Chapter 45. You Never Came
2023.11.14.
The atmosphere of the mansion was more severe and quiet than ever before.
Especially inside the bedroom, which felt like the calm before a storm, an eerie stillness hung in the air.
Clade stood silently by the window.
Leaning slightly against the frame as always, his face was strikingly clean—unrecognizably so compared to just a few months ago—and simultaneously pale.
His eyes, hidden beneath long eyelashes, remained fixed outside without blinking.
Butler Gustav checked the pocket watch he had kept in his front apron.
This was the time when Clade used to be most sensitive, the moment when pain would suddenly descend like a dark night sky, taking hold of him until it was impossible to tell whether he was human or monster.
For this time to have become so quiet was unprecedented.
Yet quiet did not mean peaceful.
Gustav glanced at Clade as he watched the servants who had gone out with torches searching for the mistress, followed closely by the guards chasing after them.
In the end, Gustav had been unable to stop them.
“Your Highness.”
Gustav felt as if Clade were standing on the edge of a precarious cliff.
How much time had passed like this?
The tense, cold silence finally shattered, as hollow as could be, when rain began pouring down.
“Your Highness!”
Clade Euphris, who had been silently staring into the darkness, finally opened the bedroom door with his own hands and stepped outside.
***
The carriage could go no further than a short distance from the White Forest.
Having spent all her money and sent the carriage away, Yuan repeated the priest’s testimony—only that he had heard they were heading north—and walked endlessly, step after step.
‘Let’s live together for the rest of our lives.’
‘No matter where I go, I’ll always take you with me. So never feel alone.’
“Louise…….”
Regret poured out with her white breath. Yuan’s mind went blank, unsure of what to do.
Even if it meant falling out of Clade’s favor, she should have mentioned Louise.
If she had known it would end so emptily with Louise.
What had she been so afraid of, hiding Louise away like that?
“Louise!!”
Calling out to a dead woman who would never answer.
Yuan wandered the forest like a madwoman.
Beyond one forest was another forest. A cursed winter forest where the snow still hadn’t melted.
Chasing the traces of an unfamiliar carriage, Yuan wandered on, not even noticing the cuts and scrapes on her hands and face.
Then, for just a brief moment, her senses returned.
It was when brilliant twilight began spilling over the strange forest and flowing toward her.
“……Your Highness.”
Suddenly, Clade came to mind.
She didn’t even remember when she had lost the new shoes he had bought for her—she was barefoot now.
Only then did Yuan bring her hands and feet close to examine them. They were swollen, red, and on the verge of cracking from frostbite—pitiful to look at.
When she looked back along the path she had come, the very distant top of the black mansion was faintly visible.
Yuan froze for a moment.
It felt as if someone had poured boiling water over her frozen body from the top of her head.
Night would fall soon.
No matter how much she delayed it, once the night deepened, Clade would be consumed by pain.
She had firmly promised to go to his bedroom every evening as the sun set…….
She quickly wiped away the tears falling heavily.
‘I’ll come back tomorrow.’
Biting her lower lip until it bled, she panted heavily through parted lips, trying to calm herself.
What could she possibly do next after wandering barefoot searching for Louise?
She needed to bring more money to rent a carriage and bring at least one guard with her to search.
And if someone asked what she was looking for, she would need to come up with a convincing excuse overnight.
Carrying the immense weight of anxiety on her back, Yuan clenched her trembling jaw and walked toward the black mansion.
Her bare soles scraped against the rough ground, stinging sharply.
Each time the cold wind sliced through the forest, she flinched and turned around.
Every desperate glance behind her dripped with regret, hoping against hope that a cargo carriage carrying Louise might pass nearby.
Whoosh—.
Still aimlessly walking across the thickly piled snow, Yuan stood for a long while beneath a tree, sheltering from the downpour arriving with the darkness.
The surroundings soon grew as dark as if about to be swallowed by pitch-blackness. The cold, which she hadn’t felt during her half-conscious wandering, now surged over her like waves.
The chill seeped through her soaked clothes.
Shivering violently in the icy cold, Yuan hugged herself and crouched down, wiping her wet face with her hands, tears streaming silently.
The tears hanging from her nose fell to the ground along with raindrops as her head bowed.
Everything was ruined.
She had thought she’d protected Louise—hadn’t handed her over to the Pelliese, hadn’t let her be burned—but she was wrong.
How long had it been since she’d vowed not to leave Clade, her new family, suffering in pain?
Instead of bringing him outside, she hadn’t even kept her promise.
‘Even if you run away, you’re still in the palm of my hand. How dare you flee ungrateful?’
‘You crawled back here on your own because you had nowhere else to go, yet you act so proud.’
‘Go ahead and leave again. See if anyone bothers to come looking for you.’
Before her powers manifested.
When she had briefly run away from the Pelliese mansion, unable to endure the bullying from her cousins.
