Chapter 39
Prelude of Ardent Passion
Shed gripped the oar tightly.
A strange impulse surged like a flame.
“Your Excellency…?”
“Stop.”
He barely managed to utter the word through his rough breaths, clinging to his reason.
He turned his gaze away from the fading flame.
“Let’s go back now…”
Shed hastily turned the boat around, driven by an inexplicable sensation.
As was his long-standing habit, he extended his hand to help Liana disembark.
The moment Liana placed her hand on his, he felt a jolt that spread from his fingertips to his entire body.
Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, as if he had been electrocuted, he released Liana’s hand.
Her body faltered as she stepped off the boat, teetering.
Shed, belatedly realizing his mistake, quickly grabbed her arm.
In an instant, Liana’s scent, now so close, washed over him like a wave.
Ah, damn it.
The scent, dredging up memories he had buried deep within, was dizzyingly intense.
At the same time, her delicate eyelids lifted, and eyes the color of spring's first green shoots met his gaze.
A face so beautiful it made him want to destroy it, so exquisite it made him want to ruin it.
And he realized that the same memories were etched on that cruelly beautiful face.
The blood that had been simmering within him turned into an intense impulse, and he pulled Liana toward him with force.
Her white body swayed as she was drawn into his arms.
As he wrapped his arms around her slender waist, a fresh scent reminiscent of lemon blossoms brushed against his nose.
The sound of his own pounding heart filled his ears.
His eyes slowly and meticulously scanned her.
The heat from their bodies, pressed together, intensified the atmosphere between them.
Finally, his gaze settled on her softly closed, rose-tinted lips.
Her round eyes, looking up at him, seemed equally captivated by his red lips.
Her small, tense fingertips gripped his collar.
At that faint pressure, Shed felt as if he were being pulled toward her by a tremendous gravitational force.
Their breaths gradually drew closer.
Their reflections became increasingly clear in each other's eyes, and the moment their breaths began to intertwine.
“Your Excellency.”
Liana quickly turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut.
The hand that had been clutching his collar slowly lost its grip.
“I should go now.”
She pushed against his arm and stepped back.
Shed’s arm fell limply to his side, and Liana fled the scene as if escaping.
Liana buried her face in her knees.
Her heart felt like it was about to burst.
When she closed her eyes, his face appeared before her.
The gaze that looked at her from beneath his deep-set eyes was suffocatingly intense.
The firm arms that wrapped around her waist and his warmth seemed to be seducing her.
The moment his breath drew near, Liana had leaned into him so naturally.
Liana was blinded by him, drawn into his breath as if hypnotized.
For that moment, she too had dreamed.
A dream that only an innocent and pure person could have.
‘Why…?’
Liana couldn't understand the man who was shaking her.
He was someone who shouldn't shake her.
No, he was someone who couldn't.
The countless people who had been sacrificed because of her, the Lupus, and Shed’s comrades.
In the end, she was a traitor who had betrayed Shed’s trust and sold him to the merchant guild.
A mountain of sins stood between them.
‘It shouldn’t be like this.’
These feelings shouldn't seep into this dirty and terrible relationship.
Liana touched her hot lips with trembling fingertips.
Perhaps that was what he wanted?
Did he want her to waver like a blade of grass in a storm?
Did he want her to suffer like this?
Ah, perhaps he did.
Liana knew that he was an intelligent and cold-hearted man.
Perhaps this was his way of taking revenge.
Just as she had loved and abandoned him, perhaps he was planning to feign love and ruthlessly trample on her swelling emotions…
It was a method worthy of him.
Because love would be one of the greatest wounds that Shed Lester could inflict upon her.
“Duke Shed Lester is, of course, a good man, but he is an unfortunate person to be with you.”
Liana recalled the words of Ecless Vittel.
He was right.
Shed was a good man.
A good man enough to tear down her carefully constructed resolve.
That was why she was destined to be unhappy.
“Think carefully about which choice is the wisest.”
She recalled the proposal that Eclaus had made.
She still couldn't understand what he was thinking when he made that proposal, but perhaps it would be better for everyone if she went along with his plan.
Thud. The shirt that Liana's hand had touched fell to the floor.
The shirt, dropped onto the cold marble floor, was discarded in a tangled and disheveled state, like his thoughts.
A solid, nude figure was reflected in the mirror inside the bathtub.
The meticulously sculpted muscles bulged rigidly with rampaging emotions.
Shed pulled on the twisted bath rope.
A curtain of water fell from the carved white marble.
Cold droplets of water flowed down his taut muscles.
