MHHC Chapter 8

Vigilance

Valentin was firmly held with his shoulders gripped by the knights. It appeared that six grown men had barely managed to suppress him together. The traces of the fierce struggle that had occurred just moments before were vivid.

His hands and feet were completely bloody, his clothes were torn to shreds, and his neck was pinned down with crossed spear shafts.

Everywhere on his body showed wounds cut by glass fragments. Perhaps to prevent self-harm, a soft cloth was clamped between Valentin's lips.

At that horrific sight, the color instantly drained from Adelheid's cheeks. Even a beast wouldn't receive such treatment.

"What on earth is this... What blasphemy have you committed against His Grace?"

Knight commander Günter raised his face, wet with fatigue. He was gripping Valentin's right shoulder.

"I apologize. It may look terrible to Your Grace, but this was the best measure for the Grand Duke's safety."

"...What do you mean?"

Günter hesitated slightly.

"He was... harming himself..."

Self-harm. Adelheid was so surprised she couldn't speak for some time. She barely managed to collect herself.

"Even so. Treating the master of Ansgar like a beast."

"I apologize."

"Someone please bring water-soaked cloth and medicine. Sir Günter, you may dismiss the knights. His Grace seems to have already calmed down."

At butler Hermann's eye signal, one of the maids standing at the doorway quickly pushed through the crowd and withdrew. Günter still looked worried.

"However, Your Grace. Even six strong men can barely handle His Grace's strength."

"Don't worry about me. His Grace seems to recognize me."

Sir Günter's eyes clouded momentarily. Well, strangely enough, that was true...

"Please release His Grace."

At Adelheid's firm request, Günter nodded to his subordinates. The knights carefully released their hold on the Grand Duke's body.

As soon as the spear shafts pinning his neck were removed, Valentin shook them off as if casting away something bothersome. The sturdy knights fell away like ripened grain kernels. He spat out the cloth piece that had been clamped in his mouth.

And he rose without anyone's help. As if his frenzied behavior moments ago had been completely false, he seemed quietly subdued.

"..."

Valentin's persistent gaze touched Adelheid's face. He immediately walked toward Adelheid. The people in the room held their breath, watching them alternately.

"Th-there... Your Grace. I've brought the water towel and m-medicine..."

Just then, the maid who had returned cautiously interjected between them, setting down a tray. On the tray were water-soaked cloth, medicine, and clean bandages. The maid flinched when Valentin gave her a cold look.

Adelheid quickly took the tray from the maid's hands.

"Thank you. Now everyone please clear the area."

"...But..."

The old butler interjected with a frown. Adelheid shook her head and said:

"His Grace has finally calmed down. Somehow... I'll try to handle it."

Hermann looked worriedly between his master and Adelheid, then gestured for everyone to leave. Not long after, the sound of closing doors came from behind. Hermann had succeeded in driving everyone out.

In the room lit by a few candles and fireplace flames, now only the two of them remained.

"......"

It was Adelheid who first broke the suffocating silence.

"Your Grace."

As if responding to her voice, Valentin's ears twitched. An inexplicably ominous light appeared in his eyes. His gleaming golden eyes looked as if they would devour Adelheid.

In truth, it had been an unwavering gaze from the moment she entered the room. Whether what filled it was desire, anger, or some other yearning... it was not easy to distinguish.

"I'll tend to your wounds."

Adelheid carefully met Valentin's gaze and pointed to the couch in front of the fireplace. For some reason, he felt even more unfamiliar than usual today.

The moment she met his eyes directly, Adelheid immediately realized the reason. His pupils catching the firelight... were different from usual. They were vertically slit like a reptile's, not human.

'What?'

In the time it took to blink in surprise, Valentin's pupils had returned to a round human shape.

'Was I mistaken? If it was real, then what did I just... see?'

The surroundings were excessively quiet. The blood-chilling cries of horses, chickens, and dogs had vanished as if washed away.

A shrill voice she had heard before pierced through the silence.

'The dragon of Bitzleben is a cunning, vicious, and seductive beast...'

Adelheid barely managed to swallow the saliva that had gathered in her mouth. The fear transferred from Greta slowly raised its head like a snake's. It hissed poison into her ears.

'It freely manipulates shadows and cleverly hides among people, copying human behavior and mimicking language...'

"Adelheid."

Suddenly, eerie goosebumps rose on the back of her neck. As Adelheid stepped back hesitantly, Valentin's eyebrows twitched. At the same time, she could see rough strength entering his forearm.

He urgently closed the distance, approaching as much as Adelheid had stepped back.

Crunch. Glass fragments scattered on the floor broke under his bare feet. Yet he didn't even frown. Like someone who felt no pain. He grasped Adelheid's wrist.

