Chapter 23: 23

Elizabeth was afraid.

She was scared when she saw anger present on Leonhardt’s face as he held her hand and led her down the stairs. 

If she quietly followed her parents’ instructions, her daily life would have stayed normal. But at Leon’s fingertips, she then realised all her routines were now breaking down one by one because of him.

“Lizzy?”

As she followed Leonhardt down the stairs, Elizabeth’s heart sank, every step she took felt heavy.

She had learned how to behave before the Emperor and Empress and what she should say and what she shouldn’t, but with the sting tickling under her tongue and the astringent sensation she was feeling, no one had taught her what to do in this situation.

Leonhardt, who had gone down three steps ahead of her, turned to look at her.

Elizabeth’s shoulders were shaking terribly, like she was soaked in the rain.

“What’s the matter? Are you alright?”

Leon, Leon, Leon.

Elizabeth tried to hold Leon’s hand whilst wondering whether it was too discourteous of a lady to do it.

Leonhardt grabbed her hands, which were continuously trembling.

“Shall we head back? If you don’t like it, I won’t do it.”

The crown prince was trying to take her to the parlor, yet, he did not want to force her.

However, the girl shook her head.

Elizabeth was taught that she should obey the prince’s words unconditionally. she must act accordingly to the prince’s will under any circumstances.

“Elizabeth…”

But her lips, barely opened, could only make ugly stuttering sounds.

‘I can’t have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor like this. What if the Empress is disappointed with my disheveled appearance and decides to cancel her engagement to Leon? But shouldn’t I listen to the Crown Prince and enters the parlor,? Uh, what should I do?’

Leonhardt shouted for the maids to get Elizabeth something to cover herself as her nightgown was too thin.

The maids, who were watching on the side with a sad and pitiful expression, immediately jolted with anxiety and their halted footsteps moved busily again.

“It’s okay, Lizzy. No one will hurt you. You can do whatever you want. You can go back to your room, or you can come down to the parlor with me. If you don’t like either of them…”

The blue shawl, placed under the spring morning sun, was now on her. It gave off a warm and cozy smell.

Yet, to Elizabeth, the shawl, which she usually rubbed her cheeks on as a little child to seek comfort, now strangely felt like a rag, half-frozen in the winter sleet.

“You choose. Lizzy, it’s your life.”

“My life…”

Elizabeth looked up at Leonhardt, desperation in her eyes. She was like a devotee wishing for her God to save her.

Leonhardt had sad look on his face.

“Leon, are you sad?”

“No, Lizzy. I’m worried about you right now. Of course, I would be sad if…but…I can cancel my engagement with you if you wish… ”

“I don’t want it!”

At Elizabeth’s scream, her maids, as well as Leonhardt shuddered.

As if she were a priest who heard the oracle that the world was ending, Elizabeth grabbed Leonhardt and clung to him, her body began shaking.

“No, I hate that. I want to be with Leon. I, I…!”

“Lizzy.”

Leonhardt patted Elizabeth on the shoulder and gently placed his forehead against hers.

“Ye-yes,,…!”

“Then let’s go to the parlor.”

Leonhardt once again comforted her, carefully checking her to see if Elizabeth was reacting sensitively again.

His young fiancée had once lived without knowing how to express her feelings.

It felt like his stomach was being squeezed out.

As he got to know her past, he could not possibly forgive his future self, which was now his past.

Seeing Elizabeth slowly descend the stairs holding his hand, Leonhardt was touched. But he managed to endure the tingling at the tip of his nose as he made excuses to himself that a child’s body was overly sensitive to others’ emotions.

As the drawing-room door got closer, the noise beyond the door grew louder.

Elizabeth, who had been clinging to Leon’s side, suddenly clung to his back and hid behind him.

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Leon thought to himself that if she wished, he would get the strongest magic barrier in the palace to surround her.

Nonetheless, Leonhardt, though with his ten-year-old small stature, his status as the crown prince, and his willingness to protect his companion was stronger than any magic barrier. With that, he commanded the butler of the Elysium family: 

“Open the door.”

The conversation he could hear now through the cracks of the drawing-room door was so explicit that he found it pathetic to hear even as an adult.

‘Shouldn’t he open this door now?’

“I said open the door. Since when did the butler of Elysium need me to repeat my words twice?”

Leon ordered the door to be opened as if it was his own house. The butler shed a cold sweat as he looked at Leonhardt, who reproached him, and Elizabeth alternately.

“Miss, may I open the door?”

No matter how much he had to turn away from the lady at the order of the owner of this house, he was also one of the people who decorated the baby room with joy on the day Elizabeth was born.

The butler knelt down and made eye contact with Elizabeth for the first time in years.

Even if the Crown Prince came with the Imperial Guards, the owner of this house was still Elysium.

It was Elizabeth, not Leonhard, whose orders he had to follow.

Elizabeth was still confused, barely standing in a precarious position as if she could collapse at any moment. The butler stopped trying to reach out at the sight.

“…The…door… please open it.”

Elizabeth said, hiding behind Leonhard’s back 

The butler, whose expression did not change when she was hit with her father’s staff, was now kneeling to meet with her eyes level.

His wrinkled face didn’t bear any resemblance to Leonhardt’s, but Elizabeth could tell that he was sad as well when she looked at him.

She did not want anyone to be sad because of her. Elizabeth knew how pretty Leon was when he smiled.

‘If the butler smiles, the wrinkles may disappear too.’ she thought.

“All right.” The butler rose again.

‘Was she this small?’

Kneeling down on his knees, he was silently astonished.

At the same time, he admired her sky-blue eyes. A colour of the highest and clearest sky he had ever seen.

And eventually,

“P-please, do not be sad…because of me…”

At her words, the butler had to go through the experience of his heart dropping to his feet and then bouncing back to the top of his head.

At that very moment, the butler made a decision.

No matter what happened, he would protect the young lady from the master and his wife.

Why did he, the butler, only see this now? It was something anyone could see, especially for someone who had been looking after the Elysium for decades.

He had been committing unforgivable mistakes for the past eight years.

Polite, steady beats of knock were followed by a low, dignified voice that stunned Elizabeth.

“Come on in.”

Leonhardt felt Elizabeth startled and reassured her by holding her hand tightly.

The door opened.

Leonhardt, who had a rough idea of ​​what was going on behind the door while the butler asked Elizabeth for permission, greeted them in the most twisted tone a ten-year-old boy could use.

“Then why don’t you ask Lizzy directly? Why don’t adults know such simple things?”

“Your Highness! You are in front of His Majesty. Be careful with your words and actions.”

Leonhard pouted.

He could see his mother sighing and rubbing her forehead toward her son, who did not show any signs of remorse.

Leonhardt, who unintentionally startled his mother’s heart, ignored her warning as he decided that Elizabeth was more urgent.

He then pulled Elizabeth from behind and knelt in front of her.

“Lizzy, would you like to live with me?”

From the emperor, the empress, and the prince who was the party involved, to the duke and the duchess, everyone was silently waiting for her answer.

Leonhardt knew how hard it was for Elizabeth when the pressure of going to the Imperial Palace weighed on her, but he still had to make this proposal.

In order to get rid of a poison, a stronger poison was needed.

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