Chapter 12
To cut to the chase, the emperor indeed fell asleep.
The person who had been disturbingly breathing was moved to the bed, and even amidst the bustling of the physicians, he remained undisturbed. The physician, staring at the emperor who showed no signs of waking even after several hours, began to tear his hair out in desperation.
“This, this… This cannot be!”
Chloe handed the physician the sleeping pills and painkillers the emperor had taken, denying the reality, insisting that it couldn’t be so, staking her grandfather’s honor on it.
Despite the complex expressions of the others as they watched Chloe detailing the herbs and their ratios, she ignored them.
“It seems like he experienced hallucinations or auditory hallucinations. He seemed fine until he suddenly changed after taking a puff of smoke…”
Chloe couldn’t imagine how Gideon, who was wrapped from head to toe in a thick blanket, holding her in his arms, appeared.
Every time her slightly torn lips bloomed, drawing attention, Gideon lifted the blanket to her lips.
When she looked at him as if asking why, Gideon instinctively turned his head, avoiding her gaze. He addressed the others in the room.
“It might be better to discuss this in detail tomorrow since His Majesty shows no signs of waking up.”
Since the physician had to stay by the emperor’s side until he woke up, essentially not intending to leave the messy room, Hayden and Leartis were left behind to report to His Majesty tomorrow.
“I’ll give you a guest room to stay in. You can stay there and report to His Majesty tomorrow.”
Leartis glanced at Hayden, who was leaning against the wall crookedly, then quickly excused himself, thinking it wasn’t his place to intervene. The room fell silent, and then Hayden finally spoke, his mouth dry from hesitation.
“First off, brother, that woman… Let her go.”
The term “sister-in-law” he spat out sounded like the name of a sworn enemy. Hayden added as he chewed on it.
“She needs to rest too. Leave it to the maids and talk to me.”
“Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
Hayden exploded at the response.
“Are you insane, brother?!”
Gideon, who had seen his brother lose his mind because of that woman more than once, wanted nothing more than to extract and cleanse his brother’s brain every time it happened.
“We should discuss what you’re going to do now. Tomorrow?! You might be dragged to the underground prison of the palace by dawn!”
Whether Hayden was angry or not, Gideon, holding the woman in his arms carefully, stood up.
Even if she was like a witch, he had to promise himself not to raise his voice to someone who had been through a tough ordeal.
“Brother, you attacked His Majesty because of that woman. Got it? Whether His Majesty remembers or not, that fact won’t change! Besides, the medicine she made is suspicious from the start. Her background is a goddamn…”
“Hayden!”
A low call interrupted Hayden’s words. His usual polite demeanor seemed to have vanished, leaving behind a chilling gaze that made it feel like blood was being drained.
“Brother, I…”
Even though Hayden’s voice was tinged with injustice, Gideon didn’t even blink. Instead, he glanced at Hayden with a chilly gaze before striding out of the room.
“….”
Chloe’s face, faintly displaying confusion, had a more vulnerable and desolate aspect than usual, leaving Hayden unable to shout further. Gideon left without even glancing at him.
“Ha….”
Left behind, Hayden nervously ran his hands through his hair. He really disliked that woman named Marie Edant. Not because she was a bad person, but because she could instantly shatter Gideon Edant’s rationality.
Whenever that woman was involved, his brother lost his mind.
Like when he drew his sword without hesitation toward Gideon, who once said she should be killed.
***
“Let me down, Gideon.”
Arriving at the bedroom on the third floor, Gideon laid her down on the bed. Chloe pulled down the blanket wrapped around her body. She didn’t usually feel the cold. The thick blanket on an autumn day only felt suffocating.
Gideon wondered why he was holding her with a blanket. To show others? Or because he genuinely thought she was in shock?
…But why did he attack Luke?
“Is your wrist okay?”
“I’ve had worse injuries than this. Gideon.”
She replied, touching the brace on her left wrist. She had fallen from the third floor while fighting an assassin and had broken her leg before. A month of rest should suffice for this.
