Chapter 7 Blood Soaked Shirt
“…How did you know that?”
“Because you’re wearing clothes for going out.”
Ah.
Delphine glanced down at her clothes, which was richly decorated and richly hemmed, unlike her indoor clothes.
“That’s… You dared to ‘go out’.”
When she looked up again, her emerald eyes were blazing.
“I didn’t realize there were still some archaic laws that required they to ask their husband’s permission to go out.”
“Oh, dear. I see.”
Then, feigning surprise, he said in an abominable voice.
“I gave orders to my men to ‘guard’ my wife, and they went off… I forgot to tell my wife beforehand.”
A lie.
Delphine glared at his masked face as he brazenly explained himself.
Surely he’d ordered her to keep watch so she wouldn’t escape.
If it was an order, obedient soldiers wouldn’t reinterpret their superiors’ orders.
“I see. Somehow, your attitude, however determined, reminds me of a ‘dog’ that doesn’t listen to anything but its master.”
Delphine’s sarcasm was met with a disdainful tone, and he immediately interjected smoothly.
“Oh, no. I suppose being a soldier has given me a rough attitude, and I’ll tell you to correct it; I just thought… might want to go out so soon.”
His brow furrowed in a very regretful way.
“After all, it was only a short time ago.”
He seemed to have forgotten that he had done that regrettable thing with his own hands.
Delphine was so struck by his natural virtue that she forgot to retort and clenched her fists.
The man stared at her with a strange, unreadable gaze before parting his lips again.
“I’m glad you seem to have gotten over it quickly.”
He hesitated, then added in a small voice.
“You’re… strong, so I figured you would be.”
Throughout the conversation, he wore a disconcertingly gentle and elegant expression.
It almost felt like he was wearing a mask.
But as he spoke those last words, for the first time, there was a hint of humanity in his face.
It was tender, as if he was recalling something nostalgic.
‘What is it?’
And Delphine never lost sight of the mood of the moment.
‘What is it about him that makes it seem like he knows me so well?’
Every time you touch him, something comes out. Like a clue to his identity.
“I’m just…”
Delphine’s lips opened slowly, but she couldn’t finish her sentence, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
His large, bloodied hands were tearing at his black tie in one swift motion and throwing it onto the bed.
The same bed she’d fallen asleep on last night, in his arms the entire time.
Delphine remained frozen as he slowly began to unbutton his jacket, one button at a time.
Then, with an impassive face and a tone of genuine concern, he asks.
“My Lady, are you not comfortable in your clothes? Do you think I…”
“I forgot to finish the work I was doing in the study.”
Delphine said quickly, hiding her surprise.
His demeanour was as stoic as ever, but the hand tugging at the doorknob was almost as urgent.
“Of course.”
With that, she slammed the door behind her and left the room with as much urgency as she had entered.
Alone in his quarters, Pride chuckled, and laughed.
But only for a moment.
The smile vanished from his face as quickly as it had appeared.
The grace and gentleness of the colourful beauty’s face evaporated with the laughter.
What remained was a man who looked as cold as ice and as cruel as an animal.
Gone were the graceful gestures as he unbuttoned her jacket, one button at a time, and Pride yanked it open with a vicious grip.
With a single touch, the jacket, stripped of all its buttons, fell to the floor with a clatter.
The blood-stained shirt hidden beneath the thick uniform jacket was revealed.
Pride ripped the shirt off in a series of rough, tearing motions.
In contrast to the gruesome sight of the red, blood-soaked shirt, his naked body was unscathed.
Only very old scars.
Without hesitation, Pride threw his jacket and blood-soaked shirt into the fireplace.
The roaring logs instantly ignited the clothes.
Staring at the scene with a numb gaze, he recalled what had just happened.
The moment she had opened the door, her face had been filled with terror.
As he stared into the fire, a small smile curled his lips.
