I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 65
The moment I realized what he was about to do, I quickly crossed both arms and grabbed his wrists.
“What are you doing.”
“What are you doing, Your Lordship?”
“You said your stomach hurts.”
“I can get there on my own.”
We continued our lukewarm standoff while maintaining a ridiculous posture.
“If you collapse on the way, that’ll be even more troublesome. Just be good and let me carry you.”
“You said no bones were injured. And it’s not like this house is as big as your grand ducal estate. I can manage this distance by myself.”
“I’ll build you one, so stop being stubborn.”
“What? When did I ask you to build me a mansion. I’ll just walk there myself. Why do you keep making simple things so complicated.”
“If you’d just let me carry you, we could save on the price of a mansion. This got complicated.”
Gerard had a talent for making consideration sound like a threat.
Maybe it really was a threat.
My hands, which had been gripping his wrists, dropped away.
“There we go.”
A satisfied smile touched his lips, and even though he was so aggravating I wanted to punch him, he really was absurdly handsome.
At the sight of that face, a stream of moments came back to me, all the times I had been so dazzled by him that, while we were dating, I couldn’t even manage to get properly angry at half the things I should have, and just let them slide.
You might be able to fill the empty space I left behind with someone else as many times as you want, but the empty space in my heart resembles you too much. It’s too jealous and too obsessive to accept anyone but you.
The difference in our situations, something I had never felt while we were dating, had lately been rushing over me all at once. Just like now.
He set me down in the back room behind the storage shed.
“It’ll probably take a while, so don’t wait.”
“I’ll be in the living room, so call out for me.”
“You really do keep forgetting, don’t you. I’m a woman too. There are things I want to protect too, you know? Please, seriously.”
I pushed hard against Gerard’s chest with both hands.
“Ah, I see.”
As if he had realized something from what I said, Gerard stepped back without resistance.
It seemed he, too, had realized that he had been far too casual with physical contact with me.
Leaving Gerard behind, looking genuinely startled, I quickly went into the back room and locked the door.
When I opened all the little windows at head height, a cool breeze rushed in.
“…Come to think of it, he never even asked why I got hurt.”
Anyone could see that those were injuries from being beaten.
Especially Gerard, who had been trained in combat since childhood, couldn’t possibly have failed to recognize it.
Without digging into my memories, Gerard was focusing only on the injuries I had now.
The weight of that consideration ached in my chest.
* * *
Had there ever been a time when I had stayed shut up at home this long?
Eat, sleep, take the medicine Gerard prepared for me. After doing that and sleeping for two straight days, my body visibly began to recover.
As expected of the doctor from House Castion that he had called in, the medicine was remarkably effective.
And perhaps part of why my injuries healed so unusually well was because one of the worries in my heart had disappeared.
“…Taking into consideration the poor practice conditions for lower-ranked Purifiers, it has been decided that demerit points will not be given in this matter, this time only. However, should the same issue arise again, 10 demerit points will be given without exception, so I urge you to be especially careful.”
For once, the haughty Hartheon Temple had reversed its decision.
Did Arvina stop it?
I didn’t think those conservative, authoritarian priests would have reversed their decision solely for my sake.
I stared at the small mirror on the vanity for quite a while.
The swelling had completely gone down, and only a little bruising and a few marks remained.
It didn’t look very good, but there was no pain at all, so it caused no inconvenience in daily life.
