French Marigold (Complete)

Linea's conversation with the elder had lasted until noon.

When she emerged from the residence with her attendants, the soldiers waiting outside knelt one after another. Nearly a hundred of the Great Forest's elite warriors bowed their heads to her, their eyes full of respect.

Linea felt nothing.

The sunlight was warm, and the trees of her homeland still wore their rich green leaves. Yet even this familiar beauty seemed dull to her now.

“Grand Master, shall we go straight to the temple?”

There was nowhere else she wished to be.

Linea nodded and descended the steps. The soldiers rose, opened a path for her and her attendants, then fell into formation behind them. They marched at a respectful distance, keeping their ranks perfectly aligned.

Their orderly escort felt like the walls of a moving prison.

Now…

If she entered the temple and completed the ceremony, she would never see Theorad again. All that would remain of their time together would be her memories.

The thought terrified her, but her feet kept moving.

Better to shut herself away than return to Deharem Mansion and bring Theorad more trouble. Unreturned love would lead only to misery. If she continued living on his pity, resentment would surely poison what remained between them.

This was the ending that would leave everyone satisfied.

Hadn't her long life taught her to withdraw before anyone had a chance to wound her?

And yet…

Her chest tightened until breathing was difficult. Her steps slowed, and she barely heard the attendants talking beside her.

“Grand Master!”

“Please look this way!”

Elves on the roadside called out to her, but she didn't respond. Everything around her seemed distant and unreal, as though she were walking behind a wall of glass.

“Grand Master!”

Someone stepped into her path.

She stopped, and her escort halted in unison.

“How dare you!”

“Out of the way!”

The soldiers moved to seize the elf, but Linea raised her hand to restrain them. Anyone willing to block the Grand Master's procession must have something urgent to say.

The soldiers drew back. The elf approached gratefully and dropped to one knee.

“Thank you for hearing me, Grand Master. I am of the Ybela clan—”

“Tell me what you want.”

She had no patience for introductions. The elf lowered his head at her sharp tone.

“Yes. I came because I have a message about the slave hunters moving around the outskirts of the Great Forest. Well, they're being called slave hunters, but… One of the men asked me to pass something on to you.”

“Slave hunters?”

He had stopped her procession to repeat a message from slave hunters? Linea frowned.

The attendant beside her spoke up.

“Grand Master, these may be the strange people everyone has been discussing.”

“Strange?”

“Yes. A heavily armed group has been roaming outside the Great Forest's barrier. People say they look like slave hunters, but when they find our kin who have wandered out or been hurt, they don't harm them. They feed them, give them clothes, and help them back to the forest.”

Slave hunters who protected elves instead of taking them captive. It made little sense.

For the first time that day, Linea felt a flicker of curiosity.

“Go on,” she told the messenger.

“Pardon?”

“What did he want you to tell me?”

Her voice carried the authority of the Grand Master. The kneeling elf hurried to answer.

“He asked me to tell you, once I returned to the Great Forest, that he was looking for an elf slave. He said the elf he wanted to find was very fond of pudding. He told me you would know whom he meant.”

Linea's lips parted.

For the first time in weeks, light returned to her red eyes. Her heart began to race.

There was only one man who could have sent such a message. Hope, buried so deeply that she'd thought it lost, rose again.

But…

How could she face Theorad after leaving without a word? How could she look into his eyes and speak to him as though nothing had happened?

Yet her body was already turning. Somewhere near the edge of the forest, he was still searching for her.

She wanted to see him so badly that shame could no longer hold her back.

“Theorad…!”

Linea turned away from the temple and ran.

She pushed past the startled soldiers and left the anxious cries of the people behind her. She ran toward the man who had taught her what love felt like, the one man she could never forget however hard she tried.

---

“Huh? It's snowing.”

Beynon's surprised voice made Theorad and the knights around him raise their heads.

Snow was drifting through the clear, dry sky. A light wind carried the flakes in graceful circles. Theorad held out his hand and watched them melt against his palm.

“Young master.”

Beynon came to his side, looking troubled.

“It may be early in the season, but the first snow has fallen. I think we'll have to withdraw.”

Theorad exhaled into the cold air and closed his hand.

He wanted to remain a little longer. But Count Leonberg had lent him these knights after hearing the circumstances from Ashley, and they had agreed that the expedition would end with the first snowfall. Theorad had promised to return to the territory when winter began.

