MHHC Chapter 48

That Man

"Are you in pain or feeling weak? I was worried since you wouldn't be accustomed to it."

"I'm fine. It's not as though this is my first time experiencing such things."

"Not your first time?"

"When I first married Your Grace, the conditions were even worse than now, and I rode in a far shabbier carriage."

Answering his question obediently, Adelheid noticed Valentin's expression darken. Her response had apparently touched a nerve.

Had mentioning an anecdote with the real Grand Duke of Ansgar dampened his mood, since 'Valentin' wasn't truly the Grand Duke? It was difficult to understand, which made consoling words equally difficult.

"......"

The silent Valentin seemed to sense that Adelheid's mood was sinking alongside his.

Eventually he smiled as though ventilating the atmosphere.

"Your hair is wet."

"Ah..."

"You'll catch a cold like this. Humans are fragile, after all."

He reached toward Adelheid's wet hair, from which water still dripped steadily—drip, drip.

The moment his hand touched those damp strands, soft, hot warmth whooshed from somewhere.

Her golden hair, which had shot upward momentarily, settled neatly down her back. It was completely dry now, fluffy without a single drop of moisture remaining.

Was this also magic? As she marveled and touched her own hair, he watched her quietly, then asked as though suddenly remembering something.

"...Do you still miss that man?"

That man? Adelheid merely blinked, uncertain at first whom he meant.

Whatever he read in that expression, the smile hanging at Valentin's lips twisted instantly.

"That's unfortunate. You'll never be able to meet him again."

Adelheid looked at him with a dubious expression before asking, "Surely you don't mean Grand Duke Ansgar?"

"Is there another man?"

He asked in something close to a growl. The leap in logic was utterly baseless.

Moreover—though only occasionally—the more agitated he became, the more precise his pronunciation grew. How peculiar...

She regarded him with suspicious eyes before asking back, "But according to our contract, you agreed to return the Grand Duke's soul. You remember that, don't you?"

"...Who said I wouldn't give him back?"

"But your words..."

"After I return him, Adelheid will have to go with me to the edge of the world and live there forever. Somewhere no human can ever approach again."

Ah, if that's what he means. Adelheid nodded faintly in understanding at last. At her ready acceptance, Valentin narrowed his golden eyes.

"Aren't you afraid? I might look absolutely horrifying to you, you know."

It was a casually tossed question, but she read the anxiety concealed beneath that light manner.

Perhaps she saw it so clearly because it was the same anxiety she'd always carried.

The anxiety of being abandoned at any moment, the wish that someone would desperately want her...

Sometimes when looking at Valentin, it felt like peering into a mirror—everything laid bare.

Was that why? Even in moments when he seemed terrifying and unsettling, Adelheid pitied him.

"......"

Valentin watched her with eyes prepared to be wounded at any moment.

As though the blade gripped in her hand were aimed directly at his bare flesh.

When she stepped closer, Valentin's body flinched.

Adelheid hesitated briefly, then gently brought her fingertips to his cheek. His golden eyes widened with astonishment.

"Truth be told, I'm still very frightened of you."

"......"

"When that day comes, will you treat me more cruelly than now? Or has everything you've done for me been entirely false?"

"No! That's...not. I, I..."

"Then it's fine."

The end of her fierce deliberation was always the same.

Outward appearances meant nothing at all.

As long as he continued pouring such warm affection over her. As long as he remained constant like this—having slipped past walls built of suspicion and wariness to permeate her softly at last.

Adelheid gathered more courage. She scraped up the innermost feelings that had clung like soot to the very bottom of her heart.

"Do you perhaps wish for death, Valentin?"

"That's..."

"You're the contradictory one. You said you'd stay with me for life."

He froze with eyes wide open. Like someone who'd heard the answer they'd longed for in a moment they'd never expected.

Adelheid worried whether he was breathing properly.

"Valentin."

When she called his name again, he exhaled a long breath. His breathing was ragged, as though he'd just woken from a nightmare both terrible and sweet.

Valentin roughly pressed her hand firmly against his cheek, holding it there with desperate urgency.

