The Camellia Tattoo - Chapter 116
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
this book is completely translated on luna kofi (advanced chapters for the website will follow)
Perhaps it’s still a matter of her pride, but Amber didn’t want to sink to the bottom.
In Shadroch, unfortunate women often experienced unrequited love.
Amber didn’t want to become like that. She didn’t want that.
So, she pushed away even more, turned her back, and tried not to fall for him… convincing herself that this wasn’t love. That it was enough if both of them simply embraced each other at a comfortable temperature.
To avoid getting hurt, to prevent pain, to keep it from being difficult.
She acted like a coward, even before anything had begun.
‘Let’s not do that. Let’s take a chance.’
Amber, hugging her knees, gathered her strength in the morning sunlight.
It was time to stop running away. And so, she decided to stop turning her head away, trying not to look at him.
Now, Igmeyer was lying on his stomach, half-naked. It was a perfect opportunity to see his bare back.
Amber, with her eyes tightly shut and her forehead resting on her knees, eventually lifted her head.
Clenching her small fists and biting her lips a few times, she took a deep breath and looked at Igmeyer.
“……!”
There was something.
Something was there.
A beam of light filtered through the curtains and flowed over his solid back. Amber’s pink eyes followed the sunlight and moved slowly.
One, two, three … six.
The flowers that covered his broad back were ones she knew well.
The only flower that blooms in the North, the camellia.
Its color, identical to her own eyes, sparkled as part of his body.
“Ah…!”
Her heart sank, and Amber let out a sound.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart suddenly started racing, and it felt like her whole body was vibrating. Amber covered her mouth with her hands.
‘It’s there! There is a tattoo on his back…a tattoo’
She recalled the knights’ words. They said no knight would brand themselves with such painful tattoos just out of loyalty.
If she turned that around… it meant these tattoos were made out of love. To return to the one they love, even in death.
‘Igmeyer loves me?’
It was more like a shiver.
Her toes curled, and an indescribable joy surged up her spine.
The corners of her mouth, which had been tightly set, relaxed naturally, and her eyes drooped with the overwhelming tears welling up inside her.
Her eyes, already swollen from crying all night, must have looked like a fish’s. She had planned not to cry today, but rational resolutions were no match for the flow of emotions.
‘He also has a tattoo just for me.’
I have a husband who loves me.
‘How much pain did it take to engrave this? Not just one flower, but six…’
You must have thought of me the whole time you were getting this tattoo. You probably even welcomed the pain of the needle piercing your skin.
“Ah… how lovely.”
Thinking this made it impossible to hold back.
Amber lowered her hand from her mouth and, without realizing it, caressed her husband with her gaze, over and over. She also restrained the urge to hug him, afraid that touching him might wake him up.
‘This is the thing that can change the future the most.’
If his heart and hers are the same, this life has been well lived.
This life will be different from the past.
Such joy also filled her heart.
‘But… did you have the tattoo before the return? Was it just that I didn’t know?’
If she had known, perhaps many things might have changed.
Still, Amber decided not to regret the past. Thanks to the blessing of regret, she was living a new life and would be able to change the things she regretted.
“Why don’t you give me more compliments? I was waiting for them.”
It was then.
Igmeyer, who she thought was asleep, met her gaze.
His red eyes were completely awake, and Amber’s face flushed. Did he see everything she had just said and done?
“I was thinking about when to show you.”
His voice was low and languid.
In an instant, he pulled Amber close, enveloping her in his embrace and lightly touched the tip of her nose with a playful smile.
“Does the princess like it?”
“When… when did you get it done? I thought for sure you wouldn’t have any tattoos.”
She didn’t want to sound like she was about to cry, but her voice was trembling.
Igmeyer responded with a serious expression.
“Remember the day I came home late once?”
“Ah…!”
Amber recalled the day she had been upset because she hadn’t seen him.
After that, they went to see the flowers on the slopes of Camellia Mountain, and then they headed to Cyprus Mountain.
But didn’t Igmeyer say something back then?
‘I want to start liking you now.’
‘!’
‘No matter how I think about it, it seems like we’re more than just friends or colleagues.’
At the time, she had been preoccupied with the ski matters.
Then she was disheartened when he said he didn’t want a child, and soon after… suddenly, Iona had appeared. So she had completely forgotten what Igmeyer had said.
‘How could I have forgotten this!’
Overwhelmed by the shock, Amber couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open. At the same time, she felt so embarrassed that her entire body flushed red.
