"You are so troublesome, Lady Anastasia." He offered me a hand up. His was cool to the touch. He pulled me to my feet and let go more quickly than was necessary.
"Come along."
"Coming!"
He started walking without a backward glance, but not nearly as fast as before. Thanks to that, I could keep up, even with my dress and the last of the shaking in my legs.
"Thank you, Prince Theodosius."
"What are you thanking me for?" He stopped and turned to face me, looking skeptical.
"You saved me, again. You told me I didn't need to say it, but I don't have any other way to thank you."
"No, I mean what is this for?"
"Because I am grateful."
Especially that we both have the same powers, healing powers. Even so, in the kingdom, he is the strongest swordmaster at such a young age. While me? I didn't even have a way to protect myself from assailants.
He looked away, "I wasn't here to save you. I even thrust a sword at you."
"Still, you saved my life. I only have healing power by my side and it's not that strong, I couldn't even yet heal a scratch."
"You're misreading things, Lady Anastasia."
We started walking again, still at my slow pace, and that told me more than his words did.
To me, Theodosius is a precious child. He grew up without a mother and no siblings. Only his sword is his only friend. Ah, he suddenly reminded me of my brother in my past life.
"Let us go, I doubt your brothers are worried for you."
"You are a nice child, Prince Theodosius."
He raised his brow, "But you are much younger than I am."
I can't help but smile, we are so similar in many ways, except for killing. Maybe because we are cousins? I wonder, is this how my brothers feel to him?
"You.. you're wearing the most vacuous smile I've ever seen."
"And you're bad at compliments." But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He was searching for his words, might have just chosen badly.
"It wasn't meant to be a compliment."
I didn't notice it before, but he's smiling too. He was beautiful. But the smile, even with its whisper of sadness, took his beauty up to another level. I didn't expect him to have such an innocent smile.
"Why are you staring?" He frowned now.
Aah, what a shame.
"I was looking at something really pretty, but it went away." I looked behind bim, trying to tuck the memory of that smile away.
"If it's gone, let's go."
"Right."
We continued our walk back to the manor in renewed silence. But something else caught my eye. A tiny light blinked, just ahead.
Is that a firefly?
We'd reached a brook when I saw the telltale golden-yellow glow.
"There are fireflies upstream. What, it's so pretty! I want to look at it." I may sound like a child but I am a child.
"I don't want to, we're going home."
In the end, he gave up.
"What's the big deal about fireflies?"
I guess they wouldn't be unusual to the people of this another world. The field sparkled with living light. A moment never came when there wasn't at least one of them glowing.
I lowered my voice to a whisper, afraid to shatter this real-life fantasy.
"The way the lights flicker, it's so ephemeral, isn't it?"
"Just like your eyes and hair, you resembled them, do you not?"
Now that I think about it, my hair is gold and so are my eyes.
"Hmph, that's the same as yours! we share the same eye color, Prince!"
The light of the fireflies reflected off the ice of his eyes. He is more beautiful than they are. I was staring again, looking at that smile. And again, he noticed.
I want to slap my face, even though we're engaged, there is no way that I would let myself fall for him. It's just that it's unusual, especially I'm suddenly reincarnated to this world.
But when our eyes met, I lost my breath and the words to apologize.
"Why are staring at me- It doesn't matter. Let's go now, Lady Anastasia."
"Y-yeah."
I caught up, feeling a warm rush of blood to my cheeks. I'd missed spending time with people. The company I least expected to enjoy was the crown prince. We left the dreamlike river of fireflies. But when I closed my eyes, I found myself back at the manor, with my brother and mother that are worried sick.
"Sia? Where have you been! Father went to the town just to find you!" Brother Siu said and hugged me, even our mother cried.
"Nothing happened, I was just a little lost."
..And what I saw was Prince Theodosius, standing once more in the center of those ephemeral lights.