Chapter 44

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Chapter 44

When Min-ha, who fell asleep leaning against the shoulder, woke up, the carriage seemed to have stopped in front of a lake after moving for a long time. A lot of time passed, and the sky was coloured with a glowing red sunset.

As she shook her own shoulders slightly to wake herself up, she glanced out the windows of the carriage and rubbed her eyes.

She fell asleep longer than she thought, perhaps, because she did not think she would be able to sleep, or because she felt comfortable leaning her head like that. Conceivably, that was why Min-ha, who thought her body felt refreshed, noticed that she was leaning on Seth’s shoulder and turned her head.

At that moment, she was surprised to see Seth’s face, which was filling her vision.

Even before she realized what was going on, the first thing she caught was his handsome face. However, after realizing her thoughts, Min-ha admitted that she had lost more immunity to his handsome face.

In addition, she had slept shamelessly on his shoulder. So, it was more so because she was feeling sorry for him as well. Thinking that, Min-ha quickly rubbed her face with both hands and hurriedly removed her head from Seth’s shoulder.

Seeing that, Seth looked a little disappointed and opened his mouth, who was still brushing her face.

“…Sorry. Maybe, I shouldn’t have woken you up when you were sleeping soundly.”

“No, I’m really sorry. Your shoulder, does it not hurt? I think I was laying on it longer than I thought.”

“It’s all right. It was bearable because your head was light.”

“But still, I was leaning on you until the sun set. Don’t you feel stiff?”

“It’s okay, you also slept in an uncomfortable position. Is your neck okay? What about your motion sickness?”

At her apology, Seth, instead, was rather worried about her body and passing it over as though it were minor.

Min-ha smiled awkwardly and replied, holding her neck with one hand.

“…It’s okay. My motion sickness got better.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Fortunately… What about Noah?”

“He was waiting for you to wake up, so he got off the carriage and went to Lancelot.”

“Oh. I see… I’m sorry. Why didn’t you wake me up, then?”

“I was going to wait until dinner was ready before waking you up. If you were having motion sickness because you were hungry, it might be even worse.”

“I see.”

At his words, she pulled herself towards the door to open the carriage.

Seth, who got out of the carriage first, reached out his hand to Min-ha. She got off the carriage holding his hand, which was naturally holding on to her. It was so effortless for her to hold his hand that when she realized it, she pulled her hands away a little.

When she did that, Seth grabbed Min-ha’s hand, which fell down gently, and brought it to his side.

“You might fall if you do something wrong.”

“…Okay.”

“So, let’s do this.”

Repeating his words, he squeezed her hands once and took it again. Min-ha thought that a corner of her heart was feeling ticklish at the appearance and intertwined her fingers on his hand carefully.

At that, a smile was blooming on Seth’s face, who was changing his speed to match her steps.

She also smiled at his face. The smile was enough to make the long worries she had disappear for a moment before she went to be.

When she came out of the carriage with Seth and walked a little along the forest path, a small vacant area with several tents was revealed.

The Persen’s knights, who escorted the carriage, moved busily between several tents, setting up a bed and resting the tired horses. In addition, the servants and some knights were occupied in making meals and lighting fires in the center of the vacant area.

As if a small village was made, Min-ha was glancing around, amazed at the scene in front of her.

Noah, who was playing with Lancelot with a wooden sword, found the two of them and ran shouting.

“Sister-in-law! Have you slept well?”

“Yes. What was Noah doing? Were you playing? ”

“Yes!”

Asking that, Min-ha hugged Noah running towards her tightly. Meanwhile, the little boy also grinned brightly while in her arms.

With a subtle expression like he was smiling as though he was laughing, Seth changed his expression immediately when he saw Lancelot and Gawin leisurely following behind Noah.

To be exact, it was because of Gawin, who was wearing a playful face.

Sure enough, unlike Lancelot, who bowed his head slightly to show courtesy, Gawin spoke with a smiling face.

“You’re here, Your Excellency.”

“Ah. Are you finally here, Leader? You must’ve been very tired. Did the wife get some rest? Did your motion sickness get better?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, I slept well.”

“Yes, I rested well.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Eh, did you really just sleep?”

“…What?”

“Yes?!”

