Chapter 5
As always, mealtime arrived.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Lirette rolled her eyes around the room for a long while.
Normally, meals were simply brought to her bedside.
Today, however, servants had dragged in an ebony table and laid out an entire spread.
Even when she saw two chairs being placed beside dishes releasing delicious aromas, she stubbornly refused to accept reality.
But moments later—
The man who entered through the door shattered what little hope she had left.
“You look like you’re planning to sit there all night.”
Unlike Lirette, who had frozen completely, Valderion entered as if nothing were strange and calmly took his seat.
His mocking tone tapped against her numb thoughts.
“What are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell?”
Even his answer came lazily as he washed his hands in the prepared basin.
“I came to eat.”
That much was obvious.
That wasn’t what Lirette was asking.
And he surely knew it.
“Why?”
“Do I need a reason to eat?”
“If it’s with me, then yes.”
Drying his hands with a silk towel, Valderion let out a short laugh.
“It’s only a meal.”
“……”
“There’s no need to act so seriously about it, is there?”
After taking a light sip of the aperitif prepared before dinner, Valderion leaned back in his chair and met her eyes.
“More importantly, how long am I supposed to wait?”
Those brilliant golden eyes drifted toward the still-empty seat across from him.
Lirette clenched her fists.
Her nails dug into soft flesh.
She barely felt the pain.
Every sense she had was focused entirely on the man before her.
Valderion arched a brow, clearly urging her to sit.
Reluctantly, she stood and approached the table.
The shackles around her ankle tightened like a noose—the chain long enough to let her leave the bed, but never long enough to leave the room.
The meal began amid fractured silence.
Lirette moved her cutlery while holding her breath, cutting food into small pieces before bringing them to her lips.
Normally, she could at least taste what she ate.
Today was different.
Simply because someone else sat with her, the food turned dry and bitter in her mouth, like chewing sand.
Though perhaps it wasn’t merely because she had company—
But because of who that company was.
Valderion ate with composed elegance while frequently glancing across the table.
More specifically, his gaze often drifted toward the fingers awkwardly gripping her utensils.
“Your hands are still stiff.”
“……”
“I haven’t looked beneath your skirt, but I assume your legs are the same.”
Valderion set down the knife in his hand.
It scraped sharply against the glass plate.
At the sound—
Lirette flinched.
His pupils caught the movement instantly, narrowing.
“And yet you still won’t stop doing that.”
Displeasure scratched against her ears.
The man who had been looking at her shifted his gaze toward the corner of the bedroom.
There, crumpled into useless cloth, lay the tapestry bearing House Eustutia’s proud crest.
Counting today’s incident together with the reports he’d already heard—
This made ten.
“Don’t you get tired of it?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“I’m unfortunate too.”
The knife in Valderion’s hand flashed coldly.
His movements remained aristocratic and refined.
The meat beneath that elegant hand, however, was being ruthlessly butchered.
“You seem to hold quite a grudge against me.”
“……”
“That expression.”
He lifted his gaze.
“Every time you look at me, you wear the face of someone staring into something filthy. Pathetic. Hideous.”
It wasn’t just because he was him.
The reason ran deeper.
The important thing was—
He carried the blood of Eustutia.
And that bloodline had stained the glorious days of her past crimson.
Resentment was inevitable.
“If I were to give one piece of advice,” Valderion said while setting aside the meat he had shredded apart without eating, “being too attached to the past isn’t good.”
He lifted his glass and took a drink.
That single sentence destroyed what little appetite Lirette still had.
Being trapped in the past isn’t good…
Objectively—
He was right.
But words changed depending on who spoke them.
At the very least—
She did not want to hear them from someone who had helped ruin her family under imperial orders.
“……”
Lirette exhaled slowly.
Was it because of the Name?
Whenever she met those eyes—golden like grains of sunlight fused together—the joints in her fingers, already stiff and useless, seemed to ache.
Unable to move her hands properly, she grabbed the tablecloth hanging over her knees instead.
Everything happened instantly.
Crash—!
Plates and glasses overturned across the table.
The moment Lirette yanked the cloth—
Their peaceful dinner became chaos.
In the blink of an eye, only the glass in Valderion’s hand remained intact.
Golden eyes—far too dazzling for their natural indifference—quietly surveyed the disaster.
Lirette looked directly back at him with shameless composure, as though she had absolutely nothing to do with it.
A moment later—
A crack formed between his brows.
For a man who remained emotionless inside his own domain, it was rare.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“You asked whether someone needs a reason to eat.”
Her voice remained calm.
“I think the same.”
“……”
“You don’t need some grand reason to not want to eat either.”
A cold smile touched Valderion’s lips.
Using his own words against him—
The sight bordered on ridiculous.
The atmosphere inside the bedroom froze instantly.
Neither looked away.
It felt like standing atop thin ice that would crack apart with one wrong step.
Lirette had to tense every muscle in her body to hide how cold her fingertips had become.
“No matter how many years you spent living like trash…”
His voice cut through the silence.
“You must still remember how nobles behaved when you were young.”
“……”
“Just because Dailen treated you like livestock—”
His eyes sharpened.
“Do you actually believe that’s what you’ve become?”
After bluntly criticizing her behavior, Valderion raised the glass he still held.
His long fingers—straight and disciplined like their owner—slowly opened.
The crystal glass fell willingly toward the floor already littered with broken dishes and spilled food.
Crash!
The sound wasn’t as loud as before.
Yet somehow—
It echoed more clearly.
“There.”
He rose to his feet.
“I suppose we can’t continue dinner like this.”
The moment he stood, the room suddenly felt smaller.
He had merely risen from his chair.
Yet the air itself felt heavier.
Valderion silently looked down at her.
Perhaps staring from above suited him better than sitting face-to-face.
This time, he held her gaze much longer.
Then his lips curved.
“I’m not a very patient man.”
“……”
“If you do this again, it won’t be amusing.”
He smiled.
Lirette could only stiffen.
Again?
This isn’t ending today?
Surely not…
Watching his retreating figure, she desperately hoped she was wrong.
She wasn’t.
From the next day onward—
Valderion continued visiting her room.
Every meal followed the same pattern.
Food for two.
An atmosphere that somehow felt worse than attending a funeral.
And dinner together.
Lirette gradually realized something.
He was observing her.
Which made sense.
Among nobles, shared meals were opportunities for evaluation.
After children learned to speak and read, table etiquette was one of the next lessons taught.
Meals weren’t simply about satisfying hunger.
They were stages.
Places where one’s character became visible.
Judgment grounds.
Of course—
Valderion wasn’t observing her for social reasons.
His gaze still lingered on her hands most often.
Perhaps concern for the condition of the girl who had suddenly acquired his surname was the more likely explanation.
Valderion chewed thoughtfully before tapping the side of his wine glass with his fork.
Ting—
The sound rang out.
Lirette immediately flinched as though burned.
His eyes narrowed.
She had guessed correctly.
Valderion had been using these meals to examine her carefully.
In certain ways—
She was far too sensitive.
Her hearing, for example.
Even the clear ringing of silver utensils striking glass frequently made her recoil.
The first time had been accidental.
But discovering such an exaggerated reaction had become both strange and absurd.
So now—
Occasionally—
He deliberately struck the glass.
Not only that.
Whenever he opened the door without warning, her small body often shook as though struck by lightning.
No matter what it was—
Her reactions resembled someone who believed everything around her intended to devour her.
