After some uncomfortable dinner with Sir Lucio and Hugh, the night deepens and no sound was uttered in the meantime.
It was suffocating and it felt like walking on thin ice. It was ridiculous how such an atmosphere was made after the guest left. It also didn't help that he's beside her washing the dishes.
Did something happen?
Leticia was close to asking the question as the stillness was creeping in and making her nervous.
'Did Sir Lucio say something while I was cooking?'
She didn't know. She tried to recall when the atmosphere changed and was pretty sure that they we're still having a fun chat when they were eating with Sir Lucio. It was just after she brought the dessert that Sir Lucio gave to her that the ambience changed and the lit room became cold.
'I can't with this silence…'
As the water splashed and wet the surface of the platers, Leticia had enough and asked the question that was bugging her.
"What happened?"
There was no answer that came from the man as it seemed his head was flying and was not in the same space with her.
"Hey… Hugh?!"
"Oh… what is it? Did you say something?" It was only after Leticia tapped his shoulder that his mind came back to reality. The look of bewilderment made Leticia stare into his dark eyes. It was evident that his thoughts were not with her.
"Did something happen between you and Sir Lucio? Did he say something mean?"
"Why do you think that?" He looked at her with questioning eyes that seemed to be asking how it came into that conclusion and so, Leticia answered. "It's because the moment I came back from getting the dessert the two of you had an atmosphere that I can't even intervene." Leticia presumed to wipe the wet plates as she waited for his reply.
"It's nothing…"
"Really?"
"Yes…"
"Then why have you looked so gloomy since earlier?"
"...I don't know what you're talking about."
The short response was enough for Leticia to drop the prying and just give her opinion to make him understand that Sir Lucio was just worried about her.
"If Sir Lucio said something offensive because of me, it's just because he's worried. It seems that I reminded him of his dead daughter. That was why he's kind of protective when it comes to the ladies the same age as his daughter."
"He had a daughter?"
"Yes… despite his looks he is twenty years older than me." She then reminded herself of how he looked earlier with a beard shaved. He didn't look married at all.
"I see…"
Leticia was quite surprised to see that Hugh seems to have interest in Sir Lucio's background and when he heard about his past the darkness that was surrounding him vanished in an instant. So she decided to let it go and proceeded to finish the work at hand.
When the kitchen was cleaned, Hugh and Leticia relaxed in the living room where the fireplace was lit and was giving warmth and light to the place. She started to embroider like always and minded her business and as usual Hugh was intently looking at her.
"Is there something on my face?" She couldn't help but ask as the situation was happening for a while and she was bothered as to why he was doing it and not just talk to her like a normal person.
"If you have something to say, you should tell me."
"Am I that obvious?" Hugh responded as he leaned back at the sofa while he looked away as if the embarrassment just sinks in.
"What? You didn't know that for the past few days I could feel your gaze burning through my back?" Leticia giggled and was still focused on stitching, ignoring how embarrassed he was.
"Just tell me what you want to say. I wouldn't know what it is unless you tell me and besides it bothers me that you're following my every move." Leticia continued with a stern voice.
She wanted to ignore how he was observing her but in the end she could not tolerate it. Leticia knew that it would be better if she just confronted him and asked what he wanted to know because they're going to see each other for a while as long as Hugh is recuperating in her house.
"So, what do you want to say?" Leticia urged him again and stopped her hands from embroidering and stared in his direction.
"Ahem… I apologize if I was rude. It's just I was curious…"
"Curious? To what?"
"It's just that I feel calm whenever you're nearby. By the way, I have a favor… Can I touch you, Leticia?"
Leticia who was staring at him slowly blinked her eyes like a butterfly flapping its wings. She doesn't know if what she heard really came from this stern looking handsome man.
'Did he really say he wants to touch me?' She was wondering if her ears were fooling her and she took a good look at him again.
"I'm sorry I didn't catch what you said. My ears are fooling me… I must be sleepy…"
"Can I touch you?"
This time, Hugh said it as he stared straight into her eyes.
"You want to touch me?"
He nodded as affirmation. Leticia was taken aback that he had the look of determination plastered in his face. Her face heated and the thought of a handsome man asking to touch her. Her dirty mind works wonders then awkwardly laughs when she thought that a man like his caliber would have a different meaning to his words.
"Ha-haha… where do you want to touch?"
Then Leticia remembered that the man in front of her had a tendency to not tell what he really means and take out words that would explain the whole situation.
"Anywhere…"
Leticia almost choked on her own saliva when she heard his response. It was dangerous to see a man as handsome as him to ask her if he could touch. It's a foul play.
She was speechless for a while. As the night deepens and the only thing playing on her mind was the words "anywhere" repeating like an enchantment with a deep manly voice coming from the man staring at her, Leticia was having chills.
She held her hand up in the air as she sighed. It was also an indication to herself that she needs time to purify the swirling thoughts that were on her mind while she massages her temple.
'I don't need to take his words at face value… this man is quite awkward sometimes…'
Leticia watched him wait for her answer and decided to clarify what he meant.
'Maybe he wants to touch my hand or something…'
"Leticia…?"
"Oh right… you want to touch me… But why?"
"I was just curious…I feel refreshed whenever you're nearby so, I thought, maybe, if I could have a close interaction with you I will feel something and I could explain what this is..." Hugh tried his best to tell his reason as to why he made the request.
Leticia watched him bite his lips while looking troubled. Hugh knew that what he was saying was ridiculous.
"Haa…" She sighed again. Leticia doesn't know what Hugh was trying to do for asking such a thing. She extended her hand to him which made Hugh lookup, shocked.
"If it's just my fingers then I guess I'm okay with it."
"Is it really okay? I know I'm being rude so…"
"Ha-haha… You know that you're being rude but still decided to ask for it then it means you have a reason for it, right?"
But it looks like he could not tell her.
Leticia looked at Hugh as she beckoned him to touch her fingers. "I'll grant you this favor since you really seem like you're bothered by what you're feeling."
Hugh slowly approached her hand and touched her fingers. He immediately felt the coolness like what he just experienced when Leticia personally changed his bondage.
The hotness that he experiences since he has a lot of familiars binded in his soul quickly subside like a waterflow that was cooled in a stream.
"You're so warm…"
Their eyes meet each other as Leticia comments on the touch that brushes past her fingers. It was a gentle touch but enough for her to experience the warmth that came from Hugh.
She then looked at his hand and saw a black marks imprinted in his wrist.
"You know… I saw it before but is that a tattoo?"
"A tattoo?"
Hugh was bewildered by the words that he heard for the first time. Leticia also noticed that her chosen word was not something that was familiar and new to the people in this world so she quickly changed it.
"...I mean that… that black marking on your wrist. I also see it on your back and your shoulder."
Leticia was reminded again that the world that she is in now was not the world that she once knew.
"... Do you not know what this is?"
Leticia tilted her head.
'Is that something like common knowledge?' Leticia asked herself.
Hugh, who was staring at her innocent face, told him that she really had no clue about the markings that people with noble blood are so proud of.
'But that bulky man knew it when he saw my wrist… that's why he asked if I came from a fallen noble house.' Hugh thought.
The markings only manifested with noble blood as their blood was passed down from their ancestors that built the Otis Kingdom with magic and familiars.
'Although nowadays the markings just indicate that they have noble blood because they have insufficient magic and can't call the familiar that comes from their blood which had thinned out in each generation…'