at that is?”

Huh??She couldn’t stop herself from reacted in an unnatural surprise because she thought that he saw through her about her plan for a kiss. She worried if Edgar figured out the motive behind this invitation of hers.

When someone heard the nightingale’s song, there might some kind of spell or charm that would create a desire in someone to kiss another’s eyelash or something like that.

Unlike Lydia, who was dull and inexperienced when it came to love, Edgar was pretty familiar with things like charms or fortune-telling that women in love happened to like.

As Lydia turned red in the cheeks in panic, she swiftly turned her eyes away, but that reaction seemed like she was proving she had a lustful desire ...no, ulterior?motives.

She heard him let out a confused-sounding sigh.

“Lydia, with what happened yesterday and me being invited from your side, is different from normal. No, I actually felt happy. Like maybe you are trying to open up to me. But, now isn’t the time to be so thoughtlessly optimistic. Was there something that happened?”

P.?113

If she were to tell him, then the Nightingale’s love guidance would end in failure. That means she will disappear.

“No-nothing. I just wanted to listen to the nightingale’s song together.”

That’s why she rushed to deny.

“...With?me?”

*

“Hey, Lydia, there’s something wrong with the nightingale! She just suddenly crouched down and...”

When she returned back to her office, Nico came dashing up to her in a frantic commotion.

“..turned into an egg!”

P.?116

"What!”

Right in front of Lydia’s wide eyes, Nico held it out in his two front paws. On top of his pads there was something round about the size of a pearl.

Maybe it could be the step in the process before she vanishes.

“Ohh....,is it because I screwed up?”

“You screwed up? If it was to lead that earl to some place, couldn’t any woman have done that?”

Lydia thought that most likely he was exactly right and that made her all the more depressed.

Why can’t I do anything right?

“Nico, what should I do?”

Although the nightingale was a troublemaker, the fae was just doing what she desperately could so as to not disappear.

She overreacts and believes what she only wants to believe and says things like kissing eyelashes and asking for gifts which no one would agree that such a thing would help to win the heart of anyone’s beloved, but as a friend to any girl troubled with love, she was honestly trying to bring up Lydia’s spirits.

She couldn’t allow herself to silently watch a good-willed fairy disappear like this.

“I know, the Lord of the Forrest...! He has control over her fate, so he could surely help her if he wants it.”

“What! But you’d be going against a who-knows-what-kind-of-thing he is.”

“At any rate, Nico, lead me to the forest.”

P.?117

“I don’t want to. It isn’t a normal forest.”

It looked like this shallow-hearted cat was getting ready to run for it and hurried to make way to the window.

“Hold on right there. Then just tell me where it is. Where exactly is it in Piccadilly?”

“Inside a building. I happened to be walking alone the top of the buildings and went into one of the windows I passed by on a whim. I don’t really remember the exact?spot.”

“All right. Then, I’ll try and call out for it.”

“Lydia, it’s dangerous to get unnecessarily involved with it.”

In such a rush that Nico’s warning didn’t even reach her ears, she had already run out of the room.

When she arrived to the east-side of Piccadilly, Lydia pushed her way through the busy crowd that filled the circus area between Regent Street and Shaftesbury and searched the streets around her like a lost visitor from the countryside.

Even if she peered up, there were only rows of tall buildings with signs hanging from them and the circus was filled with carriages coming and going.

This main street was the busiest shopping and amusement area and of course, there wasn’t any sight of anything resembling a forest.

It seemed like it wasn’t going to be a normal forest and Nico said that it was inside a building. She wondered which building it was.

“....The Nightingale House?”

P. 118

Lydia’s eyes happened to come across a sign written with that name.

Not sure if this was?just coincidence or if the place was a related to the forest, she approached the building.

From the windows where fine-quality curtains hanged, she caught a glimpse of a magnificent blooming flower arrangement even though it was in the middle of winter. On the inner side of those glass windows, there must be so many in-house grown flowers decorating the interior. The curtain at the entrance, the massive door and even the door boy who was stationed before the entrance, all said this was an expensive place.

