Chapter 176

The simple truth that a human being cannot win against natural phenomenon vanished from her mind. She took a big breath as if she became a knight facing a duel. Then she watched the situation outside the window.

The sound of the rain was still loud, but the thunder stopped. There was even humidity and coldness in the spacious, dark room. As she was tense, the sound of her swallowing nothing seemed loud. Finally, she was about to pull the string very carefully.

Knock! knock!

Somebody knocked on the door outside.

“Ouch!”

She screamed as if she was hit by a whip. Terrified, she pulled the blanket over her head quickly. Although she heard the door being flung open, she couldn’t afford to look out of the blanket.

She pulled the blanket over her chest as if it was the last shield to protect her life.

Then, she stopped and frowned.

‘Wait a minute. I think it was the knocking sound, not thunder. It sounded like a door opening … Is it Cordelli?’

“Marianne, are you okay? ”

Contrary to her expectations, what she heard was Eckart’s low and friendly voice, inquiring after her.

She removed the blanket she had pulled over her head. When she swept her disheveled hair, she came to have a clearer view.

“Your Majesty!”

The shadow standing in front of her bed moved slowly. After hesitating briefly, he carefully swept the disheveled hair tickling her nose over the top of her head.

“Oh, I think you were surprised. ”

“Why have you come to my room?”

“Curtis told me he heard several faint bells each time he heard the roll of thunder. I thought you weren’t sleeping since you were ringing the bell.”

Eckart looked at the side corridor in her bedroom then turned to her.

“Do you want me to call a guard? Or a maid…”

“Oh, no. I’m alright. Just let me go to sleep. I think I’m tired.”

“But didn’t you ring the bell because you needed something?”

“Well…”

Right at the moment lightning flashed in the dark room and disappeared.

Marianne quickly grabbed Eckart’s sleeves. The moment he frowned at her desperate move, there was another frightening stroke of thunder.

“It seems you are very unfamiliar with this kind of weather.”

Sometimes someone who is too quick-witted tends to raise others’ eyebrows.

Marianne pouted as she pulled her hands away from him.

“Well, I’m not so scared, but I just can’t sleep…”

“As we have this kind of heavy rain in Milan every year, I didn’t know it was the first time you would experience this.”

“Cordelli warned me that there would be a lot of thunder and lightning, but I didn’t know it was so severe. I wish I had hit the sack with firm determination.”

Eckart grinned at her childish murmuring.

“Let me tell the servant to bring some more candles.”

“You don’t have to…Were you asleep before you came here? ”

“No. I still have some documents to review. ”

Only after answering her question did he feel he made a mistake. He watched her eyebrows twisting a bit in the thick darkness.

“I was going to wrap up my work slowly. Don’t worry about it. I had a good rest last night, and the day before, too…” He urgently made excuses.

Although he didn’t commit a big sin against her, he found himself talkative before her with such a serious expression. He almost habitually did so after he met her.

“Oh no, I really need to check out if you’re sleeping or not. ”

Mariane quickly crawled out of bed. She put on soft slippers and wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. It did not matter whether he looked at her with a strange expression.

She walked back to the door without hearing his excuses.

Then she looked back and asked, “What are you doing? Won’t you go with me? ”

“… ”

Eckart froze like a stone statue in the central garden for a while.

She tapped on the edge of the door as if she pressed him. He reluctantly walked through the door. Although he came out at her urging, he felt bitter.

Regardless of his reaction, she led him in a cheerful mood. The two walked side by side toward his bedroom.

“Oh, wait a minute.” Taking a few steps, she suddenly froze because she stopped before a couple of corridors.

“A servant named Castal told me he was standing outside your bedroom…”

She remembered the name of one of Ober’s informants in the palace, whom Annette, Mrs. Chester’s maid, gave her.

Eckart supported her back with one arm and gently changed the direction of her steps. Thanks to him, she walked again naturally.

“That’s all right. There are no servants to keep this corridor, and Castal is not on duty today. ”

“Oh, I see. I feel relieved.” She felt refreshed with a sigh of relief.

“Well, who cares? Would Ober be more pleased to know that I turned up in your bedroom late at night? I guess so because he told me I should do anything to deceive you. Well, come to think of it, there’s no better chance than this in terms of me pretending to grant his request.

Besides, I can monitor whether you go to sleep, on the one hand, and talk with you comfortably, on the other. ”

“… ”

“Of course, if I use this method several times, I think I have to give him some intelligence about you. You can give me some, right? Ober is a very skeptical man. He hates anything useless, and he is very impatient…”

Eckhart quickly glanced at Marianne with a mysterious expression.

She was usually talkative, but usually she had lots of things to tell him, or added words to make fun of him. But he now got the impression that she was trying to justify herself. There was something awkward in her words.

“Marianne!”

“Yeah?”

“Tell me honestly.”

“About what?”

“Isn’t it an excuse when you said you would monitor me?”

She coughed at the moment, as if she got something caught in the windpipe.

“Excuse me? Please don’t get me wrong. Do you think I am walking with you to your bedroom at night to extract information about you that I can give to Ober? I’m just going to see if you’re really sleeping.”

“No, not information…” He slowly frowned and smiled in understanding.

He could feel differently now because he was always duped by her. It was more appropriate to say that the slope of the seesaw was changing.

“Don’t you need someone? I mean someone who can let you know something instead of your handmaid, until the rain stops.”

“… Oh, you already noticed it? I don’t think I can pull the wool over your eyes.”

Marianne quickly put him back on the defensive. Replying casually, she adjusted the shawl around her shoulders. She acted proudly as if she didn’t want to make any excuses.

Thanks to this turnaround, it was now Eckart who got embarrassed.

He frowned a little bit like a man who was caught on the wrong foot, and sighed helplessly.

“Then, isn’t this too cumbersome to me? I’d better stay in that room until you fall asleep. ”

“No. I’m sure you’ll go back to your bedroom after I’m asleep and do more work. I was serious when I told you I wanted to make sure you go to sleep right away. ”

“But when I go to bed, you are going to go back to that room alone, right? After all, you won’t go to sleep as you are scared. The storm in Milan won’t stop so quickly. Maybe it won’t stop until dawn. ”

“Well… I’ve no other choice. I’ll sleep next to you. ”

“What?”

Embarrassed, he stopped on the spot. While walking ahead a few steps, she stopped and asked, “Why? Can’t I sleep with you?”

“Oh, that’s not what I mean…”

“Because you are shy? It’s okay. You know, you’re not sleeping next to me for the first time. In Roshan, you slept very well after you hugged me naked. Of course, you were unconscious back then. ”

He just moved his lips without saying anything. After letting out a deep sigh, he swept his face with one hand and calmed down. Sadly, he was now getting used to the way she controlled him. He couldn’t figure out how to point out her problems.

“Don’t worry. I will keep chaste until you are ready. ”

To make matters worse, she grinned and pulled his arm. He followed her, losing any willingness to respond, like a cow being dragged to the slaughterhouse. He couldn’t resist.

He even found it hard to understand what she just told him.

“By the way, is there anything that Sir Curtis can’t do? How could he hear the bell when the thunder was so loud? Cordelli in that room couldn’t even get up at the bell. Anyway, thanks to you, I don’t have to sleep alone, so I’ll have to repay him later. I wonder what he likes. I mean other than birds…”

The two arrived at his bedroom while she babbed peacefully.