Chapter 438 Chapter 232 Gift and Farewell
The melody of the air was played by cheerful melodic notes. Ig looked at the girl’s exquisite face, which was like an artwork, and knew that he had done something wrong. He apologized, “I’m sorry, Veer…”
“Hmph, just an apology, what good is that?”
The girl slightly raised her small face, but then her pretty face quickly turned into a charming smile. Her beautiful, dazzling golden eyes looked up, as if reflecting her mood. She playfully pouted, “But since you’re here, this young lady will reluctantly forgive you~”
The pleasant melody filled the entire dessert shop. Verafia’s big eyes noticed the boy’s slightly dazed expression, and she playfully puffed her delicate and snowy cheeks, feigning anger, “You guy, why are you suddenly stunned? Hurry up and take this young lady out to play!”
Ig quickly responded, gently catching the small hand the girl handed over. Her boneless, slender, delicate hand was carefully held in his.
Only after the black-haired boy and the girl in the beautiful white dress disappeared from sight did the atmosphere in the dessert shop return to its original state.
“Wow, this young lady really knows Young Master Ig…”
“And they’re so close… You think, could this little lady be one of the girls around Ig? I heard there’s a Miss Phoenix named Verafia…”
“If it’s really that Miss Phoenix… no wonder…”
The girls’ chattering, yet not annoying, conversations and their envious gazes mingled in the gentle breeze of early summer.
After the calamity passed, even though it was only a month, Lorinc had already recovered its former prosperity.
The soft, bright sunlight spread onto the ground like delicate golden silk.
It was not like the glaring, scorching sun on Douglas’s sword, but rather more peaceful and gentle, with warmth permeating its softness, like…
His fingers tightened slightly.
Feeling the girl’s faintly discernible, sweet and rose-like refreshing fragrance, their ten fingers were gently interlocked, as if her unique, delicate and soft touch, and the girl’s warm and soft body temperature touched his heartstrings. A gentle smile appeared on his face.
“It’s been a long time since I last took Young Lady shopping…”
Ig said. He recalled moments in the past when he was bossed around by the girl… Thinking back now, it was a very beautiful memory.
“Hmph, you guy, you dare say that!”
The girl, very displeased, lifted her small face and exclaimed, “You never have time to accompany me… I have to take the initiative myself, what a terrible attendant!”
Ig felt her soft skin and the trembling eyelashes in her beautiful eyes as she lifted her little face. He lowered his head slightly, “Young Lady… I’m sorry. If you’re willing, I want to be by your side always…”
“Tsk, what kind of talk is that? Do you think this young lady would drive you away… Or is it a demand from your Marquis father?”
Verafia’s snow-like cheeks blushed slightly, and she raised her big eyes, “This young lady doesn’t care, today, you guy has to compensate me properly!”
Ig smiled softly, stroking the girl’s silk-like smooth, beautiful hair.
…
…
The girl’s delicate lotus-like feet lightly touched the ground. Verafia moved her big eyes in surprise and looked at the boy beside her, “Ig… is this the place?”
Although she had said that she wanted the boy to compensate her, Verafia hadn’t really expected Ig to bring her to a jewelry store.
In front of the luxurious jewelry store with a distinguished reputation, a maid girl in black sleeves and a white dress hurried over and raised her beautiful face, “Young Master Ig, are you here to pick up the jewelry that was made… for this young lady? Please wait a moment, the owner will be here soon…”
Ig nodded, his face with a gentle smile turned, and he looked seriously at the girl’s scorching golden eyes:
“Actually… I’ve always been worried that a gift like this wouldn’t be worthy of you, Young Lady. But, after that day, I realized that all of this is based on the relationship between Young Lady and me. Since you don’t mind, Veer, then what is there for me to worry about?”
Verafia, who had just raised her head as Young Lady, was about to speak, but stopped at her tender lips.
For some reason… since that dream in the deep night, memories of being Lothel have often appeared in her recollections… It was the same as herself back then as Lothel, gently holding the pure white girl’s slender hand, walking into a flower and bird shop full of anticipation mixed with a little worry.
This time, it was her who was the girl… And in her heart, a slight shyness and longing were spreading.
But she didn’t dislike it.
“Want to feel… a girl’s affection?”
She quietly asked herself. Her lowered gaze fell upon a vibrant crimson hue between her jade-like fair skin.
The girl suddenly raised her head, her expression changing to a charming smile, “Then this young lady wants to see what gift you’ve prepared for me.”
Her crisp voice touched the traces in the air. Ig’s face showed a smile, and he held her small hand, walking into the jewelry store.
However, the outcome was not as smooth as Ig and the girl had imagined. Due to materials and thieves, the jewelry and accessories that Ig had commissioned were not completely finished.
The shop owner repeatedly apologized, “I am very sorry… beautiful lady, Lord Ig. If you are willing, I hope you can choose any jewelry from our shop to compensate for our oversight.”
Ig looked at the glittering, extremely precious, and luxurious jewelry in the shop. Even a simple ring would cost several gold coins, and some even had expensive magic crystals and gems embedded in them.
“Veer…?”
“Ah… if it’s not done, then it’s not done. This young lady doesn’t care about jewelry anyway,”
Verafia said, hugging her arms and tilting her head slightly. But then she seemed to have thought of something, raised her big eyes, and her golden eyes blinked slightly. A gentle smile emerged on her flawless face:
“How about you pick out a piece for me, Ig?”
