Chapter 14
The blood barely stained the front of the dress.
From the beginning until now, Rose kept her hand off the cut.
Instead, the piercing of Maxim was becoming rather acutely uncomfortable.
"If I had the power to kill him with a single stroke…" Rose thought.
Maxim didn"t know what this woman was up to, but he certainly didn"t want to deal with her like this.
This little woman made him feel pathetic and ridiculous about the whole situation.
“Freddy!”
The man suddenly popped out from nowhere.
“Take her to be healed.” Maxim ordered.
Freddy was surprised to see Rosé"s b.l.o.o.d.y dress.
Only then did Rosé wipe her injury with her pale hands.
“Let me help you. I mean it.” Freddy murmured.
Rose followed Freddy, leaving behind one man in the room.
Maxim was lost in thought as looked at Rosé leaving from the back.
Then, a shadow appeared behind him.
“I"m acting. I won"t be fooled by her.” Maxim whispered.
He looked back to see his uncle, also Helavant"s father, Pierre.
Maxim turned his head again, this time to the window.
“Well, I don"t think so.” Pierre sighed.
“You"re not thinking of taking in the Solstern woman, right?”
There was no answer from Maxim.
An anxious Pierre impatiently took one step closer to him.
“You"ve already forgotten about your mother? Solstern women like her will bring tragedy upon this castle!”
Maxim wiped the dagger that caused Rosé"s cut, on his sleeve and skillfully flushed it back into its sheath.
“Uncle, I know you care about me, but don"t worry too much. I"ll make a proper judgment on my own.”
He put his hand on Pierre"s shoulder for a brief moment, before immediately leaving.
Pierre looked at Maxim with a disturbed face. A few moments later, he turned her eyes toward the woman.
His eyes glistened with hostility at the sight of the woman"s back.
Red and rich hair like pomegranate, with a small yet slender, curved body.
Skin that glows healthily under the sun in the warm south.
She looked very much like the former Queen, who was Maxim"s mother and hostess.
Originally, he would have ignored her coldly without looking at her once.
No matter how many beautiful women in the North, even exotic immigrant beauties, he was always bored when looking at them.
Yet with his current reaction, it seems he was thinking things differently now.
He bit his lips.
"You can never put a sterile woman in this castle."
She hadn"t heard anything from Maxim since the day they met at the execution site.
Rosé repeated writing letters to someone, before tearing them apart, saying that she was lost in her own thoughts. Perhaps she was going crazy.
“Hey, let"s sneak away now! Please, how can I live in a place like this?” Natalie cried.
Natalie, who eventually woke up after dozing off at the execution site that day, pleaded with Rosé every day.
Rose had a puzzled look on her face and fell into her own thoughts.
“Is Maxim Lancerte too adventurous?” Why do you think he would accept me?"
Rosé felt somehow sorry for herself, who thought things would go off so easily.
"If I can"t even solve one of these matters skillfully, what kind of family could I save from Ca.s.saix?" she thought.
Such skeptical thoughts made her despair.
By this time, Rosé felt so complicated and weak.
Maxim Lancert appeared before her again.
“Oh, miss. That"s him. He"s coming!” Natalie excitedly yipped.
From the windows, Rosé could see him riding a horse towards her.
Unlike usual times, he was alone. No servants or knights in sight.
When Maxim arrived at the entrance of the detached house, he lowered himself off his horse and looked up.
Rosé looked down in bewilderment when she looked him in the eye.
Whatever he meant to do, he raised one corner of his mouth and strode in.
Maxim, who came all the way to Rose"s place, relaxingly folded his arms and looked around the s.p.a.ce she had been living in.
His att.i.tude was so different from when he had put a knife to her neck a few days ago. He swept through the furniture with his finger and threw dust off his hands.
Looking at his ungrateful, rude behavior, Rosé could not understand why he suddenly came to her to do this.
“Hey.” the man called out.
She looked at Maxim as he walked to the window.
“Let"s do that… Marriage.” he finally said.
He turned around with his back against the window and stared straight at Rosé.
The sun was slowly setting behind his back.
"Should I just leave Helavant as Natalie said?" Rosé suddenly thought.
To be honest, her mind had been weakening for the last few days.
