On their return home from the witch village, Charlotte, Alphonse, and Maria had kindly permitted Cecily and Zeke to travel alone in one of the carriages. Cecily was a bit concerned whether Charlotte would be all right being trapped in a small space with Alphonse due to her fear of men, but she was glad of the opportunity to properly talk to Zeke alone.
But what’s wrong with him?
Zeke hadn’t spoken a single word since they had both boarded the carriage. He merely gazed out the window from his forward-facing seat. Cecily glanced over at his perfectly sculpted profile and sighed inwardly.
When they had originally set off on this journey, Cecily had known that convincing Sewell to give them his blessing would be a gargantuan task, but she hadn’t expected her entire homecoming to be one incident after another.
How could I have let myself be controlled by a love potion?
Momentarily putting aside the fact that she had once tried to make Zeke drink one, she fumed internally at her own stupidity.
And to think that my feelings for Zeke could lose to a dumb potion!
Cecily chewed her lip in frustration. What she had done was unforgivable.
It was true that she had eventually broken free of the spell of Cain’s love potion, but her carelessness had led her beloved Zeke to be injured, in more ways than one. A great despair filled her chest as she thought back to the awful events that had transpired.
And yet, through it all, Zeke had refused to let Cecily go. He had swallowed his pride and asked Cain for an antidote, he had met with danger in search of a mythical spring that no one could prove existed—he had done so much, all for the sake of making Cecily’s heart her own again.
Then, at the end of it, Cecily had taken advantage of him in his bedridden state to ask him to marry her right away! He wasn’t in the right mind to make a clearheaded decision, but that had been the first thing that had come out of her mouth.
A whole range of emotions, from guilt to shame, came over Cecily as she thought back on what she had done. All the same, she’d had good reason for her request.
I just wanted to marry him so much!
Cecily piled excuse on top of excuse in her internal monologue.
I couldn’t bear to go one more moment without being married to him!
Having finally won back her heart and her love for Zeke, she couldn’t wait for one minute or even one second longer. She wanted to be Zeke’s; she wanted Zeke to be hers. Maybe it was an aftereffect of the love potion, but this unstoppable desire—an emotion so strong as to make her feel almost wretched—had swirled within her, threatening to swallow her whole.
Waiting until they were back in the royal capital and taking their sweet time to prepare for the wedding had been unthinkable. It had been impossible. And so, Cecily had chosen to hold an impromptu wedding in her hometown.
She had approached Sewell once again to ask for his approval without any particular plan in mind, and yet for some reason he had agreed to the wedding without much fuss at all. In light of how he’d originally reacted, something must have caused this change of heart, though it was hard to believe. Cecily didn’t question it, though—she was merely happy about it.
At the end of it all, their wedding had been filled with smiles and joy—yet here they now were, starring in a scene that one could hardly label marital bliss.
Cecily reflected on the happy moments from their wedding, then was drawn back to her senses by a movement from Zeke.
“I’m sorry, Cecily, for being so quiet,” Zeke said, his contrition clear on his face.
“I-It’s okay,” Cecily said. She, too, had been just as quiet.
After puzzling through how best to put his thoughts into words, Zeke finally went on. “I just feel a bit nervous, for some reason.”
“Nervous?”
“Yeah—weird, isn’t it? We just got married.”
“It’s not weird at all, Zeke.”
After all, Cecily was also nervous.
Zeke always puts his thoughts into words, no matter how difficult it is.
Even though the honesty potion had long since worn off, Zeke continued to face his true thoughts head-on, and talk them through with Cecily. His earnestness was endearing, and Cecily wanted to respond to this honesty with her own.
“I’m really nervous too, you know?”
“You are? That makes the two of us, then.”
Cecily had a particular reason to feel that way, however. She mustered up her courage and reached over to her bag. She opened it and pulled out something that she had prepared.
“I’m sorry I didn’t manage to wrap it.”
“Wait, this is...”
Zeke grinned widely. Obviously, he had no way of knowing just how much that made Cecily’s heart race.
“Are you giving this to me? What a wonderful gift.”
“Well, I’m not ‘giving’ it to you, I...” Cecily paused and twiddled her thumbs. She had hemmed and hawed this long—it was time to tell the truth. “The thing is, I’m returning it to you. This is yours, Zeke. It’s that handkerchief that I never managed to return to you—do you remember?”
After blinking a few times, Zeke nodded in recognition.
“How could I forget? This is the handkerchief I gave you the first day we met.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Cecily smiled at Zeke. That day seemed so long ago now.
It had happened months ago, in the royal capital. Cecily had visited a small store of knickknacks and had been accused of stealing some fabric. This allegation had been unfounded—it was simply because she was a witch that they had believed her at fault. As fingers pointed at her and tears threatened to flow down her cheeks, Zeke had gallantly swooped in and saved her.
Cecily had wanted to thank him, but instead she’d found herself in tears and unable to speak. It was then that he had presented her this handkerchief, as if to say that she didn’t need to force herself to stop crying.
That was the moment Cecily had fallen in love with Zeke—with this elite knight, who was far more dashing and kinder than any prince in a fairy tale.
It’s thanks to Zeke that my days have magically been filled with color and joy.