Chapter 146: Disgusting Feeling
Some time later, he was walking beside Seraphina along the narrow path that led toward their mansion, tall trees lining both sides as soft moonlight filtered through the leaves above them, while a cold breeze gently swayed the branches around.
Midnight had passed long ago, and he could hardly tell what time it was anymore.
He stole a glance at her a few times, struggling to find the right words to start a conversation, because he was certain that she seemed unusually irritated now. Well, she always had been, but this felt like a different kind of anger altogether. Even so, remaining silent felt wrong, so he knew he had to say something, anything at all.
That was when Seraphina turned her head slightly and met his gaze, her eyes cold and sharp as ever as she spoke, "Hey, idiot. Why is your talkative mouth so quiet tonight? What happened to your usual dramas? Did you finally run out of them?"
Kael looked ahead at the path and let out a quiet sigh as he said, "I thought you preferred it when I stayed silent."
Seraphina did the same before answering in a steady voice, "The way you keep talking without a break, I suppose I am more or less used to it by now. So, when you suddenly went quiet, it felt a little strange."
Kael met her eyes briefly before letting out a soft hum, "Hmm? So what you are saying is that you like my talking self over my silent one? Well, that is good to know. Alright then, I will carve it into the deepest corner of my mind and make sure to keep talking endlessly, all in the name of your happiness."
Seraphina gave him a long, unamused look, "I never mentioned anything about liking you. Stop twisting my words into something they are not."
Kael shook his head in clear indignation, "I will not, what are you going to do about it?"
She stared at him for a brief moment before stepping past him and walking forward, "I will stab you."
'Typical… Seraphina.'
He quickly caught up to her pace, and once again silence settled between them as they continued walking side by side through the shadowy path.
After a while, Kael let out a slow breath and finally worked up the courage to speak, "So, are you really not going to ask me anything else?"
She frowned slightly without looking at him, "Ask what?"
He slowed his steps just a little while his gaze dropped toward the dark ground beneath them, his voice lowering as he continued, "About how I know so much information about that bitch. About why I kept hiding it from you. Especially about what happened to me back then."
She stopped walking and turned to face him directly, and there was a strange, unreadable expression resting on her face, "You must have had your reasons to keep it a secret, so I am not particularly interested in digging into it. But do not blame yourself even for a moment about being mesmerized by that Archwitch, because it was not your fault. It just happened that luck was not on your side and the situation was something you could not get yourself out of even if you wanted to, so forgetting it would be far better for you."
His fingers slowly curled into tight fists at his sides as he spoke, his voice sounding distant, almost hollow, "I'm sorry."
Seraphina's eyes widened just slightly before her composure returned and concealed it completely, and when she spoke again her tone was cold and sharp, "Did I not just say that you do not need to blame yourself? If that is still not enough, then understand this, I do not need your apology. It means nothing to me either, nothing. You heard me?"
At that, he fell silent for a moment before looking at her again without hesitation, "Really? Then tell me this... why did you get so angry when I mentioned it? If it truly does not matter to you the way you claim, then logically you should not have reacted at all. Yet you did. Why? Answer me, Seraphina."
Seraphina remained completely silent, and even after he waited for a while, she did not offer a single word in response.
Eventually, Kael let out a quiet half-breath and spoke in a strange, subdued voice, "It's just as I expected, you are not going to answer me, are you? Then again, how could you, when you probably do not even know it yourself?"
Her expression did not change at all, as though his words had never reached her ears, while her cold blue eyes shimmered faintly beneath the dim light, contrasting with her golden hair.
He stepped closer in a slow rhythm, his voice steady but heavy, "Either way, I do not need an answer from you. What I wanted was to tell you something you asked me back then, something that has been bothering me ever since. The truth is, what I felt toward that bitch back then was not something that could be called a pleasant feeling."
He paused briefly, the shadow of the leaves above covering half of his face as his cold gray eyes glinted faintly, "It was a disgusting feeling, an utterly fucking disgusting one."
Seraphina stared at him for a few moments before crossing her arms over her chest, and it was then that her lips almost curved upward, though she stopped herself just in time.
Soon, his voice turned more dramatic than usual, laced with exaggerated frustration, "You know, I wished I could have killed her right then and there. How dare that bitch try to not only control me but also attempt to steal your handsome man from you, huh? She must have been jealous of you for possessing such a devoted husband. She should pay for what she did to me, do you not agree? I am sure you will make her pay on my behalf, won't you... honey?"
Despite herself, her lips curved into an amused smile, "My handsome man, you say? Then where is he? I do not see him anywhere."
Kael shot her an irritated look, "You could at least take my side once, couldn't you? This poor soul cannot endure any more insults. I might truly die because of it. Help this poor husband of yours by praising him about something, will you?"