The water cooled his feverish body, washing away the ardent passion that had gripped him.
However, the distracting thoughts that had taken root in his mind refused to be washed away.
He recalled the image of Liana fleeing as if escaping.
That incident, then, was an impulsive variable that even he had not anticipated.
It was just that the lake was too still. Because of that, all his senses were focused solely on her.
Her small gestures, the gentle flow of her gaze, even the strands of hair that fluttered in the wind were distracting. Those small movements captivated his attention.
Perhaps the problem was that her cheeks, which were always pale, had a rosy glow for the first time in a long time. That rose-tinted color was almost indecently transparent and red.
Was the problem that the boat was shaking too much? His chest fluttered as if he were seasick on the calm lake.
A storm-like, rough breeze shook him, and the spring sunshine was too hot, making his body burn.
Even so, he had tried to endure.
He had tried to resist, even if the world tempted him.
But when her eyes sparkled with the light of the past, his patience shattered.
A boiling passion surged like a tidal wave, seizing him.
Her breath drawing closer, her warm body temperature, her soft skin.
However.
“I should go now.”
The swelling emotions burst emptily, pierced by cold thorns.
The place where emotions had dominated even his reason was now empty and filled with emptiness.
The unquenched thirst left traces on his flesh, and the unfulfilled desire left hunger in his soul.
“Damn it.”
He muttered quietly, running a wet hand through his dark, disheveled hair.
He lifted his wet eyelids.
A large body was reflected in the hazy, cloudy mirror.
Even in the blur, the scars that remained clearly visible.
The sharp and rough marks reminded him of reality.
Large scars that would be impossible for nobles who were healed by Clerics to have.
They were the symbol of a slave that he could never erase in his lifetime.
Back then, when he had gone to the battlefield and suffered severe injuries, he had not been able to receive the help of a Cleric.
The wounds, which had healed into rough scars, had now become marks that could not be erased even with Divine Power.
Yes. He had endured all these wounds for Ideana, and Luise Ideana had betrayed him and sold him off as easily as an object.
He recalled the clear evidence of hatred etched into his skin.
He closed his eyes and recalled the past animosity etched into each scar.
First, he traced the scars on his body, and then he traced the scars on his soul.
He dredged up even the lingering remnants of the ill-fated relationship that remained in the deepest part of him.
Only then did everything return to its original order.
Anger, betrayal, hatred, revenge.
He repeated his purpose and faced the mirror with cold eyes.
But he didn't realize.
That the mirror he faced was hazy and cloudy, and that the calm Lake Anteros had reflected him clearly and transparently.
“How about starting to work little by little, Liana?”
Werner, who had come to visit Liana after a long time, had come to discuss her return to work.
Liana couldn't answer for a moment and just stared at him.
“Did Your Excellency order this?”
It wasn't that she wanted to resist Werner's words.
She just thought the timing was bad.
After what happened yesterday, she felt awkward about seeing Shed.
She even had a slightly petty suspicion that Shed had brought her back to work because of that incident.
But Werner shook his head.
“No, it was a story that came out of a discussion between me and the head maid.”
Shed had not mentioned Liana separately.
However, as the head butler in charge of the Leicester family's household affairs, Werner could exercise this level of decision-making power.
“…Of course, I know you haven’t fully recovered yet, but there’s just too much work to do.”
Werner added.
Dividing roles according to the environment here, repairing the old and dilapidated mansion, cleaning, throwing away old items and bringing in new ones, equipping necessary facilities, tending the garden…
Bringing fewer people than the Leicester family's main residence, München Castle, and trying to handle more work was proving to be a lot of trouble.
Shed had said that they could do it slowly and gradually, but how could they rest when there was so much work lying before their eyes?
It had been quite some time since they had come to Paradel, but there was still a mountain of work piled up.
“I’m not trying to make you do hard work. It would be fine if you just took care of things like bringing water or towels for the master. I mean… I believe you know what I mean.”
Werner hid the rest of his words and smiled awkwardly.
Liana knew what he was trying to say.
Probably, complaints about her had started to spread among the servants.
“I understand what you mean, Head Butler. I will return to work.”
Liana also nodded readily.
She didn't bother blaming the servants who hated her.
‘It’s only natural that people are talking…’
Liana sneered.
Whatever her circumstances, it couldn't look good in the eyes of the people around her.
“Then, starting this evening, I’ll ask you to do things like changing the towels and water bottles.”
“Yes, Head Butler.”
As Liana bowed her head, Werner hurriedly left the scene.
