Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Five: Desire
“What’s the matter, Mr. Julius?”
“…Ah, Karen.”
Julius looked down at Karen as if awakening from his thoughts and smiled faintly.
“That young lady tried to become my lowest-ranking wife, but her goal was you, right?”
“It seems so.”
Karen still suspected the possibility that Ottilie was using it as a pretext to approach Julius. However, if she believed Ottilie’s claims, it seemed Karen was the goal.
“When I think that she tried to use me to get close because she wanted your help, it feels unpleasant somehow. I was surprised to feel such emotions even toward a woman who tried to become my wife.”
Julius exhaled heavily, his gaze turning toward Karen, filled with suppressed feelings.
“Perhaps it’s because I felt that you would accept all of me?”
By “all,” Julius likely meant his upbringing. It seemed he had considered his mother to be part of a past too difficult to accept. It had been something Karen might have almost brushed off, yet for Julius it had been of utmost importance.
“I end up having foolish desires.”
Julius muttered in a low voice as if spitting out mud.
“Even though I don’t want to get in your way—”
Karen gasped softly at that point.
“In other words, you were even jealous of Lady Ottilie for me, Mr. Julius!?”
Karen’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Faced with her sparkling light blue eyes, Julius swallowed the dark words he had been about to spit out and nodded.
“…Well, I suppose that’s what it comes down to.”
“Kyaa!”
To Karen, who let out a delighted squeal, Julius smiled as if his energy had drained.
“Yes… in other words, even if I come to harbor desires that would hinder you… I can’t win against you. They say the one who falls in love loses, after all.”
“That’s not true! Mr. Julius, if the one who falls in love loses, then I lost first!”
To Karen, who said this while holding both cheeks and beaming, Julius stated decisively.
“No. I lost before you did.”
“Huh…?”
Karen looked up at Julius with a blank expression. Looking down at such a Karen, Julius deepened his smile.
It might have been called a sweet smile, but the tent’s dimness cast a shadow over it. Just as Karen was about to open her mouth about that, deliberate coughing echoed through the tent.
“If you two are going to flirt, I’ll be outside the tent.”
“I’ll go as well! Please don’t leave me behind!”
Petra and Rosine left the tent with exasperated faces. Though their flirting had just ended, the two didn’t seem to realize it.
Karen looked up at Julius again and tilted her head.
“…You don’t mean we met somewhere before meeting through Master Sieg’s request, do you?”
“At the very least, you didn’t have feelings for me when you completed Sieg’s request, right? You even turned down my proposal.”
Indeed, looking back, what she had felt for Julius then had been nothing more than admiration. A faint feeling of longing as one would direct at an idol. While she would be happy to become acquainted with him, it was an emotion toward Julius’s appearance and reputation, not a feeling directed at what was inside Julius.
Karen suppressed the urge to excitedly demand to know when Julius had come to like her.
Julius’s expression was dark.
He was probably thinking something negative.
He had a somewhat negative side.
It was an aspect of Julius’s personality that Karen had only recently noticed.
“Mr. Julius? What do you mean by desires that would get in my way?”
“Since I promised not to get in your way, it’s a wish that can’t be granted.”
“You could at least say it out loud, like before.”
Julius’s wish that she wouldn’t cheat on him. It was hurtful that he thought it couldn’t be granted.
“It’s a far more foolish wish than earlier.”
“What if it might unexpectedly come true if you try saying it?”
Julius glanced at Karen and sat down beside her on the sofa. Then, he suddenly pressed her down against the sofa.
She didn’t let out a delighted squeal. Because inside Julius’s golden eyes, looking down at Karen, light swirled round and round.
Though her heart pounded at his closeness, Karen exhaled softly and kept her composure.
“…I don’t want any other men, and even women, to approach you. I want you to be only with me and look only at me.”
“Ah, that can’t be granted.”
When Karen cut him down in one stroke, Julius furrowed his brow. Karen pinched his cheek at close range.
