Chapter 5 – Acknowledgement (Part 12)

At that moment, their eyes met, and Emily quickly turned her head.  

Then, she plucked one, no, two grapes and put them in her mouth, chewing with her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel. Seeing Emily’s squirrel-like demeanor, Olivie let her shoulders droop again.  

She understood Emily’s feelings, pretending not to know. She knew it was uncomfortable for her to discuss such matters. That’s why she had been contemplating whether to bring it up. Emily seemed to want to avoid it, so perhaps it was best not to mention it.

But this wasn’t something that could be brushed aside.

If she were in Emily’s shoes, she would have been curious, hoping Emily would talk about it, while also worrying about hurting her by bringing it up. Emily was likely feeling the same way now.

Therefore…

She needed to apologize to her.

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”

Emily blinked her big eyes at Olivie’s words and bit her lips tightly. It seemed like tears would spill from those big eyes at any moment. Olivie felt the same way, struggling to hold back tears as she swallowed dryly and finally managed to suppress her emotions with a long sigh.

“I was afraid you might hate me.”

“…….”

“Of course, that would never happen, but I was still scared. If you knew my situation and ended up hating me…”

“Idiot.”

Emily glared at Olivie with a face full of tears.

“What situation of yours!”

“…….”

“You’re just my friend Olivie. What else do you need? Would you have hated me if I weren’t from the Tanner family?”

“No.”

“Then!”

“…….”

Olivie, at a loss for words from Emily’s response, bit her lips to hide her wavering gaze. Seeing this, Emily tilted her head back as if holding back tears and took a deep breath.

“And why are you worrying about that so much? It’s upsetting.”

“…….”

“The mistake was made by your father and the adults, not you at all.”

Emily let out a long breath, slightly tinged with tears, and popped three or four grapes into her mouth, chewing them vigorously. Watching Emily’s side profile as she pouted and stuffed grapes into her mouth to hide her upset feelings, Olivie bit her lips.

‘What if.’

What would have happened if I had honestly trusted Emily and shared my secret with her?

No, without a doubt, Emily wouldn’t have told anyone. She would have cried with Olivie, feeling her pain.

She would have locked it away inside her and never brought it up.

In that situation, Olivie would have done the same.

Recalling her foolish past, Olivie scratched her lower lip.

“Emily, I’m sorry for upsetting you.”

“As long as you know.”

Emily sniffled.

“Yes! That’s the only thing you did wrong. Making people upset. You kept it to yourself and didn’t ask for help for something that wasn’t even your fault. You didn’t rely on me, the Countess, or anyone!”

“…….”

“But other than that, there’s nothing to blame yourself for. You did nothing wrong…”

Emily’s voice, increasingly muffled by tears, shook her head as if to say no.

“Yeah, just be happy from now on! With my brother!”

Emily continued, her fist clenched, and sniffled again.

“Actually, my brother really likes you. So much so that even he, who’s usually so stiff, lied… You two suit each other. Yes.”

Realizing her slip of the tongue, Emily quickly tried to change the subject, but…

“Lied?”

Having already caught the word, Olivie widened her eyes. What could he have lied to her about? Rather than being angry about the lie, Olivie was curious about what the lie was and looked intently at Emily.

“Well.”

“Yes, Emily. Be honest and tell me everything.”

Olivie’s magical words, which made Emily settle back down, left her looking a bit teary-eyed. Internally apologizing to her brother, Emily opened her mouth.

“You know, my brother’s magic. That’s not a secret.”

* * *

The saying “trust no one” must have originated here.

To think he would lie about that was beyond her wildest dreams. However, she hadn’t contacted him separately.

Because.

“You’ve arrived. Finally.”

They were supposed to attend the Imperial Banquet together.

There was no need to contact him in advance to meet or to go and question him about why he lied. She planned to calmly discuss it on the way.

Honestly, seeing his face made her let it go.

It just proved again that truly handsome people have an easy life.

The moment she saw his face reaching out to her from the carriage, she thought,

What’s the point in bringing it up now?

‘Seriously.’

Unable to distinguish whether it was her being strange or his overwhelming handsomeness, Olivie shook her head and stared at Robin sitting across from her.

“……”

Even though her anger had subsided, she didn’t smile or speak warmly, just stared at him. Watching her, he sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? For acting like you were doing something illegal when you were already an Imperial-approved mage?”

“……Yeah.”

His easy acceptance and slight bow made him look so cute that she almost laughed. Not only was he handsome, but now he was cute too.

‘They say when a man looks cute to you, it’s really over.’

It seemed true.

She hadn’t planned to scold him seriously. Yet, seeing him apologize made her feel like she should be angrier. Olivie raised her chin, desperately holding back laughter. At this rate, she thought she’d forgive him too easily even if they got married.

“Why did you do it?”

“Because it was cute how you tried to blackmail me with it.”

This person is seriously something.

But his words, without even a hint of embarrassment, made her face feel unnecessarily warm.

“If you can’t say anything nice, really.”

Olivie lightly cleared her throat and turned slightly to avoid his gaze. Robin, matching her gaze, leaned his head towards where she was looking and smiled with his eyes softened.

Ha, could this man smile like this?

His truly disarming smile made her chest tingle slightly, and Olivie bit her lips. Mistaking her reaction for lingering anger, Robin sat beside her.

“It was cute how you tried to blackmail me with it. And more than anything, accepting the blackmail gave me an excuse to keep seeing you. There was no reason for me not to accept it.”

“……”

“Still, I’m sorry for deceiving you. And for making you worry with it.”

Robin, who had mentioned trying to stop Louis, took Olivie’s hand.

