White thin cotton shirt and beige shorts. The top, however, appeared impressive in his eyes. The world is dynamic and ever changing, surely the aristocrats’ clothes would become lighter and more casual, but he had never seen them display half of their thighs like that. Kyle took off his robe, which he was wearing for the first time, without any time to deal with the embarrassment upon seeing Noah’s true appearance.
“Miss Noah.”
However, another problem arose: he couldn’t simply lay a hand on a sleeping woman, oblivious of the world. He lowered his posture, but he couldn’t figure out where to grab to put on the robe. Shoulders? Arms? He was in turmoil.
Until yesterday, he had never hesitated wrapping his arms around her back and shoulders. But as soon as he faced Noah’s original body, it seemed Kyle had forgotten every ounce of familiarity they had with each other.
At a closer look, Noah was too thin as if she was an extremely frail glass that would crumble at one clumsy touch and her skin was too pale. It was then when he understood all the lethargy and lazy images Noah had often shown. Even with Eleonora’s shell, she looked weak at first sight. When she was able to function properly, such as waking up early in the morning and having meals at a proper time, he had to praise her for doing well. But as the sun fades away from the skies, her temperature begins to drop gradually.
The valley is windy. If you dress so thin, you’ll catch a cold, he thought. Eleonora’s rugged, iron-like steel body was made into a fallen old tree. What if she got sick? Kyle fretted. He eventually placed his hand on Noah’s shoulder with caution. “Miss Noah, you have to get up.”
He carefully shook her shoulder that he held in one hand, but there was no significant response from the woman. However, her head, which was leaning downwards, slightly tilted to the side, baring the features of her face. But even that small change of posture was enough to freeze Kyle.
Her face, still buried under strands of her disheveled hair, was as pale as her arms and legs, and fit perfectly in Kyle’s palm. Her eyes remained unopened, but its shape and curve suggested that Noah had gentle eyes. Her appearance prompted a completely different impression from the elegant, bold features of Eleonora, which Kyle had grown accustomed to.
She said she was twenty-six years old. Kyle was perplexed. But she looks so cute.
Kyle had forgotten to wrap Noah within the robe, unable to take his eyes off the foreign face before him. When Noah had written a hundred pages of reflection, he had likened her to a sly cat, only approaching its owner when it needed something. But now, she seemed like an innocent puppy pretending to be a cat. As he watched her climb on the back of Muell, promising she would come back, he didn’t realize what it meant until now.
Of course, he claimed he had never wanted to see Noah’s true appearance. However, there were times when his curiosity would silently grow. He never thought it would be possible, nor did he imagine it would be similar to a herbivore.
Kyle eventually surrendered his puny attempt at clothing Noah with a robe and buried his face in his other hand instead. As soon as he recognized his irregular heartbeat, a faint sigh fell from his lips.
“This is driving me crazy… You’ve already bothered me enough.”
Now, he had an ominous feeling that he would not live a day without chasing after her. I’m not your guardian, he complained, but his butler role was immediately overshadowed. Still, the confusion he felt after witnessing Noah’s appearance was weak in comparison to the embarrassment he felt. As he turned his head to her, the woman began to whine, tossing and turning.
Then, without warning, Noah opened her eyes tiredly. Her orbs had a color slightly darker than her hair. She blinked slowly, and closed her eyes again as she muttered something in a soft voice.
Kyle held his ears close to her, and her faint voice tickled his ear.
“It’s cold…”