A Reversal of Unrequited Love - Chapter 62

But Hyacinth had no choice but to protect Seina. She had to protect her. After all, didn’t the nanny take all those actions for her? Unable to fathom the depth of her love and great emotions, Hyacinth held Seina’s hand even tighter.

“Nanny, I love you.”

“Are you dressing up to look pretty for me?”

“About half?”

“Our baby is always pretty.”

“Really? I know. I’m quite pretty.”

Seina momentarily frowned, seemingly in disbelief, then burst into a light laugh.

“Of course. You are very pretty.”

Seina reached out and stroked Hyacinth’s hair.

“So, the young lady will be loved by everyone.”

“Okay.”

“You must always be happy… No, don’t nod. We’re fixing your hair.”

Hyacinth stopped nodding with a pouty face.

While his dear cousin, who was sometimes a lady and sometimes a tomboy, was getting dressed, Caleb waited in the drawing room. Opposite him sat the silver-haired Duke of the North, holding a small bouquet.

The owner of the bouquet was obvious, and Caleb felt like squirming.

Really, he had no immunity to these spring, flowers, love, confessions… all these pink things. He was struggling to resist the urge to run outside right now.

No. Even with immunity, it would be difficult.

Come to think of it, Hyacinth was more like a younger sister than a cousin. Watching a relative’s romance up close was nothing short of torture, damn it.

Why aren’t those two engaged,

Why can’t they be alone,

Why do they need his presence…

He wished they would get engaged soon and free him from this duty.

Caleb suppressed a sigh. This morning, Arthur had tried to assign the duty of surveillance to Benjamin. But Benjamin passed it to the youngest, and Caleb, being the last born, was bearing the brunt of the pain.

I should have been born earlier. Having never desired the throne, Caleb resented his rank for the first time in his life.

After a few sighs, he composed himself.

Instead, he rested his chin on his hand and observed Duke Trisel across from him. Despite being aware of Caleb’s gaze, Ethan Erentis didn’t blink an eye.

Tyche’s spring sunlight tickled his silver hair.

The man remained motionless. Though spring had arrived, bringing life to all things, he alone stayed in winter, like a frozen statue in the middle of a snowy field.

A desolate expression and a bleak atmosphere. One could doubt whether he could even smile.

Caleb remembered the first time he saw Duke Trisel.

Both he and Arthur, and Benjamin too, thought of an old man when they saw Ethan Erentis. Someone quietly waiting for death at the end of life. He looked so tired of life. Ethan Erentis showed no attachment to anything.

But now I know.

Ethan Erentis was not an old man. He was just a boy who couldn’t grow up, who couldn’t handle even one of his emotions.

…Thus, completely different from Hyacinth.

Caleb slowly massaged his temples. In fact, he wasn’t without concerns about their union. Although they shared the commonality of having lost their parents, they had completely different childhoods.

Hyacinth could never understand the dark times that ‘Ethan Erentis’ had gone through. After all, she had grown up gracefully in Tyche. As a flower that did not know harsh winters, she could only throw a vague sympathy. There was an insurmountable gulf between those who had received irreparable wounds and those who had not…

And that man, he smiled in front of Hyacinth.

A voice of rebuttal flowed into his mind.

Surprising but true. Ethan Erentis smiled like spring in front of Hyacinth Hener. That very morning, Caleb had witnessed that soft and warm smile, enough to make him doubt his own eyes.

As Caleb sighed again, the door connecting the inner chamber and the drawing room opened. Even though he sensed Hyacinth’s presence, Caleb did not turn his head. Instead, he continued to observe Ethan Erentis intently.

To see how far love could change a person, to confirm the power of such a great emotion.

The man stood up while holding the flowers. As he looked in the direction where Hyacinth would be, he started creaking as if he had some malfunction. Having thawed after being frozen, it was no wonder he was malfunctioning a bit severely. Even though Hyacinth’s low laughter was heard, Ethan couldn’t speak for a long time and was lost in thought.

It was inevitable. His earlobes, which were pale and white even in the spring sunlight, were now as red as if they were on fire. The redness of the earlobes seemed to gradually spread to the nape of the man’s neck.

Caleb rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky. Even though he got a positive answer, it was annoying to his eyes.

