Chapter 72

Aneta gasped for breath, scattering her quick breaths across Carlos’s cheeks and lips. Her vision flickered and dimmed as their lips met continuously.

The black figure, which had been crouching, suddenly sprang up, pulling the two people who were lost in their world back to reality.

“Woof! Woof! ”

Tyr barked in apparent displeasure and thumped the floor with his fluffy tail. Unlike the attention given to him, he felt unhappy with his owner’s approach toward Aneta.

Tyr growled at Carlos with an insolent look as if to say, “Why can you do it and not me?” But when Aneta finally noticed his presence, he lowered his fierce eyes as if nothing had happened.

“Tyr?”

Aneta, who almost fainted again, caught her breath and pushed Carlos’s chest away. Though her strength was far too insufficient to move him, Carlos reluctantly pulled back.

Seizing the moment when Aneta called his name, Tyr let out a pitiful whine. He couldn’t approach without permission, so he made Aneta call him.

“Why are you so coy now?”

Hearing Carlos’s muttering, a faint smile spread across Aneta’s lips. It felt to her that his actions were no different from Tyr’s.

“Maybe it’s something he learned from you.”

“From me? That’s impossible.”

Carlos denied it as if it were nonsense, but Aneta’s sentiment remained unchanged.

She gestured to Tyr, who still looked at her with a sorrowful expression. A stabbing pain spread through her arm, but it wasn’t enough to make her grimace.

“Come here, Tyr.”

Tyr reacted swiftly to Aneta’s call. In just a few steps, he was close, squeezing himself between Carlos and Aneta, pushing Carlos aside with his body.

Carlos caught off guard, chuckled, but was ignored. Tyr, without glancing at his owner, placed his front paws on the bed.

Aneta expected Tyr to jump onto the bed, but he merely looked up at her politely. He seemed to understand her condition from the smell of medicine and her bandaged hand.

Tyr’s tail hung low as he fixed his gaze on her injured hand. Sensing his concern, Aneta extended her uninjured hand to pat his head.

“Are you worried about me?”

“Woof!”

“Thank you. There’s no one like you, Tyr.”

Aneta sent a loving look toward Tyr, who nodded as if it were natural. Carlos, feeling a strange sense of competition mixed with jealousy, spoke up.

“I was worried too.”

“I know. How could I not, with that look on your face.”

Aneta remembered not only Carlos’s expression, tone, and actions but also the tremor in his voice. As she mentioned the situation at the villa, Carlos hesitated briefly before speaking.

“Speaking of that time, may I ask why you kissed me first twice?”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask that question.”

Aneta stopped petting Tyr and gazed at Carlos. He was tense, not knowing what words might come out of Aneta’s mouth as she silently stared at him.

Carlos had seen hope in Aneta’s recent changes, but it was just that—hope. Given the number of times they had been intimate as a married couple, kisses might not have had any special meaning. He knew he shouldn’t be disappointed, no matter the answer, but being human, he couldn’t help but hold onto hope.

“I kissed you because I wanted to. It was impulsive. Seeing you care for me and worry about me made you look so lovely.”

Aneta’s answer was not disappointing but gave Carlos even more hope.

Even if it was a momentary impulse, it didn’t change anything. Carlos knew Aneta wasn’t someone who would easily give her heart just because someone showed concern for her. Knowing she couldn’t resist the impulse made Carlos excited, if not happy.Aneta was not prone to impulsive actions.

“When I was about to lose consciousness at Chris’s house, your face came to mind. And I regretted it. I thought I should have shown you a more honest side of myself.”

“Aneta, does that mean…? ”

“Yes. I started seeing you as a man. I think… I like you.”

She had promised herself to live according to her feelings, but looking back, she realized she had only made the promise and never really practiced it. Aneta felt self-deprecating, as she realized this only after facing a life-threatening situation.

She had no intention of repeating the same mistakes. Aneta continued.

“From now on, I’m going to let my feelings flow as they come. I won’t suppress or hide them anymore. Just as you’ve shown your heart to me as it is, I’ll do the same.”

Aneta conveyed her honest feelings to Carlos more openly than ever.

“This isn’t a dream, is it? ”

“Do you want it to be a dream? ”

“No. Not.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not a dream.”

When Aneta’s clear affirmation reached him, Carlos, who had been standing in a daze, snapped back to reality. His gaze shifted to Tyr, beside Aneta.

It was clear he was asking for something.

Clever Tyr knew what his owner wanted without words but slyly avoided his gaze. It was a request he didn’t want to comply with.

“Tyr.”

