Volume 28: More Than Love, Quietly Look at Me
When he came to his senses, Edgar found out that he was sleeping in a cabin on a ship. He looked at his hands, and when he looked into the mirror, he realised that the man reflected in front of him is hid adult self. Raven entered the room when he was thinking about what happened 'yesterday'. In his memory, he was 13 years old but, and he was at his home, in Sylvanford manor house spending his day like usual. When Raven brought him water to wash his face and fresh clothes to change into, he naturally started the conversation, asking him how old does he look. Raven calmly told him that if he didn't lie to him about his age before, he should be 23 years old right now. Observing Raven's reaction, he asked him why he didn't look surprised that he had lost his memory. Raven than explained that he was injured in an accident which had caused him the amnesia.
Francis then came into the room, and further explained that they were in a trip to broaden the knowledge when he met the accident. While they were talking, Edgar realised that there was a woman standing near the door. Francis then introduced the woman as the daughter of his tutor, which is also his friend. When he saw Lydia, even before she introduced herself, Edgar unconsciously called her name. Hearing that, Lydia was surprised and asked him if he remembered but unfortunately, it was only a coincidence. He just felt that that name fits her. Before he left the room, Francis also reminded him that he was using a false name while traveling so he should continue to do so because if other people knew that he was the Duke of Sylvanford, he won't be able to relax during the trip.
Apparently, a few days earlier, after they successfully sealed the dragon power in Ibrazel, Edgar fell unconscious and was sleeping the whole time until now. They managed to hitch-hike a passenger ship to return to England after they left Ibrazel. Even though Ibrazel wasn't completely saved, by linking the Prince's memory inside Edgar with the dragon's power, they managed to stop Ibrazel's destruction, and at the same time, saved Edgar from being devoured by the Prince from inside. The solution wasn't perfect, but at last the suffering shadow had disappeared from Edgar's expression. Edgar lost all his memory from when the Prince conspiracy entered his life, but at least he should be able to lead a normal life from now on. Lydia had decided to stay by Edgar side as a friend and believes the promise he made before he lost his memory that he will definitely fall in love with her and propose to her again. Nico warned her to be careful as Edgar right now was supposed to be the usual nobleman, and she's just a woman from the middle class. Lydia said Edgar was behaving like usual with no haughtiness so it should be okay. Ermine also warned Lydia not to let her guard down in front of Edgar because Edgar really was a true womanizer so who knows what might happened if he make a move on her.
Edgar was taking a walk on the deck when he found Lydia nearby. Lydia tried to run away when their eyes met, but she was caught by Edgar and they talked about a few things while standing there on the deck. He asked her whether they really were just friends because the idea of him being friends with a woman just doesn't sit well with him. Lydia assured him that they were friends and said even if he had lost his memory, he wasn't alone so don't worry too much. In the middle of their conversation, Lydia noticed that the ship was heading into the fairy world and rushed to warn the sailors about the matter, leaving Edgar behind. However, the ship captain didn't believe her and drove her away. Edgar, who ran after her when she left apparently heard about her conversation with the captain and asked her what she was talking about. Lydia said that the fairy is causing the ship to run into a rocky area and she had to stop it before accident happens. Edgar, which had lost his memory obviously didn't understand about the fairy matter but he decided to help Lydia investigating the case. Lydia didn't find any other fairy besides Nico and Ermine boarding the ship but she did find a man which probably involved with the trouble. Lord Dustin, who was on honeymoon trip with his new wife was trembling in fear when Lydia met him, accusing Lydia to be a fairy who had came to take him away by his previous lover's order.
After her unsuccessful encounter with Lord Dustin, Edgar invited her for an afternoon tea to change the pace. Lydia thought they would be having the tea together with Francis and Ermine, so he followed Edgar inside the cabin room only to find out that they were alone. At first, she tried to run away, but in the end she decided to stay. They talked about Lord Dustin's surrounding circumstances, and the talk somehow turned into about relationship between nobles and commoners. Apparently, Lord Dustin is the heir to an earl who fell in love with a doctor's daughter when he ran away from home. The couple decided to elope and went to France. However, during the elopement, after sometime, Dustin received a message from a fellow noble he met in France informing him that his father had fallen ill. He left his lover in France and went back to England promising her he would come back for her but he never did. Edgar commented that if he was in Dustin's position, he would have brought back his lover with him as well but he knew the relationship would be broken sooner or later. The noble won't be able to understand his lover's predicament as a commoner, and the woman would be tired sooner or later with the opposition from their surrounding, and the eyes of the other people. Hearing all that, Lydia said that he shouldn't have played with the commoner in the first place if he knew it would turn out like that. They continue to talk about the matter until Edgar made a move on Lydia by kissing her. Lydia, unable to refuse her own husband, left with no option but to cry. Edgar then loosen his grip on Lydia when he realised that she was crying so Lydia took the chance and fled the room. Edgar tried to run after her but was stopped by Raven. He ordered Raven to get out of his way but Raven said, he was ordered by Edgar before he lost his memory to stop him if he was to hurt Lydia because he can't forgive anyone who tried to hurt her.
