Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 37
The chapters are split like this so that the TL can update more consistently over time (✿ ＞◡❛)
Since coming here, Ezekiel had hardly been able to sleep.
And it was all because of one girl.
Iris Quilluxia.
‘You can’t cross that bridge! It’ll collapse!’
‘There’s no need. I didn’t help you to get paid in return.’
‘Just admit it. You’re not a squire, are you?’
‘Tasty, right?’
‘You can squeeze and release it like this.’
He could swear it—every moment with her had been vivid and fresh.
Ezekiel had never met anyone who entered his heart so quickly. She wasn’t graceful, nor extraordinarily beautiful, nor did she have any particularly fine fragrance.
And yet, Ezekiel was helplessly drawn to her.
He didn’t want to admit it.
This fleeting summer that had been given to him. This girl who had cast ripples into the still waters of Ezekiel’s heart, which until now had only ever followed a quiet, predestined path.
He told himself the ripple was nothing. Like adults who recall their youth with a smile, remembering those foolish days of innocent infatuation. That’s all this was, he’d tell himself, over and over on sleepless nights.
The warning not to let fleeting emotions ruin greater matters was one all too familiar to a boy born the son of an emperor.
And yet, despite all that, this unfamiliarity was far too welcome.
“Iris. I… I don’t want to become a man who kisses a lady without her permission.”
“……”
The girl’s lips parted again and again, but only sighs escaped. He grew anxious. The boy prayed earnestly to the god she believed in.
Please, O Udal of the Storms and Thunder.
Udal of the Storms and Thunder was also the god of truth. Just as Irud of the Earth and Cycles brought fertility, it was said that only after storms and thunder could truth be revealed.
Then what would be revealed after this storm he was going through?
The boy knew what might happen the moment he kissed her.
He had been consecrated to the gods from birth, forbidden from holding affection for anyone.
But even so, the boy thought,
O God,
Please, I implore thee, allow me to be with her.
If I am granted thus, I shall offer anything in return.
He had already accepted the great upheaval in his heart.
Even though nothing had yet occurred, his heart had already come to terms with it.
How much time had passed?
The girl, eyes lowered and blinking repeatedly, finally managed to reply in a faint, trembling voice.
“…I don’t mind.”
And in the next moment, Iris’s eyes softly closed.
The boy’s heart swelled. Was it his eyelids that trembled, or his lips? He couldn’t tell.
There had always been so many things Ezekiel considered important. His father. The imperial family. His behavior, his duties…
But none of that mattered anymore.
The only thing that mattered was that she had given him permission.
“……”
The shallow breaths she exhaled brushed against his nose and philtrum. Just a little closer and…
It was too precious for him to rush into, and too longed-for to merely linger in. With those conflicting feelings in his heart, Ezekiel gently closed his eyes.
But that that moment—
“Oh my?”
A presence stirred.
“!”
Boy and girl alike opened their eyes at once. Shock flooded both their gazes. But the intruder gave them no time.
“Who’s there?”
A voice thick with sleep.
The face peeking into the kitchen belonged to none other than Missus Babbin, on her way to the restroom after waking in the night.
She’d seen candlelight leaking from the kitchen and come to investigate. Upon seeing the scene inside, she stood there, mouth slightly open in confusion.
And with good reason.
“Why is the mead jar open?”
The kitchen was in disarray.
There was no one in sight, but two candles were still burning, melting low. The mead jar sat open, and the wooden ladle lay on the floor.
Missus Babbin clicked her tongue. She had a feeling she knew what had happened.
“Our young lady… so careless, what will we do with her…”
It seemed that the young Lady Quilluxia, whom she served, had forgotten the mead while attending to something else.
“Even so! Do you know how expensive candles are? And you left two of them burning like this? I swear, without me, this house would fall apart…”
Grumbling all the while, Missus Babbin closed the mead jar and put the ladle away.
Then, with a puff, she blew out both candles.
