Chapter 73

The door swung open roughly. Keith, who had been lying on the couch in boredom, and Enoch, who had been carefully organizing notes and letters in the study, both ran outside at the same time.

Laila stepped through the front door, throwing down a large frame as big as her upper body onto the floor and nearly dragging Florence by the collar before throwing her too. Florence curled up on the floor, unable even to groan.

“Who told you to run out on your own!”

“Ugh… that hurt…”

“If you did that because you trusted me to help you…”

“When did I ever ask you for help?”

Florence, still recovering from the shock of being thrown, looked at Laila.

“I knew you wouldn’t help. That’s why I handled it myself.”

“If that man hadn’t let his guard down, you’d be dead, you know that?”

Laila was furious, but Florence wasn’t scared. She calmly answered.

“I know. But I also knew Father would definitely let his guard down against me. I was always his weak and foolish daughter, after all.”

“Don’t call yourself foolish, you fool.”

“You’re calling me a fool too, you know.”

“…”

“You’re the one who taught me that no matter how strong someone is, you can win if you catch them off guard, Laila.”

Enoch, who was listening to the conversation, spoke up.

“Wait, what did you just say…?”

“The Marquis Seymour came to the villa. He had set up an alarm spell, knowing Florence would show up.”

“…A sneaky fox. I should’ve guessed.”

“I was going to sneak out quietly, but this brat shook me off and ran.”

“…Florence…”

Enoch’s sharp gaze turned to Florence. She quickly patted her shoulders, chest, legs, and arms, trying to explain herself.

“I’m not hurt! I’m fine. And look at this.”

Florence pulled a small box, the size of her palm, from her coat and smiled brightly like a child.

“It’s Grandmother’s heirloom. I took it back.”

“That was yours from the start. You didn’t steal it, you reclaimed it.”

Enoch calmly corrected her. Florence blinked a couple of times and mumbled softly, “You’re right…” Enoch frowned deeply. Every time he took his eyes off her, this was what happened. He wondered what kind of things the Marquis had said to make her this way again.

Florence was anything but fine. Her brown hair was a mess, and there were scratches on her cheeks. Enoch signaled to Keith, who stepped forward and grabbed Florence’s arm.

A soft green light healed her skin completely. Florence said,

“I knew what would happen even if Laila didn’t help me. And I didn’t think I’d get another chance if I missed Father.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You lost your mind the moment he threatened to burn your grandmother’s villa down.”

“That’s true… but it was also a rare chance. I couldn’t waste it.”

If the Marquis had had it from the beginning, then Keith’s father had truly died a meaningless death. Grace had killed someone just because she couldn’t get a single box from the father she loved.

This wasn’t just Grandmother’s heirloom. It was the reason Keith’s father had died. Florence couldn’t possibly leave it behind.

“You faced the Marquis Seymour without Laila’s help? You?”

Keith was impressed despite himself. Florence nodded proudly.

“I fought him with magic!”

“Don’t bluff. You just rammed him like an idiot to knock him down and zapped him with a little lightning. Then you grabbed the sealed box and ran.”

Laila cut in sharply. Enoch and Keith both thought, of course—Laila had taught Florence how to fight like a street brawler—but they didn’t say it out loud.

Florence pouted.

“Still, I did it, so can’t you praise me a little?”

“If you were going to lure him into letting his guard down, you should’ve at least stabbed him in the stomach while you were at it.”

“…I didn’t have a knife…”

“You idiot. You could’ve wrapped a fireball around your fist and burned him. That’s what he tried to do to you.”

“…”

Laila was silent for a beat before continuing.

“Still, you did well. You weren’t fast, but you moved boldly. The training paid off.”

It was the first time Florence had ever been praised.

“If you’d wanted me to help, I would’ve left you there, but handling him alone wasn’t bad. I’ll even give you points for actually having a plan.”

“…Okay…”

So she really had thought of abandoning her. Florence nodded with a slightly bitter expression. Enoch asked,

“So what about the Marquis Seymour?”

“I left him at the villa. I asked the spirit to erase our tracks…”

“We’ve set up a barrier around this house, so when he leaves, we’ll move too.”

Laila ended the conversation firmly. Enoch and Keith exchanged glances and sighed.

“She doesn’t give us a chance to step in.”

“She’s a tyrant.”

Ignoring their complaints, Laila said she’d check the perimeter. Florence started to follow her but stopped at Laila’s stern glare.

“Don’t move from inside the house until I say you can. This is also training.”

“…What am I, a dog? Are you giving me a ‘stay’ command…?”

“You’re worse than a dog right now. Even dogs learn to ‘wait’ after a month of training.”

And then she vanished. Florence stood still for a moment.

Enoch could read the complicated feelings on her face. Her grandmother was Florence’s weakest spot. Florence always said, She’s the one who gave me my name. I really love my name. She called me her beautiful flower. She loved me…

Florence missed her grandmother. If she were here, she could ask her to scold Laila for her. Her grandmother would know how cheeky Laila was.

