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Chapter 9
When I opened my eyes, I saw stars outside the window.
After collapsing, it could take days to recover, so just seeing nightfall didn’t tell me how much time had passed.
“My head still hurts…”
All of this was because my mental strength had been drained for a whole week after discovering Killian’s affair.
On top of that, this time I had been running around on a schedule that would exhaust even a healthy person, so it wasn’t surprising that I collapsed.
I pressed my temples and looked around the bedroom. On the desk, the items I’d bought during shopping were neatly stacked, and my clothes had been changed into pajamas.
There were plenty of things bothering me, but the most important right now was the original poison note.
“Hopefully no one tampered with it while I was unconscious…”
I staggered to the second drawer of the desk and slipped my hand inside, feeling along the top. That meant I was touching the bottom of the first drawer, which was also the ceiling of the second drawer.
I had glued the envelope holding the note in place. Even if someone opened the drawer, they probably wouldn’t check that far in.
“Haa…”
A sigh of relief escaped me.
Fortunately, the envelope was still exactly where I had placed it.
“What am I doing first thing after waking up?”
“…!”
They say that when you’re too surprised, you can’t even scream, and that was exactly me. My heart raced, but my body was frozen like stone.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, pretending nothing was wrong, closed the drawer, and turned around.
“Where are you coming from right now?”
“Bathroom?”
Killian’s eyes narrowed lazily. I swallowed nervously and asked,
“So what were you doing in my bathroom?”
“There’s only one thing to do in a sick person’s room.”
He dipped the towel he was holding into a water basin beside the bed and looked me in the eye.
“You’ve got a high fever. Lie down.”
“…You’re saying you took care of me?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to check.”
“Talk in a way that makes sense if you want me to believe it.”
Even as I watched his thick, muscular arms wring out the wet towel, I still refused to believe him. Killian’s posture tilted slightly.
“I never thought your trust in me would be so low.”
Did he think I’d trust him blindly?
Rolling my eyes in disbelief, I ran my fingers through my hair—and flinched. The hair above my forehead was slightly wet.
Killian smiled knowingly when he saw me pause with my fingers tangled in my hair.
“The chief physician says resting is the best medicine. Now, lie down.”
There was a strange compulsion in his voice. Unconsciously, I lifted my feet.
I reflexively headed for the bed but diverted to the sofa.
“I can’t lie down defenseless in front of Killian.”
But just a few steps later, I ended up in his arms. I had only staggered slightly from dizziness, but he reached me in an instant, wrapping his waist around me.
The cool scent of his body enveloped me.
“Even if you don’t want to, endure it.”
Without a chance to resist, my body lifted off the floor.
Supporting my back and the back of my thighs, Killian quickly laid me on the bed.
He placed a hand on my forehead to check my temperature, put the damp towel on it, and even pulled the blanket all the way up to my chin, tucking me in tightly.
It was surprisingly delicate and tender.
Enough to make me bite back the words I wanted to shout: I don’t need this, just leave!
After finishing his careful treatment, Killian sat at the edge of the bed, looking down at me. Perhaps fatigue really did dull judgment—somehow his gaze felt warm.
I twisted under the blanket for no reason.
“Did you eat something bad?”
“No way.”
“Then did you hurt your head? Last month?”
He chuckled at me tapping his brow lightly.
“My head did hurt a little.”
Killian ran his fingers over the long scar on his brow as if recalling the pain.
Who could have predicted that on our wedding anniversary night, a monster would breach the grand duchy’s castle and leave Killian injured?
Whenever Killian was away, the castle always went into emergency mode. Last month had been the same.
At night, the monsters’ activity would spike, so during the day the castle’s gates remained sealed. Only after sunset would the main gate open.
During those times, the castle became noisy, like a bustling night market. They accepted all the delayed visitors and supplies at once. But last month, the noise had a different meaning.
“Ahhh!”
As soon as the gate opened, a gruesome scream erupted.
A blue-skinned hand grabbed the knight guarding the entrance and bit down on his neck.
The people around the carriage wore human clothes, but they weren’t human. Nor were they animals.
Pale, bluish skin, bloodshot red eyes, sharp teeth, and claws—like corpses brought to life.
“…R-run! It’s a monster!”
Someone shouted, but that quickly turned into a scream. The knight bitten by the monster transformed into one like them and attacked his comrades.
All anyone could feel was fear. The castle lost order instantly.
The servants scattered, forgetting the evacuation drills they had practiced. The knights panicked.
The term “impenetrable” was meaningless.
All the elite knights had gone on a monster hunt, leaving only the weakest behind. They had only fought monsters from below the walls in siege battles—not face-to-face. So the collapse of the lines was inevitable.
