Chapter 6
***
It was a month after the war had ended that Agnes regained consciousness.
She had opened her eyes intermittently, but soon lost consciousness again.
This was the first time she had fully risen from her seat.
“Ugh……”
Was it because she had been lying in bed for so long?
It felt as if her body was not her own, making it difficult to lift her eyelids.
As soon as she barely opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the ceiling with old wallpaper peeling off and dangling.
In this all-too-familiar scenery, even in her hazy mind, Anes could immediately recognize that this was her bedroom.
“You’ve really come back to life.”
And as if to confirm that fact, a sarcastic voice flew in from the side.
The owner of the voice was Jen, who Chloe carried around like a maid.
It seemed she had come on Chloe’s orders to check if Agnes had woken up.
“I, ugh.”
As soon as she spoke, it felt like her dry throat was tearing.
However, Jen showed no sign of intending to give her water, merely blinking her eyes blankly.
“How did I get back……”
“I’ve confirmed you’ve woken up, so I’ll be going now. There are a lot of things to do since guests are coming to the mansion.”
Cutting off Agnes’s words abruptly, Jen left the room briskly.
After all, Agnes was neither a noble nor her master. There was no need to show courtesy.
That was the thought everyone in this mansion had.
Since such treatment was familiar to the point of nausea, Agnes calmly pushed back the blanket with her hand.
And the moment she put her feet on the ground,
“Huh……?”
Her body lost balance and collapsed as it was.
Thinking it was because she had been lying down for too long, Agnes tried to stand up again, but her frail body toppled forward without mercy.
As if she had forgotten how to walk.
“Why my leg……”
Only then did Anes realize that she could not feel sensation in one leg.
The leg that had been moving perfectly fine until just a while ago no longer moved.
“This, this can’t be.”
Agnes pulled the stiff leg with both hands.
However, despite that effort, as if to remind her that this was reality, the leg did not obey.
At that moment, someone walked in through the door that Jen had left open.
“Quite a unique welcome.”
A low and cool voice cut across the room.
Startled, Agnes looked toward the door while still sprawled on the floor.
The first thing she saw was military boots. Shiny black leather, the distinctive gloss of a uniform.
Her gaze slowly rose.
Above the boots, well-ironed uniform pants fell without any excess.
At the waist, a belt with metal decorations was tightly fastened, and above that, a military jacket fitting perfectly on the shoulders emphasized the man’s broad shoulders.
Buttons fastened up to the neck revealed his neatness.
And finally, the man’s face entered her view.
Sharply angled jawline and deeply set eyes, cold light blue pupils looking down at Agnes.
It was Lionel.
“Or is it that this vulgar family doesn’t know even the minimum courtesy?”
A drawn-out ending, a hoarse baritone, a way of speaking that grazed the throat like breath.
The intensely low voice, unforgettable once heard, made Ahnes’s fingertips turn cold.
Because it was the same.
The voice heard through the radio in the moment she was losing consciousness with her twisted leg, and Lionel’s voice.
“There is no negotiation.”
Recalling the last words she heard before losing consciousness, her breathing gradually quickened, and her vision narrowed.
Her heart shrank in instinctive fear.
The hero’s voice, fascinating to the extreme, buried Anes in that emotion from the moment of the accident.
The explosion from that day replayed in her ears.
It was trauma.
A fear that if an order fell from those lips right now, the floor of this room would also collapse overwhelmed Agnes.
However, Lionel, unaware of Agnes’s panicked state, leaned obliquely against the doorframe.
“Marrying such a defective product. The reward for rolling like a dog on the battlefield is truly impressive.”
Cruel words dropped from the corner of his lips, twisted as if the air in the room was boring.
Those words stabbed into Agnes’s chest like a blade.
“How long do you plan to stay like that?”
As if his patience was gradually running out, Lionel asked.
Agnes tried hard to force herself to breathe.
‘Was the voice in that radio back then Lionel?’
Lionel…… abandoned me? Even while collapsing my leg?
No.
Lionel wouldn’t have known.
He probably had no idea at all that she was inside.
Agnes repeatedly told herself and tried to regain her composure.
Imagining cold water pouring into her hot head, she brushed away the emotions overwhelming her body.
Calm down.
Agnes first tried to raise her body. Her teeth were still chattering from fear, but so that Lionel wouldn’t notice anything strange.
“At least it seems the rumor that the leg is better is not a lie.”
Lionel’s gaze turned to Agnes’s leg.
Below the raised chemise hem, from the right ankle to the knee, a hideous scar stitched like thread was revealed.
The gouged flesh had healed unevenly.
Agnes hurriedly pulled down the hem. She didn’t want to show the ugly sight.
“Ah, Rael. I-It’s been a while. But my condition right now is a bit……”
“Rael. Who told you to call me that way?”
“Rael, I just like when we were young……”
“Are you and I on terms to speak casually?”
She had felt it earlier, but Lionel’s attitude was excessively hostile.
Now that she had barely gathered her mind, there were more than one or two questionable things.
Come to think of it, why was Lionel here instead of in the north?
Perhaps he had belatedly realized she was involved in the explosion and came to visit the sick?
But even so, Lionel’s expression was unusual.
Above all, hadn’t he clearly said ‘marriage’ earlier?
Lionel, who had been staring at Agnes’s confused face, slowly bent down.
“Someone who knows nothing, seeing this innocent face, might be fooled. Thinking you are an innocent victim.”
“Rael, I…… I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying right now.”
Heh.
Lionel sneered and stroked his twisted mouth corner with a large hand.
“Whether to call this shameless or what.”
Lionel’s excessively beautiful face approached right in front of her.
“Well. From your position, you might be the victim? Since your leg was ruined while trying to smuggle weapons to join the royal dance troupe.”
“Smuggling weapons……? Me……?”
No matter how hard she tried to understand, her head wouldn’t turn.
The words Lionel said poured into her head without being interpreted. Like unfiltered impurities.
At that moment.
Adrian appeared. Chloe was with him behind.
“Your Grace.”
Adrian pretended to be composed, but sweat was beading on his forehead.
His heaving chest proved he had run here.
Panic was evident in his glistening eyes.
“Why is Your Grace here?”
“Why. Did I come to a place I shouldn’t?”
“That’s not what I meant, the time you were scheduled to visit hasn’t come yet—”
Adrian rolled his eyes, trying to think of an excuse.
Then, discovering the awakened Agnes, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Adrian, now with nothing to fear, cleared his throat and adjusted his disheveled clothes.
“Ahem. As you can see, my daughter is not quite prepared yet. I will guide you to the reception room.”
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