"Uh."

Adelheid let out a surprised moan. Contrary to her expectation that it would hurt with veins bulging in her forearm, Valentin's grip was only somewhat firm but not painful.

"Adelheid."

It was a perfectly aristocratic accent. Elegant, refined, and rich. While unable to say any other words, somehow he pronounced only her name with near perfection.

'Is he really mimicking someone?'

Adelheid reflexively checked Valentin's shadow. They said 'dragons' had living, moving shadows unlike humans.

But Valentin's shadow was ordinary. An unremarkable, ordinary shadow that didn't seem to breathe or move differently from its owner.

Only then did her heated mind cool as if doused with cold water. Adelheid felt relieved.

'He can't not be human. Look at that. He's even bleeding. Greta overreacted...'

"Adelheid."

He grasped Adelheid's chin, looking down, and lifted her head. The moment his hand drew near, Adelheid smelled blood. Come to think of it, his palms were also completely bloody.

'Did he get that way from breaking the window?'

She was idly continuing such thoughts.

"......"

Valentin was quietly gazing at her. Adelheid quickly noticed that he was rarely flustered.

"......"

He rubbed her cheeks and chin hard with his thumb. As if wanting to wipe something away. It wasn't working well, so he repeated it several times.

Only after looking back at the half-broken mirror did Adelheid realize that blood had smeared across her cheek in splotchy stains following Valentin's handprints. The more he tried to erase it, the messier it became.

Adelheid gently pushed away his arm and said:

"I-I'll do this myself. If you rub it with your hands like that, it hurts."

"......"

"If you do this, it just keeps spreading. If I wipe it with a water towel, it'll quickly..."

Adelheid couldn't even finish that sentence. He who had gently lifted her chin bent at the waist. Adelheid just blinked dazedly at his face drawing closer and closer. She didn't understand the meaning. Suddenly why...

It was only a moment when his lips touched Adelheid's chin. Adelheid's eyes, like tender new buds, grew round. Following that, his red tongue flicked out and licked the bloodstain on her chin.

My goodness.

Adelheid's white cheeks instantly turned red like a ripe tomato. At the eerily soft and moist sensation, Adelheid trembled.

"St-stop..."

"Ah, pret-ty... m-my... Adelheid."

She could feel him releasing a breathless laugh against their touching skin. Adelheid pressed her hand firmly against her chest. Her heart was beating far too fast.

'He' looked at the pitiful woman before his eyes.

White, clear cheeks, summer-like eyes, hair cascading wetly over her fingers, and shoulders supple as willow branches. Just looking at her made sinister greed constrict his belly.

While all the northern lands were so elated by the man's survival that they were raising toasts, shadows of suspicion were cast over the woman Adelheid's face. It was so persistent that no matter what he did, it wouldn't lift.

'He' was troubled.

What was lacking? Did he seem too ignorant for a human? Or had he acted too pitifully?

His tongue, unable to fully swallow his greed, flicked across his lips. 'He' narrowed his eyes when Adelheid wasn't looking.

So then, what exactly must he do

to break down that wariness as before?

Kisses continued dot by dot from chin to cheek and back to chin. At first there had been the pretext of wiping away blood, but later Valentin simply concentrated on nibbling. He seemed to enjoy how Adelheid startled with a gasp each time he touched his lips to her.

She made a tearful face and desperately pushed against Valentin's sturdy shoulders. Only then, as if satisfied, did he straighten his waist that had been bent in a crouch.

"F-first, please treat your wounds."

Adelheid blushed and placed the tray the maid had brought on her lap. Whether the man before her was really her husband or a beast wearing borrowed skin, at least he was a person bleeding.

Leaving such wounds untreated would cause great suffering later. Adelheid gripped the cloth tightly and warned with a deliberately worried expression:

"This will sting a little."

Adelheid had him spread his large palm face up and gently rubbed the wounds clean with cloth soaked in alcohol.

"......"

Each time the cloth touched, his firm shoulders jerked. Rather than from pain, it seemed the sensation was unfamiliar to him. His face looked observant, as if studying his own flesh.

Adelheid placed plenty of crushed bloodwort on Valentin's palm and wrapped bandages tightly around it.

"Doesn't it hurt? Or is it too tight and uncomfortable..."

Valentin tilted his head. As if asking what she meant. Or as if it were a completely incomprehensible question.

Adelheid's ears reddened slightly. She timidly changed the subject.

"The other hand is fortunately not as bad, but I should look at your feet since you stepped on glass earlier. If there are other injured places, please show me. It's better to stop the bleeding before calling a healer..."

She couldn't even finish saying it all. Valentin crossed both arms and peeled off the tunic whose front seam was miserably torn.