Chapter 25
Starting with the portrait drawn when his memory was the most vivid, the frames were added one by one. They were evidence of Alexis’s longing and his weakness.
Siss Millan saw it that day and was unable to meet him again after that.
“Then let’s go in. Please take a careful look around.”
Derrick politely saw him off and walked through the gate. Alexis clenched his jaw as he watched the butler’s back as he walked away.
Alexis still doesn’t know Sis Millan’s true identity, and doesn’t know why she approached him. He doesn’t even know for sure if she’s been alive since the past, as the aide claimed.
But now none of that matters.
When the guy he met at the ballroom tried to attack Sis, he really lost his senses and got angry. It was the first time in his life that he had ever shown his emotions so recklessly in a formal setting. He had tried not to make a fuss because of the stigma of being an illegitimate child.
Sis never let him do as he pleased.
After venting his anger for a while, he chased that son of a bitch away. Then, as he turned around, the moment he saw her crying, Alexis felt his heart break.
That’s when he realized. He didn’t want to see her sick, or crying, or what those feelings meant… .
I still haven’t figured out everything about Sis, but I thought it wouldn’t be bad to just live like this without knowing. Rather than digging up the secret and ruining our relationship, I wanted to pretend not to know and enjoy the happiness I have now.
If Sis wanted to hide something from him, even by tricking him, Alexis would gladly fall for it. The thunderous emotion of love had completely paralyzed his thought processes.
But, that’s what happened.
Alexis suddenly frowned.
Derrick disappeared into the distance, and someone was walking slowly through the open door.
‘That kid… … .’
Alexis knew that shameless face very well. Wasn’t it that dirty little bastard he had met at the ball, the one who had been screaming for help while being stepped on by his feet?
Alexis’s thoughts were jumbled in an instant. Why on earth was that bastard here? Was he perhaps summoned by the Count to be punished? But he was far too free for that to be the case. He wasn’t tied up, nor was he being followed.
So that means you got out of this mansion safely… … .
Hasson’s face suddenly looked relieved. The moment he saw it, Alexis felt a part of his heart crumble. An indescribable sense of betrayal washed over him.
The man who attacked Sis in the ballroom. The man who got beaten up by Alexis. And now, he is leaving the count’s residence with a relieved expression.
“Hold that kid.”
Alexis gave instructions to the knights, who got out of the carriage, and quickly passed through the gate that he had been unable to pass through for reasons of consideration until now, and went inside.
My vision was blurry because my heart was filled with anger.
* * *
Upon returning to the bedroom, Sis sensed a commotion outside the door.
As I tilted my head to wonder what was going on, the bedroom door that had been closed opened wide with a bang. Alexis, wrapped in the cool air from outside, walked in with heavy steps. Sis was startled and jumped out of her bed.
“What the hell are you?”
Before she could even ask when he had come here, Sis’s breathing had stopped as if her throat had been choked. Because Alexis was pointing a gruesome gun at her. This had happened before. Alexis had pointed the gun at her as if he was going to shoot her at any moment.
Then and now, I am not afraid of death. But now, strangely enough, I am afraid of the person pointing the gun at me.
“Your Highness.”
“Answer me!”
The sound of him loading his gun echoed particularly loudly in the bedroom. Sis nodded as if it was okay to the servants stamping their feet outside the door, blocked by the duke’s knights.
The open door closed, leaving Alexis and Sis alone in the bedroom. It felt like walking on thin ice.
Alexis took a step toward her.
“I saw a guy leaving this mansion a little while ago. It’s the guy who tried to attack you at the ball.”
Sis, who had been moving her lips, not knowing what to say, now realized why he was so excited. It seemed that Alexis thought that she and Hosson had conspired to cause the commotion.
“How far do you plan to deceive me? What do you want from me?”
The dark gun also came closer. Sis swallowed, her throat dry. At that moment, Alexis’s gun barrel touched her collarbone. The cool gun barrel felt sharp like an arrowhead.
“Just how far do you plan on swinging me!”
It was a protest against her and a self-mockery at being swayed as he was.
Sis stared blankly at him as he shouted at her, then slowly grabbed the gun that was shoved into his hand. Alexis flinched at her unexpectedly calm demeanor.
“Then you?”