In her vision that was dimmed gray with fog and smoke, there were puffs of snow that were starting to fall down from the sky.

Without any particular reason, Lydia peered up. On the wall of the building that had the name Nightingale House, there was the words Coffee House and the era of the?precious century.

When she looked up towards the top in front of the building, the door boy made a cold glare at her. Sensing from the atmosphere of the place, it was the social gathering spot for the upper class. It wasn’t a place where a girl like her would come all by herself.

Walking a little ways away from that spot, Lydia stopped to gaze at the building once more and no paid no attention at the curious eyes from the pedestrians passing by her; she decided to call out to the Lord of the Forest.

“Lord of the Nightingale Forest, can you hear me? I am a Fairy Doctor; I have something to talk to you about your nightingale.”

All of a sudden, it wasn’t like she felt any wind, but the snow in the air blew around her in a whirlwind.

That distracted her attention for a second, but then she noticed that the hustle and bustling noise of people around her had stopped. At that same time, Lydia saw that she was standing by herself in a dark forest lit only by the moon’s light.

P.?119

Instead of the stone-made buildings that were lined up around her just earlier, there were trees that stood so high they touched the night sky.

There wasn’t any smoke from chimneys that coated the sky, but the branches that were covered with leaves.

“What about the nightingale?”

Lydia hurried to turn around to see a young boy standing alone by himself. He was wearing an outfit lined with extravagant lace that you would only see worn nowadays in a play.

“Are you the Lord of the Forest?”

He was a boy who looked younger than Lydia, around the age of fourteen or fifteen.

However, when he came walking over to her, Lydia noticed that she was the actual shorter?one.

“What business do you have, young lady? It seems your age of love is still quite?young.”

“Age of Love?”

“This is the Nightingale Forest. It is a world that was born from when it was given that name, so in this forest, everyone takes the form that matches how old they can love.”

The boy’s blue eyes and rosy cheeks looked as if he had come out of a painting. He was a being so beautiful and pure. The only thing she could tell was he wasn’t a ghost nor a fairy, but an entity that lived in a magical and godly realm.

Being in front of a boy like that, even as she was alarmed at how she could only take the form of a young child, Lydia remembered she had important duty and cleared her throat.

P.?120

“The nightingale is close to dying. Please could you save her? If it were you, you would be able to do it. It’s much too heartless of you that she should have to disappear if she doesn’t succeed in guiding someone’s love. I want to ask you to stop tying her down with that kind of magic.”

“All right,” he simply replied.

However, Lydia went completely stiff because his small faint smile looked like he was hiding rage.

“I can’t stop her if she wants to leave this forest. But my forest needs a nightingale. Then would you come here as her replacement?”

Oh, no, she thought, I might be in trouble.

“That’s impossible for me. Since, well, I’m in a form like this, ....I don’t know love. I wouldn’t be able to become a nightingale.”

As she said that, Lydia fumbled to search for the ash tree branch that she had hidden under her coat.?Will a charm against fairies work on him?

“Oh really? It’s true that your heart is young. But, do you really not know love?”

Suddenly, there was terrible circling wind of snow that came blowing into the moonlit night forest and completely darkened Lydia’s vision.

P.?121

*

“Lord Edgar, I have made sure all of the rooms in Nightingale House have been safely?reserved.”

Nodding at Raven’s report, Edgar was thinking if that really was all right.

Ever since Lydia left the Ashenbert mansion, she hasn’t returned. Of course she hasn’t returned to her own house.

All he could find out was that she headed towards Piccadilly but that was all.

On top of that, Nico was nowhere in sight.

If it were possible, he wanted to reserve every last hotel and inn in all of London that lovers used to meet. There was no guarantee that Lydia would invite another man as a last resort.

She looked like she was desperate and would do anything.

There had to be a reason which couldn’t reveal to make her say something like that.

"Just might be able to bear it, huh.”

