Chapter 5

“Do you intend not to show your face today?”

Killian’s first words, breaking the silence, were a gentle question. Beneath the veil, the sound of breathing faltered. He did not miss Lizette’s reaction.

“……Explain, please.”

Lizette barely parted her lips. No other words came to mind. Even when she tried to sort through the confusion in her head, it was anything but easy.

“Explain…….”

Killian brushed the tip of his chin with the finger he had been waiting with. Instead of answering, he rose in one long step from his seat and came to sit beside Lizette. The moment Lizette blinked in surprise, his hand moved.

Srrk.

Contrary to the decisiveness of his action, his touch was gentle as he lifted away the veil covering Lizette’s face. Killian set the removed veil neatly upon the table and said,

“From now on, I am going to ask you questions, My Lady. You may be honest, or you may not be. However, keep in mind that this is the first and last time I intend to reverse a decision.”

“…….”

The eyes meeting hers at close range were calm. Unlike Lizette, who was still confused, not the slightest trace of disorder showed in his neat expression.

“Is the reason you have withdrawn because of Young Master, My Lady?”

At that question, Lizette realized that her body was trembling. It had begun from the moment she found herself facing both Graham and Killian together. Lizette hurriedly wrapped one arm around the other. Seeing her like that, Killian’s gaze sank deeply.

“I…….”

Lizette could not open her mouth easily. It could not be helped. After all, what had happened since the last time she had gone out without Graham’s knowledge had tormented her even in her dreams these days.

‘Can I be honest with this person?’

Lizette had already once experienced the courage she had gathered collapsing into nothing. At Killian’s question, part of her wanted to lean on him while pretending not to know any better, yet at the same time she was suddenly afraid that if she relied on him as she pleased, she would only end up disappointed again.

Knock knock.

Just as Lizette was carefully choosing her answer, a knock broke the silence. Both their heads turned toward the door at the same time.

“I beg your pardon for interrupting, but it is time for Miss to take her medicine.”

At the maid’s words, Lizette felt a chill run down the back of her neck.

Warning.

Instinctively, that word flashed through Lizette’s mind. There was no such thing as medicine she routinely took. At most, perhaps, headache medicine for her chronic headaches. But at the maid’s words, which clearly anyone could see had been sent by Graham, Lizette nodded and lowered her gaze.

“Your Grace, please excuse me for a moment. I will not be gone long.”

As Lizette rose and addressed Killian, her eyelashes trembled faintly. Killian’s gaze lingered for a moment at the end of that trembling. But he merely gave a short nod to indicate his consent and added nothing.

Creak.

Lizette went out through the door, following the maid. The maid’s pale face as they walked side by side reflected Graham’s temper. Left with no choice, Lizette followed the maid in tense silence without asking anything.

“Y, Young Master, I have brought Miss.”

In front of Graham’s room, the maid announced in a quivering voice, as if she had completed her task, that she had brought Lizette, then hurried away as though someone were chasing her. After the maid left, Lizette remained rooted there, standing stiffly in place.

From inside the closed door, not a single sound could be heard. She could not imagine what might be waiting for her. The only thing that was certain was that, to Lizette, this moment felt like the stillness before a storm.

‘I don’t want to go in.’

She could not find the courage to open the door and enter. She had not counted exactly, but it felt as though she had stood there for no short amount of time.

Bang.

Graham’s patience ran out before Lizette could gather her courage. Graham’s face was cold as he opened the door. With her wrist seized by Graham, Lizette was half dragged into his room.

“Are you trying to drive me mad, my lovely little sister?”

Graham still gripped Lizette’s wrist with one hand as though he meant to snap it, and with his other hand he forcefully lifted Lizette’s chin.

‘It hurts……!’

Lizette tried to turn her head away to avoid Graham’s gaze as he forced her to look at him, but she could not.

“……Let go.”

“Where is your veil?”

His eyes persistently examined Lizette’s exposed face.

“…….”

“How could you think of showing your face to another man? Without even the slightest fear.”

Graham’s low voice, sunk to an extreme calm, asked softly. Of course, to Lizette, that question did not feel soft at all.

The pain in the face Graham was holding intensified. It hurt, but Lizette swallowed the groan inside her mouth.

‘Yes, it’s better if you do this to me instead.’

Absurdly, that was the thought that came first. It was better that he vent his anger on her than that an innocent maid be struck again.

Lizette bit her lip hard. No words came out of her mouth, and at the same time that her whole body seemed to grow cold, only the trembling of her shoulders grew stronger.

“Ha ha, yes, first I should hear this. Why has Duke Cedric suddenly decided to involve himself in your life? You will have to explain it in a way I can understand.”

When Lizette said nothing, Graham stared at her with clouded eyes and laughed. At Graham’s mention of Killian, thoughts raced through Lizette’s mind. She had still not answered Killian’s question.

‘He definitely said this was the first and last time he intended to reverse a decision.’

