Chapter 52: Become My Lover

When Ed emerged from the bathroom wearing a loose bathrobe, the silver-haired witch was sitting on the floor bedding, staring blankly at the full moon in the night sky outside the window.

“Bailis?” He wiped his hair and walked over in confusion.

“Ed.” The girl’s voice was soft, like gentle white clouds drifting across the sky.

“What’s wrong?”

She turned around. 

Perhaps it was his imagination, but Ed vaguely saw a faint layer of white mist in her crimson eyes.

“In the future, if I complete my revenge and you protect your hometown, what do you want to do after that?”

It seemed like nothing more than casual musing.

“Well…”

The youth did not overthink it and answered simply after a moment of thought.

“I’ll probably go back and learn how to be a better duke.”

“Duke?”

“Mhm.” Ed nodded. 

“I think I mentioned before that my father is one of the three sword masters of the Nordvian Kingdom. But besides that, he is also a duke. Under normal circumstances, I should have dutifully inherited my father’s title and spent the first half of my life working hard in that position, just like him.”

He let out a sigh.

“Who could have known things would turn out like this? If my hometown and my father can remain safe in the end, I can’t keep being as willful as before. It’s about time I started sharing some of the burden with him.”

“Ed will definitely succeed,” the girl said, not knowing what else to say and offering dry consolation.

“I hope so.” Ed smiled. “But thank you anyway.”

“Mhm.”

Bailis gave a vague response. 

She leaned against the wall and stared at the floor. Her bangs fell forward, covering her eyes.

She remained silent for a while.

“Then, at that time… will Ed no longer need me?”

The girl clutched the hem of her pale yellow nightgown and asked softly.

The nightgown had been bought for her by Ed.

The fabric was incredibly soft. 

He still remembered the undisguised joy in her eyes when she first put it on, along with a deep sense of nostalgia.

As if recalling better days from the past.

It was almost…

Heart-wrenching.

Ed stopped looking at the nightgown and instead gazed at the sky the girl had been staring at earlier, trying to calm the ripples in his heart.

“Why would Bailis ask something like that?”

“Isn’t Ed going to inherit the dukedom?” she continued. 

“Once you become the duke, you probably won’t need a useless witch like me who only brings you trouble anymore, right?”

Silence.

Ed did not answer immediately.

The girl lowered her head even further. 

The shadow cast by her hair nearly covered her entire face.

Her breathing slowed. 

Time stretched out.

The silence at this moment made her feel like the people in the stories she read as a child—the ones wrapped around the neck by pythons and slowly suffocated to death.

Struggling painfully, yet ultimately unable to escape.

But this thick, suffocating silence did not last forever.

Footsteps suddenly sounded again inside the room.

She saw the lower part of the bathrobe enter her field of vision. 

Then, a hand gently rested on her shoulder.

“Bailis.”

The youth’s voice sounded somewhat helpless.

“I’ve noticed that lately you’ve been overthinking things more and more.”

The girl didn’t dare look at his face.

She was afraid of seeing the disappointment she dreaded most.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice.

“I’ll say it again.” 

Ed removed his hand from her shoulder, walked to her side, and looked out the window.

“Don’t apologize to me,” he said. “Here, turn around and look at the sky outside the window.”

That hand moved to her other shoulder. With a gentle pull, the girl was turned back around.

“Ed?” She looked up in confusion.

“Look at the moon,” he said calmly.

Bailis subconsciously followed his words and looked over.

It was late September, and the silver moon in the sky had reached its fullest, most perfect form.

Moonlight poured softly through the window onto her face. 

Her silver hair and the silver moon seemed to illuminate each other beautifully.

“It’s very full and very beautiful, isn’t it?” Ed smiled lightly, drawing the girl’s attention away from the moon.

“Mhm…” She nodded sullenly.

“Bailis, do you remember what I told you not long ago? That one day I would make it possible for you to truly walk freely upon this land?” Ed suddenly asked.

The girl blinked slowly, recalling the conversation they had before heading to the town mayor’s residence.

“I thought you were just joking…”

“That wasn’t a joke.” Ed shook his head. 

“I always keep my word. I will never go back on what I’ve promised you.”

The girl sniffled.

“But that’s impossible.”

Feeling the mana quietly flowing within her body, she murmured, as if speaking to Ed or trying to convince herself not to indulge in such daydreams.

“No, I will make it happen.”

The youth shook his head and pointed at the silver moon.

“Just like the moon.” He smiled. 

“Whether it’s protecting my hometown or freeing you from the pain of being a witch, I will give both a perfect ending, just like the moon right now.”

The girl stared at him blankly. Suddenly her nose stung, and she quickly turned her head away, not wanting him to see her unsightly expression.

“You’re talking big again,” she said in a muffled voice. 

“As long as those people from the church still hate me, what you said can never come true.”

“How will we know if we don’t try?”

The youth slowly clenched his fist toward the silver moon.

“Once I become a duke, some things will become much easier to accomplish.”

He looked at the silver-haired girl who was still turning her head away.

“At the very least, on my own territory, I will work hard to ensure that ‘witch’ no longer means ‘evil.’ Even if in the end the world still despises witches, I will do my best to make the people around me abandon that prejudice.”

“So—”

“You don’t have to worry about being alone ever again.”

He placed a hand over his chest, his expression solemn, like a loyal knight making a vow before his lord.

Bailis slowly, slowly turned her head back to look at the seriousness and determination in the youth’s eyes.

For a moment, she felt a little dazed.

In her memory, the youth had always been like this.

Gentle, serious, and responsible.

So much so that she had grown somewhat accustomed to this feeling of being wrapped in warmth.

Whether it was the warmth from his hand when he stroked her hair, or the burning heat gradually rising in her chest right now.

The awkwardness on the girl’s face slowly melted away, like frozen snow thawing in spring.

Perhaps Sylvia was right.

She really had…

The girl looked into those clear, deep blue eyes.

Fallen for someone.

“Ed,” she said softly.

“Mhm, I’m here.” 

The youth responded gently. 

“What do you think, Bailis? With my promise, you won’t overthink things so much anymore, right?”

“Yeah.” She said.

The girl suddenly tugged at the sleeve of the youth’s bathrobe.

“Ed, come a little closer. I still have something to tell you.”

Although confused, the youth complied.

“Closer.” Her voice was trembling so much she could barely hold it back.

They were now very close. 

So close that the girl could see the tiny droplets of water still clinging to the youth’s face.

“What is it that you need to say so clo—”

The youth’s puzzled voice suddenly stopped.

He stared blankly at the small, soft, and slightly warm body that had thrown itself into his arms.

“B-Bailis?!” 

It took him a long moment before he spoke in a dry voice.

“Ed…”

The girl wrapped her arms around the youth’s waist, pressing her head against his chest. 

Her voice was softer and sweeter than he had ever heard.

“Become my lover.”

She said.