Chapter 169

 

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Melody’s strange behavior didn’t stop there.

She even personally approached Christian Carver and carefully spoke to him.

“Um.”

With a very anxious face at that.

Was she worried she might not hear his answer?

There was no reason the second son of the Carver family wouldn’t converse with such a great lady like Melody.

“Hello, I finally get to greet you. Miss Higgins.”

“No, I’m the one happy to exchange greetings with you. I’m Melody Higgins. You…seem to already know though.”

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know? I’m Christian Carver.”

Claude stared at them intently from a few steps away. Even though he knew it was rude.

Melody was conversing with him with both cheeks flushed with heat.

He now seemed to understand why Melody had been attending banquets so diligently.

It was to run into that man.

Claude realized at that moment that he had the same unsightly heart as others.

Because he unconsciously thought, ‘Why a man like that?’

But at that time, he had no time to properly grasp his new side or the confusion Melody was giving him.

Because he noticed Christian Carver grasping and pulling Melody’s hand!

‘…That clueless lady, really!’

By the time he came to his senses, he was already wedged between the two, giving Christian Carver a friendly smile.

“I heard the news of your knighthood. Congratulations, Mr. Christian Carver.”

In fact, Claude had no intention beyond interrupting the two. But Christian responded to his greeting with a heated reaction.

“I didn’t know Sir Claude Baldwin would know of me. It’s truly an honor.”

Christian looked about ten times happier than when greeting Melody.

Claude found himself wanting to laugh for some reason. But it wasn’t because of Christian’s reaction.

It was because Melody standing behind him secretly started tugging at his clothes. Maybe with a very angry expression too.

So Claude tried to be a bit friendlier to Christian.

“It’s more surprising that I could not know of such a great knight. You can call me Claude. It would be an honor if you allow me to call you by name as well, Mr. Carver.”

“Of course! My goodness, to think I’d be conversing with the young master of Baldwin. There will be no happier occasion than this tonight!”

A perceptive servant brought them drinks, and the two men amicably shared glasses to commemorate their meeting forever.

After that, Christian Carver occasionally sent gifts or invitations to Claude.

As if completely forgetting about Melody, he never contacted the Higgins again.

Claude inwardly worried if Melody might be hurt by that, but that was his misunderstanding.

While she grumbled for a long time about Claude butting in arbitrarily, she seemed to quickly forget about that man.

After a few weeks, she forgot even his name and called him “the second son of some family,” and didn’t even recognize him right in front of her during the Records Keeper exam.

Claude sometimes thought about what might have happened if he hadn’t intervened that day.

The two who had only been exchanging glances for a long time would have rapidly grown close, and maybe even become a special relationship.

Whenever such thoughts arose, Claude would sometimes bolt up in bed, shouting, “Why him of all people?!” even after going to sleep.

Unable to calm his angry heart, he would chug cold water in the middle of the night, but to no avail.

Really, why? Why that man?

As he anxiously pondered, Claude realized his question of “Why him?” was actually “Why him, not me?”

…It’s silly to think this way himself, but he considered his charm to be more than sufficient.

He received praise about his appearance almost daily, and his knowledge wasn’t lacking either. He also possessed the virtue of diligence to maintain those strengths.

To be more honest, he was aware that he belonged to the quite outstanding group.

Although he never showed it, following his father’s words that modesty should be a virtue.

Yet Melody acted as if such a person didn’t even enter her eyes.

That fact made Claude’s heart very desperate.

To the point of making the mistake of excessively using the Higgins name in his desire to somehow keep her by his side.

“All done.”

At Melody’s voice, he finally escaped from the old memories.

When Claude lifted his head, Melody was happily holding up the last bundle she completed at eye level.

“You’re quite dexterous.”

“I have a master who gives me any kind of work without discrimination.”

When the relationship he had been using for a long time was pointed out, Claude’s heart somehow ached.

Actually, that wasn’t it…

He was just anxious about Melody leaving his sight.

After the Christian Carver incident, he realized that Melody had a charm that drew attention.

Whether her cute features, elegant gait, or pretty voice, everything that made up her was simply beautiful.

Thanks to that, men with eyes acted as if they were dying to not be able to look at her.

Last time in Kristonson too, Claude thought his eyes would really fall out from confronting all those gazes.

Even though he knew such things were very childish behavior, he somehow couldn’t stop.

He was even afraid that if he took his eyes off, several more men like Christian Carver might appear.