Even if it were a level of that degree, if he was chosen and asked such a favor, then maybe he should have done as she asked.

However, to Edgar, she was a girl who he wanted to marry. He was seriously proposing to her, and yet, he was told ‘this should be easy for you’ and it was true that her comment of him made him slightly depressed.

“Lord Edgar, are you planning to return to becoming a frequent customer of the Nightingale House ‘again’?”

P.?122

“....Raven, I only reserved it for the sake of Lydia.”

“So that was what made Miss Carlton go missing.”

He wondered if Raven was thinking that the reason why Lydia went missing was because Edgar forced himself onto her again.

With a sigh, he rested his cheek in his palm.

If things were going to turn out like this, then he thought it would have been better if he were to wait a little more and see what her intentions were. He might have even been able to accompany her to the Nightingale Hall.

However, if he was seduced by her there like earlier, then he didn’t have the confidence that he could stop himself. Even though she said that it wasn’t like she couldn’t bear him as she had her eyes closed so tightly like that and was shivering all over was arousing for him, proved that his taste went out of the boundaries of good taste.

Because he thought that, he couldn’t allow himself to forget his morals and use that good opportunity and take advantage by accepting her.

At any rate, he couldn’t allow something bad to happen to Lydia. He couldn’t stay still and wait any longer.

Standing up from his chair, Edgar walked over to Raven.

“Raven, I’m going to have you come along with me to the Nightingale House.”

“Yes.”

“Before that, there needs to be some preparations done. Call for the housekeeper Ms. Harriet and have her help you put on a dress.”

P.?123

Raven was one who didn’t let his emotions appear on his face, but there was no mistake that he went completely frozen.

Edgar smiled inwardly in at his successful payback to Raven’s unconscious stabbing statement.

“For the sake of my honor, make sure to perfectly dress like a woman so you aren’t found out as a man.”

“Pardon me..., but why?”

For him to unusually ask the reason for Edgar’s order, could mean that he really didn’t want to do it, but Edgar had no intention of withdrawing it. If it were Raven, with his slim body and boyish face, then there would be no problems for him to look like a woman.

“Now listen, Raven. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to go and reserve all of the Nightingale House and then end up going there by myself, is there? But having said that, if I were to escort a woman there it would only be the source of a big misunderstanding. Do you understand?”

In regards to the Nightingale House, there was something else that was on Edgar’s mind.

Lydia is a Fairy Doctor. If there were something that made Lydia desperate, there was no mistake it involved fairies. Bringing out the bottomless soft-heart side of herself, the normal pattern up till now was she went a made a more fumbling mess out of the problem because a fairy was related to the matter.

He came to the conclusion that it was the same situation this time and also thought hard about the mysterious painting that related to the Nightingale House.

A nightingale sings from the painting at night.

P.?124

He only thought it was a joke slapped onto hackneyed expression to use in inviting the opposite sex, but if there really was a magical phenomenon that occurred, then that meant there could be a link with Lydia inviting him to go listen to the nightingale song.

The painting in question had the title [Nightingale’s Forest] and it depicted the middle of a deep forest lit up by the moonlight with a young boy sleeping in the woods by himself.

The young boy, who was wearing a Baroque-styled?clothing lined with abundant lace and gold braiding, had the moonlight shown on?his white cheeks giving off an alluring aura similar to the attraction to a?beautiful woman, making him appear not like a human, but more like a magical?spirit.

Beside the boy and the moonlight, there was a choking amount of grass and trees that overlapped each other so much it made one feel the steamy, warm air given off by them, but surprisingly, there?was no shadow nor shape of the nightingale.

A Nightingale was a small bird who no one can see. Only its singing voice rings throughout the forest. That’s why there was no sight of the small bird and only the painting of a young boy who lay resting as he listened to the nightingale’s song.

Beside that interpretation, there was another anecdote to this painting.

