MBYS 14

Chapter 14

Red Dress (4)

Eveline soothed her aching joints and slowly pushed her upper body up, heavy as lead.

“…I will prepare and be right out.”

Scarcely had the metallic-laced voice escaped the cracks of her parched lips before Eveline hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth, forcibly swallowing down the dry cough threatening to erupt.

Before long, the cautious sound of a doorknob turning reached her ears.

“Who…”

Turning her head, the sight that met Eveline’s eyes was an unfamiliar maid.

Was she barely fifteen or sixteen? The young maid nervously clutched a silver basin of washing water and a bundle of garments in her arms, looking terribly precarious.

“Ah, My Lady. The water for washing, and the clothes to change into…”

The young maid didn’t even dare make eye contact with Eveline, her gaze fixed rigidly on the floor as she trembled violently.

Of course, after what happened to Lily, she wouldn’t be the one coming back.

Eveline looked down at the young maid.

The blood-soaked purge that had taken place in the estate’s grand hall yesterday, and the pale, terrified face of Lily who had just been caught trying to pull a cheap trick and fled—flashes of those memories brushed past her mind one after another.

“Come here.”

At the quiet summons, the young maid’s shoulders gave a start.

Eveline snatched the damp towel from the maid’s trembling hands—like a quaking aspen—yet handled it with neat, composed movements.

Only after the cool moisture wiped away her burning, flushed cheeks did a hot sigh slip smoothly through her tightly sealed lips.

Her gaze drifted straight to the darkest, thickest navy velvet garment among the clothes the maid had brought, the kind that reached high up to completely swallow the neckline.

She could hardly leave the vivid red brand left upon her nape completely exposed to others.

Every time the stubborn corset strings tightened across her ribcage, her emaciated ribs creaked as though they might shatter at any moment.

Pressing her fingernails deep into her thighs hidden beneath the hem of her skirt, Eveline finally suppressed her breathless panting and straightened her spine.

“Thank you for your trouble.”

The young maid cautiously lifted her head. At the calm remark offered in place of the scolding she had anticipated, the maid’s bloodshot eyes grew even redder.

Having completed her flawless armor, Eveline stepped out of her bedchamber, where Albert was waiting and bowed his head in silence.

“Allow me to guide you.”

While walking down the long, chilly corridor following Albert’s courteous footsteps, her knees grew stiff beneath the layers of skirt.

She had to ensure her stride didn’t falter, and breathe evenly. With every single step forward, the lingering traces of the previous night burned stingingly beneath her skin.

Before long, his steps came to a halt in front of Kailus’s study. Albert opened the door to clear the path.

“Right this way.”

As Eveline crossed the threshold, the brush of a bow grazed past her back. The heavy door closed immediately after with a dull thud.

It became a space left to only two people: Kailus and Eveline.

With his back turned to the dazzling sunlight pouring through the massive window, Kailus sat before his desk.

In just a few days, she had become hollow-eyed and drained of color, withering away pale and sickly.

Yet his dark red eyes, which had previously flashed with turbid madness and bloodshot frenzy, had settled into something as transparent as freshly cut jewels.

Fiercely, with a terrifying clarity…

“You called for me?”

The one who finally broke the suffocating silence was Eveline.

Kailus’s indifferent gaze slowly swept across her entire form before drifting back to his documents, as though the interest had already faded.

On one corner of the desk lay letters stamped with the imperial red wax.

Scratch, scratch. Accompanied by an irritable friction, Kailus dragged a quill pen roughly across the final document, as though trampling all those petty machinations beneath it.

Thud. Tossing the pen back down onto its silver stand, he slowly lifted his head.

“You left before I even opened my eyes.”

His voice held no inflection. Whether it was a reprimand or mere confirmation, Eveline could not tell.

With her gaze cast downward, she replied.

“I did not wish to disturb Your Lordship’s deep sleep. After all, the purpose had already been sufficiently fulfilled.”

The corners of Kailus’s lips slowly twisted into a bizarre, distorted arc. Between his narrowed eyes, a chilling glint flickered and vanished like a mirage.

Eveline could not ignore that transformation. That a man who had prowled the study just days ago with bloodshot eyes could be this serene. The cruel clarity of his altered face demonstrated beyond a doubt what she had drained from her own body for him the previous night. As she crumbled away, that man was being brought back to life.

“Indeed.”

Kailus’s gaze swept over Eveline’s bloodless lips. The look sliding slowly down to the neckline choked tight by the navy velvet was sticky.

“Absorption through the mucous membrane was far more… efficient than expected.”

His low voice pressed down upon the air in the study.

“I was very satisfied.”

