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Chapter 31
“Head Butler.”
Hearing the servants calling each other, Litricia figured out Gorten’s position and called him over.
“Could you prepare a bath for His Highness? Also, I need a change of clothes…”
“I-I’ll take care of that…!”
As Litricia casually spoke to Gorten, Masha raised her hand to assert her presence.
“Alright, then. I’ll leave it to you.”
“…! Yes, right away, ma’am!”
“Just call me by name.”
“Understood, Miss Litricia.”
Gorten bowed his head expertly at Litricia’s command.
In contrast, Masha still looked dazed. Though she had stepped up out of urgency, she seemed shocked that Litricia hadn’t reacted much to her appearance.
Only after Gorten nudged her in the side did Masha hurriedly bow as well.
“Y-Yes!”
“Thank you, both of you.”
Offering a light nod of thanks, Litricia guided Killian, who still wouldn’t let go of her, into the room.
Flop.
She laid Killian down on the bed as if he were collapsing and slipped herself out from under his arm.
“Killian, just lie down for a moment.”
“Don’t go.”
“I’m just going to get something to clean you up. Do you realize what state you’re in right now?”
“No. Don’t go.”
As Litricia began to rise, Killian pulled her back into his arms.
The medicinal scent mixed with mint that wafted from his broad chest was familiar.
“You’ll catch a cold if you stay like this.”
Despite her soothing words, Killian simply buried his face into her round shoulder and shook his head stubbornly.
Outside the window, the intensifying rain poured noisily onto the ground.
Sigh. Why are you like this…?
Knowing she couldn’t physically overpower Killian, Litricia half-resigned herself to the situation and pressed her sleeve gently against his face.
But her clothes were already soaked through, so it didn’t help much.
“I… I’m afraid of rainy days.”
Litricia, rummaging around for any dry cloth, instinctively glanced at the window.
“Why?”
“Whenever it rains, someone always dies… or leaves.”
“…Is that why you were so scared today? Because you thought I had disappeared with the rain?”
Matching the rhythm of the pounding rain on the windows, Litricia gently rubbed Killian’s back.
For some reason, seeing him like this reminded her of her own fear of carriages, and she felt sympathy for him.
“If that’s the reason, then it was unnecessary worry. I have a contract with you, remember? No matter what happens, I promised to stay here for a year.”
“Then what about after a year? Will you still stay?”
“Well…”
Litricia trailed off, unable to answer the question.
Fortunately, just in time, Gorten returned with the bathwater and escorted Killian to the bathroom, sparing her from having to respond.
“A week’s already passed since we made the one-year promise. Ugh.”
Feeling something warm trickle down from her nose, Litricia quickly pinched it with her sleeve.
As expected, red blood spread in a circle across the blue fabric.
“My nosebleeds are getting worse lately. If it’s like this already, what’ll happen later…?”
Being careful not to leave any traces, Litricia got off the bed.
“I wonder if I’ll even be able to last a year like this.”
Stepping over the light spilling from the bathroom, she left Killian’s room.
Sigh…
Even after changing into dry clothes and lying down, Litricia couldn’t sleep easily. She tossed and turned.
Killian’s behavior today had been utterly baffling.
Shaking in fear that she, someone he’d barely just met, might leave?
There was no way he had grown that attached in less than two weeks.
It was all so confusing she couldn’t make sense of it.
Knock knock.
“Hmm?”
Just as she was forcing herself to sleep with her eyes closed, Litricia sat up.
She hadn’t even responded yet when the door burst open.
“Killian? What’s with the pillow…?”
Killian, now freshly dressed and tidy, walked in holding a pillow in one hand without hesitation.
“I told you. I’m afraid of rainy days.”
“And?”
“So I’ll be staying here tonight, if you don’t mind.”
Without giving her time to stop him, Killian walked straight to the sofa, laid down, and settled in.
His long legs stuck awkwardly out over the edge.
“I didn’t say you could sleep here, you know?”
“You were patting me earlier, and now you’re cold-hearted again?”
“Uh…”
At a loss for words, Litricia sat up properly.
“Are you really going to sleep like that? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
“It’s fine.”
Narrowing her eyes, Litricia looked at him, then got out of bed, pulled off the blanket, and crouched beside him.
As she leaned in, she noticed it—his lips and feet were still covered in torn wounds. He must not have been treated.
“Killian, sit up for a second.”
“If you’re trying to kick me out, it’s no use.”
