Chapter 87
“My lady? Is something uncomfortable…?”
“Ugh!”
Startled by the unfamiliar touch on my body, I roughly swatted the maid’s hand away.
Clang.
In my struggle, I must have knocked the bottle of oil from the maid’s hand, as glass shards scattered across the bathroom floor.
“Madam, are you alright?”
“Haah, haah. Nora, could you leave me alone for a moment?”
I wrapped my arms around myself protectively and asked Nora with a trembling voice.
After watching me for a moment, Nora nodded and left the bathroom with the other maids.
Once I was completely alone, I felt my tense, rigid body begin to relax a bit.
I wondered how many minutes I had been alone in the bathroom.
Nora, who had been waiting outside, called out to me in a worried voice.
“Madam, may I come back in?”
“Nora, I’ll wash myself and come out.”
“But…”
“I’m really fine.”
At my firm words, Nora’s voice fell silent.
In the now quiet bathroom, I let out a deep sigh.
‘What do you mean by fine?’
When I pulled my hand out of the bathtub, I saw my palm covered in scratches.
These were wounds I had gotten when I fell while escaping from the assassins.
I knew better than anyone that in this condition, I couldn’t wash my body or even my hair properly, but I couldn’t call the maids back again.
‘But I just couldn’t bear it.’
Whenever the maids touched my body, the memories of the assassins’ hands attacking me flooded back, causing my body to freeze.
I was so startled that I felt unable to accept the unfamiliar touch.
‘What should I do…?’
Sitting blankly in the bathtub, unable to move in any direction and just gnawing on my lips, I heard a knock at the door.
“Dahlia.”
It was Evan.
Perhaps he found it strange that I hadn’t come out of the bathroom after sending all the maids away, as the knocks were becoming more frequent.
“Is there a problem?”
“Evan…”
“Please, speak.”
After hesitating for a long time while looking at the shadow standing at the door, I finally spoke slowly.
“I can’t wash myself alone.”
“If that’s the case, the maids are waiting outside.”
“The maids can’t help…”
Evan fell silent for a moment at my words.
I could easily imagine his expression standing at the door.
He was probably frowning, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying.
“Then what should I do?”
At Evan’s next words, I looked at the shadow cast by him at the bathroom door and said,
“Could you help me a little…?”
“……”
In the continued silence, I unknowingly grew anxious and quickly added more words.
“Um, I just need to wash my hair, but my hands are a mess, so I can’t do it alone. However, when I think about letting someone else do it, I suddenly can’t breathe…”
“Is it alright for me to come in?”
Evan asked in a low voice in response to my rambling.
The thought of Evan helping me with my bath was something I could never have imagined under normal circumstances.
Yet, strangely enough, while I felt repulsed by the touch of other women, I was certain that it would be okay with Evan.
“Yes.”
At my answer, there was a long silence from Evan outside the door.
Was it too unreasonable a request? I felt a little deflated at that moment.
Creak.
The bathroom door slowly began to open, and Evan stepped inside.
I had said it was okay, but facing him while completely undressed made me instinctively shrink back.
However, seeing Evan enter the bathroom, I slowly started to relax my curled-up body.
“Evan, how can you see if you cover your eyes like that?”
Evan had entered the bathroom with a black cloth covering his eyes.
Even though it seemed he couldn’t see a thing, he walked confidently toward me.
“Battles happen day and night, so I often train with my eyes covered like this.”
He arrived right in front of the bathtub and looked down at me as he replied.
I knew he couldn’t see, yet for some reason, I felt heat rising to my face.
“What should I do first?”
“Oh, could you just help me wash my hair with the cleanser next to me?”
After I pointed out where the cleanser was, the next steps flowed smoothly.
Evan dropped some cleanser into his palm and carefully brought his hands to my hair.
Although his touch was clumsy, I could feel his careful hands.
I flinched.
“Does it hurt?”
The sensation of his large hands was unfamiliar, and I had only slightly flinched, but Evan seemed to sense it immediately and spoke up.
“Oh, no. It’s fine.”
“Then I will continue.”
“Yes.”
In the warm, humid bathroom, I listened to the careful touch as he worked on my hair and the irregular sound of water echoing in the room, and I gradually began to relax.
As my mind started to feel hazy and I was slowly blinking my eyes, I heard Evan’s voice from behind me.
“Why did you sneak out?”
At those words, I slightly stiffened my comfortably relaxed shoulders and brought my mind back to focus.
Knowing I was at fault, I had no words to say even if I had ten mouths, so I lowered my head and confessed straightforwardly.
“I felt stifled… I wanted to take a walk alone without a guard.”
“Was having a guard that uncomfortable?”
“It was slightly bothersome, but not uncomfortable…”
I felt Evan’s hands stop as he was washing my hair.
Though he hadn’t asked directly, his silence seemed to question why I had sneaked out, and I found it hard to speak.
To summarize, it was a kind of childish defiance.
It was a rebellious feeling that burst out in response to Evan’s attitude of making decisions alone without any explanation.
In other words, I had sneaked out in defiance of Evan’s insistence on always having a guard by my side.
Anticipating that Evan would soon scold me, I began to prepare myself mentally.
“Today’s incident is clearly my fault.”
“Pardon?”
But contrary to my expectations, Evan uttered words of self-blame.
Wondering if I had misheard, I turned my body around to look at Evan.
The man, with a black cloth wrapped around his head, had his head bowed, and it was evident that his spirit was low.
“I didn’t want to make you anxious by revealing the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not the first time assassins have come here.”
My eyes widened at his next words.
So, the assassins who had come to the territory weren’t just here today.
“What happened to the assassins who came before?”
“All of them were dealt with and captured.”
At first, it seemed like a chilling statement from Evan, but he quickly changed the subject, so I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard.
Then, as Evan continued speaking, I couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.
While there had been assassins targeting Evan periodically, the frequency had recently increased to the point that they had assigned guards near me.
“Then, could it be that the injuries you’ve been getting lately were because of the assassins?”
I asked, looking down at the fresh scar on his hand that was still healing.
Looking back now, it was a situation that made perfect sense, and I wondered why I hadn’t suspected anything.
The scars that often appeared on Evan’s body and the unusually obsessive behavior of the knights regarding my safety.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know and went out sneaking around…”
I apologized to Evan in a gloomy voice.
As I kept my head down, staring at the floor, I felt a gentle touch on my forehead.
“I didn’t bring it up for you to blame yourself, so don’t look so down.”
When I lifted my head, I saw Evan’s face right in front of me.
Noticing that he had made the remark lightly while checking my mood, I finally managed to smile.
midori
thanks! sorry, but i’m on dahlia’s side, she shouldn’t apologise. of course, she would have understood that the escorts were there for a reason, but i honestly hate the way evan treats her. i understand evan’s perspective, but i honestly despise the idea of keeping something from someone for their own sake…the idea of “ignorance is bliss”… bah!