I Want To Be Your First – R19 - Chapter 105

After stamping his seal on the final document, Berthwald, who was absorbed in his work without even having dinner, raised his gaze that had been affixed to his desk the entire time.

As if it had been dark for some time, the purple twilight hung precariously at the edge of the horizon.

He took off the glasses that he was wearing and placed them in the drawer, gathered all the scattered documents and books, and organised them to one side. Berthwald, who was about to leave his seat, paused when he spotted the velvet box placed at the corner of his desk.

“There’s this.”

He had intended to get an escort in order to keep an eye on her. He also managed to obtain this at the right time.

Berthwald picked up the box carefully and headed towards Ariel’s room.

When he stood in front of the door, the sound of the lyre entered his ear softly. Berthwald waited for the performance to end before placing the box in his pocket and entering the room.

“Oh, Count!”

Ariel hurriedly set the instrument down and headed towards Berthwald in a shaky manner.

“I was sad that you didn’t come even during meal time! Something really delicious came out today. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to see you today as you’re busy… Have you finished all of your work?”

Ariel bit on her lower lip and looked up at Berthwald with glistening eyes.

From the way she hovered in front of him with awkwardly outstretched hands and hovered in front of him, she seemed to be watching out for his mood, whether it was alright for her to reach out and whether it was alright to hug him.

Berthwald held Ariel by the waist and pulled her towards him, before planting a gentle kiss on her forehead. As he whispered by her ear that he had finished them, the clouded gray eyes slowly narrowed into a pretty curve.

The sight of Ariel’s smiling face reminded him of the flower tea they saw in Nedik. The fascinating sight of the pea-sized buds slowly blooming and dying the surrounding area with their own colours and petals.

Ariel’s face was exactly the same. The way her composed face was slowly dyed with a peach colour as she gave a smile was like a blooming flower.

As Ariel stared into the air with a blank face, it had always given off an unexpectedly melancholic feeling. The more he observed it, the more it felt like she would turn to dust and disappear like a snowflake.

It was like… a person that was only connected to the world with a very thin string. Just like a fog that lingers, it felt like she would cut the string off without hesitation and fly up to the sky.

Was that the reason why?

The reason that he had always found her smiling appearance very special.

Berthwald continued to plant kisses on the corners of her eyes before removing his lips regretfully.

“Have you had dinner?”

“Yes, I’ve been eating well as always. The chef is really good at cooking.”

“What did you eat?”

“Well… Corn soup, tomato salad, a large fried fish… Oh, a unique dish was served today. Sweet and sour fish soup is eaten with a mixture of pork, pineapple, and rice.”

“Ahh, so it’s a pilaf set.”

“Have the Count eaten it before?”

“That’s a traditional southern dish. It’s not too bad, but it might have been hard for my wife to eat because of the strong scent…Did you like it?”

“Yes, it was delicious, albeit difficult to consume. A thin paper-like bread was given, right? I heard that you’re supposed to eat it with the rice wrapped within, but I messed up my hands while rolling it. My hands still have a delicious scent.”

Ariel raised up her palm and sniffed, before raising her hand and placing it before Berthwald’s nose, telling him to take a sniff.

Indeed, the smell of spices such as turmeric and cardamom could be detected when he took a whiff.

Berthwald looked at her palm, before pressing his lips on the lines on her palm. He spreaded the curled up hand forcibly and followed up her hand naturally towards her lips.

The gaze that was facing her palm slowly moved towards Ariel’s face, and an odd gleam began to appear in the half-lidded blue eyes.

“I’m suddenly hungry.”

At the word hungry, Ariel’s expression turned serious.

“Have you not eaten yet? Should I let them prepare your meal now?”

“I’m not hungry,” replied Berthwald, and lowered his head a little more.

His vision was filled with her innocent face, which was tilted like she was asking what he was saying. Berthwald quietly scanned Ariel’s face with a smile.

His gaze slid past the eyebrows, eyelids, and nose bridge, before reaching the small lips that were slightly parted. Berthwald tilted Ariel’s chin and pulled her lower lip down slightly with his thumb.

“I’m attracted to this.”

As Berthwald muttered with an amused tone, he gently overlapped their lips.

As soon as their lips touched, the unique scent of lavender along with the scent of spices brushed against the tip of his nose. Instantly, a strange satisfaction that was indescribable spreaded in his heart gently.

As she gives off a scent of life, the fact that he was living with Ariel touched him deeply.

