Chapter 22
“Y-you… you felt up His Grace’s face?”
“Don’t say felt up! That sounds weird!”
Overwhelmed with embarrassment, I screamed and threw a pillow at Asha. Felt up his face, really?
Why did her choice of words sound so vulgar?
“But you did! When you touched my face, you didn’t feel it so carefully like that!”
“I said it’s not like that!”
Asha threw the pillow back, and I caught it and tossed it right back at her.
It was late at night after I parted ways with Russell.
After Asha helped me change from my outdoor clothes into my chemise, I begged her to stay and listen to what had happened today.
Thankfully, she agreed and stayed in my room. But every time I recounted something that had happened, she fidgeted like a bashful schoolgirl who didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Honestly, it sounds like you were just rubbing salt in the wound!”
“Wh-what do you mean, rubbing salt? It’s not like that!”
“Then what is the problem?”
“Huh?”
Asha suddenly spoke in a serious tone.
“You must’ve called me because something’s weighing on your mind, right?”
She was right.
I had a huge secret — one so heavy that it felt stuck in my throat, too big to say out loud.
“I just… I have a very big secret.”
“I don’t know what it is, but His Grace will be fine.”
“Why do you think so?”
Asha snorted lightly and smiled.
“You’ll see it for yourself once you spend more time with him.”
“Will I…?”
“Yes, you will.”
But, Asha…
If Russell ever finds out that I can communicate with trees and that I carry the memories of my past life, he might not react the way you think he will.
I wanted to ask if she could still speak so confidently after hearing that—
—but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to say it aloud.
When Asha left and I lay down on my bed, the sound of the second hand ticking from the clock filled my ears. Normally, I would have ignored it, but tonight it felt like the sound was gnawing at my nerves bit by bit.
I turned onto my side.
‘I can’t seem to fall asleep…’
After tossing and turning for a while, I made up my mind. I kicked off the covers and grabbed the stick leaning against my bedside.
Asha said she would return to her quarters before midnight, so it should be past midnight by now.
The stick’s detection ability could only be used three times a day. But if it reset after midnight, maybe I could use it again?
My heart trembled with anticipation as I lifted the stick above my head and tapped it three times.
Just like yesterday, I expected my vision to slowly clear—
but no matter how long I waited, nothing happened.
Puzzled, I tilted my head and held the stick in one hand.
“That’s strange… Isn’t the day supposed to reset at midnight?”
Just then, a breeze drifted in—
probably through the crack in the door that Asha had left slightly open.
‘…I wonder if Russell’s still awake at this hour?’
Drawn by that thought, I found myself opening the door and stepping out.
I was doomed.
That’s what I thought not long after leaving my room.
Without the stick’s ability, I couldn’t locate Russell easily, so I had to rely on all my other senses to find where he was.
Why was I even doing something so reckless?
Ever since I met Russell, I’d been acting on impulse far too often.
“It’s an honor to have you as my betrothed.”
The words he said earlier that day flashed through my mind, and my body froze.
I wasn’t possessed by a ghost, but my head jerked left and right as I tried desperately to shake off thoughts of him.
“…Pia…”
A familiar voice echoed somewhere.
I dropped to the floor and pressed my ear against the ground.
“Ye… the tomb…”
“That’s… lord…”
‘That’s Russell’s voice. From downstairs!’
And that stiff, dry voice—that had to be Frater.
I tiptoed down the stairs, following Russell’s voice, my heart pounding in my chest with a mix of tension and strange excitement.
Feeling along the wall, I stopped when I sensed movement behind a door.
Cautiously, I whispered,
“Russell…”
“…So, any special movement from the Duchy of Lucianos?”
I froze and immediately hid behind the door.
Even with my hands covering my nose and mouth, my breathing trembled.
“There is. A carriage has been waiting for a few days now.”
“They’re moving slower than I expected.”
Slower than expected?
What did that mean? Did someone from the Lucianos family send people here?
Russell spoke again, his voice lazy and calm.
“I figured she wasn’t being treated well. When I first saw her, I could hardly believe she was from such a prestigious house.”
My face grew hot.
So… that’s how he saw me.
“What shall we do? Continue to keep this from the Lady and pursue them?”
