Chapter 155. What Matters Most to You
It was a laugh that didn't fit the time or place, but no one could fault her laughter.
“On a day whose memory is even faint, my parents and grandfather passed away, and I went to Pulder with my grandmother. There were countless invisible walls. Because I was an immigrant, a commoner, and merely a girl with my grandmother as guardian.”
Tears welled up and dripped down her chin over her faint smile.
“I walked and walked a rough path. I walked without even knowing it was difficult. Then, around the time I wanted to be recognized as the developer of the Magic Dome… I think I was too tired. The walls were impossibly high, and I couldn't even dare to overcome them… I pretended not to know my own rights.”
Beatrix approached and covered her cheek with a handkerchief.
Olivia looked into her blue eyes and brought out the sincerity she had suppressed.
“I was foolish. I shouldn't have given up so easily……”
Beatrix embraced her without a word. Olivia trailed off, leaning into the Queen Consort’s embrace.
After patting her trembling, delicate shoulders for a long time, Beatrix stepped back. Olivia, having calmed her heart for a moment in her embrace, wiped her wet face and looked up.
Leonard was staring at her. Olivia met the King’s gaze and spoke with a firmer voice.
“I want to correct my foolishness now. I am prepared to endure any path, Your Majesty.”
“You intend to build Herot’s independent Magic Dome?”
To the King’s question, Olivia stated clearly, with resolve.
“I can do it. I will accomplish it.”
Leonard pulled up one corner of his mouth and smiled.
His smile, which seemed like a sneer at first glance, felt like a bright smile to Olivia.
“Is it possible for you to fix the Magic Dome yourself?”
“Just by listening to the sound the Magic Dome makes, I know what the problem is and how to fix it. Just as parents can guess what’s wrong by listening to their child’s breathing.”
Leonard clasped his arms and pondered for a moment before asking.
“You were the one who fixed the Ship-based Magic Dome, weren’t you?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Hearing Olivia’s answer, without a moment’s hesitation, Leonard beckoned her.
“Come closer.”
“……?”
As Olivia’s dark eyes widened, Leonard said with a rather wicked expression and a sharp tone.
“Don’t you need to properly smack the back of that fearless thief’s head?”
A short while later, Olivia walked down a long corridor steeped in darkness.
Looking at the corridor filled with dim light, it reminded her of the moment she headed to the room where Noah waited on their wedding night. That moment, which felt like crossing through her own life, where she couldn’t see an inch ahead.
Noah, who was at the end of the corridor that day, was a miracle that graced her life.
And now she was walking a path directly opposite to what that miracle desired.
When will I gain the nerve to be composed and courageous in any situation?
Perhaps such a moment never comes for anyone. Rather, people make different choices in the same situation.
Either fleeing in terror, or walking steadfastly while carrying their fear.
Olivia tightly gripped the King’s decree in her hand. Then, she quickly crossed the corridor and descended the stairs.
After winding through the landings, she reached the first floor and stopped upon seeing someone waiting for her.
“Her Highness, I am here to escort you.”
Jonan stretched his massive body gracefully and took a step towards her. Behind him, the coachman and Mrs. Betty, who had bowed their heads, were visible.
Olivia stood on the stairs and looked down at him. How could she have thought this face was boyish?
Olivia tightened her grip on the hand holding the King’s decree.
Then, turning her gaze away from him, she looked straight ahead and calmly descended the stairs. She felt sorry for him who had come to find her here, but she would not apologize.
Olivia brushed past Jonan and stopped in front of Mrs. Betty and the coachman.
“You two, return to the mansion. Thank you for your hard work in acting on my orders.”
While the coachman quickly bowed his head, Mrs. Betty followed Olivia, who was walking away.
“I will go with you, Her Highness.”
Jonan, following behind Olivia, said in a low voice.
“Let us go to the mansion.”
It was an authoritative voice, close to a command, but Olivia did not reply and got into the open carriage. As Mrs. Betty followed her into the carriage, Olivia looked directly at Jonan through the window and commanded.
“Guide me to Magic Dome Unit 2.”
As Jonan narrowed his eyes and was about to say something, Olivia showed him the King’s decree through the window.
“It is the King’s order, so obey.”
Before the King’s clear seal under the moonlight, and before eyes darker than a moonless night, Jonan could not dare to offer any rebuttal.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Methone felt cold sweat trickle down his spine and reported quickly.
“Her Highness was at the Royal Palace. Jonan personally went to escort her.”
Noah nodded slightly at his report and sank deep into the sofa, slumping down. Methone quickly left the room, and Noah looked out at the world that had already darkened.
The moment he heard the report that Olivia had disappeared from the mansion, he felt the meaning of the sky falling. His mind went blank, and he experienced the sensation of everything in the world becoming distant.
Even while handling his duties, his mind was focused on finding Olivia’s whereabouts. Mechanically signing documents and giving interviews, he kept staring at the door. He was going mad with curiosity about the news that would come from beyond the door.