After she fled the room, she met with Francis and discover that Lord Dustin was particular about something hidden in a match box in his room. Together with Francis and Nico, Lydia tried to sneak into Dustin's room when he wasn't around, only to be found out by Edgar. Edgar asked the group what they were doing and when they told him, he openly entered Dustin's room. Unfortunately for them, Lord Dustin came back, and they started arguing. In the middle of it, Dustin ran outside and tried to throw away the match box into the sea. Lydia rushed to stop him, only to be pushed away and fall into the sea.
She thought she was dead when she opened his eyes because Edgar was beside her. But she found out that she was laying on land. Edgar told her that he had jumped after her when she fell and that they didn't fall into the water but came into the land. After observing the area, they found out that they were in Carnac, Brittany near the stone circles. Since they knew that they were in France which is a human world, the decided to go to the nearby village and found an inn to stay for the night. When the were having a dinner at the inn's restaurant, the proprietress told them about a legend of Mayday, and warned them to stay together all time during the night on the said day if they were spouse or else the wife would be taken away by the fairies. But Edgar lied saying that they were siblings, so there was no need to worry about it. On the other hand, Lydia started to panic when she heard that because they were in fact husband and wife. Saying that she was interested in the topic, she asked if there were any way to get the wife back if she was taken by the fairy. The proprietress said the husband should be able to find the wife and if they manage to come back before the sunrise, there should be no problem.
After the dinner, Lydia returned to her room and started to think about what to do to solve the problem at hand. The next day, Edgar invited her to a dinner at the next town and during the dinner, Lydia asked Edgar to stay with her the whole night on Mayday. Because they were actually husband and wife, Lydia didn't think much about the request but it was a big deal to Edgar so he refused. Realizing her mistake, she excused herself and went to the restaurant balcony for a breather. Even after some time had passed, Lydia didn't return to the restaurant and because of their previous argument, Edgar thought Lydia had return to the inn they were staying by herself. He decided to stay in the town for the night and return to the inn the next evening only to found out that Lydia is missing. He started to look around for her, but the proprietress said that the fairy might have taken her away.
Inside him, he instinctively knew that Lydia is a very important existence to him and that was the reason why he refused her request the other night because he didn't have confident to restrain himself to stay with her as a friend without doing anything for the whole night. The proprietress then told him about her story years back and from her story, apparently the proprietress was Lord Dustin's ex-lover. The lady said she was almost taken away year before but her current husband had stayed with her as a friend the whole night on the said Mayday. So, even though they were not husband and wife, he should be able to find and retrieve Lydia back from the fairy's hand if Lydia was important enough to him. After the talk with the proprietress, Edgar went out alone to find Lydia.
On the other hand, Lydia found herself to be surrounded by fairies of the stone circles. She was abducted the other night when she went to the balcony. From the fairy talk, she was kidnapped to be made wife to one of the stone circles. The stone circles were actually fairies who would return to their fae form once a year on Mayday. But there was one stone who couldn't change. According to the fairies, the said stone had his heart stolen, and broken by a human woman thousand years before so to heal him, they brought him a woman to replace the one he lost. The reason they chose a woman who wasn't by their husband on the Mayday night because they considered the woman had been abandoned so there won't be any complication like someone might come and take the woman back. Lydia then argued that they took a wrong target because she wasn't married. She demanded that they return her back to the human world but being a whimsical being, the fae said they'll make do with Lydia.
It was at that time that Edgar came and said to return his wife back to him. At first, Lydia thought that he had recovered his memories but he was only acting to escaped from the place. He firmly hold Lydia close to him and retreated from the fairy circles but escaping proved to be quite hard. While the fairies won't be able to touch Lydia when she was held by Edgar, the fairies however was able to attack Edgar and hold him down to separate him from Lydia. Lydia was almost swallowed by the stone circle when Raven came bringing with him Lord Dustin's match box. Inside the match box, there was a heart-shaped stone which belonged to the fairy who couldn't transformed. Edgar then said that the stone was given to Lord Dustin by the propritress before he left her to remind him of her existance and that the stone was originally taken from the stone circles area. In the nick of time, Lydia returned the stone to the fairy and soon they found out that they were back on the ship.
Back on the ship, Edgar made a remark saying that the fairies legend was not to be trusted because even though he wasn't Lydia's husband, he still able to find where Lydia was. He further commented that apparentlty the relationship between them exceed of that between husband and wife. Even though the sadness didn't dissappear, and the loneliness remains, Lydia felt much better standing by Edgar side believing that they would be together again someday.
End of the main storyline in this volume.
This volume is actually a compilation of two short stories and a short continuation from the previous main plot. The last 2,3 volumes were quite sad for me. I can feel the pain between the couple but they still stay strong together. The author said that the novel is entering the ending, but there was still some problem left hanging. For the time being, they managed to evade Edgar's question about his family, but what would they do when they return to London?
That's what I couldn't wait to read!
I didn't write the short stories summary here, but I'll try to do that later. Now off to re-read Migawari Hakushaku! Have been jumping between the series lately >.>
