Chapter 10
For her, who had prepared neither an umbrella nor a carriage, it had begun with a kindness from a restaurant employee she often saw. The night she had shared an umbrella with him all the way back to the mansion was… so dreadful that every night she had spent with Killian until then felt like nothing but a joke.
The café closed a week later, and news followed that the employee had hurriedly left the island.
—Was it… Your Highness’s doing?
She had asked after writhing in guilt and finally mustering her courage. She could not forget the calm answer that returned to her.
—Nothing that happens around you is ever not by my will.
Now, she was too afraid of him to be honest.
Whether he would believe her or not came second; she had to prevent another innocent person from being sacrificed.
She did not know how he knew the name William, but if he had learned the truth, he was a man who would have shown it through action rather than asking like this.
The fact that he was asking meant he surely did not know. It was probably the name of someone in society. In any case, once she had gathered the money, she would reveal everything. So for the time being, she would keep it a secret.
Having made up her mind, Rowina slowly lifted her head. Then she barely managed to raise the corners of her lips.
“I was just thinking for a moment. Now that I think about it… I don’t know that name. It’s common, so I wondered if perhaps I did.”
“……”
“What would I ever hide from Your Grace?”
She struggled desperately to seem composed, but the end of her words trembled. As if he had noticed that quiver, Killian looked at her without expression.
At his eyes, cold as ice and devoid of anger, joy, or sorrow, Rowina swallowed dryly. A strange silence continued. An unknowable, heavy air pressed down on her shoulders.
As Rowina’s hands trembled, someone approached their table.
“Is there anything else you require, Your Highness?”
It was the well-dressed manager. As the air that had been binding her loosened, she finally felt as though she could breathe. Rowina smiled faintly and turned her head to answer in his stead.
“No. Thank you.”
That was the last thing she said.
After the manager bowed and withdrew, the servers continued to bring out the next courses.
Even while the final dessert was served, he said nothing.
The uncomfortable atmosphere made her feel as if she would choke, but Rowina tried her utmost to focus on the meal.
* * *
By the time the two, who had gone out in an intimate mood, returned to the townhouse, about an hour had passed.
Bianca, who greeted them, acted quickly upon sensing the unusual atmosphere. She immediately prepared bathwater so as not to offend Killian’s temper and sent the maids guarding the townhouse home early as well.
Only Melissa, Rowina’s maid, remained to attend to her mistress’s bath.
“My lady. Are you feeling unwell?”
As she washed Rowina’s back with a soft sponge, Melissa asked cautiously. Her mistress had never been particularly active or bright to begin with, but today she seemed somehow terribly tense, and it pained Melissa to see.
“Ah… no. I just ate too much, so my stomach feels a little heavy.”
Rowina shook her head and hugged her own shoulders. The chill that had followed her even inside the carriage still wrapped coldly around her.
The reason she had kept her mouth shut in the silence that followed was because of an ominous premonition that if she said even one wrong word now, she would regret it.
Surely Killian couldn’t have found out about her plan…
Her heart sank at the thought, but Rowina shook her head.
As she had thought at the restaurant, given his personality, if he had found out about such a plan, he would have acted openly rather than sounding her out like that.
Then there was only one conclusion. She had done something wrong without even realizing it.
Just as she was sinking into that thought and drawing her knees up in the bathtub, the sponge that had been washing her back and arms fell to the floor, and Melissa suddenly sprang to her feet.
“Meli…”
Puzzled, Rowina turned around. The moment she cast her gaze beyond Melissa, who had clasped her hands and bowed politely, her entire body froze. A man leaning crookedly against the wall was looking down at her.
“Y-Your Highness…!”
The water sloshed. Startled, Rowina covered her chest and retreated. Though, being inside the bathtub, that was all she could do.
Watching her with an unreadable gaze, Killian instructed Melissa.
“Leave us.”
“But…”
Melissa glanced sideways at Rowina, who was trembling, her face deathly pale. At her hesitation, Killian narrowed his brow. He was not a man who overlooked disobedience from those who served him. Rowina urgently called Melissa.
“Me-Melissa…”
“My lady…”
“Go out. I’ll be all right.”
