🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 28
It was my limit.
I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.
Was I really going to die again, drowning like this?
I didn’t want to die.
I wanted to live.
I regretted it so much. If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve learned to swim.
Even though I drowned in my past life, I still hadn’t learned to swim in this one.
How stupid of me.
At the moment I gave up everything, something soft pressed against my lips, and air entered my mouth.
I clung desperately to that bubble of air — that extension of my life.
I didn’t want to lose even a single breath.
“Paha!”
When proper air finally filled my lungs, I gasped, only to be hit by the freezing cold that bit into every inch of my body.
I shivered violently. All I could do was cling to Chester’s neck, wrapping my arms tightly around him, relying entirely on him for warmth.
His clothes were soaked too, so there wasn’t a hint of heat between us.
“Haa, haa…”
“Yulia, are you very cold?”
“I don’t want to die…”
My arms tightened around his neck.
The waterlogged dress grew heavier and heavier.
If it felt this heavy to me, how much harder must it have been for him to hold me up with one arm?
I felt sorry — like a burden.
My consciousness grew dim. I wanted to close my eyes and just… sleep.
“Yulia, hold on a little longer.”
He pulled me out of the water first, then climbed out himself.
Sliding one arm beneath my knees and the other around my waist, he lifted me with ease.
Even though my dress must have weighed a ton, he carried me as lightly as if I were made of feathers.
I buried my face in his shoulder, still clinging to his neck.
Chester gently patted my trembling back, as if to reassure me.
“Yulia, it’s okay. Don’t be afraid.”
His voice sounded faint.
That sensation — falling from a high place into icy water and freezing to death — came back to me.
But it wasn’t from my past life. Back then, I’d died from suffocation, not drowning in cold water.
Then when was this memory from? I couldn’t remember.
My eyes kept closing.
I tried to keep them open, but sleep dragged me under, heavy and irresistible.
Everything went dark.
I was standing on a ledge, barely keeping my balance.
A cold wind sliced through my back, stabbing into my skin.
The swell of emotion rose up to my throat.
The moment I met those blood-red eyes, empty of all feeling, my eyes burned and my heart clenched painfully.
That face — expressionless, unmoving. The kind of person who wouldn’t even flinch if I stabbed a knife through his heart.
“…You’ll regret this. I swear you will!”
It wasn’t a curse — it was a plea.
He only stood there, watching me quietly, as if waiting to see what I would do.
The metallic scent of blood stung my nose again.
I hated him. I resented him.
And yet… I loved him.
I couldn’t bring myself to kill him.
Because if I did, there’d be nothing left of me.
So instead, I chose to kill myself.
“Chester.”
I whispered his name one last time, then let go of my strength.
My body tilted forward, and the beautiful night sky filled my vision.
Then I fell — straight into the deep lake of the royal palace, glowing under the moonlight.
The freezing water swallowed me whole, immobilizing me instantly.
The deeper I sank, the more my breath faltered.
Even as my fingertips froze, the sensation of dying remained painfully clear.
“Haah…!”
My eyes flew open, and my hand instinctively clutched my chest.
I trembled — from the cold, or from the vividness of the dream, I couldn’t tell.
“Yulia?”
The gentle voice calling my name made me turn my head in relief — and then freeze.
That face.
It overlapped with the one from my dream — his eyes cold, splattered with blood.
Instinctively, I pushed him away.
“Ah…”
When I blinked again, Chester’s face was clean.
I reached out and touched his cheek.
It was warm, untainted.
Just a dream — thank goodness.
And yet, the sensation of that icy water still clung vividly to my body.
It didn’t feel like a dream.
It felt like a memory — something that had really happened once, long ago.
But no. It had to be just my imagination.
If I hadn’t changed the original story, maybe that future would have come true — but now things were different. I had changed the path.
So it should be fine.
“Yulia, did you have a nightmare?”
“Chester…”
The look in his eyes was completely different from the one in my dream — soft and full of concern.