Then, this man suddenly appeared before her.
Rosé was confused when he said “Let"s get married” so simply. It was as if he was saying "let"s go for a walk together."
“Ah…”
He smiled like a rascal at Rosé, who was embarra.s.sed.
“So, the problem has been solved then? Well, this is what I"ve been thinking.”
“Are you serious?” Rosé wondered out loud, hinting that he was merely playing with her
“Why did you bother asking me to marry you, if you"d just change your mind?” he smirked.
“My- When did I-?”
Rosé took a step closer to Maxim, as he pulled on her arm.
“Ah!”
Maxim held Rosé in a tight embrace by the window.
In the bright sunshine, her eyes were gleaming with purple watercolors.
He stared at the pupil and spoke coldly.
“Don"t get me wrong. I"m just doing it because I need you.”
Rosé gently bit her lower lip and nodded slowly.
"If we used each other because we needed each other, we could end this relationship neatly when we finished." they both thought.
“I"ll help you until Ca.s.siax is out of breath.” Maxim pledged.
“I can"t go to war with a knife, but I"ll find something I can do.” Rosé smiled.
“I"m sure I have a role here to help you.”
When he heard Rose"s determination, he laughed as if it was very funny.
“I mean, why do you hate Ca.s.siax so much? Did something happen to him?”
He put his arms on the window sill and beckoned Rosé to come closer to him.
“There must be a reason why you have such hatred. Tell me, I"ll listen. To Ca.s.siax, I"ll give him the pleasure of picking his throat.”
Though sarcastic, Maxim"s eyes looked serious.
Rosé was seized in his arms, and in his gaze.
When he stared as if he were reading Rosé"s mind, Rosé turned her head to avoid his gaze.
“That"s none of your business.”
Maxim held Rosé"s head back, which had turned away from him, and made her look straight at him.
“Innocent lady, what if I"m worse than him? What are you going to do about it? ”
Rosé and Maxim"s eyes were intertwined for quite some time.
She broke the delicate silence first with a frown on her fine forehead.
“I"m injured. Please stop.”
When Maxim realized that he had hurt her neck a few days ago, he was embarra.s.sed and quickly put his hand on his head.
Rosé smiled dejectedly at the thoughtfulness.
“If it were Ca.s.siax, I would have pushed harder and popped the wound.” Maxim raised his arms and backed away.
“Is the injury all right?” he asked a few moments later.
“It"s not a big deal. If you were trying to test me, I could have endured more.”
Maxim looked into Rose"s eyes and then at her scar, which was red.
What happened to this woman and why was she doing this?
Rosé held a complicated look.
He blamed himself for hurting a woman"s neck, but it was not easy to say that he was sorry.
He had never apologized to anyone in his life.
“Send someone. I can"t stay here forever.” Rosé said.
He looked around with an unsavory face. The air was murky and gloomy, perhaps empty for a long time.
“Once again, we!”
When Rose emphasized, Maxim looked back at Rose.
“We"re not a normal couple. So you achieve my goals and when this relationship is over, don"t ask for anything more!”
Maxim smiled strangely, neither positive nor negative, and left the room.
Bam!
“Oh, my G.o.d!”
When Maxim opened the door, Natalie, who was standing outside, was pushed back and fell down.
The stick in her hand rolled to the feet of Maxim.
Natalie looked up at him with frightened eyes.
She had held a club, ready to barge in the room as soon as anything bad inside happened. But she didn"t expect him to suddenly come out.
“Were you going to beat me to death with this?”
Natalie trembled while backing away.
“Yes. Loyalty is imaginary.”
Maxim turned around smiling and strode down the stairs.
Down he went.
“Where is Mr. Pierre now?” a voice asked.
“Oh… …he was at a senior meeting earlier and hasn"t come back yet.”
“The meeting would have been over by now!”
“I heard you went out with the elders. Where did you go because you didn"t have a word… ”
Kartiana turned and walked quickly out of the hall before his words were over.
A tall, silver-faced platinum blonde.
White skin like clay without any color. A cold look where no warmth exists.
A beauty that is cold and beautiful enough to overwhelm a person.
The cold wind of the north wind was blowing with her anger, and she was ready to freeze every step of the way.