About Things That Haven't Occurred Yet
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Someone knocked on the door.
It felt as if she were waking from a dream. Adelheid flinched, her shoulders jerking in surprise.
There was only one reason a maid would knock on her door at this hour.
Without even giving herself time to think, she sprang to her feet.
“Your Highness, His Majesty is coming.”
Anton did not like her greeting him in casual attire.
Adelheid quickly untied her loosely bound hair, running her fingers through it as she hurried along.
She had neither the time nor the presence of mind to say anything to Dominic.
Her hands trembled violently as she fumbled with the doorknob.
With the help of her maids, she hurriedly put herself together and rushed down the stairs.
Fortunately, Anton did not seem to have arrived yet.
Tucking the stray hairs clinging to her forehead neatly behind her ears, she stared anxiously at the door.
It was rare for Anton to seek Adelheid at such a late hour.
And usually, it boded ill.
In one of her past lives, Anton had stormed in late at night and killed her. Even now, she did not know the reason.
Adelheid bit hard down on her lower lip.
Pacing before the door, she repeatedly clenched and unclenched her tightly clasped hands.
Anxiety gnawed at her insides and consumed her mind.
Her throat burned. Why now? Why of all times, tonight? What happened? What caused this? Her teeth chattered relentlessly.
At last, the palace doors swung open.
Adelheid pressed a hand to her chest and took a step toward the entrance.
Upon her lips, she wore the very smile Anton praised most.
She had thought her legs would not carry her, yet she walked just fine; she had thought she could not smile, yet she smiled effortlessly.
She was so sickeningly used to it. The sheer weariness made her head heavy.
The moment Anton’s face was half-revealed between the doors, Adelheid froze mid-smile.
A chilling, honed murderous intent drifted over the man’s face.
The countenance of a predator looking down on its prey, the familiar gaze constricting her throat, and the heavy stench of silence.
In the dark, Anton’s brown hair appeared pitch-black.
His piercing eyes were fixed squarely on Adelheid.
In past lives as well, Anton would occasionally fall into foul moods. Such days occurred without rhyme or reason.
And he would take it out on Adelheid. When it went too far, she died.
That was the Anton standing before her now. Looking at him, Adelheid recalled the place where she always opened her eyes.
Her brother’s severed head. The stench of death.
A blade soaked in blood. Castle walls consumed by fire.
Ashes. Thoughts. Thoughts of death.
With a cold, impassive face, Anton kicked Adelheid.
A dull, thudding pain seized her abdomen, knocking the breath from her lungs.
Collapsing to the ground, Adelheid gasped raggedly against the dry floor.
Before she could even regain her senses, a rough, brutal hand grabbed her blonde hair.
Reflexively, she tried to push away the hand gripping her hair, but the ruthless strength did not budge.
Adelheid was dragged along.
Blood rushed to her face as her legs scraped against the ground.
She was dragged across the entirety of the garden until they reached the entrance of the building.
“Y-Y-Your Majesty, I can walk—”
Anton’s steps came to an abrupt halt. A long silence fell.
Trembling, Adelheid barely managed to lift her head and look up.
Dominic stood on the stairs. Having likely sprinted from the library, his shoulders heaved irregularly.
Her vision was so blurred that she could not make out his face properly.
“Ah, Sir Dominic.”
“……”
“It’s been a while.”
The moment of her death from a past life overlapped with the present. Anton drawing his sword. The blade pressing against her neck.
The man trying to kill her. And the man who had stood by the door. Tall enough to brush against the branches of a towering tree.
Ash-gray hair swaying in the wind. A cool, detached face. Grey eyes meeting hers. A gaze so devoid of emotion, indifferent, quiet, and completely empty.
Did Dominic bear that same look in his eyes even now?
“Hm? Sir Dominic, did you run here?”
“…….”
“It’s late at night. What were you doing instead of sleeping? Go back inside.”
“…….”
“Why are you standing there instead of going in? Ah, because of this?”
Anton spoke with apparent amusement and abruptly released his grip.
