THPBC 07

Chapter 7

 The Rift (7)

Lucius had something close to a cleanliness obsession.

At least, that was what Celia knew.

He hated physical contact with other people to an almost obsessive degree.

Whenever he went outside, he always wore gloves that covered his hands all the way to his wrists, and he rarely allowed people into his personal space.

And when it came to physical contact, he was even stricter with Celia.

Celia herself had never minded touching other people, but Lucius did.

“That’s something I want to ask you about, Celia.”

That was the kind of relationship they had.

“Could you tell inexperienced me what kind of nights we used to spend together?”

Not this kind of touching!

Her body stiffened like a block of stone.

Feeling him press his body against hers, she lowered her head stiffly. Before her chin could even reach her collarbone, her body reacted first.

She froze before she could draw a breath.

Her shoulders flinched, and her fingertips curled inward as if gripping themselves. Her heart suddenly began beating to the wrong rhythm, startling her before she even realized what was happening.

“L-Let go…!”

Her eyes widened. Her lips pressed tightly together.

“We were married, weren’t we? We weren’t the kind of couple who needed to be embarrassed over something like this.”

He whispered gently, almost deliberately so.

They said that when an ordinary person went mad, there were two possibilities.

Either they lost their mind completely, or they started doing things they normally would never do.

Celia was realizing now that the passage from a book she had once read was absolutely correct.

And the proof was standing right in front of her.

“Or should I put out the lights?”

This was happening because a few newspapers had been shoved into his completely empty head and filled it with the wrong ideas.

The servants probably couldn’t bring themselves to tell their Young Duke, who had only just returned from the brink of death, that he and his wife had a relationship bad enough to kill each other.

“That’s not… the kind of relationship you and I… have…”

Her mouth, which had always flowed smoothly whenever she faced him, only opened and closed uselessly now, blocking any meaningful communication.

Even when she was fifteen and had made a bet with her father because she did not want to attend the academy, her mind had never gone this blank.

When she failed to finish her sentence and shifted restlessly, a long, languid breath escaped his lips.

“My mind may be a little strange now, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m your husband. There’s nothing strange about a married couple spending the night together, is there?”

His warm, firm hand pulled her toward him as she tried to draw her waist as far away from him as possible.

The heat of his body through the fabric made her forehead burn.

“I heard you barely slept for fifteen days while taking care of me. I’m sorry for making you worry.”

That’s because I was afraid you’d die and make me a widow…

“Give me a chance to prove that I’m all right, and to make up for the sin of leaving you lonely.”

Their stomachs touched. Their breaths mingled. Their eyes met.

She quickly turned her face away, but their bodies were pressed too closely together to leave her any room.

The words caught in her throat and were swallowed back down.

Seeing him holding her with those soft, relaxed eyes, as if everything about this were perfectly natural, Celia could not take it anymore.

“You… You feel like a stranger!”

She raised her voice and shoved him away with all her strength.

The force that had seemed as though it would never release her vanished like smoke, and he stepped away.

Only then did she realize that her hand had touched his solid chest.

She suddenly wanted to find a handkerchief and scrub her hands clean, so she clasped both hands together and quickly backed away from him.

“Do I feel like a stranger to you?”

He pulled his shoulders back slightly, looking somewhat flustered.

Just curse at me. Say something cruel.

“Sorry. I didn’t think of that.”

He lowered his upper body, placing his hands on his knees as though he were genuinely apologizing.

He lowered his body and then lifted his head, looking up at her from below.

Celia had been ready to pour out every nasty thing she could think of, but she stopped when she saw the clear green eyes looking at her with genuine confusion.

For Lucius to make that expression with that infuriating face of his…

It had to be some kind of devil’s trick.

He awkwardly lowered his eyes.

“I felt close to you the moment I saw you. Close enough that hearing you were my wife made perfect sense. Even more than hearing that woman was my mother.”

Close…?

She had absolutely no idea what had gone wrong, or where it had started.

Was it because she had been there the moment he woke up?

Or had he come back from the brink of death without remembering what resentment even meant?

The Lucius she knew should not be standing here like this.

Right now, he should have been shouting at her, accusing her of being involved because the person who attacked him seemed to be from Brickwell.

