At that moment, his eyes turned black and a dark room appeared. As the thin candle flickered dangerously, a black shadow in the room trembled terribly.
He frantically sought Anne whose eyes were half-opened out of focus. Her face was pitiful, but the emotion he felt was anger.
[Day . . . mond . . ?]
Stretching out her hand, which was resting on her stomach, she called his name. He tried to ask if she was okay, but this time the words came out against his will again.
[It took me quite a while to find where you’ve been hidden, but I finally found it. Choose. If you don’t want to be like them.]
Anne sobbed with mournful eyes, then dropped her head. And she never opened her eyes again.
And it was darkness that followed afterwards. He cried in the terrible darkness as if the world had been sucked in. Why did she betray him and leave? He cried out in pain so much that his despairing heart crumbled. But he couldn’t find her anywhere.
Before long, his vision cleared, and the scene changed as he opened his eyes. Then came the full view of his room. He felt a dull ache in the side of his head, but it wasn’t bothersome.
A beastly sob escaped his mouth. Seeing the last hazy memory in his dream, the sadness of that time again weighed on his heart. Despair came to him as if he had returned to that day.
Suddenly he noticed another presence in his room and turned his head to the window. Standing by the window, where the only light was shining from, stood Anne, who had tormented him even in his dreams.
He hurriedly lifted himself up and jumped with bare feet and embraced her.
“You’re alive.”
“Day… mond?”
Anne was taken aback when she was suddenly in his arms, surprised by the fact that he had woken up. She pushed the Grand Duke’s chest belatedly, but he held her tighter and didn’t let go.
Anne’s hand, which tried to push him away again, stopped. It was because of the hot, salty tears she felt on her shoulder.
“An… ne, what a… relief.”
Anne was somewhat surprised. It was the first time he had ever cried, either in her previous life or in the present. It was the first time in her life that she had ever heard his cracked voice full of sorrow, the emotions on his always-aloof face.
He’s out of his mind.
Anne understood that he was not in a perfect state right now. He was seeing someone else while holding onto her. The gaze that was looking at her was not to the present her, but her past self.
Even so, Anne barely held back her hand, which was almost reflexively going out to him. Seeing how desperately he was clinging to her, almost collapsing.
“I’m sorry. I thought you abandoned me… Huuh.”
He took Anne’s hand, forcibly putting it on his cheek. He was desperate, like a dying animal seeking warmth. As the dampness of the dress spread to her chest, her cold heart thumped.
Losing the strength on his legs, he sat down on the floor, holding on to her skirt, bent his back like a wounded beast and began to cry.
At that moment, Anne realized what the beastly howl she heard from the west wing was. It was the cry of this tall-built man. His face was twisted painfully, like eagerly grasping something that seemed to disappear at any moment.
“Please… Please don’t abandon me.”
How could she look at the back that trembles slightly while shedding tears? Should she hug him and lift him up?
Then what about her own pain, her own difficult past?
How will she get back her life, which had to be entangled up to this life with that little misunderstanding? If she hadn’t met him, she would have lived her life without knowing anything.
The man’s hand holding Anne trembled lightly.
“I… love you.”
Anne, who had been briefly gathering her feelings, came to her senses again at this ridiculous confession of love. She turned away from his appeal and looked down at him with aloof eyes.
“Luciel said you are not human. You really did open your eyes again.”
The Grand Duke blinked, unable to understand her words. But it did not take long before her cold tone brought him back to his senses.
“Angroanne…”
And he recognized that she was thinking exactly what he had seen in his dream just a moment ago. Convinced by the name Luciel, his sense of reality was returning.
“Now, if you know who I am, please let go of me.”
Anne glanced at his arm, which was still holding onto her skirt. He finally pulled his hand back and opened his mouth.
“Anne, that night…”
“I know. You didn’t kill me.”
The Grand Duke’s lips parted in silence. Anne swept her clothes, which were soaked with his tears, and spoke cynically.
“I stopped by because I had something to tell you. Don’t ask for my forgiveness. It’s just one of the many things you’ve done wrong.”
It would not be enough to stay up all night to enumerate all the things he did to her. Anne turned her back as her matter was over.
The Grand Duke, whose gaze had been following her back in a daze, collapsed on the floor.
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