Chapter 21
“You… you son of a bitch…!”
Losing his temper, Padrick lunged at Calyx. Calyx didn’t even take a defensive stance, acting as if he knew exactly where he stood.
Driven by the single-minded thought that she had to prevent a bloodshed, Lottie threw herself between the two men.
“……!”
With Lottie blocking him with her arms spread wide, Padrick froze mid-motion, his fist still raised.
Calyx was the same. At the sight of the fragile back turned toward him, he forgot what he had been about to do only a moment ago.
Lottie didn’t realize the immense confusion she had caused both men.
She was so tense that she could only stare at the man right in front of her with wide, fierce eyes.
- If it hurt this much, you should have said something. Does it make you feel better to turn me into a heartless husband?
Stupid Charlotte Evanshire. After everything you went through, have you still not let go of those memories?
“Go ahead and hit me, Your Highness.”
Lottie’s voice was calmer than ever, fueled by anger toward herself.
“Or perhaps you intend to strike Your Highness’s own face with that fist this time as well?”
Padrick’s eyelids quivered. His eyes were demanding to know how she could possibly know about that.
Lottie had no intention of answering that question.
Instead, she spoke the words she had harbored in her heart for a very long time, articulating every single syllable clearly.
“If you wish to be acknowledged by Her Majesty the Queen, first accept that inferiority complex of yours.”
“……!”
“The way Your Highness tries to belittle others like this—it is pathetic and miserable.”
She felt Calyx flinch behind her at the bluntness of her words.
Let him have her three generations executed for lèse-majesté. If he did, she intended to run to the Queen and report in detail exactly how her son would ruin this kingdom in the future.
“…….”
With a look that asked how she knew such a thing, Padrick didn’t immediately fly into a rage.
He stared at Lottie with eyes full of confusion and suspicion, then glanced at Calyx standing behind her.
Calyx was smiling with a face mixed with elation and pity. That smile was whispering to Padrick.
‘It seems I’ve won this time as well.’
“Dammit…!”
Unable to contain his fury, Padrick kicked the side table next to him. The table and the small items atop it collapsed loudly onto the floor.
Padrick stormed out of the room, huffing. A strange silence lingered in the room for a moment.
“…….”
Calyx considered calling out to Lottie, who still had her back to him, but decided against it.
He had a strange premonition that if he touched that back, she might crumble like a sandcastle.
Calyx’s gaze shifted to the mirror tilted on the opposite side.
Lottie’s front was reflected there.
Her light green eyes were wide and trembling. Calyx sensed that those eyes were desperately avoiding looking at something.
He soon figured out where that was.
It was toward the door where Padrick had just disappeared.
“…….”
Feeling as though he had discovered a truth he shouldn’t have known, Calyx stared blankly at Lottie’s back.
Her body, clad in a thin silk nightgown, looked even thinner and smaller than usual. That body was shaking incessantly.
She looked like someone struggling to distance herself from an emotion of unknown origin, unable to shake it off.
The thrill of Lottie choosing him over Padrick began to cool down slowly.
The place where his sense of superiority vanished was filled with an ominous premonition that he couldn’t logically explain.
- Even if I told you there is someone I like?
If those words hadn’t been a lie to push him away.
If there was something between Lottie and that man—the one he least wanted to think about right now—that he didn’t know about…
Padrick, who had disappeared looking as if he would chop off Calyx’s head at any moment, sent no word afterward.
There were no soldiers to arrest Calyx, nor even a policeman who might have received a report.
Calyx thought that Lottie’s and his own threats must have worked. He was certain that the bloodshed at Blue Brick would remain nothing more than a rumor occasionally whispered by the servants.
Since the situation hadn’t been officially settled yet, Calyx had to be confined at Blue Brick for the night under the guise of a visit.
“I apologize for not being able to provide a better room on such short notice. I will do my best to ensure you are not inconvenienced during your stay.”
An attic room where the servants stayed.
Calyx, who had been looking around the single room with a faint scent of mold with a curious expression, smirked at Isabel’s words.
Her voice was strangely polite yet strangely prickly.
Was there anything in the old lady’s words that wasn’t a lie? Calyx felt he could finally see through Isabel’s inner thoughts a little.
“Not at all. This is the best guest room I’ve stayed in yet.”