“Don’t make such a hurt face. Even without any promises, such a wish wouldn’t come true! I have work to do, after all!”
“I know, Karen. I find you dazzling as you work as an alchemist. Therefore, even though I don’t want to get in your way, I end up having desires that would.”
Cornering Karen in the corner of the sofa, Julius whispered.
“I find myself wanting to live together with just the two of us in a small house in a forest far from human habitation, unknown to anyone.”
It was a strangely detailed wish. If he had acted to fulfill that wish before Karen became a B-rank alchemist, when she was still a much weaker alchemist, Karen would have been helpless. However, Julius had never once ignored Karen’s will for the sake of his own desires.
“If we hide away so no one knows, you won’t be taken from me either…”
As Karen saw it, Julius was experiencing magical power intoxication. His eyes unfocused, Julius spoke as if in delirium.
If this magical power intoxication was from ascending a step, Karen would have joyfully enjoyed this situation. However, this magical power intoxication was an affliction from Julius’s anxiety.
Even while cornering Karen in the corner of the sofa, Julius’s body didn’t touch Karen. It seemed he was maintaining his reason by doing so. Karen worried about whether to touch Julius or not, and eventually stretched out her arms and slowly embraced that large body.
“Mr. Julius, I won’t be taken by anyone. Not even by you, if you want.”
“…Not even by me, you say.”
“You sound unhappy about that!”
As Karen laughed and clung to Julius, eventually Julius embraced her back. While being hugged painfully tight, Karen looked up at Julius from within those arms. Julius, no longer even smiling and expressionless, looked down at Karen.
When his doll-like, beautiful face became expressionless, its force increased all the more. Moreover, since the identity of that increased force was his obsession with Karen, Karen grinned and said:
“I’ll give myself to you of my own will, Mr. Julius, so don’t try to take me—just wait properly.”
“…I see.”
“Getting from me is definitely more worthwhile than taking!”
“…That may be so.”
“And, and, obviously, I can’t avoid approaching anyone other than you, but I don’t want to make you feel bad, so if there’s a man whose approach to me you absolutely can’t bear, please tell me. I’ll make an effort to distance myself too. Ah, but it would be troublesome if it’s too frequent.”
Julius’s eyes sparkled for a moment, but he immediately lost the highlight in his eyes.
“However, you would wonder why I chose that man and wanted to exclude him.”
“I would wonder why, yes.”
“If that man had feelings for you, it would be troublesome if I ended up making you aware of where that man’s heart lies when you hadn’t paid him any mind.”
“That’s oddly specific?”
Moreover, it assumed that some man was in unrequited love with Karen—and that she hadn’t even noticed it.
“If someone had unrequited feelings for me, I’d obviously notice. And if I did, I wouldn’t get close to him. Though for work, I’d like you to tolerate some level of interaction.”
“You absolutely wouldn’t notice.”
Julius declared heavily.
Karen pursed her lips in protest.
“Are you saying I’m dense?”
“I like you just the way you are now, Karen.”
Julius said with a bright smile.
Karen was easily won over.
“Well, if you like me, Mr. Julius, then that’s okay…!”
Julius let out a deep sigh and smiled as if resigned.
The magical power intoxication seemed to have subsided.
That meant Julius’s heart had calmed down.
Karen let out a smile of relief, then tried to separate from Julius.
However, Julius didn’t release his hands, keeping them in the position of embracing Karen’s waist.
“Um, Mr. Julius…?”
“I want to hear your feelings too, Karen.”
Understanding what Julius was trying to make her say, Karen’s cheeks flushed red. She had said it many times, and if anything, she had even desired marriage from the beginning, but being asked to say it anew was embarrassing.
“…I also like you, Mr. Julius.”
To Karen, who said this while fidgeting, Julius laughed as if breaking free.
“If you like me, then even someone like me must be acceptable.”
His cheerful smile was bright, dazzling, and pierced her chest.
Rather than being captivated, Karen found her eyes welling up, and she simply smiled softly.
No comments:
Post a Comment