Chapter 101
Unlike Ian’s worries, Angela paid no mind at all to the fact that he had been effortlessly pushed back in his sparring match with Kalian.
Kalian’s strength wasn’t something new; it wouldn’t surprise her if he defeated anyone.
It might have been unfortunate news for Ian, but from the beginning, Angela had never even entertained the thought that Kalian would lose.
However, the knights seemed unable to shake their concern as they watched Ian leave with a crumpled expression. They began plotting among themselves, suggesting they should go hunting for dinner to lift His Highness the Crown Prince’s spirits.
They didn’t forget to instruct Angela that if any game appeared, they must give Prince Ian the first opportunity. Though it was called an instruction, it was really a hesitant request from a knight of the Matterson family, who scratched the back of his head and glanced around nervously before finally voicing it.
Angela thought Ian wasn’t the type to be disheartened over something like this, but she found the knights’ efforts admirable and nodded in agreement.
After that, she scattered with the knights to search for Ian. But unexpectedly, she ended up overhearing Ian’s innermost thoughts.
Ian liked me…
Angela walked away from the lake, absentmindedly shaking water droplets from her freshly washed fingertips for no particular reason. She moved her steps in a daze.
Images of Ian from their childhood began to resurface one by one. In Angela’s memories, Ian was consistently a boy who seemed like he was missing a screw somewhere.
It had been that way from the first time she was introduced to him as the crown prince. Angela had genuinely worried about Phaelon’s future. It was because Ian had stared blankly at her and then drooled.
Yet, without a hint of embarrassment, Ian wiped his mouth with his sleeve and grinned with a “Hehe.” To such an Ian, Angela handed him a handkerchief with her tiny, fern-like hands and said,
“Your Highness, if possible, fire your etiquette teacher. They’re utterly incompetent.”
Whether he failed to grasp that her words were pointing out how inappropriate his behavior was for a crown prince, Ian’s face retained that foolish smile throughout.
After that day, Ian frequently visited the Bilton estate. Thanks to that, by the time Angela had somewhat adapted to his dazed grin,
Ian’s birth mother, who was the empress at the time and the emperor’s first wife, caused a massive scandal by falling for a prince from a neighboring country.
The empress was naturally deposed. However, as she left the palace, she smiled more radiantly than on the day of her state wedding. Leaving her child behind, she didn’t even glance back once.
At that time, the conversation between the attendant and Ian, directed at the back of the heartlessly departing deposed empress, became one of those legendary quotes passed around among people for ages.
“Aren’t you resentful?”
“Haha, resentful? How could a mother’s joy become her child’s sorrow?”
Nobles and commoners alike, upon hearing that exchange, admired Ian, saying he was born to be a saint. But Angela alone described him differently. With just one word.
“Idiot.”
Recalling how she had to cry every time her own mother smiled, Angela criticized Ian, insisting that a mother’s joy could very well become her child’s sorrow.
The maids were horrified by Angela’s attitude. Not only for criticizing the crown prince but also for denouncing what anyone could see as exemplary filial piety.
Regardless, Angela boldly said it to Ian’s face as well. She wanted to make him understand just how foolish his actions had been.
“Ian, you’re an unparalleled fool in this world. Do you think that promiscuous deposed empress will look back at you just because you act like that?”
But Ian, as if he truly had become a fool, chuckled and replied,
“She always looked like a withered blade of grass, but seeing how vibrant she became at the thought of leaving the palace. How could I tell her not to think of me after witnessing that? That would be like asking her to wither away.”
When Angela let out a scoffing breath and sneered, Ian added with a brilliantly smiling face,
“Angela, you know, when I take a wife later, I’m going to make her the happiest woman in the world. I’ll make sure she can smile every single day. I mean it.”
Perhaps that had been a confession directed at Angela? Unaware of it, she had clicked her tongue, asking if he’d send off his wife happily even if she had an affair, as long as she was happy.
Ian vowed that he would treat her so well that such a thought wouldn’t even cross her mind. That too seemed to have been a message for Angela, but back then, it only earned her ridicule.
Angela wandered aimlessly, her steps leading wherever they might as she recalled the words Ian had thrown out in those moments. Before she knew it, she was in the middle of the forest.
How far had she come from the campsite? Angela lifted her head and looked around.
It was clear they had moved northward, where the temperature was noticeably lower than yesterday, as the leaves on the trees were distinctly thinner. Having traveled by carriage, Angela only now sensed the change and turned her steps back toward her own footprints.
That was when she heard the rustling of grass. Angela’s gaze instinctively shifted in that direction.
* * *
Angela opened her eyes, which had been closed. She shook her head, unable to properly remember what had happened.
What had burst out, shaking the grassy thicket with a rustle, was a massive black panther. The moment she met its gleaming yellow eyes, a warning of danger flashed through Angela’s mind like lightning. But before she could do anything, she was attacked.
She was shoved backward by its thick forepaw, and no sooner had she fallen than its teeth sank into her thigh. The pain was so overwhelming that her throat clamped shut, preventing even a scream.
She could only gasp like that before losing consciousness, so it was natural that her memory was blank. Angela barely propped up her upper body and looked at her leg, which was still throbbing with pain. It felt as if it were still clamped in the black panther’s mouth.
But what met her gaze on her thigh was only the black panther’s tooth. The sharp, large fang was embedded as is. The flesh desperately trying to heal seemed to be causing even more pain.
The moment Angela saw it, she gritted her teeth and reached out her hand. Better to endure the pain once and pull it out, so the flesh could heal.
“No!”
