Harty Slanford blinked rapidly, unable to understand what this woman was saying. But soon he grasped the situation and opened his mouth.
“How dare you humiliate me, not just once but multiple times already!”
Filled with anger, Harty ruffled his hair with both hands and lunged at Britia while gritting his teeth. However, Britia swiftly dodged to the side, causing Harty to fall flat on the ground.
“…You avoided it?”
Trembling and in shock, Harty quickly turned around with a bewildered expression. His attitude seemed as if he blamed Britia for something even though it was herself who had attacked first.
Why should she stay still? Even if they were on an flowing river where avoiding attacks would be difficult, Harty’s movements on land were too sluggish.
“You! Ah…”
Holding his painful knee that hit the ground, Harty let out a groan. Moreover, his head hurt as well. It felt like his lips were torn inside because there was also a taste of blood.
“I won’t forgive you, Britia Lockhart.”
Crying out in pain while looking resentfully at her, Britia tried raising pitiful Harty up. Somehow seeing such a desperate appearance made Britia feel a tiny bit of sympathy towards him.
“I don’t need your help!”
So she reached out her hand to him but Harty swatted it away forcefully. After letting go of it like that though, his own hand felt even more numb and agonizing.
Harty Slanford had a fragile body like glass.
“Why do you look at me with so much resentment? I only avoided.”
“You avoided it!”
“Because Marquis is attacking.”
Lately, perhaps because Britia kept seeing Sig, he appeared small and frail enough to resemble a young boy. Not an adult man.
He tried to get up from his seat but stumbled and plopped back down.
“You made me look like this? I will never forgive you for it.”
It felt strange to Britia that the situation could make someone think they had done something wrong. Moreover, this wasn’t even his room. If someone were to come in and misunderstand, it would undoubtedly be troublesome.
“Please get up.”
Anticipating another refusal, Britia simply grabbed his arm and lifted him, seating him on the wooden chair.
“To make me sit on such a hard chair…”
“Well then, should I have you sit on my bed? I don’t want that.”
When Britia shook her head, he opened his eyes wide. His tail struck the desk leg with enough force as if trying to break it. Britia was momentarily startled.
“At least let me sit on the sofa!”
“You said you didn’t need my help or anything like that.”
“If it’s too hard, your bottom will hurt after a while!”
Seeing him act tough like that, Britia reluctantly put her arm around his shoulder. She hesitated cautiously as she thought his tail might attack her again.
After finally moving him onto the sofa with some effort wasted without any sense of accomplishment whatsoever, he lay down horizontally while glaring at Brietia.
“Weren’t you saying earlier that you wanted to go back quickly?”
“And now you’re telling me to leave after making me like this?”
“That’s because the Marquis charged at me.”
It was just a fall, not even a sprained ankle. Why does he have to make such a fuss about it?
Britia was astonished by how oblivious Harty Slanford was of his own fragility.
“But what’s with these clothes? They’re so messy! Put them away!”
He shouted when he saw the clothes hanging on the sofa armrest. Britia felt very uncomfortable seeing him hunching up his arms and shoulders as if he thought they were contagious.
“I couldn’t put them away because Lord Slanford came suddenly.”
When Britia tried to defend herself with her and said that she would have put them away right away, Harty snorted.
“Were you really planning to go out? Dressed in such plain and shabby clothes without any beauty or elegance?”
Even though they were comfortable clothes, hearing those words made Britia feel choked up. They weren’t that bad of clothes.
“Yes, I planned to go see the play with Duke Turas while wearing these plain clothes.”
Harty’s eyebrows twisted at Britia’s response.
“….”
He watched her putting the scattered clothes into the wardrobe for tidying up while wondering what she was thinking.
“No matter how much you interfere, I will definitely go see the play.”
Britia deliberately smiled softly as she spoke to provoke him. The effect was quite immediate. Seeing his face contort slightly brought her some satisfaction.
“Lord Slanford, do you remember this?”
Britia took out an envelope that had been carefully kept in one of the desk drawers. Harty’s body twitched as he glanced at a familiar envelope.
“It’s an invitation card from when you invited me to a tea party. It says 3 o’clock instead of 2 o’clock.”
Harty, who had been tightly pursing his lips, asked if he didn’t remember and snatched the envelope from Britia as she approached him. Then he tore it to shreds above his chest.
“I don’t know?”
Harty successfully pieced together the evidence and smiled with satisfaction. Britia was dumbfounded and laughed nervously as she took out another invitation from the drawer.
“This one is an empty envelope with no contents.”
When Britia showed her side of the invitation with “3 o’clock” written on it, Harty clenched his teeth and made a growling sound.
“So you did it on purpose after all?”
In response to Britia’s inquiry, Harty relaxed his facial expression and looked at her with a kindly smile just like he did to Devon earlier.
“Well… I don’t quite understand what you’re talking about, Britia-nim. You seem to have severe delusions of victimization. It’s not good for you or anyone else, so I recommend having a kinder heart.”
