The Obsessive Villainess Vol. 1 ✔

36. I'll make you love red again.

Chapter 35: 'He ruined red for me.' Then... I'll make you love red again.

"Shit, the stars are just so pretty." I murmured as the breeze caressed my locks and turned towards Rezel. He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes as he sat beside me.

"They are. It's calming to know that no matter which way, I look up and there they are." He replied, with the smallest smile.

"Are we very far?" I asked as I idly pressed at the grass with my finger and he shrugged.

"Is there anywhere else you'd rather be?"

I thought about it. At this moment, it felt like the stars were twinkling down solely for us two. And the trees, and the grass and the ground. It's amazing to be included in the same group as these. It was too easy to forget about the stars sometimes. I breathed in, filling my lungs. Then I sighed.

"Ah... I'm just so sad."

Maybe it was the melancholy of leaving tomorrow. Goodbyes are always so sad. So annoying. And too common.

Rezel didn't reply. Instead, he leaned back and laid himself on the ground, to better look at the sky.

I sat still for a moment, before following suit and laying beside him.

"Will you visit me?" I asked him.

"You talk as if you're going somewhere far from me," he replied easily, almost as if he was teasing.

"But I am," I raised my eyebrows. "Ilaria is very far from the capital. It's bordering the empire."

He shrugged. "You're still in the empire."

"But still...?"

"You need to understand something, storyteller." He turned on his side to face me.

"You'll never be too far from me."

Ah.

I blinked at his words. "You know, that sounds a bit-"

"What, did you forget who I am?" He quickly followed up those suspiciously romantic and dangerous sounding words with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Yeah, yeah," I giggled, for some reason feeling an excitement in my chest as I too turned on my side to be face to face with him. It seemed scandalous for some reason. As if we shouldn't be caught doing this. "You're the greatest stone-handler of the Sorin Empire."

"That's right and-" he reached out to touch my earring. "I'm not done hearing your stories yet."

"You know, you haven't even been paying me with those plants anymore?" I raised an eyebrow and he made an offended expression, almost sending me into another fit of giggles at just the sight.

"You've got pretty much all the touchable dangerous plants in and out of the empire in your collection! Not to mention, all those drinks you've gulped down. I'll never forget that one time, reaching out for a bottle to find out they were all empty! And no wonder you were mumbling to yourself on the ground."

"As if you weren't the one who randomly just grabbed my hand, pointed to the distance and asked me, 'Nora, is it just me or does that man have a pink beard?'"

"And what about it?" Rezel snorted, bewildering me.

"It wasn't a beard! He was just pink because of he was in a drunken fight and the other guy had him in a chokehold between his elbow! And I can't believe you did nothing, what with all your powers!"

"He ended up winning though, didn't he?"

I threw my hands up in exasperation. "That's besides the point! And while that was happening, you turned away, completely ignoring everything and then you manifested this teddy bear and just hugged him for the longest time."