“You’ve developed a sensitivity to the smell of… blood. Next time, I’ll have to change my clothes.”
He soon picked up the robe laid out on the bed and pulled it over his body.
A moment later.
When he reopened the closed door to his quarters and stepped out, the elegant nobleman’s mask was once again upon his face.
“You must be busy.”
Delphine said, cutting off the tiniest bit of the duck steak on the plate in front of her.
“There’s no need for you to bother trying to get home in time for dinner.”
“I’m not sure what you mean, My Lady.”
Then Pride, gracefully sipping the blood-red wine, replied smoothly.
“Now that I’ve taken the sacred betrothal, I’m sure the king will understand.”
Delphine secretly rolled her eyes in displeasure as he concentrated on his steak.
‘You’re sounding a little too common sense.’
He wasn’t wrong.
But at least it wasn’t coming from the man who had cut her father’s throat and married her daughter.
The clinking of cutlery echoed briefly in the dining room where they sat.
Of course, even then, it was barely audible.
Delphine studied the man surreptitiously, not paying attention to the steak she’d sliced into fingernail-thin slices.
The way he sat, back straight, knife in hand. The angle at which he tilted his wine glass and his demeanour.
Everything about his table manners was impeccable.
Suddenly, Delphine’s mind flashed back to the slave boy who had lived in the mansion.
Ioan was a very beautiful boy.
Though he came from humble beginnings and always wore old, ill-fitting clothing, it was not a flaw.
‘If he had a prince, he would look like this.’
Delphine was a little girl, still living in a world of fairy tales.
She had once thought so, looking at his flawlessly white face and his flowing blond hair.
Once.
“Try this. You’ve only ever had black bread, right? It’s delicious…”
One day, she handed the boy some white bread she had stolen secretly.
At the time, she was more clueless than most people her age.
Because of her father’s eccentricities, she had grown up hearing little news from outside the manor before Debutante.
So it’s hard to imagine how she could have managed her expression when she saw the boy gobbling up the bread she offered her and munching on it with his dirty hands.
And the look on his face when he spotted her, unable to hide her bewilderment and slight disgust…
“Lady…?”
Delphine was jolted out of her reverie by the sudden sound of a low, bass voice.
Before her sat a man with all the features of that beautiful boy.
He was dressed in a luxurious silk indoor shirt and elegantly held a wine glass in his hand.
“Does the food not suit your taste?”
Delphine smiled brightly, hastily, as if she didn’t want to give away her thoughts. As if it was all right.
The man smiles back, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
Tucking a fingernail-sized piece of steak into her mouth, Delphine asked in a passing tone.
“Has Lord Pride, by any chance, ever been to District 3?”
The Astrax Empire is divided into three districts: District 1, home to the imperial family and central nobility.
District 2, the commercial centers.
And district 3, the factory districts, where the laborers and commoners lived together.
It was in District 3 that Ioannes had been sold by his mother.
‘I don’t know what to say.’
Delphine studied the man with a furtive glance.
Most nobles never set foot in the District 3.
Delphine had heard stories of soot and polluted rivers, but she had never been near the area.
“Of course. I’ve been there a lot lately.”
But the answer came as a surprise.
Delphine stared at the man, a little surprised that he had admitted so readily.
Then he smirked.
“Oh, My Lady. You should at least know what your husband is doing, shouldn’t you?”
For a moment, Delphine forgot her resolve to remain cool, and something stirred inside her.
Where did this come from?
Hadn’t he suddenly appeared in my life as if he had fallen from the sky?
‘It’s not…’
But the anger was short-lived. Confusion soon overtook Delphine.
Common sense dictated that no man would fall from the sky.
Was she really as oblivious to the man’s existence as everyone said?
That a shining hero had suddenly appeared in the Empire a year ago?
Delphine still couldn’t convince herself that the events of three days ago hadn’t left her demented.
Her lips parted, and she spoke, her tone thick with hesitation.
“Is that…”