Harty’s gentle smile disguised as kindness was repulsive. When Britia opened her eyes wide and stared at him intently, he let out a smug laugh.
“Britia-nim, please don’t look at me like that with that face. It makes my head ache when I see how ugly you are right now.”
‘How can someone be so despicable and insincere?’
Brita stuck out her tongue and neatly put the invitation back into the drawer.
“Do you say such things after unfairly causing harm to others?”
“Oh, Britia-nim. Since I always see only my beautiful face, I’m immune to such ugliness. So please, I beg you, stop looking at me like that.”
His voice was soft, without any insults. Britia smirked at Harty.
“It seems like you’re attracted to that beautiful face.”
“What?”
Harty’s laughing face quickly hardened as he touched his forehead and opened his mouth wide.
“No!”
He screamed in shock with a deeply shocked expression on his face. Then he covered his face with the clothes of Britia which moments ago he had insulted.
“What are you doing to my clothes?”
“I can’t show an imperfect face to others!”
“But I’ve already seen it! Give me back my clothes!”
As Britia forcefully pulled the clothes off, Harty couldn’t resist and let go of them. Then he covered his own face with both hands. A sobbing sound echoed in the quiet room of Britia.
‘Surely he’s not really crying over just one little bump on his forehead?’
“It’s just a small bump on your forehead.”
“I am a man with a perfect face, that’s what I’m saying.”
“If it’s just a bump, does that mean you’re not perfect?”
“A stone like you wouldn’t understand.”
Britia thought she shouldn’t sympathize with that man after all and took the stolen clothes back to the wardrobe. Although Harty’s sobbing sound was annoying, she ignored it.
She folded and hung up the clothes carefully so that she wouldn’t hear him cry until they were put away inside. But as the sobbing sound grew louder and louder, she couldn’t ignore it anymore. She glanced at him briefly and noticed that his tail which always moved threateningly as if ready to attack her was now weakly flowing down from the sofa onto the floor.
Perhaps due to her mood or maybe because she always felt like her eyesight wasn’t very good, the golden color of his tail which used to be vibrant now seemed quite dull.
“Marquis-nim.”
Even though Harty Slanford was still there, with even his tail lacking energy, Britia wasn’t in a good mood.
“I’ll bring you some ice.”
Seeing him silent, with only a sniffle as a response, Britia sighed. Quietly leaving the room, she returned from the kitchen with ice. Harty slightly parted his fingers covering his face and looked at Britia.
“Here.”
As she extended the pocket containing the ice towards him, he wordlessly placed it on his forehead. Seeing his eyes slightly reddened, it was clear that he was truly upset.
“Don’t be so disheartened. Maybe…it’ll sink soon…”
Trying to comfort him before sinking into despair herself, Britia noticed something on top of her desk that she hadn’t seen before – shredded pieces of paper. It was evident that they had been torn into tiny pieces.
“Marquis-nim…”
When she turned around in disbelief to look at him, Harty’s mouth twitched upward with closed eyes. Britia opened drawers and searched through them; there was definitely no invitation here. The shredded trash confirmed that it had been their invitation all along.
“After I went through all this trouble to bring you ice, did you go through my drawer while I wasn’t here?”
“Britia-nim, are you angry? Your voice is quite scary.”
“Well yes! Because I’m angry!”
“I don’t understand why you’re so angry though. What did I do?”
With a gentle smile forming in his closed eyes and tilting his head slightly, Harty responded.
Why did she leave him alone and go get ice? What could she possibly believe?
Self-blaming and regretful thoughts filled Britia’s mind as she glanced at him sideways. It was all because of that damn tail. Even knowing it belonged to Harty, seeing that tail made her feel so pitiful.
“Did anything go missing from the drawer? I really don’t know. I had a headache and was lying here the whole time.”
Now feeling slightly better, Harty yawned and got up from his seat. His tail, which had been hanging limply, seemed to regain its strength as it slowly rose onto the sofa and swayed back and forth.
Britia’s eyes unconsciously followed his tail, as usual. As his tail slowly moved up, her eyes also slightly shifted upwards.
With a bang, his tail suddenly hit the low table in front of the sofa. Britia was startled and swallowed her breath. She almost exclaimed why he did that out of nowhere but managed to hold back. She almost gave him a reason to treat her like a crazy person.
“Britia Lockhart.”
Harty narrowed his eyes and called her.
“Do you see?”
Britia was momentarily surprised, thinking he asked if she saw his tail. But that wouldn’t make sense because he couldn’t see it.
“You can see it?”
“What… Do you mean?”
But if it wasn’t about his tail, then what could it be? Unconsciously again, her gaze drifted away as she stared at a space. Was he suspecting that she saw dead souls when there was nothing there?
“I don’t understand what you’re suddenly talking about.”
As Britia spoke, Harty lifted his chin and glared at her.
“I thought your reaction seemed strange.”
“Marquis-nim, as I’ve mentioned before, I cannot see anything like dead souls.”
“I’m not talking about seeing something like dead souls.”
With determination, Harty raised his head and placed his own tail on top of his knee.
“You can see my tail.”
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