Alone with her things, Reinfrid waited a short while for Emris' penguin to return. It hadn't been long since Ashton dashed into the woods like a crazed lunatic to find Emris before she had gotten hurt.
Reinfrid still remembered the terrified look on her pale face; it could be described as the essence of fear. The memory was partly fuzzy because of his inattention to her as he glanced through the wooded area for Ashton.
He wondered to himself, gazing into the items that belonged to her. 'She ran with haste. For a short while, I swore that I saw a lifelessness in her eyes, but that couldn't be; this was the same Daughter of the Duke, the one who grew up with happiness.'
Reinfrid couldn't piece together the few parts he remembered but deemed it to be something simple that spooked her into running like a forest animal, so he believed that someone as capable as Ashton could protect her from danger.
Ceasing away his worry, a crushing of leaves caught his ear.
'Crunch, Crunch,' The cracked leaves breaking like chips under his feet. A soft, vibrant green leaf in hand, soaked in pristine crystal water, was held under such care and gentleness between Conan's flippers.
Instead of the scenery around him, he kept his beady eyes on the leaf meant to help Emris' aching muscles. After seeing her in a state of exhaustion, he hoped to help her as it was his responsibility to do so as her contractual guardian.
Those were the words he reminded himself of, but his thoughts were more oriented toward helping her.
'This should be enough to reduce the redness. When we return to the carriage, I'll use my alchemy to heal her. This leaf is her only remedy now, so I shouldn't drop it.'
Instead of the expected sight of Emris waiting for him in the spot she promised, he saw a strange knight holding her things in hand right where he saw her last. His golden eyes expanded, and his flippers that refused to let go of her remedy dropped it to the muddy ground.
'I-I don't…understand. I left her here, so why is she no longer…why? Did I make another mistake?'
In the peripheral of his vision, Reinfrid spotted a black dot. It wasn't until he fully turned his head that he saw a gloomy penguin emitting an almost touchable dark aura.
"Hey there, little guy, you must be Lady Fallow's pet." He bent on one knee and smiled. "Your owner will be back soon. She ran into the forest for an unknown reason, but Ashton went in after her to bring her back. It's only a matter of time now."
Reinfrid hadn't sugar-coated the truth of what he saw as he did not see the need to with a little penguin who he believed had no understanding of him.
Conan's mind went blank; his feet quaked the dirt beneath it; he thought back to how she offered to accompany him and how he refused her then. If only he hadn't taken long or had said yes instead of no, would she be in front of his eyes, safe and sound as she was then? Every 'what if' filled the vacant space of his mind.
Rational and logical thinking were long gone, and he gambled with magic again. Despite his ailing illness, Conan attempted to turn into his human form and run off to find her. The happy smile from Emris flashed through his sweating eyes. He desperately tried to focus, but his thoughts reverted to her.
Conan didn't think of the problems he would cause Emris if Reinfrid and Ashton discovered he was a Raccibia Spirit. He knew what it meant to reveal the truth for both him and Emris, but he could no longer wait.
Reinfrid saw the cold sweat drip to the ground and the trembling body of the petite penguin in front of him. He reached down to hold Conan in his arms until Conan's body tipped over and hit the ground.
He'd fallen into a seizure and found it hard to breathe or clearly see the stars above. The constraining pain that crushed his windpipe and lungs forced out tears and a little blood from his throat.
His body was stiff like cement; he couldn't feel his limbs, and then realized while he saw past the blurry vision of a gray-haired man twitching and tensing up gazing down at him, and concluded that he let Emris down, that he was as useless as he believed.
'I'm her guardian by contractual means, and yet I can't even protect her. I never thought that I would kill anyone again, not another innocent person. I'm as helpless as I was when I was a child; I ruined everything…once again.'
***
"Conan! Conan, where are you!?" Emris yelled from the top of her lungs, knowing he couldn't answer but still screaming out of desperation.
Emris pushed the unkempt branches of trees away while blistering her feet from the tight heels, running as fast as she could before her adrenaline rush disappeared. Her eyes rippled from the accumulation of tears, and the area between her brows folded.
Leaves stuck to her hair, and her feet swelled from the constant sprinting through the forest. Ultimately, she lost him and couldn't run any further, with her legs on the brink of snapping.
The lungs inside felt like they were gushing blood, and her breath came out in droves as if the wind had been knocked out inside. Emris forced herself to take another step, but her leg gave out, and she stumbled.
