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Chapter 63
Maxim, who opened his eyes, looked at Rose without letting go of her wrist. His breathing was rough as if he had not yet escaped from the painful moment in his dream.
“I was trying to wake you up. It hurts, so let me go.”
Rose looked up at him with eyes mixed with pain and fear. Maxim understood the situation and moved his hand away from her.
“What the hell did you dream about so badly…?”
Rose rubbed her wrist tightly pressed and looked at him resentfully. Maxim took a deep breath and swept his face with both hands and stood up.
“Lie on the bed and sleep. I will be here.” Rose said. She seemed to have been the only one sleeping comfortably, so she felt sorry inside.
“It’s fine.”
Maxim put on an almost dry top and walked to the window. He looked outside and seemed to be gauging how much rain and how much time had passed.
“Umm… maybe… did you have such a dream because of the weather outside?”
Rose didn’t give up and asked again carefully. With his arms folded and his body slanted across the window, he looked at Rose.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“You looked to be in so much pain. Perhaps you have some bad memories–”
“I don’t. Have anything like that.”
She couldn’t say anything more to him, who cut her so adamantly. Although still puzzled, Rose nodded her head as if understanding and picked up the blanket lying on the bed.
“I’ll go down to find water. I’m thirsty.”
As Rose left the room, Maxim put an arm on the window sill and looked outside.
Whenever lightning struck down as if tearing the black sky apart, he felt a pain in his head like it was being split in two. It had always been the same since that day. On a day when thunder and lightning hit and heavy rain poured down.
Rose, who went down because she was thirsty, had left the room for him. If he didn’t have confidence in her, he might be able to lie down more comfortably if she wasn’t around. His appearance earlier looked so troubled and pained that it kept coming to mind.
Terrible nightmares that are constantly repeated. She knew best how hard it was. The scene where her father’s neck was hung in the square and people spat on it while swearing. The cool feeling of being pushed off the tower by Cassiax. She still experienced those things in her dreams before her return. There was nothing more painful than seeing something that actually happened in dreams.
‘Will there be tea leaves?’
She came down with the excuse that she was thirsty, but now she really longed for a cup of warm tea.
At that moment, she saw the damp tea leaves on the living room table. She made a cup of tea by pouring hot water into a cup. Rose wrapped both hands around the cup and went to the sofa near the fireplace, sat down, and hugged her legs. Watching the flames dancing red in the fireplace reminded her of the past.
‘He said it was nothing, but I don’t think so.’
She remembered the words she heard from Jansen, whom she met by chance in the hallway one day. He was carrying headache medicine to Maxim’s study.
“Whenever the weather is this bad, Your Majesty can’t sleep well because of a headache.” At that time, she simply listened and let it pass by.
‘Then, even then…!’
Her memory went back to the day she first met him.
‘Come to think of it, it was weird. Why was Maxim in the chapel on such a night when it was pouring and thunder struck the sky?’
She recalled a faint smell of alcohol at that time. It didn’t look like he was drunk, but he seemed somehow dangerous to be alone with. At the time, she was so afraid that she had only thought of getting out of there quickly, but what was he doing there alone that night?
‘I don’t understand why they hung portraits of their parents in such an inconspicuous place.’ Once there was a doubt, the questions seemed to only grow.
‘Marianne… Not long ago, when I met Marianne, who was the maid, how was it?’ When she asked about Maxim’s childhood story, Rose recalled how Marianne’s words were a bit hazy, and then she had changed the subject.
‘What the hell happened to Maxim…?’ Rose looked at the trembling flames and slowly closed her eyes. It was a cold day, but she liked the feeling of warmth wrapping around her cold cheeks.
“Tee hee hee!”
A sound that sounded like a child’s laughter and like a bird’s singing sound rang in her ears. Rose opened her eyes when she felt the touch of something soft like a feather stroking her face.
A child with freckles on the bridge of her nose opened her eyes in surprise. The child’s eyes, which were close to Rose’s face, were golden-brown like honey collected from a honeycomb. Rose stared blankly into those eyes, thinking that real honey would drop from those sweet, moist eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“I wanted to touch you because you look as pretty as a princess.”