The words, which couldn’t possibly be sincere, came out naturally.
Isabel realized that this young pup had not only seen through her petty spite but had even gone so far as to tease her.
With a flushed face, she offered her nightly greetings and hurried out.
Click.
Once alone, his mischievous boyish expression vanished, cooling into a cold, expressionless mask.
He laid his body down on the uncomfortable bed.
He closed his eyes to sleep, but opened them again before long.
While he traced the slanted ceiling with his eyes, waiting for sleep to return, the commotion outside died down and even the servants fell asleep.
He remained awake, his gaze wandering somewhere on the ceiling.
What he had started in an attempt to clear his thoughts only made his mind sharper. His clear mind relentlessly chased the edge of her memory.
Surely you’ve only met the Crown Prince twice, so why do I feel like you’ve known him for a very long time?
Why did I see layers of lingering regret in your entire body as you turned away from him?
An impulse seized him to go and wake her, as she was likely deep in sleep by now. He could see himself waking her and pouring out all sorts of wretched words.
He could see the terrible version of himself who would grab her as she tried to flee again and finally swallow her lips.
He forced his eyes shut.
This was the only way to cut off the desire that was racing without end.
But even now, with his eyes closed, all his senses were focused on finding where she might be sleeping.
It seemed sleep would be impossible tonight.
Knock, knock.
At that moment, a small knocking sound paralyzed his every nerve.
As soon as he realized his mind had stopped, he heard the knock once more.
He got out of bed in a somewhat flustered manner. His body walked with its usual stride, but his heart had already dashed forward to break down the door long ago.
He twisted the knob and slowly opened the door.
Lottie was standing there, a shawl draped over her shoulders.
“I thought you might be asleep and was about to go back… I mean, what I’m saying is…”
She was holding a small medicine box in her hand.
She must have waited until everyone was asleep specifically to come here. Even though he tried to stop it, his thoughts wouldn’t cease. The desire he had tried to cut off was ignited once again.
He couldn’t bear it. No, he didn’t want to bear it.
He gently took her hesitating wrist. He tried to hold it as gently as possible, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded.
He pulled her inside.
He closed the door loudly, rendering her efforts to avoid being caught by anyone meaningless.
She looked up at him with a startled expression, her back against the door.
Her shoulders, clad only in an evening dress, trembled slightly. It seemed her shawl had fallen outside from the momentum of being pulled in.
“If you knew what I want to do to you right now… you would despise me again.”
I want to swallow those lips like a beast and kiss them until they are swollen.
I want to gulp down all your hot breath and make it circulate inside my body, and I want to pull those shivering shoulders and embrace you until you break.
I want to rub skin against skin and engrave myself perfectly onto your body.
If I can never have your heart, I want to remain with you even through contempt and hatred. If I can possess you exclusively that way.
‘You terrible man.’
With a mind dazed as if a fever had broken out, he barely suppressed his filthy desires.
However, he couldn’t stop himself from pulling Lottie’s hand, which was caught in his.
“……!”
Lottie’s cold fingertips touched his split lip. Even that small contact made him seethe.
“I will try my best not to lay a finger on you until you leave this room. But if a situation arises where I can no longer help myself despite my efforts…”
With every whispered word, her fingertips brushed his lips.
Suppressing the intense urge to take them into his mouth, he pressed something into Lottie’s hand.
It was a pocketknife he usually carried for self-defense.
“Stab me with this and run away.”
The shock Lottie felt at that moment would be difficult to express in any words.
Lottie was not unaware of what it meant when a man told a woman he ‘wouldn’t lay a finger’ on her.
But given who the person was, she hadn’t been able to think of it that way at all.
Lust.
‘That man, for me?’
It was nonsense.
What was certain was that no matter what dwelt in those dangerous eyes, she could not back down.
Lottie reminded herself of her purpose for secretly seeking this man out after waiting for everyone to fall asleep. And she gripped the pocketknife in her hand even tighter.
The sensation she thought would be cool was, for some reason, burning hot.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but let’s treat you first. Somewhere to sit…”
Lottie looked around the room, praying her voice sounded as calm as possible.
Focused solely on clearing the awkward atmosphere, she had forgotten the fact that this wasn’t a proper guest room.
“……There’s only the bed.”
