Chapter 102
Angela, who had been quietly leaning against Kalian’s back as he carried her, suddenly let out a soft, meaningless chuckle.
“You seem to have forgotten already, but Angela is currently a critically ill patient.”
Kalian, as if to say this was no time for laughter, glanced warily at the military physician following behind and whispered a warning that wasn’t quite a warning. In response, Angela buried her face into one of Kalian’s shoulders.
What could possibly be so funny that she couldn’t hold back her laughter like that? Kalian, still unable to shake off the lingering image of the beast’s teeth embedded in her slender leg, furrowed his brow and asked.
“You’re not laughing like this because you enjoyed startling me, are you?”
Only then did Angela suppress the laughter trying to escape and shake her head.
“Just… thinking about Ian.”
To be precise, it was thoughts of Ian and Kalian. She had wondered why Kalian disliked Ian so much, but it seemed Kalian had noticed Ian’s feelings long ago—feelings that even she, the person involved, hadn’t known about.
It was a realization that came to her as she recalled Kalian pulling out the black panther’s teeth without a moment’s hesitation in front of Ian. In that moment, Kalian had been certain that Ian would keep the secret. Even Angela, who had just learned of Ian’s feelings, hadn’t been able to hold onto any such certainty and had merely endured.
There had been a reason why Ian’s invitation to the palace banquet had been torn to shreds in Kalian’s hands. She had thought it was an overreaction, no matter how much he disliked Ian, but now the wandering puzzle piece had finally found its place.
“What… thoughts?”
Kalian, who had no way of knowing her inner thoughts, asked again. He seemed to be trying to act nonchalant, but it was clumsy. Angela easily discerned what was hidden in the ambiguous gaps between his words.
“What about him were you thinking of?”
His impatient attitude, unable to wait for an answer, revealed the same thing. Angela, who had just seen the answer to the problem, effortlessly pierced through Kalian’s inner mind.
The suppressed laughter caused a light commotion in her mouth, eager to escape. Because of that, she couldn’t say anything, and Kalian’s steps slowed before coming to a complete stop not long after. His shoulders visibly tensed, and his straight jawline twitched for a moment.
Worried that he might be sulking, Angela first tightened her arms around Kalian. Then, without revealing that she had learned of Ian’s feelings for her, she hurriedly chose words to answer Kalian’s question.
At that moment.
“I heard there was an accident.”
A familiar voice softly tapped at her eardrum. It was Dominic. So that was why Kalian’s steps had halted—there was another reason.
The laughter tickling Angela’s mouth naturally curled its tail like it had met its natural enemy. It fled down her throat into her stomach, where it was futilely digested.
“It wasn’t anything serious.”
Thanks to that, her voice toward Dominic was unintentionally dry and flat. Enough to make the following military physician visibly surprised, as if wondering if that was how one spoke to their father.
Dominic himself said nothing one way or the other. Instead, he shifted his gaze to her leg, wrapped tightly in a bloodstained cloth. He stared intently at the leg, which looked nothing like “not serious.” It was a persistent interest.
It could be that he wanted to cut off this leg, like throwing away a log that had caught fire. Or perhaps, just as he had sworn to save her without realizing his own body was burning, he was looking at her injury with a desire to somehow fix it.
Or maybe, after rolling in the flames together and emerging without a single burn on his skin, he found it strange and wanted to check if this wound was real or fake.
But what did it matter which it was? It was just a trace left by Grace. Angela opened her mouth without bothering to guess at Dominic’s intentions, which weren’t hers to own anyway.
“That’s nothing much either.”
She gestured with her eyes toward the leg where his gaze was fixed. In that instant, Dominic frowned deeply, as if his head was throbbing. As if Angela had done something wicked, he covered one ear and then nodded his head an unusually large number of times.
“Yes… Yes… That’s right…”
The sporadic responses made it unclear if they were directed at Angela. His gaze, which had been clear just moments ago, was now indistinctly distorted.
