Chapter 23. You Two Seem to Get Along Well

2023.10.23.

The sound of a window opening made Yuan suddenly lift her head.

On both sides of her flushed cheeks, the pure white angora ear warmers fluttered slightly in the wind.

Yuan tightly gripped her woolen cloak and watched Clade Euphris’s golden hair, dyed amber by the sunset, fluttering in the breeze.

As she slowly leaned backward to get a better look at his face, a soft voice, almost like a whisper, slipped into her ears through the wind.

“You’re not some mad puppy. What’s with all the excitement just because you got new clothes?”

It was an unpleasant remark—so much so that the words of gratitude she had prepared for the new room and clothes vanished from her mind.

Yuan blinked, momentarily flustered by his unchanging prickliness, then exhaled a faint white breath and called out.

“It’s not because of the new clothes! I jumped because I wanted to see Your Highness!”

“You.”

“Yes!”

“Why.”

Clade Euphris wasn’t pressed close to the window.

So Yuan, seeing only his wind-blown golden hair instead of his face, hesitated slightly before answering.

“You said I could work for you, but you never called for me…”

I was afraid your feelings suddenly changed and you’d cast me out.

But seeing that you gave me a room and clothes, it seems you won’t.

I really wanted to say thank you.

Even though I’ve had nightmares every night worrying about being cast out, seeing my new clothes hanging in the wardrobe and all the new belongings filling my room brings me peace…

Yuan gathered the words swirling in her mouth, then called out again to the silent Clade Euphris.

“And I’m not excited because of the new clothes! This cloak is new, but what’s underneath it—”

Yuan flung open the cloak and bounced up.

“It’s the same clothes I’ve been wearing! Doesn’t it look less worn now? It’s not bothering you anymore, is it?”

Each time Yuan jumped, Clade Euphris’s forehead, faintly visible, creased slightly.

“You didn’t buy clothes? Why aren’t they new?”

“They haven’t arrived yet!”

Clade Euphris didn’t respond.

Yuan began to worry unnecessarily that the blame might fall on the butler.

Then she remembered the pale lavender dress Misha had left behind, and bounced up again.

“There are new clothes! I’ll show you!”

“You just said they haven’t arrived.”

“They’re here!”

Yuan immediately dashed to the bedroom and urged Monica to hurry.

In her mind, she could easily picture Clade Euphris berating the butler Gustav, calling him a “slow old worm.”

She had to prove that the butler had carried out his orders flawlessly.

Breathlessly dressed in her new outfit, Yuan rushed straight through the many rooms along the corridor and stood before Clade Euphris’s bedroom.

She knocked several times, catching her breath, but received no answer. Cautiously, she opened the door to find Clade Euphris leaning sideways against the window, arms crossed.

His eyes, half-shadowed, turned toward her.

“Your Highness.”

Clade Euphris stared at her silently for a long moment—more precisely, as if briefly scanning her.

He didn’t seem displeased, nor particularly upset.

Rather…

“Your Highness?”

“Who told you to just walk in?”

For just an instant, Clade Euphris snapped angrily, as if suddenly returning from a daze.

Yuan quickly wiped the sweat gathered on her forehead with the back of her hand. Then, swiftly lifting the hem of her pale lavender dress, she gave it a little flutter.

The smooth fabric, adorned with appropriately sized ruffles, swayed pleasingly.

“I’m wearing new clothes.”

“……”

“Thank you.”

The expression on Clade Euphris’s face, backlit by the sunset, was unreadable.

But he was no longer angry.

After a brief hesitation, Yuan looked directly at him.

It was finally time to state her purpose.

“Aren’t you in pain?”

The glow of the sunset was deepening steadily.

Soon, he would sink once more into the swamp of agony.

“Why didn’t you call for me?”

“Are you dissatisfied because I didn’t give you work?”

Clade Euphris relaxed his stiff body, slowly walked over, and sank into the rocking chair.

Deep fatigue clung to his face as he stared at the ceiling.

He had fought his pain alone last night.

Without calling for her.

He told her she could work for him, but perhaps he felt embarrassed to summon her, knowing what that work entailed?

Or was it a matter of pride?

Yuan gazed silently at his perfectly handsome half of a face, struggling to discern his intentions.

A warm, cozy new room. Beautiful clothes that gently embraced her body.

Nothing was free.

“I’ll come again as soon as the sun sets.”

The rocking chair, which had been creaking and swaying, fell silent for a moment.

Yuan seized the opportunity to speak again.

“Every day from now on. Around this time… If it’s inconvenient, I’ll come a bit later.”

“……”

“Please… don’t lock the door.”

Without waiting for an answer, Yuan approached Clade Euphris, who continued staring at the ceiling.

She carefully added several drops of newly prepared sleep-inducing medicine into the teacup that had been touched by Butler Gustav’s hand, then gently offered it to Clade Euphris.

