MBYS 20

Chapter 20

Edwin’s wrinkled hands came to a halt on his knees. After studying Eveline’s cool eyes for a long moment, the old physician finally managed to move his trembling lips.

“……First, you must reduce the intensity of the transference to half of what it is now. It would be safest to cut it off entirely, but His Lordship will never permit that.” “Half, you say? In that case, the agony His Lordship must endure will remain solely his burden to bear.” “If Your Ladyship’s heart stops first, even shaving off that half will become utterly impossible for all eternity.”

Eveline’s bloodless lips pressed tightly together. Edwin’s words were bitterly correct. If she carelessly let slip her thread of life, she would be able to do nothing at all.

“Second, do not skip a single meal. Even if your ruined stomach violently rejects it, you must force down at least a spoonful.”

Edwin drew a small brown medicine vial from his inner pocket and placed it carefully upon the nightstand. The heavy sound of liquid sloshing rippled through the thick glass bottle.

“Third, you are to take this medicine three times a day, but…… you must discontinue the painkillers you have been taking as of today. Your tolerance has already reached a dangerously irreversible level.”

Keeping her gaze fixed upon the cold medicine vial, Eveline nodded slowly. The liquid, swaying precariously behind the brown glass, churned turbidly under the deep blue light of dawn.

“……I understand.” “My Lady…….”

Edwin closed his mouth for a moment before heavily reopening it.

“Why on earth are you so…… willing to throw your own body into the fire as firewood, without a single shred of hesitation?”

Instead of answering, Eveline quietly cast her gaze out the window. The deeply settled, dark-blue dawn was slowly brightening.

After a long, protracted silence, Eveline softly parted her lips.

“Because for as long as I have breath left in my body, I wish to remain thoroughly useful to him. That is all.”

Edwin could ask no further. The old physician neatly arranged the paper detailing the medicine’s instructions on the nightstand, bowed deeply at the waist, and quietly slipped out of the room.

The door closed with a dull thud. Once Edwin’s presence had completely faded away, Eveline’s pale gaze lingered beyond the tightly shut door.

‘This is no time to be sitting here.’

Putting strength into her trembling legs that felt as though they might give out at any second, she stepped onto the cold floor and struck the silver bell upon the table.

Tingle—

Before long, Lily entered. Beneath her deeply lowered head, Eveline never missed the darting sidelong glances of the maid secretly probing Eveline’s pale complexion.

“Lily, could you help me dress? Today, I’d prefer the darkest-colored dress you have.”

Eveline initiated the conversation in a voice far more gentle and soft than usual. Lily immediately lowered her head and headed toward the wardrobe. Soon, Lily’s hands clutched at the corset strings behind Eveline’s back.

“Ugh……”

Every time the tough strings compressed her chest, the interior of her ribs—lacerated by the previous night’s transference—throbs as though screaming in agony.

A cold sweat broke out along her spine.

At the sight of Lily pausing in surprise at her suppressed gasp, Eveline offered a faint smile, meeting her eyes through the mirror.

“I’m quite alright, so could you pull it just a bit tighter? I wish to look exceptionally neat.”

She buttoned the dress tightly up to the very top of her throat without a single gap, and thoroughly concealed her hands—where the rotting, dark blue-black veins stood out prominently—by encasing them in a pair of dark lace gloves.

Moistening her parched lips with the tip of her tongue to forcibly summon a semblance of vitality, Eveline asked Lily, whose reflection was caught in the mirror, “By any chance, do you know where His Lordship is right now? He ought to have rested soundly through the night…… I am rather worried.” “……He is in the study, My Lady.” “Thank you. You need not follow me.”

Leaving the stiff-faced Lily behind, Eveline crossed the cool corridor without an ounce of hesitation. The study she entered shortly thereafter. Standing before the unread documents with his back to the dazzling morning sunlight was Kailus. Only the shadows hanging heavier than usual beneath his eyes and the deep groove carved into his arrogant brow spoke of his heavy contemplation.

Their gazes tangled in mid-air.

Kailus’s red eyes swept obsessively over Eveline—her pale lips, her slender wrists, her very center of balance. Seeking to avoid being crushed by that gaze—far too persistent merely to check the condition of a consumable tool—Eveline squared her shoulders and held her ground.

Eveline spoke first.

“I apologize for making such a hideous spectacle of myself last night.”

Kailus stared at Eveline in silence for a while before leaning deep into the backrest.

“Edwin told me. That the frequency of the transferences must be reduced.”