Chloe believed in the resilience of the Langsher family.
“I’m fine. You seem worse off than I am, Gideon.”
Gently trying to pry his arm away as if not to press, she pulled him toward the bed. But Gideon stood still, keeping his mouth shut, not moving onto the bed.
“Don’t we need to talk?”
Beyond simple conversation with hands, when a long conversation as ‘Chloe Langsher’ was necessary, they usually sat facing each other on the bed. Lowering the thick canopy on the bed prevented most sounds from leaking out, making it a perfect private space where no one would come.
“Wouldn’t it be better to rest today, my lady?”
“No. I feel like I really need my husband’s embrace right now.”
It was an unrealistic statement, but Gideon, who was looking down at her, chuckled and climbed onto the bed. Chloe lowered both layers of canopy. The inside of the bed became dark.
“….”
Still, Gideon remained silent, and Chloe, looking at his face buried in partial darkness, chose her words carefully.
Suddenly, she felt a sense of familiarity in his half-buried face. Gideon and Hayden were not considered handsome men, but rather men who suited the description of a beauty rather than a handsome man.
If they smiled brightly, they would be more… captivating.
“….My lady?”
At Gideon’s call, Chloe snapped out of her reverie. It wasn’t important right now. She brushed off the inexplicable sense of foreboding.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
“Is there something you want to hear?”
His character of not talking about himself to death remained unchanged. However, Chloe wasn’t going to let it go this time.
“Today, His Majesty tried to subdue me after consuming the sleeping pills and painkillers I made. It seems he mistook me for an assassin…”
“It didn’t seem that way superficially.”
“After breaking my wrist and gagging me, he was about to break my shoulder. What other target, besides an assassin, needs to be neutralized and prevented from suicide?”
Chloe genuinely thought so. Luke, in his ignorance, didn’t even realize she was the one he was attacking, and if Gideon hadn’t been there, he would have crushed her shoulder bone. Moreover, at that moment, Luke was so terrified that…
She couldn’t even rebel because she was trembling with fear that if she didn’t suppress him, it would be the end of the world.
“Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with the medicine I made. There are no hallucinogenic effects, and even if combined with other drugs, the only side effect is a bit of nausea. I handed the medicine to the physician, so he can confirm it quickly.”
“I don’t suspect you, madam.”
“You should.”
Chloe’s voice lowered.
“Gideon Edant. You should suspect. You know I’m not really weak, and that I’m a person who could hold a grudge against His Majesty.”
“….”
“Why were you angry with His Majesty?”
It ended up being an interrogation. Chloe was curious about Gideon’s expression hidden in the darkness.
“Did His Majesty really seem to you like he was going to harm me?”
There was silence for quite a while. Gideon seemed to have no intention of answering anything, which was enough to trigger her accumulated frustration.
“You know my skills! You taught me everything from wielding a sword to throwing a punch. Even if I couldn’t win, you knew I could at least escape from that situation!”
In just three years, she had changed so much that even those who knew Chloe Langsher would not doubt that she was the same person as ‘Marie Edant’, despite her similar facial features. Muscles developed faster than others, even with the same amount of muscle, the level of strength she could produce surpassed others’, and she naturally learned several movements derived from a single action you taught, without even having to teach them.
Moreover, even though she hadn’t touched a sword for just three years, her body seemed to complete the most ideal physique on its own, as if it were aiming for it, and her growth rate was so terrifying that it was not an exaggeration to think that she could dare to predict that there would be no enemies within the empire if she stayed like this for just ten years.
So now, looking back, it’s really strange. The illegitimate daughter of the noble family, the successor of the knight family with only one direct heir, didn’t even hold a sword in her hand.
Even if you had only wielded a sword once, you would have known how great a knight Chloe Langsher would have been.
“You knew I was still acting, and yet you were angry with Luke, even though you knew I wasn’t in danger. Why? Do you really love me so much, as other humans say?”
The rumor that Gideon Edant was an insufferable caring lover was intentionally spread. It was not true, just for convenience.
But why…?
“Do you really love me?”
