The Only Delicacy

Right on the next day, Sir Charles was leisurely walking around the crowded and lively hallway while inspecting that everything was going as planned, because today was one of the busy days wherein the enrollment for the new batch of high school students would take place.

Of course for Sir Charles, mistakes were not an option, more so with failure.

As he roamed around the hallway until he had reached the entrance of the academy, Sir Charles saw many new faces, each with a unique beauty. However, none of them had once caught his eye, so he merely glanced at them once before averting his eyes. He also took note of the various reactions of these transferees as they entered the building and experienced another culture shock.

Indeed, the academy was quite luxurious and big like a maze. Hence, their reactions were quite normal.

Of course, Sir Charles never knew that he was the center of attention among all these transferees, both males and females. Even their parents were awestruck by his stunning beauty. Moreover, he unknowingly captured the hearts of many maidens that were present.

However, these stunned and captured students would soon learn to never judge a book by its cover.

As he leisurely roamed around, he had another significant objective aside from inspecting the school. That would be finding and learning more about his target.

Why learn more about her if he was just going to kill her in the end, you say?

Well, that was another peculiar trait of Sir Charles. He was a perfectionist, so he also perfectly abided the code of tenets. Therefore, he would not blindly kill anyone, for he knew how precious a life was despite how cruel and intimidating he was.

For the whole morning, Sir Charles had literally roamed the entire maze-like academy and had not found anyone that looked like his target's profile picture from the list of enrollees. Even though he was not one bit tired, he decided to relax in his favorite area where none would casually go to.

It was a place where he spent time to think, meditate, and plan alone.

Anyway, he could find that girl later, since she might have been late today or might have decided to enroll on the next day. He did not want to waste any more of his golden time or energy. Moreover, the time limit for this mission was still way too soon, approximately several years later.

From the hallway, Sir Charles took about ten minutes to arrive at the garden behind the academy instead of the usual one second time interval. He professionally and cautiously kept his secondary identity all the time in order to not reveal his true identity despite no one being around.

When his eyes had finally adapted to the bright contrast in less than a second, he saw the same beautiful scenery as always. A vast and magnificent garden, filled with perfectly trimmed cone trees, round bushes, and a variety of flowers, was cast in honeyed tones which seemed beautiful yet unnerving at the same time.

However, that place was not where he had intended to go.

Sir Charles continued to walk quite a distance away from that beautiful garden until he had reached a lush garden that was tucked away in a quiet corner surrounded by wild trees. Right when he had arrived, he saw the same old wooden bench hidden in that corner and planned to sit down.

However, he felt his bones rusted into place, as if his soul had left his body.

From his perspective, Sir Charles saw that there was a girl sitting on that bench, but that was merely not enough to stun him into place.

Under the beaming sunlight, her glossy midnight –black hair glistened as it flowed down to her waist, her fair and flawless complexion glowed like delicious honey that made his throat feel parched, her cheeks tinted with a soft shade of redness like a blooming plum, her languid velvet-black lashes curved under her crescent-shaped brows, her moist and sweet lips gleamed with redness that seemed to taste like ripe cherries, and her loose casual attire fluttered with the wind as it enhanced her sculpted figure which was twine-thin.

Brilliant golden rays illuminated all over her, enhancing her ethereal beauty all the more until it was not an exaggeration to say that she seemed like a celestial maiden who had accidentally fallen down into this dirty world.

All this while, Sir Charles never knew he was mesmerized for the first time. He also never realized the rapid beating of his heart that had been accurately struck by a huge cupid arrow. He could not take his eyes away from her.

If he was to blink or move, he felt that she would vanish at the next second.

Meanwhile, the girl had never once noticed that someone was standing across from her, watching her like a valuable piece of art.

The sunlight gave her eyes just the right glimmer as she dropped them down to a picture she had held dearly for her whole life. Her brows slightly twitched and her blank expression was still as expressionless as before. However, her eyes held a tinge of sorrow as she deeply stared at the picture which was a story that was long gone.

Seeing the sorrow in her eyes, Sir Charles finally came back to his senses, threw away the tiny shock written in his blank facade and became very disappointed with himself. If he had been caught unguarded by his enemies a while ago, there was no doubt that he might have been dead at this moment.

This was his first mistake and he intended for it to be the last.

As he continued to deeply stare at her, Sir Charles immediately knew that she was the long-awaited target he had been finding for the past several hours. Right then, he secretly became glad that he had developed the habit of resting in this place. Who knew how long he would waste his time finding her if he had not went here on a whim?

'So, this girl is Scarlet…' Sir Charles thought as he deeply gazed at her.

He never thought that she would be more beautiful than the picture. In fact, she was so beautiful to the point that she did not seem real at all. However, he did not plan to admire her beauty for the whole day, for a person was worth more than their looks and each had a story to tell.

That story was exactly his main priority, not her beauty.

Hence, Sir Charles stealthily moved closer to her until he was right behind her. He nonchalantly peeked at that picture without permission and did not feel the slightest bit guilty.

In that picture was an adorable baby girl who was wrapped around with white cloth and who was tenderly carried by a beautiful woman that seemed to be in her twenties. As she was sitting down on an old rocking chair, that woman affectionately smiled at the sleeping baby in her arms and seemed lost in her own little world.

This picture did not hold a special meaning to him, but he knew that it held more than a thousand meanings for the young girl before him.

"Is that your mother?" Sir Charles nonchalantly asked as if it was an everyday question. However, his light brown eyes slightly gave away his nonchalance as it revealed a tiny bit of worry and affection in which he had never realized himself.