The Duke's Passion

730  I don't feel safe

Tilly happily ate biscuits served in the drawing-room. They served her all sorts of sweets, leaving no space on the table. Heliot watched the woman from across him. Ever since coming to the drawing-room, the two of them didn't speak a word. Tilly just sat down on that seat, and then waited patiently for the servants to serve her sweets. Now, even while eating, she didn't speak a word, nor did she give him the briefest glance. She kept her eyes on the food while eating a biscuit as if she was wondering which one to eat next. That wouldn't be a problem if she was eating normally, but her bites were smaller than a toddler's bite.

"Will you leave after eating?" he asked, breaking the silence that had been reigning in the sitting room. Tilly paused and looked up at him. She nodded. "You went here all alone?" another question escaped his mouth, and just like previously, Tilly answered his query with a nod. Silence once again fell in the room as she continued eating while he simply watched her. Heliot was no stranger to silence; he liked his silence as it brought him peace. However, his intrigue with this woman consistently increased.

"You... are the woman in that house, are you?" he broke the silence once more, almost breaking a record since he rarely initiates a casual conversation. This time, Tilly nodded once, keeping the biscuit in between her lips, eyes at him.

"They said you never go out of the forbidden forest," he continued. "Does this have anything to do with what the La Crox called the regression?"

Tilly nodded, taking a careful and small bite. She was chewing every meager amount like a cow as if she would choke if she didn't chew properly. "So it's real?" Heliot mumbled. Although he gave Samael and Stefan the benefit of the doubt, there was still lingering doubt in his heart. Those two had little to no credibility since they would say anything to achieve their goal. However, Tilly was different.

As a man who was affiliated with the mainland — particularly the royal family — he heard a thing or two about the woman in the forbidden forest. There wasn't anyone on the mainland who hadn't heard about her since the forbidden forest was off-limits because of her. There weren't many stories regarding her, but everyone was wary of her existence. Some respected her for some unexplained reasons, while others wanted nothing to do with her. In other words, Mathilda, Tilly for short, had a reputation that wasn't meant to scare or idolize. Her reputation on the mainland was more like a reminder that she was still in that land of vampires. A vampire stronger than the royal family, and would always have a right to claim the throne on the mainland. "Have you heard from him?" Heliot snapped out of his train of thoughts when Tilly spoke for the first time after coming to this room. "Pardon?"

"From him," she repeated in the same soft and low tone. "The man on the mainland."

"By him... are you referring to the king?" Heliot asked for some clarity. There were a lot of men and women on the mainland, so her question was too vague of a question. "Mhm. Him." She nodded.

"No." He shook his head. "The last time I heard from him was months ago. That was also the time the delegation from the mainland visited Karo. May I know the reason for this sudden interest?"

Tilly took another bite and chewed it carefully. Fortunately, Heliot's patience was long, as she surely took an entire five minutes to chew that tiny bite. When she swallowed it down, her lips parted, and he was all ears.

"Nothing." "..."

Heliot looked at her unchanging countenance with his classic unsmiling front. Did he wait for nothing? She could've just answered before eating! Why must she make him wait to hear that one-word reply?

"Karo is a hot place. It will make me evaporate if I stay too long," she added, making anyone wonder where did that come from. That was random. "I am practicing my social skills. Fabian said I had improved and now I am convinced."

"..." Heliot looked at her without the slightest change in his expression. The more she spoke, the more his perception of her changed. It was quite disappointing in a way.

"Anyway, can I take the sweets back?" she inquired, glancing at the feast of sweets on the table. "I would like to share it with everyone."

"No."

Tilly frowned as she raised her head at him. "I'm begging you."

"You have a problem with your tone," he pointed out. "You don't say 'I'm begging you' as if you are simply reading it."

"I'm begging you," she repeated, fixing her tone, but to no avail. She sounded the same!

At this point, Heliot was almost stunned at her. This woman had no notion of how to talk to people, nor does she know how to express her feelings. Not that Heliot was any better, but Heliot didn't know it was a problem, not until now that he was talking to a wall just like him. "Sure." He gave in without even putting up a fight, watching her nod in satisfaction. "I'll finish this biscuit and leave," she remarked.

Heliot glanced at the biscuit in her hand. "You'll take at least an entire day to finish it at that speed."

"I have time."

"I'm not accompanying you for an entire day."

"It's alright." She nodded. "I'll follow you around."

Heliot was once again speechless at her response. He would mostly don't respond to people whenever he felt like there was no point, but never in his life was he rendered speechless. This was something new to him, and it rather left this strange impression in his patterned life. "I do not think I would like you around me," he voiced out his honest thoughts, making her frown. "I do not like or dislike you. I simply want to protect my peace."

Tilly blinked twice, absorbing his words to understand them clearly. "If you die… you will not need to protect your peace."

"…" Heliot looked at her blankly and blurted out. "I don't feel safe."