Chapter 23
After taking Inaila to her room, Karpel headed towards his secret aide, Stein, to find out more about the incident.
Still, Inaila’s behavior eluded Karpel.
‘Don’t tell me you’ve misunderstood my relationship with that girl.’
In his room next to Inaila’s, Karpel listened intently to the voices next door.
As his affinity with the sword increased, so did his senses sharpen. He could even go so far as to hear Inaila’s hands doing her embroidery in her room. At those times he would also hear her sigh time and again.
She sighed so much that Karpel was worried all the strength in her small physique would run out, her breath running short due to her frustration.
After an hour, two hours—at midnight, when the pensive sounds from next door finally quieted, Karpel got up from his bed.
If there was a misunderstanding, he wanted to at least alleviate the headache that it must be causing her.
Karpel wanted to straighten it out, but he couldn’t just knock on her door—
“AAHHH!”
Suddenly, he heard a loud noise from inside.
He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice what had made her scream like that.
She’d stopped sighing, but this time…
He couldn’t hear her breathing.
In his worry, he eventually called out to her.
“Hey.”
This time, he heard the sound of rushing and busy moving inside the room.
Maybe she was still flustered, or putting on a shawl right now.
After a while, the door opened.
And for a moment… Karpel was breathless.
Dressed in a white nightgown, she was like a silver blossom under the moonlight.
Pretty and cute.
She was the warm light that touched him when he was hurt.
As he thought about how beautiful she was, it felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
The little girl who once ate dandelions by the pond grew up so well.
Karpel realized again that he shouldn’t do anything at all during the night.
Trying to suppress his wildly beating heart so that he could finally ask her what was worrying her, his eyes met with Inaila’s chilly blue gaze.
It was a clear line.
Inaila had her guard up around him.
It wasn’t the kind of vigilance against a man who came to a woman’s door at night.
It was as if she were a victim standing before a predator, quivering in fear of being eaten up.
Why?
All of a sudden?
Karpel’s throat felt tight.
It was all so sudden.
Inaila, who had stood by him and smiled so sweetly up until the tea party was nowhere to be found.
Now, it looked as if she wanted to run far, far away from him.
Inaila’s attitude now matched his wishes. For her own good, it was right that she should stay away from Karpel.
But at that moment, Karpel realized.
He never really wanted her to distance herself from him.
It was the first time Inaila rejected him.
As she continued to show a coldness that was foreign to him, and continued to distance herself from him just as he wanted, it felt as though his insides were being burned at her rejection.
It was cowardly and selfish. When it was Karpel who first stayed away from her, he never thought that this must have been how Inaila felt.
Rather than comforting her about her worries, he ran away the moment he saw her, just adding to the animosity.
After that night, he never heard her sigh anymore, perhaps because she didn’t care about him now.
However, what he heard instead was the sound of her covering her mouth, and tossing and turning all night long.
He regretted his actions.
* * *
After that day Inaila had been terribly sick, she suddenly became quiet. Not only that, but she also hadn’t been out of her room for days.
During dinnertime, the Duke, Carpel and Inaila would dine together, so they would still see each other’s faces. But she would only answer the Duke when he brought something up, then continued being silent.
The Duke, who treated Karpel as if he was air, even looked to him for help now that he was at a loss. But Karpel didn’t know what to do either.
It wasn’t because of the young nobles who came to the tea party, and it wasn’t like Inaila’s attitude towards the Duke had changed significantly.
It was only towards Karpel that she had changed.
It was painful.
Karpel had been trying to stop Inaila from following him around for such a long time.
But now that it became like this, he felt exceedingly empty. It was like he lost a huge part of his heart just because Inaila didn’t look at him lovingly anymore.
Karpel’s daily life was nothing but an everlasting dusk without Inaila.
Time passed meaninglessly with him just going back and forth between the library, the training grounds, and meetings where he would receive reports from Stein.
He would swing his sword mechanically, lost in thought.
It was dangerous that he was being this careless, since he was supposed to be hiding his swordsmanship from the outside world. Even in the Duke’s mansion, there were a lot of eyes watching him. Spies from the Emperor could be anywhere, even amongst the people who helped Karpel.
It was easy to foresee that Karpel would be the first person who would possibly spearhead a coup.
The Emperor didn’t believe that Karpel would stay silent forever.
Even so, he still shouldn’t show off all his abilities.
He had to maintain a seemingly average level of abilities so that suspicion wouldn’t be thrown at him. If he could show that his achievements were nothing much, then his opponents would surely be off their guard.
His dream of attaining ordinary happiness was shattered at the young age of ten.
The Emperor would crush all sources of Karpel’s happiness, no matter what he did.
He looked around him, trying to see if there was anyone hiding nearby.
Karpel swung his sword again, until he had warmed up.
Then, the signs of an approaching energy entered his senses. If he hadn’t noticed, then he would have been caught.
At the level he was training at now, it wasn’t even enough to call it a warm up. It was something akin to a leisurely stroll.
No matter how hot the sun’s rays were, because of his incredible physique, Karpel did not sweat even an ounce.
Karpel poured water over his body, and proceeded to pretend to train with his sword. After which, he suddenly heard the sharp clack of a slap.
He turned towards the sound. It was Inaila. After passing over the age of ten, she had told him that she wanted to be treated like a lady.
A lady who did not stalk or chase men.
Whenever she wanted to see him, she would just send a letter telling him to come see her. It was the first time in three years that she visited the training grounds herself.
As soon as his eyes met with Inaila’s widened gaze, she shouted.
“Ah! I’m so scared!”
Karpel was at a loss for words.
He had no idea what she was talking about.
When she was younger, she also talked about strange things, but nowadays she rarely did that.
‘Scared? Do you want me to disappear because you’re scared of me?’
But it was Inaila who came up to him.
And even though she came here on her own two feet, her face immediately flushed red.
Karpel almost burst into laughter.
But instead, he stared at her, tightening his lips into a hard line.
Inaila turned around and ran away, at which Karpel frowned as he watched her figure scuttling away.
He couldn’t figure out how it was possible for Inaila to be so cute no matter what she did.
‘What are you so afraid of?’
It was bothering him.
He was about to chase after her, but at once, he felt something wrong as he looked down.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
Karpel flinched and covered his chest right then. It wasn’t that he was ashamed, just embarrassed.
‘Don’t tell me you got scared of my body.’
Then his eyes turned to frost.
Inaila saw the scar on his back.
Everyone knew that Karpel almost died after receiving such severe wounds after the Emperor struck him with his sword, but Inaila might not have known that a hideous scar would remain.
He never really minded it.
Whenever Karpel would wake up from a nightmare, Inaila’s peaceful breathing from the next room would comfort him.
He could shake off his nightmares just with the thought that Inaila was alive and breathing.
He never revealed this to Inaila, that he was really ok with it even if she stuck to him all the time.
Karpel hesitated before making up his mind, chasing after Inaila after putting his shirt back on.
And as he arrived in front of her room, he was about to knock on the door.
But at that moment, he heard her murmur.
“Should I just break off the engagement?”
[e/n: I’m glad we finally got to see his side, the misunderstandings hurt my heart tho… Hopefully, they resolve it all soon.]