The day I accepted Liam’s heart.
Even late into the night, our troublemaker Hero still hadn’t returned to his room.
He seemed to have more to say to me.
I was tired and wanted to sleep, but since it was a day of significant resolution, I decided to bear with it and listen.
“Clitia.”
“Yeah?”
But I accidentally answered a bit curtly.
I tried to speak kindly, but my mouth didn’t cooperate.
Despite receiving thorough etiquette training at the convent, my rough way of speaking hadn’t improved.
I had gotten better than during my nun days, but I still felt tied to the somewhat blunt personality I had in my previous life.
The memories and experiences from my time as ‘Park Si-woo’ were just too intense and bittersweet.
I probably wouldn’t completely forget them going forward.
It was somewhat of a mental shackle that might bind me until the day I die.
“I need to improve…”
I couldn’t keep acting like this.
Since I had decided to live only as ‘Clitia Eluke’ from now on, I had to change.
But.
It was also true that I didn’t feel it at the moment.
Honestly, I still couldn’t believe it.
I was dating Liam?
Snuggling, kissing, and eventually doing ‘that’ too?
Does that even make sense?
Just imagining it sent chills down my spine. It felt like something I shouldn’t do, and I was overwhelmed with resistance.
“What are you thinking about?”
Just then, Liam suddenly sat down next to me with a mischievous smile.
He then tried to put an arm around my shoulder.
It was such a natural movement, as if he had done it countless times.
“Wait a minute.”
I instinctively moved back to avoid it.
Thanks to that, Liam’s arm, which had paused in mid-air, took a moment to shift downwards instead.
Towards my thigh.
“Hey.”
I couldn’t let that go unchallenged, so I grabbed his wrist.
Just ten minutes ago, we had talked about taking things slow, and now he was trying to get physical.
That wasn’t going to happen.
With my conservative Confucian beliefs and my mindset as a nun, I couldn’t accept his open-mindedness.
“Clitia?”
Liam, with his wrist caught, looked at me with innocent eyes, puzzled.
He didn’t seem to realize what he had done wrong.
How on earth had he lived up until now?
“Liam, have you done this with all the girls you’ve met so far?”
I cautiously asked, but the troublemaker Hero just looked bewildered.
His eyes blinked stupidly, and his hands were floating helplessly in the air.
It was clear he wasn’t pretending.
He genuinely looked like he couldn’t make sense of what I was saying.
“So, are you saying you’ve touched them since the first day you started dating?”
“Oh!”
Only after I explained it that way did Liam seem to understand the meaning.
And then, he nodded vigorously.
“Usually, we do touch before dating.”
“What?”
What on earth was this guy talking about?
This was definitely not something to say in front of someone you decided to date, and my mind went blank for a moment.
Regardless, our troublemaker Hero continued to reveal his reckless lifestyle.
“I usually just have a one-night stand with someone I’m not particularly interested in, then we break it off cleanly. But I don’t really think about wanting to date them.”
“…”
Hearing him brightly talk about countless girls he slept with was utterly shocking.
I had somewhat guessed the mess he’d created, but…
I never thought it would be this extreme.
For someone who had never dated anyone until now, this debauchery was unimaginable.
“Since becoming a Hero, there are girls who recognize me, so it’s even easier. They just step up and say they want to sleep with me…”
Just hearing his words made my head feel hotter. My cheeks began to flush.
It felt like a reaction typical of an innocent girl who wasn’t used to sexual talk, but there was nothing I could do. The only difference was that I couldn’t deny the inexperience part.
“Father….”
Suddenly, I found myself missing the Priestess who had been in charge of my training at the convent.
She had once said during a lesson:
“You should never share a bed with someone unless they are truly the one you love. If you want to be known as a lewd Priest, go ahead. I won’t stop you.”
If she had heard what Liam just said, what would she think?
She would probably grab me and vigorously shake her head, saying, “Not this guy! Never!”
I tried hard to hide my shock and asked.
“How many people have you slept with so far?”
“It’s too many to count.”
“…Then how many of them did you date?”
“About three? But since the main goal was to sleep, there weren’t too many times I dated them.”
As soon as I heard that, I distanced myself from Liam.
Once I moved to the head of the bed, only then did I feel some relief.
“Why are you acting like that?”
“…Do I look like I don’t know why I’m asking?”
“I honestly don’t know. If you tell me, I’ll change.”
Despite his casual demeanor, I appreciated that he was willing to correct his issues.
But.
The negatives clearly outweighed the positives. I glared at the debauched troublemaker Hero while hiding my body behind a nearby pillow.