Gradually, his dark purple eyes, now dimmed, traveled down from her large black pupils, past her delicate little nose, her plump pink lips, along her pale neck slightly exposed, and finally settled on the teacup held in her small hand.

Yuan noticed, up close, the subtle tremor in his eyes.

Soon, a hand darkened by pain reached out and took the medicine from her.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, bobbed, as he swallowed the tea.

Yuan guided Clade Euphris to his bed.

His massive body slowly rose from the rocking chair and followed her to sit on the bed.

Enduring his fixed gaze, Yuan slowly approached him and gently kissed his blackened cheek.

Clade Euphris stiffened his body.

***

Early in the morning, Marquis Rev’s brothers burst into Clade Euphris’s bedroom, their faces pale with shock.

Clade Euphris, feeling the emptiness beside him, awkwardly reached toward the spot where someone’s warmth still lingered, then slowly, reluctantly got up.

“Sleeping in this late?”

“You used to say it was my wish to sleep well.”

Clade Euphris answered listlessly to Eddie Rev’s cold question, adjusting the folds of his nightgown.

His long fingers traced the knot’s starting point, then flinched.

The gown was unnecessarily clean and neat—excessively so.

A stark contrast to the adjacent space, clearly marked by signs of violent tossing and turning.

But since Lancelot, who normally dawdled, looked unusually serious, Clade Euphris decided to momentarily ignore the uncomfortable truth.

“What is it?”

“See for yourself.”

Ignoring the creeping sense of unease, Clade Euphris picked up the golden letter that Eddie tossed toward him.

A thick golden envelope. A wolf emblem imprinted on purple wax. A letter from the royal family.

Behind Eddie, Lancelot, who had been lingering uneasily, called out to Clade Euphris in a trembling voice.

“Clade…”

An official notice: Igor Euphris, the uncle who had turned Clade into a monster, would personally visit this black mansion.

After ten years of never once visiting, he was coming to host a wedding celebration for his nephew.

***

The small chapel where Louise Pelliese’s body lay was located by a well at the edge of a tiny village, beyond the white forest.

Every time Yuan went out with the servants to fetch water or rode along in the supply wagon, she visited the chapel to meet the priest. Then she would pray at the chapel’s communal graveyard, where her sister was temporarily buried.

“So now it’s definite! My lady can stay at the manor permanently, right?”

Hena, who had followed Yuan out, greeted her again as she returned to the wagon, chattering excitedly.

Yuan quietly smiled and nodded.

There was indeed a clause about ensuring his peaceful sleep, but as long as she stayed quiet and unobtrusive, she was allowed to remain—so in effect, yes.

“I finally believe that everyone has their match. Who would’ve thought the master would willingly take a lady of the house?”

After all, to outsiders, they appeared to be a married couple sharing a bed every night.

It was only natural that not just Hena, but all the servants and even the butler, wore strangely flushed expressions.

Moreover, right after Yuan finished breakfast in her own room, Butler Gustav handed her the lady’s ledger.

Whether it was Clade Euphris’s direct order or Gustav’s own initiative, she couldn’t tell—but in any case, she now had authority.

It also meant she now had money she could use.

Gustav, apologetically explaining that there had been no budget this year due to the lack of a proper lady of the house, handed Yuan all the jewelry left behind by previous brides who had hastily fled, saying it was a temporary expense for maintaining dignity.

Nothing was extraordinarily valuable, but there were quite a few usable pieces. Instead of buying new clothes or accessories, Yuan gave the small valuables to the chapel.

To continue entrusting Louise’s care.

“Now I even find myself imagining things, you know? Since the two of you get along so well, it won’t be long before we hear the sounds of little babies, looking just like the master and mistress, running around this mansion… hehe.”

“Ghk—”

Yuan, drinking from the water bottle Hena handed her, choked and gagged.

The hand gently patting her back was too kind, making her conscience prick even more.

Riding the supply wagon across the white forest, Yuan thought of Clade Euphris anew.

The man who, when she first passed through this white forest, had seemed like nothing but an unknown beast, had already vanished from her mind.

The Clade Euphris she now saw was someone with no will to live, sensitive and wounded, like a hurt fox.

They only met in brief moments, solely in his bedroom, but even in those short instants, he showed her many different faces.

At his core, he was sensitive, sharp, and incapable of gentle words.

He was cynical, rude, and abrasive.

But when she casually mentioned what time she’d come at night or said she’d been tired the day before, his handsome mouth, which usually only spoke harsh words, would suddenly clamp shut.

Especially if she mentioned the phrase “last night,” he’d flinch his shoulders, as if the memory had just surfaced, swallow hard, and occasionally weakly protest that he, too, had been exhausted.

He’d wear the expression of someone who thought he’d been the one assaulted, despite just lying there unconscious.

Yuan couldn’t help but let out a quiet chuckle.

At those times, his perfectly intact half of a face would gradually flush red—clearly imagining in his mind the moments he couldn’t remember.