“Everyone, focus! Knights, form the defensive line as trained! The rest, prepare the fire attack!”
I shouted through the window. Finally, the knights moved.
The arsenal always had oil-soaked cloth-wrapped arrows ready. Some knights and attendants ran to the armory, while the rest formed ranks to face the monsters.
Still, they couldn’t kill the monsters.
Even if you cut off an arm, it regenerated in seconds. Fire arrows only slowed them down—they kept coming until their heads burned.
It was only a war of attrition to hold out until Killian arrived.
“Signal! Did you send a signal to Killian?”
“Uh… not yet…”
Of course, they hadn’t—too busy attacking with swords.
I rushed outside from the bedroom to signal Killian. Just then, the head maid, Belle Fischer, was running toward me.
“Good, you’re here! What about the other buildings—”
“Out of the way!”
She shoved me aside at full speed and ran into my bedroom.
“What about the other buildings—”
Click.
She locked the door. Locked it tightly, like a castle gate.
I pounded on the door, but no answer came. Behind it, I only heard the scraping of something heavy being moved.
“Belle! What are you doing? Are you crazy? Hey!”
I yelled, then instinctively shut my mouth.
Before I even realized it, every hair on my body stood on end.
Kyaaaah!
The monstrous scream tore through my eardrums.
The monster at the end of the hallway saw me and ran at insane speed.
I had always thought, “If I die, I die,” but death still terrified me. More than ever, I wanted to live—but my feet wouldn’t move, I couldn’t even close my eyes.
As the monster’s gaping maw approached, a flash of blue light flickered.
Slash.
The monster’s head dropped cleanly to the floor, thick black blood pouring from its neck.
“Eleanor.”
I thought I was hallucinating. Killian couldn’t possibly be in the castle.
It had been less than a day since he departed for the Black Lands. Considering travel time, he couldn’t have returned to the castle yet.
Thinking I was seeing a vision before dying, I rubbed my eyes and screamed.
“Killian!”
The headless monster flailed its arms toward him. Killian, hearing my voice, reacted a step late but pierced the monster’s heart perfectly.
He didn’t even remove the sword stuck in the monster’s chest. He approached me directly, kicking the collapsing monster aside with wild, animalistic focus.
He lifted me with a strength that made my waist feel crushed.
Killian didn’t seem to notice that he had a scar across his brow, or that blood ran down his cheek.
“Eleanor, Eleanor, Eleanor…”
He just kept calling my name frantically.
I looked up at him, sitting beside me. Then as now, his golden eyes shimmered like the Milky Way. He seemed to have forgotten the risk of blindness.
“…I think that head injury caused the problem. Definitely.”
Otherwise, why would he be watching me as if he had stayed up all night?
I stole glances at Killian’s face, tinged with fatigue.
The scars from the monster attack were still vivid, as if they were from yesterday.
“Go see the chief physician again.”
“Why are you worried about me?”
“Who else would?”
Honestly, it was about my life!
While checking the wounds, maybe fixing his head could make him suddenly act normally.
“No matter what, poisoning your wife isn’t human behavior,” I thought, planning to change his mind.
Puffing to myself, I suddenly realized something.
“…Since when have Killian and I been this close?”
He had somehow ended up sitting right beside my left arm, leaning deeply toward me.
I wrapped the blanket around myself and wriggled to get as far from him as possible.
He looked at me, huddled at the edge of the bed, and smirked.
“If you knew you drank water while in my arms just now, you’d faint.”
“What? I really did that?”
“Yes.”
His calm answer made me jump.
Good heavens. Even in confusion, what was I thinking, drinking water from him? What if it had been laced with medicine!
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Do I need to tell you everything?”
As if it were ridiculous, Killian gently pushed my shoulder back down and reapplied the wet towel to my forehead.
“Of course I have to tell you!”
“I carried you here, Anna changed your clothes, and since then I’ve been here. Gave you water, medicine, held your hand when you groaned. Got it?”
“No!”
I grabbed the pillow beside me and pounded Killian’s shoulder. I could have avoided it, but he stayed still.
That annoyed me more. If he had dodged, I’d have been even angrier. Even letting him show what he did according to my plan was irritating.
Anyway, the fever felt like it was rising again. I pushed Killian out of the bed.
“You’re banned from entering my room from now on. Out.”
He was already about to leave anyway and got up obediently.
“Good night.”
Ugh, such a cheesy way of speaking. I wasn’t falling for it.
I waited until he completely closed the door, then rummaged through the items on my desk. Among the self-defense items I’d grabbed at the magic store, there was one that could help in a situation like this.
“It looks like a pocket watch… Ah, here it is!”
This is… a universal poison detector.
