SGC 23

CHAPTER 23

Translator: Rae

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Trapped between the bookshelf and his body, Rozella’s face flushed bright red as she opened her mouth.

“Y-You’re back? I’m sorry. I should have gone out to greet you first…”

As she wondered why Cynthia had not informed her of his return, Edmund unexpectedly cleared up her doubt with a faint smile.

“I told Mrs. Wellen not to call you on purpose.”

Rozella’s eyes widened. As she moved her lips as if asking why, he looked down at her and gestured toward the bookshelf.

"I didn't want to disturb you because she said you were in the library." 

"Oh...” 

No matter how much time passed and circumstances changed, they still knew each other well. It was as though some things never changed.

Feeling a slight ache in her heart, Rozella replied in a small voice.

“The library is so wonderful. I didn’t even notice time passing.”

Perhaps because of the gentle sunset light seeping between them, Edmund’s expression looked especially gentle. The tension in Rozella’s stiff shoulders slowly eased.

After hesitating for a moment, she continued softly.

“I found many good books here. Ones that were out of print, and even the book you gave me when I was young.”

Rozella’s gaze flicked toward the cover of the book she had just put back.

“It’s that book. I don’t know if you remember, but it’s very dear to me…”

“Beyond the Fourteenth Door.”

Edmund spoke the exact title, which drew her attention.

His green eyes, holding the crimson sunset, were calm like a summer forest—the color she had loved for a long time.

“I remember. Even the expression you made when I gave you that book.”

His clear gaze studied her features with magnifying intensity, then met her eyes again.

“You looked at me with an awkward face back then. I thought you didn’t like my gift.”

“T-That’s not true! I was really happy!”

Just like that day, Rozella fidgeted with her lips in embarrassment. Edmund chuckled softly and nodded to calm her.

“Right. Because you gave me something in return the next day.”

Following his voice, memories of that day formed in Rozella’s mind.

At that time, it hadn’t been long since she had met Edmund. Even so, Rozella already held deep affection for the boy who had rescued her from a tree without hesitation.

Secretly lingering around him and observing him became young Rozella’s new routine. Unlike Rozella, who wandered leisurely, the young duke was extremely busy.

Taking lessons in the library for hours from early morning looked rather tedious.

But afterward, going outside for horseback riding, shooting, and sports like cricket looked quite enjoyable.

Then in the late afternoon, he took lessons again from a strict-looking tutor. Sometimes he even had tea with guests in elaborate attire.

He finally have time for himself only in the evening, and he always went to the library then. 

Perhaps it was inevitable that their eyes met one day while she secretly watched him sitting alone in the lit library.

Because from the beginning, he had noticed that Rozella was watching him.

“Your name is Rozella, right? You don’t need to watch me secretly like that.”

Perhaps he didn’t know why she followed him, because the kind-faced young master unexpectedly handed her a book through the window.

“If you want, you can come to the library anytime. If anyone says anything, tell them you have my permission.”

So, he had simply thought that Rozella wanted to read books. 

In fact, all Rozella wanted was a very small wish—for him to look at her and speak to her once more.

So although she was flustered by the unexpected gift, she was not unhappy.

Because it meant she wasn’t the only one who was conscious of his presence.

She had looked at him awkwardly because she didn’t know how to repay such a precious gift.

“I still remember the fawn you showed me in return that day. You were even more excited because it didn’t run away when it saw us.”

At his precise recollection, Rozella averted her gaze in embarrassment.

The best repayment she could think of then was showing him the fawn she used to secretly watch alone.

As he said, the fawns that usually ran away when she approached stayed that day, wandering through the grass and even drinking from the stream with round, lovely eyes.

She had been so excited that she grabbed his hand arbitrarily and followed the deer for hours.

From that day on, the two grew closer with each passing day. Rozella opened her heart to Edmund, who treated her without reserve, and pestered him endlessly with her uncharacteristic friendliness.

She wanted to tell him about all the fascinating and special things she had discovered, since he was always buried in a busy life.

There must have been times when it was bothersome and troublesome, yet Edmund never rejected Rozella even once.

Calling the informal maid’s daughter who ran through the forest holding his hand, his “friend.”

“It may be strange to say this now… but thank you for spending time with me back then.”

Edmund once said he felt lonely without her, but the same was true for Rozella.

Without him, she could never have filled her long, lonely childhood with warmth.

“Your Grace—no, Ed—because of you, my life changed. And yet I…”

…betrayed you. When she could not bring herself to continue and closed her lips, Edmund’s gaze, fixed on her, took on a subtle hue.

That expression, touched by something boyish, made Rozella’s heart lurch.

When he wore that face, he truly looked like the Ed from the past—brighter and warmer than the sun, like the gentle boy Rozella had loved beyond measure.

As if there had never been any hatred or loathing between them.

“There were plenty of chances to shake off your hand.”

After a while, Edmund spoke, as if murmuring to himself.

“The reason I didn’t was because those moments were no different from salvation to me.”

Startled for a moment by words she couldn’t understand, she saw his gaze deepen, as if concealing some emotion hidden even further within.

With his lashes lowered halfway, she could no longer read the light in his green eyes.

“You know, Roze, what I thought of you.”

Rozella suddenly drew in a small breath. Following his gentle words, the sudden turbulence rising within her made the breath she let out turn hot.

As the tips of her ears seemed to burn, she unconsciously moistened her lips, and his quiet gaze settled on the slight parting.

Rozella’s gaze, which had been fixated on his eyes, slowly drifted downward. As she looked at his lips, shaped as if finely wrought, an afterimage of last night rose abruptly.

Lips brushing her nape. Breath settling on her shoulder. A face buried between her legs…

"I..." 

She vaguely tried to open her throat, but she was unable to continue. The pulse throughout her body thrashed loudly, as if it were not her own.

In that instant, fingertips that reached out quietly brushed the corner of her mouth. The finger that rubbed lightly soon passed over her lower lip.

Watching her flesh yield beneath that touch, Edmund tilted his head.

He stopped at a distance where their lips might touch, might not, and met her eyes straight on. Holding her breath tight, Rozella’s eyes slowly began to close.

The moment their lips touched like a dream, Rozella instinctively stepped back. It was an unconscious motion she herself could not explain.

"Oh, that's..." 

Flustered, Rozella shifted her gaze with a reddened face. She worried it would look as though she had avoided him, but an excuse to say it wasn’t so did not come readily.

Why was it? She had kissed him at the wedding, too. Why did it feel now as though she must never allow it…

As the silence stretched on, Rozella, staring anxiously at her feet, quietly lifted her gaze.

Edmund’s expression was composed as it was fixed on the space that had opened between them. At his shadowed gaze, Rozella’s heart dropped, and she belatedly spoke.

“I… I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to avoid you—”

“It’s all right. You don’t have to say more.”

As if nothing had happened, a calm curve formed at his lips.

As if that suffocating tremor had been something she experienced only on her own, the voice he offered was gentle as ever.

"If you're uncomfortable, I won't bother you anymore." 

"That's..."

“Let’s go. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Before the hesitating Rozella could answer, someone knocked on the library door. When she turned her head toward it, Cynthia appeared beyond.

“Your Graces the Duke and the Duchess. Dinner is prepared.”

Having spoken politely, Cynthia bowed her head naturally, as if she had noticed the air between them. Only then did Rozella slowly move her feet.

Yet even as she followed him out of the library, her confused heart showed no sign of settling.

***

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