—Wishing all the kids taking the college entrance exam a smooth time. Keeping a calm mind is what matters most.
Also, I'm begging for monthly votes. I'm about to drop out of the top thirty.
………………………………………………………………………………
Cherie answered with a touch of bewilderment: "Jacques, I don't understand why Father wants to send me to the Holm Kingdom either, but I think he must be thinking of my best interests. The convent school there should have things suited for me to study. You know—I don't have any talent for knighthood. The knight instructor privately assessed that unless I relied on potions, I'd never be able to awaken my bloodline power. I don't have any business acumen either. I once tried to run our family bank like Miss Ferrona, Baron Moncalo's daughter, but ended up losing a great deal of money, and even my brother started to grow displeased."
"Other than reading, I can't learn anything well—music, opera, oil painting, sculpture… A girl like me somehow won your love. You're so handsome, so multitalented—skilled at the piano, painting, singing, swordsmanship… Like the blazing sun." Cherie's voice was soft, as though she were tracing her fingers across Jacques's cheek.
A smacking kiss sounded through the air, as though Jacques had seized Cherie's hand and pressed his lips to it. He murmured in adoration: "That time I followed Lord Gaspar to the viscount's villa and saw you on the terrace, reading quietly—I fell deeply in love with you right then. Your beauty, your bearing—like a rose beneath the moonlight, so tranquil yet so breathtaking. You don't need to do anything. Just marry me and enjoy life."
"But Jacques, you… you're not a true knight yet." Cherie answered sadly. Nobles had to marry nobles. "And I've always believed that as a complete life, as one blessed by the Lord's grace—whether man or woman—one must have the ability to survive without depending on others, and a place to realize one's own worth. So I want to try hard to find something I'm good at. It's a small conviction of mine, and I hope you can understand, Jacques."
Jacques said dejectedly: "Cherie, I understand your choice, but what new things can one learn at a convent school in the Holm Kingdom? And I know full well that only by awakening my bloodline power and becoming a noble knight can I truly have you. On that point, I've never been afraid, never worried—I'll work hard, I'll fight for it. But I'm afraid that by the time I awaken my bloodline power, you'll already have married someone else. Wait—Cherie, is the viscount sending you to the Holm Kingdom to study because he wants to find an opportunity to arrange a marriage with a noble there?!"
Whether it was to consolidate the Viscount Lait's connections in the Holm Kingdom or for the Church to win over conservative nobles in that country, it would serve a certain purpose. So once Jacques began to think along those lines, he became increasingly convinced that was exactly what was happening. His voice, to Lucian's ears, was filled with pain and despair: "Is it true, Cherie? Are you going to marry someone else?"
"I don't know… I really don't know… Father has never said a word about it…" Cherie murmured in a daze, her voice drifting like a half-dream within the heaving sailboat, without a shred of confidence.
Jacques slammed his fist against a wooden crate—so hard that a whole row of crates lurched backward, nearly crashing into Lucian's face. In his despair there flickered a sliver of hope: "Cherie, can you wait for me? I know the viscount and his wife have always doted on you, and you love them too much to do anything that would truly disappoint them. But can you wait for me three years? If after three years I still haven't awakened my bloodline power, then I'm not worthy of you, and I can only love you in secret."
Cherie was moved by Jacques's confession, nodding as if with all her strength: "I will. Within three years, I'll wait for you. And after three years—if you don't mind—I'm willing to be your lover forever."
Jacques pulled Cherie into his arms: "Cherie, why are you Cherie…"
Annick, who had been listening with great interest, suddenly discovered that a pair of hands had clamped over his ears. He turned his head and looked at Mr. Evans in confusion—were they perhaps discussing some secret he shouldn't hear?
After a stretch of sentimental dialogue so cloying it nearly made Lucian sick, Cherie leaned against Jacques's shoulder: "Jacques, find a chance to play 'For Silvia' for me, won't you? We should head back up now. With such a terrible storm, Father is probably worried about me. He might come down to check."
Lucian thought with a touch of embarrassment: *Silvia has already been killed by Natasha. Won't playing that piano piece carry a bit of a curse to it…* Of course, fewer than twenty people knew the truth about Silvia.
"Of course. Whenever you want, I'm always willing," Jacques answered gently. Then the two of them crept their way back to the upper deck.
After waiting a while, Lucian finally released his hands from over Annick's ears. "Let's head back to our cabin. With the storm and waves this big, someone might come down to check on the cargo."
"Yes, Mr. Evans." Annick answered respectfully at first, then asked curiously: "Why did you cover my ears just now?"
"I was afraid their love talk would damage your still-immature heart," Lucian answered with a perfectly straight face. "Even I could barely resist it—I felt like I'd been struck by lightning."
Annick thought for a moment: "But the love talk we heard earlier was nothing compared to the dialogue in an opera."
"That's precisely why I hate opera…" Lucian said flatly.
…………
Back in the cabin, Lucian didn't lie in the hammock to rest or meditate. He stood there, quietly listening to the muffled thuds of the enormous waves crashing against the ship's Divine Arts arrays, listening to the thunder that rumbled and roared without cease.
"Today's storm is much bigger than the ones we encountered these past few days. And the thunder is so dense—it's enough to make your heart pound out of your chest."
As a mage of the Astrology school, the "Ruling Star of Destiny" and astrology couldn't yet provide particularly accurate prophecies, but they had already begun to grant Lucian occasional vague premonitions.