“Should we hang this on the wall now?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. Just hang them without the bundles touching each other.”

“Without touching each other, got it.”

She repeated the precaution and hung the bundles of medicinal herbs at regular intervals.

“Hanging them up really makes them look like decorations. It’s pretty.”

“Since you like it, should I hang plant decorations for your next birthday, Miss Melody?”

“Yes, that sounds good. It’ll be even prettier if we mix flowers in too.”

“You mean yellow spring flowers, let’s prepare them together.”

Those were flowers Melody really liked, so she turned to look at him with surprised eyes. As if asking how he knew.

“Hmm. It’s more surprising you thought I wouldn’t know. Who made the greatest contribution in finding Miss Melody’s birthday?”

“Well.”

Melody answered while hanging one more bundle of medicinal herbs.

“It was you, Young Master.”

“Right?”

He raised his arm high and hung the herbs where Melody’s height couldn’t reach.

“The weather has gotten even more overcast in the meantime.”

When Melody mentioned it, Claude lifted his head to see pitch-black clouds rolling in.

“What happens to these medicinal herbs if it rains?”

“It’s indoors here, so it won’t be a big problem. During severe monsoon seasons, they didn’t dry properly and had to be mostly discarded though.”

“I hope it’s just a passing rain.”

“It will be a passing rain.”

“Hmm, and…”

Melody clapped her hands lightly after hanging the last remaining bundle.

“The work is finally done!”

“Good work. You really could have just stayed still today.”

“Nope, no way.”

Melody slowly shook her head, then suddenly brought her palm near her nose and mouth.

“Touching fragrant grass makes me feel good. Now my hands smell nice too. Do you want to smell?”

Melody abruptly held out one hand to him as if boasting.

But she soon recalled that his hands would have a not much different scent.

Since they had been touching the same grass.

Feeling awkward, she slowly tried to lower her hand.

“Is that so?”

But Claude, who had approached right in front of her, gently grasped her wrist.

“Uh, since…the same scent is coming from you, you don’t really need to check.”

Melody belatedly added those words, but her hand had already been lifted near his face.

“…Scent.”

The words he uttered in a small voice with his eyes closed were close enough to be caught in her palm.

“It’s very nice.”

“Well, since I kept touching medicinal herbs…”

“There’s another scent too.”

Melody answered while slightly averting her gaze, feeling somehow embarrassed.

“That’s probably because of perfume. I don’t know if the fragrance still lingers though…”

At the end of her words that gradually became smaller, Melody seemed to realize something and turned her head towards the window.

“Ah.”

After a short sigh, she soon showed a worried expression to Claude. The perplexity or embarrassment she felt until a moment ago was not visible at all.

“It’s really raining.”

The thin raindrops soon began to fall thickly and strongly enough to engulf all the surrounding sounds.

“Seeing it suddenly become this heavy, it must be a passing rain without fail. It’s always been like that.”

Perhaps to reassure Claude who cherished Jeremiah’s medicinal herbs.

She looked up at Claude intently with a forced smile.

“So you don’t need to worry.”

“…”

But he didn’t give any answer.

He just stared down blankly with unfamiliar eyes that somehow lacked emotion.

“Why…?”

The smile was no longer visible on Melody’s face as she asked that.

“You really…don’t care.”

He opened his mouth slowly, one word at a time, and somehow his complexion seemed to darken with each word. Like someone deeply wounded.

“About being this close.”

He pulled the hand grasping Melody with a bit more force.

“To me.”

With the word ‘close,’ Claude’s lips perfectly pressed against her wrist.

“…!”

Melody was startled and tried to withdraw her hand, but the arm held by him didn’t budge at all.

No, that was actually a lie.

Melody could have easily escaped from his hand if she wanted to.

But she didn’t want to break free from the sensation of lips firmly pressing on top of her wrist for some reason.

Realizing that she was allowing her wrist, he muttered while gently shifting his gaze.

“…How cruel of you.”

It was a confused voice mixed with resentment and desire.

“Not giving me a piece of your heart.”

He kissed the hollow of Melody’s inner wrist.

“But allowing…your scent and wrist.”

He buried his lips in the same spot as before. With the eyes that had been slightly open now completely closed.

Occasionally, his lips parted and hot breaths tickled between Melody’s fingers along her wrist.

When she flinched at the unbearable sensation, he soon tilted his head to explore her wrist even more deeply.

‘It’s like…kissing…’