She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him, her voice calm and merciless, "If you are expecting such a thing from me, then you are clearly delusional, you fool."
Ignoring her words, he looked at her beautiful face under the moonlight and then smiled slightly, his gaze lingering as he spoke, "You know what, if you keep everything hidden deep inside you, no one would ever notice anything, so nothing will change even if you truly wish it to. Instead, it will slowly turn into a burden over time and eventually begin to consume you little by little from the inside. What I am trying to say is that sometimes it is better to push out a few demands toward others and let go of those burdens once in a while, because doing so helps clear away thoughts that were never necessary to begin with."
He paused briefly before scratching the back of his neck, his expression turning a little awkward as he continued, "Well, I am not good at this kind of thing myself either. I find it difficult to express what I feel to others, and honestly I simply dislike doing it, not to mention I am also unfamiliar with human emotions in general. Even so, I still gather enough courage to demand things from you when I want something, don't I? That is why I am saying you should try to do the same. If you want something from me, then ask directly, and if you truly cannot, then at least try to talk to me about it. I'll try my best to help you as much as I can."
Seraphina blinked several times, clearly taken aback by his words, before covering her face with her hand as she answered, "So in the end you are advising me to become a shameless person like you? I apologize, but I would never be able to bring myself to become one. I still have some dignity, you see... unlike someone."
He scoffed immediately, his brows knitting together, "Hey, what's wrong with being shameless?"
She let out a slow sigh, her shoulders relaxing slightly as she answered, "Everything you can imagine. Still, the advice itself does not sound entirely unreasonable, so..."
Suddenly, a cold gust of wind swept through the space around them, causing both of them to shiver slightly as the fabric of their soft clothes fluttered gently along with his brown hair, while the branches and leaves above swayed together in quiet harmony.
Seraphina brought her hand behind her head and with one swift motion removed the long and slender hair clip that held her bun in place.
The moment it was gone, her hair cascaded down like a waterfall behind her, dancing freely around her face and neck as the wind carried it along, while its color gradually shifted from gold back to its original silver.
She calmly tucked a loose lock behind her ear before offering him a faint smile, her voice gentle but composed as she said, "...I will keep your ridiculous advice in mind just this once. Also, do not forget that you owe me one after giving me such a lecture without warning. Come here."
He returned her smile and stepped toward her without hesitation until he stood directly in front of her.
Before he could understand what was about to happen, a strange warmth washed over him as her fingers slid through his hair in one smooth motion, leaving him unable to move. Although the sensation felt unusual, he had grown rather fond of it, and it was something he could not bring himself to resist even if he wanted to.
After a while, she leaned slightly closer to him, leaving only a small distance between them as she stopped her gentle petting, the strands that once rested on his forehead now brushed back behind his head, and then she spoke in her usual cold tone, "Kael?"
He glanced at her hand before answering casually, "Yeah, darling?"
She fell silent for a brief moment before speaking again in a manner so nonchalant that he had never heard from her before, "It seems like I am in love..."
His mind went blank at once as he swallowed hard, his lips parting slightly while he stammered, "W-what? W-with whom? Is it perhaps me? It has to be me, right?"
Seraphina chuckled quietly, "...with your hair, you fool."
He stared at her blankly, completely dumbfounded by her response, "W-what nonsense are you talking about? How can someone fall in love with hair of all things? That does not even make sense. How could you betray me like this?"
She tilted her head slightly as she explained calmly, "I have not. It is just that your hair looks awful at first glance, but in truth it is surprisingly soft and very smooth. Whenever I touch it, it feels like touching cotton or something similar rather than a bird nest. It reminds me of a doll's head I used to play with when I was little."
Kael clenched his teeth in frustration as he snapped back, "So I look like a toy to you, huh? Fine then, I will cut all of my hair tomorrow, and we will see how you manage to like it more than me after that, hmph?"
Seraphina pulled her hand back and rested her fingers against her chin while avoiding his gaze, "Oh, if I remember correctly, I once tore apart that poor doll's head simply because it did not obey me."
Kael's eyes widened in fear as he instinctively checked his head, making sure his hair was still intact, then forced out an awkward smile, "Um, darling? You can do whatever you want with it from now on, alright? I swear on your life that I would never even think of cutting my hair ever again. Never. I promise."
She sighed indifferently, her voice calm and distant as she said, "I'll try to consider it."
'What a relief!', he thought inwardly, his tense shoulders loosening just a little as he let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding.
But at the very next moment, she leaned even closer, close enough that his breath almost hitched in his throat, and with her lips hovering near his ear she whispered softly, "Are you perhaps upset? Was it just because you didn't get to hear what you wished for all this time? Ah, too bad for you... it seems you are not going to hear it anytime soon either."