I wanted to ask casually, but funny enough, my voice started shaking.
“How long have you known me?”
Without an answer, only each other’s questions lingered on the tips of their tongues.
I was proud of having made so many memories, but now I realize that we didn’t know anything about each other. What on earth was all that time for? Sis’s heart ached at the thought.
The time I spent with him was so precious, but at the same time, it was so precious that I was afraid it would wear out and disappear, so I couldn’t take it out. Why did I fill up the time that was so full of happiness with only pitiful doubts and explorations?
I couldn’t continue this conversation without an answer forever.
Everything needed an end, and Sis, was exhausted from the whirlwind of emotions over the past few days, decided to put an
end to it first. Above all, she didn’t want to deceive him anymore. She wanted to be honest with him, even if it meant being honest with others.
“You asked who I was? I’m Sis Millan.”
“… … .”
“Cursed with immortality, who lives her entire life unable to die… … Sis Millan.”
The gun shook as if in response to her weary, muffled voice. It was not her hand holding the barrel, but his hand gripping the gun that was shaking.
My heart started pounding as I brought up a secret I had never been able to tell anyone. I was afraid of how he would react, but I also felt a strange sense of pleasure at revealing the truth I had kept hidden my entire life.
Alexis’s eyes shook deeply.
‘Imperishability’
It was also one of the assumptions he had thought about. Maybe, maybe not. Even though he had such doubts, he could not believe what she was saying. Samuel’s voice, which had been hinting at the possibility, echoed like a rumbling sound.
Alexis remained silent without answering, but his trembling eyes told me that his mind was in disarray.
His reaction was not incomprehensible. It had taken Sis quite a while to accept that she herself was immortal. It would have been harder for him, a stranger, to understand it all at once than to pick stars from the sky.
Sis looked at him blankly and then suddenly turned around. She took out a dagger from the last drawer. If it is difficult to understand with words alone, just show it to him.
Alexis stared at her with anxiety as she suddenly acted in an incomprehensible manner. Sis, who had returned to him, looked up at him once and without hesitation stabbed her wrist with the dagger. It was the part where the protruding veins were most clearly visible.
Alexis, frozen by her actions, dropped the gun he was holding.
Blood began to flow out through the gaping slit in her delicate skin. As expected, the pain was so vivid that Sis bit her lips hard. For a moment, her vision became dizzy.
“Are you crazy?!”
Alexis, who came to his senses a little late, hurriedly snatched the dagger from her and threw it to the floor. However, because she had deliberately stabbed it deep, thick blood flowed out from her wrist.
Alexis tried to stop the bleeding on her wrist with a pale face, but Sis stopped him. Alexis was embarrassed and angry because she was stopping him in such an urgent situation.
“Why on earth would you do something so stupid… … !”
She had never seen Alexis so bewildered before. But that wasn’t what mattered now. He had to know why she had put herself through the pain and harm herself.
Sis looked into Alexis’ eyes and spoke bluntly.
“Look carefully.”
Alexis, who was trying to stop the bleeding somehow, stopped at her words. Sis had a wound where the flesh was split open and blood was flowing out clearly in his field of vision.
Alexis blinked once. Then, strangely enough, the flesh that had been torn apart so cruelly that it made him frown began to heal from the tip. The wound was healing itself.
“This…….”
The amount of bleeding began to slow down. Meanwhile, the flesh continued to swell, and by the time Alexis blinked five times, the wound was almost completely closed. All that was visible now was a faint, long gash and blood trickling down the skin.
It was as if a miracle had happened before his eyes. It was such an unrealistic scene.
Perhaps because she had lost a lot of blood, she suddenly became anemic. When Siss staggered, Alexis hurriedly supported her. Still, he couldn’t believe it, so he looked at her wrist again. It wasn’t a dream. Now, even the slight wound had completely disappeared.
Her wrist returned to its original white and clean state, completely intact.
“Immortal… … .”
He muttered, chewing on her words. A sharp shock hit him as if someone had hit him in the back of the head.
Under her assurance, the pieces that had been out of place in his head began to fit together. The woman who had saved him in the past, the portrait that the aide had brought, and the woman in front of him now. If they were all the same person… … . The fact that they had the same name and the same face was immediately explained.
