I Want To Be Your First – R19 - Chapter 80

Sunlight pierced her eyelids and coloured her vision white. Ariel closed her eyes and hummed in a barely audible voice.

“When the flowers within the shadows bloomed, and a new season arrived with the flapping wings of butterflies.

Please forget about me. Don’t look for me anymore.”

‘Why did a song that I’m humming unconsciously turn out like this?’

As she became aware of it, she became depressed and her nasal voice gradually subsided. Vieta’s lively voice intervened through the melancholy consciousness.

“Madam! The luggage has all been arranged for, so we can depart now.”

With a white bonnet in hand, Vieta approached and tied it on Ariel’s head skillfully. She tied the ribbon into a bow and arranged her lace. Her excitement was reflected in her rapidly moving hand.

“Vieta. You seem happy.”

“Ahaha, is it very obvious? I’m nervous as it’s my first time travelling to such a far away place. Well, it’s not that I’m feeling good.”

Yellow ripples could be seen on her gray silhouette. It was the colour that Ariel would see when others were feeling happy for having fun. But she seemed to be worried that Ariel would be depressed, so she didn’t express it. Noticing her inner thoughts, Ariel forced a smile and patted Vieta on the shoulder.

“Apparently it’s a huge passenger ship. It’ll take quite a while to reach the North, so I guess that’s why a nice ship was arranged on purpose. There’s a library, a promenade, and a banquet hall… Right, I heard that the food is also very delicious, so let’s eat delicious food to our heart’s content.”

“At those words, I’m starting to look forward to it. Well, if it was such a nice ship, it would have been nice if the Young Duke had also rode on it together with you. What made her leave in such a hurry?”

“Successors aren’t supposed to leave the territory from autumn to early spring. She was so busy preparing for the winter. Perhaps it was too much for her to come here.”

‘I’m going to divorce the Count,’ she had only said this line, and Gwen was overjoyed without even asking why.

Like she had been waiting for the longest time, Gwen had prepared everything, from the temporary residence to the boats heading North and other means of transportation, before leaving for the North first after leaving behind a final message. “Ignore whatever that b*stard says and come.”

“Oh yeah… I had felt this in the capital too, but you have a very good relationship with your sister. I hope that my younger siblings will take care of their older sister as much as the Young Duke does when they grow up…”

“Not necessarily. We fought quite a lot when we were young.”

“Really? I can’t imagine that.”

“Even if we’re aristocrats, our lives are about the same. Gwen nags that I shouldn’t go to dangerous places, so I sneaked out and got caught playing… There were many instances like that. I was so fed up with her nagging that would even appear in my dreams later on.”

Just as she stepped out of the mansion onto the hillside path leading towards the harbour, Ariel let out a sigh and mumbled.

“Speaking about dreams, I remembered the dream I had this morning. It was a strange dream.”

“What was your dream about?”

“I was running along the pier and suddenly… It was a dream of falling somewhere.”

It was a very strange dream. An ambiguous dream that wasn’t confirmed whether it was a precognitive dream.

The fog that was blocking her slowly sank into darkness, and her vision suddenly broadened… This feeling was definitely the same as other precognitive dreams, but it was from a different perspective.

If the normal dreams can be described as observing everything from the air, then the dream today felt like she was seeing the world through another’s eyes.

Within the shaking gaze, she could see the blue sea and the gray dock, with several galleons anchored. Rippling waves, and ships lined up endlessly underneath the dazzling sunlight.

While it was a magnificent scene, it was somewhat unpleasant.

As the gaze slowly scanned the scene before it, it stopped at the largest ship moored in a distance.

She could feel agitation. Without even the time to think about what that was, ‘she’ started running.

‘Her’ breaths shortened and ‘her’ vision blurred. The ship got closer and closer, and the crowd of crew and boarding passengers appeared grayish.

…Oh.

The moment the trembling pupils found something, ‘she’ focused on it clearly. The footsteps paused for a moment, and like a decision was made, ‘she’ sprinted at an even faster pace.

The scenery flew by at an astonishingly fast speed. ‘Her’ teeth were clenched tightly and ‘her’ chin was tingling. Running without hesitation while looking only at one point.

At that moment.

There was the sound of something breaking, and then the feet collapsed downwards. Without the time to feel shock, the vision went dark with the sound of a splash.

It felt like something was missing. Even if ‘she’ tried to struggle, the heavy body had just sank downwards like she was in a swamp.

When the ‘she’ was about to close her eyes, something black flashed past. Just like that, her vision blurred. With the thought, ‘Oh, it’s over,’ Ariel woke up from the dream.

“It’s somewhat… It was so different from what I usually dream of.”

The viewpoint and atmosphere were hard to be called a precognitive dream. However, she couldn’t ignore it, as the remnants of the dream remained too strongly in her mind for her to ignore.

As if she had noticed her unease, Vieta comforted Ariel with a soft tone.

“No matter what, you’re leaving here forever. It may be a subconscious reflection of your unease.”

