North x Northwest

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Volume 7    

“I was wrong! I was… in the wrong! I only teased you like that because I missed you already!”

Only then did Lil stop slamming the pillow.

Casting it aside, she found a sprawling Ed with his head drooped on the bed. His mouth was smiling softly and pretended to beg for mercy, but unfortunately for him, that kind of acting didn’t work on her anymore.

Lil eventually widened her squinted eyes and held out her palm to his face, which was looking up at her.

“Oh yeah? Then give me the letter…”

“..!”

– Puck. –

Lil fell to the side after being hit by a pillow on her shoulder. Ed had sneakily grabbed the pillow when she was distracted and caught her off guard.

‘Wow. I didn’t even see that coming. I guess I truly am still half-asleep.’

Lil, now lying down on the bed, looked at the ceiling and muttered.

“…How mean…”

Ed slowly crawled on top of Lil, whereas the latter merely rolled her eyes and looked away from him.

“That’s just the kind of guy I am.”

“…”

Ed stopped at Lil’s thighs and gently lifted the hem of the gown that covered her legs.

“And I’m not ashamed of my methods.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“Doing whatever I feel like doing?”

“Die.”

“I’m kidding.”

Still, Lil glared at Ed disapprovingly. To prove that he meant it, Ed lightly kissed her thigh, pulled away, and laid calmly down next to her.

“…Were you really just kidding?”

When Lil still didn’t relax her expression, Ed pushed the corner of her mouth up with his finger. But as expected, upon removing his finger, her sullen face greeted him again. So, Ed raised the corners of his own mouth and muttered pitifully.

“…That’s right…”

“But it seems to me that your words and your body hold different opinions from each other.”

While Lil pointed down, Ed’s gaze followed with a sad face, but then shook his head solemnly.

“You don’t have to worry about… him.”

“…What?”

“But of course, please pay more attention to him later when you’re healthy. He’s a friend who needs some attention now and then, plus I think he likes you.”

Lil was taken by surprise by the strange manner of speaking in which Ed separated himself from his body part.

‘Not only his speech but also the content took a strange turn…’

“Can you stand it until then?”

“Of course. And since you still feel pressed and irritated somewhere in your stomach, your blood vessels need more time to heal. It’s best not to take any risks until you’re fully recovered.”

“Are you sure it will be that bad? Will that… friend of yours really have that big of an impact?”

“Can’t you tell by seeing him?”

“..!”

Ed triumphantly opened his gown, showing off his “friend” who greeted Lil in all its glory. Lil pulled her eyebrows together and smiled a forced smile.

‘Well… He’s not completely wrong… but unfortunately for Ed, he has a knack for making people reluctant to admit that he’s right. In that same sense, he also seems to enjoy seeing his opponent make such a sour expression. All in all, he’s this really odd side to his personality…’

“Even if you and my friend can’t meet yet, we still can have some fun right? So, for the time being, it’s okay to be sad while you wait with longing for the day you two will be united.”

“Hm… okay, yes. Well, what else can I do? I have to listen to whatever the doctor says.”

“I’m sure you don’t plan on delaying your recovery just because I say this, right? The sooner you get well enough, the better it is for both you and me.”

“Why for you again? What’s in it for you?”

Lil asked playfully, but Ed changed the topic.

“Speaking of recovery, I need to give you some food. You need to get healthy quickly.”

“…”

Standing up valiantly, Ed pulled the tassel next to the bed.

‘He looks cute with that hair of his, it looks like he has a fluttering bird’s nest on his head…’

Lil couldn’t figure out how this grown man with a body void of anything particularly endearing or gentle, could look like that. Lil smiled softly. The “nest” in question was in an extremely dishevelled state, probably because, since last night, Ed had been rolling around in bed with his hair still wet from the rain.

When Ed returned to her arms, Lil scattered the nest with her fingers to her heart’s content.

“You should eat the meat you like. It’s beef.”

“I actually don’t particularly like meat… I was just obsessed with it for the sake of my recovery.”

“Then what do you want? I’ll tell Levi to add it to your diet.”

Lil blinked for a moment.

‘He’s asking me what my favourite food is? Hmm, well… In the South, I enjoyed eating dried Erimyan or birch sugar*, but it’s too much to say that can be served as a mouth-watering meal…’

Lil searched through her memory.

