A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 69

The woman was like a mirage. She looked like a precarious sandcastle built by the sea, as though she might disappear at any moment.

Why did he feel that way? The moment his feet touched the sand, his strides lengthened. He approached the woman as though he were practically running.

Perhaps sensing his presence, the woman turned around. Her pink hair, which looked delicate in the light, fluttered in the sea breeze. Tucking it behind her ear, she smiled radiantly, sparkling all over like a crystal sphere.

For some reason, he merely stared at that smile as though entranced, until the woman looked at him questioningly.

Moistening his dry lips, he approached Eleanor.

“So this is where you were?”

“Yes. The ladies told me this afternoon that the sea here was incredibly beautiful. Oh… they were right. It’s truly so beautiful.”

All the seas of Gammelstad were beautiful, but the beach behind Solvikviche was an especially magnificent sight. From the clear water, transparent enough to see through, to the pristine sky beyond the horizon, it looked like a painstakingly painted masterpiece.

This place was one of the reasons he spent most of the year in Gammelstad. Here, there was neither the eye-watering brilliance of jewels nor the sharp scent of heavy perfume stinging his nose.

There were only him, the sea, the wind, and the horizon. No hypocrisy could intrude there, not even his own arrogance.

Eleanor murmured as she gazed far out over the sea, “It’s a shame… that I can only see a place like this now….”

“You can still be here next year.”

The woman’s eyes returned to him.

“The sea will always be here the year after that and the year after that too. You can see it whenever you like.”

“…Is that so?”

Eleanor answered with a faint smile. For some reason, that smile made somewhere deep in his chest ache dully, but Matthias didn’t know why.

While he tried to understand his own state and the thoughts concealed behind Eleanor’s expression, her pale fingers intertwined with his.

“Shall we walk for a while?”

Holding hands, the two slowly walked along the shore where the seawater rolled in.

With every step, Eleanor’s shoes wobbled slightly as they sank into the sand she wasn’t accustomed to. After watching her for a moment, Matthias bent down.

“…Your Grace…!”

Ignoring Eleanor’s startled exclamation, he removed her shoes. He also took off her stockings woven from fine silver thread, then placed her small, milky-white bare feet on the sand.

The sensation of sand warmed by the sun throughout the day against her feet felt wonderfully strange and pleasant.

“How is it? Feels good, doesn’t it?”

Still crouching, he raised only his head to look up at her. When their eyes met, he smiled innocently, almost like a child.

His beautiful blond hair fluttered in the wind. His eyes, which sometimes looked mischievous, sometimes cold, and sometimes sensual, were now colored with pure adoration as they gazed at her. He smiled brightly, wearing an expression Eleanor had never seen before.

A surge of emotions she’d struggled to suppress at the bottom of her heart threatened to rise. Eleanor hurriedly composed her expression and instead answered with a pout.

“I only took off my shoes.”

“Do you want to take off something else?”

“…Th-that’s not what I meant. It was only a figure of speech…. I heard they even have clothes for swimming across the sea.”

He could obtain something like that easily enough. If she wanted it.

But even Nielsen couldn’t instantly produce something he didn’t have before his very eyes.

More than anything, he didn’t want to ruin this moment. This twilight hour when he could stroll alone with the woman along the beach he cherished.

Matthias straightened up. He removed the jacket of the formal uniform he’d worn to the governor’s residence and placed it on the sand. He untied the cravat constricting his neck and tossed it aside, then undid even the buttons that had been fastened neatly down the front of his shirt.

“Wh-what are you doing…?!”

Instead of answering Eleanor, who stared at him in horror, he gave a quiet laugh and finished removing his shirt.

Eleanor stared blankly at him after his bare upper body was revealed in an instant, her face turning red. The sight of her looking so terribly embarrassed yet unable to tear her eyes away was rather adorable.

After removing his shoes and socks as well, he placed a hand on his trouser buckle. Eleanor hurriedly stopped him.

“Th-that’s enough… I understand!”

“What do you understand?”

“I-I’m satisfied with only taking off my shoes!”

He hadn’t intended to tease her. He stared down at her hand resting on his trouser buckle, then took it in his and kneaded it gently.

“All right. For the sake of my wife’s dignity, I’ll at least keep my trousers on.”

“….”

“Now it’s your turn, madam.”

When Eleanor merely stared at him with a foolish expression, Matthias gestured toward her dress with his chin. Eleanor looked down at her dress once before asking, “Surely you don’t expect me to undress too?”

“Don’t you remember what I said before? That it should be fair.”