At the same moment, Adelheid’s head jerked back with a sharp gasp.
Dominic descended a couple of steps and spoke.
“Your Majesty.”
His voice sounded almost like an intervention. Anton let out a dry chuckle.
“Is it because you cannot bear to watch a pitiful woman suffer?”
“It was Your Majesty who appointed me as Her Highness’s royal guard.”
“Hm? Ah. Ah, that’s right.”
Anton raised both hands as if in surrender.
Then, casting a fleeting glance at Adelheid, who had collapsed in a heap, he took a step back.
“Dear me, it seems I’ve lost a knight to my consort.”
“…….”
“Sir Dominic. I shall summon you before long, so be on standby. It feels like a waste to let talent rot in a place like this. Have you rested enough in the meantime?”
“……Yes.”
“Adel, how fortunate you are to have such a loyal guard.”
Anton’s voice was exceedingly cheerful, but Adelheid knew his mood was anything but.
She had spent countless lives observing him, reading his moods, and catering to his whims. There was no way she could fail to notice.
That suppressed emotion was undoubtedly directed at Dominic.
Several guards had passed through Adelheid’s service, but Anton had never shown such hostility toward any of them.
A cruel man. He was the kind of person who could inflict violence with a smile.
He could whisper seemingly sweet, merciful words while committing murder.
He was capable of carving human flesh as playfully as someone poking at a bug with a twig.
That was why Adelheid feared Anton most when he smiled like that.
He had always killed her with a smile.
Not once had he taken her life without that smile on his face.
“Have a good night.”
The sound of his footsteps receded. The building doors closed, and a short while later, the palace gates shut as well. In an instant, stillness fell over the grounds.
Adelheid did not rise even after all the sounds had faded into the distance.
With both hands pressed against the ground, she hung her head in thought.
What was Dominic to Anton? Why was he so wary of him?
Because Dominic was a hero of an age where the Blessing was realized? Because Anton was wary of his influence? Was it simply because of that?
“Your Highness.”
Adelheid lifted her head.
Before she knew it, Dominic was only three paces away from her.
Two paces. One pace. With a troubled, conflicted expression, he reached out his hand.
Adelheid only stared blankly at the outstretched hand.
“……Please stand.”
The first thing that arose within her was doubt.
Why didn’t you just ignore it and walk away? Why did you speak as if to stop Anton? Why are you offering me your hand?
You never did in the past lives.
Then came anger.
When you were capable of doing this all along.
When you knew how to intervene, how to make a face like that, and how to reach out a hand.
Why did you look at me with that wretched face back then? I never even asked to be saved.
Just a little pity, sorrow, helplessness, fluster……
Her voice trailed off. Adelheid drew a slow breath and finished her thought aloud.
“……I nearly died.”
“You nearly died.”
She had almost died. Having reached that calm conclusion, she picked herself up on her own.
Dominic gazed at her with eyes the color of soot, then slowly withdrew his outstretched hand.
After that day, Adelheid continued to visit the library every evening.
Yet Dominic was never there.
No one was there. There was only Adelheid.
Everything returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.
A fresh surge of misery overcame her, and she sobbed in the library. She wept for a long time.
Yet she did not fail to understand Dominic.
According to Anton, Dominic would soon return to the knight order.
With so little time remaining, he would not want to stir up unnecessary trouble. All the more so considering the fates of the previous guards.
He was an honorable knight.
She understood. She understood, and she was fine. She was better than she had expected.
It brought her far more peace of mind to think of Dominic as just another maid who ignored her as though she did not exist.
It was better than Anton treating her like a pet dog. So she was fine.
It was merely a return to her everyday life.
Yet something inside her chest kept crackling, burning away.
With no way of knowing what it was, she could only suffer in silence.
Every now and then, she would catch sight of Dominic on duty through the window, but after staring blankly for a moment, she would promptly draw the curtains shut.
She did nothing but sleep all day inside her pitch-black room.
An insurmountable desolation left her unable to even open her eyes.
