With Elena's confused expression, Johan looked at her lips as she mouthed his given birth name. He likes the sound and gentleness of her voice and smiles before ultimately kissing her on the lips. Johan felt drunk from the sweet flavor of Elena's lips. It was like tasting a drop of rich and sweet wine after only a quick second of him giving in to temptation. Johan pushed his body away from Elena, seeing how the maiden in front of him seemed to be in need of time to pull herself together.
In a state of confusion, Elena did not even realize what had happened. She was certain their lips touched, but was the lingering warmth on her lips just her imagination? She couldn't tell. Heat from her body rushed in rapid speed to her head, she knew at that moment, she looked like a plump red tomato. Elena touched her lips, her eyes followed as the man pulled himself away from her, smiling in contentment.
As Johan smiled in mischief, he told her as he chuckled, "The princess is just so beautiful… I have forgotten where we were." Only after speaking his mind, he embarrassingly looked away. "Please eat," he offered and turned slightly to the direction of the campfire, catching a glimpse of the other knights sitting by the flame.
"Are you not going to eat?" she asked, following his gaze, trying to feign ignorance to what just occurred. Kissing her like that was truly a bold move. Who would blame her for pretending as if nothing happened? It was hard to pretend she was calm and composed, but she managed as she waited for a response.
"I will-- but, I want to make sure you eat first."
The man bent his knees, ready to sit on the unpaved ground. The man removed his dirty robe, placing it beside him and removed his chestplate afterwards for comfort.
"What are you doing? It's dirty there…"
Elena rose from her seat and grabbed the man's arms, tagging him unconsciously because she didn't want him to sit on the dirty ground. What did not occur to her was the man was trying to avoid being sensitive to her touch. Johan did not really care about where he would sit, it was no big deal.
The deal was-- the maiden seemed to be not conscious of him. Johan lifted himself up and chuckled in nervousness. How can he be so affected by the smallest of her gestures-- the princess was truly nice.
"Then, it's okay to sit by you?"
She nodded slowly and the man sat on the other side of the stairs. Elena followed suit, bringing the now cold soup onto her laps as she sat down. The man took the bread and broke it into two pieces. The food was not a lot-- it cannot even be called a meal, but she took the other half into her hand and sip onto the thick texture of the oath mindfully.
"As soon as we arrive at Credon, I'll have something more delicious for you to enjoy…"
The man bit onto his piece of bread. With only one bite, it was almost gone-- it looked inefficient for his huge build. In their current state, they all looked unprepared for another two day of journey to the south. The rainy season in Balero does not make their journey any easier nor safe as being in the mountain, their only shelter were trees, rock and some fabric.
"Unfortunately, the food stored in the earlier carriage was all we had… the inn we stayed at refused to give us food because we are not from Ibreotha."
"I should have done something… I'm sorry."
Elena placed the half eaten oats onto Johan's side, gesturing for him to take it. She suddenly felt guilty for being useless and pathetic. She could have helped them get food, if only she identified herself as Royalty. Yet, the fear that her father was monitoring her was greater than her not being able to eat. Johan quickly shook his head in disagreement.
"As your husband, it was my duty to provide."
"... but--"
The man took her hands and held it gently as he spoke, "The blame lies on me for being careless. It was my mistake for being narrow-sighted— putting you in danger as well as my knights."
The man spoke dutifully. Though she wanted to refute his claims, it would only appear as if she did not trust him and was trying to argue to hurt his pride. Pride is only what they have— the Knights of Saintsheild. There was no status of nobility they could boast about nor a territory they could claim as theirs.
Members of the Saintsheild Knighthood were refugees from their own kingdom, that was the common stories between these former mercenaries. There have been stories that a few of whom were orphans whose parents were killed during the wars between the four kingdoms-- Elena, out of curiosity, learned that Johan Antonov was a war survivor after his whole family was annihilated at the age of twelve.
"Is there a problem, Elinor?"