Read Novel Full Chapter 52
Chapter 52
A Petition from Him
And after checking her ankle for a while, Leonardo sighed once again.
“Seriously, what were you thinking? Running, falling and getting hurt just to chase after someone like me.”
He sounded astonished, but she quickly objected.
“That’s because you refused to listen to me even a bit!”
“………you’re right.”
Leonardo showed a self-deprecating smile.
His expression was beautiful as always but, it also made him look very fragile.
“It is my fault.”
“………!”
As she thought, Leonardo was acting very differently than always.
He stretched his hand towards Francesca, and touched her now messed up red hair.
“From now on, make sure you don’t run like that when wearing such high heels. Look, your cute getup has become a complete mess.”
“………you say, even though you didn’t even look at me even once back there.”
“Even now, I didn’t plan on turning back or even look at you.——-man, you are really are pretty even when covered in mud.”
Saying that while smiling, he gently dusted off Francesca’s dress with his hands.
Francesca remained pouting but after looking at Leonardo for a while, she spoke up again.
“Why did you intentionally instigate Papa and others so much during those negotiations?”
“……….”
“You never agreed to annul our engagement because you had some sort of plan, some sort of goal you wanted to achieve right? And I’m sure your objective was not to get some tobacco farms or distribution channels either. In the first place, the way you talked back there was……..”
Francesca hesitated for a moment, and then decided she had to speak truthfully about what she felt.
“It was as if you were trying to play the big bad villain, by acting like you only cared about making profits but in reality, it was all so you could annul our engagement and make it look completely natural.“
“………..hah.”
At that moment, Leonardo laughed, not in his usual ‘secretly planning something’ way, but a more genuine, a much more crazy laughter.
“I really am no match for you.”
“Leonardo. Tell me, why did you…”
“There’s no big reason behind it……….it’s just, I just had a change of mind that’s all.”
His large hand slowly enveloped Francesca’s heel.
Her toes twitched from his touch, but not because she felt any more pain because of it.
“——-From my point of view, you are like a big ball of light.”
His voice was low, sweet yet husky.
“You really are not suited to live in the underworld.”
“……..Leonardo.”
“If you stay as my fiancée for any longer, you really will cross a line from which you may never be able to come back from, you know? If your dream is to peacefully live on the surface world, then even more so.”
His finger gently caressed Francesca’s red swollen ankle.
“You can’t stay trapped with someone like me.”
“…….!!”
In that moment, a warm light was born out of nowhere.
The light was released from Leonardo’s finger, and danced in the surroundings like fireflies. They flashed and flickered and once they disappeared, Francesca finally noticed a change.
Her ankle pain, that had been stinging her constantly, had completely vanished.
(No way, was that Leonardo’s skill?)
A healing skill. Among his two hidden skills, one of them must be this one.
She thought if this was foreshadowed anywhere in the game. And, there was another thing she was curious about.
(If Leonardo does posses a healing skill, then surely he must have tried to heal his father and brother as well………)
Leonardo stood up, and looked down towards Francesca with a smile.
“To fulfil your dream, is the same as fulfilling my dream as well.——-We’re [friends] after all.”
“Leonardo……..”
He stretched his hand towards her once again.
And then Leonardo bent down and kissed Francesca on her forehead.
“nn………”
In this world, do close friends really kiss each other like this, she wondered.
She had no idea whatsoever but, she ended up feeling very nervous out of reflex. Her body shrunk from both the embarrassment and the tickling sensation, as Leonardo smiled as he sighed again.
“………”
After that, he fully embraced her in his arms, and brought his lips near her ears as he quietly whispered.
“——–this is my request. Next time, don’t chase me like this.”
“……..!!”
Hearing his pleading, she could not reply anything back.
Leonardo let go of Francesca and stepped back, and then turned and began to walk away.
(………..I can’t believe that Leonardo thought that way.)
The pain in her ankle disappeared, but she still felt unable to stand up again.
Even after his figure disappeared from his sights, Francesca remained seated on the bench all alone while deep in thought.
But that was not, because she was trying to follow what Leonardo had asked of her.
(……….I’m sorry, Leonardo.)
She had already made her resolve, and she looked forward with a strengthened will.
(I don’t think I’ll be able to listen to your request.)
And thus, Francesca began to devise her own plan.