Chapter 16
Selene clamped her hands over her mouth, muffling the sound as best she could. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like there was a waterwheel in her stomach.
She feigned composure and stepped outside.
‘Pretend I’m acting for a minute.’
She stepped outside and realized less than 10 minutes later that she was screwed.
…It seems that the original Selene already knew Zart.
Sitting in the return carriage, Selene’s gaze was fixed out the window, but her whole attention was on Barath across from her.
He was staring out the window, his face expressionless and his eyes cold, and she could not guess what was going through his mind.
She thought about the gravity of the crime of impersonating an archduchess.
The empire in the novel felt a lot like a medieval state, and she knew that Barath had paid a lot of money for his wife.
Besides, Selene was a lady, even if she had been raised as an illegitimate child, and her name had been on the noble family rolls before her marriage.
But what if, without anyone’s knowledge, she had suddenly changed into some unknown woman?
And if it was so soon after her wedding, when she was publicly crowned as a Grand Duchess, it was not strange to think that she had been deliberately approached as part of some grand conspiracy.
Would she be tortured mercilessly to confess how she had penetrated the depths of her inner self? Perhaps she would be given a drug that would make her tell the truth she had heard before, and then her head would fall off.
She glanced at Barath to gauge his mood. A hundred times better to ask him outright who you are. It was scarier that he didn’t seem any different than usual, even though he was clearly suspicious.
Then she remembered how she hadn’t even recognized her old lover’s face, and the fact that he had deliberately brought him before her suggests that she had suspected something was amiss even before then.
Why is it so hard to keep a marriage going smoothly, sharing the simple things in life?
She thought they were at least one step closer, but she guessed she wasn’t.
Anyway.
They had been told that if they were caught in the tiger’s den, they would live to fight another day.
Both Barath and Zart were knights of great experience. A wall of logs would not prevent them from reading the signs of those beyond.
Still, they came out so nonchalantly that she thought they hadn’t heard any of the conversation outside, but perhaps she was just pretending to be nonchalant.
Selene has been twiddling her thumbs since they got into the carriage, watching her every move.
‘I thought witches were all bold, but I guess not.’
Barath thought of a witch he knew. Looking at her, it was as if the word grandiose had been invented just for her.
So he thought all witches were like that. Always confident, always arrogant, always looking the world in the eye, he thought it was the default.
Barath chose to pretend he didn’t know Selene was a witch. He had no choice. If she should ever decide to leave the Great Duchy, it would be worse than that.
Now that he knew she was a witch, it would be virtually impossible to lure her away and then trap her forever.
The whole premise of the plan was based on her failure to escape. If there was even the slightest chance of success, it would have to be scrapped.
There was too little information about the witch. There was no telling what spells and incantations she might use to blindside him.
If she were to slip out of her body at a moment’s notice, there was no way to find her.
His eyes flashed to Selene, who had rolled her eyes after him that first night.
The first time their eyes met, when she grabbed his arm with her tiny hand, when she shyly thanked him… So many images flashed through his head that already felt like memories.
She was beautiful from the first time he saw her, but what if ‘she’ disappeared?
He knew that he would never see her again, the way she looked at him and the shy gestures she sometimes made.
He had to do something.
He had to keep her soul bound to him at all costs.
Of course, Barath was not without his doubts. He had come to Selene’s body for a purpose. To help her ‘properly’ achieve what she wanted.
Crying for two or three days doesn’t seem to be enough to get him away, so that’s a good thing.
As Selene watched impatiently, a brilliant idea flashed across her mind.
If she could just convince Barath that his wife’s soul hadn’t changed, and that she didn’t need to find the real Selene, she could get through this unscathed.
Make him believe she was the ‘real Selene’ and the problem solved.
In the old world, there was a magical solution that was used everywhere.
Amnesia.
She had no idea when she’d been suspected, so she could safely say she had no memory of the first night.
When she relayed this to Barath, she wondered what his reaction would be.
Selene ran a question-and-answer simulation in her head, coming up with questions he might ask and coming up with reasonable excuses for them.
She racked her brain for a while, and only when she had thoroughly prepared answers to every question she could think of did she calm down.
Her preparation was perfect, and she was confident that she would never be caught.