“Honestly, tell me.”
Hugging the pillow tightly, I spoke directly.
“Did you ask me to date you because you wanted to sleep with me?”
“……”
Liam’s eyes widened.
He didn’t deny it immediately but showed a flustered expression.
Was it possible that I hit the nail on the head and he couldn’t make excuses? Or was he just too surprised?
Given the former seemed more likely, I shot up from my seat.
“If it is really like that, then I need to rethink…”
“Wait!”
As I tried to leave the room, Liam quickly came over and blocked my path. He still looked taken aback.
Was he preparing some kind of excuse?
I decided to at least hear him out.
“Why?”
“No, it’s just that… um…”
I had given him a chance to explain, but Liam hesitated and stammered. It only proved my guess might be closer to the truth.
My feelings were getting colder.
I decided to harden my expression and moved toward the door.
“If you don’t tell me right now, I’ll go to Logan. How do you think he would react if I told him you approached me with intentions of just using my body?”
“…Please don’t do that.”
The moment I brought up Logan, the earnest Guardian, Liam finally looked at me with pure eyes and opened his mouth.
But the words weren’t that pure.
“Actually, I did want to sleep with you.”
“……”
“But there’s nothing I can do. You’re just too attractive.”
That much I had to admit.
With beauty like sunlight, I received compliments daily about how it was no wonder I became a Saint.
With a balanced diet and regular exercise, my body was well-kept.
I was, in many ways, the kind of person who would attract the attention of men.
I knew that well, but…
“No matter what, if your intention is just my body, I can’t accept your heart.”
Until recently, my identity as a man was still very strong.
So while I understood Liam’s feelings, it was still hard for me to shake the feeling of resistance.
“I think I need to reconsider…”
“Clitia.”
Just as I was about to turn the doorknob.
Suddenly, Liam’s demeanor changed.
His bewilderment lessened, and a clear atmosphere began to radiate from him.
For the first time since forming the Hero party, I could distinctly feel the sheer presence of his pure spirit.
“I’m not attracted to you just for your body.”
His gaze and voice were now more powerful and serious than ever. It didn’t seem like he was lying.
However, I still couldn’t be sure. I remained skeptical.
“Then tell me why you fell in love with me.”
I crossed my arms and stared firmly at Liam.
If it’s true, he would speak freely without hesitation.
If he stammered mid-sentence, I could dismiss it as nonsense to evade the situation.
Which side would it be?
“I…”
The troublemaker Hero, who paused for a moment, eventually opened his mouth with blazing passion in his eyes.
“First of all, as I mentioned earlier, you’re attractive. But that’s a very small part of it. Even if you were ugly or fat, I would’ve fallen for you.”
Step by step.
Liam took a step closer to me.
“Do you know? You’re incredibly kind and gentle. Erin depends on you the most as you treat her like an older sister, and Logan, who was always critical due to being a noble, became our party’s real leader thanks to you gently correcting his mistakes without being rude.”
As he kept talking non-stop, Liam continued to draw closer to me.
“And who was it that opened up the stern Ivar by consistently talking to him? It was you. If it weren’t for you, he would have fought with his companions all the time like me.”
At that moment, I realized. How genuine Liam was towards me.
“But more than that, you always supported me, someone who was just a mess. Everyone pointed fingers, scolded, and insulted me, yet you stayed by my side until the end. For that alone, you deserve all the praise.”
“…I get it now, so stop.”
It was getting too long, and I had already understood that it wasn’t just my body he wanted, so I told him to stop.
But Liam, now fired up, didn’t hold back.
“Also, I love your perseverance and passion. Honestly, I used to look down on you. You’re a saint, yet you couldn’t use Sacred Power properly. Even though you practiced daily, your skills didn’t improve, I somewhat despised you.”
“……”
I started to feel bashful and wanted to cover my mouth.
“If you were an ordinary person, you would have just given up. But you didn’t. Even on days when you heard taunts about you, and even after a day of hard battles, you never skipped your Sacred Power training. I could never do that. I’m just a lost one.”
“…Got it. Stop.”
“You’re the most noble saint of all. The most beautiful, kind, hardworking, noble, and sacred…”
“Stop it!”
Finally, after shouting, the endless stream of praise came to a halt.
But it was too late.
My face had already turned excessively warm due to the overflow of compliments.
“Do you understand my true feelings now?”
Liam, with a light smile, got so close I could hear his breathing.
His handsome face was so close.
I bowed my head and mumbled.
“…I get it. I won’t doubt you.”
Liam’s affection was undeniably ‘real.’
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