Episode 26
“Uh, I… but.”
I couldn’t get my words out.
“If you’ve worn it, toss it. Don’t say anything about washing it and giving it back.”
Before I could even say anything, he had already built an iron wall with his words.
“I never even considered it!”
I said something out of the blue.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“What?”
…I think you should cover up a little bit, too.
I couldn’t say it right away, so I paused.
I couldn’t get his huge chest and the peaks on both sides out of my mind.
‘What’s so hot about it?’
It looks like a man’s chest!
At times, I thought it was strange that I could see a small part of his chest between his shirt collar.
But this was the first time I had ever seen him without any clothes on.
Oh, my.
I came back to myself a little when I heard a cat cry.
“Noir, Noir.”
Noir came up to me and rubbed his head against the dress, as if he heard me.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
It looked like Noir was also surprised by what was going on right now.
“There’s no more snake. I’m okay.”
While trying to calm Noir down, there was a sudden noise from behind.
“Your Grace, are you all right? I heard something earlier.”
The maids seemed to have come running over after hearing me scream.
Then, when they saw his upper body, they all stopped in their tracks.
“Ah…”
Then they looked at me, who was standing in front of them.
When they looked at me, covered in a big shirt like a blanket, they looked confused.
Their attention was on me, because I was wearing the shirt, on Amoide, because he was holding the shirt, and on us, because we were holding on to each other.
I quickly tucked in the torn ends of my dress when I saw them sticking out from under my shirt.
‘Why this time of all times!’
I’m stuck in this situation.
I wrapped the shirt around me like it was armor, and only then could I breathe a little easier.
But the way they looked at me was strange.
They looked at each other for a moment and even seemed to talk.
From far away, I couldn’t hear them very well, but it seemed like they were having a pretty serious talk.
“We’re sorry, but we didn’t know…”
The workers said they were sorry and then left one by one.
“Why are they acting like that?”
I tilted my head when the workers did something out of the blue.
Then, one of them mumbled something that helped me figure out what was going on.
“We didn’t know that you were having a good time.”
“…”
I couldn’t think of anything to say and just stared up.
When I looked at him, he looked down at me. When he looked at the snake before, his eyes were warm and soft. Now, they were cold and hard.
He suddenly let go of the hand that was holding my shirt up after he had put it on.
“No.”
Someone, somewhere, could be heard gritting their teeth.
“I said no.”
As he said it again and again, my pride started to get a little hurt.
‘Why does he have to take it so seriously?’
His face was as red as a tomato. Isn’t it usually my job to lie and hide when this happens?
It’s unfair, unfair! I didn’t say no first when I could have.
“We’re sorry, really sorry.”
The maids kept saying they were sorry. People could also be heard awkwardly clearing their throats.
“Ignore us and keep doing what you were doing.”
“No,.”
His voice was harsh.
Then they stopped running away and looked him straight in the eyes.
“Clean that.”
“Yes?”
Amoide pointed to a place in the trees, but the staff didn’t understand what he meant.
“Understood.”
When he moved his hand, the servants nodded and ran away.
Soon after, they found the snake’s long dead body and screamed at the same time.
The workers brought bags and tools to get the dead snake, which was quickly bagged.
I didn’t understand that everything was over until I saw the workers move the bag.
Amoide turned away from the workers who were circling the snake and looked at me.
“Let’s go back right now.”
“…”
My feet felt like they were stuck to the ground for some reason.
I looked up at him and gripped the open shirt in front of me very tightly.
“Why did you do that?”
Thump.
I fell as soon as he touched my shoulder.
It wasn’t the dirt floor of the yard, thank goodness. Because of the strong arm around my waist.
“Are you okay?”
He asked again with a gesture when I just looked at him and didn’t answer.
“…What is that?”
“What do you mean by ‘what’? I want to know if you’re going to pass out again.”
“Why should I faint…”
“You passed out a short while ago.”
“It was you who passed out…”
I stopped talking in the middle of my rebuttal because I had a thought.
Since he was always the one who passed out, I couldn’t remember when I did.
“…How did you know?”
“I heard that you were sick the last time you passed out in front of my room.”
