Chapter 70: Another Shadow

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

“You’re the one who suddenly blocked my path, so why are you criticizing me?”

Princess Jasmin looked at her with strange eyes. Not only had she suddenly blocked her path, but she was also asking if she was doing this on purpose – it made her wonder if something was wrong with her head. However, Princess Jenesha thought Princess Jasmin was just pretending not to know, which made her even more agitated.

“Karhen. Count Karhen Nebula.”

At the name Princess Jenesha brought up, Princess Jasmin’s expression changed. Though her eyes showed surprise at first, Princess Jasmin quickly composed herself as if she had never been startled and crossed her arms while looking at Princess Jenesha. As the tall Princess Jasmin naturally looked down at her, Princess Jenesha’s eyes flashed with irritation.

“Why were you two together? Do you know what others are saying after seeing that scene?”

“We can find out what they’re saying from now on, and we weren’t alone.”

Bliss had clearly been between them. Yet somehow it had become just Jasmin and Karhen alone. Princess Jasmin tried to think about where such wrong information had started spreading but gave up. Rather than giving herself a headache thinking about it, she’d rather go back and rest.

“I don’t need your permission for who I associate with, so mind your own business. That would be easier for both of us, Jenesha.”

“I don’t care who it is. But if you deliberately reached out to him because of me… I won’t let it slide.”

Princess Jenesha coldly warned as she passed by Princess Jasmin.

“Jenesha.”

Princess Jasmin grabbed Jenesha’s arm as she was passing by. When Jenesha turned around irritably, Jasmin stared straight into her eyes.

“Whoever I associate with isn’t because of anyone else. It’s because I want to. Understand?”

***

When Leonard returned to the waiting room, the others sharing the space noticed his mood and left one by one. Left alone, Leonard looked at his reflection in the mirror. A faint trace remained where blood had been on his jaw.

Bliss had wiped away the bloodstain that had been there. She had carefully reached out her hand and wiped his face with such a delicate touch that it barely felt there.

Just before his raised hand could touch that spot, Leonard’s gaze shifted from the blood on his fingertips to someone reflected in the mirror.

“This isn’t a place for unauthorized entry.”

If caught, Leonard too could be held responsible and have his participation cancelled. However, the person wearing a hat pulled low entered boldly and lingered behind Leonard.

“This time I must set an absolutely inescapable trap, I came because I had a good idea…”

“I’m sorry, but I’m done with this.”

Leonard wiped the blood from his sword and examined the blade from different angles. Though he had only made shallow cuts, why was there so much blood?

“Done with it?”

“Yes. I won’t do things in secret anymore.”

“What do you…”

The person covered in a coat approached Leonard with large strides, shoulders trembling. Though they came as if about to strike Leonard immediately, they forcibly stopped one step away. Hiding their trembling fists inside their coat, they spoke through gritted teeth.

“After doing so well until now, what’s your reason for suddenly quitting?”

“Until now, I was just going along with you. But I don’t want to anymore.”

“…What?”

Leonard stood up. He was easily a head taller than the person in the hat. The person in the coat stepped back, intimidated not only by the difference in physique but also by the smell of blood emanating from Leonard.

“Not only did you cause trouble by calling my maid to your house, but you also gave dangerous orders to the child I pushed into the marquis’s household.”

“T-that… But you heard everything back then too. You didn’t say anything then, so why are you acting like this now?”

“Because I needed to stay close to stop you.”

Leonard moved in close.

“When I happened to meet you at the ball, when I met you hurriedly leaving after failing to touch Caelan’s necklace, I thought I needed to keep you close. Because otherwise, it seemed like you would kill Bliss at any moment.”

Leonard fingered the edge of the hat.

“Well, I know it wasn’t you who tried to poison her – I won’t pin that on you. But when that person failed, you started taking action.”

“You…”

“When you used my maid at my house, I tolerated it because you were just trying to humiliate Bliss. But from the moment you started using poison to try to kill Bliss, I planned to cut ties with you.”

Leonard suddenly grabbed the hat he had been touching and yanked it back. With the motion, platinum blonde hair that had been hidden inside the coat spilled out messily.