“Hmm?”

Her heart pounded at the sight of his face, slightly tilted with his eyes drooping like a rain-soaked puppy. Her ears felt like they were heating up, and Olivie exhaled deeply, shaking her head.

‘Really disarming, truly.’

Even if she was angry, his face made it impossible to stay mad, so Olivie looked up at him. 

Would he always keep me on edge like this? 

A mischievous thought briefly crossed her mind.

“I’m not angry. I was just curious.”

She wasn’t really angry, and pretending to be so seemed pointless when their time together now was so precious.

The early days of dating, marriage, and the honeymoon—all those fleeting moments would pass by quickly.

She didn’t want to waste time with unnecessary tug-of-war.

But she was curious about why he went to such lengths to maintain their relationship.

“It was from that time, right? The first time we were together, did you really like it a lot that day?”

After hearing Emily’s words, no matter how much she thought about it for days, there seemed to be no other reason. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, so it couldn’t be that he fell for her looks.

And honestly.

‘I enjoyed it too.’

Reaching the peak every time is quite challenging. But since it was always good, it seemed like they were a good match.

“The next day, when you disappeared leaving me alone, I thought you didn’t like me much.”

“Didn’t Lord Elphano tell you?”

But at Olivie’s words, Robin slightly furrowed his brows and looked back at her.

“My brother?”

Why is my brother mentioned here? 

With that thought lingering for a brief moment, she blinked at him and slowly shook her head.

“No, he didn’t say much.”

“Goodness.”

With a look of dismay, Robin looked back at her. But Olivie, who didn’t understand the situation, was simply bewildered.

‘Was it not good?’

‘What’s going on?’

‘Is there another backstory I don’t know about?’ 

As she blinked with these thoughts, he, who was touching his slightly reddened ear, rubbed his lips and raised his head.

“It wasn’t then that I started liking you.”

“Huh?”

What is he talking about? If it didn’t start then, when did it?

Olivie tilted her head, unable to even guess. But at the moment she looked up at him with no particular memory coming to mind.

‘No way.’

Evan’s words came to mind.

‘He liked you since you were young, but you were too young, and the age difference was too great to say anything back then. But in the meantime, you got engaged to Louis, so he couldn’t express his feelings.’

‘Wasn’t that an exaggeration?’

With her heart pounding, Olivie looked at him with wide eyes.

“No way.”

“I can’t pinpoint exactly when it was. But by the time I realized my feelings, you were already engaged, so I couldn’t express them. That’s why I had to hold onto you somehow back then.”

Robin gently brushed her cheek, which was about to become tear-streaked as if she might cry at any moment.

“I thought it was my last chance.”

“…….”

“I couldn’t let you go like before.”

She hadn’t known any of this backstory.

“I thought you just didn’t like me. You always frowned whenever you saw me.”

“I had to do that to hide my feelings.”

“……”

“There’s nothing more effective than frowning to hide a smile.”

He let out a small laugh and bit his lower lip. He couldn’t trouble her when she had a fiancé.

“I couldn’t be greedy for you. It was also me keeping my distance.”

“……”

“Of course, it was all useless.”

The more he tried, the deeper his feelings for Olivie grew. He spent more time looking for her with his eyes, and the time he lingered in her presence grew longer. Eventually, he couldn’t bring himself to attend the banquets anymore. 

He stopped drinking at the banquets because of his feelings, afraid he might make a mistake.

Recalling the past, Robin gave a bitter smile and lightly kissed her lips as she looked intently at him.

“So don’t think about running away.”

“……”

“Because I won’t let go again.”

Instead of answering Robin’s words, Olivie swallowed his lips, licking his soft lower lip with her tongue and slipping between his parted lips.

“Ha.”

As her soft tongue licked his teeth and swept across his mucous membranes, a low moan escaped from Robin’s mouth.

“I didn’t plan on this.”

Wiping his glistening lips with the back of his hand, Robin wrapped his arms around her neck and sucked her lips a little deeper with his gleaming gaze.

“Mm.”

As his tongue wrapped around and sucked hers, the lead in the kiss quickly shifted to Robin. Breathless from the kiss that left no room to breathe, she panted. She hadn’t intended to get this intense.

Her breath quickened, and her body heated up. Just from kissing, she felt a dampness below, and as Olivie exhaled a warm breath, Robin, who had finally pulled away from her lips, rested his forehead against hers and breathed heavily. He seemed to be in the same state, as something thick showed its presence and swelled on the inside of his right thigh. Watching him, she thought about the difficulty men have in hiding their excitement compared to women and glanced out the window before looking back at him.

“It seems like we’re almost there.”

With a slightly apologetic look, Olivie spoke, and Robin lightly kissed her forehead.

“It’s okay.”

As the carriage gradually came to a stop, Robin, holding her hand tightly, leaned in for another kiss. It was a deep, lingering kiss, as if he was savoring it, and Olivie whispered softly with their lips still touching.

“I’m not thinking of running away.”

“……”

“I’ll stay by your side forever.”

At her whispered words, Robin’s lips curled into a long, gentle smile, and even without seeing it, Olivie could feel his smile, which brought a smile to her own lips as well.

“We have arrived.”

With that, the carriage door opened, and Robin, who had stood up, stepped out and extended his hand inward.

“Shall we?”

At his gentle voice, Olivie nodded slightly, took his hand, and stepped down. At that moment,

Deng- Deng- Deng-

The sound of the bell from the spire announcing the banquet began to ring as if it would fill the entire palace. 

It stretched out long, as if blessing the beginning of the two of them.