In that far away land, the woman that lived underneath the North’s blue sky and amidst the wind that was colder than water, was now living underneath the South’s scorching sun, and was eating the same food as him and sleeping next to him.

He was touched rather than thrilled that his daily life was dyed by the woman he liked. Berthwald closed his eyes and brushed his lips on her like he was savouring it.

Ariel remained still until her face turned red, before she reached her limits of oxygen and turned her head away with a loud exhale.

“Hah… The Count is always… you’re always suddenly like this.”

“You don’t like it?”

“…No, that’s not it.”

“Then from now onwards I’ll inform you first before taking action. In 10 seconds, I’ll lift you up and throw you onto the bed, so don’t be too surprised.”

“…That’s!”

That’s, it wasn’t time to sleep yet, and Vieta said that she’ll bring cocoa for her later, as Ariel kept mumbling, she looked up at Berthwald. She smiled like she was about to say something, but soon after, like she had given up, closed her mouth with an expression of futility. She then grabbed Berthwald’s hand and strode to the window.

For some reason, in the face of her determined actions, Berthwald had only followed behind Ariel’s lead quietly. Just when they reached the window, Ariel spoke up.

“Erm, Count.”

Deep in thought, Ariel sat in the corner of the sofa beside the window and raised a question with a calm tone.

“Do you happen to know a place called Nachtfil? It’s a mountain in the north. The northernmost mountain.”

The moment he heard her words, Berthwald stopped like he had broken down.

‘Why was she suddenly talking about Nachtfil?’

‘Did Mother tell Ariel about the trip to the North?’

However, it was unlikely that Violet, who wouldn’t divulge work-related information easily, would have told Ariel that. Berthwald blinked a couple of times before responding calmly to the question.

“…Anyone that’s an Imperial citizen would know. It’s located at the end of the continent and is a famous place amongst the masses. But why are you suddenly talking about Nachtfil?”

“That’s… I had a dream.”

At the word ‘dream’, Berthwald’s brows furrowed slightly.

“What kind of dream is it? Was it, perhaps, that kind of dream again?”

“Oh, it wasn’t a nightmare. A precognitive dream… Yes, it was similar to that.”

Ariel hugged her thighs in a curled up position.

“It’s been weird recently. I have been having precognitive dreams more frequently. Originally, I would only have frequent dreams when I’m in danger, but that’s not the case these days. Today, too…”

Ariel tilted her head with a displeased expression and her words trailed off.

The precognitive dream, which she would only get once or twice a year, has been tormenting Ariel every three or four days as of late

It wasn’t anything else, but odd dreams that could tell the future. At first she was agitated, but now it has become something she was dull towards, so Ariel would often think, ‘You’d gotten another precognitive dream.’

However, the dream she had yesterday was a little special. It’s because the most precious person to her appeared in her dream.

“I dreamt of a mountain.”

With half-lidded eyes, Ariel stared blankly at her knees.

“The highest and sharpest horn. I couldn’t understand with just words, but when I saw it, I knew. Of all the many mountains, I could instantly tell that that mountain was Nachtfil.”

Amongst the numerous white peaks that blocked her vision, only that mountain was exceptionally towering and boasted of imposing grandeur.

A pitch-black mountain, as if it was sharply sculpted out of black ore. The ice caps that were above it were like densely settled white webs. It was the northern wall and the sacred mountain Nachtfil, which she had only heard of in stories.

“Just like that, in a place where the mountain can be seen… The Count stood before the snowfield that was covered in a snowstorm.”

A tall man stood amongst the incessantly billowing white wind. His wide shoulders and exceptionally long legs allowed the man’s identity to be inferred from his back appearance.

The man observing the mountain slowly turned his head and said something to the man, who was of a similar build, that was standing next to him. Even though it was quite a distance away, she was certain that it was him the instant she caught sight of his side profile.

In a view that was slightly closer. It was Berthwald as expected. The man standing next to him had a slightly larger stature, so he seemed to be Vion.

The eye-catching platinum blond hair and deep blue eyes matched the white anorak made of leather. It was her first time seeing someone that looked so good in the North’s traditional garments.

The blizzard increased in intensity, and Berthwald approached the workers that were standing in the distance and gave them some orders. She had tried to follow him as he moved away, but white dots appeared in her vision and soon enough the white dots turned into darkness.

Just like that, the dream ended. The process of beginning and ending the dream, that strange sense of life. All of which were things she found in her precognitive dreams.

Though there weren’t any particularly bad incidents or accidents, it was a precognitive dream.

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