Episode 211
Nora wanted to take Elisha to her mansion, but Elisha shook her head. To get her emotions under control, she wanted to walk alone.
She looked at the sky She can't believe it, but she has a family today.
Maybe her world has more secrets than she thought. It would be a pity if she died without knowing those secrets……. Lucerne said something absurd.
'That means I loved you the same way in my previous life.'
Elisha just didn't want to believe her words. What the hell is he missing?
To Lucerne in her previous life, the ducal family was like seawater. No matter how much I drink, I am thirsty. So it was power and legitimacy that could not be completely possessed.
And to Elisha, Lucerne was such an existence. If you approach it, you will surely be destroyed, but it's like a temptation that you can't stop going to.
'I've been really shaken up in this life too.'
The moment I found a hydrangea in a drawer in Lucerne……. Really back then. She almost gave him everything.
He must have had a plan to run away as the next best thing. However, if they had confirmed their hearts to each other at that time, then that plan would have been scrapped as well.
Yes, a heart that can live on a single flower. That's how Elisha became light in front of him. Like a single autumn flower that can be easily plucked.
Lucerne asked me before. Have you ever been shaken by me during her marriage?
'I bet you didn't know what that single flower meant.'
If the man of the Cartier family had delicate feelings, he would have already been ruined without reaching this point. They were a cold-blooded, serpentine clan that knew no feelings of that kind.
'But it doesn't matter now.'
If Lucerne really wants her and loves her.
She thought that since neither Elisha nor she was perfect, she could live according to him.
“Ah…….”
Past the maze garden, the backyard of the Duke's family. In front of it, Elisha stopped walking.
“This…….”
It was a golden wave. The golden hydrangea of an ecstatic color that I had never seen before was swaying. It was like the shimmering of rich and beautiful golden rice in autumn, or like the dance of women in golden dresses at a ball.
Elisha approached slowly.
The best viewing location for hydrangeas. There was one table there. Above it was a small glass box with a single hydrangea and a letter written on it.
It was Lucerne's handwriting. That he was sending to himself. The tear glands were stimulated again.
'I heard that if I did something wrong, I'd buy flowers.'
Lucerne said. He…… This brilliant flower garden was prepared for Elisha. It was a hydrangea. A rare golden hydrangea that Elisha had never seen before.
“Do you like it?”
Elisha slowly turned her head. Her golden hair fluttered and the hem of her dress fluttered. Before she knew it, Lucerne was standing by her side.
“How did you know?”
“Nora still listens to me. There's no way I'll let you wander around the duchy alone.”
In other words, someone was following her movements. Maybe a secret escort. Or maybe there's a way to deliver news within the duchy that she doesn't know about……. But nothing happened.
Elisha slowly wiped her prickly eyes.
“When did you prepare this?”
“From the day I knew what a single hydrangea meant to you.”
“…….”
Her breath caught. She tried to hold back her tears, but it met with backfire.
“I wanted to give you hydrangea. With the same flower you kissed at the hunt that day. However, the flower of the Huang family seems meaningless, so I bought a new variety of hydrangea. Now this flower belongs only to you.”
Elisha struggled to raise the corner of her mouth.
“Why is it gold?”
“I think you like it.”
Elisha realized something about her at that moment.
“You lied to me again. When I'm living in a bachelor's mansion in Malaysia……. I told you not to interfere in my life.”
She knew the truth The kind of bread that Elisha buys two or three times at her bakery, which she went to once, was always full of the window. Your favorite seasonal jams were always on the shelf too…….
She liked the song 'She's the Golden Life'. Every time she played that song in the temple, she heard it from the front seat, and from then on, whenever she entered the temple, she played the song 'The Golden Life'.
One day a priest asked.
'Do you like gold?'
'I fell in love with this temple. Golden life……. I love this song.'
'Good. The temple will be decorated entirely in gold during the next Thanksgiving temple ceremony, so please come and see it.'
Reality is romantic, not a fairy tale. However, Elisha's life in Malaysia has always been like a fairy tale. The front of her house was always clean and the neighbors never fought.
“It's stupid.”
She said, holding back Elisha's rising emotions.
“What a normal life that is. You kept watching me.”
“It is true that I watched from afar. It even caused problems with her security.”
Elisha bit her lip.
“…… You know I like the color gold.”
Golden life. Sitting around the temple and listening to the song, the most golden moments of her life came to mind.
She thought it was a life full of misery. She had been through hell, she thought.
But if you think about it, there were brilliant moments. There were moments when flowers bloomed. Those memories were all directly or indirectly related to Lucerne.
