Chapter 23: End of Season Rain
Three months have passed since Lucasta returned to the forest and everything in the castle was still going as usual.
She still cleans the castle every day, cooks food, grows vegetables, sweeps leaves around the garden, and in the afternoon, she follows Samson into the forest to pick mushrooms.
However, she was no longer intimate or teasing him. Even in the drawing room, she did not set foot, even though there were many times he wanted her to paint with him.
She was also less talkative. Sometimes, he caught her sitting on a stone bench in the yard and looking out into the distance.
Today was also a sad and boring day. Every second and every minute seemed to corrode the heart of the handsome vampire because he couldn’t guess what Lucasta was thinking.
The forest was deserted in the afternoon, with only the sound of two people’s shoes stepping on dry leaves and the sound of birds chirping.
The basket of mushrooms in Lucasta’s hand was full, every time she accidentally tripped over a dry branch, a few mushrooms fell to the ground, but she did not pick them up.
– Lucasta, I think we need to talk. – Samson turned his head and said.
– What’s wrong with you? We talk to each other every day.
Samson noticed that Lucasta’s legs were slowly receding, even though the distance between the two of them was already quite far.
He also didn’t know when she changed, he just knew that when he realized this difference, he couldn’t determine the reason anymore.
– Do you have any dissatisfaction with me? I feel there is a distance between us. Why are you standing so far away from me? Why are you in a hurry to eat and drink and spend most of your time just sitting in the yard and going to Maris’s castle?
– Samson. I’ve grown up already. Don’t ask me like a child. I do all of that simply because I like it.
After Lucasta finished speaking, she lifted her leg and passed Samson like a breeze, oblivious to the pitiful eyes that followed her every step.
He wondered at the distance she purposely created without knowing that she was trying to widen it further.
She wanted to go to a place without him, such as the city.
It was time for dinner, but Samson didn’t enter the kitchen even though Lucasta knocked on his door twice.
He didn’t want her to eat in a hurry. However, when he heard her footsteps go away, he surreptitiously followed her and watched her eat.
Her figure sitting alone at the dining table looked very pitiful and lonely.
Did she remember the past and know that he was not her brother, so she showed such an attitude?
But if she remembered, why didn’t she go back to where she belonged? Or did she no longer have relatives?
Time passed and the hands of the clock ticked closer and closer to eleven o’clock at night.
Outside, it was raining, and Samson knew it was the last rain of summer.
Because he was worried Lucasta forgot to close the window, he got up and went to her room to check.
The moment the door opened, he saw Lucasta sitting on the bed.
In the flickering light of the candle, he noticed her shoulders were shaking.
She had a nightmare, but she did not run to his room but suffered alone.
Samson closed the door, but he did not return to his room, but took his umbrella and left the castle, going to the mound where Eirlys had breathed her last.
The phosphorescent light from the dried tree stump gave off a faint white light that looked like the figure of a young girl sitting and embroidering.
– Lucasta will love that log. You bring it to the castle and give it to her.
Samson looked up as soon as Maris spoke. When he saw her perched on a branch and she had no umbrella, he suddenly realized that the rain had stopped.
However, the rainwater was still on the leaves, and when the wind suddenly blew, Maris’s body was soaked.
She did not avoid it, lying on the tree, enjoying the feeling as if the fairy was lying on the beach waiting for the waves to rush.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org
In Samson’s memory, the Maris of the past was not the same as the present.
Thirty years ago, she was a gentle girl. She walked lightly; she whispered, and her clothes were always discreet and modestly colored.
But now, she prefers a more sexy fashion style. Her voice overwhelms others. She runs, jumps, and climbs faster than him.
Time can change Maris, it can also change Lucasta, so why can’t he accept it?
– Do you realize Lucasta has changed? She’s very weird, always avoiding me. – Samson folded his umbrella and asked.
– I’m following you because of this. This morning, Lucasta confided in me that she is obsessed with her kiss with you on the Ferris wheel. Three months ago, she asked me how I felt when I kissed someone on the lips and I described the feelings I had with the man I once loved. It wasn’t until this morning that I understood why she said then that brother and sister can kiss on the lips and they will feel the same emotions I described.
Maris paused for a few minutes and then continued to confess to Samson that when she heard Lucasta’s assertion, she told the blonde that a brother and a sister can’t love each other the way a man loves a woman.
She explained it was against morality and would be punished by the gods.
She also gave books on sex education for Lucasta to read so that the human girl could understand more.
– Samson, you are wrong for not explaining the love between a man and a woman so that she can understand. You have made her think wrong. Can I understand that you did this on purpose? – Maris looked at him seriously and asked.
– I didn’t do it on purpose. Perhaps you are right. I was wrong when I lied to her.