At the sudden change in Dominic’s complexion, the military physician quickly stepped toward him, asking if he was alright. Kalian didn’t miss the opportunity and cut off the dragging conversation between father and daughter.
“Attend to His Excellency. We need to hurry over here too, as Angela’s treatment is urgent.”
His tone was sharper than his swordsmanship. However, the military physician, who had been fooled by Kalian and taken Angela’s wound— which he hadn’t even seen with his own eyes—seriously, replied earnestly that he would do so.
Kalian finished his brazen act and turned away. Even then, Dominic’s gaze remained scattered on its own. He looked like a child who had lost his way.
* * *
When Kalian carried Angela into her tent, Yvonne was waiting for them with simple washing water and fresh clothes to change into. It was one of the outfits Mary had brought in abundance.
In the meantime, she must have boiled it, as warm steam rose from the basin filled with water. For Angela, who wouldn’t mind submerging her entire body in ice-cold water.
Angela dipped her fingertip beneath the surface and gently stirred it. Gentle ripples spread across the water, and the heat felt distinctly clear against her skin, which was habitually shrouded in chill.
Still, since it was Yvonne’s heartfelt effort, it was bearable. But Kalian’s thoughts seemed different.
Kalian picked up the kettle from one side of the tent and poured the water meant for drinking into the basin, where steam was already curling up. In an instant, the temperature of the water touching her fingertips dropped sharply.
“Ah…”
Only then did Yvonne seem to realize what she had overlooked, letting out a short sigh.
“It’s fine, leave it as is.”
Angela, snatching the apology from Yvonne’s quivering lips, spoke while lightly shaking her wet hand. Her nonchalant attitude, as if it were no big deal, pierced Yvonne like a heated needle.
That patience was something Yvonne had cultivated in her. She had dangled love as bait before a child starved for affection. Endure it all, and I’ll give you this as a reward. She had used tender feelings to make her endure endlessly.
Yet Angela herself seemed unaware of it. In the eyes looking at Yvonne, there wasn’t even a fingernail’s worth of resentment. The transparent gaze was no different from when they secretly whispered affections to each other behind Grace’s back.
How could she do that? Even from the position of receiving forgiveness, it was incomprehensible.
Thanks to that, Yvonne stood there blankly, holding a towel to soak in the water but doing nothing, when a voice sharp as a whip flew in from elsewhere.
“I’ll do it, so please step aside.”
While Yvonne widened her eyes in surprise, Kalian snatched the towel from her hand. The wide cloth plunged into the lukewarm water with a splash.
Only after seeing Kalian retrieve it and wring it out so no water dripped did Yvonne leave the tent.
Before drawing the tent flap back down, she saw Angela entrusting her face to Kalian. She wanted to do it herself but couldn’t insist. All that was left was the qualification to step back.
Still, hoping to be called if needed, Yvonne took a seat not far away.
“Don’t be like that to Yvonne.”
As he wiped her face, dirtied from rolling in the forest, Angela quietly reproached him.
“Why?”
Kalian, knowing the reason full well, rubbed Angela’s cheek with the towel and feigned ignorance as he asked. Angela immediately shot him a glare, as if insisting he had to hear it straight from her lips.
However, Kalian remained silent, focusing solely on wiping Angela’s skin. It was just as Angela opened her mouth a bit sternly, calling out, “Kalian.”
“It was me venting my frustration.”
Kalian, who had begun wiping Angela’s palm with the towel, spoke first.
“Today has been nothing but unpleasant things all day long.”
“What could have been so unpleasant for our Kalian?”
Kalian, who hadn’t been meeting Angela’s direct gaze, only lifted his head just before he could have memorized the lines of her palm.
“His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince arriving was unpleasant, Angela getting hurt was unpleasant, him rescuing you instead of me was unpleasant, and because of that, Angela…”
“…”
“Seemed to be thinking about His Highness… that’s unpleasant too.”
