Chapter 152. The Betrayal of Entrusted Freedom
Noah appeared with a wild aura, like a lion fresh from battle.
Leaning diagonally against the doorway, his gaze slid from Olivia, who was sitting on the bed, to the newspaper in her hand.
“Noah.”
As soon as Olivia rose from her seat, Noah moved as well. Betty shut her eyes tightly in the face of overwhelming fear and bowed her head. Noah approached with steady footsteps and spoke sharply and fiercely.
“I distinctly told you not to bring that newspaper in.”
“I apologize, Your Highness.”
He stopped before the old woman bowing her head and looked down at the back of her head with a cold gaze.
“I let it slide for a long time, assuming you’d only concern yourself with your own affairs, but you’ve crossed the line.”
Olivia felt that he was not human for the first time.
“I apologize.”
“Leave.”
As Olivia watched the old woman scurry away, her eyes welled up, turning red. Noah then took the newspaper from her.
Olivia looked at her now empty hands before turning her gaze to Noah’s retreating back as he walked toward the fireplace.
He calmly threw the newspaper into the fireplace. Olivia hesitantly approached him.
“Noah, this article isn’t true….”
“I know.”
“……”
“Go to Hamuel.”
He meticulously watched the fire spread across the entire newspaper before turning his head to look at Olivia.
“You don’t need to worry about it. There’s no need to explain anything at the Royal Palace, and certainly no need to give interviews to reporters. Just pretend nothing happened.”
Olivia looked at him, standing like a fortress, and thought.
Isn’t this unwavering protection? Isn’t this the sturdy fence she had longed for?
The protection she had always wished for while being battered by harsh winds and fierce storms.
It was true.
This handsome man, with the red light reflected in his eyes, was clearly trying to protect her. He was trying to perfectly shield her from public scrutiny and the harsh words that would fly her way.
But then, why did the fire burning in her chest not subside?
No, why did it grow unbearably large, as if threatening to consume her from the tips of her hair to her toes?
“Even if I am to go to Hamuel, I wish to at least speak about this matter directly and discuss it.”
“There’s no need. It’s not worth responding to.”
“Even if it’s not worth responding to, it’s a difficult situation for the royal family. So….”
Noah brushed back his falling hair. Olivia, who had been speaking, noticed the dark bruises on the back of his hand.
“What happened to you?!”
Startled, Olivia quickly grabbed his hand.
His neatly arranged, smooth fingers were stained with dark bruises. As if he had struck something with his fist.
“You didn’t….”
When Olivia looked up at Noah with trembling eyes, his green irises, which she had thought calm, churned like a stormy sea.
He appeared serene yet precarious, like an iceberg floating on a black ocean.
As Olivia hurried to gather her healing supplies and turn, he suddenly spoke.
“Do you have insomnia?”
“……!”
Olivia turned her head in surprise. Noah was watching the burning flames.
“And that’s why you have medicine?”
Olivia, breathing raggedly, stepped closer to him.
“That… What did you hear from that person?”
His face, which had been watching the flames, contorted. He seemed to be suppressing rage, or perhaps the urge to cry.
“Liv.”
“……”
“Was Ansen Wilhelm a part of your past?”
Tears, reflecting the firelight, fell from Noah’s eyes.
Olivia felt herself being snatched by the abyss at her nape.
It felt as if all the weight that had tied her to this land had vanished. She felt a sensation like a summer mirage, as if all reasons for her to be grounded here were evaporating.
“I have insomnia. It started in Pulder… I was prescribed medicine, and then when I came here, it… it disappeared… But how Ansen knows about it….”
Noah turned his head to look at her.
As tears fell down her cheeks while she spoke in a hurried, stumbling manner, Noah reached out and wiped away the moisture on her cheek.
“I know. Forget that idiotic question I just asked.”
“……”
Noah took out a handkerchief from his pocket, meticulously wiped Olivia’s face, and then smiled playfully.
“Go to Hamuel. I’ll follow soon.”
Olivia, crying, grabbed his arm. And pleaded.
“Noah, I don’t want to do that.”
“……”
“I want to resolve my own affairs….”
She looked up at him and trailed off. The strength left her hand holding his arm.
He would not permit anything against his will.
“Even if I stand before people and say I had no connection with Ansen Wilhelm, they won’t believe me. It’s not the answer they want to hear.”
Olivia closed her eyes and replied.
“Still, if I must do it, I will. If there is anything I must do to resolve this….”
“What other photos do you think there might be?”
At the cruel words, Olivia opened her eyes and looked at him. Noah scowled, his face etched with exhaustion, and scanned her roughly.
“…What do you mean by that?”
Noah stared blankly into the air, his face weary, and said.
“The reason one of those photos becomes a problem is because the location is a hotel. Out of all the places, why a hotel.”
Olivia, feeling as if someone were strangling her, managed to reply.
“That’s a business lounge. Everyone doing business in Pulder used it. There couldn’t possibly be any photos that could be considered threatening…!”
“I don’t doubt you. I doubt the public, who will interpret the situation as they wish to believe.”
Just then.
There was an urgent knock, and Methone entered. Noah, as if he had nothing more to say to her, indifferently turned away.
“I’ve spoken to Jonan, so go to Hamuel. Just this once, do as I say. I’ll be there soon too.”
And then he walked away. With steady, indifferent footsteps.
Olivia quietly watched his retreating back.
It felt like being exposed to a fierce storm, unprotected.
‘Stay still.’
‘Just like this. Just as if you are neither dead nor alive.’
The helplessness that bound her mouth and hands, preventing her from speaking what she saw or acting on what she heard, was tiresome and painful.
“Liv, the world is unfair. Accept it.”
From a corner of her subconscious, her grandmother’s voice from long ago echoed.
Olivia collapsed as if crumbling, covering her ears and burying her head in her knees.
Then, along with her grandmother’s voice, a thread of memory unspooled.
“Only after accepting the unfairness can you see your freedom.”
Olivia, who had been trembling and crying silently, paused. The wrinkled voice seemed to embrace her.
“It doesn’t mean to accept and give up. You must accept it to see what comes next. And remember this, Liv.”
“…Remember?”
“Your freedom is something you must win for yourself. If you entrust your freedom to others, it may seem like you have attained immediate freedom, but you will realize at a crucial moment that it is not so. Win your freedom solely for yourself, with your own strength.”
“That’s why this grandmother brought you across the sea.”
“Because I wanted you to learn about freedom in school. To gain the strength to win your freedom.”
As she closed her eyes, her grandmother’s face flashed before her like a fleeting image.
The tears that had been flowing had stopped.
“That’s right, Grandmother. It was something I should have won with my own strength.”
Her black eyes, reopened, held a burning rage and a resolve that she could no longer live like this.
Olivia sprang from her seat and stormed out of the bedroom. She strode across the corridor to the study and pulled out all the Magic Dome blueprints she had worked on, along with the books and documents she had brought from Pulder.
Whenever she faced these, her heart would tremble, and she would feel sad. But now, she felt no sadness at all.
Olivia glared at the documents bearing Ansen’s signature, chewing each word with fury.
“You will regret this. For continuing to provoke me.”
If you hadn’t provoked me further, I probably wouldn’t have even thought of breaking this.
The me who had shrunk without realizing it.
I would have consoled myself that I had done everything I could, and given up forever.
“So, thank you.”
For making me decide to shatter it.
Olivia turned and looked out the window. She saw Noah, on horseback, crossing the garden.
Her pitch-black eyes were steady as she watched him.
Watching him ride away, Olivia whispered to herself as if making a vow.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do as you say.”
No.
I won’t do that anymore.
