Translator: Nox

25 - Chapter 25

Usually, the proper reaction would be to be surprised, pull away, and feel embarrassed.

“……!”

Eloise made a face as if a bug had landed on the back of her hand and quickly withdrew her hand. Ryan chuckled at the sight.

“It was a mistake.”

“I know.”

Even as she replied, Eloise dragged her chair a step away as if he had done something wrong, and Ryan’s lips twisted.

Honestly, at times like this, it’s best to just say nothing and keep looking at the documents. But seeing Eloise brush off his hand as if it were a bug strangely twisted his mood.

Suddenly, the letter he had put in the drawer came to his mind.

She writes the kindest letters in the world to Lieutenant Colonel ‘Ryan Wilgrave,’ whom she has never even met, but builds such a wall against Sergeant ‘Ryan Thornton.’

Without even knowing it’s the same person.

In an instant, Ryan spoke in a sharp voice without realizing it.

“Sorry I’m not your Ryan……!”

Before he could finish speaking, Eloise jumped up and covered his mouth with her hand.

“Y-you!”

Eloise, her face flushed red, was covering his mouth as if she would hang him upside down from the zelkova tree in Blissbury Garden if he uttered another word.

“G-give me back that letter! You didn’t tell anyone, did you? Oh, my God. Why did that letter have to end up with you…….”

Eloise, rambling in embarrassment, saw Sergeant Thornton’s eyes soften.

The moment the sharp blue eyes narrowed slightly and took on a laughing expression, Eloise felt strange.

Honestly, she thought he would despise her. For the nude painting, for the delusional letter. Honestly, she would have understood if he avoided her gaze altogether, but there was no contempt in his gaze now.

Instead, he was enjoying it.

As she stared blankly into his eyes without realizing it, she heard a ‘whoosh’ sound and felt something warm and moist on her palm.

Ryan had deliberately breathed on her hand that was covering his mouth.

“Ah!”

Surprised, Eloise screamed and took her hand away.

“Y-you……!”

The spot where Sergeant Thornton’s breath had touched felt as if it had been burned. No matter how much she shook her hand, the ticklish, hot feeling wouldn’t go away.

She wanted to snap at him, but she couldn’t open her mouth.

She didn’t have the courage to repeat his actions from just now.

It wasn’t obscene or vulgar. If we were to go by that, Eloise’s action of suddenly covering his mouth with her hand could be considered rude.

As Eloise didn’t know what to do, he, who had been watching her with amusement, asked.

“Do you often write such letters?”

“…….”

When Eloise didn’t answer, he spoke again.

“Full of delusions, as if you’re very close to Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave…….”

“I didn’t write it like that!”

Eloise shouted at Ryan’s words. Then she quickly closed her mouth and looked at the door.

A moment later, Mrs. Parker’s voice was heard from beyond the half-open door.

“Miss Eloise? Is something the matter?”

She must have been worried because she had heard screams and then loud voices coming from the room.

“No! There was a bug!”

“Oh dear. Ask the Sergeant to get rid of it for you. Surely a gentleman wouldn’t be afraid of bugs.”

Mrs. Parker’s voice faded away again. She seemed to have returned to the kitchen.

Eloise, relieved, looked at Ryan.

“……What do you want? If you want to laugh at a pathetic woman who wrote a delusional letter, as you say, go ahead. I feel like my pride has already gone to God’s side anyway.”

She was serious. She didn’t have the energy to be more embarrassed.

Eloise covered her flushed cheeks with both hands and lowered her head.

Why does she keep getting caught by this man for the things she least wants him to know? Is he a demon sent to Blissbury by someone to torment her?

She had told him to laugh as much as he wanted, so she expected a contemptuous laugh to pour out, but what came back was a question.

“Since when have you been writing letters to Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave like that?”

“……Quite a while ago. You’ll know if you were in the military. It became known that if you only knew the affiliated unit and name, the letter would be delivered, and everyone wrote letters of comfort to the military. It was exactly at that time……probably when Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave was a Second Lieutenant.”