“I felt like everything was natural because I felt close to you. But I never considered that, from your perspective, your husband suddenly losing his memories and changing overnight might make me feel like a stranger.”

He was being so submissive that it was almost disturbing.

Celia clenched her hands and feet, forcing herself to regain control.

Otherwise, there was no way she could keep her sanity in this ridiculous situation.

“Did I scare you by suddenly coming so close?”

A fragment of a memory from something that had once happened between her and Lucius stabbed into her mind.

And, of all nights, it had been a night just like this.

An evening in summer, after the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon and the heavy heat of the day had been washed away.

A major incident had occurred in the very center of the capital, and Lucius had said these words to Celia after she became involved.

“Celia Brickwell. I know now that you’re a woman who has no fear and is afraid of nothing. That must be why you created this damnable result. Isn’t that right?”

She did not know why that unpleasant memory had suddenly resurfaced.

His soothing tone only made her stubbornness rise.

Was she afraid?

There was no way Celia could ever feel something like that toward someone like Lucius.

She clenched her jaw.

To push away his approaching face, she planted her palm against his shoulder and shoved with all her strength.

“There’s no way I’d be afraid of you!”

For a moment, Lucius’s face softened.

His eyes became so gentle, as though he had just swallowed sweet fruit wine, that Celia covered her mouth before a hiccup could escape.

“Thank goodness. Right now, I can’t think of anything except you. I was worried you might dislike me.”

First, she had to get that man out of her territory.

A warning bell was ringing loudly inside Celia’s head.

Her normal train of thought could not last more than a few seconds before it went completely off the rails again.

The abnormal Lucius kept filling her with confusion, only to replace it with more bewilderment moments later.

“Now, leave.”

“Hmm.”

He tilted his head awkwardly.

The long, drawn-out sound somehow seemed almost coquettish, but that was surely only because Celia was too overwhelmed to think straight.

“But Celia. Wouldn’t it be better for both of us if we stayed close to each other?”

“……There’s no way that’s true.”

“The doctor told me that if I want to recover my memories, I need to spend time with the people precious to me and have chances to naturally recall happy memories. Naturally, that person is you, isn’t it? And you’ll get used to the current me if I stay close to you.”

At some point, his arms had settled over both of her shoulders.

She shuddered at the weight of his arms, and her body tilted slightly with his shift in balance.

She instinctively stretched one foot backward, only to feel the wall against her back.

When did I get cornered like this?

“And I don’t want to waste tonight like this.”

He made full use of her position, trapped in the corner.

Lucius lowered his face over her head and pressed his body close to hers.

It was a damp, intimate contact.

One with unmistakable intent.

An act that tempted her toward a kind of corruption she had never experienced before.

The scent of bergamot and lavender that usually lingered around him rose subtly through the cool dampness.

A bitter citrus scent mingled with another fragrance.

The fresh, faint scent she knew was changing before her very eyes, becoming distinctly masculine.

“Even though it was only for a short while, I missed you. If you pity your husband, who lost his memories and returned from the brink of death, please allow me to stay by your side tonight.”

For a moment, Celia froze like an animal caught in a trap, overwhelmed by an intense kind of contact she had never experienced from him before.

“I’ll do my best to satisfy you.”

She raised her head as though she could not believe what she had just heard.

Lucius, who nearly bumped his chin against her head, quickly turned his cheek aside to avoid it.

“W-What?”

As he stared at her wide-eyed expression, he slowly slid his index finger along the slender nape of her neck, barely visible between her white hair.

When Celia instinctively shrank her neck like a turtle, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head.

Celia flinched at the sensation of something touching her.

“Of course, I understand that it might be frightening because I feel like a stranger to you. Then, would it be all right if I suggested another option?”

“I don’t like it, whatever it is.”

The words came out instinctively, just as they always did when she dealt with the Lucius she knew.

His cold and firm rejection should have made him hesitate, but he continued speaking smoothly without missing a beat.

Celia narrowed her eyes at him in displeasure.

His eyes reddened around the edges.

She could see a fire spreading deep within his gaze.

“Just hear me out.”

His moist lips curled upward.

“I’ll only do as much as you allow.”