His face got a little bit darker. Then he looked at my hand, which was wrapped. I could guess what he was thinking by watching where he looked.
‘Ah, so.’
He must think I owe him something.
‘Such as this hand.’
Amoide is very proud of himself. If you treat him like a patient just because he is weak, you will upset him, so be careful.
The day before our first night together, Camilla told me this.
She said that he is very proud of himself and hates being dependent on or in debt to someone else.
In any case, I passed out while taking care of him.
Of course, this hid the uncomfortable truth that my physical limits had become clear because I hadn’t been eating or sleeping well because of the quick return of memories from my past lives.
“Your face is pale.”
I bowed my head in silence after I looked into his fierce eyes.
It wasn’t a show. Now that everything was over, I couldn’t move at all because my legs were too weak.
I was covered in cold perspiration, and my breathing was ragged.
“I’m fine.”
I tried to stand up by putting my weight on his arm. But my legs were shaking, and I stumbled.
Thump.
My body was quickly caught, and I rose back into the air.
“Huh…?”
It wasn’t an accident. I was in his arms, and the backs of my knees and shoulders were firmly held by his hands.
No, I was too close to his chest.
I just blinked in surprise, and he softly looked down at me.
“I’m okay, put me down. If you call in a maid to help me, I’ll….”
I looked around quickly. I always send the staff away when I go for a walk, so Rona and the other maids weren’t around.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
I heard a low voice, and my arms and legs stopped shaking at once.
Every time I breathed out, his hair moved a little.
“I’m just repaying a debt.”
For a moment, I almost thought I had made a huge mistake because of the eyes that looked like they were really worried about me.
‘But that can’t happen.’
He just didn’t like being in debt to me and wanted to do anything to get his hurt pride back.
‘He’s trying to make up for the time I passed out.’
I squeezed my hand gently.
* * *
“Oh my! What’s going on!”
Rona’s mouth fell open when she saw me coming back in his arms.
After dinner, I went for a walk and when I got back, my dress looked like a rag.
And especially with Amoide.
To be sure, with “Amoide,” who had taken off his shirt without much thought.
“That’s how things went.”
Feeling embarrassed, I removed my gaze.
Rona looked back and forth between me and Amoide, who was half-naked and had her mouth covered. I must have been wrong when I thought she looked at him more than me.
Amoide put me gently on the sofa, and it looked like he didn’t notice that Rona was looking at him.
“Oh no, is this the master’s…?”
When Rona saw the shirt over me, she said, “Oh my, oh my.”
Then she looked under the shirt and saw the torn dress. Her eyes got big.
I quietly put up my hand when I saw that her eyes were full of questions.
“…It’s a long story.”
Not only was it long, but it was also hard to understand.
Rona didn’t look at me, she looked at Amoide. I could feel Amoide look around the room quickly.
“You’ve never been in the ladies’ room before.”
Rona’s voice sounded very excited for no reason.
“Would you like to have a cup of tea?”
It looked like Rona’s eyes were full of light.
“Rona, it doesn’t look like this is the time for that.”
I stepped in right away.
“Rona, I’m worn out.”
I messed up. My hair was a mess, my clothes were torn, and I was physically and mentally hurt because I was sweating so much from worry.
“Would you first like to take a bath?”
I nodded weakly.
“I’ll prepare it quickly.”
Rona ran out of the room quickly after grabbing the arm of another maid.
The maid’s arm was grabbed, and she was taken out of the room with a confused look on her face. After a while, the door shut, and the room went quiet.
“…”
It was so quiet in the room that one could hear a pin drop.
We were the only ones left, so it was hard for me to swallow.
Had we ever been alone in the room when it wasn’t our day to share a room?
Even more so with him, who was dressed so skimpily.
What to do? What can I say to make this seem like a normal thing?
I tried to think of something, but I couldn’t. Amoide, who had been watching me, spoke up.
“I’ll go now. You need to sleep.”
“Uh…”
He pushed past me and quickly opened the door. Rona and the maid who were standing outside were shocked and jumped back.
Rona came into the room quickly after seeing Amoide off as he left.
