Another Life, Another Me

82. Jealousy

I carefully followed the sound of footsteps that were gradually moving away from me at a very fast pace.

Without even thinking, I closed my eyes and simply followed the hardly noticeable pit-a-pat sound of his walking as I turned left and right through the halls easily.

Sometimes, it was easier to see with my eyes closed.

Eventually, I heard Ace's footsteps stop somewhere a few halls away and paused as I calculated where he might be.

Could it be...

My old room...?

Slowly, I blinked open my eyes and lightly skipped through the familiar hallways until I reached a nostalgic door.

Since it was technically my room, I didn't feel the need to knock and simply opened the door without a word.

The old door creaked a little as I pushed it open and the light from my room flooded the dark hallways.

"Ace~" I called out as I peeked around the door with a small childish giggle.

On the other side, Ace, who sat on my bed and didn't look surprised in the slightest by my appearance, turned his head away from me.

"...What's wrong?" I asked, slightly worried that I might have done something to offend him.

"..."

"Hmm...?"

I tried to step into his field a vision multiple times but, no matter what I did, he continued to turn his head from me.

Was he possibly...pouting??

The perfect and mature Ace was...pouting??

Slightly intrigued by the side of Ace that I didn't see often, I reached out my index finger and poked one of his puffed-out cheeks.

It felt soft and a little bit squishy.

"Hehe..." I giggled as I continually teased him by poking him here-and-there all over his face.

"Mmm..." Ace mumbled unhappily, completely passive to my neverending barrage of lethal attacks.

"Is something wrong?" I asked as I took a seat right next to him.

"...No."

It was such a blatant lie that I nearly gave a chuckle but, thinking that it'd be rude, I clamped my mouth shut and simply hid a sneaky smile behind my hands.

"Did the food taste bad earlier?" 

"...No."

"Are you sick?"

"No..."

"Are you going through a phase...?

"No...!" Ace shook his head adamantly at this, which made me giggle in surprise.

What in the world was going through this man's head???

"You know, if you don't tell me, I'll never know," I said with a big sigh as I plopped onto my old bed.

For some reason, even though the palace beds were made of the finest quality materials, the beds of the duchy felt so much better in comparison that I nearly drifted off to sleep instantly...!

How dangerous...

"Are you...sleepy?" Ace asked as he noticed me struggling with drowsiness.

"Ugh...yes, but I can't fall asleep now. I still need to head back to entertain Holy Priest Gideon..."