“Keep pursuing.”
At those words, my heart sank.
“Piana doesn’t seem to have told me everything yet.”
Silence.
When Frater finally spoke, his voice was strained, as if he were suppressing anger.
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
He didn’t even hesitate. That must have frustrated Frater, because he suddenly sighed deeply.
“…Your Grace, may I drop the formalities for a minute?”
“As you wish.”
Drop the formalities?
I remembered how, when he’d tutored me before, Frater had unexpectedly shown a rather emotional side…
“You’re out of your damned mind.”
The crude curse stunned me. Was that really Frater?
It was definitely his voice.
“You’re only realizing that now? I thought you knew long ago.”
“Bullshit. Think about what you did to her in the tower.”
“Impressive. You followed us all the way to the tower?”
“After how you beat up the knights that day? You think I wouldn’t follow? I was worried sick.”
So he had been there, hiding at the bottom of the stairs that day.
Heat rose to my face, and I slid down the wall, my back pressing against it.
“Are you using the Lady because you pity her? Because she’s already burdened enough with the misfortune of being blind?”
Already burdened with misfortune…
So that’s how Frater saw me. That’s why he’d been kind from the start.
Russell spoke again, his tone quiet but firm.
“Did she seem unhappy to you?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Frater’s voice was openly irritated. I focused on Russell’s voice.
“You didn’t see her eyes when she stood before His Majesty.”
Russell rose from his seat and began to walk—probably toward the window.
“I thought she was timid, frightened, someone who could only shrink away like a hedgehog. But do you know what kind of eyes she had in front of the Emperor?”
I heard him tap lightly around his eye with his fingers.
“They were eyes that saw right through everything… as if to say, ‘Come at me if you dare.’”
His words made my heart tremble.
I… had eyes like that?
I had only been struggling to appear calm, to mask my fear so I could lie before the Emperor without giving myself away.
“I know her type. She may seem lifeless, but when cornered, she’d bare her teeth and bite the enemy’s throat without hesitation.”
“The Lady? You think she’s capable of that?”
“Yes. She stayed silent while suffering in that house, probably because it wasn’t enough to threaten her life.”
Because it didn’t threaten my life, I stayed quiet…
Painful, but true.
Compared to the thugs in the slums, what I’d suffered in the Duke’s mansion was almost mild.
“But the Duke threw her out, didn’t he?”
“Yes. That’s what I find strange.”
Russell walked back from the window and sat down. The chair creaked.
“Duke Calidus has both a wife and a mistress. The legal wife is dead, and now the mistress runs the mansion as the new Duchess, while the Duke does nothing.”
“Maybe he’s just too busy expanding his business?”
Russell chuckled softly.
I had thought the same thing as Frater, but I couldn’t understand why Russell was smiling.
“Do you know who sent me the marriage proposal?”
“Wasn’t it Duchess Charlotte?”
“No. It was Duke Calidus himself.”
So it wasn’t both my stepmother and father—it was my father alone?
My heart pounded as if I were hearing something I shouldn’t.
“If he just wanted to get rid of his blind daughter, there were easier ways. But instead, he introduced her to me.”
“You think he’s plotting something?”
“Probably. But I don’t intend to get caught in it.”
A bad feeling twisted in my stomach.
If that’s true, then Father sent me to Russell with some hidden motive.
All this time, I thought I had left the family completely behind and gone north to survive—
but maybe I’d been sent there on purpose.
And why… why hadn’t Father ever come to see me after Mother died?
“…Why do you look so grim? And it’s been over a minute. Go back to your usual tone already.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
Russell sighed tiredly.
“Dismissed, Frater.”
I heard Frater’s footsteps heading toward the door.
I quickly held my breath and hid around the corner.
Tap, tap. His footsteps faded away in the opposite direction.
I sighed in relief and started to move out—
—only to bump my forehead right into a firm chest.
“We seem to meet often at night, don’t we?”
“R-Russell…!”
When had he noticed me?
If nothing else, hiding my presence and holding my breath for long periods were my specialties.
Frozen from shock, I couldn’t say anything. Russell spoke first.
“Since your sleep habits seem to involve seeking me out… shall we talk a bit?”