“Me?”
The child nodded.
“You look more like a princess.”
“Really?” The corners of the child’s lips went up to her ears. “The scary man left.”
“What?”
The child pointed out the window with a fern-like tiny hand.
“The horse is outside.”
Rose came to her senses and stood up.
She went out looking for water last night and ended up falling asleep in front of the fireplace. She put the blanket over her shoulders and looked out the window. The sun was shining blue. It rained overnight, and the forest was covered in a thick fog. A large black horse and Maxim were seen in the mist.
‘That’s…!’
The horse he had left in front of the brewery yesterday stood proudly. It was said that it was a famous horse, and it seemed that the horse that had lost its owner had run all the way here in search of him. Maxim was checking the saddle while stroking the horse’s head as if he was proud of him. Perhaps, he felt Rose’s gaze, so he turned his head in her direction.
‘Ah!’
Rose instinctively avoided his gaze and hurriedly went upstairs. As the horse had arrived, they must return to the mansion as soon as possible before it gets brighter. The dress she took off yesterday was fortunately moderately dry. The bed was as it was when she came down.
‘Then you woke up at night and haven’t slept a wink until now?’
When Rosé went down to the first floor again, Maxim was throwing firewood into the fireplace just before it went out.
“You got up early.” After shaking the ashes off his hands, he looked back at Rosé and said briefly. “Let’s go back now.”
The two left the house as if nothing had happened last night. Maxim put Rose on the horse and climbed up behind her.
The family watched the two of them leave in a hurry. The woman and the boy still looked nervous, but only the girl waved cutely to them.
Thus, the two escaped the forest at high speeds. As the horse ran, his warmth reached the back of her neck. Maxim’s horse was so big and fast that he was afraid that even Rose, who could ride quite well, would fall off. She would normally be concerned even with his fingers touching her slightly, but strangely, she felt comfortable and warm within his arms that were clutching the reins.
‘Do you feel closer to him knowing that he also has a human side of him?’
She didn’t know what kind of past he had, but the iron wall she had built between the two seemed to have gotten thinner.
Regretful that they couldn’t look at each other, Rose sighed. She wondered what expression Maxim, who had dreamt of something scary yesterday, had, but she could not look back.
‘Someday, I’ll find out.’
As the mansion got closer, Rose began to get worried. Jansen and the servants must have spent the night with open eyes. They may have been searching around the mansion all night long.
‘I came out secretly thinking I would be back soon.’ She couldn’t imagine how much Hannah worried about her. Because the two masters disappeared like that.
On the other hand, she felt ashamed.
‘What will everyone think when they see the two who disappeared yesterday coming back together in the morning?’
Rose pursed her lips and asked in a low voice.
“Uhm… How can I explain this to Jansen?”
Maxim looked down at Rose and answered bluntly.
“You’re worrying about useless things. He won’t even ask.”
“Is that so?”
‘I’ll surely be glad if it’s like that,’ she thought to herself.
‘How much did we gallop?’
The day dawned brightly and the figure of the Etoile mansion drew closer. With the relief that they finally arrived safely and the tiredness that came from staying outside overnight, Rose naturally stretched herself out. She slightly and casually buried her head on Maxim’s shoulder.
The appearance of the two people galloping towards the front of the mansion seemed peaceful and lovely.
A little while after Maxim and Rose passed through the forest, a white horse standing behind a large tree slowly appeared. Cassiax looked at the two people who had just passed with cold eyes. As he lowered his eyes, a piercing glare flashed.
‘Rose…’
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She was a woman who looked at him with contempt and slapped him. Now, with her eyes closed, she comfortably leaned against him. When he saw that, it felt like the blood vessels in his body were twisted and blood was gushing out.
‘Rose Etoile. I’ll kill that bastard first before killing you. I wonder what kind of expression you would make then.’
Cassiax glanced at the mansion once more with piercing eyes and then galloped towards the soldiers who were waiting from afar.
This morning, which had just been quiet and peaceful until a moment ago, gave someone deep jealousy and wrath that could shake the world.
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