Silver Lining Yesterday - Chapter 8
“Perhaps we’ll need to send support to the north. If the reports from the intelligence department are true, and Yeta is preparing for war, the northern garrisons alone won’t be able to hold them off.”
“But if we back out, the pirates won’t stay still… what do you think, Captain?”
Nix, the only one seated, sat in deep thought. His side profile was eerily calm in the flickering light of the hearth.
Jean watched him silently for a moment before quietly stepping down and leaving the captain’s quarters.
Ever since she had heard that name, the one she wanted to erase from her memories, her heart had been trembling uneasily.
She rushed through the dark corridor and out onto the deck, letting out a silent scream amongst the biting night wind around her.
Lipton!
Damn Lipton!
Jean trembled with an uncontrollable rage.
The cold winter wind seeped through the loose collar of her clothes, but she didn’t feel the chill. Instead, a rising heat that felt as if it might burn her insides overtook her.
“Jean Rohrbach, I will devote myself to you.”
She remembered the image of Lipton flying to her side a white flag.
The sight of him kissing the back of her hand in front of countless barrels of guns.
“I can’t really imagine a country without a king, but I’m sure the world you dream of would be magnificent.”
She remembered the days when his support had given her courage.
If she could, she wanted to scrape it all away with her nails. She wanted to slice up that dignified face in her memories with a knife.
Betrayal.
It meant nothing anymore.
Over the course of the four-year revolutionary war, Jean had experienced countless betrayals.
Yet, the reason she was so infuriated by Lipton was not because he simply betrayed her.
Lipton had sealed her away.
He had taken away 23 years of her life and erased her existence from the revolution she had been willing to dedicate her life to.
In an instant, she had lost her ground and the world she was meant to live in. The feeling of losing direction filled her with raw fury.
She could never forget Lipton’s pitiful face, the last thing she had seen before being sealed away.
How dare he look at her with those wounded eyes?
She was the one who lost everything, left with nothing but a body.
“I’ll kill you, Gregory Lipton. I swear I will…”
“Was it Lipton who sealed you away?”
Jean looked around in shock. Nix had been following her, watching from the shadows.
As Jean’s lips moved, unsure of what to say, Nix casually pushed off from the wall and walked toward her.
“When you disappeared, that man took over the revolutionaries. Thanks to that, he ended the war and seized military control. The one who gained the most from your disappearance was him. So, if anyone sealed you away, I figured it would be him.”
Jean stared at him, not knowing what to say. Through his tousled golden hair, his quiet red eyes flickered.
For a moment, Nix looked down at her before kneeling and sitting.
“…Is it really that hard to wear shoes?”
A pair of worn, fur boots was placed in front of her bare feet.
Jean hesitated, pulling her feet away from his hand that was reaching to her feet as she answered.
“They’re too loose…”
“Then, do you want to wear mine?”
Nix, who had been about to lift her feet, paused. Her bare feet had been exposed to the cold floor and were frozen stiff from the winter chill.
With an awkward hand, Nix gently wrapped his hands around her small feet to warm them and grumbled under his breath,
“…I’ll get you something better when we get to the city, so just bear with it.”
Despite his gruff tone, his touch was cautious as he slid his fingers over her feet. Jean instinctively curled her toes as she felt a strange tickling sensation.
The warmth from his hands spread through her skin, softening her tense muscles. As her body relaxed, she struggled to keep her emotions in check and asked with a mischievous tone,
“Hey, so, as Ernie’s son, is Nix planning to hand me over to Lipton?”
“I guess you still can’t accept that I’m also Gemma Heidegger’s son.”
“Just wait. After I meet Gemma and catch up, I’ll make sure to confirm that unbelievable fact.”
Nix chuckled at her sharp response.
Once the chill had left, her left foot slid into the fur boot.
“Even though Lipton is the Marshal who controls the military, his base is the army. I’m in the navy, where his influence is weaker.”
“Even if his influence is less, how can a mere Captain defy the Marshal?”
“Would you feel better if I told you I’m the type who ignores orders from the higher-ups?”
Jean blinked her big eyes then burst into laughter and patted Nix’s shoulder.
“You’re fun. Does Lipton just let you be like this? That stiff man couldn’t stand by and watch some ambitious rookie like you go unnoticed.”
“Maybe he sees me as a cute little rookie, like you said…”
As Nix massaged her right foot, he glanced up with a sly smirk.
“Or maybe he’s too scared to touch me.”
When their eyes met, Jean’s bright laughter began to fade.
Jean, who had been staring into his red eyes burning with hostility, felt her expression slowly fade.
This guy. He wasn’t joking.
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