A gift for her to pick out…?
His azure blue gaze fell upon it. He carefully observed the beautiful rings, the exquisite bracelet like an artwork, and the precious and magnificent necklaces…
These seemed to imply that she was to be restrained by his side?
For some reason, Ig thought of these words. His gaze fell on the last spot, a silver hairpin quietly placed on the red velvet silk cloth.
Quite beautiful silver… Transparent azure blue gems were embedded between the wings, and the exquisite craftsmanship outlined a graceful curve.
Ig picked it up.
“A hairpin?”
Verafia showed a slightly surprised expression, “I really didn’t expect that…”
The shop owner, thinking the girl was unsatisfied, quickly explained, “Beautiful lady, this is a work by Master Emirel, using Merlin blue sapphire… it’s a very precious work.”
The girl’s fine, smooth hair slipped down through the gaps between her fingers. The girl simply tilted her delicate face slightly, but she didn’t resist. Ig gazed at her quiet and exceptionally beautiful profile and gently secured the last strand of thin, silky golden hair into the hairpin.
It was as if the azure blue of the vast sky was reflected in a beautiful silver, catching the gentle sunlight and refracting fine rays of light in hair that was far more beautiful than the dawn.
Ig then smiled and said, “Young Lady, it looks very good.”
“It looks good…? Hmph, what would this young lady wear that wouldn’t look good?”
Her cute voice rang out. Verafia reached out her small hand to touch the gem hairpin that Ig had just put in. Suddenly, a novelty appeared in her big eyes:
“That’s right, I heard that your hometown, Mies Territory, has a name like ‘the most brilliant blue crystal gemstone on the Crown of Peka’, right? In that case, Ig, if you give it to this young lady, won’t you feel heartbroken?”
Ig gave a哑然一笑. Verafia’s sudden whimsy question indeed caught him off guard.
However, such a question was not a problem in the first place.
Gently stroking the girl’s soft temple hair, Ig looked at the girl’s eyes, which were shining with a slight light, far more beautiful than anything else:
“Young Lady, you know, I’m not interested in the venture my father wants. Actually… compared to you, what else in the world is important?”
“Ah… you guy, why do you say such things like this…”
She stamped her foot lightly. The answer Ig received was the girl’s quite shamefully angry words.
——
By the girl’s side, the entire day passed by without notice, making it impossible to prepare anything.
The setting sun gradually tilted towards the edge of the sky, and the soft bright golden light spread across the ground like gentle autumn leaves.
This was the outskirts of Lorinc City. A cluster of nameless graves lay quietly among the lush weeds and a few small flowers. There were no tombstones, but from the loose soil, it was evident that the time of burial was not long ago.
This was a place Verafia had specifically pulled him to at the end.
Ig stood in silence for a long time. The faint twilight shone upon him, casting thin shadows on the ground. Ig thought of more than a month ago, also near twilight, the last smile of Chrisis in her pure white nun’s robe that remained in his eyes.
Her delicate and fair small hand placed a small white flower in front of the grave.
“Ig, are you thinking of her…”
Unlike her usual crisp tone, the girl’s voice that reached his ears carried a hint of delicacy and softness.
“Yes… After all, she was Sister Chrisis. A sister who grew up with me.”
Ig’s eyes were slightly dim, and his voice lowered, “This month, I’ve been thinking, if only I had noticed her… would everything have been different?”
“However, this is just a hypothesis. Sister Chrisis… has her own story, and everything was her own choice. Even if it was me standing in front of Sister Chrisis then, I would have made the same choice as Veer.”
“I can only hope that what Veer finally said, the ideal world that Sister Chrisis showed, can make the innocent undead of all of Lorinc forgive some of the sins she committed.”
Verafia’s eyelashes fluttered, and she lowered her face slightly.
She thought of what Chrisis had told her… Besides Chrisis, what about the others under the light of the holy light?
Suddenly, her small hand was held by Ig’s hand, which was not very large but warm enough.
Verafia raised her gaze and saw the boy’s azure blue eyes. Ig didn’t use “truth,” but his eyes were still incredibly clear, as if they could see into his heart.
“Veer, thank you for accompanying me to say goodbye to Sister Chrisis.”
“Goodbye…?”
“Right, Veer. Do you still remember the Aris Academy that Lichen mentioned?”
After a moment of silence, the black-haired boy’s slightly nervous voice came through, “It’s that, in the next enrollment quotas for the academy, my father gave his recommendation to you, Veer. I wonder if you’re willing to go with me…?”
“Lichen, Aris Academy…”
Clear and spring-like thoughts poured into Verafia’s mind.
The breeze stirred the hem of her skirt. The girl turned her head slightly. Her scorching golden, beautiful eyes seemed to see a scene named after the dawn and twilight in the city of pure white iris, also sinking into the afterglow of dusk.
A faint smile appeared on her lips. Verafia raised her big eyes, her splendid golden hair gently swaying. On her cheeks, there was a look of cheerful joy:
“Of course, I will! Mmm… Ig, if you didn’t say it, I would have almost forgotten, we promised to take this young lady to the ‘Iris City’ for fun…”
——
Volume Two ends.
(I won’t complain here… Actually, there’s a lot more I want to write, the follow-up stories of Chrisis and Douglas, Marquis Mays and his public welfare alliance, as well as Little Fei and Flarn, the dark elf and Ain… But thinking about it, if I were to really write them, I don’t know how much space it would take, so I’ll just stop here.)