At that moment, a thunderous shout came from afar. Charging toward her impatiently was Ian. Behind him, she could see the black panther that had attacked her sprawled out. It seemed he had taken care of it.
“No. If you pull it out recklessly, it’ll damage all the blood vessels.”
It would heal on its own anyway. But she couldn’t show that in front of Ian, who didn’t know about Angela’s condition.
The profusely flowing blood stopping, the flesh healing on its own, the wound vanishing as if nothing had happened…
Angela forcibly pulled her hand away from the black panther’s tooth, which she wanted to yank out and throw away right then, and collapsed backward. She repeatedly told herself inwardly that she could endure any amount of pain.
“Just wait a little. I sent Cecil, so he’ll be back soon with the military physician.”
As Ian said this, his face looked like he was going mad with impatience. Seeing that foolish expression somehow made the pain feel a bit more distant.
“Why, Ian, you look like you’re the one dying…”
Ian stared endlessly at Angela’s wounded area before opening his mouth.
“I wish I could take the pain instead, but I can’t, so it’s so frustrating.”
Only then did Angela recall Ian’s feelings that had been shaken by the sudden black panther attack.
That’s right, he said he likes me.
Knowing that now, she could see Kalian’s eyes in Ian’s lavender pupils. They didn’t resemble each other at all, yet strangely, it reminded her of him.
Like how they fixed unwaveringly on Angela without straying elsewhere, or how they seemed to scream that they might go mad with worry.
“Does it hurt a lot? I’m sorry.”
At that moment, Angela wore a puzzled expression at Ian’s apology. The one who had hurt Angela was the black panther, and the one who had dealt with the black panther was Ian, so he was the one who should be receiving thanks instead. It was an apology that didn’t fit the situation at all.
Yet Ian followed his misplaced apology with an odd self-reproach: “It’s all my fault.”
“Because I made you hear those unnecessary words….”
Ah…, so he thought it was his fault that her steps had led her here in the first place?
It was true that learning Ian’s feelings had caused her aimless walk to bring her here of all places, but being attacked by the black panther couldn’t possibly be Ian’s fault.
Angela was about to let out a scoff and scold him, asking how this could be his fault. Just then, the forest shook violently and pulsed with the approach of heavy, striding footsteps. She could tell whose they were.
Kalian.
“You’re here.”
The one who spoke first, before Angela, was Ian. He seemed to have sensed whose presence it was as well, biting his lip. It looked so much like jealousy that Angela truly realized Ian liked her.
In the meantime, Kalian, who had been emanating his presence from a distance, appeared with a murderous intensity.
Cecil had said he’d gone to fetch the military physician, but Kalian showed up alone. He must have pushed everyone aside and rushed ahead the moment he heard about Angela. Picturing that scene in her mind, Angela forgot her pain and let out a soft chuckle.
Kalian approached Angela’s side with a face that looked even more deathly than Ian’s. Spotting the beast’s teeth embedded in her slender thigh, Kalian carefully lifted Angela and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m going to pull it out. Hold on to me tight. If it hurts, you can bite me.”
Ian had already risen from his spot and fully yielded the place to Kalian. But that didn’t mean he was approving of everything Kalian did to Angela.
At Kalian’s words, Ian immediately raised his voice.
“You’re just going to pull it out like that? Count, are you insane? Wait for the physician. She needs disinfection too…!”
But Kalian didn’t wait for Ian to finish and yanked out the black panther’s teeth in one swift motion. Angela pressed her forehead hard against Kalian’s shoulder and let out a pained groan.
The moment that agony-filled moan reached his ears, Ian drew the real sword from his waist and pointed it at Kalian.
“You crazy bastard. Get away from Angela right now. Right now!”
Harsh words spilled mercilessly from Ian’s mouth.
Ian knew full well that fighting Kalian would give him no chance of winning. But it didn’t matter. This wasn’t something he could just let slide.
How could her so-called fiancé make Angela suffer like that….
“Ian, stop.”
Then Angela’s voice came, restraining him. Her breathing, which had been ragged and broken from pain just moments ago, now flowed steadily. Puzzled, Ian looked at Angela.
The face that had been barely enduring the pain was now as clear as usual. With her complexion miraculously brightened, Ian stammered his question.
“A-are you okay, Angela?”
“She’s fine now.”
The answer came not from Angela but from Kalian. He tore a piece from the inner lining of his own clothes, soaked it in the blood pooling on the ground, and began wrapping it around Angela’s thigh.
Ian, about to raise his voice again over what unsanitary thing he was doing to the wound, froze and could only blink. He was confused about what he had just witnessed.
“Uh, An-Angela…?”
Ian alternated his gaze between Angela and her thigh. Again, the response came from Kalian.
“We’ll talk about it separately later. For now, you understand this is a secret, right?”
Of course it was a secret. Where could he go spreading an unbelievable story about a wound vanishing in an instant?
When Ian answered with his expression, Kalian hoisted Angela onto his back. The military physician, arriving late, stepped forward to check Angela’s condition, but Kalian refused, saying he’d seen it himself and she was fine, then proceeded to leave the scene and head back to the camp.
Cecil approached Ian, who was staring blankly at the two figures retreating, with an expression like he’d committed a mortal sin.
“Oh dear, our Highness got stolen from again. Stolen again. It’s all this attendant’s fault for being slow.”
It was unclear if he was teasing or genuinely thought that. But right now, Ian didn’t have the mental capacity to discern the truth in Cecil’s words and respond accordingly.
His mind was consumed entirely with what had happened to Angela without his knowledge.
Feeling a sense of defeat from the fact that Kalian knew and he alone didn’t would come later. For now, every nerve in his body was focused on worry for Angela.