“If that’s the case, I’m glad…”

“Don’t think too deeply. Oh my, looking at the darkness underneath your eyes, it seems like you didn’t sleep well because of your dream.”

‘Nothing will happen.’

Ariel said to herself and continued conversing with Vieta. It was her first time on a passenger ship, she can just show the ticket when entering, she should have brought more snacks, etc.

In the middle of talking to herself, she felt her subtle consideration not to think about anything else, so Ariel matched her diligently.

After a short walk, she arrived at the port. The porters that arrived first greeted her with a bow, before rushing towards the pier.

“I guess that’s the ship we’re going to be riding on.”

A large boat was moored at the place where the porters were moving towards.

Royal Manatee. The portion that had its name gleamed golden. Like it was proving that it’s a luxury passenger ship, it seemed like a very large and luxurious ship even from a distance. Vieta grabbed Ariel’s hand excitedly.

“We have some time left before we depart! What should we do? Shall we board the boat right away?”

Vieta chattered excitedly. Ariel was about to answer with, “Is that so,” but she opened and closed her mouth before closing her mouth again. At the thought that she was about to leave, she felt regretful.

Once she gets on the ship, there will be no return.

She will never return to the South again. And her relationship with the Count… it’ll really be over.

‘…Are you really going to let me go?’

‘Count, is it really okay for me to leave?’

Although she left the mansion determinedly, she was filled with disappointment at the fact that there weren’t any signs of him trying to find her. He might come in search of her, he might have thought that she still had affection for him.

‘Why am I so pathetic?’

She couldn’t understand why she was hesitant now even though she had made the decision to leave on her own.

She let out a deep sigh and lighted her head. A glimmer of despair flashed through her gray eyes.

“There’s nothing else to do anyways, so let’s hurry and board.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Vieta took out the ticket from her pocket. Gold-coated tickets for the highest classed cabin fluttered in the wind.

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Bang!

Like he was trying to smash the office door, Berthwald kicked it open and sprinted out of the office door. With his coldly hardened face, every step he took caused a chill to rise.

“You should have reported it earlier, what are you doing, telling me that she’s bound for a ship that would be leaving in 30 minutes?”

When he spoke barbedly, Vion that was following him, bowed his head and answered.

“I’m sorry. That’s… The list of ships got messed up due to the merchant ship that you’d inspected previously.”

“Forget that, what’s the name of the ship?”

“It’s the Royal Manatee.”

Royal Manatee.

‘Where have I heard that name before?’

Berthwald tilted his head to the side and traced back his memory.

A luxury passenger ship sailing from the southern continent to the North. It was the representative passenger ship of Port Argentas Shipping, which belonged to Spade, where the Janssel family was the largest shareholder.

Having recalled the name, affiliation, and the characteristics of the ship, Berthwald hurriedly calculated where the ship might be. Due to the characteristics of being a luxury passenger ship, it was probably anchored at the northern pier, where there was ample free space, as the hull was large.

He left the office building and went towards the market that was filled with people. At the sight of the Lord hurriedly walking with a scary look on his face, Vion and the guards followed closely behind with tense expressions.

The appearance of tall men caused people’s gazes to gather at them. The moment their curious gazes reached Berthwald’s face, the noise that had been resounding from the stalls vanished into the air.

The sight of a handsome man one would only see once-in-a-lifetime moving forward with a chilly expression drew people’s attention in itself. The crowd split apart naturally and Berthwald ran out of the market on foot.

As he turned towards the northern pier, an unusually large ship came into view. Berthwald narrowed his eyes and confirmed the ship’s name on the stern.

“…Royal Manatee.”

Seeing how the stairs were attached, it seemed that boarding had already begun.

‘Is Ariel already on board, or is she waiting for her turn in the crowd in front of me?’

Either way, both were seriously…

He stopped walking. Feeling the uncomfortable sensation in his heart, he rubbed the back of his neck for no reason at all.

‘…Do you really want to leave?’

‘Stay by my side, Ariel…’

A feeling rose up in his throat, one that was unclear whether it was a sense of loss or betrayal. Berthwald used his hand to cover the corners of his eyes that were heating up and let out a deep sigh.

He had planned to leave it be.

He was angered to the point where he was in the mood to leave her to her own devices.

‘Are you heading towards the North?’

‘Do as you please.’

In any case, the one that would be crying in regret would be Ariel.

As he had always been the one that was influenced thus far, he wanted to influence Ariel.

He will wait and wait and wait, until she regrets, thinking,”I shouldn’t have talked about divorce,” and when she writes from the ducal castle about wanting to return, silly Ariel would think, ‘As expected, he’s the only man that loves me,’ and enter his embrace regretfully.

He had to wait.

Just until Ariel regrets it.

Only when their relationship has reversed, will she not speak of nonsense like divorce.

If she said that she’ll come back, he’d either head to the North to bring her back or wait for her to return to Pahar.

‘…I’m the one that can’t wait.’

He couldn’t stand the thought of his wife going somewhere that was out of his reach.