Fever or blush?

Cecil couldn't handle the silence and finally asked with irritation, "Why are you here?". Camy elbowed to tell her to mind her business. Cecil completely ignored her and looked at Arthur with an expectation of having the answer.

Arthur smiled slightly enjoying the irritation and replied, "I had business to take care of. Vladis offered to help me. Hence, here I am".

Cecil moved her angry eyes from Arthur to Vladis as if blaming him for his visit. Vladis could only glare at Arthur for throwing him under the bus and then looked at Cecil as if asking for an apology with his eyes. He answered clumsily, "well, we should help each other you know. Especially those who are willing to contribute to the country's growth."

Cecil wanted to say something but Camy interrupted her again, "It's completely fine. The more the merrier". Cecil could only glare at her but decided unwillingly to shut up.

----

Back at the Mansion

Resel just had a shower and changed into fresh clothes when she heard a knock on the door. She thought that it must be the soup which Mrs. Taylor asked the staff to send to her room, so she rushed to open the door only to be met by Rune.

Resel was wearing a white dress, and with a bare face and open wet hair she looked like an angel descended from the sky. Her eyes were widened on seeing Rune.

Rune was dressed formally but looked very handsome. His hand was still in the air to knock again when Resel opened the door. When he looked at her, he held his breath. She was looking clean and beautiful. Her eyes were widened and so was his. He could suddenly hear his heartbeat sounding like drums in his ear and was frozen on the spot. He came to his senses when Resel spoke, "umm…. Hello".

Rune coughed to remove the dryness in his throat and said, "Hello. Are you free to talk right now?"

Resel first hesitated to let him enter the room but thinking that it was his house and she is her guest and that too, not a special one, she moved aside and gestured him to enter the room.

Rune and Resel felt quite awkward at first but then Rune broke the silence and said, "You had a shower this late in the day?"

Resel quickly said to avoid any bad impression, "oh no... Actually, I and Cecil were playing with the water in the garden and that's when I got all wet, so I thought to take a shower."

Rune replied, "Okay."

Resel then asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

Rune almost forgot about the purpose of his visit. He then replied, "We will go tomorrow to the central library to solve the mystery about the blue moon. Be ready tomorrow in the morning. Also, no one knows about this visit except Knight Vladis and Lord Arthur so don't mention it to anyone".

"Okay"

"I will inform mom that you are going to help me in the council work so that we can go easily."

"Okay. umm...Are Knight Commander Vladis and Lord Arthur also coming with us?"

"Yes". Rune furrowed his brows and couldn't understand why she was asking about them.

"Why do you ask?", he asked, feeling weird about her asking about Vladis and Arthur.

She stuttered because there was no specific reason for asking. It's just that she found them very handsome and charming and which girl doesn't want to see charming boys. She said hurriedly, "there is no reason". She bowed her head to hide her embarrassment about having such thoughts. Her cheeks became red as a result.

Rune asked, "Are you running a fever?". He was confused seeing her in this state.

"No…. Acchhooo". She sneezed rapidly thrice.

"You take a rest. I will ask the chef to prepare the soup for you. Take care and have some rest. I will leave first." With that said, he closed the door and hurriedly went downstairs, skipped the steps with his long legs, and went to the kitchen.

He saw his mother working there, so he inquired about the soup to only be informed that a soup was already being sent to her room. He then went to his room and heaved a sigh of relief. He then realized that he was actually worried about Resel, a woman other than his sweeties and her mother. He couldn't understand his own worries and decided to do the council work to shrug off his thoughts.