"…I can't give up! That man will kill Conan for sure! His knife was so pressed up to Conan's throat I can't remember whether he was bleeding or not. I must keep searching."
Emris pushed her mind and overexerted the strength of her feeble body. Another push forward led to her collapse; she fell to the floor, and her legs went stiff and numb, a sort of static feeling indicating they had fallen asleep.
The open area where she lay was incredibly dark and lonely when she knew no one was coming. Now more than ever, it felt like the area she had been trapped in during her past life.
"Get up, damn it! If I continue to lie here, that's more than a second lost. I need every single second if I'm going to save him in time, so please…" Her legs wobbled like a toddler taking their first steps, but she succeeded in standing.
'Huff, Puff,' her heavy, hoarse breath made her mouth dry and tasteless, yet she still attempted to advance further into the forest. Though it was straining, she tried for Conan.
***
A dark-colored cloak draped over his broad shoulders couldn't keep up with his fast-paced running. Ashton took long, careful breaths to keep away fatigue.
Glancing both at the ground for her steps and the path ahead, Ashton concentrated but also wondered why he hadn't caught up to her. He gripped his cold hands and chewed his cracked lips, mindlessly sprinting as fast as he could.
The night was eerie, and without light from the moon, Ashton's vision was reduced, so he couldn't follow her path as well as he wanted to. The passing of broken twigs from beneath her heels broke again under his feet, yet he was not met with a single unsnapped twig to alert him that she was close.
'How fast can a girl her size run? It's getting dangerous the further into the forest she gets; the darkness doesn't make the odds any better.'
Ashton rationalized the situation, hoping to get to her before the worst-case scenario came true. Emris came to mind when he closed his eyes briefly, the image of her fragile self that could break like glass sitting on the ground with glances of terror and dread.
Someone who trembled from a simple falling leaf ran into the forest; Ashton began thinking of all the reasons that prompted her to run. What's more, he disappeared quickly to go to her when he saw her fear eating her alive.
His absence and unawareness of what she looked like the few moments she was out of sight weighed on his mind. He made a mistake in his assigned task and lost the person who needed to be protected; he told himself, mistaking figures of trees for her at times of his frantic search.
Strangely, the image of her falsely smiling eyes with others and dismissive gaze, when faced with him, scrambled his thoughts and made his body heavy.
"…Lady Fallow, when will you appear in front of me?" He mumbled, holding back his huffing puff of breath.
'Sob…Sniffle, Sob,'
Abruptly, Ashton stopped, opening his mouth to gasp and take in the breath he had lost. His eyes shot when a figure different from a tree appeared a few feet away.
The figure was slim and curved like a woman; the long hair that covered its back flew up like a kite in the wind. Ashton realized immediately that the silhouette of the woman of 5' 3 with wavy hair cascading down in a spiral belonged to Emris.
He heard her distant cries and the pleading mumbles of her begging herself to keep going. Ashton's well-brushed hair sprouted in different directions from the wind, and scuff marks etched his face from the branches he failed to push away.
"…Lady Fallow!"
Caught searching in the endless darkness, it finally came to an end when the moonlit behind the clouds brightened his vision to see that far from him was the woman he was desperately searching for.
The tears dripped from her eyes, her arms and dress covered with the dirt from the spot she sat in. Her eyes widened when she met with the person she was least expecting, or any person at all when she believed she was all alone.
He was clearly staring at all the rough areas, conveying that she had gone through a hard time while running through the forest. Emris gripped her dress, hoping for one thing as she stared at the unfamiliar desperation sewn into Ashton's defining facial features.
'Could he help me find Conan before it's too late? His stamina is much better in every way, and his swordsmanship skills can guarantee Conan's life. I don't mind begging on my knees just as long as I find Conan. I don't care!'
"Your Majesty…! Please help me….I!" Her eyes rippled and glistened like two pools of divine water under the moonlight. Her face was one full of sadness, her mouth openly frowning, her nails ripping into her dress, and her brows fermented in the formation of worry.
For the first time, Ashton could see what she looked like without the filter of her smile but wasn't sure what he felt by it. Her faint voice yelled for him at the top of her lungs and broke in pitch; he approached her, lessening the distance.
'He's coming this way! Thank god, I'll be able to save Conan's life; hold on a little longer, Conan; I'm coming, I promise!'
Clasping her hands together, she felt the wave of relief crash over her, but it all came crumbling down into a horrible teasing lie when she was grabbed by her leg by a hand concealed in the darkness.
