Chapter 50: In the Rain

“President Li Ya has been very happy these past few days.”

“Really?”

Li Ya touched her own face.

“I just… feel that that guest has finally left.”

“Mm.”

Li Ya followed behind her, lowering her voice.

“Hilda, what do you think… what is Rex really thinking?”

“Which aspect?”

“It’s just… just…”

Li Ya hesitated.

“He… towards me… I mean, that night… I kissed him… doesn’t he feel anything at all?”

Hilda turned around to look at her.

“My Lord hasn’t mentioned that night’s matter.”

“Not even once?”

“Not even once.”

Li Ya didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or feel even more frustrated.

He never brought it up, as if it had never happened.

But she remembered it clearly.

She remembered every detail.

The moment she stood on tiptoe, Rex’s stiff body, and the touch of her lips against his.

“Is he… just doesn’t care at all?”

Li Ya’s voice dropped.

“My Lord doesn’t not care. I’ve told you many times before. He just hasn’t learned how to care about this kind of thing yet. My Lord’s perception of emotions needs time. Longer than ordinary people.”

Li Ya looked through the window at Rex and slowly sighed.

Over the next few days, the rain never stopped.

A fine, endless drizzle shrouded the entire North in a gray mist.

But that didn’t stop Rex from going to the farmland every day without fail.

Li Ya watched him put on his rain poncho and push open the door, his back quickly disappearing into the curtain of rain.

“Is he like this every day when I’m not here?” she asked Hilda.

“Mm, goes every day.”

“Even in the rain?”

“Didn’t go the first day it rained.”

“Uh… what’s so interesting about that patch of land? The wheat seedlings aren’t going to run away.”

Hilda didn’t answer that question.

She simply took Rex’s wet coat that he had changed out of and brought it over to dry by the fireplace.

Li Ya wandered around the ancient castle but found nothing to do.

She simply grabbed an umbrella, pushed open the door, and went out to find out what he was actually doing.

The rain wasn’t heavy, but it was dense.

The umbrella emitted a faint pattering sound, as if countless tiny insects were tapping against the canopy.

She saw Rex standing on the ridge of the field from a distance.

He was wearing that dark rain poncho, not wearing the hood, letting the rain soak his hair.

He stood there motionless, like a scarecrow forgotten in the fields.

Li Ya walked over and stood beside him.

She noticed that the shoulder area of his poncho was already soaked through, the color much darker there than elsewhere.

He had probably been standing here for a long time.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

Rex didn’t respond.

His gaze fell on the wheat seedlings in front of him, but his eyes were unfocused.

He didn’t seem to be looking at the seedlings, or even at the field.

It was more like he was sinking into a deep memory.

Li Ya waited for a few breaths, then asked again.

“Hey, what are you thinking?”

“…Huh?”

Rex finally snapped back to reality and turned to look at her, a momentary daze in his eyes.

“When did you get here?”

“I’ve been standing here for almost ten minutes.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? That’s all you have to say?”

Rex didn’t answer. He turned his gaze back to the wheat field.

Li Ya stood beside him, tilting her umbrella toward him.

Although he had a poncho, she felt it couldn’t block much rain.

“Hey, when did you become so slow?”

“Have I?”

“Of course you have. Where did that sharpness go when you helped me before? When you were investigating the mole in the Merchant Guild, your mind worked faster than anyone else. Now, you’re soaking in the fields all day, barely saying a few words to me and Hilda.”

“…Nothing. Just that my thoughts have been a bit jumbled lately. Looking at these wheat seedlings helps me calm down.”

Li Ya turned her head to look at his profile.

Rainwater dripped down the edge of his cheek, and he didn’t even wipe it off.

At that moment…

She suddenly didn’t want to tease Rex anymore.

Because she had been like that too.

It was an indescribable…

Chaos.

Many things were spinning in her mind, but they simply couldn’t be untangled.

She just wanted to be alone.

She didn’t know what was troubling Rex.

Maybe it was something from Seweina about the Empire Capital.

Li Ya pulled the umbrella back toward herself.

His poncho was already soaked through, and her umbrella couldn’t cover both of them anyway.

All she could do was stand here and accompany him.

The two of them stood side by side on the field ridge, neither speaking anymore.

Her gaze fell on the distant wheat field.

Those lush green seedlings blurred into a wash in the rain and mist, like a watercolor painting bleeding with water.

She suddenly felt that this was actually fine.

No Merchant Guild, no negotiation tables.

Only the sound of rain and the wheat field, with her and the person she liked standing under this gray sky.

She stole a glance at Rex.

His eyes were a bit clearer than before, but still carried a depth she couldn’t read.

Li Ya didn’t disturb him.

She just pulled the umbrella a bit more toward herself.

After all, his poncho was already soaked through, and she couldn’t block much more anyway.

Might as well let herself get a little less wet to avoid catching a cold.