'Why is she acting like this all of a sudden? Has she finally lost it? And what is with this voice of hers? Also, what did she even mean by what I wished to hear? Who cares about that right now anyway? She is way too close.'
As he felt her warm breath brush against his ear, the sudden closeness of her body shielding him from the cold wind, and the silky strands of her hair brushing against his face that was already slightly red, he found himself unable to move, not because he couldn't, but because he did not want to step away from that strange and unexpected comfort.
Turning his face aside, he whispered back in a strangely dramatic tone, "We'll see about that soon enough."
That was when a chill ran down his spine as his strange wife suddenly let out a sharp whoosh just below his ear, making him instinctively stumble back a few steps as his hand shot forward defensively, his face burning red from shock and embarrassment.
He shouted without thinking, "Why did you do that, huh?"
Seraphina did not answer him at once, instead she walked ahead a few steps before stopping and looking back over her shoulder for a moment, an amused smile slowly spreading across her face as she said, "I felt like doing it. Now hurry up, if we keep talking like that, the morning can come out anytime soon."
'Felt like doing it... what kind of answer is that even supposed to be?' he groaned inwardly, his expression twisting in disbelief.
With that, she continued walking forward, though the amused smile never left her face even for a moment as she thought, 'Teasing him is surprisingly amusing? What has gotten into me? Ah, I must truly be out of my mind if I am starting to think the same way he does.'
Soon enough, the two of them walked side by side once more in silence, and as time passed the wind gradually grew colder than before, slipping through the air like an invisible blade.
'Damn it, why is the night so freezing today? I feel like I am going to freeze to death before even getting home,' he thought while glancing toward his wife, who looked completely unaffected by the biting wind as she walked calmly beside him. 'Is she even human at this point?'
As if responding to his thoughts, another sudden breeze swept past them, and without even realizing it, he moved a little closer to her instinctively, until their steps aligned and their fingers brushed against each other unexpectedly, sending a jolt through his body that nearly made him gasp, though despite the shock, he found himself unable to pull away as warmth spread through his chest and his cheeks turned slightly red.
Seraphina noticed it as well, her eyes narrowing slightly as she glanced down at their hands before quickly looking away, her expression carefully composed.
Then, almost as if acting on impulse, she reached out with astonishing speed and grabbed his hand firmly, her fingers wrapping around his as faint hints of pink appeared across her face.
'It is only because of the cold and nothing else,' she told herself firmly, refusing to acknowledge the strange flutter in her chest.
Kael was startled by her sudden action, though the moment he felt the warmth and softness of her hand, all his scattered thoughts vanished, and without hesitation he tightened his grip around hers. He could not help but feel genuinely surprised, since for someone who wielded a sword every single day, her hand was impossibly soft and flawless, and although he had expected it to be cold like her personality, it was actually warm, perhaps because of her mana core. Still, the question lingered in his mind as to why she had taken his hand in the first place.
'Do not tell me she is worried about me... should I say something? No, she might snap out of it suddenly and shock me with lightning, so keeping quiet is safer. Still, it feels nice,' he admitted silently.
And so, beneath the vast navy-blue sky scattered with countless stars, with drifting leaves dancing quietly around them, the two of them continued walking side by side while holding hands, both lost in restless thoughts, both looking away from each other, and both blushing without realizing it.
---
Somewhere far away, a woman with long, messy golden hair and cold blue eyes that looked almost hollow stood silently in front of a window, wearing a torn white dress that had been ripped forcefully in several places, exposing bruised skin beneath, while dried blood stained her body and marked her once beautiful face.
She took a slow, steady breath as she stared at the distant stars, her thoughts echoing quietly within her mind.
[Brother, do you truly wish to defeat that Queen?]
There was a long pause before the answer finally came.
[Do you even need to ask?]
She remained silent for a moment, then spoke again with a steady tone.
[I know a way to defeat her easily.]
Her brother did not respond immediately, and when he finally did, his voice carried clear irritation.
[Really? And what is it?]
A cold smile slowly formed on her lips as the wind stirred her hair gently.
[Make her fall in love with you. Once she does, she will be unable to act.]
Her brother's reply came a little later, sharp and annoyed.
[Are you joking right now?]
The smile vanished from her face as she raised a hand to cover her eyes, their faint gleam fading as she cut off the mind connection, releasing a quiet sigh.
"But I am not joking."
She leaned back against the wall before slowly lowering herself to the floor, pulling her knees close to her chest and burying her head between them, sitting there in complete silence.
In front of her, the bed was soaked in fresh blood, and resting upon it lay the lifeless body of a boy around her age, dressed in a dark uniform adorned with intricate designs.
Serelina's body began to tremble as she whispered softly with a shaking voice, "Mother, Father, what am I supposed to do now?"
---
(Chapter Ended)
To be continued...