Eveline’s spine stiffened minutely. The moment she had dreaded had finally arrived.

“From now on, availing myself of your ability will be restricted to once every three days. This is not a proposal, but an announcement.”

At his declaration, Eveline’s throat churned wretchedly.

‘Even if I have to endure it every day……’

The truth that rose all the way to the tip of her tongue was relentlessly crushed down deep inside her heart, chewed upon until her lips turned white. Because she wanted to hold on by his side for as long as possible.

“……If Your Lordship has so decreed, I shall obey.”

Kailus let out a short scoff.

“Since you’ve been freed from the pain, I thought you would look a bit more pleased.”

Despite the blatant mockery, Eveline offered no reply, instead lowering her gaze to Kailus’s left arm. The tightly bound, snow-white bandage. Why was it still not healed?

“Is the wound on your left arm faring well?”

Kailus’s brow twitched minutely.

“It’s practically healed, so rather than worrying about my wounds, worry about your own body.”

Eveline quietly nodded and withdrew her gaze.

Before long, it was breakfast time. Kailus rose from his seat and gave a light toss of his chin toward the dining room.

“Follow me.”

Entering the dining room, the two took their seats at the table in silence. When Kailus picked up his knife first, Eveline likewise quietly took up her silver fork.

‘Even if your stomach violently rejects it, at least a spoonful.’

Edwin’s desperate plea echoed in her ears. At that moment, Kailus neatly sliced a portion of meat from his own share and dropped it directly onto Eveline’s plate.

“Eat. Watching you waste away to mere bones right before my eyes isn’t a particularly pleasant sight either.”

Kailus’s hand as he served the meat was half a beat slower than usual. The exact moment his fork settled onto Eveline’s plate, a strange, hesitant carefulness was visible, as though handling a fragile piece of glassware.

Whether it was the aftermath of last night’s terrifying commotion, or something else entirely, Eveline did not bother to dig deeper. To judge recklessly was to foster premature expectations, and expectations ultimately invited a miserable collapse.

Eveline cut the meat into small pieces and put it into her mouth. Her rigidly seized stomach churned with nausea, but forcing her jaw to move, she chewed and swallowed it down nonetheless.

One more bite.

She lifted her fork. She forced herself to swallow once more.

Breakfast concluded, and Kailus rose from his seat.

“There is somewhere I wish to show you, so follow me.”

Kailus turned toward the rarely frequented eastern corridor.

Eveline’s cool eyes widened minutely. The eastern annex was a sector she had never once set foot in.

She followed behind him half a beat late.

As the long, dark corridor gradually deepened, it suddenly opened up wide, and a massive glass structure revealed itself before her eyes with overwhelming majesty.

The expansive glass walls, transparently catching the winter sunlight, rose with an unreality so grand over the barren, snow-covered landscape of the north. Clear glass was fitted between sturdy steel frames, and the dense mist filling the interior shimmered dreamily beyond the wall.

Kailus halted before the heavy glass doors. With his back still turned, he murmured softly.

“You said you were terribly vulnerable to the cold.”

Eveline’s slender toes froze and stiffened.

It was a fragment of a memory buried far away. A casual remark Kailus had tossed her way when she was gasping for breath against the biting, razor-sharp wind.

‘I’ll build you a greenhouse or something.’

She had assumed it was a casual joke bound to be buried and forgotten amidst the busy territory wars. Yet those arrogant words had been materialized into massive steel frames and transparent glass, taking root right in the dead center of this cruel winter.

“It is for the sake of your utility, so do not misunderstand.”

Kailus gripped the cold iron handle of the glass door forcefully. With a rough motion pulling down the lever, a heavy frictional sound rang out.

The door opened.

Kailus stepped aside a single pace. The moment Eveline placed her foot across the threshold, what rushed to engulf all of her sensitive senses was a damp, sweet warmth.

Amidst the harsh, flesh-cutting winter of the north, an entirely different world unfolded across a single transparent glass door.

A humid, gentle heat wrapped without a single gap around her frozen cheeks, her pale neck, and even her gloved fingertips.

The sensation of deep warmth seeping into skin that had been stiff as frost was close to a bizarrely tingling pain.

What pushed against the tip of her nose was not the dry, frigid scent of a stone building, but vibrant, living air blending the earthy smell of rain and the damp fragrance of foliage. It was the unmistakable scent of spring, one she had never once smelled in this barren north.

That warmth permeated all the way deep into her lungs.

And wedging between that fresh fragrance, the sweet scent of fully bloomed flowers whose names she did not yet know was spilling forth slowly.