Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: The Cute and Pitiful Child Back Then
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“Where did you find out up to?”
Clavis’s voice was as heavy as a king conducting an interrogation.
“How far did you see in the tomb?”
His usual smiling face had been entirely fake; the silence now settling over his features was utterly cold. Lena stared at his face, which had shifted from spring to winter, finding it unfamiliar, before whispering.
“Are you curious?”
“That’s why I called you here to ask, isn’t it?”
“Then you should ask more politely.”
Clavis let out a silent laugh at Lena’s calm rebuke. The atmosphere was such that he could have exploded in anger like fire or pressed her relentlessly like a blizzard, but he did neither. Instead, he muttered as if intrigued.
“How did you become such a bold woman? The young lady who was too scared to even breathe loudly.”
“You must be awfully proud of beating a child.”
“Proud isn’t quite the word—more like amazed. A person’s essence doesn’t change that easily.”
Lena smiled quietly at Clavis’s words, her expression suggesting she wondered why she even had to converse with such an impudent and presumptuous man. It was a dismissal more cutting than outright contempt, but Clavis paid it no mind and fiddled with her hand as he continued.
“You were so cute back then. You came looking for your father with that puppy-like expression begging for love, and when he said he was selling you, you cried as if the sky had fallen. And you were twelve years old, no less.”
Twelve years old. Unlike the marquis, Clavis knew Lena’s age exactly. It wasn’t surprising. After all, she had revealed it herself.
“Not some toddler or anything—normally, you’d throw a tantrum, right?”
Twelve years old. An age where one starts to form their own opinions. Still immature, perhaps, but old enough to judge, to resist a hand that sought to harm you, to get angry. But Lena back then hadn’t. She hadn’t questioned her father, demanding what nonsense that was, why he was doing this, if he’d lost his mind. She hadn’t screamed to call others. She’d simply trembled and begged. As if abandoned by the gods.
“That’s what Lena Rubel was like. A fragile, dependent girl, scrambling to read the room and cling to others—a cute and pitiful child like that.”
Clavis whispered enjoyably as he toyed with her hand. Then, as if trying to stir up those memories, he spoke even more slyly.
“Do you remember? You did the same to me. In the carriage, crying but trying not to be hated, fawning to gain some sympathy.”
It took ten days by carriage from the Rubel estate to the Western Duke’s castle. So six years ago, Lena and Clavis had spent quite an intimate time together. Facing each other for half a day in the cramped carriage, eating and resting together whether they liked it or not. For a full ten days. For someone sold off, it must have been horrifying, but surprisingly, Lena hadn’t hated Clavis, the one who bought her. She hadn’t resented him, defied him, or rebelled. She hadn’t even tried to run. Even as she wept from the shock of her situation, Lena strove endlessly not to offend Clavis. Moreover, she fidgeted and watched him closely, as if trying to win his favor. That was why she’d told Clavis her real age.
—Sir, I’m actually twelve. Not ten.
Lena had confessed while trembling. Not pretending to be sick to avoid being sold, but out of worry that he might face trouble from the misinformation. When Clavis looked at her in bewilderment, the young Lena flushed her cheeks red. Even her stammering was full of charm. The way she glanced up seemed to beg for his attention. It was ridiculously endearing behavior. Utterly mismatched to the situation, yet melting the other’s heart. If she’d done it unknowingly, she was a natural vixen; if knowingly, it was worrisome for her future.
“Honestly, you were adorable. Adorable enough to want to raise you. Anyone else would’ve fallen for it.”
Clavis said this as he looked up at Lena.
“So how could I not be amazed that the same girl is now pretending to be tough after just a few more years? Right? How should I scare you to make you cry and whimper like before?”
Clavis’s eyes held a strange smile as they took her in. Arrogant, as if asking why she was being so stiff with someone who knew her true self. Lena met his gaze expressionlessly. Then, she quietly grasped the hand of Clavis, who still clutched hers tightly. At the unexpected touch, Clavis’s head tilted slightly. Before he could ask what it meant, his vision suddenly flipped.
“Hk…!?”
Clavis let out a weird noise and instinctively stretched out his legs. But his feet were already off the ground, kicking the air, and his upper body had toppled backward, bringing him closer to the floor than his lower half and completely throwing off his balance. Just as he thought he was falling, a clack sounded, and his tilting body stopped. Clavis blinked in surprise. Before him was Lena’s face looking down at him and the greenhouse ceiling. Tired of his nonsense, Lena had grabbed his hand and flipped him over chair and all, then caught the back of the chair with her other hand before he fully toppled. Thanks to that, the chair balanced precariously on two legs instead of four, supporting Clavis’s body. Lena, who had flipped him in an instant, leaned her upper body over him as he lay tilted on the chair. Then she brought her face close to his and asked.
“So?”
“What…?”
“So what are you trying to say right now?”
Her whisper, brushing against him with her breath, was calm. If taken out of context, it could even sound gentle.
“Trying to probe my true feelings with old stories?”
Lena murmured with a soft smile.
“If you’re going to provoke me, do it right—or you’ll just get scolded.”
Clavis looked up at her with genuine shock. Lena gazed down without displeasure, just with a look of regret. Like she was admonishing a foolish child. As Clavis’s lips twitched at the sight, Lena spoke first.
“But since you dressed up so nicely, I’ll set the chair right.”
