RAMHM Chapter 116

I'm Still Hungry for You

"Olivia is a common name, so it might not be her."

"But it would be rare for someone with your nanny's name to be searching for Bliea."

Rhodness spoke as if seeing through my anxiety, then slipped smoothly out of bed.

"Rhoan!"

"Mm?"

Sunlight pouring through the window illuminated nakedly his back turning toward the entrance. The shadows of his body packed tightly with muscle deepened.

"Clothes!"

"Ah."

His bright golden hair—unlike my hair disheveled beyond repair—gleamed calmly as if nothing had happened.

Rhodness swept his hair back roughly, smiled with dizzying attractiveness, grabbed his share of blanket and wrapped it loosely around his waist, then walked to the entrance.

I heard a servant who'd come to deliver breakfast gasp. He took the tray and began setting items one by one on the tea table.

"Come out, Adrienne. Let's eat breakfast."

"More importantly. I need to tell Prince Viktor as soon as possible that I'm going to Ellaconia."

My whole body ached as if beaten—I gritted my teeth and groaned trying to rise when Rhodness was suddenly before me.

The precariously draped blanket openly displayed his prominent hipbones.

My face heated instantly and I turned my head—then I floated up.

"While you were bathing yesterday, I already sent someone."

"What?"

Without time to respond, Rhodness lightly lifted me wrapped entirely in blanket and sat me at the tea table.

I clutched the slipping blanket and fumbled to cover myself, exposing only my shoulders. Rhodness chuckled and tousled my hair.

"Epero will handle all the troublesome preparations, so eat first. I need to fatten you up."

Rhodness had already pulled the opposite chair beside me and sat down solidly, pushing soup and white wheat bread before me.

"You were planning to let me go to Ellaconia? From the beginning?"

Absently I asked him while dipping my hands in the water bowl to wash.

"If you were someone who wouldn't go even if I stopped you, I wouldn't have this headache."

"I'm surprised, honestly. So efficiently..."

"I'm originally good at work."

Rhodness wiped my hands corner to corner with the napkin on the tray.

I flinched unnecessarily remembering last night's touch, and each time he gripped firmly to wipe, so my hands quickly became fluffy-dry.

"While going to Ellaconia, I should meet that Olive or Olivia woman too."

Rhodness, who'd been persistently watching to ensure food entered my mouth, uncorked decorative wine and drank straight from the bottle.

Each time he tilted his head back and put bottle to lips, I quickly shook my head as last night's afterimage surfaced. That thick adam's apple gulp-gulp swallowing wine stabbed at my eyes provocatively.

I reached for water drinking glug-glug from sudden thirst and stretched my hand to chew bread combatively. The moment I ate, butter fragrance Rhodness had spread swept through my mouth.

"Anyway, once the Ellaconian bastard and Epero pack everything—luggage and all—we'll depart immediately."

"You're really coming too?"

"I told His Majesty that Ellaconian bastards might pull something taking advantage of my brother's death, so I'll go observe."

"He permitted it?"

Rhodness stared at my worried face before drinking wine again.

"Not yet. But with only Epero and me remaining as heirs, what good would needlessly provoking me do?"

"Having both remaining heirs travel abroad seems more worrying."

I pushed away the half-empty plate and rinsed my mouth. Rhodness handed me a napkin as if waiting, then furrowed his brow briefly recalling something.

"That bastard. No, I can't not follow because that bastard's talking irritates me."

"Hm?"

Confirming I'd finished eating, Rhodness lifted me up again.

"How can I send you together with a bastard saying your face is his type and such dog—no, nonsense? That Ellaconian bastard follows you around like a puppy too."

Rhodness muttered unable to hide his anger, then set me on the bed.

Not knowing how to respond, I just rolled my eyes before suddenly coming to my senses thinking Epero's party might come to the Grand Ducal estate.

"Then I should prepare too. Since they might come anytime..."

"No need to prepare—you just need to bring yourself. Everyone in this estate except you knows we're leaving on a long journey."

So we have some time.

Rhodness added while slowly gathering the blanket I'd wrapped around myself and climbing onto the bed.

"Rhoan, yesterday was definitely my first time..."

"...Mine too."

When he lifted me, I realized the identity of the thunk sound of something falling.

Turning my gaze just slightly—his blanket had been dropped on the floor.

"It's my first time too, Rienne."

That voice even lower than before soaked my entire body. His shadow covered me completely.

When I flinched at the hot, firm body felt nakedly, Rhodness's lips consolingly fell past my eyes, cheeks, and mouth to my neck.

The rich wine fragrance he'd just drunk circled my entire body.

"I'm still hungry for you..."

"Ah."

"Do you know how cute your mouth looks when eating? If you knew, you couldn't tell me not to do this."

With a deep sigh ending those words, hot lips conquered me.

Me too.

'Actually I've wanted to hang on your neck and kiss you since you were drinking wine straight from the bottle'—

I had no chance to say such words.