Only after hearing his petulant words did Angela recall that the two of them had been talking about Ian before running into Dominic. A wry laugh escaped Angela’s lips.
Angela, thoroughly soaked in the jealousy Kalian couldn’t hide and laid bare completely, popped open the very first button of the top she was wearing.
“Kalian.”
With the call, the second button slipped free from its neatly aligned position just as easily.
“Instead of wasting time hating other things.”
The fourth button followed.
“You should like me more.”
The fifth button met the same fate. The buttons after that were ripped off by the force of Kalian’s pull and went tumbling across the floor.
Kalian pressed his lips against Angela’s pale skin. In an instant, he left several marks along her straight collarbone and bit into her rounded shoulder as if to gnaw it, embroidering red patterns across her flesh.
“I’ve been wasting my time, haven’t I?”
Kalian murmured as he kissed her slender neck and slowly made his way downward.
“Time that’s too precious even just for thinking about Angela.”
His voice resonated from the spot where her heart pounded. The touch of his hot lips branded itself like a seal right in the center of her chest.
Angela wrapped both arms around Kalian. The message to come even closer than they already were must have gotten through, because Kalian’s contact deepened immediately.
“!”
In a flash, their legs tangled together. At the same moment, their lips rushed toward each other. Angela let out a small moan and clutched Kalian tightly. She raked her nails across his solid back.
It was impossible to tell whose heart was thundering so wildly. If it seemed like Angela’s, it turned out to be Kalian’s; if Kalian’s, then it was Angela’s. As they explored one another in time with the surging beats, even their palpitations overlapped into a single rhythm.
“Haa. Haa.”
The tiny breaths Angela exhaled were like a spell drawing Kalian in. Even when he tried to pull away, he ended up stepping right back into her. It was like an inescapable mire—the more he flailed, the deeper he sank.
Angela, her senses dazed by the affection pouring from Kalian, couldn’t quite find his lips and instead scattered small kisses along his chin, the corner of his mouth. She seemed oblivious to how those teasing pecks were stirring him up.
Kalian seized her delicate jaw in a firm grip and swallowed Angela’s lips whole. He refused to break the connection, as if commanding her to breathe only with the air he provided.
Angela was no different in her refusal to let go of Kalian. Overwhelmed yet determined, she mimicked his movements like a child stubbornly trying to learn. She committed to memory the way to tease the tip of his tongue and mastered how to spread a slow-burning heat through her entire body.
They held each other in the closest embrace possible until the moment her mind went utterly blank.
They remained like that for a long while. The scorching heat refused to fade. Even as he held Angela’s cool body, the breaths flowing from Kalian’s mouth were brimming with warmth. Angela took that as a blessing, embracing him as she whispered.
“It’s the procession heading to the battlefield.”
The words were an abrupt confrontation with reality.
“Just inside a small tent.”
The ones that followed were much the same.
“Outside, Yvonne is probably there. And several knights as well.”
Each phrase pinched at the truth of their situation. Kalian furrowed his brow like a condemned man. Then Angela, cupping both of his cheeks, pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“Yet none of it registered in my eyes. Throughout that shameless, beast-like tumbling, all I saw was you. Kalian, it was the same for you, wasn’t it?”
There had been a time when they’d faced a similar temptation right here in this tent. When was it that he’d shaken his head, insisting it couldn’t happen?
It wasn’t such a distant memory, yet just moments ago, he hadn’t been able to hold back at all. His vision had blurred like someone starved for ages suddenly faced with a permitted meal. That was how desperately he’d wanted it.
“I love you.”
Kalian’s eyes widened as if he’d heard something utterly unexpected, and he stared at Angela.
“These words—I give them only to you.”
He couldn’t suppress the urge to kiss her, now that she’d finally steadied her ragged breathing. Tossing aside the reality Angela had just laid bare, Kalian wrapped his large hand around the nape of her neck.
