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UPON returning to her shop, Yuuri curled up in her bed and closed her eyes.
Normally, she slept quite well, but last night, she barely slept a wink.
It was because reality had come crashing down before her without warning.
She just lay there, chasing the eternity she and Ernest thought they would have through her mind.
She dozed on and off, to the point where she became unable to tell when she was asleep and when she was awake.
Ernest had always been honest with Yuuri. But she had been fearful, distrustful, and kept her true feelings from him.
Maybe I should get a job, like as a servant or maybe a counselor, and travel with him…?
That felt unfair to Ernest. After how honest he had been with her, was she really just going to pretend that was the way she wanted things to be between them? And as kind as he was, he likely wouldn’t complain.
I don't have any choice though.
What if she told him and he rejected her? What would he think of her, knowing she feared being apart from him or dying of thirst? But he would be heartbroken if she never told him and he only found out after the fact. That possibility hurt Yuuri most of all.
She had intended to tell him last night, but had lost her nerve. To think that doubt could be the weakness of creatures as powerful as vampires.
She lay there, steeped in worry just beneath her covers, when a knock came from outside. From the front door of the shop, to be precise.
“Yuuri! Are you home?”
It was Ernest. Ernest, who was supposed to be busy preparing to leave the country.
Yuuri pulled the quilt up around her face. She hadn’t adequately gathered her thoughts just yet. If she saw him now, she wasn’t sure what she would say. She lay completely still, listening to him call her name, just hoping he would go away.
“Are you ill again? …Sorry, but I’m coming in,” he called.
She heard the door clatter open.
“How?!”
She heard him coming up the stairs and toward her door. She had absolutely nowhere to run and so just stayed under her quilt as Ernest entered the room.
“Aha, I knew it! Pretending to be out, were you?”
“H-How did…you get in?”
Her new lock was supposed to be much more secure than the old one. So how did he get in?
“Certainly not with this,” Ernest drawled as he twirled the key on the chain playfully. It was exactly like the key he had given her.
“That’s my…”
Her eyes shifted to the wall. Her key was hanging on the hook, where it belonged.
“No, this one’s mine. I figured you wouldn’t mind me having one, but I guess I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
The old lock had been crude and insecure, so Ernest had hired someone to change it out for a better one. Both on that day, the day she had been sick, and that night three nights ago, he had locked Yuuri’s home when he left, ensuring she would be safe and sound. He wouldn’t have been able to do that without his own key.
She should have realized it sooner, but somehow it was almost too obvious.
“Please don’t just barge into my house!”
“Were you crying? …You look awful.”
“No!”
Yuuri tried to sound threatening, but Ernest approached her bed, undeterred. She tried to pull away from him and ended up against the wall.
“I hear Major Conquest was running his mouth about things he shouldn’t have last night. He’s usually so taciturn, but that’s because when he actually does open his mouth, he’s usually got his foot in it. I thought you had been acting strange last night. …His attendant, Miss Lind, was the one who told me.”
“They only told me that you were going to Fosdan. Was I not supposed to know?”
“You weren’t. Not before the right moment.”
Ernest grabbed Yuuri’s quilt and yanked it off.
“The right moment?”
He drew close to her, the frightening intensity gone, and gently kissed the back of her hand. He then lifted his head and looked her in the eye.
“Yuuri Watoh, will you marry me?”
“Huh?”
“Is that your answer?”
Yuuri gave the question a full twenty seconds of thought.
“But I ca—!”
Ernest placed his hand over her mouth before she could finish.
“Don’t. If you refuse me so effortlessly, it’ll break my heart. Just answer me this for now: you love me, don’t you?”
Yuuri shook her head vigorously. Love needn’t equate to marriage.
“I was going to tell you about Fosdan only after we had properly dated and you accepted my marriage proposal. I’m sorry we’re having to do this backwards. I wanted to spend so much more time getting to know you, but I wasn’t given a choice. I want to take you to Fosdan with me, as my wife. …So, what’s your answer?”
Ernest slowly pulled his hand away. He told Yuuri he didn’t want her to reject him so easily, but what other answer was there?
“You already know how I feel! But, I can’t! The relationship between you and I is unbalanced. …I would feel guilty.”
“Our social standings are irrelevant. His Majesty gladly gave his permission, seeing as you’re the daughter of renowned merchants from abroad.”
“But, what about my condition…?”
If they married and she bore him a child, it was likely that child may inherit some of her vampiric traits, introducing it into his family line. It would be difficult for them to live a normal human life, as it had been for her.
“You mean the condition that makes you single-minded, awkward, and extreme when you’re in a lovey-dovey mood? Do you think those things make you unlovable somehow? Yuuri, your grandmother and your ancestors before her got on well enough with humans to bring you into this world. And yet you think there’s something wrong with you exclusively?”
“But…”
Yuuri had been certain it would never work because Ernest was a nobleman. It was why she had rejected him so intensely.
She had always been afraid they would eventually be pulled apart, yet it was never what she wanted. But now his words were swaying her. Could they really be together?
“You’ve been mine and mine alone since the moment you first drank my blood. If we’re torn apart, you’ll die, right?”
“You knew? Since when?”
“I more or less figured it out that day we went to the cemetery. I was sure after I saw how you didn’t react to seeing Major Conquest’s blood. Weren’t you going to tell me about it last night?”
“…Lord Ernest, you’re always one step ahead of me.”
Normally, she could never tell when he was joking and when he was serious. But right now, it was clear that he was completely serious.
Somewhere along the way, Ernest had completely figured her out. His kindness was all-encompassing, but she was afraid that, if she gave into it, with how weak her confidence already was, she would stop being the self-sufficient girl she always had been. But she couldn’t bear to be apart from him either.
Yuuri had no choice but to admit defeat.
“So, your answer?”
“I love you, Lord Ernest. You are the only one I want, now and forever. It’s true, because of the bond forged in your blood, I could never be apart from you, but that is only because I accepted you. The bond only forges after we have chosen who we are truly in love with. …I belong to you, and you alone.”
He kissed her cheeks, which were stained with tears. Then her forehead, just above her eyelid. When his lips finally found their way to hers, her heart pounded so furiously, she feared it might burst.
She still wasn’t used to kissing him. And she feared that, without being intoxicated on his blood, she may never get used to it.