Barath continued to watch her, and when she fell silent, he glanced over at her.
She seemed to be pondering something. Perhaps she felt she had been discovered, and he was beginning to wonder what the little witch would say to hide her identity.
As Selene stared out the window, the fearless woman from the night before was suddenly superimposed on the side of her face. She was drinking whiskey from a straight glass with reckless abandon.
Selene, the witch, was a good drinker. Her wrist movements were quite natural.
The thought twitched in his tail, and he remembered the flushed face that had watched his drinking with concern, carefully restrained.
No one worries about Barath Velias. Not even his allies on the battlefield.
‘But he was worried about me drinking.’
She doesn’t get drunk just because she drinks quickly. A few bottles of whisky would do the trick. Of course, she didn’t realize it, but the things she did without realizing it seemed extraordinary.
The things she does that she could dismiss as just not knowing what she’s doing, become special and meaningful to her.
Barath’s eyebrows rose slightly as he looked at Selene. Her expression relaxed as she stared out the window. Had she thought of a plausible way to avoid being recognized?
After a moment, Selene tore her eyes away from the window and asked, puzzled.
“Doesn’t it seem like we’re going the wrong way home?”
Barath answered without looking out the window. He didn’t want to give away her matching glance.
“It’s a different path for horses and carriages. It’s a bit of a detour, but it won’t take long.”
She nodded in understanding, then asked something else.
“Are you hungry?”
For a moment, Barath’s brows narrowed. It wasn’t even a question, but he was speechless.
When his expression took on a peculiarly puzzled look, Selene hastened to add.
“You didn’t seem to have breakfast earlier. I just… I was wondering if you were hungry.”
Barath looked her up and down, then lowered his gaze.
“We have a little further to go before we reach the city.”
As he finished, he handed her the basket. It was a basket of treats that Zart had prepared.
Selene’s eyes widened as she took the basket with open arms and corrected the subject of her question.
“You, not me.”
Barath swallowed hard. Never in his life would a woman ask him if he was hungry.
He leaned back, crossed his arms, and answered briefly.
“I’m fine.”
Her eyes widened at the short answer, and she muttered softly.
“Oh, yeah…”
Selene looked at the basket of snacks in her arms and sighed. She struggled to move once she realized she’d missed the right time to put it down.
Barath was still staring at her like he was going to eat her. If she ate a cookie under that gaze, she’d collapse in a heap.
Somehow, she had to bring up the subject of memory loss in casual conversation, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it with that icy stare.
She thought they’d bonded last night, but she was mistaken. They ate and drank together.
Maybe they should have another drink together, pretend to be drunk, and talk about memory loss like they are sharing a secret story.
As she pondered these thoughts, she felt the carriage slow down considerably.
Selene looked up, and buildings passed alongside the carriage. It seemed to be the town Barath had spoken of earlier.
The houses were made of pretty stone and had small signs on them.
Her frown, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of it, quickly changed as they entered the town centre.
The change in her expression struck Barath as odd.
The wide-open eyes and slightly parted lips must have reflected how she felt right now. It was too much.
The city of Velias was nothing special. Its size and buildings were the same as any other in the realm.
Yet her eyes twinkled as if she had discovered a village of fairies. It was as if she had never seen an inhabited town before.
He remembered once, gazing in fascination at the barren courtyard and walls. As she searched his memory, everything felt awkward.
She hadn’t been able to walk well on two feet, that’s all. At the time, she’d chalked it up to the fact that her clothes were longer and heavier, but now it made sense. It wasn’t her own body, so she could only walk clumsily.
If she was a witch living alone, this might be her first time seeing the city.
“There.”
The sound of her voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he turned to look at her as always.
Selene was eager to walk within the city limits; if it was close enough, she could come out with Anna later, but she knew nothing of the geography of this place.
Once they entered the castle, it was hard to know when they would ever find themselves in this part of town again.
“Hey.”
She called to him, half impulsively, tearing her eyes away from the window.
His eyes were certainly his usual, but somehow they felt sharper. Her stomach burned, as if those eyes were saying ‘fake’ to her.
She was about to say that she’d like to take a walk, but when she realized she was going to be rejected, something else came out of her mouth.
“I’m hungry.”
