Chapter 37

“Where are we going right now?”

“The place you’re curious about.”

“The place I’m curious about?”

I only want to know why your body was so torn and wounded. And yet you say the place I’m curious about.

Ellen pulled at the wrist held by Leonid. She wanted to stop and ask again. Leonid simply picked her up entirely.

“Your Highness!”

Ellen hurriedly looked around. Perhaps because the ladies-in-waiting who had their quarters nearby were all in Princess Senne’s palace right now, there was no one around.

That said, she couldn’t keep being carried by him. Ellen struggled with everything she had.

“It’s no use.”

Leonid, who had picked Ellen up and left Princess Senne’s palace in an instant, held her tightly and spoke.

“I have no intention of letting go.”

“I need to return to my quarters. Her Highness sent me out to take care of this.”

Ellen held up the jewelry box she was carrying.

“Then this works out even better.”

“Pardon?”

“It would be difficult to take care of expensive jewels in your quarters.”

Leonid was right about that. The fact that Princess Senne had thrown jewels at her and sent her out meant it was fine not to return today. There was no way she could just leave jewels this valuable lying around in her quarters.

All of Princess Senne’s ladies-in-waiting except herself were noble young ladies from Kadin, the capital. So the lady-in-waiting quarters were nothing more than a temporary place to stay while working. There was no proper dressing room or jewelry storage like in a noble’s manor.

To store or dispose of expensive jewels, she would need to go to a guild or a jeweler.

So she had planned to return to her quarters, wait for Hess to finish her work as a maid, and go together. She hadn’t expected Leonid to appear before her.

“Even so, I can’t just go somewhere without knowing where.”

“You’ll find out soon.”

The corner of Leonid’s mouth curved widely as he answered. He carried Ellen and left the palace at a swift pace.

‘He’s faster than me running at full speed.’

Even with a superior physique, how was this possible. She was light, but he was still running while carrying a person.

Ellen carefully looked up at Leonid. His handsome face wore a relaxed expression without a drop of sweat.

“It seems it wasn’t the location you were curious about.”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve been staring at me for a while.”

She had thought she was just glancing briefly, but apparently not. Ellen quickly lowered her gaze and shook her head.

“No. I was trying to look at the scenery over there and……”

Ellen hurriedly pointed to the empty air in the direction of Leonid’s face. Leonid’s gaze followed Ellen’s finger. There was nothing where her fingertip pointed except densely planted grass.

“I didn’t know grass was your preference.”

“……”

She shouldn’t have made excuses.

Ellen pressed her lips shut in embarrassment.

Grass being my preference. If it were going to come to that, she might as well……

Ellen gently lifted her gaze and stole a look at Leonid. A sharp jaw line below a nose that rose smooth as carved stone came into view. His red eyes, as symbolic as any feature of his, were as intense as a blazing sun.

An appearance that never failed to capture the eye.

The countless women in the harem who had loved Leonid Del Raphae had all been captivated without exception by that appearance, the finest work of God.

“Or was it the other direction?”

Leonid lowered his head to meet her gaze at the eyes turning toward him. Ellen’s nose touched his.

“Th, that can’t be.”

The long lashes at the end of Leonid’s gaze trembled faintly. The nose touching his burned as though scorched.

Ellen tried hard to act as though nothing was wrong. But being so close, she couldn’t hide her wavering eyes.

“It is.”

“Your Highness, please.”

Leonid pressed his face closer and closer with an expression that said go on and try. The noses that had been dangerously close overlapped, and a hot breath slowly consumed her lips. Ellen clutched the jewelry box tightly and trembled.

“Please. What?”

Leonid’s breath was pressed against the edge of Ellen’s lips. She squeezed her eyes shut just before their lips touched and cried out.

“Grass, I really do prefer grass!”

“Kck.”

Leonid stopped his lips and openly shook with laughter. Ellen wanted to disappear on the spot at that sound.

“They say there’s no cure for being adorable.”

“Are you saying there’s no cure for me?”

