Chapter 12
The man who had introduced himself as Loras questioned Eliana relentlessly.
“Are you hurting anywhere? Have all your injuries healed? Does anything still ache?”
The endless stream of questions left Ellie slightly dazed. Before he could ask another, she hurriedly expressed her gratitude.
“Thank you so much. Thanks to your magic, I don’t hurt at all anymore. I’m truly grateful.”
“It was nothing,” Loras replied with a smile. “This is only natural for someone who may soon become the mistress of House Carlisle.”
Ellie nearly choked.
She broke into a fit of coughing, clearing her throat over and over, while Loras looked equally flustered by her reaction.
“Oh dear… are you all right?”
Just then, the door swung open.
“Loras. What are you doing here?”
“My lord, good morning. I was simply asking whether the young lady was feeling well.”
“You can leave now. The carriage has arrived, hasn’t it? Go help move the luggage.”
“…Excuse me? Me? Move the luggage?”
Loras stared at Tristan in disbelief before shrinking under the silent pressure of his gaze. Pouting, he quietly slipped out of the room.
Once the door closed, Tristan turned to Eliana.
The moment his eyes met hers, her entire body stiffened.
“So.”
He remained perfectly calm, completely unlike her.
Somehow, that only made Ellie feel a little wronged.
Lowering her eyes, she took a deep breath before walking to the dressing table. Picking up the marriage contract, she returned and held it out to him.
“This… is my answer.”
Tristan accepted the document without a word.
He flipped through it page by page until he reached the last sheet.
His hand stopped where her signature rested.
After studying it for a moment, he spoke in a voice filled with quiet satisfaction.
“Welcome… Eliana Carlisle.”
For the first time, something resembling a faint smile crossed his lips.
At that very moment, bright morning sunlight poured through the window, scattering across his dark hair.
The sight was so flawless, so breathtakingly beautiful, that Eliana found herself staring blankly before she even realized it.
The previous night, after speaking with Tristan, she had spent the entire night tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
“Ever since that day… it could only ever have been you.”
She replayed those unbearably embarrassing words over and over.
A man who fell in love with the woman who had saved his life and proposed marriage…
It sounded like something straight out of a fairy tale.
A story so unbelievable that she hadn’t known whether to laugh or dismiss it.
Yet somehow…
It gave a reason to this absurd marriage proposal.
And once she accepted that possibility, the words he had spoken before leaving her room weighed even more heavily on her heart.
Even if she returned to House Crowde…
Nothing would change.
There was no happiness waiting for her in that hell.
Just as Tristan had said—
She would only find herself standing at the edge of another cliff.
Besides…
After surviving death more than once over the past two days, following him no longer seemed like such a frightening choice.
The infamous Duke Carlisle?
From what she had seen, he was merely obsessed with hunting magical beasts.
It wasn’t as though he trafficked people into slavery.
Nor did he even seem particularly cruel.
If anything…
He was surprisingly calm… and remarkably rational.
Even his appearance had been nothing like she had imagined.
She hadn’t met many people in her life, but even by the most objective standards, Tristan was an extraordinarily handsome man.
In the end, she unfolded the marriage contract once more.
Her gaze lingered on the empty signature line beneath his name.
As Tristan had said…
Signing it had to be a better choice than returning to the Crowde family.
At least…
He genuinely wanted her.
The only thing that troubled her was that she wasn’t a proper noble lady like Cecilia.
She had never received the education expected of aristocratic daughters.
Compared to even ten-year-old noble girls, her knowledge was embarrassingly lacking.
How could someone like her ever fulfill the role of a duchess?
The thought left her feeling utterly lost.
Lost in her worries, Ellie happened to glance at the mirror.
Her reflection looked… strangely alive.
Brighter than before.
In her entire life, she had never experienced anything so dramatic.
Being nearly sold into slavery had been horrifying…
Yet paradoxically…
The last two days were the first time she had truly felt alive.
She stared at herself for a long while.
Then, beneath Tristan Carlisle’s signature…
She carefully wrote her own.
Eliana Crowde.
“Then we’d better get going.”
Tristan’s smooth, deep voice pulled Eliana back to reality.
“If you’re ready, my lady.”
Loras had already returned and was waiting at the doorway with his usual warm smile.
“Ah… I suppose I should call you Lady Carlisle now.”
He waved the marriage contract that Tristan had handed him.
“L-Lady…?”
Ellie’s face instantly turned scarlet.
“I… um… I guess that’s true?”
Watching her flustered reaction, Loras chuckled.
Then, after Tristan reminded him not to waste time, he hurriedly escorted Ellie downstairs.
