newspaper article once.”
“Newspaper article?”
Lloyd handed her a handful of papers arranged by the Grand Duke’s assistant, Dwayne.
Aria glanced at it quickly.
“A kid with a talent for hypnosis?”
“Yes, they say she can control animals through hypnosis.”
She might ask if it’s really hypnosis out of the blue, but Aria quickly understood why such an article was published.
It’s because the nobles are always fascinated by such a sight. Laura would have taken the lead to get their support.
“I don’t know if it’s real hypnosis, but she definitely had that ability.”
Maybe it was an ability that she had acquired through experimentation. That meant that there might be countless other children with such abilities.
When she realized the truth, Aria couldn’t stand it any longer.
She didn’t even want to be patient.
She didn’t even want to wait.
“Let’s just go and overturn it.”
“What?”
“Garcia or whatever, right now.”
Lloyd, who seemed surprised at her sudden announcement, immediately gestured his hand.
The Black Falcons who stood behind him and waited for orders to come, moved in unison.
“As you wish.”