# 79
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Was it a knife you shouldn't have held?
Come to think of it again, I think I knew my hand would get cut as I held you. So, was I the one holding you, or was I the one being held?
I pictured Grace's face as she burst into laughter over the self-deprecating question.
I felt anxious as I watched her tilt her head, holding back her voice. I was worried that I might see those deep dimples again. A sudden urge arose to grab the hand covering her mouth and pull it down, so I had to clench my fist tightly.
Then, when she finally lifted her head and burst into laughter, Ares could not take his eyes off that white, innocent face.
A white face with deep dimples, pink lips revealing new teeth, and jewel-like green eyes visible between the curved lines.
Grace's laughter was like spring pushing out winter rather than a sunny summer.
"spring……."
I crushed a word in my mouth that I hadn't articulated in a long time. Like the gentle breeze of that season, the word "spring" softly swept through my mouth and disappeared.
"spring."
Ares, who had been finely crushing spring in his mouth as if sharing flower petals once again, stopped breathing at a certain moment.
The chill digging into his collar, the guidance of loss left by the previous Duke—all of it was rubbed away like a paperweight and turned into the background of his world, where she appeared like a lie.
Blonde hair that looks like gold would rub off on your fingertips if touched, a face as white as snow, clear eyes filled with firm pride,
She, who seems to be standing on the boundary between winter and spring.
* * *
Grace went to the Chandelier Room to look for Eliza and heard from Mrs. Rexton that she was at the grave.
“Are you going to the grave? Oh, then wear a fur coat. It’s cold up there.”
Grace put on the fur she handed her and headed toward the grave guided by Andrew. Andrew blamed himself for the injuries to her hands and arms, and Grace told him the whole time they walked that it was troublesome to think that way.
Nevertheless, Andrew made a firm resolution with a determined look on his face.
“From now on, I will make sure to protect the young lady well!”
Jesse patted his back as if to say he was proud of him, and Grace gave an awkward smile, having nothing to add.
After walking for quite a while, they entered the entrance of a stone corridor that looked unusually pitch black. The corridor, piled high with fallen snow, exuded a mysterious aura. Andrew puffed out his chest, feeling inexplicably proud as Grace and Jesse could not take their eyes off the accumulated snow.
This amount of snow is nothing.
Grace carefully stepped on the white snow. The snow, crushed silently, felt soft. Snow fell in Taylor once every few years, but it had never accumulated like this.
Step by step, I walked on the snow for quite a while as if entranced, when suddenly a voice like a deep valley came from above my head.
"Is this your first time seeing snow?"
When Grace suddenly looked up, she realized that she had already reached the end of the corridor, and also realized that he had been staring at her all this time.
A man who looked as if he had been drawn with a sharp pen was leaning against a stone pillar at the tomb.
Looks like you've never seen this before.
Grace resumed her steps, which she had paused for a moment, and approached him.
“Your Excellency has brought the Grand Madam. It seems she is still inside.”
Ares glanced at the tomb gate and nodded. Then, he casually extended his hand. Grace looked up at him, unsure of what that hand signified. Ares then gestured with his right hand.
"I asked if you received treatment."
A mysterious itch welled up from somewhere. At the same time, she felt as though she could sense the warmth of the large hand that had been wrapping around the back of her right hand. Grace wrapped her left hand around the back of her right hand and quickly brought up her business.
Of course. I have come to see the Grand Madam. May I enter the tomb?
Ares lowered the hand he had extended and raised his eyebrows.
“Alright. Go escort him out. It looks like he intends to stay here all night.”
Grace bit her lip and smiled at the tone, which was scathing yet somehow affectionate. Then, holding the torch politely handed to her by the keeper, she went down the stairs. As soon as she took a step down, she heard his voice from behind her.
The stairs are steep. And slippery.
I turned around in absurd worry, but Ares, standing motionless at the entrance, had nothing but seriousness on his face.
I'll be careful.
As she descended step by step, the coldness intensified, and the fleeting smiles of her youth faded away. Eventually, Grace arrived at the space where the masters of Richmond lay in eternal sleep, and the sight of the Queen’s back as she sat slumped alone caught her eye.
