Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

But they didn't say anything, maybe they didn't know how to comfort him?

Only Joseph, who had the best relationship with him besides Rachel, walked up to him, patted him on the shoulder, and told him that he might need to be alone and get enough sleep.

He didn't know if Joseph was right, but he probably... did need some sleep.

He returned to the room.

He is lying on the bed.

He closed his eyes, but suddenly smelled the all-too-familiar scent of golden roses—the scent dispelled his sleepiness and woke him up again.

The brave man suddenly remembered something, so he sat up abruptly and fumbled to take out a sachet from the pillow.

It was given to him by Rachel.

When he was chatting with Laciel, he casually said that he had trouble sleeping recently, and Laciel took note of it. A few days later, she gave him the sachet and told him that the scent of golden roses had a good sleep-inducing effect, and asked him to put the sachet in his pillow to try.

He did so.

Later, surrounded by the fragrance of golden roses, he was able to sleep peacefully.

But now, surrounded by the familiar scent of golden roses again, he couldn't fall asleep no matter what.

He clenched the sachet stupidly, raised his head and looked around.

He suddenly realized that around him, in his room... there were traces of Lacie left everywhere.

The sachet in the pillow; the well-cared-for pot of golden roses on the windowsill; the coat in the closet that she had mended with a cute dog head patch; the wooden shoe cabinet at the door that they had made by themselves and the two pairs of furry slippers inside that belonged to them; the scarf and socks that she had worn before were even left in his room, and she even asked him with a sly smile whether he would do anything bad with her socks...

She is gone.

But she is everywhere.

Charles suddenly felt a heavy emotion rising from the bottom of his heart, instantly filling his empty body, but also making him breathless.

He was like a fish that reached the shore with the rising tide. The waves brought him to appreciate the wonder and beauty of the land. He thought that he would stay on the shore with the waves until the end of each other's lives. However, he forgot that the waves would eventually return to the sea, so after the tide receded, he was left alone on the shore.

How can a fish living in the sea breathe on the shore?

Charles slowly curled up his tired body and leaned against the corner of the bed.

He clenched the golden rose sachet tightly and tried to breathe like a fish out of water to fight against the gradually paralyzed body and the painful feeling of suffocation.

He began to tremble uncontrollably as if he had been electrocuted. He wanted to cry but couldn't. He could only gasp violently like a dying beast.

He hadn't been nearly as sad as he had been when he realized that Lacelle had died in his arms, and he hadn't been nearly as sad as he had been when he had buried Lacelle.

But now, when he saw Rachel staying in his room and every detail of his life in the past three years, he suddenly "woke up". He was no longer in a trance, nor did he feel confused.

It felt like being pricked by a needle.

The sharp pain made it impossible for him to deceive himself anymore. He had never understood so clearly before.

He was forced to realize that Rachel had left him forever and would never appear in front of him again, sneaking into his room every morning and shouting and calling him to get up with full energy.

The person is gone and cannot be brought back.

……

The memories suddenly interrupted.

Charles "woke up".

The remaining confusion on his face gradually turned into determination and resolve. He didn't want to make the same mistake again, so he was like a locomotive that would never stop once it started.

He rushed towards Rachel:

"marry me!"

"Huh?" Lacier panicked, but still refused decisively, "No!"

Her rejection did not deter Charles, on the contrary, he rose to the challenge:

"marry me!"

"No!" Charles repeated himself, and so did Lacey. "I won't marry you!"

"why?"

"For... for Bull Demon! No reason!" Lacey was almost driving Charles, the locomotive, mad. "I don't want to get married! Why are there so many whys?!"

"No," Charles approached her and continued his invitation in his usual calm tone, "Please marry me."

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Lacey was almost going crazy.

She stretched out her hand and pressed it on Charles' face, trying to stop this damn locomotive that was blinded by love from getting closer.

"If you don't want to get married, then you don't want to get married! Hurry up and crawl!"

Charles did not crawl away obediently, but at least he did not approach Lacie again, and even took the initiative to step back to allow Lacie to catch her breath.

Then, facing Laciel, who thought she had finally escaped, he suddenly said:

"But you told me before that if you couldn't find the right person to date, it would be nice to marry me."

"???"

Lacie almost couldn't catch her breath.

"Don't talk nonsense!" She hastily clarified, "How could I say this..."

But she had barely finished explaining herself when Charles said to her:

"Two years ago, when we were drinking together, we both drank quite a lot that day. When we were about to go back, you suddenly turned around and clinked glasses with me, and then you said to me - 'If you really can't find someone you like in the future, and I can't find someone I like, then... then I can make do with you and be your wife.'"

The brave man said, as if he was sure of victory:

"You said this yourself. You won't deny it, will you?"

Lacey thought to herself, "I admit that I am the Bull Demon. Is that really what my buddy said? Why didn't my buddy...

Oh, she seemed to have some impression.

