Chapter 154 (2/2)

Amid the deadly silence between them, he put his lips on her palm, which was a horribly sacred and at the same time more obscene kiss than any other act.

“Your Majesty, why are you so sweet to me like this?”

Marianne finally burst into tears. She couldn’t pretend to be indifferent anymore. It looked as if all her sadness hidden through the veins in the corners of her whole body poured out. She hugged him and cried loudly like a child.

“… You have made me the person I am now.”

Eckhart gently hugged Marianne, thinking he could have hugged her a little harder if his arms felt okay. He leaned his head on her and held her in his arms.

“So, all you have to do is take responsibility.”

He spoke with an enthralling voice so that she couldn’t run away.

He set up a trap to block her exit, hoping that he could keep her breath, crying and affection for him from getting out of the trap, so she could stay beside him until the end of her life…

* * *

He felt like a big wheel of the wagon was moving. As the horseman whipped the horse, a small wagon carrying Eckart began to run in a lonely alley.

Eckart took a deep breath, leaning against the seat inside the carriage. Instead of the mysterious scent that tickled his nose all the time in the garden, he smelled the dry, cool scent of the wood.

It was a smell that he usually didn’t care about at all. His servants were well aware that their master had light mysophobia, so they kept everything clean from small objects like stationary touched by him to a space like his bedroom and carriage.

Eckart loved thorough cleanliness. To be precise, he was familiar and comfortable with clean stuff because no color and odor were like his conviction that nothing was hidden.

But now he felt that the air inside the carriage was very cold. It was a strange feeling to him.

‘… I’m crazy.’

Feeling ashamed, he stroked his face with his hand. He felt a very tiny wound at his fingertips.

Then he remembered what he had done a little while ago. His face flushed as if there was fire under his feet.

‘Damn it. What did I do to her? I think I said something that I wouldn’t have if I had come to my senses…”

He rubbed his lips roughly. Only after he opened the window could he recall what he told her before breaking up.

After crying for a while, Marianne quickly pulled herself together. She wiped her wet cheeks with remarkable resilience, and said emphatically, with red, swollen eyes, “Anyway, I can’t accept your request.”

She was really stubborn. Although he guessed that she would say so, she played hardball with him harder than he expected.

“The reason why I came up to this point was to destroy Ober. That’s the means to achieve my life’s biggest goal, and I don’t want to be disturbed by anyone.”

“I promised you that night that I wouldn’t forgive Ober. I want to have him pay for the price of his crime, and then I want to live happily ever after. It may be presumptuous, but I will do my best to make you happy too.”

“Your Majesty, just like you worry about me, I am afraid they’re going to hurt you. So, I want to protect you by myself.”

“I’ve always lived a life protected by someone else. And I know what the result of that was. What I needed wasn’t behind someone’s back for me to hide. Rather, it was a weapon with which I could beat back the weapon pointed at me.”

“Think about it. If my father had told me about their evil things, I would never have trusted Ober. Then I would have lived a much less regretful life by now. So, you telling me to get out of this fight is no different from my father’s decision to confine me inside the walls of the northern area.”

“You said you believed me, right? I won’t betray you or leave you. I’ll convince my father. So, please believe and help me to live a life of my choice and decision for myself. Just help me live a life of my own as I wish.”

Those were her words before they parted.

In the end, Eckart was persuaded by her. He went to see her to ask her to not get involved in the political strife, but he rather promised to be her biggest supporter. When he thought of how to make excuses to Jed and Colin who strongly appealed to persuade her out of the fight, he felt stressed out. He would also stay anxious about her safety by making the decision to support her, but he couldn’t help it.

If his mother had given him a choice five years ago, she would never have let him take that decision. He did not want Marianne to live a life full of resentment. He couldn’t afford to endure her resentment.

“How did I end up in this situation…”

Eckhart scolded himself with a sigh.