My Insolent Shadow - Chapter 67

She trembled, caught in the red gaze that stared directly at her.

Those eyes curved gently like a crescent moon for just a moment.

“Ask me to give you the medicine.”

“…”

“Is that all?”

Yuriel stared at him as if entranced by his sweet voice that seemed ready to give her everything.

His seemingly relaxed demeanor inflated her expectations.

“Twelve pills… Twelve pills would be enough.”

Her trembling voice was filled with desperation.

Twelve pills would last a year. By then, her mother would be cured.

She could even keep her promise to go on a trip then.

They say humans instinctively seek hope rather than despair.

Her desperate heart made her arbitrarily assume he would give her the medicine and even created reasons for it.

To him, she must now be just an annoying existence from the past.

Over the past 3 years, while she sent dozens of letters, he only replied to her once.

And now he was even getting engaged…

That must mean she was just an insignificant creature to him.

The medicine being sent to her without fail on schedule was probably just done by his subordinates, he may have completely forgotten about someone like her.

His recent appearance before her… was probably just a small whim.

In this situation of getting engaged, continuing to be entangled with someone like her would not be good for his reputation.

So giving her the medicine all at once to get rid of the troublesome matter would be good for him too.

Of course, he could cruelly reject her instead of giving the medicine.

But the Blanchets have always been a family that shows mercy.

For them, maintaining their reputation with money that means little to them would be more fitting.

Yuriel swallowed her dry saliva while suppressing her burning insides.

Only the loud pounding of her own heart echoed in her ears.

Unable to see him clearly due to the backlighting, her tension was further amplified.

In an instant, a rather sweet voice spread across the space.

“If I give you that, what can you do for me?”

A ashen smile full of clouds spread across Cassian’s face, deeply shadowed.

A moment flashed through his mind of encountering this woman’s birth mother.

This wench who was startled upon hearing that voice asking who she was.

It was just amusing how she didn’t seem to realize that would look even more suspicious.

Tiobe’s report was layered on top of that.

That birth mother has lost her memories due to side effects of that medicine.

But if just one more year passes like this, she will be completely cured.

This naive woman fearlessly went into that clinic for a diagnosis, thinking there was anywhere in this capital that Blanchet’s hand couldn’t reach.

Laughably, the director of that clinic was affiliated with the Blanchet Scholarship Foundation, and of course that information easily came into his hands.

Well, even if that wasn’t the case, Tiobe would have found out that much on his own.

Daily life and diagnoses not written in the letters to him took place there.

Such facts were not written anywhere in the letters he had been waiting for.

As if he was just meant to play the fool who gives medicine.

Suddenly he became curious.

Yuriel, what will this woman do when the day comes that her mother is cured?

Will she say she’s leaving his side?

That’s probably what she’ll do. This woman who always trembles as if seeing a ghost whenever she sees him.

This woman whose hands hidden in her sleeves tremble even as she says she likes him without batting an eye.

Everything up until now must have been all deception and acting.

But he didn’t think all that would happen until a year later.

To think she would try to even shorten that remaining year just to ease her guilty conscience.

You should have carried such a burden from the moment you started deceiving.

This was not the picture he had hoped for from this woman upon hearing he had a fiancée.

So this woman should not have uttered such words.

That she wanted to be free from his side forever now.

“If I could repay that debt even using my entire lifetime, I would.”

Though he knew she was a woman harboring pitch-black poison, actually facing it made his insides twist.

As the shadows slowly lifted, his figure was clearly reflected in Yuriel’s eyes.

Red eyes curved strangely beneath long extended eyelashes.

It was a dangerously beautiful sight that sent chills.

It was also a face that inspired fear at the same time.

The green eyes fully capturing Cassian shook aimlessly.

A large hand gently cupped her chin.

“How will you repay it?”

Yuriel unknowingly held her breath.

A chilling sensation swept through her mind.

“What, how will you repay it?”

“That’s…”

“When you uttered words about repaying, you must have thought that much before spitting it out.”

An oppressive gaze enveloped Yuriel in terror.

The red eyes she had thought were gentle were now blackened, reminiscent of dark red blood.

She knows these eyes well.

She can’t not know them, as they are the very eyes she saw dozens, no, hundreds of times 3 years ago.

Just before having to face the moment she hated most.