Ashton pushed away the bushes to get to her but was met with her teetering body plunging into the murky lake behind her.
"KYAAAA..!"
'Splash!' She fell quickly to the bottom, her dress soaking up the water to weigh her down to a shallow death. Her distance from the surface was lengthy, her vision blurry from the eerie depths.
On the surface, Ashton immediately rushed to her rescue, removed his coat, and dove into the lake to save her.
It felt like a hand of the grim reaper wrapped around her waist, dragging her to the bottom; Emris flailed her arms and kicked her legs, trying to reach the brighter side of the lake.
'This stupid dress is restricting my movements! It's dragging me down, for goodness sake! Why!? Out of everything that could have been behind me, it just had to be a lake! What cruelty, just let me live universe, what have I done that's deserving of a scrape from death?'
Emris' tears of pristine salty water differed from the murky water she was drowning in. Her long lashes curled from her shut eyes, and the dirt from her hands washed away in the water. Her throat tightened, the airway passage constricting from the duration she was plunged under.
'I want to live! I don't want to die! I worked so hard in my previous life, and this one to be happy and free, so give me my chance! Being stripped of life and chance is a death sentence in itself. After all the pain I've endured, just let me bear a real smile once.'
She reached out her hand, crying for a savior, for someone to save her from death's cold grasp. Her mind was rid of Ashton; all she could focus on was her lonely death in comparison to her lonely life.
'…It hurts so much…My body feels deprived of life. All I've ever wanted was to live like a person, a person who didn't always have to resort to lying and acting like a stringed puppet. I'm so…sick and tired…'
She lost consciousness, her hand mindless flowing in the water. Waves of another force reached her and palpitated the water around her. As she wished for her dying prayer, someone came for her hand and wrapped it in theirs.
It was Ashton who came to her rescue. He pulled her close, using his strength against her weighted dress. Staring into her pale face that differed from the blackness all around them, he knew he could not waste a single moment.
Holding her in his arms, he swam up. Though it gave him a headache from the speed of his swim, he held it in to break the surface and save Emris. Once he breached the murky water, he gasped for breath and paddled toward the shore, where he laid Emris on the grass.
Her breaths were undetectable when examining her. Emris was deprived of life from her skin and cold blue lips. Ashton gritted his teeth and sweated when she was unresponsive to his actions.
"Damn it, She's not breathing! She was under too long; I don't know when she began to lose consciousness. She'll die at this rate. …No, if she dies, my father won't let me hear the end of it, and she's a citizen of the Empire I've sworn to protect; I have to save her."
Ashton placed his locked hands on her chest and began chest compression to resuscitate her. Staring at her lack of movement and heartbeat, Ashton went frantic in trying to save her. He pressed her chest with the swiftest speed until the sweat dripped from his forehead.
'Cough!…Cough, Kelgh!' Emris coughed up the water she'd inhaled and gasped to fill her shriveled lungs. Her eyes radiated against her pale face; they beamed with life, and an impoverished color like gold fades when smeared with dust and debris.
'Am I alive? I feel nothing; my body's become numb because of the cold. I don't want to die after everything I've done to live, please!'
Emris' eyes expanded, soaking up the water of her tears. She stared up at the empty night sky without a single star and felt her heart swell up and throb erratically.
"Lady Fallow! What happened? How did you fall into the water?" Ashton wore a face that made Emris submit more to the belief of death. It was a face where his eyes were still stone cold like death, but his tone and bombardment of questions hinted at concern.
'He's doing it again; he's staring at me with his piercing eyes that make my soul shiver, but I can't pull away; his stare that makes me shiver gives me reassurance that I'm still alive.'
Her hands trembling, she reached out to grab his hand and hoist herself up. "Please help me up, Your Majesty. There is something I must tell you first."
Ashton complied with the weakness in her shaking voice, making him knit his brows to fold down his eyes and scrunch his nose.
"Thank you. …Your Majesty, please save my penguin's life. He's in danger, and I can't find him; I'm scared for his life." Ashton flinched. To him, the words Emris uttered were nonsense, as he knew the penguin was safe with Reinfrid.
He wanted to ask her what she was speaking of, but, "Lady Fallow, what are you saying? Your—"
"I'm begging you. If you want me to, I'll get on my knees and say what you want me to just…save him, and you have my word." Emris' body slumped forward, her drying yet damp hair sticking to her arms.
"Lady Fallow!" He captured her attention, waiting for her eyes to be locked to his. "Your penguin is safe. It's not in any danger. I've assigned my personal knight to wait for it. Did you believe your pet was in danger and ran into the forest to save him?"