Lizette turned over Killian’s words to her in her mind. There was nothing Killian had decided concerning Lizette except for rejecting her proposal. If that was the case, then though she could not know the reason, perhaps if she was honest just once, he might change his mind.

‘Once is enough for regret.’

Lizette steeled herself. Then she smiled sweetly at Graham.

“I’m going to marry Duke Cedric.”

Lizette’s smile seemed to successfully provoke Graham. Lizette was shoved so hard by Graham that she was nearly thrown against the cold, hard wall. A heavy thud echoed through the room.

‘It hurts so much!’

A sharp pain shot through her back. When she squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden pain and then opened them again, Graham was staring at her with eyes gone completely murky.

“Say that again. With whom are you going to do what?”

“I said I’m going to marry His Grace.”

“And yet I never gave permission for that…….”

His sunken voice, together with his hollow eyes, bore down on Lizette. Before he had even finished speaking, he began pressing on Lizette’s neck.

“……Kgh!”

“Lizette, how could you say you would leave my side?!”

Graham looked half mad. The force with which he pressed on Lizette was nothing compared to how he had held her jaw or wrist earlier. She could not breathe, and it felt as though her lungs were burning away.

Instinctively, Lizette struggled to pry off Graham’s hand as it tightened around her neck. She fought until her nails dug into Graham’s skin, but he did not budge. Lizette’s futile movements did not last long. Strength gradually drained from her body, and her vision began to dim.

Bang!

“Is this the medicine?”

At that moment, with a harsh sound, Graham’s door was flung wide open.

“I knew there were people who went around saying a beating was medicine, but seeing it with my own eyes is rather unpleasant.”

It was Killian. His low voice was colder than ice.

“H, how are you here, Your Grace!”

At Killian’s sudden appearance, Graham came to his senses with a start and quickly let go with both hands. But by then, red handprints were already clearly marked on Lizette’s white, slender neck.

“Cough, cough!”

As air suddenly rushed back into her, Lizette barely regained her breath and broke into repeated coughing.

Before she knew it, Killian had stepped in between Graham and Lizette. Without a word, he unfolded the handkerchief Lizette had left behind and wrapped it around her slender neck like a scarf. Thanks to that, the handprints Graham had left on Lizette’s fragile skin were concealed rather well.

In contrast to his firm actions, Lizette strangely felt that the fingers of Killian, touching her neck, were trembling. Before she could even understand the meaning of that trembling, Killian spoke.

“Our conversation is not yet finished, so I will take her now.”

“……I, I.”

“And whatever the medicine may be, it seems you ought to take it yourself, Young Master.”

Unlike his calm tone, Killian’s voice was beyond merely cold, almost chilling, and his gaze was beyond merely cold, almost frostlike. Ignoring the flustered Graham, who did not know what to do, Killian supported Lizette and led her out of Graham’s room.

‘How in the world…….’

Lizette was grateful to Killian for suddenly appearing and helping her, but too many things had happened in too short a time, and her mind was in disarray. Graham’s hands that had been choking her only a moment ago and Killian’s existence, appearing as though out of nowhere, tangled chaotically in her thoughts.

As her startled heart gradually settled, Lizette began to think about what would happen afterward. Since he had seen it with his own eyes, Killian would naturally be curious about this situation too.

“This is the first time I’ve realized Madame Neris’s face could turn that pale.”

“Ah…….”

Aside from indirectly revealing that he had found Lizette thanks to Neris, Killian asked nothing. Lizette quietly touched the handkerchief Killian had wrapped around her neck with her fingertips.

‘He will surely ask, but what should I answer.’

Of course, now that he had even seen her being choked by the man who called himself her brother, Lizette had nothing left to hide. Yet when the two of them returned to the drawing room, the question Killian threw at her was something entirely different.

“The proposal you made me, is it still valid?”

His voice was so even it was almost as if he were simply asking whether she had eaten.

“…….”

“If you have perhaps found a new candidate for a husband, you may speak comfortably.”

Seeing Lizette standing there dazed, Killian even made a joke that did not suit him, but Lizette was still listening to his words in a stunned state. Her mind turned faint and white.

The moment in the gallery when she had offered him her trembling proposal suddenly resurfaced. The refusal that had left no room for anything, and the hollow feeling that remained after it, were still vivid.

‘Am I understanding this properly right now?’

Her neck still throbbed, and her lungs stung each time she drew in air, but her heart beat to an entirely different rhythm. Just a little while ago she had been gripped by the fear of death, yet now, as if by a lie, all that remained was the faint hope that she might be able to leave this house.

An unexplainable pounding struck at her chest.

“I want to know why your heart changed.”

Yet it was an entirely different question that sprang from her lips. The Lizette of now was not in a position to have the leisure to question the reason. Even if it was mere caprice, she ought to seize the opportunity before her at once while pretending not to know. At her unexpected question, Killian stared straight at Lizette. She did not avoid that gaze.

“I want to hear the reason.”