“Since then? That was a time when he wasn’t very famous, though?”

“Still, his name appeared in military newspapers little by little, didn’t it?”

Ryan chuckled as Eloise’s voice sharpened at the words that he wasn’t famous.

“So. Have you been writing letters like this ever since?”

“You probably won’t believe me anyway, but I didn’t send such letters from the beginning.”

Since it had come to this, Eloise began to tell him when and what she had been writing in her letters, thinking there was nothing more to hide.

She thought he would look at her with a look of horror, wondering if she was really a crazy woman, but Sergeant Thornton listened to her with sparkling eyes like a child listening to an interesting story.

“……So, I started writing whatever I wanted because I knew he wouldn’t read it or reply anyway. I swear on my father and mother’s names that I didn’t write any crazy things like asking him to marry me or acting like I was already his wife, like it said in the newspaper.”

She couldn’t have written that even if she had tried. The feelings Eloise had for Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave were deeper than friendship but lighter than love.

More of an object of admiration than a first love.

If Eloise had lived in Newham’s society, a lady a few years older, called the flower of society, would have been the object of her admiration.

Then they would have called each other by their first names in a friendly manner, and she would have been excited about the other person’s invitation and spent the whole day choosing what to wear.

But there wasn’t really anyone like that in Feltham. At that time, what caught Eloise’s eye were the newspapers her father received from Newham.

In a world where war continued, stories of many battles and soldiers were always pouring out, and Eloise found people she could respect there.

That was Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave.

“You can tell people if you want. It’s not like I have any more reputation to lose.”

After telling him everything she hadn’t been able to tell Abigail, she felt relieved.

This was probably why devout believers who went to church lined up to make confessions.

“I have no intention of telling anyone else. I don’t have a hobby of making fun of people with things like this.”

“…….”

Eloise’s eyes narrowed at those words.

Tease? Then what was that about writing ‘Ryan who isn’t your Ryan’ in the letter?

Just as Eloise was about to say something again, Mrs. Parker’s voice was heard from outside.

“Miss Eloise! Stay for dinner!”

“Yes?”

Surprised by the word dinner, Eloise looked at the clock. The clock pointed to six o’clock.

“Oh my, how did the time get like this?”

The days were getting longer, so she had forgotten about the passage of time.

In the meantime, Mrs. Parker came up.

“I thought you two would be late, so I prepared it. I prepared Sergeant Thornton’s too, but…….”

Mrs. Parker said that and looked at Ryan with a slightly troubled look.

Eloise, wondering why, looked at Ryan and asked.

“Don’t tell me you’re still not eating properly?”

As soon as Eloise finished speaking, Mrs. Parker poured out her words as if she had been waiting for it.

“Oh, don’t even mention it. I’m tired of telling the Sergeant to eat. I mean, how can he be so fine even though he eats so little? No matter how used soldiers are to moving without eating during long battles, people still have to eat. Eating the blessings and grace that God has given to this earth and giving us our daily bread today…….”

“I’ll eat. Please prepare it together.”

“Yes, good idea……yes?”

Mrs. Parker’s eyes widened, as she had been about to give a long lecture that she had been holding back, with Eloise present.

“Oh my, are you really okay?”

She had preached to him to eat, but she was worried.

She knew very well that Sergeant Thornton’s eating disorder was by no means a joke.

Hadn’t she seen him struggle to eat after Mrs. Parker had urged him to eat even a little, only to rush out with a pale face, not even eating half of it?

After that, Mrs. Parker couldn’t recommend Ryan to eat.

So today, she was going to have Eloise eat alone and prepare a soft bread and oatmeal porridge cooked softly with milk for Sergeant Thornton in the evening.

“I feel like I’ll be okay today for some reason.”

Ryan said that and got up from his seat.

He was feeling hungry for the first time in a long time.