Ashton didn't receive a prompt response as Emris felt her soul shudder and the area around her darken into a state of dread. She felt like bugs had crawled underneath her skin and chewed away at her stomach.
Utter horror inhabited her body when she came to the sense of everything before.
'I didn't fall in; no, I was pulled in by something that grasped my foot, I remember! This was an elaborate trap to make me believe that Conan had been taken so I could be lured to the forest to my doom. Being trapped in this godforsaken world made me forget about the potential killers I might meet in the future. Someone wants to kill me!'
Emris scrunched handfuls of hair in her sharp grasp, sinking her nails to the point they could've cut through her skull. Her face lost color, more than it had when she fell into the lake. Every colorful thing on her body paled and faded to an almost white color.
She bit her lips until blood was released; it dripped into her mouth and onto her dress. All her hope left her body for a single moment, and she felt a sign of weakness in the little wish of death she buried in the back of her mind.
Not a single drop of warmth ran through her veins, not even in her blood, which felt as cold as a glacier. Her clothes and hair were drenched in water, dripped on the dirt, and sometimes carried away in the wind.
Emris shook with utter terror that she couldn't just swallow as it was toxic and would kill her to do so.
A warm, dry sweater untouched by the murky water was wrapped around her, entirely consuming her body as intended for a man. Ashton checked that it was around her as much as possible to provide warmth and prevent a cold.
The hands that hung in the air were pulled toward him and exhaled by the heat of his breath. Her hands in his felt toasty and rejuvenating to her anxious thoughts. He rubbed her hands and sat near her as if to tell her that he was by her side, but of course, such a thought to Emris felt implausible.
Had it not been for his frightening stare, she possibly would have fallen in love with him right at this moment. Emris didn't have the reluctance to pull away her hands, so she remained loose and accepted his help.
'I forgot that Ashton can see me cry. No, what's more…I didn't think he would spare a glance for me or save me when I fell into the water. He fell into the same water as me, but his hands were somehow warmer.'
Emris choked on her hiccuping breath, holding back tears that would make Ashton suspect her as someone with deep pain and loneliness. She was afraid he would blame her for falling and had no right to her tears.
'Stop crying. It's fine now; you're alive, so stop your tears. It's okay, It's okay… I'm fine.'
Emris clenched her eyes and furrowed her brows, causing only a headache to pound on her hollow skull.
"Don't do that," Ashton spoke, more focused on warming her hands but still giving her a fragment of hope she had lost when she fell.
"You went through a near-death experience; to cry for something like that is completely normal, so you don't need to force yourself like an idiot. If you're uncomfortable with my presence, I can turn away; it doesn't matter much to me, so…relax."
Ashton veered his eyes off in another direction opposite of Emris, knowing that his eyes would cause her agitation. Emris' eyes remained with their spark for life when two glassy tears fell from both of her gemstone eyes.
In her thawed hands, she buried her weary eyes and defeated whimpers, feeling immensely the desire to fall into slumber.
Ashton hadn't seen a single person cry in front of him; though he encouraged her to shed tears, he himself was unsure of what he could do. He reached out as his only known option and pulled her into a stiffening half embrace.
One hand was placed on her shoulder while the other clasped onto it. Ashton's hands held strands of her satin-like hair intertwined in his fingers. It felt awkward for both sides as Emris tried to process being in his arms, and Ashton tried to lose himself in his mind while he offered Emris solace.
'Is this…supposed to be an attempt to comfort me? Of all people, he was the last person I'd expect to care about anyone's feelings. From how his arms are stiff like poles, I can tell he's new at this, but even so, the thought he had for me is as comforting enough as his clumsy hug.'
Emris sighed and closed her eyes, relief coming to her heart and mind, believing her experience was an out-of-body experience.
Her under-eye lines swelled, becoming puffy and squishy not only from her tears but also from the tension of her response to danger that sucked the energy out of her.
***
Emris, after 10 minutes, was able to muster a soft expression, though her eyes turned puffy and pink. She wiped the runs of her nose with a quick swipe of the handkerchief belonging to Ashton.
"…Thank you for coming to my rescue, Your Majesty. I apologize for all the trouble I've caused you." Emris sat on the floor, her head drooped down, and Ashton's lengthy cloak hung from her thin shoulders and collarbone, spread past her laid dress, touching the dirt and consuming her light-colored dress.