Outside the inn waited an enormous carriage.
It was far larger and far more elegant than the one she had ridden while living with the Crowde family.
“Get in.”
Tristan spoke curtly.
“If we don’t leave now, we’ll end up spending the night on the road.”
Just as Ellie hurried toward the carriage, Loras suddenly stepped in, waving both hands.
“Wait! My lord! What exactly are you doing?”
Tristan looked at him as if asking what the problem was.
Loras silently mouthed a single word.
“Escort.”
With a weary sigh, Tristan extended his hand toward Ellie.
It was obvious this wasn’t something he was accustomed to.
But neither was she.
Watching the two awkward nobles stiffly fumble through such a simple gesture, Loras wore the expression of someone witnessing an unimaginable spectacle.
Once Ellie safely climbed into the carriage, she admired the spacious interior while waiting for Tristan.
Instead…
He simply closed the carriage door and turned away.
Before Ellie could even process what had happened—
“My loooord!”
Loras shouted again.
“What now?”
Tristan answered with obvious irritation.
“What is it this time, Loras?”
“You should be riding together! Don’t tell me you’re planning to ride your horse by yourself again?”
“I prefer riding Tis.”
He sounded completely serious.
“Is there a problem with that?”
Annoyance was written plainly across Tristan’s face.
Loras, however, ignored it and launched into another endless lecture.
He scolded him so fiercely that it was hard to believe he was merely a vassal speaking to his lord.
It was a sight Ellie could never have imagined witnessing at the Crowde estate.
She watched with her mouth hanging open—
Until the carriage door was abruptly thrown open.
Startled, she quickly shrank back from the window.
“So noisy…”
Grumbling with an irritated expression, Tristan climbed inside.
Seeing the displeasure on his face, Ellie instinctively straightened her back.
She was unusually sensitive to other people’s negative emotions.
Hatred.
Disgust.
Contempt.
Those feelings had been directed at her since childhood.
They had left her timid, always shrinking into herself.
As old memories came flooding back, anxiety gripped her chest.
Without realizing it, she began picking at the skin beside her fingernails.
Suddenly—
A large hand caught hers.
“That’s a bad habit.”
Tristan gently held her hand to stop her.
Embarrassed by her own behavior, Ellie awkwardly wriggled her fingers beneath his broad palm.
The slight movement must have tickled him.
Tristan quickly withdrew his hand and turned his gaze toward the window.
Was he… embarrassed?
Seeing such an unexpectedly human side of the man who had seemed carved from cold marble eased her tension.
She leaned back against the soft seat.
The carriage began swaying more violently as it climbed a steep hill.
Her stomach churned slightly.
She glanced toward Tristan.
Despite the rocking carriage, he sat with flawless posture, not moving an inch.
It suddenly struck her once again.
This man held a title even higher than her adoptive father.
A sharp ache tugged at her heart.
Does he know…?
That I’m completely ignorant… that I know nothing at all?
The thought gave rise to another question.
How had he found her?
Most people didn’t even know House Crowde had an adopted daughter.
And when they had first met…
It had been in an unnamed forest.
She had wandered into that place only because Cecilia had forced her into searching a certain count’s hunting grounds.
There was no way Tristan could have known any of that.
“You look like you want to ask something.”
As though reading her thoughts, Tristan folded his arms.
“If you’re curious, ask.”
After hesitating for a moment, Ellie finally spoke.
“How… did you find me?”
“The incident at the lake happened over a year ago.”
“You didn’t even know my name.”
Tristan seemed to choose his words carefully before answering.
“You’re right.”
“It happened more than a year ago.”
“I didn’t know your name.”
“So…”
“It took me a year.”
“…What?”
“You were difficult to find.”
He wore an expression that wasn’t quite a smile before quietly looking out the window again.
For a long while…
He simply stared into the distance.
As though gazing back at the time that had passed.
Ellie didn’t know what to say.
The weight of his words—
I spent an entire year looking for you.
Somehow, they felt impossibly heavy.
“I told you already.”
Tristan finally broke the silence.
“Eliana…”
“It had to be you.”
The moment he repeated those unbearably embarrassing words, Ellie’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato.
“P-Please stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“You still don’t seem to understand what I said yesterday.”
“I understand!”
She burst out before she could stop herself.
“I know! You fell in love with me the day I saved your life!”
Her voice rang loudly through the once-silent carriage.
The instant the words left her mouth, Ellie froze in horror.
With wide eyes, she clapped both hands over her lips.
But it was already too late.
Her crystal-clear confession had echoed so loudly that even Loras, riding outside the carriage…
Covered his own mouth in stunned disbelief.
