On the day of the Harvest Festival, men presented flower crowns to the women they loved. If a woman wore the flower crown on her head, it meant she accepted the man’s confession. This had been Abe Village’s custom since ancient times.
Whether a woman accepted a flower crown was not unrelated to its exquisiteness. After all, the flower crown indirectly showcased a man’s abilities—wealthy men could hire people to pick the most beautiful flowers, strong men could pick them themselves. Men who lacked money and physical strength compared to other villagers could still gather fresh flowers from afar with perseverance, offering beautiful adornments to their beloved.
Lang could hardly believe that Angeline had already known his intentions from the place she mentioned and even planned to support him.
Rosemary, evening primrose, hibiscus, silver lotus flowers, and roses. He carefully picked the tender petals and stems, weaving his feelings for Ye Tang into the flower crown with gratitude toward Angeline.
He wove the flower crown more and more elaborately without tiring, until he awoke in the flower field bathed in the morning light.
“Lang, you’re here! Here, this is the formal attire you ordered! Go change into it, quick!”
The female owner of the tailor shop in Lem Town rushed up impatiently as soon as she saw Lang and had her daughter take the formal suit from the nearby rack that Lang had ordered a month ago.
Lang was the young man with the most perfect proportions she had ever seen. Every time she saw him, her tailor’s soul burned fiercely, as if ignited by a spark of inspiration.
Lang shyly took the clothes and followed the tailor’s daughter into the changing room.
Looking in the mirror at his reflection, which was no different from a human’s, as he put on human clothes piece by piece, Lang felt a surge of emotions—once upon a time, human clothes had not fit him well.
His claws would easily tear human clothes, so he had to handle those fragile fabrics carefully. His legs differed in shape and thickness from human legs, so he could never wear human pants properly and had to modify them himself to fit.
The fur on his body always generated static friction with the fabric. Especially in winter, putting on clothes was painful, and taking them off was painful too. And his tail—if he didn’t cut a hole in the human pants, there was nowhere for it to go.
But now, everything was different.
The human clothes fit his body perfectly, and in the formal suit, he truly looked like a human gentleman.
This moved Lang deeply.
“Lang…!!”
Seeing Lang in the formal suit, the female tailor and her daughter covered their mouths and gasped.
“Mr. Lang, may, may I ask if you already have, have someone to give a flower crown to…?”
The tailor’s daughter stammered, not even daring to look straight into Lang’s silver-gray eyes.
As a native of Lem Town, the tailor’s daughter had naturally seen Lang when he was still a werewolf. She said this knowing full well that Lang was a werewolf.
“Yes. I decided long ago that if there came a day when I gave out a flower crown, I would definitely give it to her.”
The tailor’s daughter clutched her apron, then quickly showed a relieved smile. “The one for you must be a very special person.”
“Yes!”
The tailor fetched a bow tie for Lang, whose frank smile had dazzled her daughter, and tied it on for him. “Now it’s perfect!”
Lang then remembered that he had only ordered the formal suit, not its accessories. He wanted to pay her, but the tailor laughed and patted his shoulder. “Just come find me for more clothes next time!”
“Thank you!”
The warmth and kindness from those around him made Lang feel more and more like an ordinary, normal human man. He grew confident. The habitual hunch from always keeping his head down when talking with others straightened out.
……
Angeline sat behind Ye Tang, carefully combing her mother’s long hair, who had changed into an off-shoulder long dress, without any distraction.
“Mary, it’s about time.”
Ginny, wearing a flower crown on her head, poked her head in from the door. Outside, Trislock’s followers praised his craftsmanship.
“Sir! As expected of you!”
“Where did you pick this mugwort? We could only find little daisies and dandelions…”
“Tonight’s most eye-catching one will definitely be Lady Ginny, right?”
Trislock felt embarrassed by the praise. He rubbed under his nose with his right index finger and shyly said, “The mugwort I found was on a cliff, and stop calling me ‘sir’. I’m no longer a knight.”
“No! In our hearts, you’ll always be our sir!”
A young knight said excitedly, his words resonating with those around him.
Nora, holding up her skirt, walked over. Knowing Ginny was at Ye Tang’s house, she didn’t dare approach the yard too closely. The knight whose name she called heard his lover’s summons and hurriedly ran out of Ye Tang’s yard, letting her take his arm.
At the second-floor window, Ye Tang’s gaze shifted from outside to Ginny’s face.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
Ginny pouted irritably. “You think I’d do something to Nora?”
“Yes.”
Ye Tang’s categorical answer nearly made Ginny faint from anger. But… recalling her past bullying behavior, Ginny couldn’t really blame Ye Tang for thinking that way about her.
“…Actually, I did think about doing something to Nora.”
“But I realized. Doing that sort of thing is pointless.”
“—It wasn’t because Nora existed in Abe Village that Kevin cheated. Kevin wanted to cheat, so he chose Nora, who suited his taste the most. Without Nora, Kevin would have cheated with someone else. Back then, Kevin was still the village head… If Nora wanted to stay in the village, she had no choice but to obey Kevin.”