When Gawin, who was greeting them, suddenly asked the question with a sly look, Min-ha and Seth asked back in embarrassment, while Noah tilted his head. At that, Gawin then spoke with an absurd look as if he did not know such a response would return.

“Well, after Young Master Noah left, there were only the two of you. Did you really sleep?

“No… What?”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What, are you sure? Nothing but holding hands and leaning on your shoulder? …That’s disappointing, Leader. If you weren’t going to do anything, why did you ask me to park the carriage there… Aaack!”

Gawin, who continued to talk with a sly face, stopped as Lancelot hit him on the back of his head with a straight face.

Lancelot, who hit the back of his Gawin’s head hard enough for him to make a slight exaggeration as he swept his tingling head with one hand and stared at him, just rubbed his palm against his cloak with a sharp look.

Seeing that, he shouted angrily at Lancelot, still, with an indifferent face as if nothing had happened just now.

“What are you doing, Lancelot! It hurts!”

“I hit you to hurt you. Tsk, do you always say too much? If you keep your mouth open like this, I’ll cut your neck and throw it into the lake.”

“Eeuk…!”

“I have prepared a meal, Your Excellency, Madam and Young Master Noah. Please, come this way.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Brother, sister-in-law! I want to eat together!”

“Yes, let’s eat together.”

“Noah, I made a special snack for you over there. Would you like to try it?”

“Oh, yeah! I want to, I want to eat it! eat, eat! Sister-in-law, please put me down.”

“Yes, all right.”

Lanelot, who ignored Gawin’s bitter words, turned to speak politely to Min-ha, Seth and Noah instead. Excited by his words, Noah started running first.

Min-ha giggled softly as she watched Noah running fast without even knowing the directions, Lancelot chasing him, and Gawin, who was running while holding the back of his head with one hand as though he was having a headache.

Then, she turned her head to Seth’s empty cough coming from her side.

“I hope you didn’t misunderstand, but I didn’t have any insidious thoughts. I was just afraid it would wake you up if you’re sleeping and there’s noise around you. That’s why it’s like that.”

“I’m not misunderstanding. You aren’t like that.”

“….”

“…What’s wrong?”

Even though he still had a blunt face, somehow, he seemed a little shy. When she answered without much thought, Seth stopped standing tall. He laughed a little before approaching Min-ha’s side.

He then whispered softly in her ears.

“I don’t want you to misunderstand, though I don’t want you to be too relieved.”

“Yes, yes…?”

“I don’t want to be hated and for you to be wary of me like before, but don’t be too relieved.”

His gaze as he finished his words while staring into her eyes, was deep and profound, as if trying to see through her heart.

Trying to not show that her heart was pounding little by little again, Min-ha opened her mouth in a trembling voice.

“…Can I ask what that means?”

“Are you pretending to not know, or do you really not know?”

“Neither of that.”

“Then?”

‘I just want to be sure … About the heart he has for me, and the heart I have for him.’

No matter how inexperienced she was in a relationship, she was not dull enough to not be able to notice his feelings for her. Still, she could not show all her heart with the extent that she only knew vaguely.

What she needed was certainty—about how much he loved her. Only then would she be able to answer the ‘problem’ that she had been hesitant about. In other words, she would decide whether she could be honest with him or not.

So, instead of responding to Seth’s question, Min-ha swallowed a dry saliva and said something else.

“…Do you have time in the evening?”

“I do not have a special schedule, other than going through the reports I brought and discussing with the coachmen. Why is there something wrong?”

“…If it’s okay, would you go on a date with me in the evening?”

“….”

“You know what I mean, right? Oh… Should I have said secret meeting—”

“…I got it. Enough.”

Seth, who was surprised by her sudden proposal, soon smiled and nodded with a bright face she had never seen before.

As he stretched out his hand and held her hand affectionately, he then kissed it lightly.

“I’ll look forward to it. A date with you.”

“….”

At that, he placed his two hands on Min-ha’s hand.

She held his hand back by slightly moving her hands between his without answering. With her stretched-out hands, she took a trembling breath with excitement and anxiety when Seth reached out and held her hands tightly.

‘I do not know if he will believe me… but, I cannot push this back anymore.’

Gazing at the hand that was holding his hands as though she was holding onto her heart, Min-ha looked at Seth’s back as he sauntered.

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