But Carlos didn’t give up. Once he called out Tyr’s name, the dog could no longer pretend not to notice and reluctantly licked Aneta’s hand one last time. Then, as he moved away from the bed as his owner wished, Carlos approached as if he had been waiting.

Before Aneta could question him, her perspective shifted. Carlos carefully wrapped his arms around her head and gently pushed her back to lie down.

“Thank you. Thank you so much, Aneta.”

Carlos repeatedly whispered in a low voice, his face buried in Aneta’s shoulder. For some, the words “I like you” might be just that, but for Carlos, they held special significance.

“Did you send Tyr away just for this? ”

Aneta asked, trying to ignore the warm breath spreading over her shoulder with each word and breath Carlos took.

Thanks to Carlos holding her up with his strength, she didn’t feel his weight, but there was another issue. Aneta sighed as she saw Tyr looking over with a sulky expression.

“I didn’t send him away, I just asked him to step aside for a moment.”

Carlos explained defensively, but Tyr’s reaction was unforgiving. Tyr turned his head away with a huff and lay flat on the floor, his whole body shouting that he was upset.

Thinking about how to soothe the sulking Tyr when they returned to the duke’s residence made his head spin, but right now, his priority was Aneta. Carlos remained with his face buried in Aneta’s shoulder for a long time.

True to her promise, Aneta did not push him away but accepted him. She remembered forgotten things as she stroked his fine black hair.

“Oh, right. What was I thinking? ”

Aneta was startled by the sudden thought. She wondered how she could have forgotten them.

“By the way, what happened to Erez Bauter and the mercenaries? ”

“Erez Bauter was summarily executed by His Majesty’s order, carried out by Lady Lopelac. His body is to be thrown to the wild beasts, and the Bauter family’s titles will soon be stripped away.”

Carlos didn’t bother to mention that he had poisoned Erez Bauter.

It wouldn’t be a problem even if Aneta found out, but he still wanted to show only his good side to her.

“And the mercenaries are imprisoned in the underground palace. Their fate is to be decided based on your opinion.”

“They’re considering my opinion? I thought they’d just behead them all as usual.”

“It’s probably because of the deal you made with their leader.”“I never actually intended to keep that deal.”

Aneta still didn’t feel any obligation to honor the deal.

Randolph pretended to be unaware of her doppelganger, but that fact couldn’t excuse his other wrongdoings. If he hadn’t kidnapped her under Erez’s orders, there wouldn’t be any debts to settle.

“I figured you would think that way if you were in my position. But your thoughts might change a bit once you hear it out.”

Aneta sensed from Carlos’s words that he knew something and showed her curiosity.

“Do you know what they’re asking for? ”

“I do. I asked them because I didn’t want you to have to face them.”

Aneta assumed the mercenaries hadn’t asked for their lives to be spared, as Carlos wouldn’t have reacted that way if they had.

If they had, he probably would have dealt with them like Erez Bauter before she even woke up. She waited for him to continue, guessing that.

“But I thought it would be best to verify their claims before deciding whether to grant their request, so I asked His Majesty to investigate.”

“Has the result come out?”

“It will be as soon as…”

Thinking the news should arrive soon since it was already morning, Carlos was cut off by a sudden knock.

“It’s me, Carlos. I’ve brought the information you wanted.”

And the owner of that knock opened the door as he spoke. The voice belonged to someone unmistakable.

Without turning to look at the person who had arrived at such a perfect moment, Carlos spoke.

“You were supposed to pass it on through him.”

When he paused momentarily, Aneta thought she heard a faint grinding of teeth.

“Oh, Aneta, you’re awake. I heard she was supposed to be on complete bed rest. So why does it look like you’re the one resting instead, Carlos? ”

Vernon, sent by Russell’s orders, observed the two with an amused expression. Wondering when their romance had blossomed, Aneta had no choice but to push Carlos away once more.

“Carlos. Please move aside now.”

Carlos obediently complied with Aneta’s request. Then Tyr, who had been lying flat on the floor, approached Vernon and tugged on his pants.

“Oh, Tyr. You’re here too? ”

Lowering himself to greet Tyr, who was persistently pulling on his pants, Vernon was suddenly tapped on the head.

It was Tyr’s front paw. Tyr playfully tapped Vernon’s head with his paw, looking quite pleased, and then exited through the door he had just come in.

Needless to say, Vernon was left bewildered by this inexplicable behavior.

“What just happened? Did Tyr do something to me? ”

“What else? He praised you.”

More accurately, it was praised for separating Aneta and Carlos. Carlos’s explanation left Vernon staring blankly at the door Tyr had exited through.

Somehow, he felt less like he had received a compliment and more like he had been played.