Chapter 53

“I’m honored to see the beautiful embodiment of Goddess Anthea.”

Ober approached Marianne without any hesitation. She looked at him when he offered polite greetings. Those around them also began to focus on one place quickly.

“…Sir.”

Marianne gracefully extended her gloved hands. Ober rose slowly after touching his forehead and lips on it.

“I would like to say hi to the emperor, too.”

“His Excellency… He hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Really? I’m sorry to hear that.”

“You don’t have to say sorry.”

Ober stroked her cheeks as he looked at her with ardent eyes. At that moment, he was in the mood to show that kind of tolerance.

The emperor didn’t appear at the ball on the eve of his engagement. Marianne was alone. Those present at the ball already thought that Ober and she were an unfortunate couple who failed to get engaged.

“It’s a gem that matches very well with the Spring of the North.”

Above all, the accessories worn by Marianne satisfied him. They were the gifts that he gave her on her birthday last month.

“I hurriedly brought my stuff here from Lennox. When I came to Milan, I was so absent-minded that I couldn’t bring them. But I wanted to use it today…”

“I think the emperor gave you a lot of gifts, too.”

“I have several, but he didn’t give me anything for today’s event. And I like it best. That’s why I really begged him to get it for me. I even said if he didn’t get it for me, I would not go to the banquet tonight.”

Ober barely held back the urge to scorn at her.

He truly missed Eckart at this moment. How shameful he would have felt if he had seen his childish fiancee begging her former lover because she couldn’t forget him! The emperor must have known the rumors about her in social circles and on the streets. The emperor was not the type of person who turned to sweet talk and exaggeration to increase his power. Unless he was in desperate need, he wouldn’t do it. Nevertheless, he accepted her request gently.

“I am glad to know you appreciate my sincere efforts to care for you.”

Ober smiled softly with grace, expressing his gratitude.

Marianne was like a fish already caught in his net. As long as she was in his hand, Ober really wanted the emperor to fall for this woman deeply for any reason. It didn’t matter if he was obsessed with power or love. The deeper, the better. He wished the emperor would go crazy enough to bet everything on her. The more he did, the more he would regret it later. Carried away by his own stupidity, he would be strangled to death because of his sense of loss.

“Marquis Chester!”

A large shadow popped up from behind. Ober looked back, frowning slightly.

“Giyom.”

Giyom, his assistant and bodyguard knight, bowed to him. Ober briefly turned his back against Marianne.

“What’s up?”

“Mrs. Chester called you.”

“I’ll go later.”

Ober shook his hand as if her call was bothersome. And then he turned to Marianne.

But Marianne’s condition was strange. Her gaze was set on the ground, and her grasped hands held by each other were trembling visibly. If the breathing was disturbed, the exposed shoulders were trembling. Her shoulders were moving up and down as if she was short of breath.

“Marie… No, Lady Marianne!”

Ober first called her pet name, but belatedly corrected it. Of course, this was his calculated mistake.

“What’s the matter with you? Are you uncomfortable…”

“No! No!”

Marianne replied as if she was screaming. Only then her eyes met his briefly. He made a more scary frown on his face than before.

What was reflected in her fresh green eyes was none other than horror.

“My stomach suddenly got a little upset. Let me go back to my room for a while…I’m too cold…”

“Lady.”

Ober once again called her, but Marianne left the place without even saying goodbye.

A maid caught up with her who almost went running, and helped her. But Marianne refused her help and rushed into the crowd.

Watching her strange behavior, Ober beckoned to Giyom.

“Giyom, follow me.”

* * *

Mariane rubbed her blurred eyes hard. The lace of her gloves scratched the skin and smeared her makeup, but she didn’t care. Her running steps slowed down gradually. She staggered and fell down several times, but she didn’t remember it at all. Her clenched lips turned white.

“Giyom.”

Again, that voice of his hovered around her ears. She had goosebumps from the crown of her head to her toes. She didn’t know if she cried or screamed. She thought she felt better, though she cried a little at first, and then she could put up with it. It was because she had a goal. When she met that terrible bastard Ober, she pretended to laugh or cry before him and even lied to him, saying she wanted to go back to him. Though she felt it unpleasant when he touched her hand, she thought she could put up with that.

“Giyom.”

But she couldn’t stand that voice of his calling that name, and the guy who responded to his call.

He only called the guy’s name. In this life of hers, Giyom never put her in the lake. She will make sure he can’t. She vowed that. Even though she knew it all, tears went down. She couldn’t meet his eyes. It seemed that he would just lift her up and throw her in the lake again.

“Giyom.”

She heard the name again. The name Ober called that day. Just a boring and annoyed call with no love or hatred. Too light a word to end a person’s life. Recalling that, Mariane beat her chest. She didn’t seem to be breathing well. There was something like an illusion waving before her eyes. With the insurmountable force crushing her head, deeply sinking under the water, there she was, struggling helplessly. Cold water was soaring in her airway and filling the lungs, and finally…

Bang.

Something blocked her way.

Her light body hit against something and bounced off.

Staggering like a flower with a broken trunk, Marianne grasped the air fleetingly, just like that night when she was trying to hang on a waterway that couldn’t be caught.

“… Marianne.”

But this time it was different. She caught something warm and hard in her hands. She felt some sort of familiar warmth wrapped around her waist.

She opened her eyes that she had closed unconsciously.

“Your Excellency!”

Her wet voice trembled. She was disenchanted with the glimmering illusion a moment ago.

Eckart frowned. He tightened his grip on her waist and raised her upright. He ordered in a low voice from behind.

“Curtis, go get Mrs. Reinhardt.”

“But…”

“Curtis.”

His voice calling the name was annoying.

At that moment, Curtis instinctively pulled a double sword, but put it back when the emperor stopped him.

Snap!

As if he wanted to replace his reply with the rattling noise of the metal sword, he disappeared over the nearby window quietly.

Eckart now loosened his grip on her waist and scanned her from head to toe.

“You look terrible! Who came and told you about another cheater today? Few people know I’m here.”

She dropped the tears that welled in her eyes and bit her lip harder.

She didn’t get angry even if he sarcastically reminded her of the recent fuss she made. Rather, she felt relaxed and shed more tears.

At least the emperor was not a man who would throw her in the lake. He might be angry with her, but he hadn’t come to see her since then, and suddenly appeared now.

She wanted to ask how he had been doing up to now, but could not ask.

In the end, she cried again.

“Marianne, what really happened? Nobody briefed me about anything unusual about you until an hour ago.”

Eckart no longer spoke to her when he found something strange about her. He stared at her sharply with his blue eyes.

In the end, she with a pale face opened her mouth. She began to speak slowly and little by little.

“…Giyom. ”

Marianne strongly pulled the collar of her dress before she knew. She pulled it so strongly that even Eckart with a tougher build came forward.

“He was here?”

“Yes. A maid saw him entering the back door back a little while ago.”

He faintly sensed somebody’s presence at the end of the hallway.

Marianne clutched the collar tighter with her trembling hands. She looked up with her green eyes wet with tears. She shook her head unconsciously. Her breathing was disturbed.

She had to explain to him, ‘I want to leave this place. I don’t want to see them. Even for a moment I want to be out of their sight. I want to be isolated from that terrible voice.’

But before she could speak, Eckart moved first. He put his arms around her back.

He supported her with a soft but not weak force. The door nearest to them was opened as quietly as possible. The golden cloak and the dress hem disappeared into it, sweeping over the carpet. A very small noise of him locking the door sounded like a hallucination and then disappeared.