‘When I was on the battlefield or the Bell Rock I was never in a position to choose my food, and for the rest of the days, I wasn’t allowed to eat my favourite food…’

Lil’s recollection needed to go even further back into the past.

‘I remember that I liked grilled fish when I was young. However, it’s a luxury that’s hard to get inland, and I think it’s a species that’s not common in the seas around the Empire.’

It was for that reason that Lil didn’t want to say it at first, but because of Ed’s natural persistence, she knew that if she answered with some random food, she would have to deal with his constant suspicions in finding out what she truly liked. So, Lil decided to answer honestly.

“I remember liking salmon when I was a kid.”

“Oh, I used to eat salmon every day in my hometown.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I think Linhardt has it in his upper storage room right now.”

“…”

After thinking about it for a while, Lil guessed it was actually a fairly common fish for him. Realising it belatedly, she remembered that salmon were actually caught in the northern Monferrand Strait.

Ed added excitedly.

“I’ll steal it for you.”

‘If he asks, they would just give it to him, right? So why would he bother stealing it?’

Nonetheless, Lil asked him not to steal them all, but to only bring three or four of them. Ed kept nodding his head while muttering something about salmon, wondering what was so good about it.

Lil, who was watching him intently, laid back next to him and asked.

“What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you like?”

Ed pursed his lips and twitched his cheek as if he couldn’t hold ‘something’ back.

“I can’t believe the day came when I received this kind of attention from you.”

“..!”

And when that ‘something’ reached the point where he could no longer bear it, Ed embraced Lil and nuzzled his head into her arms.

“I like you best, Liloa!”

“I meant to eat.”

“Ah.”

Lil frowned to stop herself from laughing too.

‘Oh my god… I never knew that this man, who is in love with me, could be so clumsy, air-headed and cute. It’s as if he has a screw missing somewhere…’

“Eating, if you meant something I consume… water?”

“..?”

“Wherever I go, water is the most important thing. I need it for my survival, my daily life, medicine… I need it for everything. Water is the food that deserves my favour and respect.”

‘Hearing his reasoning behind it, it seems like it’s the right thing to say.’

Lil nodded her head in response to his reasonable answer.

‘I want him to keep talking, but he isn’t saying anything else… I want to know more, but he only gives straightforward answers to my questions about himself.’

After placing her hand under her head as she lay on her side, Lil asked.

“And?”

“What?”

“Is there anything else? I heard from Levi that you’re thirty years old. However, apart from that, I don’t know anything else about you. You always only listen to what I say.”

“Hm, let’s see. Well, I was born on the Northern Continent.”

“You were?”

This time, it was Ed who just blinked. He always thought she already knew his birthplace, but seeing how she looked really confused, she truly had no clue.

Lil stared at him as if telling him to continue this momentum.

‘But he looks tongue-tied. I guess he isn’t used to talking about himself. In fact, Levi, who grew up with him since childhood, told me that he rarely talks to her about things other than medicine… And after becoming an adult, he also had less and less interactions with his cousin, Linhardt.’

“My parents… they were normal I guess. My mother was always kind, whereas my father was strict but caring. I was treasured because I was a child who came late into their lives. My family and I lived together in our castle, along with our other relatives. Our whole family was like that. My father was the eldest son, and I am the eldest son as well, so I never questioned the way I was treated. I guess I don’t have to tell you how I was raised.”

Lil burst out laughing upon listening to Ed’s story.

‘For some reason, I always sensed that he had strong narcissistic and arrogant tendencies ever since he was young. I can imagine a kid with that kind of personality running around the lord’s castle.’

“Then, when I was six, I got a younger brother.”

“..?”

Lil remembered Ed saying that he was an only child.

‘It was during breakfast in that inn we stayed in on Panichi, I’m certain he said so?’ contemporary romance

Noticing Lil’s puzzlement, Ed added.

“It was a stillborn…”

– – – – –

Footnote:

Erimyan: a fruit with a sweet and sour taste. Often dried and eaten as a cheap snack. Side effect from eating Erimyan on long voyages was it prevented gum infections.

Birch sugar: a natural sweetener and can be used as an active ingredient for oral hygiene.

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