Enoch only knew her grandmother through Florence’s words. No other member of the Seymour family ever mentioned her. Still, he was grateful there had been someone who truly loved Florence.

“Florence—”

“Are you crazy? Charging in alone like that?”

Keith exploded in anger. Florence erased her complicated expression in an instant and looked at him with slight boredom.

“I told you I calculated everything.”

“You think you’re some kind of math genius? Or a prophet? You can’t know what’ll happen. You should’ve just run away!”

“Wow, this from the guy who told me to just charge in before…”

“When did I—hey, Enoch, back me up!”

Keith glanced at Enoch. Florence scoffed.

“We’re about to do the most reckless thing in the world, and you think I’d be scared by something like this?”

“…”

“I’m fine, Enoch.”

Enoch realized too late that his own expression must have looked more troubled than Florence’s. She placed her hand on his arm, patting it gently as if to soothe him.

“It didn’t bother me. I wasn’t hurt. He just felt like a stranger. Honestly, he is a stranger. Haha. We’ve never even had a long conversation before.”

“…Don’t laugh. It’s ugly.”

“Wow, that’s the old Enoch I remember…”

Florence laughed as if she were about to cry. Enoch couldn’t say anything.

When Keith came out of the bath, Florence was sitting blankly by the window.

Something’s bothering her, definitely.

Laila hadn’t said anything, and neither had Florence. Keith thought about telling his cousin that Florence was alone but then met her eyes.

“What are you doing there?”

Now that their eyes had met, it would be weird to leave without saying anything. Keith walked over and asked.

“Just thinking.”

“You think too much.”

“I know, you’re telling me to stop thinking so much. But it’s not that easy.”

“You know what’s most important for a mage? Meditation. If you don’t do it, your head will explode.”

“…Wow, you actually sounded like a real mage for once.”

Keith, who didn’t brag, was actually a 7th-class mage. Florence looked at him with genuine admiration.

“Did something happen? Enoch was worried.”

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

Florence answered casually but then closed her mouth when she saw Keith’s eyes—he clearly didn’t believe her. She didn’t even understand her own feelings. Nothing new had happened. She had just confirmed what she had always known.

As she had told Enoch, she wasn’t afraid of her father anymore. He felt like a stranger. Without her longing for his love, he was simply someone who had hurt and pushed her away—a stranger.

“When I was little, Keith…”

“When you were little? When? You’re younger than fifteen, younger than twelve…”

“Before Grandmother passed away… so when I was seven.”

“That’s the cutest age.”

“Grandmother said she took me in shortly after I was born. After Mother died, everyone was too overwhelmed to care for me…”

“They weren’t going to feed you themselves anyway. Hey, that’s all just an excuse.”

“So I lived here with Grandmother until I was three. I don’t really remember it, though.”

“That’s normal. My memories before six are fuzzy too. And no, I never had amnesia.”

“…Was I a bad child back then?”

“…”

“Maybe I wasn’t cute enough, or I was too stubborn, too temperamental…”

“…”

“Did Grandmother not love me?”

Florence didn’t think there had been no love at all.

Raising a baby was hard, troublesome work. Surely Grandmother had loved her at least a little. She had ordered a nanny to care for her, but she had taken in her son’s child and must have held and checked on her often.

But that was only for her son’s sake. Because she was a piece of him.

That meant nothing to Florence.

She kept wondering if she had done something wrong as a child here in Dagrave, something she couldn’t remember.

Keith grabbed Florence’s shoulders and turned her toward him. She wanted to apologize for her whining, but Keith cupped her face in both hands, stopping her from speaking.

“Keith?”

“I saw you when you were seven.”

“Oh, right. You said you did.”

“You were sitting quietly beside your dying grandmother. You didn’t make a sound, didn’t act stubborn, you just sat there, tears streaming down your face in a daze.”

“…”

“During the funeral, you acted so mature, never threw a tantrum. You were just a child crying because you were sad you lost her. Your father pitied you, and everyone said they were worried about you. They also said how much your late grandmother worried about her granddaughter until the very end…”

Florence looked up at Keith. Her eyes were now full of tears.

“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact…”

“…Ugh.”

“You were such a, such a lovable child.”

“Hngh…”

Florence shut her eyes tightly and forced the tears out. She clung tightly to Keith’s hands, which were holding her cheeks.

Why did this idiot cry so painfully? Keith clicked his tongue. She had had so many reasons to cry, but Florence cried clumsily, like she was squeezing her heart out. Showing tears seemed harder for her than bleeding.

It hurt the hearts of those who saw it. Without thinking, Keith brought his lips to Florence’s tear-streaked eyes. Her tears were salty. Florence, who had burst into sobs, didn’t even realize what had touched her. She just clung to Keith’s hands.

Keith’s lips moved from her eyes to her cheeks and stopped near her thumb.

Their eyes met.

In those watery blue eyes, there was no rejection or disgust. Keith kissed her lips.

The sound of footsteps at the edge of their long shadows faded away.