With a thud, the tilted chair straightened. Lena had shoved the backrest as if tossing it, and Clavis, who had been laid flat only to sit up again, wore another dazed expression.
“Your face is priceless.”
“Ha…”
“You seem to need some rest, so I’ll take my leave.”
Lena said this casually after flipping him over and setting him right. Clavis blinked a couple of times at the sight, then burst into laughter.
“Ah, wait, don’t go. Sorry. I apologize for what I said earlier.”
He laughed more gleefully than when she’d called him a pervert, even saying he was sorry as he grabbed her.
“It really was just amazement. But this is even more surprising.”
“What’s so amazing?”
“Hm?”
“Is it that shocking that I’m no longer fragile, dependent, and desperate to read the room?”
“Ah, is that how it sounds?”
At Lena’s retort, Clavis laughed even more delightedly. No matter her attitude toward him, he seemed utterly smitten with her. In truth, he loved every reaction she showed, from one to ten. Lena Rubel, who reappeared after six years thrown into a tomb. To Clavis, she was like a treasure buried deep in the earth and dug up again. Because every time he pushed someone into a tomb, he’d hoped this pitiful sacrifice would return. After long waiting, one child finally had. Clavis was madly joyful just for that, but he didn’t blindly hope. Having been disappointed countless times before, he proceeded cautiously, throwing Lena into the tomb once more under the most unfavorable conditions. To see how she’d fare alone and unarmed. The result: she conquered the Wraiths’ castle by herself and returned with the king’s heart. Proof enough, but Clavis wanted a bit more confirmation. Was she perhaps a madman like the Emperor? Hiding her fangs and quietly insane? Doubting this, he prodded. To strip away Lena’s otherworldly composure, he dug at her most painful spot. But her reaction was ordinary. Composed even at words that should shame her, never losing her cool, treating his vile words as mere rude pranks from Rubid. So Clavis, who had tested her relentlessly, had no choice but to acknowledge it now. Her resilience, her solidity inside and out.
“Sit. We haven’t even started the important talk.”
Clavis offered her a seat with a now straightforward attitude. But Lena just stood there, staring at him. At her silent protest, Clavis gauged her mood for a moment before bursting into laughter again. Then he gladly corrected himself.
“Would you please sit, Lady Lena?”
“If you insist.”
Only then did Lena sit again, and her natural demeanor made Clavis chuckle once more.
“My chatter went on too long, so I’ll be straightforward. I have a request for you.”
He said with a bright smile. At the word “request,” Lena’s lips curved. Not at all friendly—a smile saying go on, then. Clavis enjoyed her stinginess and continued.
“Do you know what day July 30, 87 was?”
“…The day His Imperial Majesty survived an assassination attempt by poison?”
Lena’s eyebrow twitched slightly at the unexpected topic. July 30, 87. A day every imperial citizen remembered.
“Right. Someone poisoned the Emperor’s tea that day. The reason’s obvious. It’d be weirder if rebellion didn’t break out, right?”
Clavis’s phrasing was sharp and precise. A tyrant ruling by force alone, loyalists executed for their conscience, sycophants occupying key posts, officials pursuing selfish gains, imperial citizens exploited for every reason under them, nobles too busy frolicking despite it all. Everyone knew the empire’s reality; no need to explain why the Emperor deserved assassination.
“That day, the Emperor swallowed the poison but didn’t die. He vomited blood and suffered, but survived in the end.”
“Why bring that up now?”
“Well, I did it.”
Lena’s eyes widened at Clavis’s words. He caught it and laughed.
“You’re surprised. You didn’t know this one?”
“What are you saying…?”
“Of course you know. I saw exactly what Nihil did that day too.”
On the day of the poisoning attempt, Nihil had coughed up blood-tinged sputum and declared he’d share his pain with the empire, making every citizen resent the rebels. To fulfill it, Nihil executed 87 nobles, 7 officials, and 30 citizens outside the palace. Because it was July 30, 87.
“I never imagined it wouldn’t work. It was poison that could kill the South’s great bear in one go.”
Speaking of the empire’s most shocking incident, Clavis—the true culprit—showed no remorse.
“Actually, the poison did work, just not enough. I tried everything, but nothing stuck.”
He merely regretted his failure casually.
“That’s why.”
“Why?”
“The Emperor just wouldn’t die, so I bought you and threw you in the tomb. To make another monster just like him.”
His impudence extended even to the person before him. At “monster,” Lena’s gaze grew icier, but Clavis ignored it and pressed on.
“The marquis used poison on you in the tomb, right?”
“You know all this—why ask?”
“Mm, not out of curiosity—I’m telling you. It was the same poison Nihil drank.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed. Meanwhile, Clavis’s lips curved elegantly.
“The only one who survived that poison was the Emperor. Until a few days ago.”
Clavis whispered to her, looking as if the fact drove him to ecstatic bliss.
“You survived it too? Just like the Emperor.”
Lena Rubel, returned after crossing the absolute line between life and death. Her sudden appearance, brazenly toying with the empire’s powerhouses, matched closely the image of the great savior Clavis had imagined for so long. So he awaited her answer without hiding his expectations and longings. Silent for a moment, Lena smiled faintly and replied.
“I don’t know why you’re asking again.”
She added mockingly, as if he’d asked a foolish question.
“You’ve already seen it plenty of times.”