Watching the golden eyes tremble, Leonard caressed the cheek of his counterpart all this time, Latte. At his cold touch masquerading as affection, Latte wanted to push him away but held back and glared at him instead.

“If you won’t do it, I’ll do it alone.”

“Will you stop if I tell you not to?”

“No. I must kill Bliss. So trying to stop me won’t work.”

“Tsk, you didn’t seem this vicious at first, why have you grown such thorns?”

“You don’t understand.”

Thinking of Bliss, Latte’s body now trembled with anger.

“You don’t know how devastating it is when someone you thought would look at you looks elsewhere.”

Even when Bliss and she were standing side by side, Caelan wouldn’t give her even a brief glance.

“I abandoned everything and ran to him in case something might happen to Caelan…”

“Oh dear.”

Ignoring Leonard’s pitying response, Latte recalled the day her heart changed. Originally, Latte’s family had staked everything on her marriage to Caelan. But Bliss took that away in an instant. More precisely, it was Count Bonita, Bliss’s father. Whatever methods he used, Caelan immediately demanded to break off the engagement with her, and that’s when the grudge between the two families began.

When Latte happened to hear her father say he would poison the necklace Bliss would wear, she had rushed to stop it. No matter how her family’s future had vanished, she thought taking an innocent Bliss’s life was wrong. But her joy at stopping the poisoning was short-lived as her heart froze at seeing the intimate conversation between Caelan and Bliss.

He shouldn’t be so friendly… he shouldn’t treat her so kindly.

“He should be looking at me.”

Latte’s trembling eyes gradually found stability. She raised eyes filled with conviction.

“If you try to interfere with me, you won’t be safe either.”

Latte put the hat back on and left the waiting room. Leonard, who had forgotten Bliss’s touch from the moment Latte burst in, let out a long sigh.

***

“I’ve been thinking.”

As Bliss’s steps notably slowed, she fell behind Caelan.

“I realized how amazing you are. Swords are really scary and cruel. They cut people so easily.”

Bliss quickly added. Though some blood was expected in matches, fatal wounds and killing were prohibited.

“Even in matches where you can’t kill each other, blood sprays like that, so what must real battles be like?”

Bliss walked toward Caelan as he stopped and turned to look at her.

“You have experience winning such tournaments, and now you’re in such an impressive position as commander, I found myself newly impressed.”

“That praise seems to have an ulterior motive… What are you trying to say?”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Bliss stood in front of Caelan and looked into his eyes. They seemed like she could get lost in them if she kept staring.

“If it looks like you might get hurt, come down right away. Of course, I’ve seen you train every day, but that doesn’t matter. No matter how amazing you are, how can I not worry when you’re close to such sharp swords?”

“And?”

Caelan sighed at the conversation that went round and round only to end up with concern for him, but he still smiled.

“I didn’t say it to make you laugh.”

“But it was something to laugh about.”

“I didn’t say it lightly.”

“It makes me want to kiss you lightly.”

“Stop…”

Her words to make him stop grew faint as Caelan kept following her words while slightly changing them. What had he just changed her words to? While her mind was full of confused thoughts, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his lips against hers before pulling away.

Bliss covered her lips and looked at Caelan.

“For me, kissing is much more effective than endless worrying.”

Caelan looked at Bliss’s eyes, traced down to her nose, and smiled fondly at the hand covering her mouth. Bliss recalled that tantalizing sensation that had just pressed against her lips and disappeared.

‘Unbelievable.’

She couldn’t believe what had just happened to her.

…So she wanted to confirm it once more.

When Bliss lowered her hand, Caelan held her chin and gently bit her lips. Just pressing his lips against hers beautifully was far too insufficient. He wanted to devour her lips. Following his desire to bite and suck them thoroughly, he explored her lips. He traced the lines of her lips, slipped his tongue between her teeth to roam everywhere, and breathed his breath into her.

“On the day of the final match…”

He didn’t know when that day would be. It could end in the preliminaries, he could fall in the middle of the main tournament, or he might make it to the finals. Whatever day it turned out to be, Caelan revealed his desire to shed everything about the knight tournament and fill himself with Bliss.