Chapter 116: Shiro's True Feelings, Married on the Spot
The old butler had successfully rushed back just in time, cutting through the volatile tension and halting the dual magical eruptions at their peak. Both combatants reluctantly shut down their elements simultaneously.
"Young Master, you gave this old servant your word that you would not come looking for trouble again," the old butler sighed, offering a helpless lecture.
"Stop calling me 'Young Master.' I am a grown man," Bloe corrected with a darkened face.
"Yet your temperament remains entirely that of a child."
"I am not a child!" Bloe argued back, completely unconvinced.
"Is that so?" The old butler shot him a passive, sweeping glance. "Since you have supposedly grown up, why do you persist in executing such juvenile antics?"
"I..."Bloee opened his mouth to defend himself, but something stopped him short, leaving him thoroughly speechless. *Damn it, I can't outtalk him.*
Standing to the side, Sophia secretly cupped a hand over her mouth, snickering with malicious delight as she muttered in a high-pitched, mocking tone, "Young Master? Oh, Young Master! Ahahaha..."
Bloe felt completely mortified, his embarrassment reaching a level where he wished he could burrow straight into the floorboards. Completely ignoring Sophia's taunts, he turned his attention toward the front-row spectator, Shirazawa.
"Are you... actually a guy?"
Shirazawa raised an eyebrow, his lips twitching slightly. "No kidding."
"Tsk." Bloe shook his head in profound disappointment. *The one time I finally fall for someone at first sight, you make me lose this catastrophically. Dammit!*
Reading the distinct undercurrents swirling in the delinquent's eyes, Shirazawa felt a sudden, defensive chill down his spine, a fresh layer of goosebumps erupting across his skin. *Good grief, screw this! This absolute freak couldn't possibly be into guys, could he?!*
Seeing Shirazawa look exactly like a thoroughly startled kitten, Bloe suddenly burst into a hearty laugh. Assuming a deeply profound demeanor, he slapped a heavy hand onto Shirazawa's shoulder.
"Brother, don't sweat it. I strictly prefer gorgeous women with massive chests, perky rears, and an exceptionally sweet face."
Shirazawa's hair stood completely on end. This individual was far too hazardous; it was best to maintain an extreme distance from such a loose cannon.
As for gorgeous women with massive chests and perky rears...
"Are you trying to steal my girl, brat?" Shirazawa slanted his eyes at him, his gaze rapidly turning icy.
"So, the two of you are actually in a romantic relationship?"
"Otherwise? What did you think we were?"
"I honestly figured you were siblings..."
*Pfft–*
A sudden laugh echoed from the side. The crowd traced the sound, only to find Shiro–who had been silently spectating the entire time–stifling a giggle.
Being pinned down by so many pairs of eyes instantly made her feel incredibly self-conscious. In particular, Bloe's naked, intensely focused gaze made her feel thoroughly uncomfortable.
"Is there something amusing to look at?" Shirazawa's freezing glare swept over to Bloe, the terrifying wave of killing intent he released forcing the delinquent to hastily snap his eyes away.
"What's wrong with a little looking?" Bloe mumbled, rubbing his chin as he candidly confessed his interest in Shiro. "It's not like the two of you have finalized a marriage contract yet. I still have a fighting chance."
Shirazawa narrowed his eyes, tracking him in absolute silence for several seconds. "You don't have a chance."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Under everyone's utterly astounded gazes, Shirazawa deliberately dropped down onto one knee right before Shiro. He gently took her hand into his own, lowered his head, and pressed a soft kiss against her knuckles.
"Lady Shiro, would you do me the immense honor of marrying me?"
A tiny, slender white spider slowly crawled out from his sleeve, its front legs holding aloft a pristine white gemstone that shone with brilliant, dazzling light under the mid-afternoon sun.
"Huh???????????"
Shiro blinked, her mind completely short-circuiting. It took a long, agonizing moment for the reality to pierce through her daze: Shirazawa was actively proposing to her.
In that exact millisecond, the surrounding scenery appeared to slow to an absolute crawl. Countless cherry blossom petals seemed to drift down from the heavens, freezing time itself into an eternal benchmark.
"Holy crap?!" xN
"Is that even a valid move?!" xN
"Getting married right on the spot?!" xN
Every single bystander in the room was thoroughly dumbfounded by Shirazawa's sudden, out-of-nowhere operational strategy, their jaws dropping as they stared in absolute awe.
"I, I, I... this..." Shiro's speech pattern deteriorated into total chaos, literal pink steam billowing continuously from the top of her head. She felt as though she had been violently strapped to an emotional roller coaster, a wave of profound joy crashing over her.
However, that pure happiness proved entirely fleeting. The moment her consciousness snapped back to reality, she fell into an abyss of intense, agonizing conflict, a cocktail of complex emotions brewing within her heart.
It wasn't a feeling of blissful happiness; it was a baseline terror laced with deep hesitation, but above all, an overwhelming sense of profound guilt and fear of exposure.
She felt immense guilt for actively concealing her true identity.
She felt absolute terror regarding her status as a mere counterfeit.
She felt a deep hesitation concerning everything D had done to her.
And she was deeply afraid–afraid that the moment Shirazawa decoded the truth, he would abandon her without a second thought.
