Chapter Thirty Two
1054 Words
"Of course I will forgive you," I just said because I was already lost in his beautiful eyes.
He smiled. "Thank you," he said with a sense of relief. "I thought that you were mad at me for not being able to return your bracelet. I was expecting you to be harsh at me."
"What? Why would I do that? You are the Crown Prince! I have no right to be mad at you!"
His face changed when I said that and I think I know why. "You know that you have every right to be mad at me, right?"
"W-Well---"
"I don't want you to forgive me just because I am the Crown Prince, Rainha," he said and it sounded like he was now the one who is mad at me. "I told you that whenever I am with you, you should treat me as just a regular guy, right? When I am with you, I am Travor Dubstein."
I nodded silently. "I'm sorry. But I forgave you not just because of the fact that you are the Crown Prince. I forgive you because I trust you, and I know that there is a valid reason why you failed to give me back the golden bracelet. It's not because I should act like I can't question your actions. It's because as the Crown Prince, I have so much trust in you."
He was speechless for a couple of seconds before he broke into a grin. It was his brightest smile yet and even his eyes were lighting up. It made me wonder, did I really made him happy with what I just said? And if it did, then what does it mean? Could it be that he likes me?
Oh no.
I have to stop myself right there.
Those are dangerous thoughts. I should learn how to control myself from thinking that way. The danger of assuming things is that it shrouds your vision and you just realize that you're disillusioned. And disillusions hurt.
"That sounds better," he finally told me. "I thought that you had just automatically forgiven me because I am someone with a high position. And I don't like that, Rainha. Please always act like I am your equal because that's why I like being with you. You make me feel like I am just an ordinary person."
My heart almost exploded from those words and my head was slightly fuzzy from that too. I could not even properly breathe. "Okay... I'm sorry for not making it clear to you," I added which was weird because he was the one apologizing and then right now I was the one saying sorry for my actions towards him. It's crazy, and the Crown Prince seemed to have realized it too.
"Why are we talking about that anyway? We are being sidetracked. What I really wanted to tell you was my unfulfilled promise to you. I should have given you a heads up of what was happening. I bet you were thinking about what was happening, right?"
"You bet!" I told him and he smiled at me again. I guess he really likes it when I act like he's not that unreachable. That I can actually be casual with him just like this. "What happened anyway? All I know so far is that you went to the dungeons to talk to that Tyroh person you were telling me. After that, I have no clue about your whereabouts."
He nodded. "I'm so sorry about that, Rainha. I was meaning to tell you everything, but I could not find time to talk to you in private. And I was getting paranoid. I always thought that someone is following me around trying to figure out who is the woman that I keep on secretly seeing."
I gasped. "Oh no. And have you confirmed it? Is someone really tailing you to corner us?"
The Crown Prince shook his head. "I feel like someone is following me, so I decided to let some of my loyal Royal Guards to investigate. I let them tail me too in secret so that they'll see if someone was really following me. Stalking me even. But they have confirmed that no one was doing such a thing. So I guess that it was just my imagination."
"Or it could be that this person who's following you have seen your Royal Guards and decided to lie low for a while."
"That's possible too," he said. "But I highly doubt it. I should have told you this sooner, but even before I met you I was already feeling like this."
"Like this? What do you mean?"
"The feeling that is someone is following me around. It used to scare me when I was younger, but then it suddenly stopped. And ever since I met you it came back again and I don't know why. That's why I decided to stay away from you for a while. I wanted to test my theory if I was correct."
"And?"
"I think I'm right. Whatever is this that is following me, I think this is not a human."
"What? Then what is it? A ghost?"
"I don't know. I would be glad if it is just a ghost, because I am not afraid of them. But if it's something else, I think it will someday scare me out of my wits. We fear what we don't know, after all."
"Oh no, I'm sorry you're feeling like that. I have no idea..."
"It's okay," he told me. "That's not what's important right now. What I have to tell you is what I found when I went to the prison to talk to Tyroh."
"Oh. Then what have you learned?"
"I went to him to ask him about how old is the bracelet," he said. "He is someone who is an expert with that type of thing so I knew that he knows the answer to my question."
"So what was the answer?"
"It's confirmed, Rainha. The bracelet predates the beginning of this eternal winter. And according to Tyroh, the design of the bracelet is unique and only one clan was known to use it back then."
"Clan? What clan?"
"It's the Luria," Prince Kao revealed and I was speechless. "The golden bracelet came from the Snow Gypsies."
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