“It seems you didn’t hear the first part.”

Grass being her preference couldn’t be adorable. Was Leonid teasing her.

‘But he’s not the kind of man who would do something like that.’

Ellen’s eyes spread with embarrassment and confusion.

“Please put me down. I can walk.”

She changed the subject and straightened her upper body. Leonid readily set Ellen down.

“All right. We’re almost there.”

“Where is this?”

“The place soaked with the price of my blood.”

“Are you saying you were hurt here?”

Standing on flat ground, Ellen stood at the entrance of a great mountain and looked up at the densely rising trees.

“Who would dare hurt Your Highness on Mount Tir……”

Mount Tir. Located a short distance to the northeast of the imperial palace, this place was known as the sacred mountain where the holy Emperor Atun Run Raphae was born and raised.

In short, it was a region inaccessible to anyone who was not of direct imperial bloodline. And yet who would dare invade this sacred mountain and harm Leonid.

Ellen’s eyes boiled with fury.

“I didn’t say I was hurt here.”

“But you said the price of your blood is soaked into this place.”

“Yes. And quite a lot of it.”

Leonid saw the fist gripping the jewelry box trembling pitifully and took the box from Ellen.

“Your Highness.”

“You looked like it was getting heavy.”

“No. Something like this is nothing. Hm?”

Leonid, holding the jewelry box lightly, stepped away from the mountain entrance and onto a slope. Ellen’s head tilted sideways, having thought they would walk toward the entrance.

“Come this way.”

“But I heard that Mount Tir is only accessible to the imperial family.”

“It’s fine. Companions can enter together. So come along.”

Leonid held out his hand toward her. Just like at the imperial ball.

More than the memory of having successfully completed the debutante, the memory of dancing with Leonid remained more vividly. Seven years spent together with their bodies close, and yet it was only after coming back to the past that the moment he had first held out his hand to her……

“Then gladly.”

She had taken his outstretched hand for the first time then. Just like right now.

Ellen moved toward Leonid standing among the undergrowth and reached out her hand. One step, then another step more.

Before she even reached him, he moved with swift grace and clasped her hand.

“The path will be narrow and rough. So let me carry you again.”

Leonid pulled Ellen by the waist to lift her.

“I’m fine.”

The path to him had always been rough. All manner of filthy envious eyes had followed, and his obsessive fixation had worn Ellen down day by day. That was why she had run from him.

But.

“This time I’ll follow on my own.”

This time I chose it myself.

I had thought it was the path for the Empire and for myself, but perhaps at the end of that path, you were there all along.

Leonid’s gaze wavered almost imperceptibly at Ellen’s answer.

“You’ll have to follow closely without looking away.”

“Of course.”

In my past life too, I never did that. I only looked at you. Even when running from you, even at the cliff’s edge at the last moment of my life.

I looked only at Leonid, one person alone. He probably doesn’t know that.

Ellen passed along a path barely wide enough for one person with him and stumbled on a stone.

“Ngh.”

“Why not just let me carry you.”

“No. Even for Your Highness, moving while carrying someone in a place like this would be difficult.”

“And you don’t think keeping an eye on you following behind is harder?”

“Am I a concern to you?”

“From the start.”

Leonid stopped at the end of the mountain slope where there was no sign of anyone at all. Ellen’s steps also stopped abruptly at his answer.

“You’ve always been a concern.”

“Your Highness……”

“We’re here.”

Leonid moved toward Ellen, who was standing frozen, and thr*st his head forward.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“N, nothing.”

“It’s not very adorable to be thinking of something else with me right in front of you.”

“It’s not that.”

Leonid’s gaze pierced through Ellen’s eyes. As though trying to look inside her head.

A suffocating silence was crushed beneath that intense gaze. That look which had always felt so overwhelming and unbearable.

And yet for some reason, in this one moment, she didn’t want to look away from it.

“Yes. Focus only on me.”

He curved his lips with satisfaction and threw himself off the sheer mountain slope.

“Your Highness!”