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Elias watched Adeline eat. She was slow with her bites, but chewed and swallowed them. His eyes flickered to her throat, where every action passed through his gaze. He noted she liked soups a lot and wasn\'t fond of the salads. 

He smiled when delight filled her eyes, surprised by the taste of the uni pasta. 

For once, she ate everything he offered her. She had emptied a soup bowl and a plate of food which was enough for his nerves to calm down a bit. Next, he made sure she drank a tonic infused with iron-riched food.

"You\'re surprisingly amiable today," he said. 

Elias watched as she dabbed her mouth with a napkin. His attention fell on her thin, pale wrists. They looked like it and the smallest shove would shatter it. How could such a dainty little thing wield a gun so well?

Elias thought back to the assassination. He couldn\'t fathom that he had forgotten such an important piece of memory. 

Her entire body was a weapon, wasn\'t it? Kaline and Addison had made sure she was well-trained in all sorts of martial arts, but he thought she had long forgotten everything taught to her. It seemed not.

"You said you knew my parents," Adeline suddenly asked. Her voice was light and airy, filled with eagerness to talk.

Elias raised a brow. He\'ll pretend she didn\'t just ignore his statement. "Yes, what about it?"

"Did… did they ever speak about regretting giving birth to me?" Suddenly, her tone shifted to hesitation, like a meek child asking for more than one cookie.

Elias tilted his head. "Of course not. They loved you very much. On the day of your birth, your parents threw the largest celebration Kastrem had ever witnessed."

Adeline tightly gripped the napkin. The memories of her father\'s infuriated expression flashed in her mind. He had tried to strangle her to death, why?

"I-I was the cause of my parent\'s suicide."

"Were you, darling?"

Elias took a sip of the wine, both of his brows raised. He certainly didn\'t know that. He was aware they took their lives together, but didn\'t understand why. It was a foolish situation. Didn\'t they feel some sort of guilt to leave their only daughter behind?

"My father tried to kill me—"

"Let me guess. Kaline regretted lying about your birthday and lying to me as well? He must\'ve been drunk when he did that. The stress had been too much on him. You must know, he was a very righteous man. The guilt of lying to his daughter, the entire world, and me must\'ve been too much."

Elias tilted his head. "He doesn\'t think properly when he\'s drunk, so I suppose he tried to strangle or get rid of you, whilst forgetting you\'re his flesh and blood. Humans are so interesting…"

Adeline glanced away.

"Your mother most likely tried to stop him. She was also dying with the guilt that she couldn\'t do anything to save her dear daughter from her husband\'s clutches. If you asked me, they didn\'t think properly."

"Don\'t judge my parents," she finally admitted. She loved them with all of her heart, even after what her Father had done. 

They had raised her with unconditional love and kindness. They allowed her to do as she pleased, even though she was a Princess. They had cherished her to the best of their abilities. She knew that much, at the least.

"I\'m not judging. I\'m just voicing my observations." Elias settled the wine glass down. He saw her distraught expression and sighed. "Don\'t wallow in the past, or else you\'ll never go forward."

"if I hadn\'t been born a girl then I…"

"Adeline."

She lifted her head and glanced at him. He had a hard look on his face, filled with earnesty and the truth. He would not let her walk out of here, until she finally understood his words.

"Your parents loved you. One moment of weakness shouldn\'t taint the decade of love they\'ve spent on you. If they didn\'t love you, they wouldn\'t be allowed an overseer to name you Adeline. They wouldn\'t have allowed the overseer to combine their names into one."

Elias was never one to talk about foolish things such as parental love. His mother took her own life after realizing what she had done. She had been buried with guilt that her meddling and greed for power ruined her own son. And his father, who loved his wife far too much, drove himself to ruins after losing her.

He found it amusing that their parents had such tragic love stories. It was the ones that Dorothy loved to lament over. 

"They cherished you to the best of their abilities. No parent is too perfect. They wished the best for you with their heart in the right places, but their mind might not be."

