Chapter 1320 (2/2)

So he had run away. And now he stood in a moonlit meadow. More moss spirits drifted curiously downward, ringing their intimate silence.

“...so you…” Mareen blinked and twisted. She looked around at the surrounding area, to the grassy slope and the distance line of birch trees behind the ballroom, and then her gaze came back to Naffur. “...you’re a big drinker these days?”

“What? Oh, no, I… there were just two left on the plate, so…” Naffur mumbled as he lifted the flutes uncertainly.

Mareen giggled and something in the silence between them cracked. Naffur was able to chuckle at himself and shrugged. Their eyes met again and both held more warmth in their looks.

Then Mareen spun on her heel and looked away from Naffur, standing with her back to him. “It’s… it’s probably weird right? We were... just friends and I sent you that crazy message out of the blue… I guess… I just was thinking of you and…”

Naffur looked at the curve of her neck. She was wearing a light blue dress with a skirt that flared outward with white accents. His mouth was extremely dry. “I…”

I’m the acting head of the Order Ducis… so why is this so hard…?

And strangely, as Mareen’s nervous words faded into silence and Naffur stared at her back, something clicked inside his head. Suddenly he could see why Randidly Ghosthound never took a break. Why he pushed himself to bleed in every training session and threw himself toward danger at every opportunity. Why the people that Randidly had slowly drawn into his orbit, even Naffur himself, seemed to catch that urgency that they couldn’t shake.

Because this sense of helplessness felt like a wound on Naffur’s soul. Any sort of training would be worth it in order to avoid feeling this ever again. It was the sound of air and light vanishing down that hole in Naffur’s heart, disappearing forever.

Gritting his teeth, Naffur took several steps forward as the moss spirits began to drift even closer. When had so many appeared...? “Mareen-!”

“Yes?” She spun around to quickly that she seemed to have been jolted by the sound his voice. They were only a meter away from each other, and Naffur was abruptly aware of the swirling whirlpool of moss spirits that had gathered. Their emerald light played off the soft edge of Mareen’s cheekbones in a way that made him unable to look away.

She was the prettiest thing Naffur had ever seen and his nerve deserted him like nightmares before the cleansing power of sunlight. “Ah… would you... like a drink?”

He offered her the flute that he hadn’t drunk from. Mareen smiled in a regretful way, but she nodded. “...yea, I’d like that.” She took the glass and that helplessness had once more seized Naffur’s heart with its cold and bony fingers. Yet he couldn’t-

“I really liked the flower you got me, by the way,” She breathed it out softly and her shoulders slumped as her face turned down to the glass she had taken from him. “I’d waited for something like that for a long time.”

And that was the opening that Naffur’s wounded heart needed to finally shudder and reveal itself. “...then why did you return it?”

Mareen blinked. Then she sucked in a breath as if she realized something. She brought her hand up to her chest… and suddenly she was looking at Naffur with a sour expression. “You… have you been acting so distant because you thought that I didn’t like the gift you gave me?”

“I… well no. But you-” Naffur shook his head wildly. “You just always talked about those flowers so- I figured maybe because it was me that gave it-”

“Naffur, the one I returned was one I had bought myself that morning. Because it was the perfect gift. It was… what I had wanted for a long time. From you. I loved it. And I thought-”

They were both leaning toward each other and Mareen’s words skittered to a stop. Blushing, she looked to the ground. And as Naffur teetered on the uncertain edge of his feelings, he felt a warm hand press against his back.

He took a half step forward and Mareen looked sharply upward at the same moment. Their lips met.

Their front teeth knocked against each other with a jarring solidity.

Naffur sprung back, horrified. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t-”

“I guess that’s for making me wait a year,” Mareen giggled. Then she stepped forward and put her arms around his neck. “And this is for giving me exactly the gift I wanted… with one year’s worth of interest.”

They kissed again. Very pleased with themselves, the moss spirits swirled even more tightly around the couple.