What kind of prosperity did he expect to enjoy by sitting here? He struggled not to sigh openly. He might win the bet, but the payout would be low…

Caleb’s spring was cruel in many ways.

After the meal, Caleb faced a new ordeal in the garden where they went to enjoy chess.

* * *

In the garden, it was just the three of them.

The garden was not forbidden to others, but it was in a secluded part of Tyche that most people in society did not know about. To add completely unimportant information, it was also a place where the king and queen and the crown prince and his consort often enjoyed secret meetings. Caleb swore he didn’t want to know this. He just hoped no more couples would be added to the list of those enjoying secret meetings here.

At the chess table under the zelkova tree, he and Ethan played chess. Hyacinth sat right next to them, reading a book. To be precise, half her concentration was on reading, and the other half was invested in watching the chess game.

Caleb moved the chess pieces with a mix of his earnest wish and bitter feelings. He had learned last spring when Ethan Erentis visited Tyche that the dear Duke of Trisel was quite skilled at chess.

Caleb’s pawn was captured.

Then, his bishop was captured too.

Hyacinth, who would usually give advice, said nothing. She didn’t seem to care whether her cousin was being thoroughly defeated. Caleb grumbled and glanced at his cousin.

The damn red-haired lady was watching a squirrel on the zelkova tree with her head tilted. Every time the small animal moved up and down, Hyacinth’s head angle changed slightly.

The amethyst necklace sparkled on her long, elegant neckline.

While admiring the radiant purple hue, Caleb was snapped back to reality by the tapping on the table from across him. He hurriedly looked down at the chessboard and tilted his head.

He was white. Ethan was black.

…But the black queen was completely exposed to danger. Ethan Erentis couldn’t be unaware of the queen’s importance in chess. Thinking it was a trap, Caleb carefully examined the flow. But he tilted his head to the other side because it didn’t look like a trap no matter how he looked at it.

Caleb rolled his eyes back and forth and, with a sense of resignation, captured the queen that his opponent offered. As soon as he removed the queen, Ethan Erentis picked it up.

Then he reached out, turned a page of the book Hyacinth was reading, and inserted the chess piece. Like a bookmark.

Was it the wind that turned the page?

Caleb looked at Ethan Erentis’s fingers, Hyacinth Hener’s book, and the poor black queen stuck in between with a bewildered expression.

Could it be that I was used for their romance? Caleb hit the nail on the head with unfortunate accuracy.

Meanwhile, Hyacinth took her eyes off the squirrel and turned her focus back to the chessboard. She opened her eyes wide at the shaky game and tilted her head. Her gaze, searching the chessboard for something, stopped at the book she was reading. Hyacinth raised an eyebrow as she took out the black queen from between the pages.

“Ethan.”

“Yes?”

“Are you confident you can win?”

“I’m not entirely without confidence.”

Hyacinth took out a chess piece. The calloused hand of the knight appeared in front of her, as if asking her to place the chess piece on it.

Instead of placing it directly, Hyacinth poked the edge of Ethan’s palm. Ethan smiled faintly, and Hyacinth poked again. With a light teasing that seemed to come and go, Ethan raised an eyebrow…

And smiled faintly as if surrendering.

The sound of his deflating laughter clearly conveyed his affection for the other. At this moment, Caleb failed to manage his expression. He could only watch with trembling lips, feeling like he wanted to poke his own eyes out.

“Excuse me, you two.”

“……?”

“…….”

“I’m here.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t notice because you have no presence.”

“Seriously.”

Hyacinth laughed and placed the black queen among the dead chess pieces.

“What about you, brother? Do you think you can win?”

“If the Duke makes a few more mistakes?”

“I have no intention of doing so.”

Caleb was about to retort that he had already given up the queen.

Far away, the garden gate opened, and Beatrice entered. She hurried over to Hyacinth and whispered something in her ear. Whatever it was, it seemed urgent enough for Hyacinth to stand up and excuse herself from the two of them.

Hyacinth and Ethan’s fingers brushed as they parted.

Until the moment his lady left the garden, his gray eyes could not leave her back.

Caleb, resting his chin on his hand, looked on with a jaded expression before dropping his gaze back to the chessboard. The Duke’s queen was dead, and his queen was still alive. That didn’t necessarily determine the outcome, but considering the power and importance of the queen… Hmm.