Chapter 17 (2/2)

That large body looked like it was somewhat stiff with tension.

“I’ll just say it with all honesty.”

His rigid shoulders shook. Ernst felt it was sad how even if he said just one word, the man would react so strongly to it.

“I really don’t understand what it means to love someone.”

Those reddish-brown eyes looked up at him intently. The head of the man sitting on the rug came up to the same height as Ernst’s shoulders while he sat on a chair. The Dunbertian truly was enormous.

“Since I had passed my days in that sort of position, I know very little about the feeling of love. Just what sort of emotion is it, to love someone?”

“Since Lord Ernst had been the Crown Prince, I understand that this makes you feel at a loss. Moreover… Lord Ernst is also a person of the Schell continent.”

Ernst looked down at the man.

“The people of Schell continent are long-lived, and you live twice as long as people like me, who are from Grude… That may be why. Compared to us, you contemplate things much more deeply.”

This was something Ernst had read in his literature. In that case, was what Ernst had been worrying over not a result of him losing his judgment, but a characteristic of the people who came from Schell?

“Then does that mean you’re faster at coming to a decision since you’re a Dunbertian?”

“Well, that may be it… but, that is more likely a result of how we often put ourselves in battle. We can lose our lives if we judge too slowly in battle. Moreover, since we might die at any time, we become faster at making decisions, I think.”

“Hmm. So that is how it is.”

“That is why, I myself was surprised.”

The man turned his gaze away, and he laughed somewhat shyly.

“Up until now, whenever the mood was right, I would sate my desires with someone. I did not feel that there was any partner I could not have, and my desires always turned toward the next person. All of the people of Grude were like this; this was normal to us… But this wasn’t how I felt when it came to Lord Ernst. In an instant, you had stolen my heart. No matter how many years had passed until now, these feelings never went away.”