"Such a stupid thing to apologize to me for. You say you hate me and do all sorts of disrespectful things, yet you apologize for something of little importance. Stick to your hateful stance toward me, and don't apologize." Sounding like a lecture, his words disguised the reality of his efforts to keep her at ease. He leaned his body forward and extended his bare hand to help her off the filthy floor.
"Come up off the floor now; the dirt will stain your skin and clothes more with water. It's unclean and will cause sickness; take my hand and get up carefully."
Emris stared less into his eyes and heavily into the emotion behind him and his actions that brought light to the dark forest around them. Like a dazed robot, she instinctively clutched his hand firmly.
Her frown smoothed over, and in its place, a mellow look of gratitude lit up her dim eyes. Ashton's eyes became caught on the faint spark, finding it hard to believe that the gaze of hatred from her could be like this.
'…After all that time of blowing heat onto her hands, they still feel like ice.'
He distracted himself from the woman standing before him, who differed from the woman who glared and treated him like a speck of dirt. His observation of her from before changed again, reopening with new puzzle pieces he must piece together.
"Since you say my penguin is back safe and sound with your personal knight, I'd like to hurry and get there to see him for myself. Let's go, Your Majesty." Emris released her ice-cold hands from his hands, striding eagerly to see if Conan was really okay like Ashton had claimed.
"Hold it." Emris abruptly came to a stop, flipping her head over her shoulder, her eyebrows heightened and her eyes widening.
"What is it?" Hastily, Ashton scooped her up off the floor with no effort. "Ahh! Your Majesty!? Wh-What are you doing!?"
"Did you think you could walk this entire forest with your feeble legs in heels? Besides, you'll slow us down if you trip and twist your leg on one of these large pebbles. I'm only speeding up the process where you end up in my arms from injuring yourself." Ashton clasped the cloak around her body to keep her as warm as he could while walking fast to get to her penguin as she wished.
Somehow, to Emris, it felt like a backhanded insult from Ashton, who, in a sense, claimed that she was weak. Emris sighed and went along with it, lifting her arms to Ashton's neck and holding him to support herself.
Ashton flinched at her delicate touch, tensing around his neck and arms as it was his first time carrying anyone. He brushed it off when he noticed the cloak falling from her waist to keep it wrapped around her.
***
"Conan!" Emris hollered, both of them jumping from Ashton and Reinfrid's arms. Emris ran, getting to him first and raising him in her arms.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry that I left you alone! I'm grateful you're okay; it really is lucky you're in my arms right now." Emris squeezed him, fusing him to her trembling body and nuzzling her cheeks to his feathers.
'You….you came back. I'm such a failure, and yet, instead of punishing me, you hug me like this; you really know nothing. You are just as foolish as I thought you were!' Conan clenched his eyes till the creases of his eyelids quivered. He crushed her sleeves in his flippers and frowned.
"Thank you for looking after him, Sir—um. Pardon my manners, but who are you?"
"Ah, my apologies, I've forgotten to introduce myself to you, My Lady. "Reinfrid bowed his head, placing one hand behind his back and the other on his chest. "My name is Reinfrid De Pellard; I am the personal knight of His Majesty and the second son of house De Pellard."
"It's a pleasure, Sir Reinfrid. I am much more honored to meet you since you guarded the life of my penguin while I was away shortly; you have my thanks." Emris smiled, sniffling a bit from her runny nose because of her cries from earlier.
Reinfrid smiled sincerely, his eyes squinting from his broad smile. "Of course, Lady Fallow, but your thanks should not be given to me but to His Majesty, who ordered me to watch your penguin."
'He's being so obvious; I can already tell from his slick demeanor that he wants me to become more attached to Ashton and like him for his consideration of me.'
"Is that so? Well then, thank you, Your Majesty." Emris flipped over in a flash, bowing her head before she could catch his shrilling demonic gaze. She played along with the scheme because deep down, she couldn't bring herself to admit that she acknowledged his considerate side.
"I accept your gratitude, Lady Fallow. Reinfrid and I will escort you home."
"…What?" Emris awkwardly smiled, her smile contorted, and her eyes squinted shut. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I must be losing my hearing as I just heard that you will escort me home."
"Yes, that's exactly what I said; I don't see why you're so shocked. Let's head to the carriage; otherwise, you'll catch a cold from the wind."
'How could I not be shocked when the Emperor who causes fear into the hearts of many is escorting me home.'