When he was about to give an order to embarrass her again, he clearly had eyes like this.

“Tell me. So I can decide too.”

A mocking smile spread across the strangely curved eyes.

“Whether it’s worth giving you the medicine or not.”

Yuriel’s breath stopped right there.

Through the past 3 years until today.

The nightmare she feared most had become reality.

She hadn’t even considered this possibility when asking him for a year’s worth of medicine.

If he had intended not to give her medicine, he wouldn’t have done so for the past 3 years.

She thought the noble Blanchet heir would maintain his dignity with twelve pills of medicine.

Above all… he shouldn’t know at all that she would leave after a year.

He would only think she was doing this because she felt burdened by his upcoming engagement.

But why…

Cassian, who had removed his hand from the frozen woman, lit a cigar.

Each time smoke rose and faded, his face appeared and disappeared like an afterimage.

Each time his face was visible, it was full of sneers.

His persistently red gaze remained fixed on her, refusing to look away.

That appearance was no different from when he embarrassingly stood her up in Alphonse.

When he told her to draw his picture, when he revealed her deception.

When he stood her up in that room for a long time.

He was always in this state.

He hadn’t changed at all in the past 3 years.

Not at all.

So all flimsy conscience was just a luxury.

One she dared not even covet.

When her mother’s life and her conscience were placed on the scales, she would always have to choose her mother.

Knowing this fact all too well, this man stared at her with a cruelly unmatched smile.

As if he found this situation quite enjoyable.

“Looks like you need some time.”

A mocking tone flowed through the smoke.

Stubbing out his cigar, he passed by her and whispered softly.

“Think carefully. How you can get me to listen to you.”

“…!”

[This is the timeline separator]

She didn’t know what state of mind she returned in.

If Hael, who had been in the distance that day, hadn’t supported her, she would have been quite the talk among the imperial palace people.

The place Hael took her after she collapsed was the administrative building.

That was fortunate.

Otherwise, her mother would have discovered her miserable state.

It didn’t take long to erase her awful appearance reflected in the mirror and force a smile back on.

Meanwhile, her supervisor who discovered her terrible state ordered her to take a forced break.

[What documents are you going to look at in that state? Go rest today.] [What? But…] [This is an order as your supervisor. You’re not going to disobey even that, are you?]

Unable to disobey the order, Yuriel could only open and close her mouth before finally returning to her quarters, where she dozed off while watching over her sleeping mother.

Unfamiliar scenery fills her surroundings.

‘When did I come to a place like this?’

Was there ever such a place in the imperial palace?

Walking on a path with no end in sight no matter how far she went, a sense of emptiness washed over her.

All around, snow-white flowers were in full bloom, facing the ground.

Galanthus.

The flowers, as white and beautiful as snow, faced the ground without properly showing their faces.

‘Pretty.’

Muttering unknowingly, she approached the flowers as if bewitched and plucked one.

The snow-white petals dyed her green eyes white.

At the same time, the flower withered and drooped downward.

The snow-white galanthus lost its light and slowly turned ashen.

Startled, Yuriel slowly raised her head. Her green vision was filled with ashen ripples.

The flower beds lined up around her had also turned ashen.

Each time falling flower petals scattered, the ashen energy gradually deepened, dyeing the entire space black.

“El! …El?”

Her body shook aimlessly and the nickname repeatedly echoed in her ears.

She slowly opened her eyes at the faint sensation of someone patting her cheek.

As her blurry vision cleared, shapes gradually became distinct.

“Mom!”

Unknowingly hugging Jane tightly, Yuriel quietly caught her breath.

The warm touch brushing back her hair was certainly her mother.

Jane stiffly froze at Yuriel who was crying as if sobbing while hugging her.

Yuriel’s green eyes were brimming with moisture.

Her sobbing voice kept saying not to go anywhere.

Yuriel’s slender hands were now gripping the hem of her dress.

Wrinkles formed around Jane’s eyes as she watched this sight.

“What’s wrong?”

Only when she heard her mother’s voice did Yuriel regain her sense of reality.

After wiping away her tears, she finally draped a painted-on smile across her face.

“I think… I had a nightmare.”

Nightmare. Yes, all of that must have just been a nightmare.

Just a nightmare created by her anxious mind.

Jane seemed to let go of one worry at the mention of a dream, and embraced Yuriel.