Long ago, in a certain wealthy family, there was a daughter with a terribly weak health and a painting that hanged on the wall in her bed chamber. The daughter didn’t know the outside world and so she fell in love with the boy in the painting. She came to wish that she could go into the forest.

Eventually, she passed away and only her soul became a nightingale. And from there, in the depths of the forest, she continues to sing her song of love for the boy...

However, even this might just be a made-up story in order to bring out the romantic mood in people. This could have

nothing to do with Lydia.

P. 125

P. 126

But still, Edgar was in the room where the painting was hung and sat down on a silk finished sofa and waited by himself, listening for the nightingale’s song.

He wondered if this could count that he had accepted and was going through with Lydia’s favor who asked him if they could both listen to the nightingale’s song.

To tell the truth, that was the real reason he came tonight.

Most likely, what she was wishing for didn’t have the same meaning as the rest of society.

Then for the sake of her goal, it was necessary for Edgar to go into the [Nightingale’s Forest] and if he came here and did this, he wanted to believe he could make a point of contact with her.

He stayed still and waited, listening carefully.

The bustling noise of Piccadilly and the chatter of the coffee house must not be reaching this room on the upper floor, as it was awfully quiet.

Needless to say, on this floor there was only Edgar and Raven, who was standing by in the next room.

Resting his body against the back of the sofa, he closed his eyes.

And then – a light breeze of wind flowed by and he thought he felt it blow through his hair.

It wasn’t possibly for wind to blow in a closed room. Just when he thought that – he heard the sound of rustling tree leaves.

Edgar immediately opened his eyes and saw he was in a forest that was only lit up by the shine of the moon.

P. 127

It was the same landscape as the one in the painting that he was looking at up till now. The only difference was there was no sight of the young boy, only the waving branches of the tall trees were the same.

At the same time he stood up, the sofa which was the point of contact with the Nightingale House vanished.

“Edgar....?”

While he remained standing at a complete loss of words, he heard a familiar voice.

“Why are you in a place like this?”

The one who was looking at him from behind one of the trees with a look of surprise was - without a doubt - golden-green eye-colored Lydia.

Edgar slowly approached to her as she looked so nervous and unsure.

“I came to listen to the?nightingale’s song. Didn’t you invite me, saying you wanted to listen to it together?”

“But...”

“If it was your favor, you know I said I wouldn’t refuse.”

That position Lydia was wishing for should still belong to Edgar. Because he thought for the two of them to be able to meet here was proof of that, he was able to make a smile from the bottom of his heart as he knelt down to take a better look at her.

“Why aren’t you acting surprised?”

P. 128

“I am surprised. I’m suddenly in the middle of a forest.”

“Not that.”

“About how you look awfully young?”

Lydia had escaped from the Lord of the Forest and had lost her way in the forest alone. And just as she came to stand by the side of the lake, she was finally able to get a look of herself in the water’s reflection, but was disappointed at how she only looked around ten?years old.

“In this place, everyone apparently?changes to the age of how young or mature they can love someone. ...But for me?to come out like this - isn’t it horrible.”

“You were so cute from such a young age.”

“...You haven’t changed at all.”

“You think so? I hope I don’t look too old.”

Lydia couldn’t help but burst out?in giggles.

It was this side of Edgar that saved her. No matter what kind of situation, he didn’t change. His foolish attitude and light hearted way of talking would make her feelings become relaxed.

“Let’s go home, Lydia.”

At this eyes that looked so sorrow and his soft, gentle words, Lydia was almost made to cry but made an honest nod.

However – she didn’t know how to get back. If they were found by the Lord of the Forest, then she might be made into a nightingale.

P. 129

There was no way Edgar would know the way back, but he held her hand and led her to walk straight ahead like he was guiding a lost child.

She turned this into such a mess that was sure to have troubled him, and yet his attitude didn’t change and he treated her so kindly.

“Um, Edgar, I....it wasn’t like it was unbearable for me. At that time..”

“When I embraced you?”

“.....But, it’s just...., I don’t know how to say it.”

“Yes, I understand. You need time.”

