CHAPTER 148…………………………………….
Drip, drip.
The rain, which had been falling in just a few drops at a time, gradually thickened. By now, the path to the marquis’s residence was as familiar to him as the road to the temple.
He was enduring each day by catching glimpses of her from afar. So it was unnecessary to ask anyone where or from which direction she would be looking down at the marquis’s house.
“Haah…”
His breath rose like mist in the damp raindrops. Why was his heart so restless? It hadn’t even been that long since the count himself had been with him.
There was really nothing to worry about, yet his heart raced uncontrollably.
“…I know very well what remains between us.”
Even if he tried not to think of it, Adele’s hoarse voice was as cold and soaked as the rain falling now.
If it were anger directed at him, he would accept it willingly, whether the truth was on her side or not—but he could not bear Adele’s tears.
A rough curse escaped his lips once more. The uncontrollable anger toward himself spread through every fiber of his body.
Gripping the reins tighter, he lowered his body further and narrowed his eyes.
Please, Adele.
Without knowing exactly what he wanted, his lips moved first.
No matter what harsh words she might use to wound his heart, his clock had stopped from the very moment Adele’s tears began to fall.
Whether his eyes were open or closed, the image of her awkwardly wiping away tears had never left his mind.
“Are you crying? Do you mean to say I’m the one crying?”
No matter how many times he wiped them away, the clear tears that kept forming pierced Killian’s heart.
To make someone like that cry—contempt and disgust for himself surged from the very bottom of his being.
“…I can’t get close. What if the crown prince’s curse spreads to me?”
It was the kind of days when the whisper of the curse, which he thought he had erased completely, would naturally surface.
Every breath he took felt painful, as if Adele’s suffering were entirely his fault.
No, it couldn’t not be his fault.
The things he had tried to hide for Adele’s sake had instead caused her nothing but hardship and pain.
Seeing someone who didn’t have to live that way endure and persevere for him felt like a punishment.
Jacqueline’s words—that only by his absence could Adele even eat or sleep—made him feel more miserable than the moments he himself had been trapped in the palace.
“Hoo…”
And yet, he could not let her go, a feeling both exasperating and, in some way, a relief.
If Adele wouldn’t hold onto him, he would have to hold onto her.
It was incomparable to the possessiveness he had once felt toward the sacred sword.
No matter how cold a face she wore or how many times she hurt him in the future, it would still be better than living in a world without her.
“…So please—”
The rain lashed his face as he swallowed his unease. Through the dim, rising haze of night, the main gate of the marquis’s residence finally came into view.
He hoped it was a false anxiety.
That Adele would look at him and coldly turn away immediately.
He never thought he would wish for such a thing—but it made life feel all the more absurd. Killian’s hands, gripping the reins, tensed with renewed force.
The closer he got to the construction site, the more his heart ran wild without end.
“Adele!”
He lifted his head and headed toward the hill where she always sat. He could tell at a glance that Adele was not there, even with the wind and rain raging.
“Madam! Are you there?”
But he did not turn toward the count’s residence; he pressed straight ahead.
Like an instinct he could not explain, he ran downward. Until finally, the sound of his hooves, which had been pounding without pause, began to slow.
…No. That couldn’t be.
It couldn’t be.
As if he had to see something he didn’t want to confirm, each heavy step of the horse only amplified his anxiety.
And then, through his rain-soaked eyes, Killian saw the area at the foot of the hill.
“…Adele!”