It was hardly fair of him to repeat out here in broad daylight what he’d said in bed on their first night, but Eleanor couldn’t protest and merely nibbled at her lower lip.

“We’re the only ones here anyway.”

“….”

“And no one but us can come here.”

“….”

“It seems you’re more of a coward than I thought, madam.”

At the word coward, Eleanor glared at him. Then, as though making up her mind, she reached behind herself and began undoing the buttons of her dress. When she reached a place she simply couldn’t reach, she even had the boldness to step in front of him and turn her back.

For some reason, Matthias’s mouth felt dry as he placed his hands on the buttons of her dress. Each time he undid one with a soft pop, more of her skin was revealed beneath the pale, straight nape of her neck.

Once he’d finally undone all the buttons, Eleanor pushed the dress down from her shoulders as though casting off a cumbersome burden. When she let it fall around her feet like a discarded skin and turned around, only a very thin muslin underdress remained.

As the sunlight strengthened and faded, subtly illuminating the woman’s bare flesh beneath it, a groan rose in his throat, and he barely managed to swallow it.

“What are you going to do now, Your Grace?”

Her spirited question made laughter burst from his lips.

“What else would we do? If we’ve undressed in front of the sea, isn’t it obvious?”

“…What? What do you….”

“If you come to the sea, you have to face the sea.”

“Ah!”

Matthias easily hoisted Eleanor over his shoulder. When her view suddenly turned upside down and she began thrashing about in a frenzy, he lightly slapped her plump bottom, careful not to hurt her. He was being mischievous enough that anyone watching would never have believed he was that Nielsen.

With Eleanor slung over his shoulder, he stood at the boundary where the waves rolled in. Light blue water washed over the tops of his feet before retreating.

“Y-You’re not really going in, are you?!”

“Why do you think I’m not?”

With that, he strode into the sea. As she watched the water gradually submerge his ankles, calves, and knees, the woman shrieked again and again as though she were the one sinking into it.

At last, the water rose to his waist.

“I… I’m scared….”

“Should we go back out like this?”

He didn’t want to frighten her. He had simply read the longing in the woman’s eyes as she gazed out at the distant sea.

“Don’t be afraid. If you don’t want to do this, I’ll carry you quietly back out just as we are.”

“….”

The woman stopped kicking her legs.

If you come to the sea, you have to face the sea. Eleanor recalled what the man said earlier.

The sea gently rippling in place was beautiful. If she was going to experience it at least once, she wanted to do so with him. Just like so many of her other firsts.

“Put me down. I want to try going in….”

At her words, Matthias held her in his arms and slowly lowered her.

“Wrap your arms around my neck.”

Once her slender arms encircled his neck, he held her waist and lowered her very slowly, letting her lean against his body.

Eleanor’s legs touched the water, and she flinched at the cold, but she didn’t tell him to stop. The hem of her soaked underdress sank beneath the water, and the sea rose to her waist.

“M-My feet can’t touch the bottom…!”

She hurriedly stretched out her toes, but she couldn’t feel the ground. Yet Matthias was clearly standing.

When the fear made her panic, Matthias wrapped both her legs around his waist.

“You’ll be safe like this.”

“….”

“I’ll never let you fall.”

Matthias supported Eleanor’s bottom with his hands and slowly moved farther into the sea. When the water reached around his solar plexus, he stopped and asked, “How does it feel to be in the sea?”

The woman, clinging tightly around his neck, whispered, “…It’s cold.”

A quiet laugh escaped him.

“What else?”

“And… it’s warm. Your body.”

It was ironic. Only after entering somewhere cold had she finally realized that the other person was warm.

Eleanor’s soft breasts pressed against his bare chest. Perhaps startled by the cold water, her nipples stood stiff, and he could feel them distinctly. Eleanor had probably felt it too. The hardness at his groin between her parted legs.

The woman’s face reddened. He gently kissed her. The moment their lips met, hers parted slightly after a brief hesitation. Warm tongues greeted each other through the opening.

They kissed slowly, as though trying to savor each other for as long as possible, with all the tenderness of wounded animals licking each other’s wounds.

When their lips parted, two hazy gazes met. As though a magical potion had been poured into the sea, their deeply aroused, dazed eyes remained locked on each other.

Eleanor regarded the man’s persistent stare with a trace of sorrow before speaking, “I have something to confess.”

The woman’s confessions. Her confession that she stepped on her partner’s feet twice during a single turn while dancing.

Her confession that she would make him happy.

The woman’s confessions bewildered him, surprised him, and sometimes made him….

“I love you.”

“….”

“I’m in love with you.”