Samson bowed his head and took all the blame on himself.
He didn’t expect Lucasta to have those feelings after kissing him.
She must have been miserable when she had to face him every day for the past three months.
If he told Lucasta that she was just a little girl he picked up and raised, could the two of them go any further?
Can he turn the love between a brother and a sister into a love of a couple?
He won’t turn her into a vampire to be with him forever, but he just wants to be with her for the rest of her normal human life.
– Vincent and I used to be like you and Lucasta. I see him as a brother and suddenly he says he wants me to be his wife. After that… you know. I knew his vampire identity and knew he wasn’t my brother from the start, but I couldn’t accept that love, let alone Lucasta. She saw you as her brother.
Maris’s sad voice interrupted the budding thoughts in Samson’s heart, awakening him.
Because Vincent couldn’t control his emotions, he caused himself and Maris to fall into tragedy.
What will Lucasta’s reaction be when she learns that the man she freely confesses her feelings to is a stranger?
What will her reaction be when she learns that the brother she loves wants her to become his wife?
– I’ll explain to Lucasta. If brotherhood can make her happy when she’s with me, then I don’t need love anymore. Samson tried to squeeze the pain deep into his heart and said.
– You will be selfish if you keep her with you. The youth of a girl does not last as long as ours. In the blink of an eye, wrinkles appeared on her face. She needs to live a normal life, fall in love, get married, have children, and grow old.
He understood what Maris wanted to talk about, but he didn’t want to leave Lucasta.
He couldn’t imagine what he would be like without her by his side.
Her eyes, lips, smile, chubby figure, and pure singing were etched in his mind.
Ten years seemed to be the imprint of a thousand years.
What’s wrong with him and her living together for the past ten years?
Why does Maris want him to let Lucasta leave?
The rain continued to fall, mixing with the tears on Samson’s face.
It’s been a long time, this is the second time he’s cried since the day he picked up Eirlys’ body.
His wandering figure walking in the quiet night made Maris sad, too.
She doesn’t want the old story to repeat.
Once love is too great and lust takes over, no man can control their behavior.
– Samson, it’s better for you to let her go to keep each other’s beautiful feelings than you are selfish and then bring pain to both of you.
He heard Maris’s voice mixed with the sound of the rain, but he didn’t answer and just kept walking.
For the first time, he felt the rain that could hurt him and make him so cold and numb. He didn’t know that the pain and cold all came from the heart.
At this moment, inside the ancient castle, Lucasta ran around looking for Samson.
Because nightmares kept haunting her, she went to his room, but in the end, she couldn’t find him.
Her fear grew more and more intense as she ran through the rooms of the castle, and he still didn’t show up.
The loud sound of a half-closed door being blown by the strong wind and bright lightning followed by a deafening thunderclap made Lucasta turn her head to look out into the courtyard.
She was extremely frightened when she saw a tall figure in black clothes appear.
– Brother… Brother…
Lucasta shouted while holding her head and crouched down, her whole body shaking uncontrollably.
Samson quickly threw away the umbrella, and the dried tree stump and ran to her side.
He thought she was already sleeping.
– Lucasta, it’s me, calm down.
She looked at him with teary eyes for a long time and then swooped into his lap and cried like a bullied child.
Her weak little hand punched him in the back because he had scared her.
– Where did you go? Samson, you scared the hell out of me. I thought you were a ghost.
– Why am I a ghost? I’m your brother. – Samson patted her.
– You’re all wet. – She pushed him away, said in a sob.
– Yeah, let me change my clothes. Please go to your room.
When her footsteps disappeared on the last steps, he still stared blankly.
After a while, he went to the door, picked up an umbrella, and a dried tree stump, brought them into the house, and went up to his room to change clothes.
He had just put on his white shirt when the door opened and Lucasta appeared.
Her face flushed, and she turned her back, but he called out to her to turn around.
– I think we need to talk. Samson repeated the sentence from the afternoon.
– Yes, I also have something to tell you.
Samson buttoned his shirt and waved Lucasta closer to him.
She sat obediently on the bed and dropped her legs while he knelt in front of her.
– Lucasta, I want to talk about the kiss on the Ferris wheel. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you that those two were lovers. I thought you were too young to understand the love between men and women. I’m sorry for causing you to misunderstand, leading to bad thoughts. Lucasta, I love you the way a brother loves his sister. It’s intimacy, not male-female love. Do you understand what I mean?
– That means you won’t have to be punished by the gods, right?
– Yes, we did nothing wrong.
Lucasta’s eyes filled with tears. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed.
She was haunted by the fear that he would be punished by the gods. She feared her wrongdoing would destroy him.
Just now, she thought he was taken away by the gods.