“That’s not it. Just sit up. Gorten must have called a doctor, so why are you still like this?”
She forcibly sat Killian up and brought over a medicine box.
Piril had prepared it in advance, just in case.
“You probably wouldn’t listen even if I told you to get treated right now, would you?”
“Hmm. You’ve figured me out pretty well.”
Killian, now somewhat back to his usual self, tilted his head with a relaxed air.
But the faint tremble in his fingers at each thunderclap betrayed his fear.
“Lower your head a bit. What did you even do to your lips to make them like this?”
Litricia gently applied ointment to Killian’s battered lips.
“You’re kind, my dear wife.”
“Didn’t you just call me cold-hearted?”
“Did I?”
Smiling faintly at the light exchange, Litricia dabbed more ointment on a cut near his jaw.
“Say, Killian… earlier, did you really come back in such a rush because you thought I’d disappeared? Why?”
Resting her chin on her knees, Litricia asked softly.
“We’re not even that close. It’s not like we’re important to each other.”
“…”
Killian’s eyes drifted to the wall behind Litricia. There, the words “Disclosure Forbidden” shimmered again in blue smoke.
“…Let’s just say it was a whim. Like I said, I’m not quite in my right mind when it rains.”
“A whim, huh… I see.”
Litricia yawned and blinked sleepily.
She always got drowsy like this a little while after bleeding or having a headache.
“I have a secret too. I’m scared of carriages. I lost someone precious in a carriage accident when I was young.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. So… I kind of understand why you’re afraid of the rain. So… when it rains, you can come here. It’s okay.”
“How generous.”
Killian replied playfully to her permission, which sounded like a big decision.
“But that’s the limit. Don’t get used to me, Killian.”
“What do you mean, don’t get used to you?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Don’t get used to spending time with me. Or talking to me. Don’t get used to anything. So that you won’t feel empty when I’m gone.”
Litricia leaned her heavy head against the sofa.
“I don’t want to become one of the reasons you’re afraid of rainy days.”
It was enough that Isis and Count Esta twisted their faces at the mere mention of her name.
She didn’t want to be remembered as a disaster by anyone else.
If possible… for someone like Killian, who gave her a nice room and always listened seriously…
She wanted to remain a memory. Just a light, distant memory—someone who once existed.
The kind of memory that neither hurts nor warms you. Just neutral. Just that.
“I’ll try to leave on a day when it doesn’t rain… but just in case.”
“You could just not leave, you know.”
“You know I can’t. You can’t escape death just by avoiding it…”
Litricia let out a soft laugh, then fell silent.
In truth, she still had things she wanted to ask Killian. Like why he had looked so desperate trying to find her. Or whether that minty smell on him was the same scent from the sedative that once calmed her.
But she felt that if she heard his answers, leaving this place would become much harder.
So she kept her mouth shut. And as the sound of rain continued, her eyelids grew heavier.
“Litricia.”
“…”
“Litricia? Are you asleep?”
Getting no response, Killian sat up on the sofa.
Her eyelids fluttered slowly—Litricia had fallen asleep.
Listening to her soft breathing, Killian gently lifted her into his arms.
“You’re endlessly cruel, you know that?”
He let out a bitter smile full of tattered longing and carefully laid Litricia on the white sheets.
“Now even the rain isn’t enough—you need other days to drive me mad too?”
“Mmm…”
Litricia stirred under the sunlight piercing her eyelids.
Maybe it was all the events of the previous day, but waking up today felt unusually difficult.
She tried pulling the blanket over her head to sleep a little more, but the noise outside forced her eyes open.
“The rain… stopped.”
Still groggy, Litricia confirmed the clear weather and looked toward the sofa.
Killian had already left—it was empty.
“Looks like he’s feeling better. Good thing the rain didn’t last long.”
Stretching to ease her stiff body, Litricia walked over to the window.
She’d wondered why it was so busy outside this morning—familiar supply wagons were arriving one after another.
“Looks like the ones from the capital have arrived.”
Smiling, Litricia leaned in closer to the window.
“But… why does everyone look like that?”
Though she couldn’t see clearly from this distance, the people—who had looked healthy just four days ago—now appeared pale and lifeless.
Some even clutched their stomachs in pain, grimacing as if they were sick.
Among them, one person seemed especially unwell and was being carried off the wagon by someone still in decent shape.
From the small figure and double-braided pale hair, it looked like a young girl…
Litricia narrowed her eyes at the familiar silhouette and muttered a name.
“Allen?”