Her hand stung where it scraped against his large palm—not a single soft spot anywhere on it.

"Ah..."

But she couldn't produce a single proper complaint because Valentin's eyes, gazing at her, had contorted.

A single transparent tear fell—drop—from Valentin's eyes as he looked at her with wounded sorrow.

"Adele is a liar."

It was a sight so beautiful it felt unreal. He desperately grasped the arm of the transfixed Adelheid.

"But I can't let you go."

Her entire body was pulled into his embrace.

Having ensnared her slender waist and fragile nape completely with hands and arms leaving no gaps, Valentin finally exhaled a satisfied sigh.

Buried firmly against his solid chest, she heard near her ear the ceaseless thump-thump-thump of a heartbeat.

She couldn't distinguish whether it was his or hers. It didn't matter. They would have been identical anyway.

Adelheid hesitated, deliberated deeply, then carefully raised her hand and stroked his back.

She felt his large body, leaning entirely against her, stiffen rigidly for a moment. Adelheid thought he'd simply fainted.

But eventually, rough fingertips lifted her chin.

"You chose this."

Valentin's gaze blazed hot as molten gold boiling in a furnace.

The desire seething in his belly stood vivid on his beautiful face.

"Knowing everything. Right?"

Knowing everything. She wasn't innocent enough to miss that statement's meaning.

Not naive enough to misunderstand the longing in his eyes, nor cruel enough to ignore the tenderness swelling in her own chest.

When she nodded as though entranced, his lips surged forward hotly, as though he'd been waiting.

It was rapture.

"How...could you do that?"

Valentin confessed in a low voice that sounded aggrieved. Yet his hands remained busy carrying food to her mouth.

The moment of sweetly devouring each other had ended simultaneously with her stomach producing a gurgle.

Valentin had regained his composure as though cold water had been dumped on his head.

He'd apparently realized how little time remained for her to rest comfortably in a warm, stable place.

"With so little time left to rest in a place like this."

The moment his spoon scooped the completely cooled stew, steam began rising from it again as though freshly boiled.

He brought the spoon directly to Adelheid's lips.

"How could you tempt me like that, knowing everything?"

"I truly had no such intention—not even slightly."

"I react like a dog to your every gesture. Don't you know that?"

Adelheid flushed mid-bite of stew. His language was too direct—she couldn't withstand it otherwise.

He vilified her as though she'd performed some grand seduction, but all she'd done was stroke his back extremely lightly.

It would have been no different from a leaf brushing past. Yet Valentin bristled almost like someone defrauded.

"You'll have to ride in the carriage for quite a while soon. Your body is weak. How could you make me forget that..."

"I'm not that weak."

He snorted as though he'd heard something utterly absurd.

"Your courage is touching. Thinking you could ride in a carriage unaffected after having me."

He's insane. Adelheid swallowed a scream internally. His eyes, still saturated with sensuality, curved narrowly.

"Or. Shall we just run away together right now, carriage and everything else be damned?"

"......"

"I wouldn't mind that either. I'm confident I won't fail this time."

"...But previously."

He set the stew bowl on the table and gave her a look suggesting she should continue. Adelheid carefully released the words that had risen to her chin.

"Valentin, you said contracts must absolutely be fulfilled. Is that no longer necessary?"

"......"

He ground out a sound that came close to cursing. The excitement that had flared briefly subsided before Adelheid could blink twice. He quickly regained his composure.

After all was said and done, the time when they must depart was approaching rapidly.

He roughly swept back the black hair that had fallen across his forehead and continued speaking.

"Anyway, I didn't come intending this from the start. I came today because..."

He opened his palm facing upward, and the dagger that had been buried among her clothes flew swiftly to settle upon it.

"I was curious how much you've become able to handle magic."

Adelheid's eyes widened in astonishment as she looked back and forth between the dagger resting on his hand and him.

Each time he did something like this, she felt anew both that he wasn't human and the profound depth of what it meant to manipulate magic freely.

She hadn't yet reached even the toes of that ability.

"Go ahead. Try grasping it."

Valentin abruptly held the dagger out to her. Adelheid took it awkwardly.