When the both of them stopped, he looked down to the child Lydia and whispered I’m sorry.

“It’s all right to go slowly. Though there will be times when I become a little impatient. But, if you are willing to become an adult little by little for me, then I’ll wait as much as you need.”

As they faced each other, surprisingly, she didn’t doubt one word he said.

She even didn’t doubt that she would become an adult for Edgar’s sake.

In that moment, Lydia didn’t know that her height was slowly growing and she was changing back to her original body.

As they gazed at each other’s eyes, she felt the distance between the two of them grow a little closer.

“What is it that I should do?”

“Eh...”

P. 130

“Things turned out like this, because I wasn’t able to do as you wanted, right?”

A kiss on an eyelash.

That was probably what was going to bring life back to the nightingale. She could return to this forest.

If that happens, then the two of them would be able to get out of here.

But. Just thinking about that made blood rush to her face.

“Is it such an embarrassing thing to do? But I can’t force you if you can’t say it. I’ll just do all the things that would make you embarrassed...”

“N-no! Wait, I’ll tell you...”

However, before Lydia was able to say anymore, the trees around them suddenly burst of rustling noise from the wind.

The young boy who appeared along with the powerful whirlwind took a look at the Lydia who was no longer a small child and Edgar who was standing next to her and made a grin.

“It isn’t like you don’t know how to love. Then even you would be able to become a nightingale.”

Edgar pulled her up against him and glared at the young boy. However, Lydia was taken aback at the powerful magic that was wrapped around the young boy and could only think how they had nowhere to run.

(Stop!)

Just then – she thought she heard the voice of the nightingale.

(Lord of the Forest, please do not force me out!)

P. 131

Right in front of Lydia’s eyes, a small, tiny fairy appeared floating in the air.

It was a lively Nightingale, showing no signs of being on the brink of death.

(Please do not make another girl into a nightingale. Please let me remain here!)

“Nightingale! Are you all right?”

(I’m so sorry...., Lydia. I changed into an egg because I became tired and fell asleep. But I thought I was going to vanish if I remained like that. Because he had said he casted his magic on me. That’s why I was surprised when I opened my eyes and felt so refreshed and how I was brought to you by Nico and was able to enter the forest. I didn’t even think?that I was able to freely go in or out like this.”

“Then, the Lord of the Forest wasn’t tying down the nightingale by his magic?” said Lydia.

The Lord of the Forest made a frown and lowered his eyes to the ground like a child whose tricks were found out.

“If I said that, then I thought that Nightingale wouldn’t go off and leave here. Even if she were to leave, I thought she would just take care of one girl’s love trouble and immediately?return.. But my magic doesn’t work on her at all. ....Because I had fallen in?love.”

“Love? ...You – in love with the?nightingale?”

He lifted his eyes to gaze at the?nightingale and said.

“That’s right. But no matter how much I express my feelings for you, you wouldn’t answer to them. You wouldn’t tell me how I could become your lover.”

P. 132

The nightingale looked flurried as she hanged her head.

(But I....)

“Hold on just a moment, Nightingale. You just said that you wanted to stay by his side just now. ...Which means you’re also in love with him?”

(That’s..., I....)

So they are in love with each other? So it was just Lydia’s misunderstanding how she thought the poor nightingale was being threatened by the Lord of the Forest.

She was invited out by Nico and left the forest, but she only wanted to return back as soon as she could.

“If you are just pretending to be a?coquette with me, then you don’t have to. You just don’t want to say it to me,?don’t you?”

Lydia realized that the fairy was just too embarrassed to tell him.

She couldn’t bring herself to say ‘kiss me on my eyelash.’

To the nightingale, that was the only method to share each other’s feelings. And yet, she wasn’t able to tell that to the Lord of the Forest.

Lydia gazed at Nightingale who was now bright red and trembling her wings.

What a terrible love counselor. Acting like you know what you're doing, while all this time you were being such a coward in your own love.