On that day when no one came searching for her.
That night, exhausted from surviving the cold, she had been led back by Louise’s hand, giving up her escape.
Now, the memory of her past family, who had never thought to look for her, returned with scathing reproach.
It was a horrifying, terrifying memory.
So this was punishment for hiding Louise.
This was the full retribution she had delayed day after day, telling herself just one more day, just one more day.
Hugging her knees, Yuan pressed her bright red, frozen nose between them.
Hot tears soaked her cheeks and knees.
‘So this is how it ends.’
In this new home.
Only causing Clade trouble. Breaking promises.
Unable to even protect Louise.
Left like this, in this forest where no one comes searching.
When she first passed through this White Forest and arrived at the black mansion.
When she had waited in the carriage, nearly dying, for Clade.
Had that dream been a premonition?
The image of herself dying in the White Forest alongside Louise flowed through her mind like water.
That was when it happened.
“Yuan Pelliese!”
From far away, a man’s voice rang out like a hallucination.
***
Raindrops began striking the ground even more fiercely.
Trembling, Yuan rose from under the tree where she had taken shelter and stepped slightly out.
Through the dense row of fir trees, a tall man was striding toward her without hesitation.
“Your Highness……?”
It was Clade Euphris, soaked just as thoroughly as she was.
It wasn’t just his clothes that were disheveled.
Yuan blinked several times, her vision blurred, staring at the man drawing closer.
His cheeks weren’t rigid as usual, nor was his mouth twisted in pain.
Instead, his face was wildly disordered, eyes bloodshot, a stranger’s expression.
Yuan felt both relief and fear at once.
The closer he got, the more she couldn’t stop her voice from breaking sorrowfully.
With half her senses gone, she babbled incoherently.
“She’s gone, my sister is gone. Your Highness.”
All rationality paralyzed, the anxiety she had held back burst forth uncontrollably at the sight of him.
The line between what should or shouldn’t be said collapsed, and only childish complaints and fear poured out, like a child meeting its father.
“I buried her carefully, I’m sure of it…… but she’s gone.”
Clade drew nearer.
Like a sinner confessing, like a woman gone mad, Yuan reached her hands toward Clade through the pouring rain, babbling endlessly.
“Someone dug her up. Who could have done it? They say she went that way, that way. But where is that? Is it really north?”
As Yuan frantically poured out words, sudden fear flooded her eyes.
Finally, grasping the hem of his clothes before her, Yuan begged for forgiveness—remembering again that she had broken her promise to him.
“Your Highness……. Your Highness. The sun has set…… so—.”
I came back.
Even though I was so afraid.
I was terrified that if I didn’t chase after my sister now, I might never see her again.
But as night fell, I couldn’t move my feet any further.
Because I knew how much you would suffer, I couldn’t just leave you behind.
Even if I might never see my sister again!
And yet, all I could think about there was…….
Clade stared at her for a long while as she spilled out words without thought, then caught the hand clutching his clothes.
Without a word, he pulled her fiercely into his arms.
Yuan stiffened in his freezing embrace, like a pillar of salt.
The tears she had held back, not yet shed, soaked into his chest.
“I’m sorry.”
……Did I hear that wrong?
“I’m sorry.”
After remaining frozen for a long moment, Yuan finally looked up when he apologized again in a hoarse, rasping voice.
His jaw, clenched tightly as he pulled her close, was taut with protruding bone.
Like someone unwilling to show his face, Clade pulled her even closer into his embrace.
Then, whispering to her as she stood dazed in his arms, he said:
“I buried your sister in a good place.”
Her vision turned white for an instant.
Her mind burned blank, her tongue froze.
From her chest, which had suddenly grown hot as if filled with fire, a choked cry burst out.
“Why. Why didn’t you tell me? Why!”
Sorrowful sobs poured into Clade’s chest.
“How scared I was. How much I—.”
“I’m sorry. I meant to tell you.”
“I. I—.”
Yuan finally broke down.
With weak, clenched fists, she pounded wildly against Clade’s broad chest.
The more she did, the more Clade held her tightly, silently taking every blow.
Her accusations, pouring out like bloody coughs, were buried beneath the sound of rain.
Clade repeated only “I’m sorry” until her exhausted fists finally opened on their own.
In the end, Yuan’s sorrowful resentment wandered aimlessly before turning entirely toward Clade himself.
“You begged, pleaded, threatened me to come out—but you wouldn’t.”
Her rounded forehead thudded softly against Clade’s chest, along with her tightly clenched fists.
“If you were going to come out like this…….”
“You never came.”
Clade quietly answered her near-childish reproach, an outlet for her exhausted heart.
“You did.”
Yuan held her breath and looked up at him.
His deeply sunken eyes revealed a sharp light that had been hidden within, staring at her relentlessly.
“You leave on your own and don’t return until sunset. You said you’d come when the sun sets.”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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