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In entire Florentine, there was no better place to sell padlocks, so an old vendor told them.

The bridge that stretched across the Trianon River was eight hundred meters long.

No one knew when the legend started.

It probably started with a romantic couple who sought to seal their love at the bridge. Other couples might end up thinking that it was such an excellent idea. In the end, the railings at both sides of the bridge were full with padlocks.

One would think that that was the end, but tourists were very resourceful. They ended up attaching their locks to other locks just so they could get a place at the famous bridge.

The poor bridge eventually collapsed the previous year, prompting the town council to remove the railings and the padlocks every month for recycling purposes.

Not only that, the many keys that couples threw into the river ended up polluting the river, so that was another laborious work that the town council had to do every month.

After hearing the story, Ronan and Lucien bought two padlocks but they decided to not hang their padlocks to the bridge railings.

.....

“There has to be something else we can do,” Ronan grumbled.

“Well, I have an idea,” Lucien piped up.

“Oh? What is it?” Ronan perked up immediately.

Lucien dragged Ronan into a souvenir shop and came back with two boxes.

He locked the two padlocks together and put them in one box. The keys were linked to each other and laid in another box.

Lucien handed one box to Ronan and said, “You can go and hide this box anywhere you want in Florentine. I will do the same with mine. If we want to split up one day, we have to come back and retrieve each other’s lock.”

Ronan’s lips curled up in amusement.

“Alright, baby. Meet up in thirty minutes here?”

“Okay,” Lucien agreed.

He gave Ronan a peck on the lips before he took off to hide his box away.

Ronan, the one who held the box with the padlocks inside, went to a blacksmith.

His instruction was quite simple.

Melt the padlocks together into another padlock with no keyhole.

In return, he was willing to give the blacksmith all the money that he got from Marie. The latter’s eyes turned round in amazement. The sum was larger than what the job merited.

“I cannot accept that much money!” he exclaimed. “A tenth would be enough for this order.”

A strange order, he mentally noted.

“You can have it all, but I have another request.”

“... What is it?”

Ronan showed the blacksmith the empty box.

“When the new padlock is done, you can put it inside this box, and help me bury it somewhere.”

The blacksmith roared in laughter.

“Alright, I will do that. Mister, don’t regret your decision because you are going to be with your lover forever!”

Ronan’s lips curled up in a smile.

“Oh, I won’t.”

Even if Lucien one day regretted his decision and wanted to break up with Ronan, he wouldn’t be able to separate his lock from Ronan’s.

Ronan then went back to the bridge to wait for his mate. The red-blonde man came back a little later than the agreed time.

“You were fast,” he observed.

Ronan pressed a kiss on Lucien’s forehead.

“Mhm, just a little earlier than you. Shall we?”

Ronan and Lucien gave the bridge one last look before they made their way to the renowned fruit orchard.

In summer, the fruit orchard was full of fresh cherries, all kinds of berries, apricots, grapes, and nectarines.

Visitors were allowed to eat as many fruits that they could pick from the trees and vines on spot against a small entrance fee.

Another option was to harvest the fruits to take home, but then the visitors had to pay for them by weight.

Lucien and Ronan took turns feeding each other fruits.

Ronan was usually very picky when it came to food, including fruits. Then again, it depended on the person who fed him. Since it was Lucien, Ronan had nothing to complain about.

He would naturally eat anything that his mate served him.

After spending almost an hour in the orchard, Lucien started to look around. He craned his neck in search of the two people who were supposed to catch up with them but were yet to be seen.

“Where are Anna and Lowell?” he asked with a frown.

Ronan hid his smug grin beneath the hand that he used to rub his lower face. If Lowell picked this time to talk to Anna, both were surely not in the mood to do anything romantic at the moment.

They might be in the middle of a mental preparation to confess the truth to Lucien.

Ronan would hate to be in their position right now.

Pfft.

Smiling, the Alpha pulled his Luna into a hug.

“Don’t worry about them. They are adults. Come, let’s go over there. They have their own small winery. The wine that they produced here has a different aroma than the one that we drink regularly at home...”

The visit to Florentine lasted for half a day before they returned to the ship. By then, it was already quite late in the afternoon. A lot of passengers returned around the same time they did.

When they reached their suite, Annalynne and Lowell were not around.

“Where are they?” Lucien asked in exasperation.

“The other two esteemed guests left about an hour after the two of you left,” the butler informed him. “They had not come back yet.”

Lucien took out his phone and dialed Annalynne’s phone number.

The call went unanswered.

He called Lowell, but the man also did not answer his phone.

“Ronan, I am worried about Anna and Lowell. Let me go back to Florentine to search for them.”

Before he took off from the suite, Ronan circled an arm around his waist and pulled him back to his arms.

He shook his phone in front of Lucien to show him his chat message with Milroy.

“No need. I just received news that they are on their way back to the ship.”