Chapter 22
Chapter 22
After all the trouble and effort, Llewellyn had finally found a way to meet Rosenia.
The problem was that he couldn’t do it in human form.
“Whimper…”
Llewellyn, who had turned into a dog, got off a train. People became startled and screamed when a dog unexpectedly popped out of the entryway.
The dog was a large retriever, with fine glossy platinum hair and bright green eyes.
A dog with green eyes…Some thought it was a little strange, but regardless, everyone avoided it because they thought it might be a sorcerer’s pet dog.
In the southern city of Brindos ruled by the Hill family, everyone kept their heads down and avoided sorcerers at all cost if they could help it.
“Look, that dog…”
“Mom! That dog is huge!”
“Isn’t that a wolf?”
“What kind of wolf is that, isn’t it a retriever?”
“But why is the dog alone…I think it’s someone’s dog.”
“Shh, maybe it’s a sorcerer’s dog.”
People hushed and opened a path for the dog to pass like the red sea.
Llewellyn felt a sense of humiliation having to walk around in front of so many people, but he ran steadily with the thought that he might be able to meet Rosenia again.
Soon after, Llewellyn arrived at the Hill family’s villa.
The black iron gate was still tightly closed, and the wind from the villa smelled of fresh roses.
When Llewellyn took a peek, the garden of the villa was full of crimson roses, as it was four years ago.
Llewellyn ran toward the deserted fence in anticipation of finally meeting Rosenia.
If his guess was right, Rosenia would spend her vacation here every summer.
It was bitter for him to think that Rosenia would’ve spent her summer in this villa the last four years.
‘Why didn’t I come here more often? Why did I just bury that memory? The smell of roses back then, the burning sensation, why did I try to shake off?’
Regardless, Llewellyn couldn’t change the past.
Llewellyn stood at a proper distance from the fence and gave strength to his hind legs. The feeling was foreign to him as an animal, but it was not difficult to handle. Thinking of it as a tool made it easier.
Thud!
Taking a hard leap with his hind legs, he jumped over the fence. It was as easy as he had expected. He was a dog now, so all he could do was pant, but he was certain that he would have laughed if he had been a human.
Llewellyn ran like the wind through the bushes in the garden and headed to the white bench where he first met Rosenia four years ago.
But when Llewellyn arrived, Rosenia wasn’t there.
‘Where could she be?’
Llewellyn thought perhaps Rosenia wasn’t here.
‘Maybe her vicious brother is keeping her locked up in the Mage Tower…’
Llewellyn wandered around the garden, lost in his thoughts. He was desperate to find any traces of another human. He didn’t know how long he wandered around like that. Taking one tour around the garden, he realized it was bigger than it seemed. Turning around, his tail limped as he snooped around the villa.
‘If there’s no one in the villa, then Rosenia really didn’t come here.’
Llewellyn felt deflated when he thought about it. He felt a sense of hopelessness.
‘Will I never be able to see her again?’
Her brother seemed crazy in many ways. Llewellyn had heard a rumor that Adrian treasured his sister excessively, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad.
Adrian Hill was such a person who wouldn’t have allowed her to live anywhere but the Mage Tower and would’ve wanted to spend his entire life with her. After the royal banquet, Llewellyn, who was blocked from all attempts to reach Rosenia, truly thought so.
‘There’s really no way.’
Llewellyn, who looked like a big retriever with his tail limped and whimpering, at this moment,
“…Where’s the dog?”
He heard something not far away from here. It was a clear and high voice.
“…!”
With his ears pricked, he curled up his tail and turned towards the noise.
Because Llewellyn had turned into a dog, his view was low, but the figure that he had been hoping to see came into his view.
Rosenia looked down at him with her long dark pink hair tied loosely and hanging to the side. She looked like a fairy in her white muslin dress with a blue ribbon around her waist.
Each step Rosenia took towards him, the thin hem of her dress fluttered lightly.
Llewellyn stared blankly at her with a sense that time had stopped, and then, the moment she finally closed the distance and reached out her hand, he quickly laid on the ground and flipped over with his belly up.
Rosenia paused. It was at that moment that Llewellyn came to his senses…
‘What am I doing?’
Laying down, Llewellyn looked at the blue sky, the end of the blue ribbon that seemed to melt into the sky, and at the rosy hair of the swaying Rosenia.
“…I’m acting like a dog…”
As Llewellyn was feeling a sense of shame, he heard Rosenia’s laughter.
“You’re really gentle, aren’t you?”
“…”
Llewellyn wanted to plead that he was not gentle and that his body had simply moved on its own, but as soon as Rosenia’s hand touched his stomach, he hardened like ice.
Shwuah, Shwuah.
With a steady stroke of his stomach, he found himself unable to move at all. It was a huge shock.
Llewellyn could vividly feel the soft touch of her palms and the warmth it radiated. The feeling of having his stomach touched was so good that he opened his mouth and panted without realizing it.
If he could get touched like this every day, he thought he wouldn’t mind living as a dog for the rest of his life…
However, Llewellyn wouldn’t be able to be her lover, fiancée, spouse, or the like as long as he was a dog. A dog was a dog in the end.
‘Should I turn back into a human and reveal myself?’
For a moment, Llewellyn had such an urge, but he thought if he suddenly revealed his identity, Rosenia would run away. Or, she would call her brother because the Duke of Rasiane had played a prank on her. That would be even worse. Nothing good would come from running into Adrian Hill.
Eventually, Llewellyn decided to be satisfied with meeting her as a dog for now.
‘Even though I’m a dog, I could slowly get close to her…If I reveal my identity then, wouldn’t there be less of a shock?’
