CH 192

“By any chance, what Your Majesty has been worrying about since a while ago… is about me? Just because I’ve quit being Their Highnesses’ tutor…?”

She had been smiling brightly until just a second ago, but her expression hardened ever so slightly. She looked apologetic, and soon distraught as she glanced at him.

He wondered if that’s what his answer sounded to her.

If Helios were to take it one step further, he would admit, no, it’s not that.

However, he didn’t say it because he was somehow partial to the way she was looking at him now.

With the corners of her eyes downturned as her lips were tightly closed, Sera had a heavy gaze which she soon lowered.

“Miss Popo, what I was trying to say is…”

A sparkling wave of the sea pushed past Sera’s feet.

Helios’s shoes were slowly getting soaked as the distance between them was narrow, but he did not mind.

“It’s not like that at all.”

His tender voice soon admitted what he wanted to say.

Seeing how his shoes were now so close to her bare feet, Sera looked up with a conflicted expression.

Her reflection could be seen clearly in Helios’s purple eyes.

She was nearly swept by the mood—nearly about to confess that she was quitting as the twins’ tutor out of her own self-preservation against her feelings—but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry for—”

However, her apology could not continue.

At that very moment, the quiet waves intensified, surging to a point that Sera and Helios couldn’t avoid them.

Now soaked, they both stared at each other for a moment, not exactly grasping just what had happened.

Soon though, they slowly began to understand the situation as a passing breeze grazed their soaked bodies, enough to send shivers through them.

“Ah…”

“Um…”

They spoke at the same time. No matter who uttered it first, they both burst out laughing.

“How ridiculous. How could a wave like that just hit us out of the blue?”

“Indeed.”

Sera and Helios looked over each other’s condition, concerned.

Thankfully, the waves mostly spared Helios as he was soaked only until his calves. However, Sera’s skirt and sleeves had been soaked through.

Drops of water falling from their clothes shone with a blue glow each time they returned to the sea.

It was the same when the droplets would touch their wet clothes and skin, so if they moved even a little, it was as if they were sparkling all over.

Like fireflies.

“I never meant to put you in a difficult position, Miss Popo. I wasn’t going to urge you to continue working at the palace against your will. I was just… a little disappointed. After all, in the future, I won’t be able to see you very often anymore.”

As the walls around them had temporarily gone down, Helios took advantage of this and conveyed his honest feelings. The corners of his lips curled gently upward.

“That’s what I meant. I’m sorry.”

Gingerly, he tucked away a lock of Sera’s hair away from her face, which had gotten splashed with seawater.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

As Helios’s courteous apology reached her, Sera stared up at him. He was looking at her with such a warm, languid gaze.

Disappointed, he said.

He couldn’t have meant it with the same feelings that she had, but nonetheless, Sera’s heart was wavering.

Either, he was feeling disappointed that she had quit as Rosé and Ferre’s tutor.

Or, he was feeling disappointed because he would be parting ways with someone who he’s so used to meeting regularly now.

They were both natural reasons, but really.

Sera’s heart was already beating wildly.

“Come over here.”

Helios led her further away from the sea.

Before she could even answer, Helios took her hand first and held it tight.

White sand was clinging to Helios’s shoes, at the ends of his pants, just as it did to Sera’s bare feet.

As if leaving a trail behind, their footsteps shone with a blue glow momentarily before they disappeared.

Sera tried to shake off the sand from her feet before putting her shoes back on.

But just as she was about to do so, a strong breeze blew past and she shivered strongly. After all, she was mostly soaked through.

Automatically, she wrapped her arms around her wet shoulders to stave off the cold.

But as Helios saw this, without hesitation, he reached towards her and rubbed her shoulders with his hands.

Feeling how cold she was, he became worried about her in an instant.

“You’re so cold. You’re even shivering.”

“I’m alright, Your Majesty.”

“Let’s get back right away.”

Helios smiled softly. As he stopped rubbing her arms, he held out one arm to her so she could hold onto him while putting on her shoes.

All Sera could think about was this: You don’t have to keep helping me like this.

Sera liked how Helios was so attentive—almost treating her like a lover would—even though she knew that he was just a kind man by nature.

He was always so sweet that she could feel her hopes going up.

She always had to be vigilant and self-conscious so that her feelings wouldn’t be noticed by anyone at the palace, but right now, she was all alone with him.

Sera knew that this opportunity would never come again. And, once this trip was over, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to meet him like this anymore.

‘No. Don’t say it.’

She repeated these words to herself over and over again, as if she was casting a spell.

However, her pounding heart won, and she felt her lips moving by themselves.

“Your Majesty.”

Regardless of her mind’s will, her heart controlled her body as it pleased. Sera held one of Helios’s arms with both hands.

‘No, don’t, please. Don’t do it.’

Helios’s eyes turned to her. A beautiful smile for her was adorned upon his lips.

“The truth is, Your Majesty— Towards you, I…!”

However, as she tried to confess her feelings, a sharp pain struck her legs at that very moment.

“AH!”

A single cry burst through her lips like a dying scream.