Chapter 56 – The Shadow (2)
Lacias could feel the contamination when Enrique had revealed his hole to Lila. Somehow the necklace made him realize that Lila was being approached by a shadow
“And your maid let me in on the rest of the details.”
That must have been Jane. Thought Lila
“I must have made a good impression, as she told me everything.”
Lacias smiled with satisfaction in his eyes. “No wonder why we were going around in circles. The shadow was the Emperor himself. Who would have known?”
The Wipere family had been investigating contaminated rings, and for some time they were searching for a particular user in the area. Being the emperor he was most certainly hard to track down. However, Lacias would not be able to touch Enrique for the time being.
In the original novel, Lacias discontinued the investigation after discovering who the shadow was due to the deal made between the royal family and the Wiperes.
The rings that the family used were posed as a threat to the royal family, and they also had contributed to founding this nation. However, by deciding to cooperate rather than executing them, the Ahibalt Empire had managed to become even stronger.
What did the empire give to the Wipere family?
Lila did not know since it was not mentioned in the original work, as Hir just executed all Ahibalts without any excuses. However, if the deal was still intact, there must have been something huge. Lila stared at Lacias and thought that he would know what the price was.
“Wear the necklace wherever you are.”
“All right. Thank you for your help.” She said gratefully.
If Lacias had not appeared then, Enrique would not have let Lila go. He would have certainly tried to absorb her entire ring for himself.
“You don’t need to say such things.”
“Why?”
“Since we’re to be married, you don’t need to thank me over such trivial matters.”
Lacias rubbed Lila’s hand as he said he had done what needed to be done.
“You’re too thin.”
Lacias fought the urge to kiss the bones that stood out of her hand and managed to look at her face. While she thought over what to say and answered like she had made a decision.
“Things like that are even more necessary between married couples, Lacias.”
“Ah…”
Lacias put his hand on his chest while closing his eyes after Lila finished talking.
“What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”
He looked at Lila’s face in surprise, she could see his sharp chin and nose. His lips smiled, and his eyes grew warm.
“My heart shook when you called my name.”
She felt strangely in danger, he was so beautiful at times that he made her feel abnormally tense. She couldn’t let herself be distracted by him all the time, no matter how tempting.
*
The aroma of butter, flour, and sugar-filled the air once again, Lila’s mansion seemed always filled with sweet scents lately. Lila intently mixed milk with white chocolate chips, she was baking cookies as a present for her current husband, she felt that he was giving her too much and she needed to pay him back a little. Lila rolled the batter and pulled out the cookie cutter and was reminded about how it was the wrong cutter.
Why did it have to be this one?
When Lila asked Jane to buy her cookie cutters for cookies that would be a gift for Lacias, she returned with cute heart-shaped ones. She felt mildly embarrassed when she pulled golden-brown hearts out of the oven, but she got through it eventually.
Lila hoped that Lacias liked chocolate chip cookies because she realized late into her baking that she doesn’t know what types of sweets he liked.
If he doesn’t like these, I will make plain butter cookies. She concluded.
Lila took the cookies out and tasted a warm and sweet-smelling one. She felt the crispness of the cookie, and the chocolate melted to enhance the richness. Lila put her hand over her mouth because this was her best yet. She had worried that she made too much, but she could give them out to others if they were this delicious. She had about a hundred in the oven.
‘I should wrap those for Hir separately.’
Lila smiled at imagining Hir biting into a cookie and widening his eyes as she asked Jane to help her with the wrapping.
*
Lila leaped off the carriage in front of the Wipere estate, she could never get used to its overwhelming figure. Just then the guard from her first visit stepped in front of her again.
“He- hello!” He said shyly.
“Hello.”
“I had not been notified of your visit.”
It was obvious that the guard was just following orders so Lila didn’t feel the need to be cold with him. Not to mention that she remembered how he made it easy for her to visit Lacias the first time.
“I wanted to surprise Lacias.” She replied with a light smile.
“Is that so!”
“Yes. So, could you keep my visit a secret?”
“Yes! Of course!” He nodded.
Please read this TL’s note:
Rings are form of energies. It comes in different forms for each character, others may take creative forms such as butterfly. It’s called a Ring as it comes from the hand literally. Inexperienced ring users uses pistol to summon their rings. The more experienced they are, the more rings they are able to produce.
Shadows are people who uses distorted rings which are called “Holes.” Rings such as these are colorless. They attach to other people’s rings and sap its energy to gain power.
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