Into my mind where thoughts had flown away, it felt like the wine he drank was flowing in.

The blanket stolen from me passed over his back to cover us both.

It was a morning where the inside of the white blanket became a sweet and bitter wine cask, and I seemed to have fallen splash inside.

Bianca, who'd attended the Crown Prince's funeral, felt strange.

"My lady, what's wrong? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?"

From Prince Epero's welcoming ceremony, she who'd conducted social activities as the East's representative replacing busy Gregory had felt similar déjà vu even then.

"Lily. Do you remember Prince Epero's welcoming ceremony?"

"Yes, both you and I were shocked. How could the palace, which had never even glimpsed Eastern high society, decorate so perfectly in Eastern style."

They'd said the Crown Prince Bardenaldo—no, his assistant—had arranged it replacing busy palace women. And when she learned that assistant's identity was Bliea Acacia, that woman not worth chewing and spitting out, how furious she'd been.

However, knowing the true hearts of central nobles who guarded against the East, Bianca couldn't openly say anything to that woman like at the Grand Ducal estate.

She'd simply planned to stay quietly until the Emperor's birthday celebration, stamp her attendance at major imperial events, and return.

She'd also frantically attended the funeral at news the Crown Prince grew critical and passed away in one day.

But Bianca was so shocked seeing the woman beside Prince Epero there that she nearly forgot it was a funeral and almost screamed.

'Adrienne!'

She barely restrained herself from shouting dead Adrienne's name and running there, unable to take her eyes off that woman throughout the funeral.

When she belatedly asked who the woman beside Prince Epero was, people naturally called her Bliea Acacia.

The witness who saw Grand Duke Novian's attempted assassination of the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince's assistant who'd nearly been killed together.

But Bianca absolutely couldn't accept it.

That woman was definitely Adrienne, not Bliea.

From when Adrienne was a small child just beginning to look at books and read them clearly, Bianca had frequented the Pirreta great estate watching Adrienne.

In that household with no mother or female siblings, Bianca had attended to areas where brother Gregory couldn't care for Adrienne as she grew.

Perhaps Bianca was closer family to Adrienne than her blood father or brother.

No matter how much Bliea resembled her, no matter if she temporarily dyed her hair blonde to deceive people. She couldn't deceive Bianca's eyes.

Though she'd directly confirmed Adrienne's corpse with her eyes, attended that funeral and watched the burial—

The impulse rose in Bianca that even if the whole world called her mad, she wanted to confirm again.

"My lady! My lady, please! I'll do it instead!"

"Stand aside, Lily!"

"Exhuming an imperial corpse will get even great nobles like Pirreta Duchy punished equivalent to death!"

Bianca ultimately couldn't sleep on the funeral night. She secretly snuck into the Trovika Grand Ducal family cemetery.

The few guards there let Bianca—family of the Grand Duchess and a great noble—pass with few suspicions at her words about quietly mourning the deceased alone, plus some money.

"Even if I'm punished by the Lord for exhuming the grave, even if the palace learns this and tries to punish me... you just say Bianca Pirreta was actually a madwoman who did such things. If only I become a madwoman, at least it won't harm Pirreta."

"My lady, my lady please. If the young duke learns..."

"If he'd seen that woman, Gregory would understand my heart. No, he'd have dug up this entire place too."

The aftereffects of losing his only sister so emptily didn't fade easily—Gregory sometimes went to Adrienne's room to be alone.

Remembering that lonely back, Bianca gritted her teeth and picked up the shovel.

Though it looked quite grotesque for a noble lady to hold, she didn't care.

Maid Lily stamped her feet watching for anyone coming.

How much time passed like that?

From Bianca's lips silently exhuming the grave, an eerie laugh poured out.

"It's not here... not here, Lily!"

"My lady?"

"The corpse is gone! Rienne is gone! Someone stole Rienne! What did I say? I said something was definitely strange!"

Bianca crawled up from the hollowed ground.

Lily reached out and pulled her up.

Bianca's dress, sprawled on the ground from momentum, became mud-covered from earth dampened by yesterday's rain.

"Bliea Acacia. I must meet that woman once more."

Though she'd warned her not to appear before her eyes, now that it came to this, she had to meet that woman.

No, intense intuition struck that she must meet her.

The next morning.

When rumors suddenly spread that Ellaconia had specially invited the Second Prince and Bliea, Bianca's heart grew urgent.

At word they'd depart from the Trovika Grand Ducal estate to Ellaconia, she mounted her horse without even properly fixing her hair and rode.

The Grand Ducal estate's carriage—surrounded by several layers of escorts in the middle of the luggage cart procession—was already passing through the capital's north gate.

Bianca rode madly chasing the carriage.

The escorts who'd been alert thinking they'd meet assassins the moment they left central capital were shocked when one small woman chased the carriage.

The carriage at that commotion's center finally stopped, and from inside appeared one woman with golden hair flowing like honey.

"...Adrienne."

It was definitely Adrienne.