The moment those words brushed against her ear, memories of the previous night surged along her spine.

The arms that had caged her breath. The fever that pierced through her lips. The agonizing torment of magic flooding her veins as if they would burst.

Those afterimages flashed across her skin.

The scars on her nape thched beneath the velvet. The man’s tooth marks still burned hotly.

The fingertips dangling beneath the velvet sleeve trembled minutely. Eveline bit the inside of her cheek. Yet she refused to look away.

One of Kailus’s eyebrows arched lazily. Eveline forced herself to ignore that expression and opened her mouth.

“What was the reason you called for me? It seems meal preparations have not yet been made…”

Instead of answering, Kailus opened a drawer. A thick bundle of parchment slipped out between his fingers. At the edge, an imperial seal sealed in golden wax was visible.

Golden wax… The highest-grade notarized document proving the Emperor’s direct sanction.

With a flick of his wrist, the document slid like a slider across the mahogany table until it touched Eveline’s fingertips.

“Read it.”

Eveline’s gaze fell upon the table.

Her fingers spasmed minutely. She broke the golden seal and read the very top line. The moment her eyes caught the elegant cursive ink strokes.

Her vision flashed white.

[ Marriage Guarantee ]

For a moment, time in the study stopped. The knuckles gripping the parchment grew stiff one by one.

Her heart hammered against her ribs. Her gaze darted frantically between the text and Kailus’s face.

“Your Highness. What on earth… does this mean?”

Kailus was looking down at her, resting his chin in his hand at an angle. His cold, dark red eyes narrowed slowly.

“If you know how to read, explanations should be unnecessary.”

“I am merely a one-time tool… sold off for a mere 10,000 gold.”

The document slid to the edge of the desk with a rough scrape. Eveline barely managed to swallow down her shallow, quickened breath.

If she were a tool, the end was clear. The moment her usefulness expired, being discarded was all there was to it.

However, marriage was different. Caught in an invisible noose, her stiffened throat tightened painfully with every breath she drew.

“Even without such a document, I am Your Highness’s possession. A place as the Grand Duchess is neither fitting nor necessary for me.”

A cool, dry scoff slipped past Kailus’s lips.

His frame, leaning back against the chair, suddenly thrust forward across the desk. A massive shadow cast itself over Eveline’s face.

Kailus’s hand plunged into the velvet collar. His thumb pressed down heavily upon the scars he had torn open with his own teeth the previous night.

“Nnh…”

Eveline’s lips distorted. Yet Kailus continued speaking indifferently, as though such things were of no concern.

“To get my hands on a mere scrap of paper like this, I didn’t mind spending the entire week crawling through that sickening imperial palace floor.”

Eveline’s gray pupils dilated minutely. Only then did all the puzzle pieces lock together.

“Then… the reason you were away—” “That’s right.”

Kailus’s red eyes held Eveline’s trembling gaze.

“The Emperor tried to pull some petty tricks. To be exact, it’s likely the work of the First Princess, who shakes the imperial family while blinding and deafening that old man.”

Kailus’s fingers tapped lightly, rhythmically, against the mahogany desk.

“A rootless illegitimate child sold off for a pittance has come and occupied my bedchamber, so the eyes of a woman who has spent her life assuming my side belongs to her could hardly remain normal. She likely planned to send noisy flies like the inspection team to clear you out and turn my estate upside down.”

Eveline’s breathing stiffened minutely.

Princess Beatrice’s monstrous obsession with the man.

The cold pressure of the inspection team that had been choking the life out of the Grand Duke’s estate a few days ago—the realization that the shadow of a princess blinded by blind jealousy lay thickly behind it touched her skin with a chilling sensation.

“Then why on earth would you—”

The hand tapping the desk slid forward, slowly entangling itself in Eveline’s slender silver hair.

“Because it is the most legitimate shackle to ensure no one dares touch you, locking you inside my bedchamber for eternity.”

An arrogant and cruel smile bloomed across the man’s lips as he caressed her hair.

“At the same time, it is the most perfect shield to fundamentally cut off the princess’s schemes to cling to me.” “It will only make things troublesome for Your Highness when you wish to dispose of me. The day the utility of my physical body comes to an end—” “Usefulness?”

At those words, Kailus’s face twisted. The hand holding her chin pulled away, and he roughly snatched the silver quill pen from the desk.

“You are not the one who judges your worth, Eveline. I alone decide all of that.”

He grabbed Eveline’s hand and dragged it over the pledge, placing the cold pen nib firmly inside her pale palm.

“You are mine. I decide everything.”

Eveline’s hand gripping the quill turned deathly white.