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Deatrice laid on the bed and stared at her bandaged arm.
On the first day that she was injured, a priest was summoned, and after that, servants applied expensive medicine to her skin. The wound healed surprisingly quickly, only leaving traces that it was ever there and would soon vanish too.
But Lucius would still come every morning and change the bandages himself..
She had asked him.
“Why are you doing this?”
After examining the wound with a focused expression on his face and after applying the bandages, he monotonously replied.
“Who else should do it, if not me?”
The reaction when she first got hurt was so great that it wasn’t surprising that he would insist on changing the bandages himself. Deatrice, too, remembered his reaction to seeing her wounded and the trembling of his hands when he dressed her wound.
But no matter how guilty he may have possibly felt or how sorry he was for her injuries, Deatrice still felt that his present attitude was burdensome.
He had even reiterated that he wouldn’t sleep with her. But it didn’t look so believable when the tips of his ears were dyed red as calmly changed her bandages like an obedient servant.
“He’s doing everything.”
Deatrice muttered and sighed and lowered her arms again.
The bandaging was always done early in the morning when she was not awake. It was because Lucius had to leave earlier than usual. He had been very busy lately after it was revealed that what came out of the forest wasn’t an ordinary wolf, but a beast monster.
Today though, she woke up after feeling an uncomfortable sensation. Then, her eyes suddenly met with his.
“You woke up?”  he asked, lighting up a candle and then went back to tying the bandage on her arm. “Sorry. I tried to do it as slowly as I could.”
Saying so, he turned her head over, kissed her cheek, and whispered that it was over. Then he told her to go back to sleep.
Maybe Deatrice should’ve been angry from the first day he had sneaked into her room and touched her while she was asleep, even if he had good intentions. But then, she would just mumble a low sound of agreement to him.
Goodbye, she would say, and then subsequently fall asleep.
It was always after waking up a second time that she would completely realize how ridiculous they were. No one was watching them, and yet they greeted each other as if they were a real couple?
What the hell?
After a few nights, she realized that she was helpless about it. Hence, she simply  acted as if they had returned to when they were lovers. She would conform to his kisses and casually accept his tenderness.
It’s not really because she misses those days, it’s just that she reacts in a way that’s almost like a reflex, especially after she was still groggy and disoriented after being woken so early.
When Deatrice thought about it, she concluded that his occasional sweet talk and blushing just may be a habit of his that he could never shake off because that’s part of his ‘charming’ self.
Shouldn’t we both get away from our murky past and start our relationship anew?
He said those to her, but is it really possible?
Sighing, Deatrice stood up and put on a shawl.
When she opened her door and walked out, Rosalynn, who was just going up the stairs, saw Deatrice and hastily told her to return to her room. She had on a very urgent expression and exaggerated gestures as if something bad had happened.
Behind her maidservant, a few servants and a few knights followed.
“What is it?”
When she asked about something unusual, the knight behind Rosalynn went up to the door and said,
“Replying to the Marquess, it’s people from Pekka, they’re here. The risks have not been properly determined, but the commander sent us here just in case.”
“From Pekka? What happened?”
“The commander has personally gone to meet Count Miller, supposedly to cooperate with him. But upon knowing that the commander was gone, people recklessly came over.”
The knight blurted out the end of his speech, troubled.
Count Miller was an elderly, middle-aged man and a conservative aristocrat. He was one of those people who hated seeing lowranks like Lucius gain power more than anyone else. He owned Pekka, which was an estate that was right next to the estate that Lucius was in charge of.
Today, however, he asked Lucius for help.
“Did someone break into Pekka?”
The knight shook his head, looking troubled for the second time. “That’s not it. However, they received news that the monsters appeared last night.”
“Monsters?”
He nodded.
“Many private houses have already been attacked whereas the knights continue to fight them off, but reports say that the location sustained significant damage.”
Monster.
If it was so, then the monsters who came out of the forest last time weren’t because of coincidence?
“Did they come from Archen?”
“It’s still too early to say, but we’re doing our utmost to search for answers. However, it doesn’t look so easy to trace their origins.” After saying that, the knight kept his mouth shut and focused on standing guard.
Deatrice couldn’t even change clothes. Therefore, she idled in the room while reading books. The door did not open except for servants delivering her daily meals and an occasional snack.
Each time they brought food, a short message came along with it and the knights would whisper amongst themselves. Then they would summarize the contents of the letter and deliver it to her briefly.
Deatrice was somehow imprisoned until the moment Lucius returned by midnight. She then left the tedious room and went downstairs to meet him.