While they were drinking that day, not far from them, there was a young couple hugging and kissing each other in broad daylight. They were so affectionate, their eyes were so sweet that they were almost tearing tears. Later, they even didn't care about their presence at all and kissed each other directly.

Both these bastards deserve to die!

At least that's what Lacie thinks.

Although other than that, she was somewhat...well, she had to admit, she was a little envious.

So after drinking some wine, she was overwhelmed for a moment and said those things to Charles... those things that she would never say under normal circumstances.

In fact, her alcohol tolerance has always been very low, and the reason why she can compete with Charles is because she has a special spell to eliminate the effects of alcohol. In theory, as long as Charles does not expand the scope of the forbidden spell, it will be fine.

If she was really affected by the forbidden spell used by Charles, then based on her real alcohol tolerance...

She was afraid that if she drank two glasses she would become drunk and unconscious.

And that day... she couldn't remember whether she was arm in arm with Charles and was affected by the forbidden spell. Maybe that was the case, otherwise how could she suddenly say such nonsense to Charles?

Thinking of this, Lacie felt more confident.

She raised her head, looked at Charles who was staring at her, and refuted confidently:

"You also know that we were drinking that day! If I remember correctly, we both drank a lot that day. People always talk nonsense when they are drunk. This is normal."

But it was far beyond her expectations.

After hearing her explanation, Charles shook his head and asked out of the blue:

"Actually, you've never been drunk when you drink with me, right?"

"Huh?!" Lacie was shocked, but she still pretended to be just the right amount of stupid on the surface, "What do you mean?"

"Magic," Charles said slowly, "Every time I drank with you before, I could sense the scent of magic in you."

"At first, I thought it was some self-discipline spell at work, so I didn't think much about it. Later, when I was in Diesel, I tried to secretly expand the range of the forbidden spell a little bit, and then I drank with you, but you passed out after just two drinks."

Like a judge who has found a mountain of irrefutable evidence and therefore can make a judgment without hesitation, Charles swung the gavel decisively:

"So, you've never actually been drunk before! You were just pretending to be drunk every time before! You were using magic to offset the effects of alcohol on you! So that day... you weren't talking nonsense at all! You were just using the opportunity of pretending to be drunk to tell the truth, right!"

Charles's offensive came like a tide.

Lacey is going to be hot.

[To be continued]

-

5. Praise her for being cute

Now that she had been discovered, Lacie simply stopped pretending.

She stiffened her neck, her face flushed, and made a loud noise:

"What! You have magic but you don't let me use it! You are so overbearing... Who told you to drink so much? If I didn't use magic to force you to drink, I would probably fall to the ground after just one glass!"

The more she talked, the more excited she became:

"Besides, wasn't it you who got the benefit in the end? A beautiful girl like me was willing to drink with you, but instead of being grateful, you turned a blind eye to my kindness, right?"

Miss Witch is always so sharp-tongued.

She has a very good mouth and can easily confuse right and wrong and turn black into white. Even if she is not in the right, she can still make unreasonable arguments and force herself onto the moral high ground, then point fingers at the people below.

But Charles didn't hate her like this.

On the contrary, he always thought that Lacie was very cute.

Because Rachel was never vague about major issues, she would only be stubborn about insignificant minor matters. And every time she was stubborn, she would realize her mistake soon and come to apologize, and her attitude was always sincere.

To this day, he still remembers how Lacele cried breathlessly and apologized to him desperately in front of her mad mother in Lentiheim.

Even though he was deceived, it was difficult for him to get angry at someone like Rachel.

Although… although, he sometimes felt that the crying witch lady looked like she was easy to bully.

But he never had the heart to bully Miss Witch.

After knowing the truth, he had thought about it, "Should I scare her and let her experience what I felt back then?" However, as soon as he saw Miss Witch drop the little pearl, he had no time to consider whether to let her regret it too.

Uncle Elvis once told him that a man who makes a woman cry is undoubtedly a scum of the earth.

Charles thought he was right.

but.

People's physiques cannot be generalized. Some women... some witches just deserve to be punished. Sometimes Charles even wondered if she was enjoying it.

Even though she knew she couldn't resist him, and couldn't run away, she still insisted on being tough, provoking him, and making him angry...

Charles couldn't help but ask:

"You... do you really want to be bullied by me?"

"Huh?" Rachel responded in surprise, "Are you crazy?"

To increase her credibility, she added:

"What nonsense are you talking about? How could I possibly want to be bullied by you? Is your brain broken? Do you want me to use magic to fix it for you?"

As she spoke, she drew out her wand with great energy, rolled up her sleeves, and seemed to really want to fix Charles's brain -

Well, on a physical level.

"..."

Charles became suspicious:

"Really?"

He didn't know why, but he always felt something was wrong.

Although Lacier looked normal and there was nothing wrong with her, but...

As the saying goes, everything has its limits.

Sometimes, if an answer is too calm, could it also indicate from another perspective that someone is feeling guilty?