I wrapped my arms around him tightly.
Hearing his heartbeat, feeling his warmth against my skin, I finally began to calm down.
But this strange unease wouldn’t fade.
It was just a dream — and the story had already diverged from the original — so why was I still so afraid?
Chester gently patted my back.
“Were you very frightened?”
“Chester… you’re not hiding anything from me, right?”
I felt uneasy.
Was that dream some kind of warning about the future?
“You don’t look well, Yulia.”
“Answer me.”
“…I’m not hiding anything.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I have nothing to hide, so please don’t worry.”
I burrowed deeper into his arms.
“I had a nightmare.”
“Was it very scary?”
“Yes… I knew it was a dream, but it felt so real…”
I was terrified.
Terrified that it might come true —
and terrified that the man I saw in my dream might be the real him.
No… it felt more like someone was warning me.
A warning to stay away from Chester.
That if I stayed with him, I would meet a tragic end.
“Yulia.”
“Yes?”
“If you’ve put a restriction on me — so I can’t do anything beyond a kiss — and yet you keep clinging to me like this… it’s honestly very difficult to hold back.”
“Ah…”
A second ago I hadn’t even realized the position we were in — but his words made my face burn.
The shirt he’d been wearing… was now on me.
And he wasn’t wearing anything on top.
When I looked around, I saw my dress hanging near a campfire, still dripping wet.
We were in what looked like a cave.
Wait… did that mean—
“Uh… Chester, did you… change my clothes?”
Did he undress me himself?
Sensing danger, I tried to subtly pull away, but his hand swiftly caught my waist.
“Yulia. Why are you being shy now?”
“Um… this isn’t about being shy…”
“We’ve already gone past that point, haven’t we? It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen you.”
His lips smiled, but his eyes were like those of a predator ready to devour its prey.
I could feel his arm tightening around my waist.
Or maybe it wasn’t just my imagination — maybe he really was pulling me closer.
My heart thumped violently. Every instinct screamed danger.
“Uh… Chester?”
“May I?”
“Huh? M-may you what?”
His arm stayed firm around my waist.
His eyes were languid, his lips curved faintly, and his low voice brushed against my ear.
Everything about him — his tone, his touch, his gaze — told me exactly what he meant.
He cupped my cheek with his free hand, his thumb brushing over my lower lip.
“Kiss.”
Was my face as red as it felt? Probably.
“May I?”
His crimson eyes glowed with restrained desire — the kind that wanted to consume but was waiting for permission.
A tamed beast.
That’s what he looked like now.
“If I say no… you won’t do it?”
“No. I’ll stop. I can still hold back… for now.”
“You can… kiss me.”
The moment I gave permission, his lips captured mine.
His tongue brushed against my closed lips, urging them to part.
He could’ve easily forced them open, but he didn’t.
That restraint — that gentleness — made me open my mouth on my own.
His tongue slid in, and our breaths mingled, hot and dizzying.
The heat between us spread, raising the temperature around us.
I wanted more of Chester.
I looped my arms around his neck and pressed closer to him.
His hand slipped under the shirt I was wearing — his shirt.
When his cold fingers met my bare skin, I flinched and pulled back, breaking the kiss.
“Hah… wait—!”
But before I could say more, his lips found mine again.
His tongue pushed past my teeth, possessive, unwilling to leave even a single breath unclaimed.
My eyelashes trembled under the dizzying mix of tenderness and hunger.
At some point, I found myself wanting him just as much.
His hand caressed my waist, slowly sliding upward.
I could feel where it was headed — and I knew what he was thinking.
It didn’t take long for suspicion to turn into certainty.
His hand was resting just beneath my chest, testing the boundary.
That was far enough.
I grabbed his hand, stopping it before it could go any higher.
Pulling away from his lips, I caught my breath, voice trembling.
“Hah… Chester… we said… we’d stop at kissing, remember?”