Even in that hellish moment of my previous life. Even at the moment when I remember him and caress the ancient gold coin he gave me……. Even when he hugged Astina only twice.
That miserable heart. The feelings I recalled in despair…….
Okay. Every moment that reminds me of Lucerne was golden.
And now everything in front of my eyes was golden.
“Aren't you embarrassed?”
Elisha held Lucerne's hand tightly.
“What?”
“There were so many opportunities. Yes, your dream, in the lost time I……. She was a woman who had neither appearance nor mind. To be honest, saying that you wanted me back then sounds like gibberish. So it is. And the status of you and I, who met again in this lifetime, was also the difference between heaven and earth. Even if you don't have to work so hard on me……. You could have me.”
“I didn't know how to have it back then.”
Lucerne was calm.
“But you people from the Cartier family never make a losing trade.”
Said Elisha. She had a habit of being moved and the more happy she was, the more her face hardened and wary. In other words, trying to float Lucerne in this way was the last vigilance. Maybe……. Because now I won't be able to keep my heart to him anymore…….
Lucerne looked at Elisha as if she was dumbfounded.
“Don't run away. You don't have to.”
“…….”
“And there is nothing to lose or do. Okay. I'll answer you any way you want. It's okay because the plate is bigger.”
“What deal are you doing this time?”
Elisha asked in a subdued voice.
“Everything.”
Said Elisha.
“It's all about you and me. Now give me and buy you.”
Elisha couldn't stand it any longer and she was embraced by Lucerne. He was rigid for a long time for some reason, and then hugged Elisha for a long time.
Their hearts were in contact and they felt each other's breathing slowly.
“Lucerne. I like you. Only you for a long time…….”
Lucerne drew in his breath slowly. Only then did Elisha fully feel his earnestness and her overflowing emotions.
Alas, yes. It was a twist that I had never thought of.
* * *
Elisha and Lucerne held hands and slowly walked back through the hydrangea field.
“There are some pretty corners. This terrible place too.”
“Well, they make a lot of pretty places. To your liking.”
Lucerne caressed the back of Elisha's head casually.
“I managed to find it. How to melt my heart.”
“Isn't that why you returned your heart to me?”
“No. It's not. Just……. I wanted to do something for you.”
Elisha squeezed Lucerne's hand tightly.
“It's fine anyway, so now do whatever you want.”
Lucerne was very generous.
“You are difficult. But it doesn't matter. Because I will try.”
“Is it difficult for me to know?”
“…… Well. As much as counting grains of sand.”
At that moment, the sunset began to set. Elisha looked into Lucerne's eyes. And she suddenly realized.
“It was hard not to love you. Just like counting grains of sand.”>
“You…….”
Elisha saw Lucerne.
“Did you read the romance novel in my room?”
Lucerne was silent.
At the same time, another word came into my mind. When Lucerne received counseling treatment alone, the priests said.
Learn and understand what Elisha likes…….
'So, this man even read romance novels?'
Elisha was stunned. It was really beyond my imagination. A man named Lucerne……. There was a corner of her that touched her.
“Which verse moved you? Did you understand anything?”
A slight embarrassment spread across Lucerne's face.
“I'm curious, Lucerne.”
Lucerne was silent for a moment, then he answered.
“It is the most difficult of all the books I have read in my life. There was no such thing as logic. Besides, too many coincidences happen.”
Lucerne was harshly evaluated.
“I know all the words, but I didn't understand anything.”
“…….”
Elisha was extremely sympathetic. She read the novel five times, but in the end she couldn't understand it.
But now, making fun of Lucerne was the first priority. Perhaps it was an opportunity she would never have again in her lifetime.
“I guess there weren't any phrases that touched your heart?”
“About one line.”
“What is it?”
Lucerne did not answer.
And Elisha interrogated Lucerne for a very long time before he could hear her answer.
That was at the hunting festival the following year. Around that time, Elisha asked Lucerne about her romance novels on several occasions, but Lucerne refused to answer each time.
'So what part of the romance novel touched you?'
'…… I never said I was moved.'
'Why, I heard you read romance novels.'
'I've been teasing him for quite some time, but there's nothing I can't say anymore.'
'If you don't want to teach me, don't.'
Then Elisha turned her head. I could feel Lucerne laughing. He gently hugged Elisha from behind. And she whispered in Elisha's ear.
'Love and adore him.'
It was an expression and a word he discovered only after getting to know Elisha. It was an expression I understood only after that. Upon realizing this, Elisha's cheeks turned red and she dropped the scarf she was holding in her hand.
She then straightened up and tried to pretend it was nothing, and Lucerne didn't even hide her laugh anymore.
But that would happen next year.