“…
Yes.”
With no other choice, Melissa nodded and left the bathroom, and the faint smile on Rowina’s face fell away helplessly.
Killian strode over, sat down on a stool, and reached out. With a familiar touch, as though stroking a dog, he touched beneath Rowina’s chin and lifted her bloodless face.
“Y-Your Highness.”
Rowina shuddered.
In the light of the lamps burning here and there, his distinct features were visible. The moment his blue eyes, clear as a glacier, were tinged red, Rowina thought of the demon said to guard the inextinguishable flames of hell. Beautiful and cruel enough to send chills down one’s spine.
“What did I… what did I do wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Killian answered dryly and lowered his gaze. Following where his eyes went, Rowina’s face flushed scarlet. She curled in on herself instinctively, but a low command struck down over her head.
“Move your hands.”
After a span of time that felt like an eternity, Killian looked down at her, ruined and disheveled, straightened his clothes, and rose without lingering. Rowina caught hold of him as he was about to turn and leave.
“Kil, Killian.”
He, who had been about to ignore her and leave, stopped. It had been a long time since she had called his name.
Staring at his back as he stood there without answering, Rowina braced her hands against the floor to support her body, which was about to collapse. The words that filled her head rose all the way to her throat.
Do you love me? Do you… love me at all… even a little?
But she was afraid to hear the answer. Until now, she had believed that he loved her, but that belief had begun to shake little by little.
Even tonight, had he not transformed from an incomparably sweet lover into a merciless and cruel master?
“Have you…”
“……”
“Have you not… grown tired of me…?”
You’re not… going to abandon me, are you?
The end of her words trembled with fear and sorrow. Killian shook off her hand and turned around.
“Who knows.”
“Y-Your Highness.”
Rowina, gone deathly pale, pushed herself up against the wall.
Everything had begun to go awry from the conversation in that restaurant. He must have misunderstood something.
“Your Highness. The truth is…”
I should tell him the truth. If I confess that I love him first and then explain honestly, perhaps the things I’m worried about won’t happen. Swallowing dryly, Rowina was just about to move her lips with courage when Killian strode toward the door and turned the doorknob.
“Live quietly for a while. Don’t make me sick of you.”
They were the words he had said not long ago, the day before he abandoned her.
* * *
“Aaaaaaagh!”
A scream sharp enough to tear the ears rang through the old warehouse.
Sitting on a torn sofa, Killian quietly watched the bound man. Wherever his initial spirit had gone, the man was gradually falling apart. From the moment Killian’s subordinate began pulling out the fourth fingernail, he had started screaming for them to just kill him.
“You keep repeating the same thing so tiresomely. Is my order to name the one behind you so difficult?”
Raising a hand to stop the torture, Killian approached the man.
“Or are you more stupid than I thought?”
He reached out and lifted the exhausted man’s chin. His face, drenched in sweat, had grown haggard from repeated torture and sleeplessness.
Tch. Clicking his tongue, Killian withdrew his hand.
“Considering you slipped into my ranks like a rat and tried to nibble away at my information, I wouldn’t think you lacking in either nerve or brains. Isn’t that right?”
The question was directed at the subordinate who had stood behind him the entire time. It was Xenoc, his secretary and right-hand man.
“I have no excuse, Your Highness.”
“I’m not here because I wanted to hear an apology.”
At the chilling voice, the attendants surrounding them stiffened their backs.
From Xenoc’s position, if he wanted to make excuses, there were plenty he could give. After all, it had happened when he had gone down south with Felix.
But once something had already happened, whatever words he strung together were meaningless. Especially when his master’s eyes were blazing.
“Well, perhaps those southern bastards are clever, too. To think they calculated one step ahead that I would make a move myself.”
After a cold silence, Killian spat the assessment out as though chewing it and extended a hand over his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Xenoc handed him the pistol from inside his coat. As Killian released the safety, the man began shouting at the top of his lungs as if he had been waiting for it.
“Even if you kill me! You won’t get anything! Go on, kill me!”
An attendant who had sensed the moment approached and offered a handkerchief. Taking it, Killian wiped away the spittle that had splashed onto his cheek and twisted his lips.