Chapter 264
Chapter 264
“…. What if that woman is wronged because of me?” Yanghwa asked.
“First of all, they started the argument, and then they insulted you. When you hurt someone, chances are something bad happens to you. They call it karma, you know?” I replied.
“‘You reap what you sow.’ Well… That’s a saying my big brother often uses.”
I lightly stroked Yanghwa’s hair. She missed her family a lot, given how often she brought up stories about them lately.
“But seriously, how did she hit you? You should’ve been more careful…”
I again applied a cold spell to a handkerchief and pressed it against her swollen cheek. Yanghwa blinked her slightly swollen eyes and fluttered her long eyelashes.
“I hit myself,” she confessed.
I looked at her incredulously. “….What?”
“I thought it was a good chance when I saw them rushing toward me.”
“You did it yourself?!”
“Yeah. Since it came that far, I thought I might as well do it. They say if you want to do something, do it decisively, right?”
She was too decisive, and that was the problem. Did she hit herself to the point where her cheek swelled like this? Yanghwa looked up at my surprised face and couldn’t hold back her laughter. Her swollen cheek must have hurt.
“You’re a naughty one. Even your magic feels unlucky,” I shook my head, although I couldn’t resist the smile that crept up on my face.
I wanted to find the pure and innocent Yanghwa! How could a person change so much in just two months?
I became speechless when I realized that the person she had spent for the past two months was me, whom she followed like a shadow.
It was my fault.
* * *
They said crying was physically exhausting. Even if it was all acting, Yanghwa, who had shed many tears, fell asleep after a few more words of conversation. I left the sleeping Yanghwa behind and entered the living room. The coldness was so intense that I felt goosebumps erupt on my skin.
Duran was looking out the window, Julius stood in front of the fireplace, where the embers had turned to ashes, and Kaichen sat on the sofa reading a book with a calm face. The three of them looked strange. How should I describe it… Although they knew each other and were reasonably close, they seemed awkward, as if they were meeting for the first time today.
I couldn’t figure out why the atmosphere was so cold, but I knew Julius was worried about what had happened at the garden party. Anyone could see through his restlessness.
“Count Alshine! So, how is the Princess? Is she okay?”
Julius finally noticed my presence. I wondered how preoccupied he had been to be so late in recognizing me. He approached me and asked, and I shrugged and told him she was asleep.
As Julius wiped his face with his hand, he finally sighed in relief. “Are there any injuries? Shouldn’t we call the physician again? And… and she cried so much. She might be dehydrated…” he rambled on incessantly.
“….Yes?”
“The wound was not light at all. How could someone dare to… Ha, where did she even find the audacity to hit…”
“….”
I glanced at Kaichen sideways. I wondered when he had closed his book, but he was staring at me intently. I sent him a look asking what had happened, but Kaichen only blinked one eyebrow without answering.
‘Surely he knows about Yanghwa’s performance, right…?’
I naturally thought he did. When I had attended the garden party, Kaichen silently accompanied me and watched over me as I guided Yanghwa on how to be cautious. Kaichen quickly grasped the situation and didn’t do anything to protect me. Moreover, Duran had not said anything because he had grasped the situation.
So Julius couldn’t possibly be unaware of what had happened at the garden party, especially if he was the usually rational and brilliant Julius.
“I guess it’s not going to work out. I should call the physician after all… Ah, did I say she fell asleep? Then when she wakes up… D*amn it, I should have arrived earlier.”
Yes, the usual Julius would have noticed-not this Julius, who had lost his composure.
Julius continued muttering. Now he was shaking my shoulders vigorously. “Tell me exactly what happened. It must have been bad that the Countess couldn’t even prevent it.”
“Oh, that’s…”
“Huh? What the hell did Lady Sorel say to the Princess? How can the Princess be insulted like that!”
I couldn’t come up with a reason as my shoulders began to hurt. I couldn’t answer him properly as he shook my frame violently. Finally, his hands dropped roughly to his sides with a thud. Since my dress exposed my shoulders, Julius’s fingerprints were clearly visible, turning red.
“Don’t act recklessly.”
Kaichen’s cold voice cut through the air. Julius seemed to flinch.
“….Ah.”
“There’s a line even when losing one’s temper, you know that, don’t you?”
“….”
“It seems His Highness has forgotten that.”
At the icy words, Julius seemed to snap out of it and furrowed his brows, ruffling his hair. Then he turned back to me with a familiar face. “I apologize, Countess. I was not right to question you.”
Kaichen, who had gently wrapped his arms around my shoulders, clicked his tongue disapprovingly. Before I could respond, Kaichen led me to the sofa.