Linea… Are you really not coming?

The Great Forest was sealed behind a barrier he could not cross. Instead, he had spent his days circling its outskirts, helping elves who became lost or injured. Whenever one returned inside, he asked them to deliver a message to the Grand Master, Linea.

They had promised to pass on his words. He didn't know whether any had reached her.

And he could not stay forever. Beynon and the knights were exhausted after so long in the wilderness. He had no right to ask them to endure more.

“I suppose there's no choice.”

He was just about to give the order to leave.

“…Theorad?”

His shoulders stiffened.

He thought for a moment that he'd imagined the voice. But it was too clear, too familiar. Beynon and the other knights looked astonished as well.

Theorad drew a deep breath and slowly turned around.

An elf stood before him in pure-white robes, gold ornaments gleaming among her silver hair.

Her clothes were different, but he knew her at once.

“Linea…”

Between them ran the boundary of the Great Forest. On Theorad's side, the trees stood bare in the coming winter. Behind Linea, the forest was still green and alive.

A single step would take her beyond the barrier. Yet she remained where she was, too overwhelmed to move.

Silence stretched between them. At last Theorad spoke.

“How have you been? I've missed you.”

The simple words struck straight at her heart. Linea swallowed and struggled to keep her expression composed.

“…I heard you've been looking for elf slaves.”

“Yes.”

“Have you lost your mind? If anyone other than me heard you saying such things, you could be killed!”

Her sharp cry made the knights flinch. Theorad didn't look away. The force of her anger couldn't conceal the tremor in her voice.

“Yes,” he said with a small, rueful laugh. “There was a time when I must have been out of my mind.”

He glanced back over the past.

“I bought an elf slave almost as though I'd been possessed. She was so demanding that I could barely tell who was supposed to be the master. There were times I regretted buying her more than I can say.”

Linea lowered her eyes. Guilt rose in her chest. If he had come all this way to reproach her, she would accept it.

“But,” Theorad continued, “standing here now is my own choice. And I haven't come to take a slave.”

His gaze was steady.

“Linea Arpolite. I've come to bring you home.”

To bring me home.

She raised her head. Her red eyes wavered, and her fingertips trembled.

Joy and sorrow tangled together. She was happy beyond words that he had searched for her. But she still feared he had come out of pity.

Her faint smile faded. Perhaps their conversation could only end in another farewell. Better to push him away now, before he stepped any closer.

“Theorad, you and I—”

“I love you.”

Linea's eyes widened.

For an instant she wondered if he was teasing her. But Theorad's face was more serious than she had ever seen it.

“Since you left, I've thought about you every day. I kept asking myself what it was I felt for you. At first I tried to deny it. In the end I couldn't. Linea, I love you. I don't want to keep hiding that from you.”

He drew a breath. Then, almost apologetically, he reached out his hand.

“If you don't mind… will you marry me?”

Linea couldn't answer. One revelation had followed another so quickly that her mind seemed to have gone blank.

He loves me. He wants to marry me.

The future she had believed impossible rose before her, and the walls she'd built around her heart collapsed like a sandcastle beneath a wave.

It was too wonderful to believe.

What if I'm dreaming?

She closed her eyes, then opened them again.

Theorad was still there, standing in the falling snow, waiting patiently for her answer.

“I… Theorad, I…”

She didn't know what she was trying to say.

For a moment she remained frozen. Then she gathered her courage and took a step forward.

As she crossed the boundary of the barrier, cold air rose from the earth around her feet. The chill was real. This was no dream.

She took another step. Then another.

One step became two, two became three, and soon she was running.

Her silver hair streamed behind her. The ornaments on her white ceremonial robe swayed with every stride.

Theorad opened his arms.

Linea ran straight into his embrace.

Their bodies met, their arms closed around each other, and the warmth was almost unbearable. Tears spilled down her face as she finally said what she'd kept hidden for so long.

“I love you. I love you so much, Theorad…!”

“I love you too.”

Theorad stroked her back gently. Linea could say nothing more. She buried her face against his chest.

It was so warm. In that embrace, the memories that had tormented her seemed to melt away like snow.

Snowflakes drifted around them. Holding him tighter, Linea finally knew that the happiness she had been afraid to ask for could be hers.

The Elf Who Wants to Be Humiliated… Finished