Our Summer Isn't Over Yet - Chapter 70

A stall selling charming wooden dolls. Mia blinked slowly and murmured, “Wooden dolls?”

Mia wondered if Dylan had ever shown interest in such things. But she could count on one hand the number of casual conversations they’d had, and they’d never talked about what he liked or what he looked at, so she knew nothing about him.

The only thing she remembered was…

“Didn’t you have a similar wooden doll in your office?”

Just that there was a wooden doll in Dylan’s office.

Mia pictured a roughly hewn, long, cylindrical doll. The paint that had been applied to it had long since worn off, and it had no eyes, nose, or mouth, so it could easily be mistaken for a piece of wood if you didn’t look closely.

If he liked them, he would usually have several, but Dylan only had one. And yet, he couldn’t easily pass by a stall selling wooden dolls.

Seeing him like that, she naturally became curious. Mia quietly watched Dylan for a moment before asking softly, “Dylan, do you like these?”

“I used to when I was very young.”

“Don’t you like them now?”

Before he could answer, the stall owner appeared and spoke to them.

“Oh, you’re newlyweds! These wooden dolls are all handmade.”

She explained with a proud look on her face. Then, looking back and forth between Mia and Dylan, she held out a pair of wooden dolls to them.

“Newlyweds buy these a lot.”

The wooden dolls, which fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, only had the grain of the wood. The concave parts fit perfectly into each other.

“These are made of olive wood.”

The owner explained the meaning of the wooden dolls in detail.

Olive trees, once rooted, do not die easily and live for a very long time. She said that she made them with the hope that couples would take root in each other and overcome any adversity.

Then she smiled contentedly.

“Newlyweds who visit Valencia again often come to me and tell me this: that after receiving this gift, they feel stronger and happier, and thank me for giving them an unforgettable memory.”

Contrary to the owner’s intention to say romantic things, Mia was lost in other thoughts. She had a slightly childish and funny thought that if she gave Dylan something he was interested in as a gift, wouldn’t she be able to make a mark on his heart?

“Dylan, what do you think?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was wondering if receiving this gift would be an unforgettable memory for you too.”

Unlike her affectionate tone, her inner self was bristling with thorns to scratch the other person.

Mia’s green eyes sparkled with life.

“Will you think of me when you see it?”

Dylan, who had been staring at her, chuckled. His blue eyes instantly flared with heat. Mia could see the veins in his neck standing out.

He strode closer and said coolly, “I’m thinking about you every moment already. How much more do you want to torment me?”

The bright blue sky and the dazzling sunlight were all illuminating Dylan.

Mia, who had been gazing at his fiercely raised eyes, smiled. Her eyes and mouth, which were more folded and raised than usual, seemed to be genuinely happy.

Mia turned her gaze away from Dylan and said to the owner, “I’ll take those.”

Mia placed the pair of wooden dolls she received from the owner on Dylan’s hand. They looked particularly small when placed on his large hand.

“It’s a gift, you can have them. It’s the first time I’ve heard about something you like. I want to give it to you.”

Dylan didn’t show much reaction and stared at them for a moment. After hesitating, he pulled Mia’s hand towards him.

He turned her palm upwards and placed one of the wooden dolls on her palm.

“We’re a couple, so let’s each have one.”

It was something Mia hadn’t expected.

“……”

Somehow, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she kept falling into her own trap.

When she lightly clenched her fist, she could clearly feel the smooth, round piece of wood.

“Shall we go back now? I think it would be nice to have dinner at the mansion.”

“Okay, let’s go back now…”

“Let’s go to our house.”

In one hand, she held a wooden doll, and in the other, she held Dylan’s warm hand. With just that, Mia was seized with the feeling that her whole body was being consumed by him.

It was a feeling of confusion that was maddening.

Perhaps because she was tired from walking around, Mia fell asleep as soon as she finished dinner.

Dylan, who was sitting next to the bed and staring intently at Mia, turned his gaze to his own hand. In his palm was a small, smooth wooden doll.

He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist and let out a soft sigh.

“What should I do with this?”

Mia Blair had placed something in his hand that held no good memories.

Dylan closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. Long-forgotten memories that had been pushed far away began to flood back one by one.

*1802, the time when Dylan first became interested in the navy.