That was what Llewellyn decided.
“Where did you come from? Was the gate open? Or is there some kind of hole in the fence?”
Llewellyn found Rosenia’s voice to be pleasant to his ears. It was high like a clear bell, but as soothing as a relaxed piano melody. He wished time would stop like this. He circled around her when she stood up. He gently touched the hem of her dress with his tail. Then, he licked her hand and she giggled.
“You little rascal.”
Rosenia wasn’t mad, even though she scolded him by tapping his moist nose. Such was the privilege of dogs.
Llewellyn thought it would be safe to rush in and lick her face at this rate, but knew it would be too shameless to go that far no matter how much he thought about it. He decided to keep a bit of conscience.
However, Llewellyn soon regretted that decision.
“Rose.”
Thinking to himself that he didn’t even get to have enough fun with Rosenia, yet her brother had appeared.
“This dog?”
Adrian walked as if he was the embodiment of darkness.
His red eyes, which were feared by people, furiously fixed itself on Llewellyn.
‘…Maybe, if it’s him.’
Holding his breath, he thought to himself. The fact that Adrian might discover him.
“Ah, brother, you came so soon?”
“What’s with the dog?”
Nodding his head, he pointed at the dog and asked again. As if it was no big deal, Rosenia looked at the dog with a bright smile and answered.
“Isn’t it cute? It was in the garden.”
“It was in the garden?”
“Yeah, there must have been a hole in the fence. Or did brother brought me the dog?”
“Hmm…”
As if Adrian found it unusual, his red eyes narrowed on the dog as he probed it. Although Llewellyn was pretending to be a dog, he had prepared himself for any emergency.
“Rosenia, since when?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you already have a dumb beast by your side?”
“It’s different. That’s a familiar. This is a dog.”
Listening silently to the conversation between the two, Llewellyn sensed that the direction of the situation had become dire.
Adrian seemed to have noticed it.
The fact that it was a human and not a dog. Maybe, even the fact that it was Llewellyn Rasiane.
Llewellyn was quick to judge that he should get away from here. It would be very awkward to get caught by Adrian at the Hill family’s villa.
However, Llewellyn could hardly move his feet. Rosenia was constantly on his mind. He didn’t want to be away from her for even a second.
‘This bastard Adrian Hill.’
Before Llewellyn knew it, he was staring at Adrian furiously. However, anyone who saw it would find it strange because the dog would repeatedly look at Rosenia who was standing next to Adrian. It was an act a normal dog would not do.
It wasn’t missed by Adrian. Thinking that he must catch this suspicious and disgusting person disguised as a dog, Adrian invoked the mana deep within him.
“…!”
Llewellyn, keenly aware of the change, quickly attacked Adrian.
“This creep overestimates himself…”
Right before the angry Adrian could use his magic, Llewellyn released his divine power and struck him. Taking advantage of the opening, he quickly ran away.
“Brother, stop!”
Behind his back came Rosenia’s voice stopping Adrian. He seemed to have recovered even after being hit directly by Llewellyn’s divine power.
‘That son of a bitch.’
In his mind, he was cursing with all the swear words he knew. Like an arrow, he shot away from the villa.
As soon as Llewellyn arrived at the station, he got on the train without a hitch.
The train carrying him soon left at a high speed.
It was not until three or four hours later that Llewellyn safely returned to the Duchy of Rasiane.
The retainers, who were frightened to death by the duke’s disappearance, were relieved when he returned safely.
Llewellyn, feeling a little guilty, went back to his room. He was glad that he came back safely, however the thought that he might have made a mistake never left his mind.
And sure enough, his ominous foreboding became a reality.
Ever since that incident, Llewellyn was unable to even catch a glimpse of her crimson hair.
Llewellyn couldn’t reach her no matter what he tried. The memory that was imprinted in his mind forever, the rose garden, he could not reach Rosenia Hill at all.
Over time, the seasons changed and summer came again, but there was no Rosenia. She didn’t come. It was easy for him to guess that her brother wouldn’t have allowed it.
‘That bastard Adrian Hill.’
Llewellyn, who recited the words like a curse, became dispirited day by day. He looked fine on the surface, but his insides were rotting away. It had already been more than two years since he last saw Rosenia.
With the ways things were, anxiety swept over him at the thought that he might never see her again.
‘No, it can’t be.’
Llewellyn tried desperately to find a way.
But Adrian Hill’s impenetrable security wasn’t something he dared to break through.
‘Really, I really should have kidnapped her that time.’
Half out of his mind, Llewellyn thought as such.
‘When I met her as a dog, I should have turned back into a human and kidnapped her…Rosenia, Rose. That was what Adrian Hill had called her. Rose, her nickname. Rose…’
Llewellyn called her name to himself over and over again. He thought if he did that, she’d appear like magic. He was steadily going mad, but it was only a few who noticed the change.
Those who have been with him ever since he was a child. His steward, nanny, advisor, master, and the Knight Commander. Only those close to him noticed.
Filled with an anxiety only they knew, time continued to move.
Two years of winter, and three years of spring came and went.
Spring passed into summer, and summer passed into fall.
When snow fell, dead leaves returned to the soil and the ground froze.
As the frozen rivers and lakes began to melt, light spring leaves sprouted.
Four years had gone by since that fateful summer.
A chance had finally arrived.
Llewellyn’s emerald eyes flashed like a man who had risen from death.
“Adrian Hill is going to the South Sea to investigate the recent beast attacks. His sister will be there. Perhaps the princess will be staying at the Hill family’s villa.”
The mad Duke, unable to perceive the hidden intention behind the news, was elated when he heard the Knight Commander’s report.