Rage appeared on his face as he walked towards her only to pin her to the wall by grabbing her wist and pushing her with his weight.

There was nothing he hated more than noisy people snooping around his stuff.

He couldn’t think clearly and gave her no time to react.

“What were you doing there!?”

He pressed harder.

“Are you that curious? Just like them?"

It wasn't like the other time he did that. He felt closer, his breath tingled her ears as he spoke, her soul did not drop like it did back then despite his current harsh voice.

Elisi was aware that was wrong to look at his private things. She knew that, nevertheless, his gaze wouldn’t let her move.

“I... I just...”

“Just what?!!!”

Although she would always waver. Somehow, she kept looking deeper and deeper into him.

Elisi’s dark eyes were a tunnel with no end. Her rosy cheeks looked soft.

Dalion lowered his head, leaning as if his lips were aiming for hers. Like yesterday, once again he felt pulled by her.

Time stopped for a second.

Then he tilted his head and almost whispered.

“Don’t do it again,”

Dalion’s very own actions confused him. He cleared his throat with an urge to walk away to clear his mind.

Elisi, still glued on the wall, stared at him with her big round eyes, wondering why did he glanced at her so softly?

There was still a tingling breeze left on Elisi’s lips. Her hand loosened and something felt rolling on the floor.

It was a small box with a red knot on it, like a small present.

“Tiago made it for you,” she rushed to say.

He took it, and when he opened it, a black stone showed up. A healing stone?

“Tiago made a healing stone?”

“I helped him.”

“I guess is the other way around,”

“Mm?”

The king used a low voice while he turned his back, that Elisi could not get what he said.

She wanted him to repeat it. Elisi really wanted to hear it from him.

The atmosphere became distant.

How did it come to that? Maybe such a present became too much of a burden. She should not have done it.

She wanted to thank him for his help; she didn’t know how else to help him.

“I’m sor..”

“I'll keep it safely, and will let you know when I’ll need it filled again,” He declared while he interrupted her. Before she said sorry to him.

“In a week, I’ll be going on a trip. The one that was canceled the other day. You’re coming with me this time...” he turned back to her “Jeremy will inform Nela and she will help you pack.”

Elisi was accustomed to not having a maid by her side. It was weird to hear such a thing about herself. Being taken care of was not something that made her feel at ease.

“You are not the maid anymore, you need to get used to it.”

Then he came to her side, “You are dismissed for the day.”

She felt a little disappointed, yet happy because she could not contain her emotions at the moment.

********

Elisi hid her face in embarrassment once she entered the room and jumped into the bed.

He was so close, her heart practically burst. Something was different in him.

It was as if he was about to kiss her. She almost felt compelled to close her eyes and wait for it.

“As if..”

Thinking about it more rationally made her depressed. How would he ever do something like that with her? When there are tones of beautiful novel women waiting for him. Like Berit said, he had women by his side, but they didn’t last.

Elisi knew from the book. Most of them could not understand why would he take his brother’s child’s under his wing. Why, he constantly looked as if in pain. He never talked about his curse, so they wouldn’t even try to seek the cause of his suffering.

In the end, people called him cursed anyway, because of his lack of emotion. People thought of him to be an iceberg impossible to break or melt.

Actually, nobody learned about it, not even his brother. If such information were to arrive in the wrong hands, people would find his biggest weakness outside of his daughter. Her mother, who is now the great priestess in the temple, is the only woman he deeply loved. The priestess left him to stay with Algot.

The novel woman, after a while, begged him to release them from their engagement. Eventually, Dalion thought himself to be a living ghost, waiting for his daughter to grow up and disappear when she did.

Anyway, she stood no chance even of being his concubine. He didn’t even have any.

“What the hell am I thinking?”

She buried her face deeper, almost suffocated herself.

Why is she always so pitiful and desperate? She thought.

All she wanted was him, but impossible, impossible to have him.  - I’ll just stay by his side. That’s more than enough.

- Yes, that’s more than enough.

********

At the end of fall, it was getting pretty cold. They already put the fireplace in her room.

Elisi enjoyed sitting beside it every night and read a book.

If she had Instagramy, she thought she could get a lot of pretty pictures of a perfectly cozy life. She was inside the pictures she used to put on like. A place that only existed in a where sure thought she would never reach.

Excited, she rolled on the soft far carpet, thinking about that. 

“My lady, Elisi. Please don’t stay late. Tomorrow is your trip with the king and you don’t want to table with a tired body,”

Elisi was trying not to think about the trip. She has never been outside the castle, even less traveled on a carriage.

“Please be ready for tomorrow, my lady...”