“Mother, I want to enter the Naval Academy where my uncle is.”

“Dylan, how old are you?”

“Twelve years old.”

“The Naval Academy usually admits students at the age of fourteen. If you enter now, you’ll be pushed around by older boys who are bigger than you.”

“No, Uncle told me that I wouldn’t be pushed around too much.”

A faint wrinkle appeared on the face of Dylan’s mother, Anila.

Dylan, not noticing that, excitedly explained what his uncle, Graham Miller, Anila’s younger brother, had told him.

“And if I enter at a young age, I can become a soldier quickly. Rodrigo said he would go with me if I went.”

“Oh dear, Graham…”

His mother sighed repeatedly, holding her forehead.

Dylan easily understood the meaning of that sigh. She had noticed his uncle’s scheme to send him to the Naval Academy with Rodrigo, who was two years younger than Dylan.

Dylan also knew that his uncle had exaggerated things to him, but he really wanted to go. Meanwhile, the worry on his mother’s face deepened.

“Dylan, my son is still very young…”

“I’m all grown up enough.”

“You still fill your room with wooden dolls.”

“That’s because Father keeps giving them to me as gifts. I don’t like them.”

It was such an obvious lie.

Dylan desperately tried to erase from his mind the image of his father humming that he would buy a new wooden doll when he got off work today, and said confidently.

He could have these wooden dolls later, but not the Naval Academy, so Dylan still hid the shelf that his mother’s gaze was on with his small body.

A light laugh, like air escaping, flowed from his mother’s lips as she looked at Dylan like that.

“If you want to go to the Naval Academy, does that mean you want to become a soldier, Dylan?”

“Yes. Our house is close to the border, so it will be the most threatened if a war breaks out.”

“Where did you hear such scary things?”

“So I want to become someone who protects this place. I’ll protect Mother, Father, and everyone in this town.”

“That’s a commendable thought. But why the navy out of all the many soldiers?”

He had a clear reason for wanting to go, but he didn’t know how much he could tell his mother. When Dylan hesitated, his mother waited for him, saying it was okay.

Dylan, meeting his mother’s soft eyes, carefully continued to speak. He explained without stuttering and clearly, as if he wasn’t nervous at all.

“It’s difficult to get promoted in the army because there are so many applicants. And in the army, there’s a limit to how far lower nobles can be promoted.”

“Is that so…?”

“But the navy doesn’t have that. I’ll rise to the highest position and make Mother and Father happy. So please allow me. Okay?”

His mother, who had been silently moving her lips for a while at Dylan’s small request, gently stroked his soft cheek and carefully asked.

“Dylan, do you want to become a member of a high-ranking noble family?”

Dylan’s mouth closed at his mother’s question.

She didn’t seem to be scolding him, but there was a faint sadness on his mother’s face. Dylan easily understood the reason for that.

The Daviga’s were a baronial family, but they didn’t have any land or a great mansion. They were virtually commoners, a mere facade of nobility. That was the Daviga family.

“It’s nothing. Mom was talking nonsense, I’m sorry. I was just curious. I was wondering if you would have been happier if you had lived in the capital.”

Dylan couldn’t say anything to his mother’s unfamiliar face.

It seemed that his words had made his mother sad. He really wanted to go to the Naval Academy, but he didn’t want his mother to be sad, so Dylan tried to shake his head and say it was okay.

At that moment, words that he had never expected popped out from his mother’s lips.

“Dylan, why are you so listless? You should do it if you want to.”

“Really?”

The sadness that had been on his mother’s face just before disappeared in an instant.

Her blonde hair, similar to his own, swayed as the wind came in at the right time. His mother smiled and nodded, tucking her slender blonde hair behind her ear.

“Then, I’ll persuade your father. And I’ll contact your uncle too.”

“Thank you!”

Dylan burst into a bright smile, as if he hadn’t been trying to read her face at all.

His mother spread her arms and nodded. Dylan, who hadn’t hugged her since his twelfth birthday because he was embarrassed, strode into her warm embrace as if it was nothing.

His mother, who had closed her eyes tightly and hugged his neck, said as always, calmly and softly.

“Do everything you want. But you can always come back if it’s hard or you don’t want to do it.”

Support