In fact, Nora hadn’t liked Kevin as much as he thought. After Kevin lost power, she never saw him again. Moreover, after Kevin pestered Ginny relentlessly to no avail and ambushed Nora at her home, Nora’s father and brothers beat him up badly.
Now, Nora was dating the young knight. She was no longer fearful and timid all day, prone to tears. She had become more cheerful and loved to smile.
Seeing Nora like this, Ginny had no desire for revenge.
“Otherwise, if Kevin had said a few words in front of me about Nora seducing him, I wouldn’t have needed him to act—I would have personally driven Nora out of the village myself.”
Ginny smiled as she spoke, laughing at her past foolishness and her current open-mindedness.
She truly had no lingering feelings for Kevin anymore. Proof was that seeing Nora didn’t make her angry, and thinking of Kevin didn’t hurt her heart.
It was Trislock… This fool of a knight made it impossible for her to look away. She was afraid that if she looked away, this fool would do something stupid again. …She was also afraid that if she looked away, this fool would quietly leave.
The fool of a knight she could never tire of watching entered her sight and burrowed into her mind. Seeing him foolishly offering his most sincere heart right before her eyes, Ginny discovered for the first time that love could make a person better and gentler.
Seeing the gentle expression on Ginny’s face, Ye Tang knew Ginny had truly let go, and she felt happy for her from the bottom of her heart.
—’Looks like she found true love this time.’
Angeline brought satin ribbons. Ginny, having finished braiding Ye Tang’s hair into a fishtail braid, stepped back slightly to let Angeline tie the ribbon at the end of the braid.
Holding Angeline’s hand as they went downstairs, Ye Tang saw Ben at the staircase.
Ben hung his long eyelashes low, holding a flower crown made of dried flowers in his hands. As soon as Angeline saw him, she dashed down the stairs, laughing as she asked Ben, “Is this for me!?”
Ben nodded shyly. The little wolf cub covered his eyes, not daring to watch as Angeline put on the flower crown. Until Angeline asked him, “Does it suit me?”
The golden-haired, blue-eyed girl in the white dress looked like an angel. This moment was etched into Ben’s eyes, never fading even after decades or centuries.
“I-It suits you…”
Seeing that Lang hadn’t arrived yet, Ginny held back her laughter and nudged Ye Tang with her elbow. “Your daughter beat you to it!”
Before Ye Tang could speak, Ginny had already left her behind, rushing downstairs to cling to Trislock like a little bird. She blew Ye Tang a kiss in a very punchable way and said, “I’m heading out first!”
Couples and spouses walked out hand in hand. The glow of dawn bathed everyone’s faces and bodies, like a silent blessing.
Angeline and Ben held hands and danced by the bonfire. The boy who always liked to bully Angeline crushed the flower crown in his hand and burst into loud sobs on the spot, soon dragged away apologetically by his family.
Ye Tang’s head still had no flower crown—not because no one offered one, but because she had refused them all along the way.
Gray held a glass of wine as he drank, asking Xiu beside him, “Aren’t you going to give her a flower crown?”
The precocious boy Xiu didn’t even blink. “You’re one to talk. Didn’t you spend a fortune buying rare queen roses from another town just for today?”
Gray curled his lip. “Didn’t you specially learn how to make everlasting flowers for today, making one she could wear anytime she came back?”
The two half-brothers by different fathers and mothers fell silent at the same time. Having poked each other’s sore spots and been poked in return, they didn’t continue the conversation.
“Ah… how should I put it?”
Gray, who spoke first, scratched his fluffy head. “After all, look, I owe that guy Lang a favor, right? Competing with him at a time like this would hurt my conscience—”
‘You have a conscience?’ Xiu nearly retorted sarcastically but swallowed the harsh words for once.
He understood Gray’s feelings.
What Lang had done for Mary was fundamentally on a different level from what they had done.
To prevent other humans from having another chance to accuse Mary of “adultery with a werewolf,” Lang had abandoned his werewolf identity for Mary. He sincerely tried to become a “human,” one who matched Mary, rather than just “one of the humans.”
Such devotion was too extreme and too cunning.
The cunning part was that Xiu couldn’t replicate it even if he wanted to. The extreme part was—
“I don’t want to be as heavy as Lang. If Mary loves him too, his efforts might make her happy. But if Mary doesn’t love him? If she can’t return his devotion with equal love, won’t Mary feel guilty? Won’t that guilt crush her?”
Xiu spread his hands. “Does Lang really think drinking that potion would bridge the gap between him and Mary and stop humans from troubling her? I don’t think so.”
“That’s pretty harsh…”
Gray teased casually, “Lang is really your big brother?”
“You can go to my house and ask my parents that question.”
“Uh, wouldn’t that get me beaten up by your parents?”
Xiu shrugged. Gray clicked his tongue. The grown-up Xiu was becoming less and less likable.