Throughout these past few weeks, the individual experiencing the most catastrophic emotional breakdown wasn't Sophia; it was Shiro, who had been constantly trapped in a cycle of alternating hope and despair, violently debating whether she should confess. Her internal monologue had already massacred an unquantifiable number of brain cells.
Whether it concerned her baseline identity or her lingering feelings toward D, she possessed a fundamental obligation to lay it all bare before Shirazawa. Absolute transparency was a mandatory responsibility shared by any pair of lovers.
Yet, the exact millisecond she resolved to confess, she realized she was fundamentally incapable of doing it. The old Shiro used to love fiercely and hate deeply, entirely capable of picking things up and dropping them without a care. But now... she simply couldn't visualize a reality where she was permanently discarded by Shirazawa. She began to fear–to experience true terror at the thought of being loathed and despised by him.
Shiro's soul was locked in a brutal struggle; she had absolutely no clue how to proceed.
"I... I..." Shiro nervously wrung the hem of her dress, biting her lip as she forced the words out. "Could you... give me... a little time... please?"
Shirazawa blinked in surprise, his brows knitting slightly together as he looked at her with an uncomprehending gaze. "What exactly are you worried about?"
Hearing his question, Shiro's heart instantly skipped a violent beat. She fiercely desired that their sacred, beautiful marriage covenant remain entirely unmarred by deception. If the two of them were truly going to walk together until the end of time, it needed to happen in a perfectly honorable, transparent manner.
At this exact mark, a sudden thought flashed across her mind: *How wonderful would it be if the real Hiiro Wakaba could simply cease to exist permanently...*
She began to harbor a complex cocktail of love and hatred toward D, a fresh wave of contradictory impulses locking her brain into a frantic spiral.
"...I'm, I'm so sor–"
Just as the crushing weight of her guilt reached its absolute zenith, threatening to violently force the truth from her lips–
"That's perfectly fine~" Shirazawa nodded, a remarkably gentle smile gracing his features. "The two of us possess eternal lifespans; time is the one variable we have in absolute abundance. I can afford to wait."
"Besides, I acted entirely on impulse today. An affair as monumentally sacred as this shouldn't be handled so casually~"
"Don't you agree?"
"My dearest Lady Shiro."
His smile was utterly intoxicating, resembling a warm spring breeze sweeping through a crowd, instantly healing her fractured spirit.
Shiro: "..."
In that singular instant, she felt the entirety of the world fall perfectly silent, to the point where she could practically feel the physical density of the frozen air around her. She stared blankly up at the youth standing before her.
The sharp, handsome profile of his face was beautifully illuminated by the sunlight, his lips holding an incredibly warm, comforting smile. Shiro held her breath, his words echoing continuously through her mind–each phrase softer than the last, each syllable exponentially more enchanting.
At the exact same time, her remarkably unique internal logic suddenly sparked a completely different realization.
*Strange... Why does this feel entirely different?*
When faced with D's elegant, silver-tongued sweet talk, Shiro's heart had erupted like a violent volcano–a reaction driven entirely by raw impulse and a primal urge to submit.
Yet, when facing Shirazawa, she experienced an indescribably complex depth of emotion–a tiny trace of grievance, a flash of anger, a hint of sorrow, and a wave of regret. But rising above all of it was an overwhelming, unadulterated wave of absolute tenderness.
Yes, he was always like this–profoundly gentle, attentive, and incredibly understanding. This feeling was remarkably comforting, entirely distinct from the inexplicable, chaotic impulse triggered by D.
What was the root cause of this variance? Was it strictly because she had been named by him?
...Perhaps.
The tangled web of thoughts that Shiro had been unable to untangle for weeks suddenly aligned in perfect harmony. Recalling the absolute life-and-death journey she had shared alongside Shirazawa, and comparing it to her brief encounter with D... they weren't even in the same stratosphere.
She had actually allowed herself to be thoroughly played by a few silver-tongued sentences from that woman...
Back then, she had fully intended to have a direct showdown with D to claim her man, yet she had somehow ended up being completely conquered by her instead. Furthermore, D hadn't actually provided a single shred of tangible substance.
Claiming to grant her absolute freedom–when in reality, whether that woman granted it or not, nothing about her baseline had actually changed at all! And she had actually swallowed that massive illusion with absolute relish!
This was simply too humiliating! Shiro lowered her head in pure shame, desperately wishing she could find a crack in the floor to crawl into.
"Trying to lock me down with just a few pretty words? It won't be that easy!"
The words slipped from her lips entirely on auto-pilot. Reaching Shirazawa's ears, they elicited a soft, helpless chuckle from him. "True enough. Trying to sweep my Shiro off her feet with just a few sentences is a glaring lack of genuine sincerity on my part."
Shirazawa leaned in closer, reaching out to gently pinch her flushed cheek as he whispered softly, "But that's perfectly fine. We have an entire lifetime to iron out the details. You'll see my sincerity soon enough."
"No, wait, don't misunderstand! That's not what I meant at all..."
Shiro panicked slightly. Those words were meant for D, not him! He shouldn't be taking them personally.
*I'm going to have a direct showdown with D right now. The exact second I confess the full truth, if he can find it in his heart to forgive me, I will marry him instantly! Seriously!*
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Author's Note:
I spent hours deleting and rewriting this massive chapter; this chronically single author truly gave it everything he had. Writing romance tracks is genuinely difficult...
LanLi: This esteemed prince is single too. Looks like we have something in common, author-kun.
Old note.
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