"..Alright," Emris showed the way to her carriage, shivering too much from the cold to take any spare time to process her thoughts of Ashton's actions.
The horseman worriedly fidgeted, feeling his excessive imagination fester in his stomach. Emris finally returned, not alone as he was expecting but with a person who could create hail storms from his glacier-full eyes.
Rapidly, the horseman checked her condition and ensured she was alright. All the while, Ashton stared at him chillingly enough to pierce through his skin and bones.
"T-Thank goo-goodness you're al-right, My Lady. I'll take you h-home right away…" He ran straight to the top of the carriage, grabbing the lead of the horses, trying hard to evade the frightening gaze of someone who resembled a predator.
Emris entered the carriage, hoping Ashton would get in quickly since his presence scared the driver. Conan sat in Emris' lap and dazed off while looking at her stare out to the trees from the window.
'I should have known all along that there would be people who wanted me dead. I'm basically the heroine of this world, so how could I have thought I would be left untouched? I'm such a fool…'
Emris hypnotically stroked Conan's feathers, keeping a melancholy gaze reflected from the glare of the lights inside the carriage on the window.
Ashton stepped forward, rising a few inches to meet the woman he had just saved, becoming stuck in a hollow state. His resolve to sit on the opposite side of her dissolved, and he sat beside her, purposefully making it known so she would leave her empty expression behind.
"Your Majesty? Why are you sitting next to me?" His plan worked, and she broke away from her thoughts; her mouth gaped open, and her eyes were stunned.
"Am I not allowed? This seat was vacant; moreover, it would have been a waste had I sat over there as we were both still a bit wet and would have gotten both sides wet for no good reason." His reasoning came off the top of his head, coming out naturally as if he himself had believed that to be the reason.
Emris didn't have the scope to see through his words, so she believed his logic that wasn't actually true. "…Right, you make a good point. Then please don't mind me."
With Reinfrid on the opposite side of them, the carriage ride to Moon Hollow began, and through the two hours, silence only crept in. Emris had daydreamed for a bit, staring off into the sights through the window but accidentally locking her dreamy eyes with Ashton instead.
She gasped and turned away, covering her mouth with her palm. 'Oops! I made a mistake. Hopefully, it wasn't something he fully noticed.'
'… Ashton's been acting out of character today. For what reason did he have to be so kind to me? …Wait…no, Ashton's not kind. He couldn't possibly be, not with those soulless eyes; there's no way.' Emris' image of Ashton became distorted with the past vision of the eyes that always met her in the darkness.
Her arms and legs were chained to the wall; she was always met with the same gruesome pair of eyes before the pain that would last the night started. Such eyes branded her and kept her from fully being able to leave the room even if the door had been left unlocked and her chains undone.
Emris covered herself with Ashton's coat, coldly sweating while swallowing her occupying saliva. The events of today, mixed with her breakdown from before, drained the energy of her mind and body to the point she dozed off the moment she shut her eyes.
The road became bumpy the further they traveled; hitting a large pebble, the carriage jumped, toppling Emris' unbalanced head onto Ashton's dense shoulder. Ashton watched her, a tad startled by her sudden touch.
His sight of her brought a wave of drowsiness that kept him from glancing away.
"Oh, would you like me to remove her from your shoulder, Your Majesty? I can do so right away." Reinfrid readied his forward position, his hands hovering close to Emris.
Ashton pushed his hand aside, keeping his eyes glued to Emris, and his head nodded down to have his chin an inch apart from her head. "Leave her be; it doesn't bother me in the slightest."
Reinfrid froze, hardening into a statue, after hearing a response from Ashton, who never liked coming into contact with people. Though he knew Ashton was a kind and caring person, Reinfrid didn't think he would ever show this much care for anyone ever since their childhood.
'Lady Fallow, what kind of person are you to have broken through the barriers that not even his father could surpass? Could she have put a spell on him?!' Reinfrid stroked his chin, tilting his head up for his eyes to focus on Ashton and Emris. 'No, she'd be dead before casting the spell. Anyway, he doesn't seem to love her, but rather, he looks like he desires her safety above all.'
Ashton rested his eyes after realizing how tired he was from viewing Emris. He lied to himself and dozed off, his head plopping down near Emris. Reinfrid and Conan took a long while to peer at them, not knowing fully the nature of their relationship.
'As long as she brings comfort to Ashton, I don't care what she is to him. It's been far too long since he's ever let his guard down in front of anyone like this.'
The carriage again became silent until the rest of the ride to Moon Hollow.