Grace approached her, careful not to make a sound with her footsteps. She hung the torch she was holding on the hook and stood beside Eliza. She must have guarded her side for quite some time before Eliza finally lifted her head.
“…….”
“…….”
When the moment arrived when no words created by humans could offer comfort, merely existing was a source of solace. Grace conveyed comfort by being by someone's side, and Eliza read her heart.
Eliza turned her eyes to the road sarcophagus and asked in a low, hushed voice.
How did you manage to endure?
It was the exact same question Ares had asked once.
“How did you endure those long and harsh years? You must have had no one to trust or rely on.”
Grace answered honestly as she looked at Eliza's silver hair, which held a reddish glow.
“I believed that when the time came, you would be with me, Madam. So, it is a misunderstanding to say that I had no one to trust or rely on.”
Eliza looked back at her again, and Grace felt their gazes meet deep within.
Eliza, who had been staring at Grace for a long time, slowly rose from her seat. Then, at an unexpected moment, she raised her right hand.
“……!”
Grace was speechless at the touch of Eliza's hand on her hair. Eliza brushed the hair that had fallen forward over her shoulder and gently brushed off the snowflakes. Then, after caressing Grace's slender cheek one last time, she smiled faintly.
“Let’s go. Staying in the cold will hurt your health.”
"…yes."
Eliza, who was walking ahead, glanced at Grace following by her side and spoke.
“I’ll give you something else besides that. There is something warmer.”
It's very warm.
"I'm telling you, there is something warmer. From now on, if I offer you something, just say thank you and take it."
Grace let out a small laugh at how typically she spoke self-righteously.
When the two came out, Ares was still standing in the stone corridor.
“What have you been standing there for all this time?”
Eliza asked deliberately curtly, but for some reason, Ares remained silent. He merely shrugged his shoulders like someone deep in thought. Then, his gaze instinctively drifted toward Grace. Catching that fleeting moment, Eliza’s eyes narrowed.
Come to think of it, the cemetery keeper, who never left his post, was nowhere to be seen either. The reason she was able to look down upon and command society as if it were the palm of her hand was due to her status as well as her uniquely quick and accurate intuition.
After a moment of hesitation about what to do, Eliza began to walk briskly. As the ladies-in-waiting followed as if they had been waiting, Eliza gestured toward Jesse and Andrew, who were standing there staring blankly at Grace.
"You all, follow me."
As Jesse and Andrew widened their eyes, Eliza suppressed their resistance with a frosty expression that no one could refuse.
Are you planning to make me say it twice?
"Andrew."
Mrs. Isaac sternly called the youngest, and Jesse hurriedly turned to look at Grace. Grace wondered why Eliza was calling Jesse, but she nodded to indicate that she should do so for now. As Jesse quickly approached Eliza from behind, the Queen of Richmond gathered a crowd of people and moved away as fast as a storm.
“We’re all going together anyway, so why…….”
It was when Grace was muttering questioningly and trying to follow Eliza.
It looks like you noticed that I have something I want to tell you.
“……?”
As he turned to look at him, Ares met his gaze without avoiding it.
It was a deep, snowy night. The surroundings were eerily silent, and perhaps because of that, the sound of the snow piling up could be heard even more clearly.
It was a dreamlike night where the whole world was covered in white. Grace found it strangely difficult to look him in the eye, so she quickly lowered her gaze.
Then Ares grabbed the snow piled on the corridor railing and began to mold it into a ball. Having instantly formed a ball the size of an adult's fist, he asked Grace.
“Do you know what I’m trying to make?”
“…Do you make balls?”
“Hehe. I knew you’d answer like that.”
Ares let out a laugh that sounded like it was scratching somewhere in his throat, then put down the snow he had already molded and started molding it again. In the blink of an eye, he made a ball the size of two fists. Then, he placed the snow he had made earlier on top of it and set it up on the railing.
As Grace approached with a serious face, Ares put his hands in his pockets and spoke lightly.
It's a snowman, a snowman.