Lydia was also a coward. However, even if she wasn’t able to fall in love, she wondered if she could give a helping push in someone else’s love.

P. 133

“You’re mistaken, Lord of the Forest. She is in love with you,” said Lydia, in her place.

“It’s her eyelash. Please give her a kiss on her eyelash.”

(Aahh, Lydia! What are you saying!)

The nightingale went into a flurried frenzy and went buzzing noisily around Lydia.

“You were the one who said to do the same thing to me.”

(Y-yes, that’s true but...)

“Nightingale, is that how to become?lovers?”

As he asked her, the Lord of the Forest gently reached out his hand to the flying fairy.

“So you will return to me then?”

Even as she couldn’t calm down, batting her wings restlessly, she finally resigned herself to go up to the young boy and landed down to sit on top of his palm he had held out.

“I’m not quite sure what’s behind all of this, but it seems things have calmed down, so the both of us should take our leave.”

Edgar, who had been watching how things were unfolding silently, said that in a tone like he wanted to leave this scene as fast as he could.

“Would you mind telling us the way back?”

He started to walk off as he pulled Lydia along, to the direction the Lord of the Forest nodded and pointed to.

(Lydia, thank you.)

P. 134

She heard the bell ring-like voice of the nightingale reach out to her from behind.

(I didn’t realize it at all. Even?without a kiss on an eyelash, the two of you were already...)

In just a blink of an eye, Lydia and Edgar were both standing in front of a painting that was hanging on the wall. It was a painting of a familiar forest and boy.

The singing voice of the nightingale still echoed in their ears.

“A kiss on an eyelash, huh. So that was the key to solve all this?”

As Edgar chuckled in amusement, he reached out his hand to touch Lydia’s?cheek.

“You seemed so embarrassed, so I thought it was something much greater than that.”

“Eh, ...like what?”

“It’s too embarrassing, I can’t say.”

The two of you were already lovers....

She wondered if that was the last thing the nightingale said. Even as she denied herself that there was no way of that happening, Lydia felt the brush of his breath come on her eyelash.

Most likely Lydia must have made a face that looked like she was bearing it with all her might.

There was no need for her to endure it and be kissed, and yet she didn’t move and kept her eyes closed.

P. 135

*

[Earl Ashenbert with two flowers in both hands at the Nightingale House.]

It was the next day that there was such a title printed out in the tabloid papers.

Edgar had not been uninvolved with any scandals lately, so for him to come out of the Nightingale House with two ladies with him must have been an open target for an article in the gossip?papers.

It is said that all of London knew that the top of the restaurant was an inn for lovers who didn’t want the public?to see them, but Lydia didn’t know that. That’s why Lydia even didn’t know what?the reason was for Raven to dress like a woman, and found out the reason only?on the next day why she needed to exchange hats with Raven when they had exited?the building.

Thanks to the bonnet that had a veil attached to it, she was able to hide her face and hair and so only Edgar was written in the papers.

In the drawing room of the Carlton?residence, Nico was reading the tabloid papers he held spread out before him,?which was making Lydia want to faint as she knew the real story behind it.

“Well, you know, she sure was a?troublesome nightingale.”

She glared at Nico as she thought?Who was the one who brought her in the first place!?

“Nightingale? What are you two talking about?”

P. 136

Her father came into the room and Lydia rushed to rip the tabloid papers away from Nico.

However – her father took a quick glance at that and only shrugged his shoulders.

“It seems like the Earl is as always.”

“The professor had already read it,”whispered Nico into her ear.

Why did you leave this out where he could find it!?

It was Nico who brought in vulgar papers into the Carlton house as her father was someone who would never buy?them.

“Um, Father. This is sure to just be another forged article.”

Before she knew it, she was coming?up with an excuse like she was covering for him, and that made her father make a?surprised face.

“No, if it was Edgar, he would do this kind of thing. But, lately I have a feeling he’s been pretty decent in what he does, I mean maybe...”

“Geez, if it were to just dr-->>

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