If the news hadn’t arrived quickly, he would have scoured the entire capital searching for Olivia.
Olivia.
The word, broken at the edge of his lips, flowed into his heart and pooled there.
The confession, sweetly escaping her lips as red as a blooming rose, colored him once more.
“I love you.”
When he heard those words, Noah froze. Frozen, he just stared blankly at her.
Even kissing her and touching her skin, he thought he would never hear those words from Olivia until the day he died.
Why did Olivia marry him?
At first, the answer to this question was simple. Then, one day, it became sorrowful, and then fearful.
And as his fear grew, Noah became obsessed with paradise. He bought dresses and filled jewelry boxes, to the point where his father subtly advised him to pay attention to rumors. If he could, he wanted to prevent Olivia’s feet from even touching the ground.
He thought that if a child were born someday, he hoped it would resemble Olivia. To their child, Noah intended to give everything he possessed.
Even so, he could not dare to expect those words.
“I love you.”
Sweet voices flowed into his dazed ears.
“Because it was you who stood on that path that day… That’s why I… decided to follow you.”
“…Why.”
Even if Usher had left, wouldn’t you have followed him? The circumstances were such. And perhaps it would have been better for you.
But Olivia’s answer was different.
“Well… ever since that autumn night, I kept thinking of you……”
That autumn night.
You were so gorgeously and compactly beautiful, like a sapphire rose, that ridiculously, I couldn’t even look at you properly.
Thinking I would be leaving in a few days, I wondered what this absurd feeling was and killed time alone, but when I came to my senses, I was wandering in a lightless maze.
Searching for you.
That autumn night, my heart fluttered at the sound of footsteps rustling beside me.
He had wished that the autumn night was not special only to him. He wished she remembered that night too.
Love.
The name, which was difficult to define by anything, was named by him as the sentiment of that moment.
Olivia’s expression, atmosphere, temperature, everything at that moment was defined by the name of love.
Noah ran his hand over his face and looked at the back of his hand. His hand hadn’t been this damaged even when he went to hunt monsters.
But it didn’t matter if it turned bright blue with bruises. When the moment of crisis arrived, the superficial things in his life were stripped away. Where the shell disappeared, only she remained, smelling like the faint scent of cosmos.
At that moment, Ansen’s voice interjected, as if mocking his true feelings.
“You and I are the same kind of person to Olivia.”
Noah stopped breathing for a moment and froze. He exhaled roughly, clutching his chest, his face contorted. But Ansen’s voice did not let him go.
“No.”
Noah shook his head abruptly.
“That dog-like bastard was spouting nonsense.”
He muttered curses, trying to erase the cursed words from his mind, but he couldn’t.
Noah, as if possessed, took out a medicine bottle.
“I think it started after the newspapers stopped coming to the mansion… and after Your Majesty went to Hamilton. I only noticed the medicine bottle recently.”
With a contorted face, he slowly crumbled.
“You and I are the same kind of person to Olivia.”
No matter how much he muttered curses and shook his head, there was no room for rebuttal to those words.
Wasn’t it the medicine he sought in a moment of life-threatening danger, in a crumbling house?
Yet she took it by his side.
“I was promised peace in exchange for marrying you. I received a promise from my father that I would never stand before the tiresome press again. So, in exchange for marrying you, do you know what I must receive, what you must pay me as a price?”
“…You idiotic bastard.”
He shouldn’t have said that. He regretted it the moment he saw Olivia’s eyes become vacant, but he didn’t correct it. No, he couldn’t correct it and ended up running away.
Noah stood up and walked to the window.
Both the Magic Dome and the warships came into view.
The Magic Dome that Ansen Wilhelm had taken from Olivia.
Only after confronting Ansen did Noah realize his true purpose in coming to Herot.
“Olivia is more stubborn and free than you think. And she… does not forgive those who infringe upon her freedom.”
Olivia did not forgive Ansen, who had stolen the Magic Dome. So she cleanly forgot him, and Ansen, writhing in lingering attachment, must have come to Herot to find her.
“You are telling me to pretend not to know that Olivia is Oliver, in exchange for me setting things right. Does Olivia know this fact?”
With the sole intention of protecting Olivia, he had not considered what was truly important to her.
Noah closed his eyes and breathed heavily.
“What matters most to you……”
Noah became confused by that question.
Because he didn’t know a single thing about what mattered most to her, or what she truly liked.
At that moment, with hurried footsteps, the door burst open and Methone rushed in.
To Noah, who turned his head in surprise, Methone delivered words that shook his world.
“The Princess consort is here now. She has summoned the person in charge of the Magic Dome. She said she would fix Magic Dome Unit 2 under the King’s order……”
Methone couldn’t finish his words. Noah had already kicked open the door and rushed out before he could finish speaking.