Elias rose to his full height, towering over her. He grabbed her hand and led her out of the dining room. She needed some fresh air. All this time being cooped up in the castle must\'ve gotten to her brain. 

"You\'re right," she finally admitted with a soft sigh. 

Adeline thought back to the loving memories spent with her parents. Even now, she could remember scrambling to their room at midnight and hiding in their bed. They\'d always welcome her with open arms and hug her tightly. She remembered her father\'s affectionate smile and her mother\'s adoring laughter. 

He scoffed. "When am I not right?"

She rolled her eyes. "If I tell you, your ego would be wounded."

He laughed. "Nothing hurts me, darling. At least, nothing hurts me more than you do."

Adeline didn\'t understand what he meant by that. Had she hurted him many times? She raised her gaze and pondered his words. "What do you mean?"

"You don\'t have to worry about it."

Adeline blinked. "Only the people closest to our hearts have the ability to hurt us the deepest. Am I… close to your heart?"

Elias came to a sudden halt. He glanced at their entwined fingers, then back towards her face. Was she close to his heart? 

Did he even have one in the first place? The sunlight danced upon her silhouette, her features innocuous and naive. When she hesitatingly smiled at him, his face unwillingly softened for her.

"You are," he said in the lowest of voices, like a forbidden whisper before a shrine.

Elias felt a strange shift in his chest when her expression brightened. Her lips parted in surprise, as if she wanted to say something, but settled for a smile. 

"Really?" She stepped forward, eager to know more. 

It was part of human nature to hear people fond over them, and compliment them. He could see the sparkle of joy in her eyes, deep like the forest, rooted like its trees. She had a very earnest gaze, as if there wasn\'t a secret she could hide from you. 

Elias wordlessly caressed the back of her head, bringing her even closer towards him. She had the type of face that he could trust. Leaning down, he lightly captured her lips in a sudden kiss. Her eyes widened, but she stayed close. He pulled back a second later, a slight smile of his own.

"No," he mused.

Adeline laughed in response, coming even more towards him. "You\'re lying."

Adeline lifted their entwined hands, showing how effortlessly they came together. She held onto one side of his lower waist, and watched as his eyes lowered towards her face. 

She wondered if he knew how affectionate he appeared. There was a tender, faraway look in his gaze, as if she was the center of his world. He looked at her like she was the only woman in this world. 

"Don\'t get ahead of yourself, darling. You simply interest me, that\'s all."

"Then why are you so obsessed with me?"

Elias\'s lips parted. He settled with his usual smirk. "Why not?"

"Wouldn\'t that mean you\'re in love—"

"Love does not exist in my dictionary." Elias\'s grip tightened on her hand. 

He began to pull her down the hallways again, deciding it would be better to distract her in the gardens. 

He felt a small pull on his sleeve and a strange tug in his chest.

"What is it?" he asked.

"What if I said I liked you?" she muttered.

"It would be bizarre if you didn\'t like me."

Elias laughed when she frowned. 

"Do you like me in return?" she asked.

"Like and love is too strong of a word."

Adeline let out a small sigh. Here she was, thinking they had made some effort. 

But when she lifted her gaze to watch him, her heart skipped a beat. 

Adeline had fallen head over heels for him, and he seemed indifferent. But she noticed a change. Instead of looking at her like food, he was beginning to show more emotion on his face.

"Then why do you treat me so kindly? If you don\'t love or like me, then—"

"You ask too many questions, darling. If we continue to stop every few words, we\'ll never make it to the gardens."

Adeline felt like he was just trying to change the subject. She wanted to press on for even more answers, but her lips parted in surprise. He was looking away from her, but there was the faintest of a blush on his cheeks. She narrowed her eyes, wondering if she had seen it correctly.

Was he… embarrassed? By what? Her questions?

Adeline hid a smile. So, he did feel something for her. Deciding to let him figure it out on his own, she tugged his hands. "To the garden we go."